Soweto Outdoor Adventures was started in 2010 by brothers Kgomotso and Suping Pooe, but it didn’t have anything to do with the Soccer World Cup.
The partnership
“Most people believe it was all about 2010 world cup but no, it wasn’t about that. It was one fateful day when my brother just said ‘I have a business idea’, and less than two months down the line we were bringing quad bikes to Soweto,” Suping says. Kgomotso has a background in aviation and marketing and Suping left a corporate telecoms environment to start Soweto Outdoor Adventures with his brother.
Kick-starting the business
In essence they brought a quad bike experience to Soweto. The brothers realised many people who visited family in Soweto, often ended up going elsewhere for leisure experiences like quad biking or paintball shooting. Kgomotso and Suping decided to bring those experiences to the people in Soweto. And seven years later the uncertain journey has proven to be a business success.
Boot-strapping the venture
The two brothers were positive about the business idea, but banks and other funding avenues were sceptical. “They looked at us very oddly and said, ‘What gives you the idea that this is going to work?’ There was no business model for what we were planning. So my brother and I tapped into our savings and paid for everything ourselves to start the business,” says Suping. They realised the business idea was working when recognition came with winning awards.
Challenges on the road to success
One of their first challenges was to deal with the notion that “…this is a white people thing. Black people don’t do this”. Suping says as individuals he and Kgomotso would go elsewhere to experience quad biking. “Therefore we thought there must be more than one person in Soweto who wanted to do exactly the same thing. And our very first clients, friends and family, brought us to where we are today.”
Finding a niche through failure
After bringing quad biking to Soweto, the brothers wanted to extend the experience. “We tried out speed boating on the dam. But water and black people did not work out. Then we introduced paintball shooting, boot camp, amazing race and camping. All of these were proven to be popular among our customers.” Every year they try to offer their customers more – something out of the norm.
Spreading their wings
As part of the drive to innovate and expand, Kgomotso started a Cape Town operation three years ago, called LaGuGu Township Tour. Suping says his brother left Johannesburg to spearhead that, with Suping running the Soweto leg of their business. LaGuGu Township Tour provides township experiences in Langa and Gugulethu, Cape Town. This posed a new challenge, with Soweto always having been a popular tourist destination. But Suping says: “Langa and Gugulethu were the first original townships in South Africa and gems in the tourism market. “Yes, people are going to Cape Town for Table mountain and the beach, but they don’t really meet the people. The people who switch on the lights, the people who work everywhere. And Langa is one of those places. The name Langa means ‘light’.” Suping says the LaGuGu Township Tours offer an opportunity for tourists to meet the mama and the grandpa on the street corner, selling potatoes and tomatoes – getting them to tell their story. “We are about giving everybody a special experience. Whether you are doing an outdoor adventure or meeting real people in the townships. Capetonians don’t even know Langa. “You have a person from Europe or Sandton who had never tasted mogodu, skopo, manqina or magwinya, the croissant of the township. Because that is what we have for breakfast. We are all about saying ‘try what we eat’. “We want to take people from where they are, bring them to Soweto, Langa, and Gugulethu and let them experience this world so that they can tell their friends.”
Future plans
Kgomotso and Suping want to ensure a sustainable business, including the Cape Town expansion, which Suping says could open other doors. “We could explore a different township in Kwazulu-Natal, Mpumalanga or Limpopo. We don’t know yet, but the idea is always there.” He says in 2010 they did not know anything about transportation or being tourist guides. In 2017 they know about that. “Come 2020, it could be a different story altogether.”
Dealing with failure
Suping says they believe in trying new ideas all the time. When these fail, they learn from it and move on. “Lots of ideas come off, lots of concepts, but going through your due diligence, you realise some ideas were not implemented at the right time or it had not been a good fit with our customers. If something does not work, it doesn’t mean we are going to give up.”
Inspiration for would-be entrepreneurs
Suping’s advice for budding entrepreneurs is to take the dream, go out there and believe in that dream to make it happen. “The first year was difficult, not knowing whether we could pay the bills. You need to take that particular journey and say, ‘I am putting my all into it’, then I say, ‘why not?’ “Surround yourself with people who can take your dream to the next level. Make your networks work for you. That is how you will get to the next step. “The DNA of an entrepreneur is to know what you are talking about and that you are willing to stop at nothing to bring that to life. You learn something every single day.”