How to clean up your start-up business

Cape Town - It took Chris Ndongeni over three years to break even with his contract cleaning business. He shares his three start-up mistakes.

For many inexperienced entrepreneurs, their first venture into business can be a challenging one.

It holds true for Ndongeni and his two business partners who decided in 2007 to leave their automotive industries behind and start a contract cleaning business – Twin Cities Cleaning.

They learnt valuable lessons that, had they known a little more about, could have avoided and reached profitability far quicker. These are his top lessons.

Don’t skimp on research

“We wanted to start our own business and were looking for low barrier to entry opportunities,” said Ndongeni.

“After some research, we settled on contract cleaning.”

Soon after launching, the trio landed a contract with Man Truck and Bus, as their start-up met the firm’s ED criteria.

“Our first day was a huge shock because we hadn’t done enough research. We assumed that the previous contract cleaning firm would have left equipment and chemicals behind for us to use, but when we arrived there was nothing! As a result our first month was a huge scramble of taking loans and using provident funds to get equipment and chemicals.

"Had we known before we started, we could have made more considered purchases and business decisions – in fact we only discovered after we’d gone into business there was a National Contract Cleaning Association (NCCA).”

Be prepared to make sacrifices

When Twin Cities Cleaning was formed, there were three business partners running the business. Today, there’s one less.

“Starting and running a successful business starts with partners sharing a vision and end goal. Myself and one partner understood that to make the business work and grow we’d need to make sacrifices and take a small salary only when it was financially possible to do so. Our third partner wasn’t happy about that. He wanted money right from the start.

"Fortunately buying him out didn’t turn into a drawn out and expensive exercise. The lesson I learnt was the importance of clear communication, recorded minutes, and driving accountability.”

Employee to employer gear changes

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Ndongeni had little experience with management roles and responsibilities.

“When I went into business, we had to hire and manage a team of employees, and with that came staff issues. I found myself needing a whole different skills set to deal with low education and found myself struggling with things like disciplinary hearings, incentives, HR and other related matters.

"My solution was to take a course in HR to learn how to deal properly with my staff and get the most out of them to help the company grow.”

- Bizconnect.