“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. “ Swami Vivekananda
Meet Tanner and Tyler Barberis…
Brothers who saw an opening in the sound industry and grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Providing the people with a better service. The greatest advice that they have received was: “You are brothers first, before business.” The value of this statement is so true and boils down to the fact that even though you share a business with a family member it does not mean that your relationship must be jeopardised in order for your business to succeed. Money should never breakdown a good relationship, as money comes and goes; but family lasts forever. Success is not determined by how much money you make in your business, but by how that business has transformed and impacted the lives of those you delivering your service too.
TA- Tanner
TY- Tyler
Q: What are the words you live by?
TA: For me it’s, Never give up, it’s never too late. When you think of putting things into perspective it’s never too late you always have the opportunity to go for what you want.
Q: What motivated you to start a sound company?
TY: Basically for both of us it was the love for music, we both musicians at heart I play piano and I’m a drummer, Tanner plays guitar and he plays drums as well. But also we were really exposed to the technical side of it at church and we both kind of developed a love for that I think it was about six years or so. Eventually we made the decision, as we were kind of doing this already at church, so it was time that we kind of ventured off on our, so we took the leap, the leap of faith.
Q: Is there any challenges you face as young entrepreneurs?
TA: For me the main challenge at this point is the worry of getting to a point in your life where you financially stable and you comfortable with where you are in your life. Its increasingly difficult in the respect that you don’t know where the future lies, you don’t know what tomorrow may bring, you always have the fear at the back of your mind that something could go wrong, you know like theft in the company, or loss of family, so there’s always that question and it’s also a question of dealing with your rivals.
TY: I think one of the big challenges we had was around mentor-ship and having good mentors, I think mentors are quite important, especially if you intending on getting into the world business. We have fantastic people who have helped us along the way who helped us, but we never had any set mentors to show us the ropes especially with the “nitty gritty” stuff you come across along the way. You know I think its important to have people like that to walk down the road with you, people who are able to show you those types of things and also people to support you in what you attempting, just to show you sometimes that what you doing is what you supposed to be doing.
I think the other thing for me was as a young entrepreneur getting into business, we had a lot of advantage we knew a lot about sound, but we didn’t really know much about business and I think that’s where mentor-ship is also quite important. You learn a lot as you go along the way but it is also nice to have someone to help you develop that business acumen, to guide you to be a good businessman.
Q: Who would you say is your icon that you look up to?
TY: We have a few, most are in the family, but it is definitely obviously my dad and uncle, my dad just because he is a stodge family man, and he motivated us to be the same way, and he is just really dedicated and passionate about things, and one of those being food he loves food. My uncle as well who is an established businessman, in his own right he inspired us in the things that he has gotten into , he owned a little coffee shop called “French corner” it was in Bryanstan.
TA: For me it would have to be John D Rockefeller, the man who built America.
Q: What works in a partnership and what doesn’t?
TA: I believe for different people there’s different things, but for us there was various factors mainly understanding each other, the ability to compromise your decisions, so if he had an idea or if he had to make a decision and I disagree, one of us would have to step up and say no look this would be a better option to go for and we would have to compromise and accept. Listening to one another definitely, keeping each other in the know, as business partners you have to always communicate with one another and make sure we both on the same page at all times. One big factor for me and the last factor that works for me is that often in business you forced into making sudden decisions and this could cause animosity between the two of you. So it’s important to know that you need to be able to avoid such kind of animosity, so that your decision making can happen more efficiently and things can be don’t to the best of your ability and you must always be able to hold ties.
TY: When we got into the whole business thing, obviously the way our family works, they sat us down and said here’s the deal… I remember that one of the things my dad said to us was that you guys are brothers first and business partners second, so that was something that really sat with us over the cause of taking on this business venture. I mean when Tanner says animosity, there has been days that we want to strangle each other, but remembering that aside from this partnership, that brotherly bond, keeps us grounded and has allowed us to tolerate each other. I think its important though for us to bump heads at times but being able to overcome that is just as important, it strengthens the relationship and partnership and ultimately makes a better business environment.
Q: Was it always your dream to have your own company?
