A big following feels like a business. Brands call, the content gets made, invoices go out. But if one platform tweaks its algorithm or a few campaigns dry up, most creators find out quickly that they were renting their income, not owning it.

Nadia Jaftha, one of South Africa's best-known digital personalities, has spent the last few years making that shift on purpose. In an interview with Bizcommunity she laid out why she moved from being the face of brands to building and owning businesses. It's a useful map for any creator who wants their work to still pay in five years.

From brand face to business owner

Jaftha's turn came when she stopped waiting for brand deals to arrive and started building. She co-founded Ace Labs and took ownership stakes in businesses, including The Smile Bar. That changed how she saw her influence: less as a stream of campaigns, more as something that could produce real commercial results and long-term equity.

The pivotal moment was realising that influence without infrastructure isn't sustainable.

— Nadia Jaftha, co-founder, Ace Labs

The bigger picture backs her up. Bizcommunity puts the African creator economy at an estimated $18bn, and says the industry is growing past straightforward influencer marketing. More creators are becoming founders, investors and owners.

Your personal brand is an asset. Run it like one

What audiences see is the polished feed. What they don't see is the strategy, data, team and negotiation behind it. Jaftha's core lesson is that passion alone won't carry a business. Structure does. In practice that means:

  • Boundaries, so the work doesn't swallow you.
  • Knowing what your IP is worth. Your formats, characters and ideas have commercial value beyond a single post.
  • A team for the operational side, so your creativity isn't the only thing keeping the business going.

She's also clear that authenticity is something you build in from the start, not tack on at the end. Ace Labs uses what it calls a "connectioneering" framework to fit brand messages into a creator's natural voice. Brands, in her view, are paying for a creator's voice and the trust of their community, not for an ad slot.

Don't build on one platform

"Future-proofing means not relying on a single platform," Jaftha told Bizcommunity. Her alternative is a community that follows you from app to app, with income spread across products, equity partnerships and agency work. Her own setup works the same way: Ace Labs and Creator Club sit alongside her personal brand. Creator Club is designed to help emerging creators set up their strategy and commercial basics early, instead of waiting until they're already big.

This matters especially for women in the industry. According to Jaftha, women make up more than 52% of creators in South Africa. Her ambition is for them to stop being only the talent in campaigns and start owning the platforms and agencies that run them, closing the funding and knowledge gaps that have held them back.

What to do with this

  • Write down your "why" before you scale. Jaftha's advice to new creators is to define your purpose first and chase impact over virality.
  • Learn your analytics. You can't sell what you can't measure, to brands or to future partners.
  • Make one thing you own. A product, a paid community, a membership, a format you can license. Anything that earns without a brand brief.
  • Ask for more than a fee. On longer partnerships, explore revenue share or equity instead of a flat rate.
  • Move your community somewhere you control. An email list, a WhatsApp channel or a membership travels with you when an algorithm changes.

Followers get you in the room. Ownership is what keeps paying once the campaign is over.

Source: Nadia Jaftha on pushing SA's creator economy from influence to ownership, interview by Evan-Lee Courie, Bizcommunity, 5 August 2026. This article is frontcamera's summary and analysis; read the original for the full piece.