A wise man once mentioned his story of
how he made it in life and it was certainly
a story worth remembering, an epitome
of a dream chaser. He grew up in a time
where degrees where not accessible to
the majority of black South Africans and
did not have the opportunity to go to university.
His father had a small vegetable farm and
sold these vegetables with a truck to the
people in the community. He took over
from his father when he got ill and later
on decided to sell these in the train with
additional stock such as snacks and peanuts. This man perceived it as the only way
of living; he did it to survive and later that
survival tool assisted him in understanding
the brilliance of his business abilities; he is
now the owner of a big firm and has many
other successful small businesses on the
side.
Find an
unorthodox
niche
Tshepo’s Puncture Repair business was established in 1992. It was not as ideal as he
thought it would be as he only received
his first material from the tyre company he
worked for by cleaning the storerooms for
pocket money as a weekend job.
Make connections and be pa-
tient
Tshepo’s weekend job as a tyre company
helped him gain experience in the field.
Not only that, he established good relations
at his job which allowed him access to resources. He asked for spare tyres that the
company he worked at did not use anymore.
“I got sixty good tyres the first time I cleaned
up the tyre company,” he said. Tshepo had
no equipment to repair those tyres, so he
kept collecting tyres to get more resources
to work with until he could afford to buy a
compressor (an expensive machine that is
used to repair the tyres).
Eventually as years went by, Tshepo found
himself in the position that he is in today
and strongly believes that the strong quality
he has as an entrepreneur is understanding
the essence of patience: “Competition is
simple but time is the problem,” he said.
Be prepared to
work extra hard
Tshepo works the entire day; he works after
hours when his competitors are not working. “You can call me at 12 o’clock at night
and I will still be available to assist you with
any tyre issue you might have,” he said. The
fact that he is open at odd hours eliminates
all the competition out there. The main
aim and objective of his business is to ensure that he is available when his customers
need him.