 everybody welcome to the farming podcast brought to you by Private Property. My name is Malinoko, once again your host as always and thank you for joining us on this rainy Thursday evening depending on whether or not you're in Jobek and quite frankly I'm just quite tired of this constant rain. Surprisingly so I'm a farmer and I'm sure you're thinking that's wow you know farmers always want rain so how could I be tired of rain but yeah I think I'm tired of rain I definitely need a bit of sunshine in my life to brighten up my day and I'm sure to brighten up your day and I hope you're not working too hard as we've just started this new month of February however I just want to thank you also for your support for your like shares and comments on all our podcast videos whether you're watching live on YouTube on whichever social media channel where you're joining us from this evening and every other evening before today so thank you so much for the support and thank you so much for encouraging me as well as the guests and really doing a lot to assist you within your agribusiness journey or your agricultural journey or farming journey or maybe just sparking some insight into agriculture and farming and really getting your green fingers working so thank you so much for joining us and today's guest is Busi Rappekwana she's a CEO and founder of the transformation legacy and Busi is a business coach a mentor and I know her from interacting with her about two three years ago where she assisted me briefly with my business and I must say she's a lady that listens with intent and that responds with well knowledge and expertise so for anybody of you that's wishing to start a farm or starting a business within the agricultural valley chain where they retail buy and sell import and export training coaching mentoring young graduates maybe to go into the workplace within the agricultural landscape whatever your aspirations might be pertaining to business within agriculture I think Busi is the right individuals to give us key insights knowledge expertise and tips on how to successfully run our businesses and one of the things that we should look out for especially these tough economic climate that we're faced in South Africa throughout this global pandemic so I won't waste too much of your time and I'd like to bring Busi onto the show good evening Busi how are you doing evening Bali I'm doing very well thank you and thank you for inviting me to the show evening to everybody listening into it thank you it's been a minute since we caught up yeah you're pretty face you look like you're glowing you look like everything's going well you know for people that don't know you as well as the transformation legacy please just give us a brief background of what your organization does we are an entrepreneur development company our mandate is to develop and grow small businesses so that they can become sustainable and the reason why the transformation legacy exists is to build generational businesses businesses that can leave a lasting legacy businesses that can transcend from one generation to another we want to see businesses that exist 100 years from now or 200 years from now that starts very small and it's something that we don't really see regularly particularly with small black businesses and we want to make an impact in that environment by equipping businesses with the right skills the right knowledge the right information and just providing guidance in terms of how to build solid businesses that can leave a lasting legacy and outlive their founders so that's that's who we are and what we do we provide business skills training business mentorship and coaching we have various enterprises and supply development programs that are targeted at building small businesses and making sure that we really transform our economy and we position small businesses to be sustainable and change the narrative yeah yeah and change the narrative you know what I like about what you just said you mentioned that you're all about building businesses that outlive the owner and businesses that build generational wealth and in the context of agriculture predominantly a lot of the farmers or farms that exist today have been generational farms you know I'm a first-time farmer or I'm a first generation farmer and so meaning there was no other farmer in my family before my time that decided to pursue a career in agriculture or just in business alone just being an entrepreneur and there's so many black entrepreneurs or first-time entrepreneurs or business owners who are entering the agricultural landscape or space that really don't have mentors to to fast track them I suppose in a in a path where they can build build generational wealth so for anybody maybe that's listening that's a first time entrepreneur first time in business owner first time being a farmer or just being in agriculture what advice would you give to this individual that is just starting out in their business journey with the aspirations of building a legacy company I think it's it's so important when you're starting out to recognize that there's so many things that you may not know about your industry there are a lot of things that you may not know about building a business as entrepreneurs I mean when you start your your farming enterprise you started because you're passionate about farming and and you know that passion alone although it you know it helps you to commit to the growth of your your farm it it will it does not assist you in terms of navigating the business environment and the challenges that comes with growing a business so it's so important to recognize that and and to to get a mentor I always say this this you know you can't go wrong with finding the right mentor to work with you to guide you to assist you to navigate your way into this new enterprise that you're starting it's it's it's it's critical for you to have somebody who's going to advise you on what to do and also just provide you with the knowledge that you need to understand the industry that you're going into so I would advise I would advise anybody that's starting out to find a mentor find somebody who's going to assist you in terms of building your business and also somebody who's going to help you navigate your industry and you may say I mean where do I start in terms of finding a mentor you do not have to have one mentor you can't have a mentor focusing on helping you to build your business you can have a mentor who's going to assist you in terms of providing you with industry knowledge and experience so just look for what