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30 November 2010
When I started Marvellous Maids, never mind a business plan, I did not have a clue. Research, budgets, forecasts, marketing plans, SWOT (what?!?) analyses did not feature. I worked hard but not smart, learning and inventing the business as I went along. I paid my school fees; boast that I earned my PHD. But it was two steps forward, one step back and I learnt to dance the quickstep. In fact to give a frank account, I did not have a bank account.
13 years later Marvellous Maids is a household name with a solid reputation. I could have left it there but I decided to start a new business putting into practice all the lessons I had learnt. I would do the research, trademark the name, register a juristic entity, and get a logo which could become a recognizable brand.
I looked for a big gap in the market, where I could again make a difference. Loneliness! I researched internet dating (time consuming, time wasting, tedious, a security risk, not to mention embarrassing), investigated introduction agencies in South Africa and overseas. I obtained mentorship from the Association of British Introduction Agencies and travelled to the UK to learn at the foot of the doyennes of dating.
I consulted with Di Burton of Cicada Communications and had a Master Class in Public Relations from one of the 100 Most Influential Women in the UK. I secured the support of the esteemed Dr Eve and was welcomed by the bold and the beautiful, the rich and the restless of Cape Town.
The Kingdom of Hearts was ready to launch which we did with a bang – at the Cape Royale in Greenpoint. Irit Noble was the MC at the function and Mark Headbush of Vula proposed a toast to the Kingdom of Hearts. It was a text book opening of a new business; what could possibly go wrong?
Cemeteries, I always say, are full of people who thought they were indispensable. And I nearly landed up there, stopping short at ICU in Vincent Palotti. Clare, Queen of Logistics, and my assistant, Sergeant Pepper stepped in and kept the Kingdom of Hearts ticking along, but six weeks later I am back with a vengeance, ready and raring to go with a more realistic sense of my own mortality.
And an understanding that best laid plans …
