Refiloe’s effervescent and positive energy, her radiant smile can brighten up the dullest day! She shares her story of her journey to Entrepreneurship with Lusa and ArcelorMittal. It is a story of hope and encouragement to any small businessperson from humble beginnings.
She was raised by her grandparents and spent her childhood in Unitas Park Vereeniging. She shares her childhood memories and how they were the seeds that were brought to fruition in the business she now owns. “I used to cook for my grandparents and my grandmother was my cheerleader. She would encourage me to cook. My dad was a Mozambican “Machangane”, an entrepreneur who moved to the Northern Provence of South Africa to start a business. Although my dad and I were not close, the Mozambicans knows how to cook, and I did inherit his love for business. From a young age I loved cooking and used to take food to school to sell. Sometimes I would sell my school lunchbox meal for R2.00 and I would be so excited to have that money, just to feel those coins in my hand made me happy and nervous, even though I did not know what to do with them.”
After matric she enrolled at a TVET College and studied HR. When Covid lockdowns were implemented she could not attend classes and the non-attendance and lack of money for transport affected her future studies. “After Covid restrictions were lifted I decided to start my own business.” When I started my business, it was as if the snake bit me and I was hooked!”.
She shares how she now realises how her path has been perfect because although she could not complete her HR studies which included Entrepreneurial Modules and Personnel, she learned so much that it would stand her in good stead in her business.
Refiloe has cultivated a great business network that supports and inform one another of opportunities. She got to know Queen Lerato Williams Kok, from the National Khoisan kingdoms, Abbaquare-San Royal House in the Free State, who is the CEO of The Youth Prosperity Organisation. Refiloe offered to sponsor and provide the catering for 20 youth at one of her events.
It was Queen Lerato who sent her a message saying that she had attended the Induction for The Abigail Enterprise Programme and Refiloe should contact Lusa and enrol. “The Abigail Programme taught me things that I wanted to learn, it put all the puzzle pieces together for me, with such clarity. Every session that we had was valuable. The most important thing I learned was around costing!” Before the Programme Refiloe says that she was not running her business in a disciplined, conscious way as there were times that she would pay for things out of her own pocket and could not pay her staff. She says she learned from the training that by not keeping her books and managing the business’s money she was “actually stealing from her business and the business was dead.” At times she would feel like giving up as she felt she was working so hard for the business, but it was not covering simple things like data.
“Since I’ve learned to cost my product and adjusted my prices, I know that even if I have one customer a day they are buying at the right price. Now the salaries and all the costs are being paid by the business.” The programme has also impacted the way she now employs only those that are right for her business and share her vision and passion.
Refiloe says her customers love her skambanes. She says she prepares her food with love, from the bottom of her heart so when her clients eat her food, they experience her secret ingredient, which is love.
Refiloe thanks Arcelor Mittal for their sponsorship of The Abigail Enterprise Program and looks forward to the day when, as a successful entrepreur, she might Mentor future Abigail’s.