Q: Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
A: SaGE Workspace is an innovative technology company with a vision to create a global network of accessible virtual, online, co-working, meeting and event space solutions for aspirational entrepreneurs and enterprises to establish their global presence, collaborate, celebrate, and realize their dreams. Based in New York City – a city defined by creative vision and ambitious energy – with a growing network of inspiring venues across the Africa, Canada, Europe, South America & the United States of America – our mission is to ignite and nurture creativity, opportunity and equity.
Q: Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
A: I was born and raised in an entrepreneurial environment in Zimbabwe – my grandparents were small scale farmers; my mother ran a nursery and later a poultry business, and my father is a serial entrepreneur, and one of the first and most successful, post-apartheid black businessman in Zimbabwe. I learned early on how to recognize, assess and pursue opportunities, and how to pivot and mitigate risks in a market fraught with volatility, and at one time, the highest inflation on record.
My formal primary education began in Makoni at St. Luke’s; and I eventually graduated high school from St. George’s College in Harare; before moving to the United States of America to study Computer Science at City College of New York and finally graduating with a BSc. in Electrical Engineering, on an academic scholarship, from the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science & Art. From herding cattle amidst the natural wonders of Africa, as a young boy, to navigating the concrete jungle and heartbeat of human creativity.
My first real job was recording radio lessons for school children at the age of twelve, and then, during my final years in high school, I worked for my father’s automotive spares business. During the summer after my third year in college I secured a job as a systems analyst with Barclays Bank PLC at 75 Wall Street, and continued, full time for a few months after I graduated. I returned to Zimbabwe in 1991, after a brief attachment as a systems engineer in West Yorkshire, and got involved in every kind of business and industry including food exports to Mozambique, medical and laboratory equipment and newsprint imports, export license trading, as well as operating a hunting safari. By 1995, I decided to focus on information technology and together with my father, co-founded Sambiri Silicon Systems – an information technology company which grew to one of the largest privately held technology companies in Zimbabwe, with over $2m in revenues and 55 employees at its peak. I established Sambiri’s regional office in Gaborone, Botswana in 2003; in order to diversify and withstand Zimbabwe’s unprecedented economic meltdown which started in 1997. I subsequently established Sambiri Global Enterprise Services, LLC d/b/a SaGE Workspace, when I relocated our head office to New York in 2007.
Q: What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
A: The inspiration to start an information technology services company in 1995 was my passion and fascination with the wonders of technology – a fascination which was ignited in the early 80’s when my father – a man who was always ahead of his time – bought the family a Commodore 64.
The shift in business model, from information technology to coworking, was in response to the economic downturn and competitive challenges of starting a technology business in New York, especially after the 2008 economic crisis in the United States of America. Commercial buildings emptied out, occupancy rates crashed, and rentals dropped dramatically, as business after business folded, and landlords became desperate. That was the opportunity for a one-man operation with no financials or credit history, to secure a 5th Avenue lease for a 1500 square foot office with several meeting rooms, which we immediately furnished and started renting out by the hour. Several tenants in the building were breaking their leases, and yet they wanted to maintain their prestigious 5th Avenue business address, while they retreated to work from home – several signed up for virtual offices with us and gave us a vital boost.
Coworking was already, an old and familiar business model, however.
When I started Sambiri in Zimbabwe, I had rented my furnished office from my father, who had a lease for the entire 4th floor at Koblenz House in Harare. We agreed a share of the cost for my furnished office, telephone, printers, fax and telex, as well as for the use of a shared reception and conference room and administrative staff which included a receptionist, secretary and messenger. And then came the regional office in Gaborone, which was registered through BDO Spencer Steward, a local representative for BDO, an international professional services network of public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory firms. Again, we rented a desk and shared the cost of the phone, multi-function printers, fax (telexes were long dead by then), reception, conference room and administrative services. When BDO Spencer Steward relocated to a larger office, Sambiri Botswana took over their lease and we immediately began renting desks and meeting space just to cover the rent for a space that was way too large for our small team of three employees. It was at that point that my wife, Mutsa, and I started exploring franchising opportunities with Regus, and looking for additional office space to set up a fully-fledged coworking space. The idea travelled with us when we emigrated to the United States where we co-founded our coworking business.
