Two of the most important attributes that female pioneers in male-dominated industries need are grit and an unrelenting focus on quality, says Nicky Tibbetts, who has been running Florida Panel Beaters in Roodepoort, Gauteng, together with her husband Marlon, for the past nine years.
Growing a small business is difficult in any industry, particularly in the panel-beating trade. Although attitudes are slowly changing in favour of female empowerment, don’t expect to lean on any advantages derived from it, says Nicky. It won’t make the cuts and thrusts of industry and life any easier.
Nicky speaks from hard experience. After being retrenched from her job as a draftsman that she held for 21 years, she joined Marlon in his business in 2015, which he had grown over six years to a 500 m2 workshop that handled 35 cars per week. But far from being an easy entry into the industry for Nicky, a baptism of fire awaited her.
Marlon contracted cancer, and for months Nicky found herself having to oversee the bustling workshop while he recuperated from his emaciating treatment in a bed set up for him in the office.
Their struggle was made worse by the fact that a BEE deal that they had entered into as black partners was not working for them even though it looked good on paper. Giving up Tibby’s Workshop, as Marlon’s business was known, and taking 51% ownership of Florida Panel Beaters as the BEE partners meant they were running a business twice the size – at least in terms of workshop size – and their white partners were established players in the Roodepoort auto trade.
But the debt that the Tibbetts had to take on in order to buy into the company meant that they were making less money than they had on their own. It seemed that the benefits of the deal were disproportionately accruing to the 49% partners, who also owned the building in which Florida Panel Beaters was based.
The higher-end operation also meant that the business was constantly short of cash. Previously, their average job required about R40 000’s worth of spare parts, which shot up to R200 000 for the typical client of Florida Panel Beaters. The insurance industry only pays two months after each job is complete, creating a huge need for working capital.
On top of everything else, the Covid-19 calamity of 2020 did not make things any easier. It took every ounce of grit and determination for the couple to pull through, and they proved to be a formidable team.
They scraped together every bit of savings they had and tapped into their network of family and friends for loans in order to buy out their partners. Last year Business Partners Limited agreed to finance the purchase and upgrade of the premises. Unlike the banks, Business Partners Limited covered 100% of the purchase price, sparing the Tibbetts from having to take much-needed cash out of the business for a deposit.
A further loan of R1,6 million for the upgrade of the facility has enabled Florida Panel Beaters to double the rate they are able to charge for labour and today, Florida Panel Beaters’ prospects are excellent.
Marlon has beaten his cancer, and they have managed to clinch a deal with a spare-parts provider that solves the working-capital problem. Nicky is being noticed as an emerging leader within the industry and the couple is on the verge of clinching an agreement with a taxi association, which will require a further expansion of the workshop, to the property next door. Plans are also in the works to become an on-the-job training academy for panel beating and spray-painting apprentices, funded by their industry Sectoral Education and Training Authority (SETA).
Nicky says she still comes across clients and industry players that prefer to deal with a man, and she quietly has to bring Marlon into the negotiations, but attitudes are slowly changing. As a pioneer she is unlikely to see any significant benefits herself from these changes, but she is determined to play her part in opening up the industry by appointing as many female staff members as possible.
Already most of their frontline staff are female, and they have recently appointed a female polisher. Their training programme is sure to provide lots more female candidates to choose from.
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