TY: For both of us definitely, I mentioned that business runs in my family a little bit, my granddad opened up a factory, it is still running it is in Industria. They do furniture; they do a lot I mean they have done furniture for Monte Casino and a couple of big places in South Africa. My dad and uncle, also in their youth they use sell sweets and my uncle is still into business today. I think because of that, and the environment that we were in it really inspired us to want to do the same. Yes, we always had that dream of wanting to open a company amongst the two of us.
Q: Tanner what are you currently pursuing?
TA: I am currently doing a degree in journalism, specifically English and Communications. That just allows me to broaden my opportunities when I’m done studying. My other dream is opening a Restaurant before I’m 25 years old.
Q: Tyler what are you currently pursuing?
TY: I’m busy doing my masters in clinical psychology at Wits. Psychology is one of my other passions also why I got into business, because I like figuring people out.
Q: What words of Wisdom do you have for other youngsters who want to start their own company?
TY: I think that one of the biggest things I’ve learned; was in the beginning that learning to network is important, you never going to know everything. You know in the beginning of your business you need to learn to rely on people to compliment you in the things you don’t really know. Aside from that going into business we had a lot of people to support us along the way, in terms of actually giving us business, one of which was a guy called Mark Montgomery from Marked Music Studios and you know those types of contacts, throw a lot of networks your way. So knowing people really helps you in the things that you don’t know, but also helps you in keeping your business alive, people are the beginning and end of your business.
Another thing I wanted to say to young entrepreneurs is that it is a difficult road to walk, it is not an easy thing to start a business, but it is also really valuable road to work, because in the challenges that you come across you going to be stretched in ways that you have never been stretched in other aspects of your life and you will discover good and bad things about yourself. But the bad is not ultimately bad, because by discovering the bad things enable you to be better next time. So you need to be prepared, you need to think through and plan as best you can, having said that you can never have a plan for every event you have. So at some point you need to get going and just be ready for whatever comes up and then I think the most important thing is that you need to educate yourself and that’s just beyond a University education. Simply reading literature, if you get a chance take a short course in business school or take a long course do an MBA, something that is going to help you expand your mind and your thinking. Talk to people who know more than you do, debate and argue with those people who know more than you do, by this you expanding your mind and you automatically also open up, and create opportunities for yourself, to gain that advantage as you in the position to take advantage.
TA: I just want to touch on the fact that, this relates to my first answer of never give up. If you look at our country it’s relevant, small business contributes a lot to our country, because of the fact that we have such high rates of poverty, so small businesses offer job creation and that’s a way of giving back to the country, so that’s a positive for me as well.
Q: Do you believe that any coloured person can accomplish their dreams?
TY: I think without a doubt, but I think it’s important, that you must be aware that you will fail along the way, actually you will fail a lot along the way, but that failure is not a bad thing. I mean if you always successful, than I don’t think you really challenging yourself, and if you not challenging yourself than you not going to grow. Having said that don’t always fail, because failure sucks.
TA: From my side yes definitely, but on a point, on a stereo type that a lot of people have about a coloured; that is the mentality of getting a job, earning a salary, driving Golf and having sound. I think a lot of our younger generation sees that as the dream of being a coloured, so I think if we can bridge that mentality especially with the younger generations, we can definitely make a mark as coloureds!
TY: I would just like to add what Tanner is touching on is the importance of community, that it is one thing for someone to have a dream and wanting to pursue that dream, it is really important to have a community to push the youth, to dream bigger, to go further. I think it is a combination of both people who want to go further, but also communities who are willing to support that person to reach the success of young coloured entrepreneurs.
Q: What are your final words of wisdom?
TY: For me, at the end of the day it is really just about expanding your mind, about trying to stretch yourself, and really that is what entrepreneurship is all about, it is not about succeeding or failing. But most importantly learning and getting better.
All pictures are original
BARBIERI SOUND REINFORCEMENT
Interview:
All answers by Tanner and Tyler Barberis
Contact details:
0760976129
Address:
37 Sixth Street, Maraisburg, Roodepoort, 1709
E-mail address:
barbierisound@gmail.com
Website:
http://www.facebook.com/barbierisound
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