Roberto De Carvalho: Get out of the kitchen to see your clients

Roberto De Carvalho, Roberto's
Signature Restaurant
Photo: Peter Unsworth 

Since he was nine years old, Roberto De Carvalho dreamed of being a chef and owning his own restaurant. So, after gaining valuable experience at some world-famous eateries like Nobu and Reuben’s, both at the One&Only in Cape Town, De Carvalho opened Roberto’s Signature Restaurant at 44 Long Street, in July 2011 with 12 staff.

Have you always been entrepreneurial?

For 16 years I worked for other people, but the last three years, I would probably say, is when I started to formulate how I would go about starting my own restaurant.

What were you doing before starting your business?

Prior to this I was the resort Executive Chef at the One&Only Hotel. Being in charge of world-renowned restaurants such as Nobu and Reuben’s at the One&Only also made me realise that I was capable of opening and running a successful restaurant of my own.

What kind of planning went into starting the venture?

I would say that an elaborate business plan is necessary, especially if you are opening a restaurant with many facets to think about (décor, food style, pricing, location, etc.). It gives you a good place to start from and I think that when you write a business plan for your own restaurant, you want your business to be the best it can be. It’s a great reminder too if you try and keep what you are doing on a daily basis, in line with what you thought of when you first did your business plan.

What was your start up capital and where did you work from?

My capital came from 10 years of saving and some investment from my father – I contacted letting agents and then started to view premises for my restaurant until I found the one which I thought had the best location, as well as the best rental payment that I could afford.

What was your big dream for this venture?

To be the best Mediterranean-style restaurant in Cape Town, offering five-star quality food and service at affordable prices.

How does a new entrepreneur find business leads and profit from them?

Every possible angle has to be utilised – in my line of business it means staying in touch with the concierges of the surrounding hotels, so that they send their guests to us for at least one meal while they’re in Cape Town. This brings many new feet into the restaurant – people who would probably never have known about us had the concierge not informed them about us.

How does a new entrepreneur figure out what makes them unique and leverage that difference?

By seeking out weaknesses in other businesses like yours and implementing better ways of doing things in your own business – I have found that not many restaurants in Cape Town cater to the vegetarian population, so I’ve implemented a vegetarian menu with new and different items on it to bring the vegetarians back and get them talking about it to their friends who are also vegetarian.

How does a new entrepreneur figure out what to charge for their service/product?

For me, I did price comparisons between the other restaurants around me. To start off, I pegged our prices somewhere in the middle of the competition because I didn’t want to be the cheapest, but I also didn’t want to be the most expensive and scare potential customers away when they saw the menu. From there, after a few months, I became aware of items that customers said they couldn’t get better in other restaurants, which meant I could then start to adjust the prices slightly to balance with the demand for those dishes.

What was your most epic fail in the early days?

Hiring the wrong staff – I eventually re-hired and became more stringent in the hiring process.

What are the two biggest/most common mistakes that new entrepreneurs make in their first three years of business?

Over-capitalising and not sticking to budgets.

How do you keep yourself motivated?

By remembering a little 9-year-old boy who was adamant that he wanted to be a chef and make people happy by providing them with the food that they like to eat.

Did you have a mentor?

I have three major mentors in my life: my father, who taught me to either do something properly or not at all; the second is Rudi Liebenberg who, I believe, pushed me in the right direction to make me the chef that I am today. My third mentor is Clive Bennett, who taught me the finer details of running a business from the financial aspect and forced me to rethink ideas I had about how to try and run a business with as little costs as possible.

How long does it take for a venture to get off the ground, in your experience?

In the restaurant business, I think it takes at least three years to get your name out to as many people as possible and that action plan should be tweaked as many times as needed during this time to make the business a viable entity. After that period, if you’re still not succeeding, I think it would be a good idea to shut shop.

In your opinion, is it ever alright to give up on a dream?

No it isn’t, as long as it is not to the detriment of your health or financial stability!

