My Brilliant Career: Fitness made easy by thinking outside the box

Tell me about the Digi-Smart Bench and what led to its development.

JDP Corp combines lifestyle and technology to provide convenience, quality and valuable solutions; the Digi-Smart Bench fitness bench is an example.

The bench has an electronic backrest that moves forwards and backwards at the touch of a button on our mobile app.

I got the idea for this bench when I was injured and could not train.

The frustration got to me and led me to think about the training needs of injured or disabled persons.

Homemade gym benches have to be adjusted manually when you want different angles, but our bench moves electronically with a push of a button, which makes it convenient for gym users.

You launched the app and bench in August 2020. What are some of the challenges you faced trying to launch during the pandemic?

The biggest question we had to answer was whether we should launch.

We are a small business, so we are always at a disadvantage in terms of our budgets and labour pool.

But we realised we could use the time to our advantage because we are more visible as more people are using social media as their primary form of communication.

We also benefited because the pandemic signalled a need for everyone to stay healthy.

What takeaways do you have from lockdown?

Always have a plan in place for rainy days, and continually assess people’s wants or needs and then turn them into customers.

Lockdown came to test us, and I learnt that we must be creative and innovative constantly.

It is crucial to encourage people to do what they are passionate about and convert that passion into their vision and mission statements so they can change the world.

A lot of people are at home and spending time on their phones during this pandemic, so my company is focused on building more user-friendly mobile applications.

What did you want to be when you were a child?

A game developer, I loved video games. I used to be entranced playing video games.

I would think of the kind of games that people would like and how I could develop games and video game experiences for other gamers.

What advice do you have for SA’s matrics and recent graduates?

The world is tough, so when deciding on your journey do your research before making a decision.

Graduates need to be proactive and be able to think out of the box.

From as early as matric, investments should be a topic of interest; invest in shares, save from now and don't look back.