you need in your business and find somebody there who's got experience who's got to know how can help you navigate your way in terms of starting to build this enterprise yeah and obviously growing your business and as you were just talking I thought came into my mind that you know I remember when we just started interacting and the advices that you gave me I think I I thoroughly enjoyed them in the sense that you came from a different perspective you understand you came from a different background not being in agriculture and so my question is and we previously actually had about two or three episodes of episodes ago we had a session about agricultural mentorship and so my question is to you when starting out do we necessarily have to have a mentor that is within our industry or can it be a mentor that has just had years of business experience or just knows business and has succeeded in business and has somewhat level of business expertise and experience to help guide you through the business that you're starting and that it doesn't necessarily have to be in farming or retail or important export or any other value chain along the agricultural sector I think it's it's very important to have different perspectives and it's also good to have somebody who understands business in general because although you're starting a business in the agricultural space the the principles of business remain the same so the nuances of the industry may be different but the principles remain the same in terms of what you need to have the right foundations to grow your business in a sustainable way so I always advise that have an industry related mentor somebody who's very technical somebody who's got the technical expertise in terms of the agricultural business to take you through and equip you in terms of you know the business that you're going into and the product that you're wanting to sell and have a business generalist mentor who's going to help you understand general business because you're going to be interacting with other business owners as you're selling your products and you have to understand generally how does business work so it's very important to have both just the business generalist as well as a technical mentor to take you through industry specific expertise okay so how do how does transformation legacy work with entrepreneurs and at what stage does the entrepreneur need to be in his or her business to work with transformation legacy we work with entrepreneurs at various stages because we recognize that at different stages entrepreneurs need assistance to take them to the next level so we work with entrepreneurs who are starting out who do not know exactly how to start how to register a business where to go just that basic information that sometimes you may take for granted so we work with entrepreneurs who who really need that guidance at the start of their businesses as well as entrepreneurs that have already started but at a place where they really do not know how to go about growing their business they you know they may be experiencing various challenges with finding customers with you managing their team or managing their finances and they need guidance to navigate their way through those challenges so those would be like your growing entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurs who have been I mean we've worked as well with businesses that have been operating for more than 10 years who are now at a stage where they feel that you know we are stagnant we need guidance in terms of how we evolve our organization we've got challenges in terms of process running our business and we not just need somebody to come in and help us you know go to the next level so we do take on entrepreneurs at those different levels and in terms of how we work we've got different models in terms of our business mentorship programs we've got programs that are funded by corporate organizations and usually with these programs would go out and inform entrepreneurs about these programs we run programs in the ICT sector in the green economy sector in the cleaning and security sector as well as other professional service industries and so those would be the funded programs that entrepreneurs do not need to pay for directly and we also have other programs where entrepreneurs can pay for and just small packages that entrepreneurs can afford we recognize that you know and understand that when you start in your business you do not have a lot of money to invest in training in mentorship as well as the business development support so we've got various packages available for entrepreneurs that are suitable to to their needs and suitable to their budgets and yeah so all that information is on our website as well and we've made sure that we provide resources on our website just so that entrepreneurs have access to basic information that they need to navigate their way through growing their businesses yeah thank you for that it sounds quite intensive especially with these programs that you've mentioned because I believe with your corporate partnerships there would be expecting certain outcomes from entrepreneurs and that a bit of commitment will be required for entrepreneurs to complete those programs as much as they too will be benefiting in growing their business we see I want to touch on something here you know when we talk about businesses and entrepreneurs we always tend to focus on those that are starting out we give a lot of practical advice and knowledge on those that are starting out and I suppose those that are really path growth stage we can say that they're pretty much comfortable so they really know what's going on they've got their systems their processes etc but I want to focus on the entrepreneurs that are really at a growth stage those that maybe are in between three to five years that they already have established clients they already kind of know what they're doing so for example maybe a farmer's been farming three to five years they already have the crop that's that's selected they have a market to sell to but now they're struggling to really pivot or to grow you know what are some of the tools that you would then maybe when working with an entrepreneur at the stage going into growth stage what are some of the tools that you would provide to an entrepreneur within this business life cycle you know with entrepreneurs that already established and wanting to pivot to the next level you might find that a lot of them you know the business the business is dependent on the founder to to actually run the day-to-day operation