by Margaret Hirsch
As you know I am a huge advocate for family businesses. Where do they start? Well with a couple getting married and one or both deciding that they want out of the usual routine of working for someone else and making a living, they decide they want to work for themselves and make a fortune.
One or the other will usually start and then call on their spouse for help. With Allan and I, I started my business which was the now modern-day Virtual Assistant, and later Allan started his business. It was soon obvious that his business would be the one to get us to where we wanted to be, which was financially independent, so I very soon closed my business and joined his.
I need to start out by saying that we are complete and total opposites in every single way, so in the beginning it was challenging as I had been used to running my own business and making my own decisions and he was clearly used to running his business and making his decisions. Being young we were hot and fiery and wanted our own way, we had both been total misfits at school and were not used to conforming in any way, so would often go off on different tangents. But ultimately, we were working towards the same goal which was to look after our customers and to grow the business organically one step at a time.
The beginning was slow, money was tight, and the children were growing and needing more and more attention, as did the business. Expenses were high, new equipment had to be bought, stock sourced, accounts opened (which is tricky when you don’t have a credit rating), properties secured. It was a really multi-faceted way of working where both of us had to do everything from fixing the toilet, to invoicing, collecting money, and continually looking after customers who all wanted our attention NOW!!
I would get fired regularly every week as soon as things were not going well, but soon we both realised that there was no point in me sitting at home and employing someone else. So, I came back regularly every week until such time as we set our boundaries, Allan would do the repairing, buying, and marketing, and I would take care of the day to day running of the business, the finances and the staff. As soon as we set our own parameters, it worked! I would not interfere with his side, even when I knew, I knew best, and by the same token he would not interfere with the finances, staff and day to day running. This left us free to do our own thing and focus on working instead of arguing.
Those of you who have heard me speak know that I am a huge advocate of women holding the purse strings. Give a man a few rand in his pocket and he will invariably find something or someone to spend it on. But us women we like to hoard, to save, to hang onto the money, and if we are doing it out a few Rand at a time. We know where it’s going and it sure isn’t going on some floozie who sees our husband/partner as a free meal ticket for life!
Our adverts back in the day, we have come a long away!
Our system worked so well that in 1994 when Mandela was coming out and we didn’t know what would happen to the country, we worked with about thirty of our staff and set them all up in businesses using the same formula. The man did the work i.e. driving, plumbing, electrical work, appliance repairs, gas installations, aircon installations, servicing and so on, and the wife stayed at home and ran the business, held onto the money, made sure they bought their own home, paid off the vehicles and ensured the children went to decent schools. This worked so well that I can tell you that now, 30 years later, almost all these businesses are still doing well and some of the children of the founders, who have university degrees, are working in the businesses set up all those years ago.
Both my children work in our business and the good thing about this is that they have been trained from day one when they used to come back from school and help in the shop, work the shows, and listen to the discussion over dinner. This is the best education any child can have, learning the business from the roots up and learning to understand the nuances and all the things that they could never be taught at Harvard Business School. Working with, and understanding people is a skill and an art acquired over time. This cannot be learnt from a book, and I encourage everyone to take their children to work and teach them about business, accounting, and people skills as that is what will get them ahead in this crazy world of ours.
When our children were smaller, we would finish work, go home, have dinner, bath and put them to bed and then carry on working. As they grew, they understood our work ethic and would then join us to study after dinner. It taught them to be dependable, reliable, trustworthy, dedicated, positive, goal-oriented, motivated, committed, loyal and self-starters.
Today it is very gratifying for me to see them teaching their own children that they need to get up early and train in the morning and then continue and study at night. For a long time, holidays and weekends were things that other people had but over time as the business grew, we were able to take holidays and have the odd weekend off, and boy do we appreciate them now!
People ask me if we fight a lot, and my explanation is simple, fighting is trying to get someone else to do what you want them to do. If you decide that you will just do the best you can do and leave the other person to do the best they can do and if you are both doing your best then there should be no recrimination. At times one person will make a complete boo-boo, a huge mistake that will impact everyone, but you must just grin and bear these because the day will come when you make the mistake. Our philosophy has always been that the first time you do it, it’s a mistake and we forgive each other. However, the second time you make the same mistake you are an idiot, and this is not forgiven as quickly or as easily, you never do it the third time!
The beauty of a family business is that you prepare to leave a legacy, something that will go on for generations. At least you are sure that your children will have a job when they either complete matric or get a degree and when they join it’s like a breath of fresh air as they come in with new ideas, new innovations and start working towards building the business and taking it to new heights. It’s a wonderful way of bonding a family and following on the adage of a family that eats together stays together, well, a family that works together sure has a good incentive to stay together too.
As we enter the era of the third generation of Hirsch's coming through the ranks we are so excited. These kids are so computer literate, know everything about AI, the Metaverse and all the other strange phenomena that are bombarding us on a daily basis. Knowing that they are going to be around and take us under their wings in this, an ever-changing world is a great comfort to us and has made all the hard work worthwhile.
Much Love,
Margaret Hirsch