Tumeka Matshoba- Ramuedzisi admits that she may never have become an entrepreneur if she wasn’t married to husband and business partner Denga. Together, they have been running Ramuedzisi Chartered Accountants and Registered Auditors for sixteen years.
Although she felt a lack of interest in pursuing a corporate job or climbing the corporate hierarchy, Tumeka recounts, ‘Running a business had never crossed my mind; it was more his idea. We established the partnership after finishing our articles at KPMG. At the time, I was more interested in academia and doubled as a lecturer at University of Johannesburg (UJ).’
It was a rocky start for the practice when they landed their first big client, an audit of an asset manager promising a lucrative audit fee. They worked long hours to complete the audit but sensed that payment was not forthcoming when the client repeatedly evaded conversations about their unpaid invoices.
‘In the end, we did not issue an audit report. We lost a lot of time and money as a result of our youthful exuberance. The lesson learnt was that when the deal is too good to be true, think twice. If the same assignment crossed my desk today, I would ask a lot more questions before taking it on,’ Tumeka says.
People and cash flow management
Another notch on their learning curve has been people management. When you are an executive at a corporate entity, you can easily moan about subordinates hired by human resources when they don’t deliver.
Tumeka explains the contrast thus, ‘at Ramuedzisi, we hired each and every one of our team members so it is up to us to make it work with each employee. And given the size of our firm, we are invested in their personal lives because any occurrences in their lives impacts our collective delivery.’
A further test in the entrepreneurship journey at Ramuedzisi is cash flow management. During one difficult spell, the owners went nine months without a salary to keep the lights on.
‘We have even had to lend the business money at some points. Thankfully, we recovered and got the loans repaid. As an entrepreneur, you need to be very disciplined in matters of personal finance because times will come when you will need to dip into your savings to survive. This is particularly pertinent in our situation because we are married business partners,’ Tumeka explains.
Good tension
Being married business partners has worked well over the years for the Ramuedzisis because of having professional respect for each other at the office. They avoid talking shop at home, scheduling a work meeting in the office for just the two of them if there is a matter to discuss.
‘We have a good tension given that Denga has a higher risk appetite and I am generally risk averse. We often disagree but when we do, we do not undermine each other because each of us knows the other person is smart and knowledgeable.’
Smart and knowledgeable is definitely a description that suits Tumeka. Whilst teaching at UJ, she completed her Master’s degree in computer auditing. She went on to get a PhD in leadership from the University of Pretoria (UP) where she is a senior researcher and a lecturer in strategic finance. Tumeka also serves on the boards of Reunert, Safari Investments and Toyota South Africa.
Quality time
‘I lead a busy life, yet I’ve managed to prioritize quality time with my husband and two children on weekends by deliberately steering clear of work commitments. Working in auditing also suits me because I like that we have heavy periods and quiet periods which I prefer to a job that is at the same level of intensity throughout the year,’ she states.
Tumeka is taking tennis lessons with her children in the hope that they will play each other as a bonding activity. She is also rekindling her love for the piano having been quite musically inclined as a child.
Lately, she has fallen in love with research and is less interested in teaching. Her current read is Can we talk about race? by Beverly Daniel Tatum. It is aligned to her passion for transformation which she believes is a priority agenda for South Africa. ‘The Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy may have been poorly implemented but without it we would be worse off,’ she opines.
Tumeka’s favourites
Favourite car – ‘Porshe 911 Turbo S. Not sure if I will ever own one though because I cannot imagine paying over R2 million cash for a car. I don’t believe in incurring large debt for cars.’
Favourite book – ‘1984 by George Orwell. It is a great piece of social commentary written in 1949 predicting the future. The book is still relevant to life today.’
Favourite movie – ‘The Sound of Music. I am so excited that the theatre production is back at Teatro Montecasino this month.’
Favourite restaurant – ‘Ukko in Bryanston.’
Favourite meal – ‘Umphokoqo na masi (crumbly maize meal with sour milk)’
Favourite app – ‘Facebook’
Favourite holiday destination – ‘Mauritius because you can go there with no itinerary and just have a chilled time at a resort.’