Interview With KZN-born Entrepreneur & Founder Of Dynamic Outlook, Janice Chetty
Interview With KZN-born Entrepreneur & Founder Of Dynamic Outlook, Janice Chetty. Janice Chetty is a South African entrepreneur and founder of Dynamic Outlook that is very passionate about education and technology, she believes these sectors are going to make a huge impact in improving the social and economic status of the country. As an entrepreneur, she seeks not only to make business related impact but she also looks to build a legacy of helping those who are in need. We recently had an interview with Janice to discuss her business journey and her goals for the future. Check it out below!
What made you realise that you are passionate about education and technology?
As teen I understood education is power and gives you the key to success. As I grew into a young adult, at the age of 21 I started tutoring accounting part time, just to make extra money while I was still studying my Accounting Science degree. It was from that day on, that my passion for education grew stronger and stronger and then I decided to pursue my PGCE in Education. I also have seen what a positive impact education has made in my life and the people around me. I believe education is the biggest and most valuable gift you can give someone, that’s what I feel my purpose is, to help give this gift to the less fortunate, hoping that it will make their life a better one and they can pass on this legacy. The reason why I am passionate about technology is because in 2016 I got hired as an IT trainer for a customized software and a year later I got promoted to being an IT software Manager whereby I worked with an IT company based in India. This was very interesting and challenging at the same time, however I grew fond of it and everything in the world is moving towards technology and automation. Technology is vital in the world we live in and I believe there is so much scope in technology and why I have a deep passion for it, is because it’s always changing so I am always learning new trends and new things.
What problem did you want to solve when you were launching Dynamic Outlook?
When I launched Dynamic Outlook last April, I was thinking about women empowerment, diversity in the work place and upskilling the youth. Being a young business woman, there can be times where males don’t take women in business serious. One of my aims was to display women empowerment. There are times where a female will be put forward for a job position which is a predominately male type of job , this is show clients that woman are just as good as a man in a supposedly predominately male job if given the chance. The other aim is to create diversity in the workplace by not discriminating against gender, race and age. To promote an equal opportunity for all candidates that apply for a specific job. Dynamic Outlook is all about empowerment and diversity.
How did Dynamic Outlook manage to assist businesses in embracing the culture of diversity and inclusion since it was established?
We did this by advising and guiding clients on the benefits of diversity. Also when recruiting for a client we sent through diverse set of CV’s, the client was spolit for choice. When advertising a job we don’t add race, sexuality or gender to the advert.
Please highlight how attaining your qualifications has helped in terms of establishing and running your business.
My first qualification is a BCOMPT Accounting Science degree, this qualification has the most affect when it comes to running my business, and this degree has taught me about finances and taxes. How to run a business. It was from doing this degree that my passion of becoming an entrepreneur grew. I found this degree so interesting and so much life skills were taught by doing this degree. I can do my own company registrations, my own taxes. I can read and understand an income statement and balance sheet. I understand business acumen. I know how to maximize profit in my business and different strategies to put into place to grow my business. My second qualification is in Education and this helped me when it came to communication and sales reason being, in this degree, I learnt about effective communication and how to present yourself in a professional manner. Being a teacher communication is a key aspect of the job. Being able to pass your message across loud and clear. This helped me a lot when dealing with clients and gaining new business.
How do you make sure that Dynamic Outlook provides relevant and helpful information that can be used to improve its client’s organisations?
We do advise some of our clients on salary scales for specific jobs and what’s trending in their industry at the moment. Generally the information we do provide to our clients is interview guidelines that they can use when interviewing candidates.
With your vast experience as an expert in professional workplace culture, what advice would you give other entrepreneurs who want to improve their start-up’s workplace culture?
I personally do not believe in micromanagement, my workplace culture is flexible and I have an open door policy, so all my staff know they can approach me on any matter concerning work or a personal matter. As an entrepreneur you need to be a good example by actually instilling positivity in the work environment, treat all your staff with the same amount of respect, from the cleaner to the Manager/CEO. Ensure you be an example of a good leader, rather than been seen as a dictator where staff are not comfortable around you. Embrace diversity, example is when hiring staff, do not discriminate against, race, gender or sexuality. Treat everyone the same. Make the work environment pleasant and fun at times. Balance the management roles between males and females.
As a person who is dedicated to helping people and has established Mirriam’s Mission, what kind of social impact are you hoping to achieve?
