Actually that is not quite true when resuscitating a business as each week is a big week and they all gel into bringing the business back to life. Having moth balled the business during the lockdowns this is more like a starting over than bringing it back to life. This is a fresh slate with all new customers even if some of the old come back, but in no ways reliant on that happening.
The Durban operation has stayed up and running whilst Johannesburg went dormant so this is just an expansion of what is already successful. I say a resuscitation as I have been down this path before and know exactly what it takes and know the time and effort involved to achieve what needs to be achieved. Nothing is being compromised and cutting corners is not going to happen when we are so close to unlocking certain objectives.
The only difference this time around is I have my son along for the ride with the long term aim of bringing the entire family into the operation as this will need all hands on deck. My son is impatient and is chomping at the bit to get going and have to reel him in whilst not losing the enthusiasm. He doesn't quite get this and needs to learn that there is a process. Keeping him grounded has been a challenge and I hope he is taking this all in and learning.
The much awaited samples will be here on Monday as my business partner and myself thought it better to receive them all at once and not in drips and drabs. This may cost us or should I say will cost us the November orders for good reason as another week or two working with these clients doing this properly in a professional way will make such a difference.
There is work going on behind the scenes each day using our Durban clients opening doors with their branches in Johannesburg. This is work our clients have told to leave to them and have advised us to not interfere as they will get this done. We have known these people personally for 10 years so the relationship is very strong and they are very good customers.
The two companies being worked on behind the scenes are companies you would struggle to get through front door unless you had an introduction by someone who knew someone. This will take time and is reassuring knowing that the negotiations are taking place and also knowing the volumes are that big with the one site the biggest warehouse and biggest consumer of pallet wrap in South Africa. I am actually quite happy not to be leading the negotiations at this stage even though I know it would be fun.
My son reminds me of the saying "show me the money" and he needs to be patient as it will flow when we are ready. As I said this is a balancing act to keep the enthusiasm in check knowing this was always going to take a good 6 months to start showing results. If I was not as experienced I would also feel frustration which I felt when we first started getting the business off the ground the first time around. Crawl, walk and then run knowing we are not quite ready to walk just yet and are very close.
The samples next week will get us walking as these will trigger orders even if those orders are only coming in January which would be ideal to skip December. I have not told my son this bit yet as I believe as a business you never change suppliers in November or December due to how frantic that time is within the logistics business. A calmer January is the ideal time and was and always the plan. This takes time and knowing a realistic time frame with expectations keeps this as real as it gets whilst having a level head.