by Ronel Jooste 

Finances are an integral part of any business. Let us be honest, there is no sense in running a business that is not profitable unless it is for a charity cause. The sad reality is that plenty of business owners don’t spend a lot of time on managing and analyzing their finances. Finances are often perceived to be boring, complicated, or only a support function within a business. The truth is, the better you manage your finances, the more successful your business will become. The better you know your numbers, the more powerful decisions you can make.

You can outsource your finance function or appoint financial people in your business, but as a business owner you should still know and understand your numbers. There are plenty of important numbers in your business you should know. The numbers will also differ from business to business – what might be critical for one business, might not be important for another type of business. Let us discuss the six numbers that are important for the majority of businesses:

1. Cash

Cash flow is probably the most important number in any business. Multiple large corporations have closed their doors due to cash flow problems. A business can be profitable with good sales, but experiencing cash flow problems. Cash refers to the physical cash that you have available in your bank or investment account. Cash is needed to pay the expenses, pay creditors and to grow your business. 

Cash management goes hand in hand with how well you are managing your debtors and creditors. You could have had great sales, but many of the customers / clients have not paid yet. Or you need to pay your suppliers and expenses before you will receive the cash. Both these scenarios can create serious cash flow problems.  

2. Sales

Your sales determine your revenue or turnover, in other words the revenue / turnover before cost of sales or expenses have been deducted. In theory, the more you sell of your product or service, the more profit you will make (although this is not always true). Therefore it is important for any business, to know and manage their sales numbers. It certainly helps to pro-actively identify a decrease in sales and investigate the reasons for it. 

It is also important to identify trends. For example, an ice-cream company might see a decrease in sales during the winter months but a spike in sales during the summer months. By knowing these trends you will know whether a decrease in sales is due to the nature of the business or whether there is a problem. You constantly want to drive your sales numbers and exceed the set sales targets.   

3. Profit

Profit is determined by deducting cost of sales, expenses, and tax from your revenue / turnover. You want to end up in a profit position and not a loss position where your cost of sales, expenses and tax exceed your revenue / turnover. It is possible to reach sales targets but make a loss. That is why costing and pricing of your product / service are critical aspects of your business and so is expense management within your business. 

Profit can be increased by either increasing your revenue or decreasing your expenses. You will pay tax on profit, therefore you need to also take tax into account when you do your budgets and forecasts. 

4. Direct and indirect costs

Profits are directly impacted by expenses. It is important to know both your direct costs and indirect costs since both costs play a critical role in the pricing of your product or service. A particular product / service can be perceived to be profitable, but once you also take the indirect costs into account, the product might be selling at a loss.

For example: if you sell hotdogs, your direct costs will be the cost of your bread rolls, the sausages, the sauces, the butter and the packaging. Direct costs are the costs attributed to delivering your product or service. The indirect costs might include things like the electricity to heat up the sausages, the salaries of the staff members preparing and selling the hotdogs and marketing costs. Ensure that you take both direct and indirect costs into account when you set a price for your product / service or determine your profit margin.  

5. Budgeted numbers

A budget is crucial for any business regardless the size of your business. A budget is an effective tool to help you plan for the year ahead. You also want to do forecasts for the medium and longer term i.e. 2-5 years and 5-10 years. Forecasts help you to identify those big future expenses that you ideally want to start planning for early on i.e. moving into a bigger office, replacing your computers or buying a delivery vehicle.

It is however inadequate having a budget if you don’t compare your actual revenue and expenses to your budgeted numbers. By comparing your actual numbers against your budget and analyzing the reasons for variances, provides you with valuable information to make effective financial decisions. 

6. Debtors

Ideally you want to run your business on a cash basis. It is however not always possible and the nature of many businesses force you to allow for debtors (also referred to as accounts receivable). Long outstanding debtors can create cash flow problems and irrecoverable debtors can cause for your business to close down.

Know your debtors and constantly manage your debtors’ balances. Adopt a payment policy and communicate it to your customers / clients. Do credit checks on your customers / clients and stop providing products / services to them if they don’t pay you within your set timelines. 

Start off by knowing and managing these six numbers. It will certainly help you to create a more profitable and successful business.  

Why should anyone use your service or product?

Content. We blend a functional marketplace backend with art, to grip customer attention. In a world where it is increasingly difficult to gain attention, art is the way to stand out. Our canvases are all the social media and digital outlets we feature our work to drive back to the central AYA asset. A digital product alone is not enough – one needs to grip attention for that product and the only way to do this is through visually appealing work – content- art – and our team is built to be able to produce this “digital art”.

