Sheldon Tatchell on Purpose, Systems, and Building a Business That Gives Back

By Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant

Q: What has building legends meant for you personally?

A: When we opened our first store, it was something that we always wanted to do; then we go on, and I put a higher target for myself. We opened 10 stores, and we go on, and there’s always a target to reach, and you neglect the things that really matter.

And those things are your family, your youth, and your spiritual life. And you neglect all of the things, and you succeed by any means. And that’s exactly where you find yourself in a competitive mindset.

And I think, as entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves in this comparison. And this is exactly what happened to me, like comparing myself against people that are not in my lane and not understanding that not everyone’s journey is the same. Everyone is called to fulfill a different purpose.

So if your purpose is to grow and scale your business, and you’re doing it the way you are, that’s fine. But I think everyone is called to serve a different purpose on earth. And I think that realization came to me when I started engaging much more with the people on the ground, understanding exactly the types of ills we’re facing and the crises we, as entrepreneurs, need to solve.

Fair and well, we definitely need to make a profit, but I need to make a profit at the expense of everything else, or are you to focus on the purpose behind the profit? Because in business, I think one of the goals should be making a profit; otherwise, you’re not in business. But there has to be a bigger purpose behind what you do. And that purpose needs to be fulfilled on the outside.

Q: Why is collective return a better decision?

A: I think like the mindset begins to shift because now you’re not thinking about what’s your self network, but now you’re thinking about how are you able to, how are you able to increase the network of other people? And once you’re able to do this, it will automatically come back to you. And that’s exactly how the universe works.

You know, it’s so interesting that the more we give and the more we pour out to people on the outside, there’s no shortage of what you get in return. And I think that mindset of just being a selfish person and just collecting, it’s all about me. It’s all about my business.

It’s all about how much I can extract from this. It becomes the wrong kind of mentality we need to take note of, especially for the next generation, and we should help them understand that business shouldn’t be that way. Business should be like, “Okay, how can I add much more value to the world I’m placed in?”

Q: Do you have anything on your mind on what South Africa needs right now?

A: I think as a business leader, you find yourself in an economy that is quite short of skills. For example, we have a skills shortage in our country, and this is exactly where being able to sit on both sides of the fence comes in.

But the problem is that there’s a skills gap in between, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to solve. So, I see the future of our country: If we’re not capable of solving the skills gap, it is just going to keep widening. And you find that there’s going to be much more unemployment, and basically the workforce is going to be unable to get people to come in because now what happens is that from the workforce point of view, they need to get people from the other side of the country. The other side of the world, like people from Asia and other African countries who do have the skill. And now we find ourselves in a country that is actually in conflict with itself, and finding out there’s actually this butting of heads because now the locals don’t want foreign nationals working in South Africa. But the problem is not that.

The problem is, do we have the sufficient skill set to make this economy work? And I think once we’re able to solve this, it is just going to keep going. And we’re going to find that it’s just going to worsen our economy, and eventually it’s going to have to be a give-and-take situation where we come up with solutions that actually bind this together. Honestly, I feel quite sad for so many young people out there because, if you look at the youth unemployment rate within South Africa, which is standing at a staggering 70% as it stands, this is a time bomb just waiting to happen.

Q: What are you most worried about for small business owners right now?

A: The one thing that I’m most worried about for small business owners right now is the ability to adapt. In all honesty, we find that adaptation, especially to what’s happening outside, becomes a bit difficult for small businesses because they keep asking questions.

AI is evolving the world. There are so many things happening on the outside.

Q: What do you think the biggest opportunity is?

A: I see the opportunity right now for small businesses being able to scale as fast as possible. I think like, if I should start my business today, it will take me a faster rate to grow and to not only grow in terms of the business itself, but to grow in terms of the knowledge and everything that I have at my fingertips, because now you have all of the things that you need to scale. You can literally be able to, like, for example, like it took us a couple of months to draft a franchise agreement.

Franchise agreements can be completed in a matter of minutes with the right inputs of things that we’re saying is that from a scale point of view, from a business point of view, the scalability right now, the chances of you making it, the chances of you succeeding, the chances of you actually being that entrepreneur that can actually scale right now is much higher than ever before.

Q: If you had a Magic Silver Wand and you could use it right now and you could make one thing true for every single small business owner in the world, what would you use your wand for?

A: The one thing, if I had a magic wand right now that we’re able to, the one thing I do believe is just being able to operate with the right systems. So right systems, right systems equal right outcomes. Because if your system is tied to what you do and you create a system that works and helps your business succeed, everything is possible.

Q: How do we support you?

A: One of the major things is that we recently changed our training center from a cost center to a non-profit center. The reason we’ve done this is that for every product or service sold in retail, wherever you go, a portion of that is contributed to our training center. And we find that the need for this continues to increase.

There’s a whole list of people waiting online just to get into the training center, get a skill, and complete this to get the job. Funding the training center is one of my biggest goals for 2027, and I also want to establish a skill center. The skill center that I spoke about is the skill center that will be able to empower practical skills, not only barbering, but I’m talking about nail techs.

I’m talking about your headdresses. I’m talking about your plumbers. I’m talking about the practical things that people can do with their hands.

Because I can tell you right now, AI won’t be able to replace that. You’re still going to need somebody who knows how to cut your hair. You’re still going to need somebody who knows how to do certain things.

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