so that's where we start we really look at the business can the business operate without you because if the business can operate without you then it becomes easier for you to implement various strategies in terms of growing and that also leads to becoming scalable so that's the first thing that we we address and you might you you find that with entrepreneurs at that stage they aren't you know they don't they don't have systematic ways of running the business I think in terms of producing the product it becomes easier for them to do that in a systematic way but in terms of running the other operational aspect of the business in terms of business support they may not have the right systems available to do that so we look at you know such aspect in terms of the business because those are the things that form foundations if you want to build a business sustainably so we are very careful to to provide strategies to just grow we want to make sure that this business exists in the next 10 years in the next 20 years so it becomes very important for us to start with the basics and that's making sure that there's the right systems and processes in place the business can operate without the founder the founder has a solid team they've got a team that they can delegate to and if they you know already have an established market they've got good client relations processes that they're putting in place that are not necessarily dependent on the owner but that can still continue even when the owner is away for four weeks so there's there's also a very interesting matrix that we really like and we actually measure how many days can you be away from your business without your business collapsing wow yeah and and for us it just shows us as your business grow can your business be sustainable and can your business you know sustain itself beyond you as the business owner so that's you know one of the matrix that shows us what we need to work on in terms of developing those growth strategies and as you look at those interventions right in terms of how can the business remain profitable scalable operational without the business owner does do those interventions always have to involve monetary funding is it like for example does it always have to involve capital injections because I heard you talk about systems processes it just sounds like an expensive exercise and what if at that time of the growth phase you just don't have that so like does does implementing those strategies always have to include capital injection in the business or not i'm not necessarily i'm a firm believer that you need to work with what you have uh so if you don't have the budget for it we work with what we have um if you know in terms of a system i mean you can use something as basic as a notebook if that's what you have and that's how basic we get um it's it's very important for us to achieve the objective over and above just having um things in place that we think will work for you so we need to work with the resources that you have and that's an advice that I would give to all entrepreneurs when you're looking at how to grow your business you need to look at what do you have currently at your disposal and what can you do with that you may not have you know money at that moment but do you have people working with you that have got ideas do you have other mechanisms that you can use to market your business or to sell your products so it's very important to just go back and look at realistically look at what you have at your disposal and maximize on on on on on that yeah and when you're working with entrepreneurs and business owners at what point does the relationship um come to an end because even if let's say um at a growth phase and transformation legacy has obviously assisted me to come up with implementations and strategies that obviously um grow my business and you know ease some of the workload as a business owner and then we move on to I suppose the third tier where you know the business is operating very well like a well or well oiled machine at what stage then do we do we then exit the relationship with transformation legacy or can business owners and entrepreneurs just keep you along as just that sounding board for as long as the business exists or do you specifically say this is when now we have to exit when the business is at level x based on the goals how does it work I think it's very dependent on um the goals that would that we would sit with you as an entrepreneur at the beginning of the relationship um when we start the mentorship relationship you obviously have certain outcomes that you want to achieve that you've got in mind maybe you want to increase your sales by 50 percent or you want to hire three more people and you don't know how or you want to secure 10 clients and you don't know how and once you achieve those objectives you feel that you freeze the level where you you feel comfortable to go off on your own so I mean you could exit at that stage it's very dependent on the relationship that we have with that specific entrepreneur and what they need are and what we find at times is as your business grows you start to experience different challenges and you might need interventions or need support to help you address those challenges so it's very dependent on on you as the entrepreneur and it's it's really a flexible and customized relationship um so it's it's we look at what you need we look at um whether you've achieved your goals and whether you at the stage where you feel comfortable to go off on your own and to grow your business with your team awesome so now talking about um being in this obviously the global pandemic right a lot of people have now had reduced income specific on which sectors they're working in um a lot of people have been retrenched um maybe in last year in the later part of last year in the beginning of this year simply because organizations or their places of work cannot afford them anymore as a resource and we constantly get individuals on this farming podcast saying I want to try out farming I want to start farming as a new business I've always had green fingers I've had land back home I'm unemployed now I'm at home or it could be a graduate that's saying you know I'm frustrated with trying to find a job um all I know is like you just said start with what you have all I know is that I've got land at home we've got water um but you know I'm lacking certain things what advice would you give to individuals that would just start out their businesses and I suppose in this case um becoming farmers or just being um