Margaret Hirsch

Izimvo has the great honour of introducing the Managing Director of Hirsch’s: Margaret Hirsch.

From humble beginnings as an appliance repair business started with R900 in 1979, to a chain of mega appliance and home furnishing stores in KZN and Gauteng, Allan and Margaret Hirsch are a shining example of the South African dream.

Hirsch’s is very much a family run business with all four members of the Hirsch family involved in day to day operations. They have grown at a phenomenal pace, launching, on average, one store every two years and are working to top the R1 billion turnover milestone by 2012.

Website: http://www.hirschs.co.za
Twitter: @HirschAppliance
Location: Durban, Johannesburg

Margaret was kind enough to answer the following questions:

Personal

Q: How would you like to be introduced at a social event where those attending might not be familiar with the Hirsch’s brand?

A: I would like to be introduced as a professional problem solver. However I am a jack of all trades having done the selling, invoicing, demonstrating, being a delivery person on the trucks, installing and demonstrating in customers homes and generally taking care of everything at Hirsch’s for the past 31 years.

Thank goodness today we have built Hirsch’s from a tiny little “mom and pop’s” store to a billion rand company and I hope that I will be an inspiration to others to know that they can live their dreams as well.

Q: Tell us something that not many others know about you. This could be anything from a phobia to your favorite movie.

A: Most importantly I’m foremost a wife, a mother and a grandmother and this is what is really important to me. The money has just come naturally but I have always focused on my family first and the business second.

Something else you may enjoy is that since coming to Johannesburg we have built a flat on top of all our shops, so when we worked in Fourways we lived above Fourways store, when we opened Strubens Valley, we built a flat above that shop and at present we are based in our flat above our Centurion store. The fourways flat is now our advertising department as our ad spend could get to as high as R2m per month! We have also brought a lot of our staff from Durban so they are accommodated in our Strubens Valley flat where they live rent free until they can afford a place of their own.

Q: What do you enjoy doing when you want to get away from it all?

A: I go to my game farm in the Natal Midlands with my grand children and that to me is heaven on earth.

Q: How would you describe your dream holiday home and where in South African would you like it to be?

A: I actually have my dream holiday home – Its in the Natal Midlands which is a wonderful farm-house on 500 acres of natural indigenous vegetation which is home to giraffe, zebra, about twenty different kinds of buck and one hundred and eighty species of bird and it’s just the best place in the world.

This question was proudly sponsored by Private Property. Looking for an idyllic farm-house in one of South Africa’s most picturesque towns? How about this R4.9 30 hectare divine water property with 3 enormous dams and charming farmhouse.

Hirschs

Q: Hirsch’s was started by you and your husband back in 1979 with only R900 in savings. What were your initial goals for the business and which of the companies milestones are you most proud of?

A: Our initial goal for the business was to get through the first week because at the end of the first day we didn’t have any money.  (We had spent R300 on the electricity deposit, R300 on a sign and R300 on the first months rent).  By the end of the week we had to have the salary for two of our staff members who we employed – and we had to feed ourselves as well as we had gone from having two jobs and no children to two children and no jobs in the space of one year!!

The milestones that I am most proud of are:

1. The birth of my children and my two grandsons.

2. Recovering from a massive loss in 1988 of R5 million rand which we did not have which resulted from trusting the wrong person to do the right thing and then deciding to carry on regardless and still coming up and keeping our head above water.

3. And them coming up to Johannesburg, because what most people don’t know is that I had never set foot in Johannesburg in my life till I arrived here eight years ago ready to open a business.

Hirsch's Pinetown

Q: Hircsh’s is known for being a family run business with both you, your husband and your two children, Richard and Luci, working for the company. How important is keeping the business in the family and what have been the greatest challenges in running a family owned business?

A: I think it is very important to keep the business in the family. We have been offered huge amounts of money to sell the business but to me it’s a way of life. Although I do need to point out that both my children went over seas and worked in various different companies overseas and in South Africa before they joined our company.

I think the greatest challenge in running a family owned business is to teach your children from a very young age that they have to work really hard to get ahead. Some people think they can work for a while and the money will keep rolling in but it doesn’t work like that. You have to keep working every day of your life.

Q: What does the average day as the managing director of Hirsch’s involve and what is the one task that you wish you did not have to deal with?

A: The average day as Managing Director and CEO at Hirsch’s starts at 4am when we get up and meditate. At 4:30am we leave for gym and we go to gym from 5:00am till 6:00am everyday. After gym we shower, change and we are at our desks by 6:30am, 7:00am at the latest.

Our managers come in at 7:00 and we then work with our managers from 7:00am – 7:30am to help them plan their day and or their week. At 8:00am we have a motivational meeting with all the staff to make sure that they are motivated to do their best for the day and to grow them as human beings.

After that there are various chores that have to be done in the stores but mostly working with customers to make sure that our customer service is still the best in the country.

After a full day which finishes at 6:00pm once we have cashed up etc. we will come upstairs to shower, change and normally meet with our suppliers as we don’t have time to meet with them during the day.  We discuss promotions going forward because in addition to our eleven shops we do sixteen shows a year and we are now working on concept stores out of Hirsch’s and in shopping centers.  There is therefore always a load of forward planning to do with our suppliers.

We work right through to 11:30pm, go to bed at midnight and get up a 4:00am the next day so it’s not for the faint hearted.

Q: What advice would you offer to other retailers looking to emulate the Hirsch’s success story?

A: Lots of people have tried to emulate us but they just cannot keep up with the pace. The pace we work at is phenomenal and it’s a non stop pace.  It’s something you’ve got to do everyday, on weekends and even when you are on leave.

