I had the pleasure and absolute honour to be the speaker at the Malmesbury Sakekamer event last week. It is a monthly event where local entrepreneurs are invited to network and learn from one another. Upon the invitation, I came to the realization that
- The organizers trust my experience enough to know it will be valued by all the attendees. This in itself was an eye-opener as one gets stuck in your everyday work life and never steps back to observe where you are and what you’ve learned. ,
- I had the chance to reflect on my journey as a business partner, co-owner, leader, mother, and friend at Growing Paper. I realized that to grow further, it is important to look back and acknowledge how far we’ve come.
My story:
I see myself as very lucky and blessed. I never would’ve thought that I would be co-owner of a business, managing 40 people, working with corporate clients, being creative and loving what I do every day. In my teenage girl’s mind, this wasn’t me.
The person that should be talking to you today, is my friend and colleague, Roxanne Schumann. She is the entrepreneur, she had the idea, and the vision, the one with the business mind whereas I was the one thinking who would buy so many cards to keep us going for years and years to come.
In 2009 Roxanne told me about the idea of seeded paper. Months later she asked me if I wanted to join her in this new venture on her father’s farm. I was a Gr R teacher at the time.
Her father helped financially to start the business and the 2 of us started Growing Paper in 2010. One year later Roxanne moved to the Vaaldriehoek where her husband joined an engineering firm. Blackberry phones were our saving grace – they helped us to build a business together although we were km’s apart.
We were young, naive and very ambitious, and we both had small children at the time. I knew nothing about business, but this girl aint scared of hard work.
Developing and manufacturing a handmade product (which is partly alive) with no one to learn from, was quite challenging. Roxanne living far away, feeling frustrated, and wanting to be more hands-on, was a challenge for both of us. I was thrown into the deep end but I believe that is one of the best ways to learn.
Trial and error were part of our daily lives and it still is today. We are still learning about paper, seeds, and people and we are still experimenting and still developing.
Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned that I think can help any small business.
- Know your product inside out, and never cease learning.
- Anchor your decisions in unwavering values and a clear vision. Use this in decision-making. Our motto’s have helped us a lot: Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good & Clear is kind.
- Understand your target market and cater to their needs.
- Never assume that others grasp your product as you do.
- Keep meticulous records, for in the whirlwind of entrepreneurship, details tend to slip away.
- Try not to make impulsive decisions in times of need or in times of growth. Think it over..speak to relevant people.
- Seek expertise where you lack it; a specialist might be able to help in a jiffy, after you spend days on the same problem.
- Letting go of your ‘child’: At some point you have to loosen your grip. You might have been used to having full power in all the different facets of your business. But to grow your business, you have to let go, train well and trust.
- Where there is more than one partner, don’t doubt when you feel uncomfortable about something. Listen to your intuition. There were times that I thought my opinion didn’t matter but that was because of my insecurities. It might have saved us some bad decision-making.
- Recognize your strengths and weaknesses, and build a team that complements them.
- Do not make your focus just financial success. You will see yourself as a failure if things go wrong especially when starting a business in SA. It s not about the destination, but about the journey. Enjoy and smell the flowers along the way.
- Allocate time judiciously, especially in single-owner ventures.
- Cultivate relationships with partners who share your values.
- Outside your comfort zone is where the magic happens.
Personal growth, being creative, creating jobs, helping people to learn new skills, seeing how people get over fears, happy clients, and visitors in awe of what we do.. this is all so rewarding.