The eTravel fiscal that started in July 2015 got off to a very slow start, which was expected considering current market conditions and SA’s political turmoil! By November (5 months in) we found ourselves up by just over 3% which was a little off what we had budgeted yet with all the hard work that we have all been putting in over the past 2 years we had been hoping for more!

But then – Booooom!

  • We shot the lights out in December with growth of 16% YOY!
  • And again in January with growth of 19%
  • And again in February with growth of 20% as well as an all time record month of R97.5m

Finally, the past two years of strategic thinking and implementation of new projects and focus on becoming more professional in how we do things has started to pay off. None of this growth is luck. Rather, it is due to careful planning and execution. It also takes a collective effort driven from the top down and allowing for feedback from the bottom up with an open mind on how to improve all the time!

Failure to evolve has marked the death knell for many major companies. Nokia for instance has been a respectable company. They didn’t do anything wrong in their business, however, the world changed too fast. Their opponents were too powerful.

They missed out on learning, they missed out on changing, and thus they lost the opportunity at hand to make it big. Not only did they miss the opportunity to earn big money, they lost their chance of survival.

The message of this story is, if you don’t change, you shall be removed from the competition. As Nokia CEO commented recently: “We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.”

I don’t have to tell you but times are extremely tough in the SA Travel Industry these days but I still believe that if you focus on what you are good at and deliver this with absolute passion and excitement you will succeed. Stick to what you know and dump that which you are clearly not competent at.

On a final note I have just returned from being on our “February Forecast Review” which is where we review the eight months to the end of February and estimate the last four months of our fiscal. The exciting thing is that with all things being equal we may well breach the R1.0bn turnover mark to the end of June 2016! Not a definite but this goal is within reach now and something that if achieved will be hugely celebrated with a massive party at our Cape Town Head Office sometime between July and September.

Fasten your seat belts and hang on for a continuation of a tough economic ride but believe in yourself and get out of bed with passion and conviction so that you can embrace the day positively.

Garth wolff
Garth Wolff - Founder and CEO eTravel Group