If you could give yourself any advice back then, what are your top 5 wisdoms?

* Save more money in summer to cover the winter months.

* Make sure to count stock more regularly to ensure that all is accounted for.

* Put more Portuguese items on the menu from the get-go as there’s a lack of good Portuguese food in Cape Town.

* Train staff more thoroughly. Show them how you want things to be done and triple check that they understand how you want the “ship” to be steered.

* Get out of the kitchen and speak to your customers every chance that you get.

Get in touch with Roberto De Carvalho from Roberto’s Signature Restaurant via email: info@robertodecarvalho.co.za, visit: www.robertodecarvalho.co.za or find him on Facebook or Twitter: @chefdecarvalho

Jonty Fisher: Bringing strategy back

Jonty Fisher, Bletchley Park

Jonty Fisher started Cape-based Bletchley Park with a workforce of three and no fixed address. His initial vision was to provide a fully integrated marketing solution for smaller clients but his ultimate goal was to become best known for bringing strategy back into executional marketing communications.

Have you always been entrepreneurial?

I grew up needing to make my own pocket money, so whether it was coaching sport or running a stand at the Greenmarket Square, I had ways and means in my early years. Myself and a business partner started an agency in my Honours year at the University of Cape Town (UCT), and we didn’t look back, so I guess that would qualify me as always having an entrepreneurial side. To be honest, I’ve never talked about myself as being entrepreneurial, I just took decisions at certain times that were the right ones for me at that stage.

What were you doing before starting your business?

I was studying Business Science at UCT and was never interested in the beauty parade rolled out with all the big marketing or consulting firms. Mark Shuttleworth gave a guest lecture in our business strategy class (before he sold Thawte) where he made the statement that South Africa was in a small window period where conditions were excellent for entrepreneurs. He said that if we had any consideration of doing something by ourselves, that now was the time to do it. That was my final nudge.

What kind of planning went into starting the venture?

To be honest, you learn the most by doing, especially when you’re starting from a young age with your own capital. When you’re older and wiser and certainly if you’re looking for external funding, then something like a business plan is critical, but when you’re young and just starting out, I’d certainly advocate planning a bit less and just being immensely action-orientated. That bias towards action and trying loads of different approaches (when you can take those risks) is a lot more valuable than a business plan on a piece of paper. Be clear on what outcomes you want, and what type of business you want – from enviroment to colleagues etc – but give yourself the freedom to explore. I know a lot of people that hide behind business plans of what they’re “going to do”. I’m more interested in those that don’t talk about it; they just go towards it and get started.

What was your start up capital?

Initially we had no capital and worked between my business partner’s flat and the Golden Spur in Newlands, depending on the time of day!

What was your big dream for this venture?

The focus when we started was on providing a fully integrated marketing solution for smaller budget clients. It was more client-side thinking focused than purely executionally focused. Our aim was to start at objectives and solve marketing problems in a one-stop-shop – thinking of broader objectives first, and then taking a channel neutral approach, rather than executing purely in terms of what channel specialty we offered. Our tagline was “On time. On budget. As agreed.” (Cringe!). The bigger dream was to become famous for bringing strategic thinking back to executional marketing communications.

How does a new entrepreneur find business leads and profit from them?

Initially, we tapped a lot of known networks – family, friends, school contacts etc, which carried us through the first few months, and then referral was our big driver for the first few years as we made our way up the client scale. The profit came from ensuring that we sat so close to the client on their challenges, really walked the walk with them, that we became indispensable. That’s where the profit was drawn from. We weren’t suppliers, we were true partners.

How does a new entrepreneur figure out what makes them unique and leverage that difference?

