Identifying and capitalising on a niche market is the dream and challenge for all entrepreneurs. And this is what George Diab and his business partners Ricardo Da Matta and Bradley Marriot achieved when they developed their company Tailor Me - a bespoke outfitter.
Getting started
After completing their accounting articles, Diab and his business partners wanted to dress better, but couldn’t find any clothes at retail stores that fit them well.“I’m tall and thin and I’ve got long arms. So when something fits around my chest it wouldn’t necessarily fit my arms or neck. So we said 'why don’t we make clothes' custom-made or purpose built here in South Africa, because these are accessible in every other market in the world.” With zero design skill, Diab and his partners strived to start up their company Tailor Me, while working their nine to five jobs.“We spent many long hours starting up Tailor Me. In the early days I was working two jobs. I was group financial manager for a company based in Pretoria and I was travelling from Johannesburg to Pretoria every day and would be seeing clients from seven to nine in the evenings.” At the end of the day job, Diab would see clients for fittings and to discuss fabrics, for the design of their garments.
Customer satisfaction
“With many moving parts involved in running a business, from importing fabric to managing the overheads and your staff, one of the standout features for us and probably our biggest cost to date was making sure our clients were 100 percent satisfied with their suits.” Diab regards this as a critical value for any business. “We want every consumer who has had interaction with Tailor Me, to be very pleased with the outcome. So often what happens is when a client is not happy with the fit we would bare the cost to remake the suit completely. So, at the end of the day he/she is 100 percent satisfied. We spent our time and energy to satisfy the needs and requirements of our clients.”
Scaling challenges
Even with their strong educational and corporate background Tailor Me co-owner Diab who is a charted accountant, says people might think business will be easy with their financial background.“But it has not been that easy because there are different elements required to running and growing a business. One of the biggest current challenges is scaling and taking the business to the next level.” With the vision to expand their business to the rest of the continent and international market, the owners are faced with different obstacles. “One of the challenge is finance. Getting the funding to open up more branches and secondly mindset. Mindset by having the vision and implementing it. Taking the risk that you need and putting everything that you have just made back into the business in order to double in size.”
Entrepreneurial lessons
Diab says in his few years as a full-time entrepreneur he has learnt a lot of lessons. “My top lessons as an entrepreneur would be one when you dive into entrepreneurship, opportunities are going to come from all directions. You are going to be flooded by different people offering different things. You have to stay focused and don’t bite off more than you can chew. Because if you try to make something of every opportunity, you’re going to make nothing of everything.”Entrepreneurs need to stay focused on what they are doing and what they have set out to achieve. “Set clear objectives and a clear strategy on how you want to achieve it and then execute on your strategy. A strategy is not a strategy without execution.”He advises that entrepreneurs need to know their numbers, know what works within their company and should take time to reflect. “Because all the time we are focused on selling, trying to get money in and trying to pay debtors back. But often what we need to do is take a step back, outside of the business and look through our numbers, look through what’s been working and what hasn’t been working.”
“We spent many long hours starting up Tailor Me. In the early days I was working two jobs. I was group financial manager for a company based in Pretoria. So I was travelling from Johannesburg to Pretoria every day and would be seeing clients from seven to nine in the evenings.”
Tailor Me Vital Stats
Start-up funding: Bootstrapped
Year of establishment : 2014
Staff number: 11
Key Players: George Diab, Ricardo DaMatta and Bradley Marriot