Comms Reddy founder charts a three-to-nine growth path

By Amara Osei

Founder Cheryl Reddy said Comms Reddy expanded from a three-person start-up in October 2024 to a team of nine. She launched the agency after nearly 20 years in the communications industry.

Reddy said she had built business units, led teams, managed client relationships and developed strategies before establishing her own agency. Reddy said she wanted the business to reflect her values, vision and approach.

National Entrepreneurship Month in South Africa recognizes people who take the risk of turning an idea into a business. Reddy described the other side of entrepreneurship: financial pressures, difficult decisions, long hours and uncertainty.

What drove Reddy to launch Comms Reddy?

Reddy said the central objective was to build an agency around service quality, client value and durable relationships rather than numerical targets:

“I wanted to create an agency that was free from the limitations I had experienced, where the focus was on the quality of the work, the strength of relationships and the value we brought to our clients, rather than simply being driven by numbers,” Reddy said.

Reddy said she also wanted a workplace where talented people could do their best work, develop their skills and feel valued. Comms Reddy honors her late father, whom she describes as a role model, mentor and adviser.

Reddy said the name also reflects the agency’s commitment to being communications-ready and prepared. Her previous leadership experience gave her a grounding in many of the skills needed to establish and grow the business.

Which skills separate expertise from ownership?

Reddy said taking charge of a venture added duties beyond professional expertise. Owners must deliver excellent service while managing cash flow, making difficult decisions, building a team, navigating uncertainty and protecting long-term sustainability, she said.

Reddy said her nearly two decades of work showed that expertise in one field does not automatically prepare someone to run a business. Commercial understanding, financial discipline and sound decisions under pressure matter as much as technical skill, she said.

Reddy said entrepreneurship taught her to trust her judgement, adapt when circumstances change and remain resilient when plans fail. She said founders must keep learning, establish a clear purpose and decide what their business represents.

Reddy said purpose becomes especially important when difficult days arrive. She advised founders to understand their numbers, manage cash flow carefully and invest in relationships and reputation.

Reddy cautioned against chasing every opportunity or accepting every client. She urged entrepreneurs to protect work quality rather than compromise it for growth.

Reddy said excellent work, trust and value bring opportunities and financial rewards. Her central instruction was to focus on doing great work and creating value, not only on revenue.

What changes when a founder delegates?

Responsibility ultimately rests with the founder, Reddy said, and decisions affect clients, employees and the business’s future. She said no strategy carries a guarantee, and owners sometimes must decide without complete information.

Founders often stay involved in every early-stage task, but growth requires a different operating model, Reddy said. She said founders must learn to trust others, delegate and give employees ownership.

Reddy said watching Comms Reddy grow from three people to nine has been rewarding. She particularly values employees developing their skills and contributing different perspectives and strengths.

Reddy said she values the freedom to build around her principles, produce work the team can take pride in and develop relationships with clients that treat the agency as a trusted partner.

What does sustainable success look like?

Reddy said success is not simply revenue growth or company size. She defines it as building something sustainable, doing meaningful work and creating an environment where the business and its people thrive.

Reddy identified resilience, integrity, adaptability and self-belief as the qualities entrepreneurs need most. She linked resilience to recovering from setbacks, integrity to lasting relationships and adaptability to changing circumstances.

Reddy also stressed courage, self-awareness and the value of complementary strengths. Entrepreneurs must know when to ask for help, remain curious and keep learning because no stage of building a business contains every answer.

Reddy said courage means making uncertain decisions and standing by values when doing so is difficult. She advised founders to remain committed to learning throughout the life of the business.

“Entrepreneurship is not about having everything figured out; it is about having the courage to start, the discipline to keep going and the humility to learn along the way,” Reddy said.

The next test for Comms Reddy is whether its nine-person team can preserve work quality, client trust and cash discipline as it grows. Reddy said that balance, rather than size alone, will determine whether the agency remains sustainable.