Episode 10_ the Ups and DOWNS July Civil Unrest Effects.

Hello. Hi, everybody. Welcome to our 10 episode. I'm so excited. I've been planning to do this for quite some time because I knew that we had to celebrate in some way if we even reach the tenth episode. You know, they say you must celebrate the small wins. I think this is a win, and this was my way to celebrate. That's why I put together a clip. I. I'm thinking that people might be wanting to see me. So here I am. And I was advised to do, like, a YouTube channel where people can see me all the time. But I didn't want to do that because I must always, like, do something like put on lipstick and make myself look good. And no, I. I don't really like fussing on my face or fussing on myself. I just like to wake up and just go, basically. So this is my minimum or maximum, if I could put it like that, of trying to put myself together to do a celebration of our 10th episode. So really, it's been quite an effort, guys. To be quite honest, this episode for me was really, really difficult to put together because we're discussing the effects of the unrest, basically what most of us as entrepreneurs are going through at this moment in South Africa, which is very, very to. So basically, I didn't feel like waking up. I didn't feel like speaking to anybody. I don't want to answer calls. I actually, I'm in a very dark place that something that got me up today was just preparing my son for crash and answering his questions. It just reminded me of how blessed I am and all the good things basically in life. But otherwise, I can really tell you it's a very tough time and we're trying to keep our heads up. I'm trying to keep my head up. I'm really, really struggling. I was saying to my husband just this morning, I was saying just this morning, I feel like I'm in a conveyor belt and my arm is stretched out and is heading for a chopper where everything is just going to be chopped. Basically, I'm just gonna break down the headings of what we'll be going through today. And like I said, we're going to be going through the effects of the unrest, the things that we are going through as entrepreneurs at the moment, where we are right now. And I think maybe my mistakes or what I could have improved on or what I've learned, and also how we're going to be moving on. So. But first things first, I definitely want to show you around this place, place where I work from. So this is our factory in Joburg in Rport. We're moving out of this place very soon. This is our last couple of days basically to cut down on rain. So we're moving on to a new, smaller premises. The main reason actually I haven't liked being here mainly because that the rent has been so high because there's always stuff leaking, like the water bill is always going, going, the electricity bill is always going even though we don't use much of those things, especially now. I mean, most of my stuff is working from home, so the water bill shouldn't be as high. But surprisingly it is and I don't like having those arguments. So basically this is my, this is my desk where I sit and opposite me it's Setu. And then our operation manager, CP sits here. This is Nelson's Corner. They're all working from home. This is our boardroom. Not much going on here downstairs where we do our manufacturing. But okay, most of the stuff has already gone to our other premises. This is our storage and this was our office in J to keep some stuff. But as you can see, there's no stuff to keep moving downstairs quickly. This is the entrance, bathroom, kitchen situation, but not really kitchen. And yeah, we've moved most of most of our stuff to the next premises. These are our fogging machines. Some of them are around the country in our places that we're fogging at the moment. Bottles. Yeah. So basically this is it. This is the factory. We'll be moving out very soon, like I said, for the reasons that I've explained. But we've been through quite a bit, you know, because of the unrest. It's quite a terrible situation to be in really. The effects of the unrest have been really, really bad to us. So I want to move on to doing our normal. I actually want to run away from the camera. That's. That's what I want to do. And yeah, I think it's time to say bye bye to my face and then we can continue with the podcast. Effect of the unrest on a Blood business. At this time, you guys saw on my tour that our factory has not been looted. We, we are based in Gauteng and I actually imagine others that are based in other provinces might be going through the same thing. Main thing is that my business is affected because my customers who are the CBT in the CBD of Gauteng can't make payments. My customers can't make their regular, regular expenditures or purchases towards my business, which is really, really a sore point for me. Also my business has been majorly affected because my staff during that period were not able to commute to come to the factory. We quite close to Soweto and some of our staff lives there. So it's been really difficult responding or acting fast when it comes to opportun during that time submissions, some were postponed, they did understand. But strange enough, other places don't understand. I mean local people are still within South Africa. They still expect us to be on those dates, seen in zoom meetings, trying to carry on as if nothing has happened. Which for me is very, very strange. The civil unrest has also affected us in terms of payments. Oh, that is a big one. Payments that we were supposed to receive from government. I'm still awaiting payments from a long time ago. And the explanation that I'm getting is that because of the COVID numbers, the staff is not always there to do payments. And because there is a long hierarchy of approvals for our payments now they are on hold on the system. This is a big ache for us. That is how the thing is, is is affecting us. And as you guys know, I do quite a bit of business internationally. This bad reputation over what has happened is really a very bad sting. You know, people that were really looking up to extending business to us are now dilly dallying, you know, postponing thinking about it. Whereas when we first started talk it was all going well. So really it has had some bad effects. And I'm gonna move on to the second point, which is the things that we are going through as a black business at the moment, or maybe even any other business at the moment, you know, it's a very tough time, Very tough time. But what I want to say is that there's a lot of positivity when it comes to really putting yourself out there when you do it really good. Even though the knocks do come for your business, like you really face those hard times, there's always something else to celebrate. Like for instance, I'm here today to sign a few contracts that we've been awarded. One of them being a national contract government institution. The celebration is a bittersweet one because yeah, we were able to extend our deep cleaning and fogging services only to local close to our local offices in Joburg and Cape Town. And now we've been issued a contract to do it nationally, which is very