Tell us a little about your team

We are a diverse team, directly representative of what a new age tech business from Africa should look like. Female CEO, who speaks African languages, female Creative Director, with 8 years’ work experience in NYC. All under the age of 32, digital nomads, from 4 different countries, and thus able to piece together tech products in an innovative manner, with global perspective; bridging work on the ground in Africa with media connections and market in NYC; the gateway to USA. 3 women and 5 African men in team, thus challenging the “white male” dominant culture in tech startups. The unique perspective, across genders, and geo location is key for a team to build an authentic African marketplace. It also means we can scale into other African countries as we have reps on the ground in 5, with longstanding connections in each place. 

CEO Caley – speaks 3 African languages, has a background and connections in media space. Very strong in sales arena. As a woman in tech space, this is a key USP for AYA.

Head of Product Nii – 10 years in web build and design, 5 years’ work at an African payments gateway, growing a startup, thus valuable lessons in African payment space – as well as in business build. Nii is exemplary on tech and systems building.

Creative Director Isabella – experience in NYC as CD who has walked major fashion runways. Can advise CD on ground in Africa and connect to NYC trends at same time, thus connecting 2 worlds. Isa is also a product designer (AYA house brand, in time). 

Business dev. Praise – connected to JHB creative space. Young, UN youth entrepreneur ambassador, experience speaking in front of 400 people, in ZA and abroad. Finger on pulse of ZA creative scene and Gen Z media consumption.

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

It started in 2016 as an idea called Artisans in Africa – where we began developing an in-house brand that brings artisans into global economy via modern product design. We were 2 of us on the team back then. Highlight was that our first video was featured on Discovery. We also made it to the National Top 5 of a social entrepreneur competition in South Africa. However, at the time was a side project for 2 people as bills must be paid. I was building a network at the time through acting as interviewer and presenter at a company called Heavy Chef – in order to learn entrepreneur lessons that we will plug into AIA. In 2019, end of 2019, I left that job to pursue AIA full time. Synchronicity rained down and Isa was sent our way, a creative director from New York City, with experience in product design. From AIA, we became AYA and a team of 3 was born. With the addition of Isa on creative side, we were able to move AYA to pre seed round, and attain a 4th team member. During the pandemic we have continued to build in focused, full time manner. Timing is good as SME’s are needing digital outlet and we happen to have been testing model, making mistakes, re trying since 2016, so are now ready to scale

Do I come from entrepreneur background? Yes, my parents have built a business from nothing. I have always been drawn to the act of creating things from nothing. I am disinterested in things already in existence, built by someone else’s thought process. I have a great love for building new things.

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The South African Women Entrepreneurs Job Creators Survey data was collected online from 913 women entrepreneurs in South Africa between November 23, 2020, and April 28, 2021, and informed by a further 150 qualitative interviews of women entrepreneurs during the same period. Participants were recruited through the Lionesses of Africa network, to represent a wide range of business types, sizes and sectors. The survey was an opportunity for South Africa’s women entrepreneurs to share their experiences with job creation and how COVID-19 affected it and revenue generation. Respondents also shared their post-COVID-19 outlook for their businesses and their experiences with accessing government assistance programs and external financing during the pandemic.

The survey provides valuable insights into both solo entrepreneurs who are creating jobs for themselves and those entrepreneurs with employees. The employing women entrepreneurs who participated have on average, 29 employees, whereas the ‘typical’ or median entrepreneur employed five staff, while the top 1% had a thousand or more employees. The majority of companies with employees hired their first employee early in the life of their business, 67% within the first year. This would indicate that women entrepreneurs are not only creating jobs, but doing so in the very early stage of their company’s life-cycle.

In terms of future hiring plans, among the entrepreneurs who employ staff, over a third considered current staffing levels to be inadequate for their needs and 41% were actively recruiting. Of those who were hiring, 73% reported that they were hiring to help meet demand, 12% to bring additional skills into the business, and 12% were hiring, or rehiring, to replace employees who had left or were let go.

Margaux Wong`s jewelry product range includes earrings, rings bracelets, necklaces, body jewelry such as masks and lovely jewelry which embellish the feet, all made of high-quality cow horn and recycled or upcycled brass. Margaux Wong`s new collection has been expanded to include belts, four in one multi-use necklaces, as well as classily embellished formal pochettes. Their accessories are extremely unique and have a circular life cycle. Every component of each piece is reparable and can be upcycled or recycled without causing harm to the environment.

The company is very proud to be among the very few companies worldwide which produces predominantly luxury Cow Horn, brass embellished jewelry using traditional jewelry making and carving techniques, predominantly by hand. The major actor in their production is the very rare cow horn which admittedly appears of very little value, until graced by the hands of Margaux Wong`s artisans. The Margaux Wong team often describes the cow horn material as their gold. This brings a great sense of comradeship among them, as their great value of the raw materials provides the drive to manifest their true nature in all its glory, through the artisanal perspectives and skills.

