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Bring Change Lowveld winner shares her most valuable tips

For 25 weeks Ms Phephsile Maseko has been mentored by some of the Lowveld's best business brains. Here she shares the most important lessons she took away from it.

July 8, 2016
6 minutes read
Ms Erichia Pretorius, Ms Phepsile Maseko, Dr Mathews Phosa and Mr Ettiene Pretorius.
Photo: Hennie Homann

MBOMBELA – Entries for the 2016 Bring Change Lowveld for Innovative Small Business Award will soon open.

Last year’s winner, Ms Phephsile Maseko, has had the rare opportunity to meet some of the toughest, most forward thinking and extremely successful local businessmen and -women.

Last week she met with Sir Richard Branson’s daughter, Dr Holly Branson, in London. Since Maseko is working in the health industry, she will undoubtedly learn valuable lessons from Holly which will further enable her to take her business to greater heights.

“This is an opportunity I will forever cherish in my business life. Undergoing weekly mentorship sessions with leading business people in a variety of fields has not only helped me to see the bigger picture, but also has sharpened my emotional intelligence.

“A special thank you to all my mentors and ngibonge kakhulu to the programme founder, Ettiene Pretorius, for being such a thoughtful young man. You have in many ways saved the hungry and poor people of Nkomazi and South Africa through this powerful exercise,” she said.

“I now look forward to working even harder to set up the Phepisa primary production factory in Nkomazi and focus on my two major projects – cosmetic-products manufacturing and supplying quality natural ingredients to the cosmetic-products manufacturers in the country and abroad.”

Details about this year’s award will be communicated in Lowvelder at a later stage. Meanwhile, Maseko has singled out 10 of the most valuable lessons she has learned from the various businessmen:

1. Be innovative

Take time to carefully consider the challenges around you. Invent great solutions for those challenges which will have a lasting effect on the community within which you operate. Rather give more consideration to quality and standards than money. Once you have an idea, focus on your vision and work through your objectives to achieve it.

2. Research and development

Work hard behind the scenes to identify your research collaborators. This is a very sensitive field and you need to do your research on the partners you have chosen to work with. Find lawyers you will learn to trust to protect your intellectual property, otherwise your hard work of many years could be stolen in the blink of an eye, if not well protected. Develop and sign a non-disclosure agreement with all key people you will be working with. Find a way to work through the Department of Science and Technology to ensure that they support, protect and promote your idea through facilitating relations with key industry partners and through relevant research councils.

3. Funding and finance

No matter how great an idea is, if not researched and developed well, it may not take off. Seek funding from the National Research Foundation, Department of Treasury (jobs fund), Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), and many others that would fund you during the idea stage. Ask the Department of Science and Technology’s innovation arm to help you out at this stage as you may be very fragile and vulnerable when starting out. Once funding is secured for research, remain focused and highly professional.

All funding you receive should be channelled into the business and properly managed. Understand that there are different finance models, including from partners who want equity from your business, grants not repayable from angel funders and government and simple loans from commercial banks and other funding agencies. Choose and understand each one carefully as they may all have a direct impact on your business.

4. Mentorship

No matter how great the idea, it can die very easily if not well supported and nurtured during the early stages. Find different mentors to help you out during all the different project life stages. Be prepared to learn every day and be teachable. Take all the most relevant and critical lessons to build your business and file the less relevant ones for later use. Read a lot about the industry you are venturing into and be independent. Just because you have a mentor, does not mean you have someone to spoon feed you. They want to work with entrepreneurs. The responsibility of a mentor is only to guide and support.

5. Be an entrepreneur

Do not expect that things will get done simple because you are black, young and a woman. Go the extra mile! Hunt for the gold in your area of business. Be willing to work extra hard. Be patient, resilient and always be focused. Have a personality that is entrepreneurial – always hungry to be developed and independently standing up to bring change to you. Challenge yourself. Read thoroughly and implement all the relevant information and knowledge acquired daily into your business. Your ears should always be on the ground – listening for opportunities in your area and going for them. Utayitfolakanjani uhleli ekoneni, so rise and exploit an opportunity.

6. Business structuring

Once you know that you now have a business idea, ensure it is delivered through a registered business and have a lawyer and accountant you trust to help you understand all the relevant structures you may need for your business to work and remain independent of you in case anything happens to you.

Know how good companies within and without the country are formulated or structured and see which business structure works better for you. The two most important people in your business life are your good lawyer and accountant. This will help you as you move on with growing the business. It will show how professional you are and the level of organisation you have put together to protect yourself and the business. Be professional, it is a business!

7. Marketing

No matter how great an idea is, it will not flourish until it is well packaged, people are confident about what it does and how it will change their lives. Teach people about it, always. Exploit every opportunity to come across to talk to everyone who cares to listen about your idea and business. Identify your target market and research it, then sell! It is easy to develop a business idea, but much harder to market it and seal deals. People may love your product, but if the name and brand is questionable, consumers will have difficulty in supporting your business. Do not get involved in dodgy deals and dishonest practices. It may cost you dearly in the future when you venture into serious business. Be marketable as a brand to protect and promote your product. Know and understand all the tools you may use to market your business and choose the best ones for your specific business.

8. Business administration and management

No matter how powerful your business idea is, if its foundation and management systems are not in place, it is bound to fail any minute. It is like sitting on a time bomb, so do your business a favour and invest a lot in this. Work with professional people.

Get all the relevant software packages and understand how these can help your business grow and be sustainable. Your team should know very well how to implement these. Apply good business principles and administration procedures and processes to succeed. Hire relevant personnel with all the required qualifications to grow your business and be prepared to take their good advice.

9. Network and partnership

It is who you know that will make your business flourish. Hang out will people who will help you grow. Do not take relationships, networks and partnerships for granted. Who you meet today may lead you to your next big order or deal. When choosing a business partner, you should fully understand the person you are going to partner with. Do not sell any business shares to partners until the business is large enough to offer lucrative benefits to the next person and understand their value add in your business. Look for a complementing business partner and nothing else.

10. Spirituality

Spirituality will come in handy during difficult times and you could just pray about it. Have a great spiritual guide – a friend or family member you trust. There are a lot of burnout moments in business and you need to be able to turn to this person during such times. If this is well nurtured and developed it will teach you to forgive and give to less fortunate and deserving people, which is great for business growth. Spiritual people remain grounded and want to lead a principled life. So be just that – spiritual!

Read what other mentors have had to say:

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July 8, 2016
6 minutes read

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