exciting, something to really celebrate. The only other downside about that is that now we are stretching ourselves out for trying to extend work nationally. And the blizzard of CVS that we are receiving really, I can't deal well with Things like that. That's why we have other people to handle it because I'm just, it's not such a huge contract but you're getting like, let's say like 30 people applying for one job. For me can't take that because it's like who do you, who do you decline? Fortunately that does. That decision doesn't sit with me. And also I want to talk about where we are now. Yeah. With all the positive things. I still have other submissions to make. Continuing to put myself out there, I mean I've gone through the sleepless nights trying to think of other things that we can offer in terms of looking out for my strengths, having the back, the backup of my previous work experience, production plans and so forth. I've also even thought about leaving the country. I've been doubting myself thinking, you know, this whole thing is a mess, it's probably not working out. But I just feel so stuck. Stuck and also feeling horrible that so many people are relying on you to make it work is so demanding and yeah, but I just have so much more to look for. Forward to like future projects that I'm busy with. Tomorrow afternoon I'm having a magazine interview. So yeah, even though the bad things are happening, there's always some good to look forward to. Basically guys, that's where we are now and hopefully where other entrepreneurs are also or even in a better position. Much better position. But I've been having conversations with people on the business groups and it looks like it doesn't look, it doesn't look good at all. Looking back maybe on my mistakes, maybe things I should have done well on is being a bit more aggressive in terms of our media advertising, a bit more aggressive in reaching out for more opportunities because there's always that doubt element, that thinking twice element. I mean it does, it just doesn't work. You know, once you start thinking twice about yourself it's. It doesn't work. That deep self belief is something that you really need to sustain yourself in this game. So I've been doing a lot more of reaching out through LinkedIn one on ones, but my mentor, my mentor on one of the supply development programs I'm in, we had a long session yesterday and he was telling me I need to go a bit more aggressive on the phones cold calling with my staff reaching out to a lot more. I mean what we offering is at a need at this moment. There's no reason why we should be going through such a tough patch when there's such a huge need for our offerings and Also I must look out for opportunities of advising plant production related work. I mean, and make my experience to good use. Also a big one. Oh, these financial funders hounding at us to take loans. Oh. That we so desperately itching to take because salaries need to pay, be paid, rent needs to be paid, electricity needs to be paid. Despite all the hold ups from our customers and government institutions. You know, the game needs to go on. We can't be waiting around. But the way that I'm being so engulfed by offerings of funding, it's, it's very suspect though I do need it. It is very suspect because I mean really, no, you don't want to find yourself in a position where when you finally have made it out of the woods and now the car contracts are paying and everything is happening well, you need to take all that money and give it back to your funding institutions. I mean, no, nobody wants to be in that, a crappy position. So. Yeah. So I would think my mistakes are there and I have availed myself with to some of the funding institutions I have. I think that is a mistake. But I feel like my options are limited at this point. Last point that I really want to focus on is how to move on from here. How to move on. I think it is at the back of my mind right now that inevitably I'm going to succeed. If I keep pushing forward like this, I'm definitely going to succeed. Even though the dead bad days do come and the tough times do come, ultimately I will succeed. That is something really I, I feel strongly about. Not because I'm a supernatural human being, but only by consistency. You know, I cannot keep hunting from 2013 for, for a big break and it's now 2021 and I don't catch anything. It's just there's no way I can't keep pushing, pushing, pushing for so long. There is eventually going to come a time where there is a movement, the door moves, even in the slightest way. So basically it's, it's not even, it's logic for me, it's logic. That's what keeps me going. So moving forward is focusing on the positives of the business, focusing on the good things that are happening. The magazine interview, the contracts that we're lending, the opportunities that we're getting in terms of applying for work, applying for funding opportunities. Though I do not want to bury myself in funding opportunities that are going to need payback. Grants would be a big win at the moment though I do know government to be issuing out some grants. We haven't Been lacking that for me in the past instances. It's mostly been a waste of time, mostly a waste of paperwork, and I cannot afford that wastage at all at this time. I need to be preparing for the success of these contracts that we've landed and need to be preparing for for staff and future work. So I've been doing a lot of reaching out via LinkedIn and I've been having a couple of very good responses. So basically, that is the focus going forward in all three departments. Keeping the staff with high morale, keeping them believing in themselves. It's so funny because, you know, as a leader, sometimes you start thinking that it's all up to you, trying to keep things in a positive space. But I am finding that. I'm finding that it's not. It's not necessarily like that. My stuff has done a lot to keep me upbeat at this moment. Some of the things I've had to keep for from them behind the curtain, just as a protection measure, but mostly very open about, very candid about what's going on in the core of the business, the movements and everything. So I've been very fortunate to have a beat to be upbeat about what is going on at the moment. I realized that a lot more people might be going through a whole lot worse. But I'm fortunate to have wisdom being filtered down to me, even though obviously I don't know 100% of what is going. In fact, I don't know 0% of what is going to be happening going forward. But yeah, guys, I'm going to wrap that up. This episode for me has been a very emotional one and it's one that I didn't want to do. I did, like I said right at the beginning, I just didn't feel like talking to anybody. But I mean, there's something. When it comes to consistency, I respect consistency. I respect being honest. And for me, fortunately, this has been an outlet. So episode nine, wrapping up. Thank you very much. I hope you've gained some insight on what is happening currently on the state of businesses at the moment and I hope this will be used to your benefit. Thank you very much. Goodbye, Sam.