Q: What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
A:
1. There is never a “good time” to start a business – jump in, relax, and swim. When the economy is good, the competition is stiff, and the margins are tight. When the economy is bad, the risks are high, and the demand is terrible.
2. The decision, is the hard part, the resilience follows naturally
3. Incremental growth is great, the spurts come while you’re grinding!
Q: What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
A:
1. Change management skills – be adaptive
2. People management skills – recognize and motivate talent
3. Money management skills – grow revenue, cut expenses
Q: How many hours do you work a day on average?
A: I work at least 12 hours a day, including when I’m sleeping. I brainstorm when I’m in bed and some of my best ideas and solutions come in my lucid dreams!
Q: To what do you most attribute your success?
A:
1. Tenacity and luck – the harder you work the luckier you get. You need to be in as many places as you can, to end up in the right place at the right time.
2. Focus, focus, focus. It’s tempting to try and drink from the waterfall! In the end, it’s in vain.
3. A supportive wife, family and friends
4. A good education and more importantly, exposure and the courage and wisdom to experience life in its full diversity
5. Goodwill. “When all else is lost, all you have is your good name”
6. Social capital. Who you know still matters!
7. Access to financial capital. Anyone who tells you they came with a dollar, or they started with a dollar is lying. Ask them what happened after that dollar was gone!
Q: How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
A:
1. They say people buy you, and not your product or service, which means how and who you are is the most effective form of marketing
2. We also successfully use search engine optimization and other online marketing tools to promote our website. The days of door-to-door sales are long gone.
Q: Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
A: Sambiri’s first contract to supply and install a computer lab for the Zimbabwe School of Mines was financed by my father’s business bankers. They made it very clear that they would never have financed the deal – despite the fact that it was profitable and financed by Canadian aid – if it wasn’t for my father’s business relationship and reputation as a reputable businessman. In the end, though, there was never any need for seed capital, per se – the business was successful from the onset and grew organically from a steady pipeline of secured projects which generated income and profits which were reinvested. When the politics and economy in Zimbabwe soured, and everything we had built went up in smoke, we had to liquidate personal properties and other assets and maxed out multiple credit cards and lines of credit just to keep the vultures away, the doors open, and the dream alive.
Q: What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
A: Keep your head down, take just that next step, and the tough times will pass soon enough. We tend to over-estimate what we can achieve in a year, and underestimate what we can achieve in ten.
Q: Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
A: SaGE Workspace will be the go-to place to birth and nurture creativity by 2035
Q: What company or business do you admire the most?
A: Berkshire Hathaway. I admire Warren Buffet’s philosophy to life and business – conservative, calculated, humble, passionate and caring. His reluctance to buy a bigger house because it wouldn’t make him happier, reflects a deep awareness that being content is important in life.
Q: How important have good employees been to your success?
A: A company is only as good as it’s employees. Employees are the most valuable asset of any business, and our company’s philosophy is that you should treat your employees like family, and your clients like friends.
Q: How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
A: I stick with an idea until I am 99.999% clear it’s time to let go. As long as I believe there is hope, I am relentless in my pursuit of an idea. It’s critical however, to always have a plan B – to start exploring options, when an idea looks like it might crash and burn. When I was deliberating whether to stay or leave Zimbabwe, a friend’s advice was that you stay on a sinking ship, only as long as you have a helicopter parked on the roof on standby. I immediately started exploring opportunities in Botswana, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Q: What motivates you?
A: Nothing is more exciting that seeing an idea come to fruition, solving a problem and being rewarded financially, emotionally or otherwise for it.
Q: What are your ideals?
A: Authenticity, Creativity, Empathy, Faith, Humility, Joy, Kindness, Love, Responsibility & Tenacity
Q: How do you generate new ideas?
A: The easiest way is through incremental improvements to an existing idea and paying attention to my own needs. I also take time for mindful rest, meditation and reflection. Paying attention to life with an open mind will also enable one to see what is right under your nose.
Q: How do you define success?
