Margaret Hirsch bags MBA at 70

Margaret Hirsch

As the co-founder and executive director of Hirsch’s Homestores, Hirsch notes that in the last four months of the year the company traded better than it ever had for the same period in previous years.

"When lockdown hit us, we thought we had hit a brick wall but we mustered together our troops and weathered the first storm until we could open properly under Level 3, and then we just gave it our all to pull ourselves and the company through the most difficult year of our lives.

"We literally cancelled all our plans and went into survival mode and managed to come out of the year so much better than we could ever have imagined," she explains.

She continues, "Looking back on 2020 it was the most unbelievable year. I started off by travelling around South Africa weekly, as I have done for the past 10 years, and spending a week a month out of the country, to staying at my farm during lockdown for 7 months ... The first time in 30 years I have slept in the same bed for more than three nights in a row!"

"It certainly was a year where the material things we have didn’t matter, and family – including our extended Hirsch's Homestore family –became the most important aspect of all our lives. We as a family and as a company are thrilled to have survived and thrived during Covid and we are ready to take 2021 head on."

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Mentorship and virtual events

Passionate about entrepreneurship and women's empowerment, Hirsch connected with over 800,000 people via Zoom and Facebook Live last year through her Entrepreneurs Workshops, her Women in Business meetings and the Kitchen Capers events that were held on a weekly basis to help people run their businesses and their homes more effectively at this difficult time.

Hirsch's plans for 2021 include continuing with her popular weekly Entrepreneurs Workshops, hosted in partnership with ActionCoach Marlene Powell. "We want to help people to take their businesses to the next level and will be putting together a programme that will help them to do this," Hirsch says.

Lessons in life and business from Margaret Hirsch

3 Aug 2018

She will also continue with her virtual Women In Business meetings where women are encouraged to share their business news and punt their businesses to the large network of women who attend on Zoom.

On the culinary front, the virtual Kitchen Capers events will be ongoing, and Hirsch is also compiling a vegan cookbook to encourage others to adopt a more plant-based diet - something Hirsch says has helped her stay healthy and energised since she became a vegan two years ago.