Jo Duxbury

Background

After over a decade as a suit in advertising, marketing and communications industries in London and Cape Town, I took the plunge into entrepreneurship in 2005 and launched my first company, Freelancentral. This is an online directory of ad/marketing industry freelancer portfolios in South Africa.

In January 2010 I launched Freelancentral’s spin-off, Peppermint Source, which offers full-service outsourced marketing solutions to companies who don’t have the time, skills or staff to handle their own marketing in-house. We do a lot of social media strategy and implementation, as well as classic marketing strat and management.

I love being an entrepreneur – as a control freak, it’s great to do things *my way* and to be able to create things just how I want them. Plus my boss is great and doesn’t mind that I’m a grammar nerd.

Goals and passions

I love being an entrepreneur – there are ups and downs, but there’s never a dull moment. I also get to meet and collaborate with lots of very smart people. I’d like to build a number of businesses that will make a difference to people’s lives, by making them easier, more flexible, enabling people to follow their passions and to have a positive impact on the planet.

My interests lie in all things beautiful, clever and creative. I operate on a basis of honesty and integrity and above all, believe that work should be fun. I actually studied Environmental & Geographical Science and although I don’t work in that field, it’s given me a strong green streak. I’m completely addicted to travel – perhaps my next business will be something to do with jetting off to far-flung places.

Finally learning to use my DSLR’s manual settings has unleashed my visually creative side and I’m building up an ever-increasing portfolio of fine art and travel photography.

I’m interested in working on projects that cover: