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Is it time for a review of your start-up idea?

IMG-20130824-00497In the beginning of the year you promised yourself that you would get your best idea off the ground. This would be the year that you would make it happen. You would take small steps and with each one come closer to realising your goal. But now that the year is nearly over how far are you? Is it time for a review?

A product I’ve been working on reached a critical stage. The unit cost was much too high. I have had to find alternative suppliers to get the unit cost lower. This is the thing, it can take three times longer than you thought it would to bring your business plan into fruition and the costs magically double. Continue reading “Is it time for a review of your start-up idea?”

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Start-up risks that could spell game over for your new enterprise

English: Hydrangea macrophylla - Hortensia hyd...
English: Hydrangea macrophylla – Hortensia hydrangea, picture from Longwood Gardens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One late evening recently I was at a garden nursery and was taken around the place by two of the managers. We went down to goods receiving where a supplier had brought in a load of hydrangeas late in the afternoon after closing time. The managers who are also horticulturists took one look at the hundred or so crates of hydrangeas and unfortunately had to reject them because of the quality. To me the hydrangeas looked pretty and appealing but to the expert eye there were major flaws. The grower of these hydrangeas had grown them too close together which meant that they grew trying to reach for sunlight, which lengthened the stems. The result of this was that the hydrangeas had long stems and either drooped or fell down. Not every nursery has such strict quality control and most nurseries with lower quality standards would have accepted them. But how can you claim to be a tip-top garden nursery if you display hydrangeas like these on your nursery floor? Continue reading “Start-up risks that could spell game over for your new enterprise”

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Where’s the opportunity in this problem?

Manhole cover in Tokyo
Manhole cover in Tokyo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was running on the verge of a road in a suburb when I heard rushing water from the raised pavement. I wondered where the water was coming from. Was I imagining it? It was early in the morning. I looked up on the pavement and saw that the manhole cover was stolen. The sound of water was coming from the storm water pipes because the manhole covers were gone. Further on my run I spotted another to manhole covers that was stolen.

It took close to a month for the city water department to replace these three manhole covers. They were replaced with cast iron manhole covers. But these ones are just as vulnerable to theft as the others were. They have been there for about a month but one wonders how long it will be before these disappear too. Continue reading “Where’s the opportunity in this problem?”

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How far would you go in trusting others with your new business idea?

MAIN LOGOA security guard came to the manager of a certain business one morning and told him that the business person who shared premises had loaded up the back of his car with stock. On approaching the business owner who shared the premises, he claimed that he was in a rush and had left the money with the staff so that they could pay the other business owner when he opened his doors.

People make all sorts of excuses when they are caught red handed. But this story really goes to show how some people will behave given any sort of chance. One would expect that a business owner who shared premises with another business would safeguard the interests of both businesses but it didn’t turn out in this case. Action was not taken with the business owner who was caught red handed but increased security measures have been put in place so that this person will not do it again. The question mark that hangs over this incident is how much other stock has this business owner taken over the years?

Trust is not something to be taken lightly. Without it, it’s difficult to do business of any kind. Yet it easy for another to justify the actions with all sorts of excuses if they cross the thin red line of ethical behaviour. Continue reading “How far would you go in trusting others with your new business idea?”

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Has your start-up or small business lost touch with your local community?

IMG-20120819-00125The other evening I was at a restaurant where the waiter staff were a mix of full-time waiters and youngsters from the community earning some money on the side. One of the waiters was a special needs youngster who looked proud to be doing a real job at a restaurant.

It made me wonder what local businesses are doing for the communities to help young people, especially with the high youth unemployment, the competition for jobs and the restrictions placed on young people to earn a livelihood. Continue reading “Has your start-up or small business lost touch with your local community?”

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Why come up with a new business idea and face the high risk of failure?

A medical student checking blood pressure usin...
A medical student checking blood pressure using a sphygmomanometer and stethoscope. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two John Hopkins medical students came up with an idea for a business and with the help of an accelerator program have launched a company that provides security for electronic health records. The two medical students have developed a tool that protects the hospital’s electronic health record system. Instead of the traditional approach that focuses on protecting the perimeter, the tool focuses on building an immune system. The company now plans to employee between four and 10 people and is looking for data scientists, engineers and technical experts to help fine-tune its software program so it can be used for hospitals and health systems of different sizes.