I feel my life purpose to help others in need and I feel it’s through education and upskilling. Hence I have opened Mirriam’s Mission in memory of my late granny who has passed away 10 years ago. She displayed a serving nature and this is what I want to carry forward in my life. The social impact I am hoping to achieve is to teach youth and young adults how to fish, rather than just giving the bread. I want to give them power, in which they can use to make their lives better and their families. By power I mean educating and upskilling them. The two big topics trending now is entrepreneurship and technology so these are the two skills I will be focusing on upskilling people on. I also want to make school environments more pleasant by making the schools neater, cleaner and brighter, this will be done in the under privileged areas. The environment makes a big impact in the child’s learning. I am sure by making the environment more pleasant the child will learn better. When I say making the environment more pleasant, I mean, painting the classrooms, putting up white boards in the classroom instead of a dusty chalkboard, provide desk and chairs. Creating a computer room for the kids etc. Lastly I will be focusing on teachers, often we forget that teachers play such a vital role in our country and they also need to be taken care off. I will be focusing on some wellness programs for the teachers and also making their environment more workable and pleasant. This will surely increase the teacher’s productivity.
You managed to launch and grow Dynamic Outlook during the Covid 19 pandemic, what are some of the things you did in order for the business to thrive during this time?
When I started this business, I had a huge amount of faith and a strong mindset. I did not pay attention to the 3d world, I knew what I wanted to achieve and I focused on that. For the first two months I had now sales and I used to sit from 8am-5pm just doing cold calling. I never gave up because I knew great things are ahead of me. I can only thank God for this because after my first sale in June, business just started pouring in and I expanded my staff compliment and things got better and better. It’s all about your mindset. Providing quality services to your clients, ensures your client comes back to you. I did it in reverse, where the economy was dropping, people are getting retrenched and companies where closing down and there I go and open up an employment agency, faith and determination played a big role in this journey.
How do you think entrepreneurs should navigate the business world moving forward, considering the huge disruption and change that was caused by the pandemic?
The pandemic has taught business owners so many lessons, like for one employee can be responsible and work from home and that should be an option given to employees who are able to do this. This is becoming a trend now in the working world whereby people work remotely. Another lesson is do not be over dependent on staff, some things if can, should be automated. When staff is sick or has passed on business still continues. As an entrepreneur you need to find ways to be adjustable in any situation being a pandemic or a war or any type of crisis. They should navigate towards Flexibility, technology and bullet proofing their business as much as possible. More importantly the effects of the pandemic has shown entrepreneurs the positives and negatives of their businesses. Businesses need to have an action plan to recovery post the pandemic by collecting data and insights on lessons learned from the pandemic, use this information to prioritise actions to enhance business value today.
Please elaborate the benefits of having a company that is inclusive of diverse individuals and different ways of doing things.
The benefits of being diversified is that you get to learn about other cultures. You will grow to respect all types of individuals. We attract the best talent, increases profit revenue, and it drives employee engagement and boost the company’s reputation. Working in a diverse environment also increases productivity. Also increases creativity among teams amongst teams and the ability to have a more diverse set of solutions to a specific problems. Employment engagement increases for example during lunch breaks employees can learn about their fellow colleague culture and life style. Cultural diversity reduces staff turnover and the employer is spoilt for choice and a larger pool of candidates will apply. When companies hire from a diverse pool they are more likely to hire the best.
What motivated you to start your entrepreneurship journey after you lost your job during the Covid-19 pandemic as many people would have given up.
I had this vision of opening up this business in 2019. However at that time I was in a full time job which I got a bit comfortable in. When I got retrenched, I saw this an opportunity to purse this vision. I had this thought that I either sit on my bed and cry or get up and make a success of myself so I will never be this position of being retrenched again. So that’s what I did, I made a promise to myself to work towards being my own boss and having flexibility to be able to do my charity work as well. I pursued this dream even though some people told me it will not work and that I rather just give up and find a job. Thankfully I did not pay attention to those comments and I just started making my vision a reality. I am not one to give up that easily.
Since Dynamic Outlook only began during the pandemic and has been growing at a rapid rate, what are some of the goals that that you seek to achieve in the next 5 years?
My goals for Dynamic Outlook within the next 5 years is to reach a turnover of a R1million a month. To expand my staff compliment and to be seen as the best recruitment agency in SA. Dynamic Outlook must be a well-established brand that changes people’s life for the better. Dynamic cares for the people and for their clients. We also would want our social media pages to be growing and try and be more innovative on how recruitment is done. Currently we are also involved in IT services and I am business working on two IT projects which one of them could change the way children learn at schools. It is in the demo phase, we will be launching it within the next two months. I am also working on another project whereby we are creating a unique dating platform. So exciting times ahead for Dynamic Outlook!