We work on our Blackberry’s coping with daily emails from customers that feel they need personal attention etc. If anybody can stay the pace and persevere until they get through, anybody can be a success but it’s the hard work and perseverance that separates the winners from the losers.

Q: What can we look forward to from Hirsch’s in 2010 and beyond?

A: 2010 is going to be our best year ever and as we open our new Hillcrest store this year and hopefully our new store will open at Meadowdale in Johannesburg. We are just waiting for our plans to go through and building work to start.

My biggest goal for 2011 is to open in Cape Town. We have two premises there which are just waiting in the wings for us to complete our tasks in Johannesburg and then we move to Cape Town to carry on working there.

Having said that we will not move to Cape Town permanently. We will still commute to Johannesburg and to Durban every week to make sure that all the other branches stay up to speed.

The other exciting thing is that we are training our core group of eight special people who have been with us for many years ie. Mr Paul Lockwood has been with us for 21 years and these people will be taking over some of the tasks we are currently doing. We have also formed an Action Group of 12 managers who will also be driving the business forward.

Life in South Africa

Q: Have you or any of your immediate family been affected by crime? If yes, has it changed your perception of the country and the way you and your family live your lives?

A: There is not one member of our family that has not been affected by crime. As you may or may not know Luci and I were held up in our Umhlanga store by seven men with AK47’s and we knew that these same men had raped another lady the night before so we where really on our guard but I always say that being a toaster sales lady first helped me talk my way out of a really difficult situation with them.

Richard was held up three times in four weeks in out Superstore in Durban but we all have the strength and character to know these things will happen and if you live in Africa you live by Africa’s rules.

It has made us more careful and has made us take extra precautions. Thank goodness that for many moons we have not been affected by crime. I believe prevention is better than cure. All these things made us stronger and we are thankful to be alive and thankful for everyday that we live in this magnificent country.

Q: How do you respond when asked about South African crime while traveling abroad?

A: I tell people exactly what I said before. If you live in Africa, you live by African rules. You cannon live in Africa and live by American, European or English standards, its impossible.

You have to know that if you live here, you do have burglar bars, you have electric fences, you have a guard outside and you do take every single precaution to make sure that you don’t leave yourself open for attack.

You have to know that people who attack us in this country are lazy and will take the line of least resistance and you just have to make things really difficult for them. I always tell people abroad that South Africa is the best country in the world and I consider myself and expert because I’ve lived in the UK, the USA and in Australia and there is still nowhere better of the face of this earth.

Q: If you could, with the flick of fingers, change anything about South Africa, what would it be?

A: What I would change is our Police force. I believe that if the criminals knew that they would be locked up and have serious hard labour and have a really miserable life inside a jail where they would not see the light of day, the word would soon get out and it would be a deterrent to other criminals. If they knew they would be caught and locked up for the rest of their lives, I believe crime in this country would grind to a complete halt.

Q: Which South African retailers have been the greatest source of inspiration?

A: I have studied Raymond Ackerman since the inception of Pick n Pay and read all his books and attended every talk that I could by him. I have also studied Mr Mark Lamberti and met with him on a couple of occasions to try to understand his thinking. These are both incredibly brilliant men and I think its to South Africa’s loss that they are no longer in retail in this country.

General

Q: If you could invite any three South Africans to a dinner party, who would they be and what would you serve?

A: If I could invite any three people, I would invite Mark Lamberti because I still think he has got a wealth of information which I would like him to pass on to me. I would also invite Maria Ramos and Trevor Manuel because I think that they have single-handedly helped South Africa to go from strength to strength.

I would love to talk to them about how they have managed to

1. be a couple and

2. be the most influential couple in South Africa for such a long time.

What I would serve then is, a buffet of various vegetarian and salad dishes as I am a vegetarian but for them I would probably include Salmon and Chicken – I would use most of the recipes out of my cookbook which is on sale in all Hirsch’s stores.

Q: One book that you would make required reading for all matric pupils and which book would you say has had the greatest impact on your life?

A: The book that I would choose is by Anthony Robins and its called “Unleash the giant within” and I believe Anthony Robins was one of the turning points in my life. I believe that every school going child should study his work.

The Hirsch's

Q: What advice would you offer to married couples wanting to start a business together?

A: First of all you’ve really got to love each other and not only love each other, you have to really like each other too.

It’s not easy to work together and to live together but we’ve proved it’s possible. If you could just weather through the hard times, the good times really come and it gives you an extra bond. After nearly forty years of marriage we still know that we made the right choice!

Q: Besides Hirschs, which is your favorite South African brand?

A: There are so many. I love Queenspark clothing. I love Woolworths and think its fantastic and I’m a sucker for trying new brands. Every time a new store opens I’m the first one there to try everything out and recommend all the good parts.

Q: Where to from here?

A: I love this country and believe its got everything going for it. I believe its God’s own country. I believe that as soon as Zimbabwe opens up, it will open up doors for South Africa like we have never seen before. I believe this county is really going to go from strength to strength and I know that if we as South Africa focus on the good points and forget about the bad points the bad points will go away and we will prove to everyone that this is the best country in the world.

Q: Who would you most like to read about on Izimvo and what would you ask them?

A: This could take ages because I have lots of people who I would love to interview amongst which are Raymond Ackerman, Mark Lamberti, Maria Ramos, Trevor Manual to name just but a few.

We’d like to thank  Margaret for taking the time to answer our questions and wish her and the Hirsch family every success for the future. The manner in which the family have managed to grow the Hirsch brand from nothing to the success it is today is a true inspiration to all entrepreneurs.