Lebo Smith | Ceezas Mechanical Works

Programme sponsor: Intasol Tailings

“The Lebo you see today is not the same Lebo who started this programme. I am a different person and have grown so much!”

My entrepreneurship story is a long one. I’m a mother of five, married to a mechanical engineer who worked for Eskom for over 20 years before we started our steel fabrication business together. From 2010, my husband was working on the Medupi power station project and we saw him less and less – he’d only come home on weekends. If there were big project deliverables, we wouldn’t even see him then. It started to take a toll on our relationship. He was then transferred to Matla power station as an electrical contracts manager, which he found frustrating as he’s a mechanical engineer.

Between that, our growing family and the impact his work was having on our relationship, we decided it was time to start our own business. He had seen an opportunity within the company – there weren’t many black suppliers available in the database for the work he was proficient in, so we decided to combine that knowledge with his mechanical engineering expertise and start a steel fabrication company, focusing mainly on piping, mechanical plant maintenance and welding. We registered Ceezas Mechanical Works in 2012 and became operational in 2015.

It was really tough and we had a lot of teething issues. We took on all sorts of small jobs and I kept my job as an accountant for some stability. Our breakthrough came in 2019 when we secured our first maintenance and repair contract at Matla for their ash handling system. It meant having to establish site quite quickly when we had been living hand to mouth. We were fortunate to have a financier who loaned us the money upfront to allow us to make it work. That was a real turning point for us.

Processes and people

We were sponsored by Intasol Tailings to do the Raizcorp Comprehensive Enterprise Development programme and it has grown me as a person and inspired me to keep studying. I’m planning on doing my MBA next year, as well as other Raizcorp programmes in future.

Cash-flow is always an issue for entrepreneurs, but Raizcorp has assisted us immensely with setting up processes to manage this. We’re at a point where I can now take a month off from work and know that everything is going to be okay, even in my absence.

The programme helps you to connect with like-minded people and you get to see that even though you’re all doing totally different things, most of the problems you face are similar, which is comforting.

It has helped us not only to implement better business processes, but also to increase the size of our team. It was just me and my husband when we started, and we’re now up to six permanent employees. Plus, we have teams of up to 70 contractors working for us at any given time, depending on the projects we’re busy with. We’ve increased our turnover from under R5 million per annum to over R20 million.

The Raizcorp guides have also been like therapists to me – listening, understanding and helping me to work through challenges on both a business and personal development front.

Advice for other entrepreneurs

If you decide to do a course through Raizcorp or a business school, make sure you’re not just doing it to tick a box. You have to take it seriously. And impart what you learn to your team – learning is not just for your development, but theirs too. That’s also how you’ll see the biggest benefits in your business.

For example, after we did a skills audit, I decided that I was going to focus on skills development in my team, whether computer literacy or first aid courses. It’s become a regular part of what we do and it is always time well spent. It’s an investment in your business.

A message for my sponsor

I appreciate the opportunity Intasol Tailings has given us. Our Raizcorp programme has really assisted us to move forward in leaps and bounds. I can’t believe some of the silly things we used to do (that we’re no longer doing!). Through initiatives and sponsorships like this, they are changing thousands of lives and helping the economy to grow. Having benefited from this ourselves, we would really like to be able to pay it forward to help other businesses formalise their processes and reap the benefits of doing so.