Page 12 - Nine Yards Magazine 2021/2022 - Old Mutual Corporate

the warm-up know-how
9 tips from Nine Yards TV
Kicking off a small business is exciting and scary all at once. The entrepreneurs and industry experts featured in our Nine Yards TV series know all about this. Click on each tip to view the relevant episode.
FUNDING
‘I’ve realised that it’s not about chasing an investor. Create value and traction – and an investor will chase you.’ – Zamokuhle Thwala,
Agrikool CEO and co-founder
INSURANCE
‘Get a broker and make
sure that you get the right
risk advice. Brokers are
paid by the insurance company – you don’t pay
for them.’
– Christelle Colman, Old Mutual Insure spokesperson
PARTNERS
‘If you have recruited the partner, you must also invest in how you
will separate. Inevitably you’ll sell the business, or you’ll sell the shareholding, and if you don’t have that exit agreement in place, it will always end in tears.’
– John Dludlu, Small Business Institute CEO
CASH FLOW ‘For a small business, cash flow is
your oxygen. If it runs out before you’ve solved the problem for your customer, your business will fail.’
– Jikku Joseph, MD of 22seven
E-COMMERCE ‘Understand what it
is that you
are selling,
what the
problem is
that you’re
trying
to solve.
Know exactly what
it is that you’re best
at in the world. It’s incredibly important to be able to articulate that uniqueness in the market.’
– Fred Roed, Heavy Chef CEO
FRIENDS & FAMILY ‘The hardest part has certainly been around services provided by friends and family, because there’s
accountability and there’s different ways of working, which I have not anticipated. I’ve lost friends as a result of doing business with them.’ – Nobesuthu Ndlovu, Burgundy
Fly founder
ROLES &
RESPONSIBILITIES
‘As a company, it assists
us to be clear on what
we do and also what we
don’t do, and what resources we have and what resources we don’t have. It helps us to prioritise.’
– Sipamandla Manqele, Local Village Foods founder
SOFT SKILLS ‘There’s a lovely saying: “People don’t care how much you know until they
know how much you care.” We’re living in times where empathy and compassion are really important, and having a heart to serve, not just a heart to sell.’
– Bryan Hattingh, Cycan CEO and founder
ACCOUNTING
‘We started by bootstrapping and couldn’t afford a bookkeeper. I wish I had known the importance of management accounts then. That’s where you see the company’s performance and your margins.’
– Tiang Moabelo, LoadALot founder
COMPILED BY MICHELLE HARDIE
GO TO CONTENTS
8 2021/2022