Posts

Posted on

How to reduce risk in a start-up?

IMG_5946
A long and lonely desert road in Namibia.

Some people define a “true” entrepreneur as someone who conceives, organises and leads a new, independent commercial venture at significant personal cost and risk – both financial and emotional. One entrepreneur doesn’t believe that an entrepreneur is someone who does only part of that set of jobs. He believes that someone who opens a new coffee shop or buys a car wash franchise while being a risk taker is not a complete entrepreneur. Why? Because he or she has not fully conceived organised the venture. If you dream up a business, he says, put it together, run it and depend on it financially, you are an entrepreneur. Continue reading “How to reduce risk in a start-up?”

Posted on

Knowing how to identify entrepreneurial risks doesn’t make you a wimp

English: Young Dutch entrepreneur Danny Mekic
English: Young Dutch entrepreneur Danny Mekic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A year can be a long time in the life of an entrepreneur. At the beginning of this year a new fast-food takeaway restaurant outlet started in my local community with much promise. The product quality was good and the staff really tried to give good service. But before the end of nine months this business shut its doors.

You know how it is, once a business person like this decides to open a new business family and friends tell him or her what a good idea it is and give him or her all the encouragement. They say well-meaning things like “you’ll make it”, “I know you can do it” and “you’ve done it before, you can do it again”. This is in the nature of things. People are encouraging and want to be supportive. But comments like this may give you a sense of false security, thinking you can do what others have done but better. Continue reading “Knowing how to identify entrepreneurial risks doesn’t make you a wimp”

Posted on

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?”

Posted on

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”

Posted on

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?”

Posted on

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?”

Posted on

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?”

Posted on

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?”

Posted on

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”

Posted on

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?”