Ronel Talks Money: The Nova Chocolate Journey
Introduction:
Heidi Kerwan had a successful career as a CFO at a corporate investments group but then decided to embark on a different journey. Together with her husband they started Nova chocolate – vegan, sugar-free and gluten-free chocolate. Despite having to overcome multiple obstacles, Nova chocolate is growing in popularity and available across South Africa at big retailers. In this Ronel Talks Money show, Heidi shares how she dealt with the transition from a corporate career to becoming a chocolatier and all the valuable lessons they learned.
A few of the questions we answer in this interview:
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey before you started Nova chocolate?
- Why chocolate?
- How did you start?
- Moving from a corporate career to being an entrepreneur – how did you deal with it?
- Moving from the services industry to selling products – what lessons did you learn?
- Funding is always one of the biggest obstacles for entrepreneurs. Did you fund it yourself or what source of funding did you use?
- Biggest challenges and how did you overcome it
- With lower-cost items, distribution costs etc. how do you ensure your business is profitable?
- Tips on effective stock management?
- Tips for sustainable cash flow?
- What are the regulatory / health & safety requirements entrepreneurs should know about?
- Running a family business – how do you make it work?
- Did lockdown impact on your business and how did you deal with it?
- What advice can you give to aspiring entrepreneurs or small business owners?
Recent ‘Ronel Talks Money’ interview: The Expresso Cafe Journey
Related online course: Create a Financially Stable Business
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