Gwen Watkins, member of the 85 Broads South Africa Chapter, is an entrepreneurial pioneer whose story demonstrates the vision and passion of 85 Broads members worldwide. Starting out as a switchboard operator at the South African branch of GE Plastics in 1977, Gwen’s professional drive led her to become the first woman on the Plastics & Rubber Council and later in 1988,to start her own company. Now the CEO of Freelancers Writing Services, a communications consultancy that provides press relations assistance to a range of industries, Gwen’s penchant for entrepreneurial activities and her believe in herself have led her to become the success story that she is today.

Gwen has generously shared her story for us in an interview below. Not only do her words stand as a testament to her ceaseless energy and drive but her good humour and warmth shine through as a model for others. Hers is an inspirational story and we thank her for sharing with us.

85 Broads: To start things off, how did you get involved in the plastics industry?

Gwen Watkins: It was one of those unintentional things. I joined the South African branch of GE Plastics as the switchboard operator and receptionist in September 1977, newly married and very flighty! The plastics manager was always out to lunch (it was the 70s) and customers would phone and ask for stock and technical details. So, I hauled out the brochures and started reading fast. He left and the new manager asked if I wanted to continue being involved as his Personal Assistant, I said yes and learnt more. When he left, the general manager offered me the job as the sales rep. I was still paid my PA salary but I got a company car! I was with GE for three years, in which time I joined the associations, trained and succeeded as the first woman in South Africa to pass the Certificate in Plastics Technology – not bad for someone who had dropped science in the tenth grade.

I was very fortunate because the industry thought it was great and supported me in every way; they liked the idea of a woman in the industry. As many of them were German or English, they had few hang-ups about “a woman’s place.” Once I was at a trade dinner where a competitor got drunk and turned abusive and the other eight guests at the table stood up and said, “Gentlemen it’s time to retire. Gwen would you care to join us?” and he was left sitting alone. The following day he apologised profusely, partly because no one would talk to him!

I left GE because I was on the women’s salary scale and couldn’t compete on the men’s scale. I then joined the du Pont representatives in South Africa, Ciba Geigy and lastly a local raw materials supplier. In-between du Pont and Ciba, I was editor of the technical publication Plastics & Rubber News, which I loved but the pay was lousy and the hours long. It was then that the writing bug really got me – I had wanted to be a reporter when I left school, but I hadn’t cut the grade to make the cub reporter school. Here I came in as an editor, which sounds more imposing than it was. I was also the journalist, photographer, layout artist, sub-editor and general dogsbody but it was ‘my’ magazine in terms of content.

85 Broads: You were clearly successful in the plastics industry, not only as a woman but also as a professional in your own right. Why did you decide to change careers?

GW: I hated working for the local suppliers – for the first time I came up against discrimination and its quality was not up to standard – I had been spoilt by working for the top plastic raw material suppliers in the world.

One day I had coffee with a woman who had a PR consultancy with one client, Monsanto, which is in the chemicals industry. We said, “Why not start a PR consultancy specialising in the plastics, packaging and allied industries? No one else is that focused.” And so we did—no business plan, no money, only a belief that what we had was unique. We had one old Ford car between us, a spare bedroom in her house and a R10 000 loan (US$ 1,500 – but it was worth more in September 1988).

I had real incentive not to fail, as between the idea and the execution, my second husband walked out for the second time, leaving me with two boys aged six and three.

85 Broads: Why did you decide to switch from a partnership to running your own company, Freelancers Writing Services? Can you share some pivotal points?

GW: We ran the partnership for two years but it fell apart badly. My partner, for various personal reasons, got into the occult, so we would have tarot readings about where the company should go, meet with numerologists about decisions and astrologers to read our future. I am a Christian but fairly tolerant, I don’t yell witchcraft at other ideas but I found it not only ridiculous but obsessive and uncomfortable. So, I broke the partnership (which of course the tarot had predicted!).

Like an idiot, I had no partnership agreement. So exactly like a bad divorce, I lost all the assets including clients and started all over again in my spare bedroom, with a R10 000 loan in February 1991. I had a great bank manager (a non-existent person today) who believed I would succeed and made my loan unsecured (thank you Cassim Maheter, wherever you are today at First National Bank).

The first three years were awful but I survived. Funnily enough I said at one stage to my new (and present) husband, “If only someone would offer me a job at R10 000 a month, I would jump at it. Someone did, and I turned it down! Independence was more important to me, plus I got to see my kids grow up from my home office. 1994 was a great year in South Africa, full of possibilities, and it marked a turning point for me.

