On a Saturday morning I visited a fine morning market at Parys, Free State. It was amazing to see the quality of hand-crafted merchandise on display. This market compared to the best that Johannesburg has to offer. Not only were there fine crafts and arts but there were also fine foods – you would be hard pressed to find anything better elsewhere. I don’t know the history of the market but I’m very hopeful that based on the quality that is being provided that the market will go on from strength to strength.
One of the things I find interesting is that you may erroneously believe there are not discerning buyers in the community. The surprising thing is that in the Parys community this quality, excellent morning market has called out discerning customers from their community. It was amazing to see the number of well-heeled customers and the many purchases they were making.
At this morning market we met a coffee roaster Fanie Pretorius of Crater Coffees who has been in the business for about two years. He was at the market to promote his range of coffees and other coffee accessories, including coffee machines. He spent a long time with me going through his range of coffees and telling me how he had given up work for a year to nurse his dying wife. After she passed on, he decided that because she loved coffees so much, he was going to get into the business of coffee. He now has a roastery based in Johannesburg.
But like anything else, he has had a long period of training and experience to get weary is. He has contacted and made friends with various roasters throughout the country and his fine coffees are the fruit of his expertise and knowledge about roasting coffees.
This coffee roaster decided not to go back into the corporate world into company operations as he had been for many years. He decided he didn’t want to go back. He wanted to start something new. To rewire. Try something fresh. Something different.
More and more people are looking for new business ideas, new ways to make a living, new ways to create a lifestyle for themselves that is different from what has been traditionally accepted in the past. People like the coffee roaster want to be in control of their own destiny, not be at someone else’s beck and call. They love being involved in a business such as coffee which brings them close to a diversity of different people and new experiences.
If you are looking to get started, if you are wanting to do something on your own for yourself, then you may want to look at this resource while it is still publically available.
