After recognizing the non-existence of black women entrepreneurs in the agricultural industry, I went into farming.
What I have come to appreciate about entrepreneurship is the research while actively developing what it is your passion about. An innovator is someone who takes the long way home, taking the appropriate steps towards learning new methods, ideas, or products.
Although we are expected to make windfall profits, provided that any plans we set forward are handled carefully but understanding first you probably won't make a profit your first year, and that is ok. This brings me to the entrepreneurial process and how it is applied in the planning and launching a new venture.
Entrepreneurial Process (Case Study)
Definition: The Entrepreneur is a change agent who acts as an industrialist and undertakes the risk of forming the business for commercial use. An entrepreneur has an unusual foresight to identify the potential demand for goods and services.
1. Discovery: An entrepreneurial process begins with idea generation, wherein the entrepreneur identifies and evaluates the business opportunities.
2. Developing a Business Plan: Once the opportunity is identified, an entrepreneur must create a comprehensive business plan.
3. Resourcing: The third step in the entrepreneurial process is resourcing, wherein the entrepreneur identifies the sources from which the finance and the human resource can be arranged.
4. Managing the company: Once the funds are raised, and the employees are hired, the next step is to initiate the business operations to achieve the set goals.
5. Harvesting: The final step in the entrepreneurial process is harvesting, wherein an entrepreneur decides on the prospects of the business, i.e., its growth and development.
Understanding these five steps, one can agree that the start of VT Harvest is the perfect example of the mindset of any true entrepreneur during the process of building their business.
“Don’t be afraid to fail.”
JOHANNESBURG, SA - In 2017, owner Vutlhari Chauke established her agriculture farm VT Harvest, a Mogale city-based supplier. She grows herbs such as baby fennel, coriander, curly parsley, Italian parsley, rocket and wild rocket, and kohlrabi, a German turnip.
VT Harvest comprises 13 greenhouse tunnels equipped with dripper and overhead sprinkler irrigation systems. Vutlhari explains that we plant between 10,000 and 15,000 seedlings per tunnel depending on the type of crop; our produce is generally used in sauces and salads by chefs and other manufacturers.
Vultlhari's early beginnings were during employment at a Top 10 JSE listed company located in Sandton, South Africa. There she received the education, inspiration, and tools that encouraged her to trade in her high heels for gumboots, and this was considered by some a regression, almost a downgrade in her career. Vulthari admits that many of her peers told her that she was wasting her time and investment during her MBA studies; however, she proudly vehemently disagreed because farming knowledge has allowed her to test some of the theories in a real-life context and use the financial and stakeholder management modules to optimally run her operations and grow her business as we see fit today.
Early life and education
Born to a middle-class family in Limpopo, a place described as the Northern Transvaal, Limpopo is one of South Africa’s nine provinces and the fifth largest and the most northern. The name changed is taken from the Limpopo River that runs through it.
A diverse landscape is mostly bushveld - an area of mixed grasslands and trees. The most extensive section of the Kruger National Park can be found along Limpopo’s eastern border. This, coupled with semi-desert, open savannah, and subtropical vegetation, makes for exciting ventures.
In Limpopo, Vulthari was raised by a father, a computer programmer, and an educator for mother and was heavily influenced by the achievement of both parents. Although both her parents separated when she was four years old, she says, I learned independence and resourcefulness from that experience. I believe in myself. I am audacious and hard-working. As an additive, she is motivated to earn her MBA from the UNISA Graduate School of Business Leadership and follow up with extensive experience in the corporate world.
"Helping a woman, and you help her family."
I genuinely believe we all are a product of the environment we stem from; in Vulthari's case, she lives and breathes the life cycle of mother earth. Fundamentally, she embodies the description of a plant whisper. She understood the landscape of Limpopo and had seen this as a child. She loves and has a passion for the biology of plants. I reference the level of characteristics by having the ability to understand the branch of biology (Botany) that deals with the study of plants, including their structure, properties, and biochemical processes.
For Vutlhari, agricultural work is an opportunity for women to empower themselves, provide for their families, and impact their communities. This is Vutlhari’s life work. Vutlhari believes in helping a woman, and you help her family, and by this, she is intentional about hiring women in her line of work. With pride, she states because I am a woman, I too promise to employ as many women as possible because I know that [with] the little money that they get, they can buy food, shoes [for their families],” Vutlhari said, this changes generations to come.
Comments