Kerry Erasmus

As a youngster growing up in South Africa, I remember going to the local movie house “The Roxy” and seeing a movie advert for a cigarette company that included scenes from Perth Australia. I don’t know why I remember this, but strange as it is, 35 years later I emmigrated to Perth with my wife Rosie. We met in Cape Town, Rosie was on holiday from Australia. I was an accountant for a Reinsurance company at the time. Shortly after we were married, I decided to start my own business.

My first business

I started my first accounting practice from home shortly after resigning and selling our home next to Table Mountain, (there is no social security in South Africa and we needed money to survive). I met up with a local computer retailer who had just obtained the rights to sell an accounting software package. He had no idea how to use it and we agreed on a deal. He would give me a free copy if I figured out how to use it and then teach him so that he could demonstrate and sell it to his clients.

To cut a long story short, I mastered the little devil and became one of the first accountants in Cape Town to provide computerized Bookkeeping services to small businesses. Having an Osborne portable computer also allowed me to have and learn word processing. Soon I was out there handing out home-made pamphlets to would be clients. My Sales & Marketing learning curve was just taking off.

Come the 80’s

Come the 80’s and South Africa was now really on the nose for most people. We could stay to see what would happen or start a new life somewhere else. Australia was the obvious choice for us. Most of my business friends were already in strife due to sanctions and downturn in the economy. Most disturbingly, daily violence was escalating in the streets. We decided to pack up and leave.

Immigrated to Australia ‘86
Arriving in Perth Australia, started from scratch we could only take out a very small portion of our capital and most of it was lost in the currency exchange. After paying for our trip and transporting some furniture, we had very little money left in the bank, but we had big dreams and great enthusiasm.

Rosie was very happy to be home again. We lived in Perth for 22 years and in that time I was involved in a number of business ventures. As I did not want to get back into accounting at that point, I sold Real Estate for some time. I then started a computer consulting business with a friend. We consulted, installed and supported medium size businesses with UNIX based accounting systems. This was followed by a period in recruitment, specializing in accounting staff.

Bought a Fast Food Franchise
In the late 90’s, Rosie and I bought a franchised lunch bar. We quickly cut our teeth in the retail food business and had a fairly successful outlet. But it was a killer and 18 months later I had a heart attack. We decided to sell the business.

Working from home again
Rosie went back to work for an accounting firm and I decided to work from home again. I did a course in Mail order marketing and started marketing some information products via mail. Learnt a lot here about direct marketing, but could not get excited about the mail order part. I decided to teach myself share trading on the internet. Pretty soon I was not only trading shares, but also trading Options and Futures. We have always been interested in property investment and did a bit of property renovation and developement back in South Africa. Once established, we started building a property portfolio again.

New Ventures

The marketing aspect of business always fascinated me and I knew if I could master this side of a business, I would be able to run any business I want. I kept on educating myself in Marketing and making sure I have the right Mind-Set for business. I knew that a product or service will come up at some point that will capture my interest. Strange as it might sound, I thrive on the trial and error of entrepreneurship. Today I realize that it actually gave me invaluable training in business. For one, it taught me that one should not look at what is currently happening in your business, but to rather focus on what potential it could offer in the future. I realized if you could not see a future for your business or product, it was best to get out.

Moved to Sydney and then to Adelaide

Two years ago we moved to Sydney. I liked Perth and it was very good to us, but we wanted to see what it would be like to live in a big city. I had been to Sydney several times on business and found it a very intersting place. Rosie and I had an overseas holiday about 18 months ago and we found Sydney very similar to European Cities. We visited, London, Paris, Rome and then Trieste, were Rosie’s mom was born and lot of her family still still live there. The Italians are wonderful people. Infact I have now finaly started to Learn Italian. We had a tremendous time living in Sydney, but the traffic and parking problems just got to much for us in the end, so we decided to move to Adelaide. Rosie was born in Adelaide and she just loves being back with her family again. I, on the other hand, just love living next to the sea again.

Back to the futured
The marketing business I build up while in Perth has now developed very well. I have customers/clients in quite a few places in the world. Working from home has never been easier since the advent of the internet. I can now do business automatically 24/7. Mainly I market products online, but I also help people that are interested in building or improving their own own business by being a Speciality Service Provider.

I offer some very specialised services to my clients which include Personal Developement courses. Do yourself a favour and brouse through my web page, I may just be able to help you with your business challenges.