Madonna’s story: Brewing better business with digital tools

Madonna Seroto is the CEO of Maverick Coffee in Mabopane, South Africa. Running multiple locations of her coffee shop was a huge amount of work, but with support from our Road to Growth programme, Madonna boosted her digital skills and embraced new technologies that streamlined her business operations. Here, she shares her story in her own words. 

“I always wanted to become an entrepreneur, I just wasn’t really sure of what sector to move into.  

Initially, what I had wanted to do was just create a small store for moms and their children to hang out in. My passion was to create a beautiful space where moms could rest, honestly. But then what motivated me to move more into coffee was that my husband buys coffee literally every day, so I thought ‘why not open a coffee shop with my husband?’ And we eventually got this amazing opportunity to buy into Maverick Coffee. We ended up with multiple stores. 

I think one of the main challenges that I’ve experienced has been getting staff to respect me as a boss. People find it more challenging to be led by a woman, because we are softer, we are gentler –  even when we send out instructions, it’s in a softer way. 

I’ve struggled a lot to get people to take my instructions and really execute them in the way that I would want. I always have to go the extra mile, just to make sure that my expectations are executed to perfection. 

Another struggle I had was making time to develop new skills. When I bought Maverick Coffee, I literally knew nothing about running a business. I needed a course that would help me build a foundation for having a successful business one day – so the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s Road to Growth programme was an amazing place to start. It was so, so, so beneficial for my business.

 

I had never really given myself time to get adequate training in the digital space – which is something that I’ve learned from Road to Growth. Instead of always just using the same old methods, the course made me realise how simple it could be to run my business on a day-to-day basis using digital tools. 

The digital tools that I use for my business are Yoco, Sage and Wave. We use Yoco for our point of sale and stock control. And Sage we use mostly for invoicing, for pay slips, and pulling up our financials. I use Wave specifically for our events. It helps me control the stock and do the invoicing. It’s also helpful for tracking which baristas are working at which events. 

 

We’ve really embraced social media platforms as marketing tools to reach our target market. We have an amazing team that manages our social media accounts and our website. They create engaging content for our clients and collaborate with other content creators.

In recent years, AI has also been helpful. We use ChatGPT for inspiration when creating social media content. It helps us keep up with trends. 

Digital literacy is super important for women in business. It makes our lives so much more efficient. From invoicing, to stock control, to monitoring trends, it makes the daily running of the business that much easier to handle. I love that you can run your business from your laptop, from anywhere in the world. 

Since participating in Road to Growth, I’ve not only expanded my use of digital tools, but I’ve also expanded my network and learned so much about the business world. The success of my business has helped me grow as a person.”