A Case Study done by Danniele and Kiersten of Georgetown University.

1. TRIPLE SHINE

2. Introduction
This is one of a series of case studies produced by students enrolled in the Global Human Development
Program at Georgetown University through its partnership with the International Youth Foundation.
Students enrolled in a course exploring the role of social enterprises and social entrepreneurs were
paired with young leaders of social ventures identified through the IYF’s YouthActionNet® program.
The students were given the assignment of analyzing the venture’s assets, successful methodologies,
and opportunities for investment to increase impact. Through this experiential learning process, the
student consultants gained hands-on experience and exposure to the needs of social enterprises. The
ventures, too, benefited from student insights into their strengths, areas for growth, and
recommendations for enhancing their impact and sustainability. The Georgetown practicum is part of
YouthActionNet’s larger efforts to partner with institutions of higher learning around the globe to
integrate social change into the academic experience and career interests of students.
International Youth Foundation
The International Youth Foundation (IYF) invests in the extraordinary potential of young people. Founded in 1990, IYF builds
and maintains a worldwide community of businesses, governments, and civil society organizations committed to empowering
youth to be healthy, productive, and engaged citizens. IYF programs are catalysts of change that help young people obtain a
quality education, gain employability skills, make healthy choices, and improve their communities.
www.iyfnet.org
YouthActionNet®
Since 2001, YouthActionNet, a program of the International Youth Foundation, has provided founders of social ventures, ages 18
to 29, with the training, networking, coaching, funding, and advocacy opportunities they need to strengthen and scale their
impact. These young social entrepreneurs have pioneered innovative solutions to critical local and global challenges, resulting in
increased civic engagement, improved health, education reform, economic opportunity, environmental protection, and more
inclusive societies. Our work is carried out through a network of 23 national and regional youth leadership institutes that
collectively support over 1,350 young social entrepreneurs globally.
www.youthactionnet.org
Global Human Development Program at Georgetown University
The Global Human Development Program of Georgetown University is home to one of the world’s premier master’s degree
programs in international development. An innovative, academically rigorous skills-based graduate program, the Master of
Global Human Development degree prepares the next generation of development professionals to work with public sector
agencies, private businesses, and non-profit organizations that advance development. Through coursework, extracurricular
activity, and practical fieldwork experiences, our graduates develop the insights, skills, and experiences necessary to become
leaders in development and make a difference in our global community.
https://ghd.georgetown.edu

3. SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION
Meet Sharon Rapetswa, founder
of Triple Shine
Sharon is an entrepreneur living in Pretoria,
South Africa that seeks to promote the welfare of
others through her work. She is an experienced
business woman that has successfully started
multiple social enterprises. During her time as a
student at Cape Peninsula University of
Technology, she founded her first social
enterprise, Ilitha Leseding Foundation, serving
as project and operations director. Established in
2009, the foundation works with high schools
around the Western Cape providing career
workshops and helping students navigate tertiary
education opportunities. Upon graduation from
University, Sharon founded her second social enterprise, New Dawn Foundation, in Pretoria. This
foundation in partnership with the Department of Basic Education established the first spelling bee
in South Africa and created a board game that incorporates vocabulary words from the national
curriculum so that students can practice for spelling bees. In 2014, Sharon started her first business
by venturing into the restaurant industry with her own establishment, Weekend Special. This
experience lead Sharon to recognize her passion for helping small businesses reach their potential.
Licensed in 2016, Sharon Consulting works with small businesses and startups on marketing,
branding agents, corporate gifting, and business plans. Sharon finally established Triple Shine in
2016 operating in the South African province Limpopo. The social enterprise was founded because
of Sharon’s passion for rural development and empowering female and youth (boys or girls). Triple
Shine has grown to include 10 micro franchises and 12 individual sellers. Sharon is looking to further
expand and provide last mile distribution across Limpopo and beyond. Triple Shine is lovingly
named after Sharon’s young triplets.
The Problem
In Limpopo Province, there is a lack of access to low cost, high quality cleaning products in the
informal market. Larger retailers of cleaning products find it too expensive to deliver products to the
informal market in hard to reach areas. In addition, many rural and hard-to-reach areas of Limpopo
have little to no regularity in their access to quality cleaning supplies.
There is furthermore widespread youth unemployment across South Africa. Overall, as of 2014, the
youth unemployment rate is 63% youth labor force (3.2 million individuals) where 30% of male
youth and 36% of female youth are NEETs, not in employment, education, or training. There are also
many challenges for entrepreneurs because start-up costs for small businesses in South Africa are
extremely high and there is a lack of financing1
.
Finally, South Africa has poor waste management services and there are few incentives for
individuals to recycle and reuse. There are many plastic bottles polluting public spaces and
1 Brookings Institute https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2014/08/15/the-state-of-youth- unemployment-in-south-
africa/

