Vusi Sithole said goodbye to corporate to launch Nestlife Assurance
“One of the biggest mistakes I have made is letting excellent employees leave the business without fighting for them. Without skilled staff there is no business.”
Vital stats:
- Vusi Sithole founded Nestlife Assurance in 1996.
In 1996 the founder of Nestlife Assurance, Vusi Sithole was the chairman of a subsidiary of Hollard. He had worked his way up the ranks of the insurance industry and was earning an executive’s salary, with further advancement on the horizon.
But it wasn’t enough. He wanted to leave a legacy, and to do that, he needed his own business.
It wouldn’t be an easy journey. He bought an insolvent company in Mafikeng, and for four years travelled between Joburg and Mafikeng while he built up the business. Sithole is a firm believer in the power of hard work, and that nothing in life worth having comes easily.
Nestlife Assurance is not the product of a BEE deal or BEE funding.
Before he launched his own company, Sithole spent years learning the industry from the inside out, and once he became an entrepreneur, he rolled up his sleeves and got his hands dirty, taking care of everything from meeting new clients to answering the phones and even sweeping the floors.
He had to, he had a staff of one: Himself. “My start-up journey was a rollercoaster of highs and lows,” he recalls.
“I have never been afraid to take a step backwards in the present if it meant future growth. That’s how you build sustainable foundations. But it also meant sacrifices for myself and my family.” It’s this commitment to a long-term goal that has really paid off, for Sithole, his company and his employees.
Top lesson:
When you can’t compete with large, established industry players on price, you need to find another differentiator. For Sithole, this was service, which became his core focus. “I didn’t try to get all of a client’s business at once.
Instead, I convinced them to give me a small percentage so that I could prove myself. 5% of a company’s business soon grew into 10%, then 20%, until in many cases Nestlife now holds 100% of each client’s business, all through an unwavering focus on service.”