CAB Entreprenuers reap reward of patience
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday February 12, 2018 11:47
According to Sealetsa, it took her years to finally see the fruits of her labour, but the struggles never made her give up. Rather, she was motivated to focus and work hard to achieve her dream of being one of the local moguls in the cab business.
It was in 2008 when Sealetsa and her colleague decided to quit their jobs where they worked in the cab business, receiving and registering calls.
“I was earning less and instead of depressing me, I said to myself why not start my own business even though at that time I had no money. We used our salaries to buy a radio that is used in cabs and hired a car, which we were paying monthly,” she said.
She said that the business was not successful forcing them to close shop as her other partner left. According to Sealetsa, she kept receiving calls from their clients requiring their services, which motivated her to resuscitate the business again in 2010.
“I was not doing well and did not want to disappoint the loyal customers who kept requiring our services. It was then when one of my customers offered to partner with me in the business,” she said. She said that when Morongwa joined her, they were using a second hand Nissan March car that they got on discount.
This motivated the duo to focus on what they want to achieve as through their good customer services, their clientele expanded through recommendations. Sealetsa said that it forced them to increase their fleet with three more cars, which they got in installment.
Sealetsa said that even during that time they were not making profit, but worked on improving their services and maintaining their clientele base, which was growing at a satisfactory pace.
Today ‘Our Family Cabs’ has a fleet of 16 cabs employing about 32 drivers and four people in the administration.
“We do have affordable monthly packages and we are currently working on launching a groupie one where people who stay at the same neighbourhood can join at a reasonable price. Our customers can also send us callbacks, which we usually return instantly,” she said.
Sealetsa further noted that running a 24-hour business can be a bit of a hassle as they always have to ensure that their employees are presentable to adequately serve their clients starting with their attire, as well as the way they talk to customers.