I think there are two sides to it. Naturally you’re going to have a position or thought on what makes you different. You need to express that in various forms and then just get in front of clients and test it out. Don’t wait until it’s perfect, just go and try it. You’ll very quickly learn what is turning the lights on and what’s not. The other side is always try to get close to your customer so that you can learn what is relevant about what you think is valuable to them and what is not. There are always shortcuts. Ask people for advice. People right at the top of companies that you will look to pitch to. In our experience, people are incredibly willing to help young entrepreneurs trying to get started. We learned the most in areas we knew nothing about by just picking up the phone to marketing managers, sales directors and MDs and just asking them to help us out for 30 minutes. Almost all of them obliged.

How does a new entrepreneur figure out what to charge for their service/product?

Various industries can offer broad benchmarks for billing, but ultimately you have to let the market advise you. Start at a median and keep increasing your pricing until your losing at least 15% of your proposals for price reasons. Then you know where you’re sitting. Underquoting is one of the biggest traps enterpreneurs fall into when starting a business and it can hold you back for years. You have to put a value to your belief, and have the confidence to stick to it.

What was your most epic fail in the early days?

In our first year we were running the closing event for the House & Leisure Young Designer’s Awards in Cape Town, which was probably our biggest client at the time. It was a very flashy affair with loads of celebrities and journalists there. We had this beaten up old IBM ThinkPad that we were running this Flash presentation off on a big screen, which carried the announcements and introductions to the winners. Halfway through, while all the guests were glued to it, the old ThinkPad gave up - “there is not enough disk space to run this application” - and it crashed, leaving the guests looking at the desktop with a hundred client files on it! Not much we could do but laugh it off!

What are the two biggest/most common mistakes that new entrepreneurs make?

Undervaluing what they do and trying to do grow too fast. Cashflow is king.

How do you keep yourself motivated?

Family naturally plays a big role, but I’m a big believer in building an entrepreneurial network too. There are challenges that you face as a young business owner that are so different to corporate environments and it really helps to share knowledge, learnings and commiserations with fellow entrepreneurs. Personally, you have to remind yourself why you started in the first place. If you’re being true to that, then it will get better and tough times will pass. If you’re not, change it.

Did you have a mentor?

I’ve been lucky to have various great mentors over my career, in various different spheres of business focus. They’re incredibly valuable and can fast-track your journey. The single most valuable piece of advice I have ever received is to give myself the freedom in my work to be absolutely true to myself. It sounds immensely simple, but it is something that very few people do, and especially given the pressures of running your own business, you often feel like you have to compromise. I’ve learned that each time you compromise, and try to chameleon your way to a piece of work, or a client relationship, or whatever, you subconsciously chip away at your own confidence and focus. Always be true to yourself and your own dreams; do what you need and want to do, not what you think people expect you to do, or how they expect you to act. That freedom can truly build category-breaking businesses.

How long does it take for a venture to get off the ground, in your experience?

That’s a very difficult question to answer. I think it’s very diverese in different industries, at different ages, and naturally with different funding platforms, and I don’t think there’s a standard benchmark here. However, I’d say it’s time to shut up shop when you’re not feeling the love anymore, which goes without saying. Building a business is often a thankless, highly stressful and demanding journey, and you have to build an armour of love for the business to handle it. If you fall out of love, you’ll be burnt out quickly.

Which three character traits do all entrepreneurs possess?

Belief, tenacity and self-awareness.

Do you believe in internships for your business?

I do, for both talent scouting and more philosophical reasons too. I think we work in a business environment where “work experience” is seen as a non-negotiable, which can be a huge barrier to entry for young people. Internships can help them to bridge this divide. I also think internships are really important for young people to really find their meaning in their work – is this really what I want to do? We encourage interns to explore different areas and will give very honest feedback as to whether we think this is their game or not. If someone would like to intern at Bletchley Park, they just need to email: cv@bletchleypark.co.za

If you could give yourself any advice back then, what are your top 5 wisdoms?

* Focus. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. The fastest growth comes from focus.

* Just try it. Don’t wait until you think something is perfect. Fail fast.

