Richard Rodrigues is the CEO of Zatara Property Group (ZPG). Seventy percent of his job entails strategic planning and financial reviews, while 30% of his time is taken up by the liaising and planning of new and existing developments.
Richard says what sets ZPG apart from its competitors is the fact that the business is flexible and open to doing things differently. “Due to being a family run business I believe we react quickly and efficiently and because we have a personal relationship with most of our tenants.”
He defines success as “enjoying what you do”. Richard says recently he has come to the realisation that “a balanced life between faith, family and friends alongside work is what defines true success. You’re simply happier when the balance is there.”
Richard says his strategy for success is to associate himself with the best people in their respective fields – from the best accountant to the best engineer. “One learns a lot if you’re open to asking questions. I’ve been asked many times how I got involved in businesses that I had no idea about initially. One always needs to start somewhere and associating yourself with the correct team and people helps a lot.”
When asked what habits makes him successful, he says: “In business, things rarely go according to plan, while business will always be a constant fight for terms, success and time. Stepping back and carefully assessing the change in circumstances is perhaps a strength that’s made me come out on top more times than not.” He adds that appreciating the fact that you will not always come out with a win, but learning from the losses and safeguarding against such in future is probably the best lessons he has learnt.
Richard says the biggest highlight of 2021 is the fact that ZPG was able to line up tenants to fill 90% of vacancies within the year and the first quarter of 2022. “We managed to complete three large projects in 2020/2021, which we were planning during lockdown.”
Despite the pandemic that knocked the property industry, ZPG survived. “We mustn’t forget how fortunate we were to weather such a significant storm.”
Richard says the company’s focus for this year is to implement and stabilise on all the planning and the changes that were made in 2021 to adapt to the new normal.
Richard’s Finance tips:
If you don’t take risks early on you will never know what you could have achieved. Most successful people in business have pretty much risked it all early on, and I’m a firm believer in the fact that you should.
Advice also only really helps when you are willing to sacrifice TIME. Almost every successful person I know worked or works 18-hour days for years and decades to get to where they are. You can achieve more than the rest if you prepared to work for it.
Text: JUSTINE FORTUIN
