Buying and selling goodies online – something that used to strike fear into the hearts of South Africans.

Then along came Gumtree, and over the past 11 years of trading the site has chalked up over five million unique browsers.

This has led to a number of great business success stories, something Head of Marketing for Gumtree SA Claire Cobbledick knows all about:

“On the surface of things, we are selling affordable secondhand goods and cars, but once those items are sold, the buyers go on to do amazing things. We’ve heard from individuals starting a garden service after finding a secondhand bakkie and an informal take-away after buying secondhand stoves. Those businesses have grown and gone from strength to strength, but they all started with a great deal.”

We all love a good news story, and now Gumtree is going all out to celebrate its positive impact on the economy with a massive R100 000 competition.

Our first look at the #SmartGumtree competition is a series of videos acknowledging inspiring success stories from the past decade – like that of  Johnson, for example:

You have to love Baboo’s entrepreneurial spirit as well:

Yep, pretty inspiring, So how do you go about getting involved? Simple:

A little more in depth from Gumtree SA’s blog:

Submit your Gumtree Success Story and stand the chance to win one of 12 exclusive Gumtree weekly prizes, and/or the ultimate grand prize of R100k!

All you have to do to complete your entry is as follows:

• Share your Gumtree Success Story on social media, using the #SmartGumtree.
• Your Gumtree Success Story could be about any positive, successful story Gumtree has been a part of.
• Each participant may enter multiple times to increase their chances of winning, however each entry must be a different story of how Gumtree has impacted your life.
• Each weekly prize is valued at approximately R1 500 each.
• On 6 February 2017, Gumtree will draw a winning entry from all of the entries across the four weeks to win the grand prize. The grand prize winner will win R100k cash.
• Get creative!

To give the campaign a unique look local illustrator Maria Magdalena is hand drawing the content which appears online. Each week, two #SmartGumtree stories submitted via social media will be selected, beautifully illustrated by Maria and then shared.

The #SmartGumtree campaign started on 9 January and will run for a month – the grand prize a cool R100 000. Entries can be submitted on the Gumtree SA Facebook page (HERE), or by tagging the Gumtree SA handles on Twitter and Instagram with #SmartGumtree.

Don’t be shy, go ahead and share your story – that R100 000 could the start of your rise to the top.