4. households. According to an article from a South African publication, South Africa is number 11 out
of the 20 countries that generated the highest volume of “mismanaged plastic waste” in 20152
.
The Solution
Triple Shine supplies high quality cleaning products at a lower price point than retail cleaning
products in the townships of Limpopo. Sharon capitalizes on the informal market, a part of the
economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government, by providing last mile
distribution, the transport of goods to a final (usually difficult to get to) destination, for cleaning
products. In addition, Triple Shine provides a consistent supply of cleaning products to the informal
market that often receives irregular deliveries of such items.
Triple Shine works to provide youth and females with employment and entrepreneurial
opportunities. The social enterprise addresses the issue of unemployment by hiring both females and
youth as reselling agents of the cleaning products in the informal market. In addition, they provide
financing and training for entrepreneurs to start their own Triple Shine micro-franchises.
2 https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/environment/oceans-smothered-by-plastic-and-its-growing-by-8-million-tons-every-year-
10561123
“I would like for my business to be a recognized job creation solution for the women and youth
of Triple Shine to see it as their hope to earn an income.”
Source: Sharon Rapetswa – Founder of Triple Shine

5. Triple Shine is working to provide cleaning products while
reducing their ecological footprint to the informal markets
across Limpopo. To do this, they aim to incentivize recycling
and reuse of plastic containers. They provide the opportunity
for consumers to bring their own used plastic containers to
micro-franchises to refill a desired cleaning product. Triple
Shine has a policy whereby consumers receive 1 free refill for
every 10 refills. This discourages people from wasting plastic
bottles and it saves a significant amount of money. This is
because most of the cost of production is in the packaging
rather the cleaning product itself.
SECTION 2: OPERATIONAL MODEL
Structure
Triple Shine is lead by founder and CEO, Sharon Rapetswa. She is accompanied by her husband and
co-founder, Prince Mashala. Sharon and Prince both run the retail, operations, and production
functions of the business. Sharon manages the business development and marketing of the company.
Furthermore, Triple Shine employs 12 sales agents and 10 micro-franchisees, all of whom are youth
(male or female) and women.
Triple Shine functions as a for-profit enterprise that relies on
crowdsourcing, franchise fees, and sales for revenue. The start-up
capital was sourced from Sharon’s personal consultancy and from a
crowdfunding platform called The People’s Fund. Remaining revenues
continue to come from Sharon’s consultancy and from the proceeds
from sales of cleaning products. This year, about a third of her revenue
from consulting went into Triple Shine. Currently, the venture’s
funding structure consists of a two-part sale model. One part is selling
Triple Shine micro-franchises to youth and female entrepreneurs. The
other part is selling to the sales agents. The micro-franchisees are able
to set their own prices and receive a grace period of 30 days to pay for
inventory. Sales agents, on the other hand, have fixed prices at which
they must sell the cleaning products.
Triple Shine’s primary customers are the sales agents and micro-franchisees. Their value proposition
is that the women and youth are put on the path out of poverty using profits from their respective
businesses. Furthermore, the salaries earned enable the entrepreneurs to work between 5 and 8
hours per week to make the same or more than the minimum wage per month in South Africa. An
additional benefit of the Triple Shine model is that the business model is “turnkey”, meaning it is a
“Triple Shine’s ‘Refill Revolution’: We aim to save the environment from the waste of plastic
detergent bottles and save consumers money through detergent refills in rural township areas.”
Source: Triple Shine Company Profile

