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| William Duk, The Plantation Shutter Co. |
William
Duk is managing director of The Plantation Shutter Company and, with credit to
his entrepreneurial mettle in turning a failed company around, was recently
awarded top honours as the 2012 Sanlam/ Business Partners Entrepreneur of the
Year®. He took over the running of the failed business in February 2007 with 30
staff and 39 “on hold” projects already lined up. Today the company is a
successful and sustainable brand.
Have you always been entrepreneurial?
I
have always been entrepreneurial even though I followed quite a traditional
path by becoming a CA. This was always with a view to running my own business.
What were you doing before starting your
business?
I
had spent six and half years in the UK and arrived back in South Africa at the
start of 2006 to “do my own thing”. My passion has always been business but as
I had been away for a number of years, I felt that a more logical starting
point would be focussing on property investing while building up contacts and
keeping an open mind. I had some pounds saved up in the UK and used that to
start a small commercial and industrial property portfolio. It was through that
focus that I stumbled across my current business – it was a going concern, days
away from failing and I purchased the building.
What kind of planning went into starting
the venture?
The
due diligence was only a three-day process as there was a small window of
opportunity where the business could either have been revived or gone into full
liquidation. My cash was all tied up in the buildings so the plan was therefore
based around using the cash released from the sale of the building to me to get
things moving in the right direction. It was very much a back-to-basics-type
approach starting with the existing order book of 49 disillusioned clients. Of
the 49, 39 still wanted their orders fulfilled, despite waiting for four to five
months at that stage. Those that didn’t want their orders fulfilled were given
their 50% deposits back. The rest of the money was used to pay off salaries that
weren’t paid from October to December and to put payment plans in place with
suppliers that had all gone legal.
What was your start up capital?
There
was no start up capital per se – we used the funds released from the sale of
the building. Over the next two years though, as I managed to get some of my
funds out of my property portfolio, I invested money to fund initial losses and
capital expansion programme.
What was your big dream for this venture?
As
with anything I do, I wanted this to be the best shutter company in South
Africa and through being “exceptional” ensure that the business is sustainable
through the various stages of any economic cycle.
How does a new entrepreneur find business
leads and profit from them?
There
is no right or wrong way. It is about trying different things, measuring them
and then seeing what works and what doesn’t. Word of mouth will however be a
key part of any lead-generating exercise. I think statistically on average an
unhappy client will tell 10 people and a happy client will refer two or three people
with the chance of them converting being extremely high. If you’re not making
your clients happy, spending time or money working out how to generate leads will
result in a very short-lived business.
How does a new entrepreneur figure out what
makes them unique and leverage that difference?
Understanding
these differences needs to be core to your approach from the outset. It needs
to form part of ones “homework” before you embark on the journey.
How does a new entrepreneur figure out what
to charge for their service/product?
It’s
a combination of understanding what it costs to produce and deliver, and what
the market is prepared to pay for the product or service.
What was your most epic fail in the early
days?
We
relied on the final production measurements and other information we had on
file to deliver the 39 back orders of people that still wanted us to fulfil
their order and not just give their deposits back. With a complex, expensive,
custom designed product, this turned out to be an expensive and hard lesson.
Our first step was all about restoring some credibility in the marketplace, so we
had to do it correctly. In hindsight, we should’ve just put each order back
through a process as though they were new orders. If this delay meant losing
more of the orders and paying deposits back, then so be it.
What are the two biggest/most common
mistakes that new entrepreneurs make?
Getting
ahead of themselves and not putting proper fiscal disciplines in place.
How do you keep yourself motivated?
Friends
are friends through good times and bad, so perhaps choose your friends carefully
if this is an issue! Motivation during tough times must always come from the
bigger picture. In tough economic times you can also just open up any newspaper
and read about yet another round of retrenchments to provide extra motivation,
as most of those employees had very little control over their own destiny. No
matter how hard it is sometimes, as an entrepreneur you’re at least in control
of your own destiny ;)
Do you have a mentor?
I
don’t have a mentor but I do think this can be very useful. I derived a lot of
value (and still do), reading business books by or about people who have earned
respect though what they’ve achieved in business, like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs or Sir Richard Branson. You can achieve a lot of inspiration from others who
have been successful and save a lot of time learning from others mistakes.
How long does it take for a venture to get
off the ground, in your experience?
No
less than 18 months and anywhere up to four years, depending on economic
environment.
If you could give yourself any advice back
then, what are your top 5 wisdoms?
Many
of these are unique to partnering with the original founding partner prior to
buying him out two years ago and then also entering into a recession just when
we were gathering momentum:
*
Taking over a failed business is in many ways harder than starting something
from scratch.
*
When someone thinks that something is a certain way, in reality, nine times out
of 10, it will always be worse.
*
If you’re buying any existing business, ensure you get statements of account on
SARS liabilities as an easy way to see how well the business has been run (or
not). It can be very time consuming to get a Tax Clearance Certificate but it’s
very quick to get statements of account if you’re pushed for time during your
due diligence.
*
Things will always take longer to rectify than you think. A bit like building a
house.
*
Make sure you are aligned with whoever you go into business with; otherwise rather
employ someone to fulfil that role.
Get
in touch with William Duk from The Plantation Shutter Company via their website:
http://www.plantation.co.za/, on
Facebook and on Twitter: @pshutterco.
