When Liovian Anderson started Raw Squeeze juice company in 2019, it was out of a need to ensure that her family eats and lives well. A woman of faith, she is determined to see her company expand even more.
Born and bred in Paarl in the Western Cape, Anderson studied business administration with political science and industrial psychology as her majors. While she never worked in her field, she eventually ended up in the agricultural business unit of a major agricultural company.
Anderson says she’s always had a passion for entrepreneurship, which is why when the opportunity presented itself, she grabbed it with two hands.
“I’ve always had just a love and passion for entrepreneurship and that’s how Raw Squeeze started. I took the leap of faith and I embarked on this journey full-time from 2019, as a mom of two.”
Anderson’s children were central to her move into entrepreneurship. With a son and a daughter, she says that her son in particular motivated her move into the juicing industry.
“My son was about four years old at the time, and the difficulty was in getting him to eat vegetables. I remember one evening I was commuting, and I just thought ‘what am I going to make for supper?’.”
She explains that her son is a picky eater, and he refused to eat anything with a texture that is just too soft or mushy.
“I was trying to hide the veggies in everything that I made for supper, like grating carrots into muffins or pumpkin into muffins as well. [I added] zucchini or baby meadows into omelets, just so that he can start to eat some veggies. And it just didn’t work.”
The idea for juicing was inspired by the commercial juices they often had in their fridge. Anderson says she just decided to juice the vegetable to see if her son would consume it that way, and he did.
“My husband also, a year or two later, was diagnosed with high blood pressure and that also just motivated me more to start a healthier lifestyle in my household. And so juicing just started working for us and I became quite passionate about just healthier eating, healthier living.”
A difficult but amazing journey
Anderson’s first foray as a juice producer was at an event called “My child and I Expo”. She says her husband was skeptical at first, something they laugh about today.
“I told my husband, ‘this market is coming up. Let’s try juicing and see if there’s an opportunity for us to take this further?’. He laughed and said ‘no, we juice at home, what do we know about juicing?’.”
She explains that she thought it was worth a shot and was happy that she went because the event actually showed her that there’s a real gap in the market.
“[I found] that this is something that the community actually would love because I think, when I started, it wasn’t as familiar in Paarl. That’s basically how we got started and my husband actually thought that it was a bit of a joke, but we learned along the way.”
Initially, she was selling juice out of their kitchen. 2020 presented them with the opportunity to manufacture their juice from a juice bar, but this venture did not last long.
“That didn’t really work because it was a new market and a new venture, and not all the homework was done accordingly. So, six months later I was back to juicing at home.”
Adapting to changes
This setback did not stop her though and soon after, another opportunity opened up.
“I have goosebumps just talking about it, but the journey has been amazing. God opened up an opportunity for us, and we stepped into a facility in Stellenbosch where we had a manufacturing machine where we currently juice from.”
Like most businesses in Mzansi, Raw Squeeze felt the pressure of Covid-19. Anderson says it was during the pandemic that her husband was retrenched. He then took over the company logistics.
“Covid was difficult because obviously, it was unknown territory for a lot of businesses. We can still feel the impact that it has and that it had on businesses. Our business wasn’t the same and I’m sure business will not be the same going forward. But our clientele grew up, which we’re very thankful for.”
For Anderson, faith is one of her biggest motivators.
“I believe that [this business] was definitely a promise from God, and it was something that I just had to do, not knowing what I was stepping into. But I had to step out in faith and do what I was called to do.”
She has the following advice for aspiring agripreneurs:
Don’t give up
When you’re starting out, you think as an entrepreneur, you may need X,Y, and Z to start your business. But it’s actually when you are in the business and when you are operating, that you actually know what it is that you need. Things just fall into place, as long as you don’t give up and continue working and doing what you need to do.
Be dedicated
Be prepared to work extremely hard and just be dedicated to your business. Be dedicated to your dream and just know that it won’t be pretty every day, but it will reap rewards in due season.
Believe in yourself and your product
I think the most important thing for an entrepreneur is that you have to believe in yourself and your abilities, and you have to believe in the product that you are selling because if you don’t believe in that, you’re customers definitely also won’t. Just be confident in what you are producing.
You won’t always know everything
It is okay not to know everything when you start. We are all human and we will learn along the way and not everything will be perfect, but just as long as you start, and as long as you are working towards something.
Not everyone will support you
Not everyone will support you, but you have to continue and believe in yourself and your business anyway. Have faith because if God gave you that dream, it will succeed in God’s perfect timing, and things will just fall into place. Sometimes we don’t understand what it is that we’re going through at that exact moment, but in the end, it will make sense.
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