A: Success is when you solve any kind of problem you put your mind to. Helping your community is the most satisfying form of success, while financial success is key to achieving most goals and solving problems.
Q: How do you build a successful customer base?
A: You must listen to you customers, especially when they complain, and focus on solutions for their pain points
Q: What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
A: It has to be the freedom to follow your deepest dreams, the freedom to pursue your vision, the freedom to take risks and fail and succeed, the freedom to do it your way.
Q: What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
A: Probably when I went door-to-door, on a hunch, hawking so called “export retention” licenses – a government sponsor incentive which my father’s firm had acquired, as part of a government initiative for Zimbabwean exporters. The license gave exporters priority rights to the scare foreign currency they desperately needed to import anything from raw materials to luxury goods – and it was tradeable. I sold the license for a whopping 125% record margin and realized a profit of ZW$617,000 – enough to earn a bonus large enough to buy my first new car, and then some.
My most satisfying moment in life, however, was the feeling of complete joy I had while driving to “St. Peter’s Kubatana” – a vocational school where I was on the board, and my first real experience of community service.
Q: What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
A: It’s important to understand that not everyone should be or wants to be an entrepreneur. We all have special gifts, even if some of us may never discover or use them. A great basketball player, may never wish to be a coach, and that it good and healthy because every team requires a diversity of skills. A pivotal, defining role in my career was as an employee and director of operations for a church in New York for nearly ten years.
The real question should be about the difference between an entrepreneur and an employee who is passionate about entrepreneurship. And that difference is the aversion for risk and fear. Until the sum of your desires is greater than the sum of your fears, you may as well curl up and die.
Q: What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?
A: We have a family culture, because family, while challenging, can be one of the strongest bonds and can also be joyful and fulfilling. Treat your employees like family, your clients like friends. Our company values are HONESTI – Hospitality, Opportunity, Nurture, Equity, Sustainability, Tenacity
Q: In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
A: Tenacity
Q: If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
A: I would become a priest…or go into finance!
Q: How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
A: My family life has been full of curiosity and adventure
Q: What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?
A: My greatest fear is not achieving my goals. I manage my fear by setting goals I can never achieve. Like Bishop T.D. Jakes said, “If you achieve your dreams, you dreamed too small”
Q: How did you decide on the location for your business?
A: Through research, analyzing opportunities, and following my business instincts
Q: Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
A: Yes there is a pattern – the harder you work, the luckier you get. And stay true to what you’re good at and love. Don’t focus on ideas that make money – money is just a measure of your success.
Q: If you could talk to one person from history, who would it be and why?
A: Mandela – he is an example of what a true, loving, selfless life should look like. And the two non-historical figures with those same qualities for me are my grandmother and Jesus!
Q: Who has been your greatest inspiration?
A: My grandparents, parents, wife and my children. And also, my faith in the saints who came before me, and God.
Q: What book has inspired you the most? (OR what is your favorite book?
A: The Bible and The Alchemist
Q: What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?
A: Being more focused on financial success, than my marriage and family in my youth.
Q: How can you prevent mistakes or do damage control?
A: There is no preventing mistakes – they are a vital part of learning. You need discipline to minimize mistakes – remembering what you want – and always think, before you act. Damage control is best handled by being truthful. When all else fails, try the truth!
Q: What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
A: Golf, fishing, going to the beach, swimming, chess, poker, hiking and listening to music. I used to enjoy and want to get back to gardening, cooking and reading.
Q: What makes you happy?
A: Spending time with family and friends and community service.
Q: What sacrifices have you had to make to be a successful entrepreneur?
A: Spending time away from family and especially leaving family, friends and everything I knew in Zimbabwe, and moving to the United States of America was the toughest sacrifice I ever made. My dream is to be able to travel back at will, and to bring family and friends over often.
Q: If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask? How do you nurture your soul and spirituality, and how do you want to be remembered when you die?
A: It is vital to be aware and mindful that there is Something bigger that yourself – call it God, Mwari, Ancestors, Allah, the Universe or whatever. It makes for a humble life, because in the end, we are only here for a minute, and that Something was here before you, and that same Something will be here after. When I die, I would like them to say “He lived, and he gave a damn!”