MTHATHA MAN’S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
Balfour’s frugal lifestyle helps him thrive in Shell service station franchise
Passion and a frugal lifestyle have contributed to profiting from service station franchises
Living modestly and within his means is what Pumelele Balfour attributes the success of his businesses to, one of which he has run from as early as 1994.
Balfour was one of the first black entrepreneurs to venture into franchising when he took over the Ultra City Shell in Mthatha in 1994.
The business is still fully operational and has branched out into an additional two – Shell Stigo service station in Mthatha and the Kei Bridge Ultra City on the N2.
Balfour said when he bought the Kei Bridge Ultra City five years ago, it had gone under and he had to acquire a loan from the Masisizane Fund to turn it around.
The businessman, who received a visit from the funding organisation on Wednesday, said he was pleased to be paying off his loan of R5m in December without defaulting on a single payment.
“Patience is a virtue when you are running a business. You cannot be excited when you see money coming in, you need to remember your operational costs need to be covered, pay salaries, rent and debt long beKei fore you start seeing profits.
“What has helped my business grow is the basics of a business – customer service.
“That is the one thing staff needs to be trained on, because that is what clients come to give you business for, as well as clean toilets.
“It’s not always about the product, because that maybe available elsewhere, but you need to sell your customers an experience and offer them something different,” he said.
Balfour said keeping his em- ployees happy was also crucial to the success of his business.
“At work you need to create a happy environment, because they must always be greeting customers with a smile and you can’t get that if you have grumpy employees.
“Get to know your staff, know their problems and see how you can either help or work around the problem,” he said, adding that his son, Mbulelo, who joined the family business after years of working in the corporate world in Johannesburg, was ferrying staff who struggled to secure transport to and from Bridge.
Masisizane chief executive Zizipo Nyanga said the organisation was established in 2007 and has helped to build communities, create jobs and empower entrepreneurs.
“We do not just fund businesses involved in agriculture, which is what people seem to think, but we also fund franchising and manufacturing concerns. Our core goal is to create jobs and support communities which are in need of services possibly offered by the business we fund,” she said.
Nyanga said they received an annual budget of R100m and funded business from R500,000 to R10m at a time, with certain exceptions.
Berlin beef farm owner Khaya Ndlazi said they had received R17m from the fund three years ago, as part of his mandate to help 68 small farmers in the region with cattle, which are slaughtered at one of his six feedlots in the town.
“The threshold is just too high among the other funding agents and there are so many barriers.
“You find in most cases farmers struggle to get funding, but through Masisizane I help the farmers get access to cows, which increases their stock, and then they sell them back to me and they are slaughtered and ready for retail and distribution,” he said.
Get to know your staff, know their problems and see how you can help