So, last year in September, I celebrated 21 years as my own boss and being an adult business person!

85 Broads: Your CV demonstrates your pioneering spirit and immense skills. Can you attribute any part of this to the challenges that you have faced as a woman? Essentially, do you believe that being a woman has been a driving factor in your success?

GW: Much of my success derives from my background. My father was a man who believed only in intelligence, not the sex of a person. My sister and I were brought up to believe that the cardinal sin was to not use our intelligence and achieve. My Mom didn’t work when I was young but started dealing in property and became very successful. She taught me two prime rules – “if a deal looks too good to be true and offers fabulous returns on investment, they are crooks.” “Property is the surest long term investment because no matter how bad financial markets get, property will recover.” Before she died in 2001, she bought a house with me for R450 000 and told me it was my inheritance. I sold it in late 2006 for R1.4 million – she was right! And I still miss her, even though we fought a lot.

I had so many jobs as a young girl. I couldn’t fill in your average application for a job because there wasn’t enough space! Until I got to GE in 1977, I had never worked for anyone for a full year – the shortest job I’d had was 3 weeks. I had worked for every kind of company, boss and product imaginable. All of this taught me two things – male bosses didn’t like me because I would state my mind or ask awkward questions and because I had refused to go to university, I wasn’t going to get any really ‘bright’ jobs. At least in my own business I would have a smart boss!

I am really stubborn about getting up and fighting again. Part of it was that I was a tomboy and climbed trees, fell off things and jumped off roofs as a dare. Boys wouldn’t let you play if you cried, so I didn’t. I also remember being adamant that I didn’t want to be the cowgirl at home during Cowboys and Indians, I would rather be the Indian because I got to have a knife and a bow and arrow! Of course, I had to lose but at least I was in the game!

85 Broads: What do you think are the most important qualities to have as an entrepreneur? Connections? Capital? Ambition? Experience?

GW: Passion – without it nothing else can survive. Connections can change in an instant in South Africa. Capital can be wiped out in depressions, ambition is a hard taskmaster and experience is after all just about falling down and getting up!

Integrity – from my plastics days I had a compliment that I cherished and remember. A customer told someone else “Gwen is always honest, if she doesn’t know, she doesn’t bullshit you, and she tells you so. But then she says, ‘I will find out’ and she does, she always delivers on her word.”

Humour – I have been through deep depressive periods for most of my life (I finally worked out it was hormonal, not manic depression or bipolar disorder as they call it today, which is what the doctors had said.) I hated anti-depressants and alcohol is a dangerous (though yummy) companion in high-pressure jobs, but a sense of humour, even if it seems a little black, keeps you sane. Funnily enough, my ex-partner tried to kill herself and I was the only one they had to call. So I went to visit her at the hospital and took her out for a drive. We went and watched my eldest son play cricket and though it is 18 years ago, I remember the scene vividly. It taught me about despair and hope.

Belief – you do need some spiritual belief beyond yourself. The PR & journalism industry is a narcissistic one and you could eventually begin to believe that all this puff actually matters. Stopping to look at a sunset, admiring the perfection of a rose or the mathematical beauty of a shell helps you remember that we are part of a much bigger cosmos. It’s one of the reasons I find the endless stream of information distracting, it doesn’t allow for silence and contemplation. In fact technology is now designed to ensure that unless we are actually sleeping we are bombarded with messages. I work in a quiet room, which is my library with no radio, TV or message streaming. Occasionally my cellphone or email beeps but I can happily ignore them as tools of the trade, they are not my masters.

Friends – as a woman in business they are important and you need different kinds of friends. You need those in the same hectic business as yourself because they understand the pressure, but you also need those wonderful vague arty friends (usually vegans) who remind you there is more to life than money. You also need a shopping friend, a movie friend, a friend to cry with you and a friend who yells, “Pull yourself together and stop whining!”

Supportive partner – if you are married or in a permanent relationship, he or she must be 100% supportive of your endeavours. I have seen many businesses fail because the husband started getting jealous/grumpy/possessive or plain nasty. Women partners are more supportive (it’s in their nature I suspect). My husband is my biggest supporter and is the first to tell me if I am sinking into that morass called despair (which happens still). He once told me, “When you are positive, the work arrives without you doing anything. As soon as you stop believing in yourself, it stops arriving or disappears.” He was way ahead of The Secret!

Interviewed by Alessandra Henderson, 85 Broads New York Chapter
Interview conducted March 8, 2010