#WIB-Q&A With Catherine Wijnberg CEO Of Fetola
1. Can you please tell us more about your business?
A. Fetola is a leader in the small business growth sector. But what sets it apart is that its purpose is to serve others. Quite simply, we help people to grow the economy and create jobs, by building businesses that last. We do this by helping people to realise their own personal potential and express this in the success of their business. We also have partners who share our vision to build businesses that last – such as SAB Foundation, FNB, Sappi, Old Mutual and the EU.
2. When, how and why did you start your business?
A. That’s a long journey with many twists and turns… I started my entrepreneurial journey in Zambia when I left my job to start an import company, bidding for foreign exchange on the brand-new forex auction. My husband and I jumped into this business knowing nothing about import/export, and nothing about forex, but recognizing that there was a market need amongst the farmers in our network.
This was an exciting, truly entrepreneurial journey of daily learning and brought with it some hard lessons, such as the devastating impact of exchange rate and how to manage difficult clients – all of which have stood me in good stead in later years. A year later, we sold this business and moved to South Africa, expanding into import-export, a fleet of double-decker car carriers, an apartment Hotel and large-scale farming. The main lessons there where how the high turnover can mask low profitability and that over-gearing can kill even the best business.
In 1998 my husband’s businesses failed and we both lost everything. Overnight we went from being in a position to help strangers, to needing to live off the generosity of friends. He left the country, leaving me with my three children and the clothes on our backs.
Fast forward through some tough times, in which I took up full-time employment (better to be broke by a fixed amount every month than struggling to feed kids on hit-and-miss business) until 2006, when I realized that I had a greater purpose on earth, and that it could be expressed through Fetola.
In summary, there can be nothing more rewarding and more thrilling than building a business – the tough times are simply the pathway along which we walk and make us able to appreciate the sweetness of success when we see it. I believe in grabbing every day and making the most of it and have taken these experiences and used them to help others in their business journey as they develop to become sustainable, create jobs and grow the economy.
3. What is your role in the business?
A. Currently I am CEO of the group of companies and employ 30 staff and another 50 consultants across the country.
4. Where did you study and what did you study?
A. After studying Agriculture at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, I decided to head off to Australia, where I completed my Masters. I have also done my MBA.
5. How did you finance your business?
A. The truth is that you don’t need a lot of money to start a business. I started Fetola from my dining room, with one laptop and an idea.
6. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists.
A. Yes, I am disciplined in my work- life balance. I work from 7am to 5pm Monday to Friday and ensure that I plan, prioritise and delegate to get everything done in that time. On rare occasions I will work from 5am and over a weekend. I avoid working on the laptop at night as it disturbs the sleep pattern and good sleep is essential for functioning at top capacity!
7. How do you balance your home life and your work life?
A. High stress levels from the manic pace of this Covid work from home life have certainly got to me. Despite this I maintain pretty strict working hours and avoid late night or weekend work. I also include some form of daily exercise and whenever I can I get right away from work stresses to go paragliding, which is my way of pressing the reset button!
8. What drives you and inspires you?
A. When I started Fetola I asked myself what can one woman do to make a difference? I was determined that one woman could do this and empower other women to do so, too. Our vision is to change lives for the better, forever and this is an awesome motivation that never stops materialising. Personally, I love a challenge and taking the business and our team through continual growth and development is endlessly inspiring …and forces me to grow as well!
9. Where and when do you have your best ideas?
A. In the early morning, and sometimes in the middle of the night – when my mind is at rest, the ideas flow. I love to stand up and write on white board, the window, the wall …. anywhere that allows energy to rise and encourages big thinking to flow! I think in pictures and diagrams and am famous for my enthusiastic but illegible scribbles!
10. Where and how do you market/advertise your business for sales leads?
A. Fetola has developed a powerful reputation for results and is highly regarded in the sector. We seldom advertise and prefer to be present in other ways such as founders of the Absa Business day Supplier Development awards www.sdawards.co.za. Increasingly, our clients come looking for us rather than the other way around, which is really rewarding as they know what they want, and that we can provide it.
11. What is next for your business?
A. The sky’s the limit! We have several fabulous new initiatives in the wings – from innovative financing solutions through our new circular economy accelerator to expansion of the mentor hotline. Exciting times ahead.
12. What advice would you give to female entrepreneurs hoping to start their own business?
A. Like most women, at times, I suffer from the belief that I don’t deserve to succeed, or that my voice is not worthy of being heard. I have found that the way to overcome this is to stay true to my purpose, which is to serve others. In this way I take the pressure off myself and can just focus on doing the best I can.
I was forty years old when I finally I saw myself as a beautiful woman. It took that long for me to recognize I was actually a swan not an ugly duckling and that I was fine with not fitting in to the society norm of women as beautiful, demure ….and silent!
I would have to add that the most beautiful thing at age 62 is knowing myself and having the self-confidence to let that inner person shine. Thankfully as a woman this level of sensitivity, intuition and insight is considered a strength, not a weakness.
That there is opportunity in every challenge. No one has ever become successful without hardship and failure along the way, so expect some of that, and don’t be afraid of it.
Short bio
Catherine Wijnberg was born in Ndola, Zambia to an entrepreneurial father. The fourth of five children she travelled from an early age to the UK for boarding school and studied agriculture in Scotland and Australia. Catherine started her working life as an agricultural economist at the Zambia Farmers Union. Her first entrepreneurial venture was a leap of faith into the new forex auction system in Zambia and an import business serving the local farming network.
The move to South Africa sparked a range of business ventures including import-export, farming, transportation, an apartment hotel, recruitment, metaphysical healing and architectural software before starting Fetola in 2006. She lives in Cape Town, has three daughters, is a former pilot and an avid paraglider. Clearly, she loves the open skies. When the weather is good you will find her running off mountains and soaring with the eagles.
Contact information:
Catherine.wijnberg@fetola.co.za
Social media links:
https://www.catherinewijnberg.com/