To me, the word “Momtrepreneur” can be summarised in the name of Verena Read, one of my first PicEri clients.

She was born in Argentina as Verena Körte (Spanish), raised in South Africa (German language). She married Terry, making their home language English. Raising her daughter, Mia (12) and son, Joseph (8) to manage 4 languages – English, Afrikaans, German and Spanish.

A busy body, full of ideas and energy. I feel so grateful to have watched her, follow her, sometimes guide her, discuss and share with her information, ideas and life and more important, learnt from her.

Her first business started out as Tinka’s Kids (embroidered babygrows and kids clothing).

Adding to that – Patagonia Sawmill.
Verena and her family live on a farm in Malmesbury in the Swartland, called Patagonia. Her husband runs Patagonia Farming which is a vegetable packing company. As Verena studied food science, she also keeps an eye on that too. The sawmill started because they had to fell some old trees and used the wood for furniture and wendy houses.

Soon people contracted her to make rustic décor items etc., until one day one of her clients wanted to sell her business to Verena. This was called “Goeters met Liefde”. But running all businesses the same time seemed close to impossible, so Verena sold Tinka’s Kids and turned the sawmill into the new venture. The name Goeters met Liefde felt just too long, so she decided on only Goeters. Sometimes you need to go the extra mile to get what you want. The domain name www.goeters.co.za was then owned by a private person – but not in use. How lucky can you be?! So, we contacted that person and offered to purchase that name for a reasonable price.

You see what I mean with busy body, also taking the mom’s taxi part into consideration!

Goeters, has turned into a blooming small business, employing people and satisfying customers all over the country and as far as Namibia. Verena will always go out of her way to adjust her product and customize to her customer’s taste and needs.

Silly copycats will always be around, won’t they? Unfortunately, her products are often copied. Who was first? – one would ask. I know for a fact, as we often discuss a new product/idea or unique colour range. But: