“we dream together”
Bunty and Wahed Khan dreamed of starting their own business when they retire from corporate life, but this came earlier than expected. When Wahed was transferred to Cape Town, Bunty put her career on hold to settle their family.
Surrounded by the beauty of the Western Cape, the Winelands, with its diverse people inspired them to venture into wine. The dream of creating a product that could be shared with the world is how Cape Dreams came to life!
Bunty started the company in 2008 with Wahed joining her full time 4 years later. They understood that it would take many years of immense dedication and hard work to build their business into an internationally recognized brand, but their commitment and support from family made them push through.
Bunty and Wahed work closely together by sharing responsibilities and always consulting about what’s going on across the business. Their strategic planning is done jointly, but Bunty is responsible for legal matters, marketing, travel and IT while Wahed takes care of finance and admin. Each develops their own set of customers.
The most important thing they learned about each other is that they have different ways of looking at life, but their shared core values and beliefs make their relationship work. Bunty and Wahed’s commitment to each other helps them to face the many challenges and finding solutions to take their dream forward.
The two have quite different strengths in the business. While Wahed is pragmatic, and focussed on numbers, Bunty is creative, bubbling with ideas, but gets things done and is a tough negotiator!
Always enjoying each other’s company, they maintain a healthy balance between working hard and spending time together and with their family. They have a challenging Chess league going now that they have more time during lockdown!
What Wahed admires most is Bunty’s fun-loving, carefree and loving personality. She has a clear set of values and is the main pillar of strength for the family. Bunty admires Wahed for his integrity and humility. He is generous, kind, patient and selfless and gives her the confidence to achieve anything.
Their advice to other couples working together or thinking of starting a business together is:
Dream together – you may be different, but you can have the same dream
Respect each other, listen to each other and never let the business impact on your love for each other.
There will always be unexpected challenges so keep your focus on WHAT is right rather than WHO is wrong!
The couple have been married for 32 years and their favourite quote for the month of love is “Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along!” – Rumi
