While some people are wired for a 9-5 life, some are just not built for that. Dennis de Wet is one of them.
Dennis de Wet was born in Namibia and later studied Financial Analysis at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Despite the fact that, he is not the guy that wants to be in cubicle working for 8 to 10 hours on weekdays, Dennis de Wet started his coffee dream by taking a financial controller job for a property company called the Isle of Man after university.
He sees himself as a dreamer and a visionary:
“I realised if I stayed in corporate 10 or 20 more years, even as the CEO of the company, I would still be quite miserable. I am a dreamer, a visionary. I like new things and following ideas. I met people who woke up in the morning and loved what they were doing, and I was envious of that.”
While on his entrepreneurial journey, nature came and pushed him out of the corporate world to founding a leading coffee brand in Namibia.
In 2008, world economy was greatly affected by a subprime crisis. And it became the ticket for Dennis de Wet to take the big step.
The “…Like What You’re Doing.” Plan 🤔
“You spend eight to 10 hours a day working, so it would be a bonus if you actually like what you are doing,” he says.
After resigning, Dennis de Wet came up with a clever and simple plan, Like What You’re Doing. Now you can definitely tell he never liked the 9-5 ever since he got the job with Isle of Man. But he had to do it to survive and raise funds for his dreams. Here’s what he did afterwards:
He made a list of the things he likes:
- Coffee
- Surfing
- Grand Prix
- Wine
- Food
Then he studied each industry, and found a coffee business opportunity. And went straight to get the beans. Simple right?
It makes sense because if you must do a particular thing for the rest of your life; it will be self-fulfilling doing what you love 🙂
Here’s The Secret 😉
Before the global economic crisis in 2008, Dennis de Wet has been researching about coffee–coffee roasting as a possible future venture.
Fortunately, the industry was becoming a thing in South Africa a neighboring country to Namibia. The industry was a quiet one in Namibia.
Establishing Slowtown Coffee Roasters
He took a loan from his father; registered the brand, and Slowtown Coffee Roasters was born.
It wasn’t easy getting a perfect location. Landlords couldn’t understand the concept and they weren’t ready to provide the space for an espresso machine for the business.
The brand has been growing gradually ever since.
“I paid back the loan from my father a year later, on his terms. Since then, it has always been a bootstrapping business. We have been approached by venture capitalists and possible equity partners but I am happy we did it this way. It keeps us nimble and resilient. Whatever money we’ve made has gone back into the business.”
With connection to Europe, Dennis de Wet plans to expand his coffee roastery business in Namibia to far corners of the earth.
By Elijah Christopher
