Former dental laboratory technician sinks teeth into gardens

Who ever thought professional jobs have their boring bits? One Tirsha Peters, owner of Town and Country Garden Services in Cape Town, can attest to just that. Having worked as a dental laboratory technician for 16 years, she was haunted by doing routine tasks for such a long period.
Frustrated, she eventually left to join her ex-husband in the motor industry. But little did she know that she would end up desk-bound in her new job.
It was then that Peters started toying with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur, largely to escape the stranglehold of working for other people and being confined to office work. She decided to venture out on her own.

Though she had an array of opportunities to consider, she braved entry into a male-dominated field. In 2004, she purchased an existing garden service business that had been advertised in the Weekend Argus, and renamed it Town and Country
Garden Services.Adequate capital in the form of cash and reliable machinery is a prerequisite for a garden service company. However, Peters did not face many hurdles in financing her enterprise.

“l did not borrow any money from financial institutions or individuals. My father was the anchor for my business,” she confirms.At inception, the company had a new bakkie, two lawn mowers, two weed eaters and a staff complement of three.Realising that South Africa had an army of unemployed people, Peters chose to recruit from less privileged communities.

She visited popular road intersections along Lansdowne-Khayelitsha Road in Cape Town to hire labour. There are always people stationed at these intersections from early morning, come rain or shine.Most of the people she employed hail from Khayelitsha and Capricorn suburbs – two areas notorious for housing some of Cape Town’s most vulnerable people.

The company places a high premium on staff attitude rather than skills. Peters acknowledges that the right attitude is good for the company brand and business, as business goals are better achieved with such individuals on board. She believes, therefore, that skills can be acquired on
the job.In line with industry norms, Town and Country Garden Services provides work apparel for its employees; and at the end of each business day, they are ferried to various stations for easy onward connection to their respective homes.

Marketing 101

Providing services to her community was a challenging task; as such, Peters carefully chose her advertising method. She could easily have gone the conventional route by publishing her business either through the Internet or local community newspapers such as The People’s Post and Bulletin, but she preferred a cost-efficient mode – the distribution of pamphlets to households.

While carrying out a task for one client, she would kill two birds with one stone by dropping off pamphlets in the same neighbourhood. Inevitably, response was snail-like in the beginning.Peters’ residence in Retreat influenced her decision to start the business in familiar territory. The company gradually spread its services to the Plumstead and Constantia suburbs.“During my teens, l loved helping my dad in the garden more often than doing kitchen chores,” she says.

These skills, gained at childhood, have been turned into a blooming business.Services provided by Town and Country Garden Services include grass cutting, lawn edging, hedge trimming and removal of garden waste.Like any other business, it has experienced teething problems, and some drawbacks included machines breaking down easily due to incorrect operation.

Disadvantaged by lack of mechanical know-how, Peters hardly knew any reliable trained mechanics to trust. As such, the company relied on make shift individuals who had neither proper skills nor appropriate tools for repairing equipment.Another challenge is the constant change in weather patterns, as winter in Cape Town is usually cold and rainy, which renders grass and some shrubs to take longer to grow – resulting in slow business during such times.As a shrew entrepreneur, Peters learnt to make provision for these lean times in her business cycle.

Town and Country Garden Services is one of a host of garden service suppliers to the Retreat area and the neighbouring suburbs.These rival companies were another setback to Peters, for they competed on the same turf.However, she managed to use these hardships as a catalyst to overcome some of the challenges. “l do not get intimidated by rival companies,” she declares.

Peters does not rue the presence of competitors, but rather works toward satisfying her customers more. She believes challenges cannot be avoided, as they are a part of life and she applies the same principle in her business.Mentorship propelled this business forward, prompting an aggressive search for new clients.Peters, one of a few women in this industry, seems to have found a niche in the community within which she works. It is evident by the way the company conducts its operations, that it has gained a sizeable foothold in the Retreat area, and referrals have spread the word about its services.

Town and Country Garden Services is focused on serving clients in most of Cape Town’s southern suburbs. On average, the company’s ‘green soldiers’ manage to tend 16 gardens a day.“Due to a notable increase in clients, l asked my son to join me,” Peters says. The company divides workers into two groups, with her son supervising the other team.Currently, it employs seven workers, namely: five lawn mowers, three weed busters and a hedge trimmer.

Town and Country Garden Services added a new motor vehicle to its fleet, one used for transporting Peters’ team to and from.The company prides itself on the quality of its services, as quality and attitude are its major service differentials.

Staying put

Despite some admirable success, Peters is in no rush for immediate expansion. “This is already too much work for me,”she remarks.Good advance planning yields positive results; and for this reason, Peters and son spend a better part of the day attending to administrative work such as updating the books of accounts and notifying their clients of upcoming visits, indicating time and other specifications. It is during this time that problems relating to employees or machines are dealt with. Equipment is inspected and sent for service regularly and routinely.“I love employing people, especially those from poor communities. Giving others a job makes me feel very proud,” beams Peters.
Since small and medium enterprises are often punted as key drivers of job creation, Town and Country Garden Services is certainly making a small contribution.

Calling out to women

Peters fearlessly challenges women to transcend female limitations in all facets of life.“No woman has approached me so I can give them the same opportunity,” she said.Undeniably, if more women were to share the same thinking as Peters, perhaps the notion that women are not keen on helping fellow women could be put to bed.

“I become fussy when it comes to gardening. I must be happy on completion of any garden, knowing my client is also happy,”
she acknowledges.Peters does not assign all jobs to employees, but makes her hands dirty, too. As a team player, she is hands-on and works together with staff because she believes she is an authority on preening gardens. This work ethic has rubbed off on her employees.

She believes that when it comes to gardening, the customer is king and, therefore, she takes time to interact with them to know exactly what they like in a garden. She takes time advising and suggesting ways to better the garden, such as the type of compost to use. For now, Peters is confined to domestic gardens.In her world, no job is gender-sensitive, but she suggests a positive approach always yields expected results.

Though starting a business is always challenging and risky, Peters believes it can equally be fulfilling and stimulating. Although she reiterates she is not looking forward to immediate expansion, she is eyeing a tool-repairing business for lawn mowers, weed busters and hedge trimmers.
“I never fear competition,” she reiterates. It is this spirit that she ably employs to overcome any challenges.Undoubtedly, the company experienced teething problems at inception, but one has to fight a way through them to be successful, according to Peters.

Lemon into lemonade

A flight from a boring professional job and an unravelling family situation turned out to be a worthwhile adventure for Peters. She channelled frustrations in her old job into a fully fledged small blooming business.Her message is that to succeed as an entrepreneur, one needs ounces of passion and tenacity. A bad situation at work could be an opportunity to put one’s self-belief to a test – by going out in the direction she took.Peters says being an entrepreneur means devotion to long hours, which is quite draining if one is not a hard taskmaster.

She likens it to running a marathon, such that if you are not committed, you struggle to reach the winning destination. Despite numerous bottlenecks she has encountered, she has weathered the storm in a quest to reach her goals.Peters says that being an entrepreneur can be very flexible, as one gets to define one’s goals and future.

Her company is a true reflection of the kind of success one can achieve despite being a relatively small enterprise. Town and Country Garden Services is flourishing and growing exponentially by the day.
It is testimony of what a determined woman can do, and the heights she can attain despite gender sensitivities. Small entities such as this have potential to help bridge the unemployment gap.

Bernard Chiguvare