A top self-made South African businessperson has urged Namibian entrepreneurs to adopt the concept of the useful ‘empty cup’ to grow their enterprises.
Legends Barber chief executive Sheldon Tatchell was one of the guest speakers at the sixth edition of the Namibia Business Summit in Windhoek on Saturday.
The event was hosted by Namibian entrepreneur Martin Nankela under the theme ‘Building Scalable and Formidable Businesses Through Disciplined Execution and Tireless Commitment’.
“When you come into a new space, and your cup is empty, and you’re willing to grasp whatever the next person says – that’s a sign of humility, saying I want to learn what the next person says.
“If you bring an attitude of you know it all, your cup is full and you will not have space for new things,” said Tatchell, who started his hair business on the street and has grown it to more than 80 branches and franchises.
His lesson was that entrepreneurs must always be eager to learn something new to benefit their businesses.
“At the age of 14, I turned to barbering as a way to respect the reality of poverty that surrounded me. I learned this skill by visiting different barbers in my community,” he said.
This lesson was echoed another guest speaker, DJ Sbu aka Sbusiso Leope, who said he had failed many times with different business ventures, but always picked up the pieces and moved on to be where he is today.
“We have established the very successful Mo Fire brand, are into real estate, and many other things, because we listened to others,” he said.
DJ Sbu is a prominent South African media personality, social entrepreneur, DJ, author, and radio host.
Tatchell said one big lesson he has learnt was building a personal relationship with his clients.
“When I started, people came to my chair in numbers. I wondered what made me more special than the barber right across the room from me.
“I went and saw what the barber was doing. He touched your head, then said ‘next customer’, and I saw what made me different. I had a notebook and a pen, and I used to write down the name of the person and the conversation we had.
“The next time that person sat in my chair, I would make reference to that book,” he said.
Like Tatchell, DJ Sbu said he was one of those people who failed but tried again.
“The Mo Fire story wasn’t easy. I thought because I’m DJ Smooth at the time, I’m just going to hold this can high, and in three years we would be swimming in money.
“We went into the market, and the market humbled us,” he said.
Highlighting the value of patience in business, Sbu said he promoted the Mo Fire brand on the street and through social media until he could not fulfil orders any more.
But then he started struggling to finalise new orders because some clients had not paid for deliveries.
He said he was patient enough to juggle resources and deliver new orders.
Nankela said small and medium enterprises are creating solutions despite having limited resources. He described success as one person deciding to start a business and employing 10 people, to support 10 families.
“And those families create opportunities for the next generation. That is the impact we want to see,” he said.
Local experts at the event held panel discussions on issues such as housing challenges.
– email: matthew@namibian.com.na