6. company that is ready to use and exists in a condition that allows for immediate operation. This
removes the burden of having to put an entire business together from scratch.
Triple Shine’s secondary customers are those individuals and organizations that purchase Triple
Shine’s products. The value proposition for these customers is that they get access to cleaning
products they may not otherwise be able to purchase. In addition, they can obtain these products at a
much more affordable price.
Accountability/Governance
The company was originally founded by Sharon and registered under her name. As the CEO, she
serves as the key decision maker of Triple Shine along with her husband, Prince, who is the COO and
co-founder of the company. Therefore, the governance of Triple Shine is structured around both of
them. Sharon is accountable to The People’s Fund, a crowd-sourcing financier, whose funds are in
the form of loans to micro-franchisees that need to be repaid in 24 months. Moreover, she is
accountable to her employees she has hired as well as the individual sellers and micro-franchises
(her beneficiaries) as she directly manages them.
Systems and Processes
Sharon administers all training of sales agents and micro-franchisees except for the financial
training, where she hires a financial expert and auditor. Sharon’s husband assists with the
manufacturing of cleaning products and provides sales training as he is an expert in sales in rural
areas. Recruitment of women and youth is done through a local town councilor, who is a respected
woman in the community.
Moreover, Sharon has developed a system for creating micro-franchises owned by rural women and
youth. Below is a business model for micro-franchises:

7. She first approves the micro-franchisee’s application, after which the micro-franchisee must pay
3000 Rand or apply for a loan to pay the initial deposit. Once this payment is made she can
commence delivering cleaning supplies and training.
A process that Sharon has introduced to help micro-franchisees is her 30-day credit system. This
credit is exclusively available for micro-franchisees, not sales agents. Furthermore, this is a luxury
that usually only large competitors such as Proctor & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, and Nampak provide
to more formal retailers. This system allows micro-franchisees to do more business by enabling them
to generate more revenue.
Finally, Sharon is working on a distribution mechanism that enables her micro-franchisees and sales
agents to receive their inventory quickly. She currently has two depots running, but is looking to
scale. These depots make becoming a micro-franchisee and sales agent more attractive because of
the proximity and convenience for restocking supplies enabling Triple Shine to expand scale of
impact on women and youth.

8. Ways of Working
Sharon is originally from Limpopo and as an experienced entrepreneur recognizes how to navigate
cultural norms while running her business. Sharon has found the most successful way to recruit her
individual sellers and micro-franchisees is through town councilors. These women hold a political
position charged with taking all queries and accounting for all unemployed individuals. In addition,
town councilors allocate permits to people who run businesses and individuals who want to acquire
land. The town councilor attends all community events, including weddings and funerals and has
access to the entire village network where she is able to gather individuals for meetings easily.
Sharon has been able to partner with town councilors to recruit unemployed women and youth to
Triple Shine. In addition, Sharon hosts regular trainings in rural villages where her individual sellers
and micro-franchises are located. These trainings consist of youth and women recruited by the town
councilor.
SECTION 3: KEY ASSETS & SUCCESSFUL METHODOLOGIES
Sales Representatives and Micro-Franchisees
The sales representatives and micro-franchisees are the engines that keep Triple Shine running. They
are the key people that deliver Sharon’s cleaning products to market and drive the revenue model.
Sharon’s inspiration to use sales representatives and micro-franchisees stems from Project Shakti by
Unilever. This project hires rural women and empowers them to become their own independent
entrepreneurs selling Unilever products. Sharon built on this idea by developing a two-pronged
approach where option one offers an easier to adopt method (sales agent), and option two offers a
more labor-intensive adoption method (micro-franchising). Triple Shine’s model differentiates from
other cleaning distribution companies because they are only selling within the formal market,
whereas Triple Shine works on delivering to hard-to-reach areas in the informal market. This makes
the Triple Shine model unique because most larger cleaning supply companies do not want to spend
the time or money to reach rural areas. In addition, they avoid the informal market because they do
not want to deal with informal retailers who may not have the sufficient amount of cash on hand.
Manufacturing of Products
At present, Triple Shine is buying plastic bottles from Tully’s Plastics and cleaning products from a
local supplier. Triple Shine then bottles and brands different types of cleaning products from
Sharon’s home in Pretoria. She then delivers products using her family van to Limpopo.
As Triple Shine scales, Sharon recognizes the value added by manufacturing cleaning products
herself. She will be able to cut production costs significantly, and this could allow her to pass on this
benefit to her customers (i.e. women and youth) by allowing them to increase their profit margins.
“Our products are made locally in South Africa by sourcing the best ingredients and buying
local. We aim to give back to the economy, create jobs, and empower the South African
economy.”
Source: Triple Shine Company Profile