Margaux Wong is quite a unique company and was established out of a need for Founder Margaux Rusita to meet a personal need for artistic expression, which provided much needed personal therapy for the artist. Today, the brand’s clients attest to feeling a great sense of joy and lifted spirits when adorned with Margaux Wong jewelry. Margaux Wong believes that this sense and their core value surrounding total wellness and its connection to living a sustainable lifestyle, has brought them to this point. Margaux Wong`s clients feel beautiful, loved and valued when they wear their jewelry and are constantly sharing that joy with their loved ones by purchasing Margaux Wong jewelry as gifts for them.

Margaux Wong’s design ethos inherited its organic realization from the Amazonian lifestyle of Margaux’s fore parents. Growing up in Guyana, she was trained to live a lifestyle of zero waste. She learnt from an early age how to use a coconut for everything that it’s worth. They drank the deliciously refreshing water directly from the coconut shell, used the coconut meat for food, the husk of the coconut for scrubbing pots and the shell for making jewelry or even as a drinking utensil. This way of living applied to so many aspects of that Guyanese life and has shown itself quite the typical African way of living as well. Honoring the environment by utilizing natural resources responsibly and following basic values instilled by the elders, form the basis of Margaux Wong’s ideals as a sustainable creative company. The love of nature and being able to create beauty from somewhat mundane everyday elements and findings has given Margaux Wong’s CEO and Creative Director the foundation to be a leader in the sustainable fashion sector. Innovation is deeply embedded in the identity of the company and they are consciously anchored to the connection between the environment and creativity as a team. Margaux says, “We cannot associate one without the other.” These are among the competitive advantages which give Margaux Wong it’s authentic identity and which will ultimately make this brand an international success. Margaux Wong intends to continue to explore more innovative ways of utilizing their raw materials to create more impacting and lasting wearable art. They are currently exploring the use of varying sustainable materials, which would add greater value to their evolving design concepts in order to become a brand of legacy with a beautiful impacting story for generations to come.

The Margaux Wong creative team consists of Cow Horn Sculptors, Brass Artisans, Designers and Illustrators. The administrative staff consists of a Store Manager, Accountant and Operations Manager. The business also employs tailors and basket weavers who manufacture the packaging. The Margaux Wong team has changed and continues to evolve depending on the needs of the company but also the personal needs of its employees. All employees of Margaux Wong are Burundian.

Speaking about her entrepreneurial journey, Margaux says:

“I do not come from an entrepreneurial background but observed the moms of my neighborhood and school friends. I was inspired by those moms selling snacks at the school canteen, corner shops, operating their own mini bus businesses or having their little stands on the street offering homemade sweets and treats. I desired to be independent, as they were and found my way into entrepreneurship at the tender age of 18.”

In terms of future plans, Margaux Wong`s growth strategy for the next 12-18 months includes launching an E-commerce store on Shopify, attending trade shows such as Pitti in Italy and She- Trades in Dubai as an exhibitor. The company also plans to engage and partner with new brand ambassadors and Influencers who love Margaux Wong jewelry. The company intends to become known and accessible worldwide and to continue to grow in impact throughout Burundi as well as Guyana.

Speaking about what gives her the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur, Margaux says:

“My work brings pleasure to many who have the opportunity to wear it. This I say humbly and as I observe, it brings me great joy and an intense sense of purpose. My desire is for the wearers and admirers of Margaux Wong to feel transformed and to be transferred to a place of beauty and fantasy. Many clients have commented that they feel a sense of royalty and luxury when wearing my jewelry. It is in this spirit that I create jewelry. The message is that true wholesomeness can only truly manifest when the source of the object comes from a place of purity and good intent. I hope that through the entire process, from conception to design to production, the spirit of creating beauty from what seems worthless remains true. I aspire for my designs to represent transformation and elegance. I would like Margaux Wong`s clients to know and sense that their value is intrinsically attached to not merely where they are from but more so who they are becoming in the process of transformation.”

Margaux’s biggest piece of advice to other women looking to start-up is as follows:

“Take time to observe yourself in order to discover the things which bring you joy and peace. Do those things, if you can or as much as you can in order to unleash your true potential. Consider the things in your community or family which upset or annoy you. You may very well have the solution to those issues. Be solution oriented. Never allow anyone to dictate what you are and are not capable of doing. Love yourself and the people who you are blessed to have in your life.”

To find out more about Margaux Rusita and her business, Margaux Wong, send an email to: hautemargauxwong@gmail.com or visit the website http://www.margauxwong.com or on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/margauxwongart/

Photographs courtesy of the Ethical Fashion Initiative in collaboration with the European Union