This is an example of two medical students who went beyond their medical studies and came up with an idea that can potentially provide great rewards for them. Why would they go above and beyond their medical studies to become medical doctors and take on the risks involved in starting a new business from scratch? Why would they put their reputations on the line with the possibility of failure which comes with the territory in forming start-up enterprises? Continue reading “Why come up with a new business idea and face the high risk of failure?”

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How to develop a good start-up idea

IMG_3628 croppedEnis Bacova had a business idea which came to him after he crashed his motorbike and spent 48 hours in a coma.

This Australian business person has designed and launched Rippr which is a web-based loyalty scheme business which rewards people for being social. The concept allows people to create groups which receive rewards from businesses.

Stories like this make you wonder. For possible successes like this one still need to think of the hard part of struggling to get a start-up of the ground. Perfectly developed business plans can be shredded quickly by customer objections or competition. Often there is a lot of advice on how to go about developing your idea into a successful business but information is scant or short on how to turn around or recover from inevitable screw ups. Continue reading “How to develop a good start-up idea”

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How much is a new business idea worth to you?

Ideas are the Basis of Progress. Every Improve...
Ideas are the Basis of Progress. Every Improvement in This World was the Result of Someone’s Idea – NARA – 534220 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A civil engineer came back home after his contract ran out in Papua New Guinea. Because jobs are hard to find in his home country he sat around sending out more than 300 CVs, started running out of his savings, eventually had no money to make cellphone calls and by the hair on his chinny chin chin after one year secured a job in Saudi Arabia. This is the prison that the person with no new ideas experiences. All he or she can sell is skills and time.

A young woman landed up in Worcester, Western Cape, fell in love with the place and wanted to stay but there were no jobs. She wracked her brains, desperate to find some idea to make an income so that she could live in the town. Even though Worcester sauce is made by the giant food manufacturing companies right there in Worcester, she came up with an idea for her own special Worcester sauce, developed her product and it took off. Continue reading “How much is a new business idea worth to you?”

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Firing up the workshop of your imagination

English: An elderly at stretching exercises in gym
English: An elderly at stretching exercises in gym (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been trying to get back into running after a long absence. I had to drop out in the winter because of a calf injury I suffered one morning running below 0° with out doing warmup stretching exercises. The doctor said I could get back into running after three weeks but a friend in Cape Town who has gone into running in a big way said it would take 10 weeks. Guess who was right? The runner, the one who has knowledge of the road.

I practised walking for about two weeks before I took my first run. When I went out running the run seemed smooth flowing. But a few minutes after I got back I could feel the spot where the old injury was and my muscles were sore. The next day my muscles were so stiff that I took a break and went back the next day. Not everyone is interested in running, I realise, but it provides an excellent analogy for other areas in our lives such as our imagination, which is really the workshop of our minds in which all new ideas, concepts and solutions are fashioned. Continue reading “Firing up the workshop of your imagination”

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No shortage of opportunities, only a shortage of imagination

Your Imagination
Your Imagination (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Think of all the new products and services that have come about over the past five years. Products for the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room, the home office and small business tools. All these products and services were initially conceived in the minds of people who used their imagination to think up new ideas. In the next five years there will be many more new products and services for the home, working environment, entertainment and sports field. Many of these products and services will come from the imaginations of entrepreneurs who’ve taken the time to explore their world and people around them and have come up with new solutions to problems and challenges.

You see, there isn’t a shortage of opportunities but a shortage of imagination. Whether you use your imagination to come up with a new product or service, many others will do so because of the opportunities that abound. If you took yourself back five years or even further into the past, and looked ahead over the years to where you are right now, you would be amazed at the number of products and services that have been introduced into the market over this time. As a famous entrepreneur said, they is no shortage of opportunity, only shortage of imagination. Continue reading “No shortage of opportunities, only a shortage of imagination”