28 Jun Encounters with Vintage: The success of the Association lies in how it advances community
Encounters with Vintage
The success of the Association lies in how it advances community
Get ready to encounter to farriage! Yes, it is what you think…a fellow marriage! It has a nice ring to it don’t you think? Aldrin and Murlin Boraine are Fellows from the class of 2012 who are celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary this year. Not only did they study at UCT but they were also in a jazz band together. Aldrin played the drums and Murlin was the songstress. Let’s get to know these fellows who made it past the infamous fellow-zone.
What do you do besides living and why do you do it?
We love living busy, well-rounded lives. Besides working in corporate in London, we own a South African business called Boraine Consulting. We try our best to have a healthy lifestyle and love exercising and clean eating. We’re also both musicians and share our love of music. We love travelling and are trying our best to tick off as many countries as possible!
When asked where you saw yourselves in 5 years by Hip2bSquare you said, “we definitely see ourselves expanding into all types of printing” Looking back at 3Q, what are some of the highlights from the printing days and what did you learn about entrepreneurship from this venture? (Is it still operational?)
3Q Printers was our first official business. It gave us exposure to dealing with clients, working to very tight deadlines and managing staff. We had our fair share of challenges, including our first UCT t-shirt order being stolen, working through the night to meet deadlines and studying for exams at the same time, and proving ourselves to potential customers. Being a new business and breaking into the industry is hard enough, however, being 19 years old and approaching large corporates to have us do their printing is even harder. We were fortunate to have mentors in the industry and leverage our contacts to get our first few customers.
At the time of doing the interview with Hip2bSquare, the business was doing well. We were known as the ‘on campus’ printers at UCT and had a few corporate clients too. After running the business for 4 years we had an opportunity to sell it and took it.
The business was sold to the manager at the time. After owning 3Q Printers for about one year, he decided to take the business in a design direction with less of a focus on printing. It is still operational under a different company name.
What inspired Boraine Consulting?
Upon graduating with commerce degrees and gaining experience working in corporate, we constantly found ourselves in a position where we were providing friends, family and acquaintances with accounting, tax and business advice and assistance. Boraine Consulting was therefore started in response to a need for accounting and business advice for small and medium-sized entities.
The more we work with our clients, the more we realise the need for small business development in South Africa. We do this by removing the ‘burden’ of doing their own management accounts or financial statements, etc. Business owners do not necessarily have the time, skills or resources to do this and many prefer to focus on the core operations of their businesses.
As we work through their accounts, we also identify areas for improvement which lead to consulting engagements.
How did you guys meet and go from being fellows to being in a “farriage” (fellow marriage)
We met in high school (grade 8) and started dating two years later. We went through the rigorous selection process together 🙂
We got married in 2013 and will be celebrating our five-year anniversary this year.
You guys are based in London at the moment. How was the transition from Cape Town and what’s the best part about living in London?
The transition was challenging as we are very close to our families, however, we have really enjoyed living and working in London.
The best part is the exposure to international firms and the travelling!
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Our goal is to run various businesses in a full-time capacity. At this point, we are building the foundation of our future. This includes building skills and experience in corporate and entrepreneurship.
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