From waitress to franchise owner: Terri Coetser’s journey - IOL

Long before Terri Coetser was running restaurant franchises, she was the woman carrying plates to tables, learning how a restaurant worked from the ground up and trying to build a life of her own.

She is the owner of three Ocean Basket franchises in KwaZulu-Natal, Ballito, Umhlanga and Durban North. She did not have a detailed career plan mapped out in front of her. What she had, she recalls, was a willingness to work, learn and keep going. 

That approach took her from waiting tables into management, where she began to understand the business beyond the dining room. 

“I didn't have a grand 10-year plan — I had work ethic, and I believed that if I showed up and gave my best, life would open doors,” Coetser says.

Coetser explains that it was while managing that she started looking at the operation differently. She began to understand the people, customers, pressures and decisions behind keeping a restaurant running. 

She says that was when ownership no longer seemed so distant. 

“The turning point was realising I understood the business as a whole, not just my job. I loved what I did. I stopped thinking like an employee and started thinking like an owner,” she explains.

She eventually took the step into ownership, choosing to trust what she had learnt through experience rather than waiting until she felt completely prepared. 

“The biggest risk was backing my experience over textbook knowledge and taking the leap despite being terrified. I risked my financial stability, faced sleepless nights, and took on the heavy burden of carrying both my family’s and my team's livelihoods,” she says. 

The pressure did not ease once she became an owner. Instead, it grew as the business faced one challenge after another, from difficult economic conditions to Covid-19, the KZN floods and riots. 

“Our hardest moments have been a series of events navigating tough economic times, covid, KZN floods, KZN riots,” she recalls. 

Coetser says surviving those periods meant allowing herself to feel overwhelmed without allowing the pressure to consume her.

“It’s ok to scream in the walk-in fridge. It’s ok to want to sit in your car alone and play really loud Rap music and yell at the universe,” she says.

She explains that she takes a breath and focuses on addressing the immediate challenge in front of her, rather than becoming overwhelmed by everything that still needs to be done. 

There were moments when she thought about giving up, especially when the pressure of keeping the business going and carrying the livelihoods of her team became too much. She says what kept her going was reminding herself why she had started in the first place, for her family, her independence and the life she wanted to build.

Those experiences also changed how she sees leadership.

Coetser says being in charge is not about being the loudest person in the room. Her employees are parents, students and breadwinners, and she sees creating opportunities for them as part of her responsibility.

“I learned that leadership is stewardship, not shouting from the top. Your team members are parents, students, and breadwinners; if you invest in them and create opportunities for them, they will invest in your business,” she says.

For her, success is seeing someone who started as a cleaner or waiter progress or leave to pursue a dream.

“My job is not just to create profit, but to create opportunity. When one of my team members who started as a cleaner or waiter gets promoted or moves on to something that they have dreamt of achieving, that is success to me,” she says.

The road to ownership has also come with sacrifices, missed family occasions, weekends spent working and times when she put money back into the business instead of paying herself.

Coetser says these are the realities people often do not see. Behind the title and photographs are the worries of making payroll, dealing with broken equipment and carrying the constant responsibility of keeping the business moving. She says passion may get you started, but understanding the business is what allows you to stay. 

Becoming a business owner has also changed Coetser as a woman. She describes the experience as making her softer and stronger, while teaching her that she does not have to change who she is to be taken seriously.

“I don't need to change who I am to be taken seriously, I can be empathetic and nurturing while still being firm and logical,” she says. “I embrace being a woman in business. That is my strength, not my limitation.”

For women waiting for the perfect moment to take the leap, Coetser’s advice is simple.

“You will never feel 100% ready, and if you wait for the perfect time, you will wait forever. Start scared, start small, but start — readiness comes while you are doing the work, not before,” she says.

And to the younger Terri, the waitress who had not yet imagined becoming a business owner, she would say: “Your ambition is not too much, so don't shrink yourself to make others comfortable. Know your worth and add tax.”