yeah let's maybe leave it to farmers so becoming farmers but not forgetting that being a farmer is being an entrepreneur so what advice would you give to a person who is thinking of starting their own business but you know maybe he's feeling a bit scared he's feeling a bit hesitant they don't have enough capital or reserve funds because they've lost their job and they you know they need to ensure that the money that they have takes them um through you know a number of months so what advice would you give to aspirants and entrepreneurs who want to start a business especially in 2021 um I was there's never a perfect time to start a business I can only say that there's never a perfect time to start a business and um if if if you are at a point where you feel that you really um this is something you are passionate about this is something that you see yourself in in the long term and you're doing that for you're doing this for the right reasons then I would say start now um there will never be a perfect time even when the economy recovers you will still have other there will be other factors that to tell you from starting your business so I would say um just be clear in terms of what you want to achieve out of the business be clear that this is something you can do and this is something you can commit to because those are the things that you're going to need to navigate your way through growing your business you're going to need commitment um you're going to be need clarity of thought clarity of mind you're going to need your passion because it's going to keep you going when yeah people are not buying from you and there's things happening on your farm and you know things are not working out and they should see so those are the basic things that you're going to need um for you to to go through your business and I would say um the pandemic that we're going through is is really developing the resilience of many entrepreneurs as much as this is very challenging and this is a very difficult time we are we are going to find that in the next few years the entrepreneurs that stay the course and that survive this period will be more resilient than they could have ever been because we now have to think through different strategies we have to find opportunities in challenges and in difficult situations we really have to dig deep in terms of surviving this period so the the good thing about going being in business during this pandemic is is that it's building our resilience and we are building our businesses and structuring our businesses very differently from what we would have done before now we are structuring our business for for sustainability we're building our businesses to last we understand that you know um we we we have to be very very aware of the little things in our business we start appreciating every single rent that goes through the business account because you don't know how long you're going to have that for so we are building new ways of building businesses and I must say that entrepreneurs who will go through this are going to emerge even greater post this pandemic right and my final question Lucy is um you mentioned that you know it's having the passion for your business is what will surpass you during the tough times you know when clients are not ordering when things are going bad um and so what advice would you give to the existing businesses right now that are really surviving you know um and and I say I I want to put emphasis on that word surviving so in capital later so they're trying their best to still keep their doors open to still keep their farm gates open so um what are some of the bootstrapping measures that you advise for entrepreneurs right now because we don't know how COVID is going to last so should we be um actively trying to pursue and get more clients should we be dropping our clients should we be dropping our prices um should we maybe try and forecast you know um how tough times will be in the next couple of months and maybe start with changing employees just to have a small budget like yeah what are the bootstrapping measures that you um you would just give out to entrepreneurs that are really surviving during this time um I think one of the first things I'll start from a financial side um you need to look at your finances with with really close attention and look at the expenses that you do not need to incur at the moment um and and really spend your money in in activities that are going to help you generate more money so I wouldn't say save save save um there's expenses that you need to incur at the moment to make sure that you gain more customers you sell more of your products so those expenses are your marketing and I know that there's other companies who cut their marketing budgets or who cut their marketing expenses during this time but this is the time to spend a little even you know even if you have a little on marketing your business and also keep in mind that you are not just selling to survive today but you have to sell for future you have to secure your sale here for for for future prospects you have to secure potential clients for future so I would say that is a good expense to to really consider um you focus in your your your your finances on and then the second thing is the customer needs your customer needs are evolving um during this pandemic so it's very important to understand your customer needs and speak to your customers um they may not need the same quantities as they used to they may not they may need smaller quantities they may need different products they may need products packaged in a different way you have to understand what your customer needs um so that you can evolve your offering it's also a good time for you to explore other other services that you couldn't provide or even other customer segments that you never thought of so this is the time for you to see where the opportunities um who else could be my customer who else needs my product because ultimately you have a product and you need to sell it to a consumer so who else needs your product at the stage and um just also keep asking yourself that question until you find people that you know really want to buy your product and they're out there they're out there we've seen that we're seeing a lot of businesses that are growing during during this pandemic because they've evolved um their customer statements because they've realized that their current customers do not need their product as much as they did before so I think those would be the three key things so looking at the expenses that you really need