9. Marketing Techniques
Triple Shine uses specific marketing techniques to increase awareness and success of sales agents
and micro-franchisees. The company offers t-shirts, customized flyers, signs for the micro-franchise
stores, and business cards for micro-franchisees. This streamlined marketing allows for credibility
and brand recognition in the informal market, which is atypical at present. This furthermore helps
differentiate Triple Shine micro-franchisees and agents from the competition. This awareness could
also lead to increased sales and affinity toward the brand.
Success in Prior Businesses
Sharon’s success in prior business ventures positions her well to succeed with Triple Shine. As
explained previously, she has run social enterprises in the past, and they are mostly still up and
running. Therefore, Sharon has the necessary entrepreneurial skills to transfer over to Triple Shine.
Furthermore, through her consultancy, she has gained the necessary technical expertise to succeed,
but also puts a portion of the earnings from her consultancy into Triple Shine. Therefore, Triple
Shine benefits monetarily from Sharon’s other business ventures as well.
SECTION 4: CONCLUSION AND LOOKING AHEAD
Sharon has founded a social enterprise that focuses on financial as well as social returns. Through
the power of business, she is empowering women and youth to reach their full potential by becoming
business agents and owners themselves. She is looking to scale this business across Africa, first to
neighboring countries such as Lesotho and to other countries in later stages. With the right business
model and support, Triple Shine could be a great enabler for women and youth in Africa to write
their own destinies through business.

10. Success in Prior Businesses
Based on an assessment of current operations, there are two recommendations for Triple Shine as it
continues to scale.
The first recommendation is manufacturing proprietary cleaning products. Sharon Rapetswa
purchased equipment to manufacture Triple Shine cleaning products in-house. Currently, Triple
Shine has mastered the manufacturing of their best-seller, bleach. Early findings suggest that
manufacturing their own bleach is at least 40% cheaper than purchasing from large suppliers. Triple
Shine should prioritize the development and manufacturing of their best-selling products. The next
step would be to scale manufacturing by hiring and training workers to exclusively concentrate on
production.
The second recommendation is for Triple Shine to further explore potential partnerships both locally
and internationally. Triple Shine should pursue plans to investigate partnerships with eco-friendly
packaging companies to supply biodegradable bottles. In addition, Sharon has identified potential
partnerships including a similar enterprise in Cape Town. As scaling continues, Triple Shine could
further explore partnerships within South Africa but also globally. Unilever could prove to be a
beneficial partner as Triple Shine aims to expand both within South Africa and across the continent.
SECTION 6: AUTHOR
Kiersten DeHaven
Masters in Global Human Development, Georgetown University
Danielle Fiorino
Masters in Global Human Development, Georgetown University