In the first of a new series that takes a look at local entrepreneurs making good with elegantly simple ideas, 2oceansvibe caught up with Nic Venter, founder and sales director of Inksaver.

Every week we’ll endeavour to get local entrepreneurs talking about the relatively simple ideas that gave rise to their operations.

Cape Town-based company, Inksaver was launched in 2009 right in step with the online shopping boom in South Africa. The company, which specialises in the online retail and personal delivery of generic ink and toner for home and office printers expanded their operation last month, opening a new branch in Johannesburg. Apart from selling exclusively online, Inksaver’s USP is the price point of their product, which is much, much lower than traditional printer cartridge retailers.

Nic Venter: NV

2oceansvibe: 2OV

2OV: When did you start your first business?

NV: 2004

2OV: Where did the idea for starting Inksaver generate from?

NV: We heard people complain about being overcharged [for printer ink], and the hassles involved in buying cartridges at retailers.

2OV: Why didn’t you open a physical retail outlet instead of an online service?

NV: We chose the online route so that we could keep our business costs low, and pass these savings on to a larger base of consumers. Also, we believe online shopping is the way of the future.

2OV: Could you leverage the infrastructure of Inksaver to branch in to a wider range of products, or is there real strength in selling a niche range of products?

NV: Yes, we could use our existing infrastructure to widen our range to other products or industries, but at the moment we would rather stick to what we know, and that’s ink and toner cartridges, and focus our efforts on providing a product range that covers all printer models at low pricing, while giving good customer service to our customers.

2OV: Is this the best idea you’ve ever had?

NV: We’ll find out [laughs].

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