Emerging property luminary discusses his business success
"There are a lot of challenges in business, but it gets easier when you have someone holding your hand and showing you how to make it in the industry."
We interviewed Tebogo Molefe to discover what makes him unique and successful in the business sector. Tebogo is a real estate entrepreneur, public speaker, coach and mentor.
See Q&A below:
1.
What inspired you to start a business and how has the journey been?
As a child, I used to play monopoly a lot. I remember asking myself when I was young “can I play monopoly in real life, with real money and actual property?”
As a child, my aim was to rebuild my township and make it a more decent place to stay in. I grew up in Kagiso, a small town on the WestRand [Johannesburg]. In 2015, I established a property investment company I call Kagiso Home Buyers.
I saw a need to supply rental property for people in need of proper housing and also saw a need to supply property buying and selling services in the town.
Shortly after buying and selling properties in my neighbourhood, I started coaching my friends to create their own property investing companies. Once they were also successful in building their brands, I went on to teach throughout South Africa and what I have learnt through my own experiences and have now helped create real estate brands in all nine Provinces of South Africa.
Not only do I want to create and grow my brands, but I am also helping people who are determined about being in this industry create their own brands and buy their own properties.
2.
What have been some of the challenges you faced in the property industry especially operating in the township?
There are a lot of challenges in creating a real estate brand in a township. However, in every problem that one has faced, someone else has profited from it and made a fortune.
It takes training for one to see opportunity in calamity. I have dealt with issues like eviction, deceased estate, auction property, hardships in branding, dealing with competition and more.
What I’ve learnt through the process is, the quicker you find a solution in your business, the quicker you and your client profit. Every business has issues, and every issue has a solution. If you have that mindset, you will constantly win.
3.
What options are available for people to raise capital to buy properties?
A lot of people never become real estate investors because they think they have to have a lot of money to start investing. Which isn’t true. I did my first property transaction without money.
You might need money to make money in property, but the money does not necessarily have to be your own money. When you find a good enough property transaction and the deal makes financial sense, money will follow you.
The money can be from friends, financial institutions or investors. Money follows the right deals. What every startup entrepreneur has to spend time doing is learning how to get the good deals and learn to run the numbers, the capital tends to follow good deals.
4.
What is your selling factor for first class property SA? Because there are wrong perceptions about township businesses?
First Class Property SA is a coaching and investing company. We coach start-up entrepreneurs how to create their business and run profitable real estate companies.
It doesn’t matter if the student has any experience with building brands or real estate but we teach them from beginners level and get them to a level where they can run their own companies as professionals.
We have coached students from all walks of life, all ages and races. I believe in the power of helping people grow. I was helped when I was creating my own property buying and selling company. I, therefore, created the first Class Property SA to offer people the same help I had.
5.
Who are some of the business leaders that have inspired your business journey and what have you learnt from them?
I have often said that everyone that wishes to succeed has to first find a mentor who can help them succeed. This applies not only in business but in every endeavour of lives.
If you wish to achieve anything great, find someone who has achieved what you wish to achieve and get them to help you grow. In the year 2015, when I found myself a property coach, my life changed drastically.
Until I was 25-years-old, I always wished to be a property entrepreneur. I always wanted to be in the property investment sector. However, I had no idea where to start. In one of the seminars I attended, I found myself a mentor who changed my life completely.
He helped me start my business in property, raise money and helped me develop my first investment strategy. Seeing that mentorship worked, I then went to other seminars where I got more business coaching and marketing courses.
I have learnt over the years through acquiring mentors and coaches that there is no better investment than an investment in you. I have learnt that no one can do it alone and that there is power in surrounding yourself with people who are more successful than you.
6.
Where do you see your business in a few years to come and what are you going to do to get there?
Defend your dream. No matter how impossible it seems for you to achieve your goals, protect your dream. I dream of building an international business. I dream of creating a business that operates all over the world.
I have fortunately been able to help create brands in all provinces of South Africa. It has taken a lot of determination and hard work to do this. Nothing comes easy, growth is hard. However, I had to constantly grow to achieve everything I worked for.
It will require growth for me to take the brand all over the world too. With the work my team has put in into the brand, I have no doubt that we can do it. I am humble enough to acknowledge that I cannot do it all by myself.
Every growth level I have reached, there has always been someone to help me achieve what I want. I surround myself with influential people, people who are ambitious and diligently work on themselves.
The company I keep helps me grow, I believe that as I also help my team grow, they will do the same for me and I will, therefore, one day, build the international brand.
7.
What business books have you read that have a great impact on you?
I have read close to 70 books in wealth building so far. I have a lot of books that I have loved reading. My personal favourite author has to be a South African author and property investor named Jason Lee. I love all his books but my favourite book by him is named “Retire Rich” through property.
This book gives great insight on what wealthy investors do in South Africa and all over the world. Books are a great fundamental primer of my growth as an investor.
I have obtained a lot of knowledge from business books in general. Often when I need a new skill, I go back to reading books. This is usually a great way to absorb and learn what an author has learnt through their own experiences.
8.
What is business leadership according to you?
I have a vision and I am religiously defending it. I know my target market and area for buying and selling. I do not follow what is hot in property or what every property entrepreneur is doing.
Instead of following what everyone does, I do everything in my power to achieve my own personal goals. I have realised that every other person has their own thinking and strategies to succeed.
Furthermore, if they are achieving their goals using their own strategies, that does not mean I have to leave my own strategies and adopt their ways.
As a leader, you have to be unapologetic about fighting for what you want and know you can achieve it. Do not focus on what others are doing but have your own vision and work on achieving that. If you do that in your business, to me, you are a business leader.
9.
You are only 27 years of age, how do you have fun and relax?
I love travelling and playing monopoly in real life. That is fun for me. I have turned what I love doing into businesses. When I teach all over South Africa, I get to travel and do what I love.
I have fun through buy and sell properties. I have fun through building networks with like-minded people who shape the direction of my life.
10.
Any words of encouragement to emerging entrepreneurs who are in the property industry?
If you wish to create a real estate company but do not know where to start, start reading books on property, attend seminars and follow at least one person who is successful in property and ask them to mentor you.
There are a lot of challenges in business, but it gets easier when you have someone holding your hand and showing you how to make it in the industry. Property is one of the best wealth building tools and it pays a lot to invest in knowing how to be an entrepreneur in the field.
- Leroy Slava believes that property is the quickest way to financial freedom – [related story]
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