* Don’t be afraid of anyone, believe in yourself and back yourself. You’re good enough.

* Find mentors early

* Be true to yourself. Always.

Get in touch with Jonty Fisher from Bletchley Park via email:  jonty@bletchleypark.co.za, visit: www.bletchleypark.co.za, on Twitter: @jontyfisher and on LinkedIn.

Peter Unsworth: Can you spot an opportunity?

Peter Unsworth, The PR Team
Photographer: Anthony Friend

Peter Unsworth has been successfully running his Cape Town-based public relations company, The PR Team, since 1998. He started the business on his own – with zero capital, a land-line and a laptop – out of a spare room in his home. Unsworth wasn’t a born entrepreneur; he just believed that he had the talent to spot an opportunity…

What were you doing before starting your business?

I was in charge of a PR and marketing department for a tourism company, and was approached by a client to represent them, as they believed I “sold” their company better than they did. The retainer earned was large enough to more than cover my wages and expenses.

What kind of planning went into starting the venture? Is having a business plan vital?

Very little, to be honest. I was armed with a laptop and a fax machine/printer, and a great deal of drive and the energy of youth! I had no business plan at all, but had an overall idea of how to run a business, which I learnt from watching my parents in their businesses. I guess that it was subliminally engrained in me. I also believe that business today is very different to when my parents started their businesses and when I started The PR Team. I think if you’re looking for funding, a business plan pacifies the bank, but putting your vision down on paper is a solid idea, as it helps to clarify your own goals.

What advice did your parents give you?

I remember two pieces of advice my Mum gave me: “Don’t take a wage for at least six months,” and, “Call me in 10 years, once you’ve established yourself.” And she was absolutely right! My parents took their businesses from start-up to success by doing everything they could themselves and working around the clock their entire careers. They had one day off a year, which was Christmas Day.

What was your big dream for this venture?

There was no big dream at all. I just knew I wanted to offer a great, honest service to clients. My pitch was honesty.

How does a new entrepreneur find business leads and profit from them?

I’m a great believer that things come to you when they are meant to. For me, one client lead to the next, lead to the next, and this is how it’s been since day one.

How does a new entrepreneur figure out what makes them unique from everyone else in their market and how do they leverage that difference?

Naturally you have to do as much research as possible and see what others are doing, and how you can do it differently. I’d grown up in the hospitality industry and worked in it extensively worldwide, so I knew that not many PR companies had that full-on behind-the-scenes experience of how a hotel, lodge, wine estate actually ran. I believe that gave me an advantage. I could relate to the client’s needs and, from an operations perspective, I could see the feasibility of how the plan would – or wouldn’t – work out realistically for them.

What are the two biggest/most common mistakes that new entrepreneurs make in their first three years of business?

(a) Spending money before it’s in their account, and (b) going out and buying a brand new, high-end car!

How do you keep yourself motivated to continue?

By reminding myself that there are bills to pay and staff to keep employed.

How long does it take for a venture to get off the ground, in your experience? And if it’s not, when do you give up on a dream?

It really depends on the venture, there is nothing set in stone as to a timeframe. I think a wise businessperson knows when to continue and when to throw in the towel. Everything has a shelf-life. I do believe it’s alright to give up on a dream because you may have already lived it and found a new one.

If you could give yourself any advice back then, what are your top 5 wisdoms?

* I wish I’d concentrated more in maths class at school.
* Don’t spend the money before it’s in the bank account. Pay others before you pay yourself – you can never gain your reputation back.
* Only do something you are passionate about – that’s key! If you’re not having fun, don’t do it; life is too short.
* Expect to sacrifice personal time and investment, but under-promise and over-deliver.
* Remain honest and true to each and every client and in every business dealing, and answer communication within 24 hours.

Get in touch with Peter Unsworth from The PR Team via email: enquiries@theprteam.com, visit: http://www.theprteam.com, on Facebook: The PR Team or follow him on Twitter @prteamcapetown.