Kareema Shaik had no intention of giving up her job as an intellectual property lawyer, but then her widowed mother, Razia, moved in with her from Kimberley and everything changed. DigiBiz caught up with Kareema to find out how Razia’s Pickle grew from a side hobby to a thriving small business.
Running a small business is in Kareema’s blood. From a young age, she helped out in the corner café run by her mom and dad in Kimberley. “It was the kind of place you could go to in the middle of the night to buy a nappy,” she jokes. “We sold everything – from radios and bikes to bread and takeaways.”
Her mom and dad were pillars in the community, so it was hard for her mom to leave Kimberley in 2019 when her father died. “She’s not the kind of person to sit still for long,” says Kareema. Razia found it hard to fit into her daughter’s Pretoria estate where the neighbours didn’t greet her, so she turned to cooking for solace.
“I no longer had to send my product list and banking details to customers via WhatsApp. It gives your business a huge amount of legitimacy when you can refer people to your website.”
“She always made way too much,” says Kareema, “so I gave away some of her atchar to colleagues and friends.” Their reaction was overwhelmingly positive – and they kept coming back for more. Eventually, Kareema put labels on the bottles and began to realise this hobby of her mom’s had the potential to be a small business.
The pickles that Razia makes are family recipes that have been passed down for generations. “For a lot of people, atchar has negative connotations,” asserts Kareema. Although it originated in India (“achar” means pickle in Hindi), it’s now become a South African staple. “They think of the standard brands of mango atchar sold in shops that are oily and way too hot,” says Kareema. “But the way my mom makes it is different. It’s spicy and flavourful with just a bit of heat.”
Kareema recognised the business proposition straight away: change people’s perception of atchar and market it to more affluent communities. While she was still working full-time at a legal firm, Kareema and Razia began to sell her jars of atchar at local markets. “We got a lot of love from the Afrikaans community,” Kareema shares. “They also like a bit of a kick in their food and wanted advice on how to cook and braai with our sauces.”
“The first thing I did was build a website with the help of a website designer, I had already experimented a bit with Shopify and decided that was the best online commerce platform to use.”
Their business had just started to gain traction when they participated in their first Kamers/Makers exhibition in Pretoria in 2021. This was a big milestone for them, as the previous year Kareema had applied to exhibit and been refused. But this time, they not only had a successful show, but they ended up winning the best newcomer award.
During the lockdown, Kareema worked from home, which gave her more time to devote to the business. “I got a graphic designer to do more professional labels,” she says. She also paid for a photographer to take pictures of her and her mom, although the product photos she took herself. Then in 2022, she took the bold step of quitting her job and devoting all her time to Razia’s Pickle. And she hasn’t looked back since.“
“The first thing I did was build a website with the help of a website designer,” Kareema shares. “I had already experimented a bit with Shopify and decided that was the best online commerce platform to use.” Shopify teamed up well with PayFast – both of which Kareema describes as game changers. “I no longer had to send my product list and banking details to customers via WhatsApp,” she says. “It gives your business a huge amount of legitimacy when you can refer people to your website.”
Her digital journey also included lots of social media marketing. “The Instagram video of my mom making butter chicken curry went viral!” she says. “It had 25,000 views,” Kareema says it’s so easy to post videos online and platforms like Instagram let you boost your video for as little as R79. “You can choose which geographical location and which age group to market your video to and reach 1,000 accounts in two days.”
“Although those views don’t always translate into sales, it’s a great way to build brand recognition. When we sell at markets, people scrunch up their faces and say, ‘Haven’t I seen you on Instagram.”
Although those views don’t always translate into sales, it’s a great way to build brand recognition, Kareema believes. “When we sell at markets, people scrunch up their faces and say, ‘Haven’t I seen you on Instagram?”
As well as being selling online, Razia’s Pickle products are also available in many delis around the country, including The Pantry in Rosebank, Johannesburg, and Fidders Republique in Stellenbosch. Ideally, Kareema would like to open their own store in Pretoria which would also have a test kitchen. “My mom is so shy, but perhaps she could be persuaded to do cooking demos,” Kareema says.
An angel investor is also top of her wish list. “The business has broken even and we are blessed, but to scale, we’d need a big capital injection and you can’t do that without an investor.” The downside, she admits, is giving up equity in the business.
But for now, she’s happy to keep growing incrementally. Their past domestic worker, Fortunate Siziba, is now a production assistant helping Razia in the kitchen. And their product range continues to expand, with curry spices now being the flavour of the day.
Kareema’s advice to other entrepreneurs is not to be afraid to ask for favours. “Many people want to support small, local businesses, so take advantage of it!” She mentions how the photographer who did her website photos offered her a discount in exchange for some of her sauces. “Small business networks are built with empathy and understanding,” she says. “It’s up to you to make the magic happen!”
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Written by Katherine Graham for DigiBiz Programme
© 2023 Entrepreneurial Planning Institute