Turning entrepreneurship into an art

SUZANNE BELLING

Thembi grew up in a household which encouraged industry and industriousness.

“As children, we grew our own vegetables and farmed fresh chickens. Later, at school, I sold peanuts, sweets and fruit to earn money.”

She started her career as a car washer in 1986 at Ventura Motors, eventually working in the motor and panel-beating industry for over 20 years.

She was appreciated by her bosses and soon moved through the ranks to become a receptionist, estimator, buyer, administrator and manageress. She completed a course in office administration.

“I realised I was not going to clean cars forever,” she said. But her love of cars prevailed and “I felt it was time I started my own business”.

Financing was not that easy to raise, “but you have to move mountains”. Thembi persevered and put her provident fund pay out into the business.

She now has 28 employees, two workshops and is often the chosen panel-beating business for insurance companies. “It is a male-dominated world, but I had to change the mindset.”

Karen Schneid had her second career cut out for her when travelling all over with her family and sampling the different kinds of confectionery on offer.

“In the summer of 1993 in a little village near Aix en Provence, I first tasted a unique confection called Calisson. It was love at first morsel and I became obsessed with learning how to create this extraordinary sweet.”

Throughout her 18 years at the Johannesburg Bar, she dreamed about making the sweets.

Initially, she experimented with different kinds of confectionery and themes from different parts of the world for the birthday parties of her children, Saffron and Scarlett. “My kids became my muses.”

She studied techniques as there were no recipes for the confections made in family businesses, with the secrets handed down over the generations. She took courses designed for her needs at Culinary Institute Lenotre and the Ecole Ritz Escoffier in Paris. “I also studied the history of confectionery and the molecular structure of sugar.”

Starting off her business with only one domestic worker in her home kitchen, she “came out of the confectionery closet”, expanded her premises and her staff. She has won many awards and never stops developing her business.

But there is an added advantage to Karen’s confectionery – it is totally Beth Din kosher.