Kick Starting The Business

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Finally a decision was made today to resuscitate our business bringing it back from the dead. Not dead entirely as it has been ticking over, but not as it is supposed to. The phone ringing off the hook is telling us the time is now ready and the demand is now picking up again. Raw material are available through 3 suppliers with 3 different prices involved making it slightly more complicated.

This is not a problem as customers will be notified as we expect the local supply will only last for the first 10 days of each month before switching over to the 20% extra marked up imported materials. What would be easy is to just charge on the imported rate which I suspect most businesses are already doing as it seems that is the trend these days.

The local supplier which we have struggled with for the last few years due to having insufficient stock is at R27 per kilogram compared to Excon Mobil (Dallas) import at R31/kg and Dubai also an import at R33/kg. We will allocate a starting production of around 40 tons per month for Johannesburg and start slowly building our customer base back to where it was before.

We have always been an open book type operation and tried to be different in how we conduct our business. I am not concerned as this is not like starting a new business from scratch and have so many contacts in place with clients on hold wanting to start dealing with us. Will those promises have changed over the last two years of being dormant is the only question now?

The only problem is still the bigger volume accounts as I need to steer clear of them until we are fully operational back on our feet. Tying up too much cash into one account with less margin being earned is not a smart move right now. 4 or 5 smaller accounts could bring in double the profit compared to one big account even though it means they are more time consuming.

By no means does this mean the economy is pumping, but we feel it is time to get back on track. I couldn't be happier as I miss having my main revenue stream as this is what I have worked so hard on pre covid. February 2020 is when we shut down our warehouse operations in Johannesburg and delivered directly from the factory to our clientele and that will not change.

These are exciting times as having your own business is special as it is yours and only when it is taken away do you realise how special it really is. Working for yourself gives you the freedom to make your own choices and feel fortunate that we had made the right calls up until now as so many other businesses didn't make it through the lockdowns. This just feels odd with conflicting emotions of excitement and nervousness as this is like a new
beginning with a fresh start.

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