SECUNDA – Mr Imraan Salajee (43) recently sold his business, Imraans, to Mr Farhaad Hatia.
Mr Salajee opened Imraans 20 years ago, but he now wants to spend more time with his wife, Ms Shereen Salajee, and their three children, Ameer (8), Amani (4) and Ailya (1).
He also wants to focus more on commercial property.
“I lost my passion for retail and it was time for a new challenge,” said Mr Salajee.
If he did not own a business, he would have become a lawyer or an accountant.
“I actually wanted to study when I finished school, but my dad said I was only going to waste his money.”
He spent a few years working for his father at his business in Evander before he opened Imraans.
“My dad helped me to open the business and gave me stock and I paid him back later.
“He also gave me knowledge,” said Mr Salajee.
He thought he made the biggest mistake of his life right after he opened Imraans, because he did not make a profit for the first five months.
Things then turned around for him as business picked up.
He bought his first commercial property in 1998.
“It is difficult to walk away from Imraans after so many years, but I will still be in town,” said Mr Salajee.
He believes in doing business with integrity and honesty.
He has been the owner of Altech Autopage Cell Phone Shop for the past 13 years as well.
The way he was brought up taught him to stand on his own feet.
“When I was still in school in Benoni, I lived alone for four years and only visited my parents who lived in Kinross over weekends.”
His parents got involved in businesses after his father lost his job and his mother broke both her legs after a car had hit her.
“My mother then began making samoosas which my father at factories.
“A family member had a store in Evander and asked my parents to help her and they worked in his store.
“My father later opened his own store in Evander,” said Mr Salajee.
He gives 110 per cent in everything he does and believes all work out for a reason.
“God has been good to me, I was fortunate and took all the opportunities I got.”
