Part 1:

As promised I will share my experiences weekly as that of a seasoned foreigner who (voluntarily) finds himself back in South Africa after 14 years.

In some industries in South Africa I still experience the service levels as world class, such as with my flight to Cape Town with FlySafair, many restaurants with Capital Craft as one of our favourite eateries and drinkeries, car sellers such as Leon’s Motors who were amazing, and so on. But unfortunately, many businesses are first-class pathetic. I instantly think of the many estate agents I have tried to work with, with their unfound service levels. Makes me think of a dog whistle… it looks like a whistle and is blown like a whistle, but you don’t hear anything.

Aula Properties is such a dog whistle. Seeing that my writing and podcast is business focussed, I will use the business mistakes of Aula (and two other businesses that did the same) as an example of what one should never do in business. Never.

Any contractor that you appoint to perform a function on your behalf represents you and is an extension of your business and trademark. A client never distinguishes between a business they deal with and that of the business’s contractor. Therefore, you must never blame your contractor when something goes wrong, but indeed blame yourself and rather apologise immediately. Didn’t you in fact appoint the best contractor?

Choose your contractors very carefully and quickly get rid of bad ones: They can make or break your business. And more importantly, never congratulate yourself for a first-class performance as a firefighter. There is not supposed to be a fire in the first place.

Luckily, I can attest with a happy heart that we have had far more good experiences than bad ones to date. And man, it is just so nice to again be able to move and be among our people. In spite of all our imperfections it is a big privilege to speak and hear Afrikaans every day (my children must now watch what they say, because people understand!).

Next week I will elaborate on the freedom we experience here and what freedom abroad means.

Enjoy the week and remember: Persistence is rewarded!

Come listen for a while:

• Klipkouers podcast is the first Afrikaans programme on CliffCentral.

Also read: The Klipkouers wheels are turning again!