to incur and spending your money on marketing and sales not just for now but for future secondly just looking at how to evolve your your your product and services and understanding what your customers and your market needs so that you can look for your opportunities wow I think you've said a mouthful there and um as you were mentioning about trying to seek other customers I just remembered that I was having a conversation with another entrepreneur who is not necessarily well he is a farmer um but has opened his own fresh produce market and he mentioned that you know surprisingly so during this time at the rate in which um we as families love ones are bearing loved ones funeral parlors are coming to him um with a huge demand for poultry chicken frozen chicken um goats and sheep that is slaughtered simply because of the high increased numbers of funerals that a lot of funeral parlors are hosting every single week um you know so it's something it's a customer segment or a client segment that he just never thought of and yeah I just wanted to praise you on that point or topic and to say definitely seek customers that wouldn't ordinarily be your customers because people think agriculture farming and farming crops I want to get my product into retail but there's other businesses right now maybe that are needing your fresh produce etc or maybe even your waste that is um um you know received at your farm so thank you so much we see for your time this evening um I'm sure people will be contacting you uh because you gave some very very valuable insights um and yeah thank you so much for um also the tips that you shared in terms of how we can bootstrap our businesses how we need to think outside the box um how maybe also maybe we just need to spend a bit more on marketing because now we need to get visible everybody's at home everybody's on their laptop on the phone you know um so maybe um spending a few rands and cents on specific ads spend might just go a long way and I also like the fact that you've mentioned that it's not about thinking about the now how can my business survive how can my farm survive whatever it's about thinking for the future and I think you know customers will remember you especially in tough times and um thank you for for reminding us of that any lost words that you maybe want to share as we wrap up our conversation this evening um thank you very much and buddy for for inviting me to this platform I just wanted to um as a parting thought that you don't have to have everything figured out um I think it's important to take it one step at a time and to also recognize that we are all navigating um new territory um but to also just just be encouraged by the fact that you are getting more resilient as an entrepreneur you are learning much more in terms of building your business and and it's just important for you to just stay the course all the best everyone thank you I appreciate your time that was we see Rappekwane founder of Transformation Legacy um where they assist SMMEs or small businesses whether you're a startup in your growth phase um or you are really just hitting a smooth run um within your business and you know you've got a well-oiled machine it doesn't mean you should get comfortable at that stage of your business but it wouldn't harm contacting Transformation Legacy just to see what other alternatives um you might pick up that could increase or grow your business so if you have any questions we will share um all her company details and information including the website on the show notes and if you miss this podcast it will be available on YouTube um post um this this podcast and I just also want to encourage you to constantly um ask questions comment like share please I think I want to emphasize on the sharing because there might be friends and family who might have missed this valuable conversation and really need some sort of key expert advice and Woosie's the right person that um could assist these individuals with their business needs or business questions so please share this video um to anybody who you feel that um really really needs to hear this conversation and the messages that Woosie left us with however before I sign out sign out I just want to say that um please be on the lookout on social media for our competition that we have running we are announcing winners every single week and there's an awesome cash prize um cash there's an awesome prize available um to the winner and also to say that we will be closing up our weekly podcast with Zama tomorrow at 7 p.m um and she is hosting the private property live podcast and on the weekend we have Chad with the Home Shoppers show so um definitely be glued on to your social media please like share comment and I will see you next week Tuesday with another awesome guest but thank you so much for joining us take care and stay home and stay safe thank you the suburbs of Brea and Morning Saad are built on a natural ridge that overlooks the home of the Sharks the Mozambique Stadium uh Durban Country Club it's just got an incredible art look elevated over the city living in Morning Saad makes so much sense to us because everything is so central anything that we choose to do is a couple of kilometers away or a couple hundred meters away restaurants coffee shops it's all here on our doorstep you know we've got uh great schools here uh the girls schools just close by our Maristella and Durban Girls College and then fantastic boys schools uh Durban Preparatory High School DPHS one of the top primary schools in the country and then Clifton which now goes all the way to high school it's so convenient to be in this area where everything is close by some of our closest friends stay just across the Umgani River in Durban North Durban North is very family orientated with some great schools some excellent restaurants and some small commercial centers the promenade along Durban's beachfront also known as the Golden Mile got an incredible facelift for the 2010 World Cup and today is used by all of Durban's population we as a family love the Durban beachfront if we're not on the water you'll find us on our bicycles along the promenade being a World Cattle Board Champion I've traveled to some of the most amazing beaches around the world but nothing comes close to what we have here in Durban Durban has great weather and great conditions all year around for surfing and for training and just being in the ocean and that's why it's known as the warmest place to be we've lived here our whole lives and there's no place we'd rather be and this is our neighborhood