Some juicy deals were sealed on Dragon's Den on Tuesday - with Vusi Thembekwayo signing his biggest deal yet. He invested R2 million in a Halaal abattoir owned by a guy called Johan Jacobs and got a 40% steak in the business.
Johan was thrilled and Vusi was thrilled but adamant that the deal be subject to due diligence - it rests on the legitimacy of Johan's claims that he has millions of rands in deals lined up. The deal will go through if the numbers he told the Dragons' are true - if not, it's over.
Johan looked very honest, he seemed sincere but as we all know, you can't trust anyone until you can. Also, circumstances change - his potential customers might change their minds or suddenly have a cash flow problems etc.
The deal really emphasised how the only way to be certain of anything is to have it
in writing. It also showed how important it is for entrepreneurs to focus on the numbers, specifically,
precisely. One of the reasons Johan got the deal is because he knew his numbers so well. More and more I've been realising that there's so much truth in numbers - they say so much and they never lie. You don't have to wonder.
Like you had to
wonder about Mr President and his lubricated toilet paper.
Zithande Mbala (Mr President) and his invention.
The trouble with him was that he was almost on the right track invention-wise. I've heard guys saying that there isn't enough done to deal with their pooblems so it was good to see him trying but his big setback was the paperwork with Mica. It wasn't an actual order and yet he wanted them to believe it was which made him untrustworthy.
There's a lot of emphasis on trust on the show - or lack thereof. How do you know who to trust in business? How can you
know for sure? Clearly peace of mind lies in the numbers and paperwork.