Posts

Posted on

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”

Posted on

Does everything happen for the best?

English: A photograph of the John Lennon Peace...
English: A photograph of the John Lennon Peace Monument that was unveiled on John Lennon’s 70th Birthday by Julian and Cynthia Lennon on October 9th 2010 in Chavasse Park, Liverpool, England. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An owner of a small construction firm can’t win enough contracts to keep the business afloat and goes into insolvency. All his construction equipment is sold on auction. A farmer with a large herd of cattle can’t turn a profit and has to sell the entire herd. He turns his whole farming practice around growing profitable crops and staying away from livestock. A coffee shop opens in a shopping centre and after a few months it closes its doors. Three years later a new coffee shop opens in the same premises. It’s too early to tell if this owner is going to make it.

When businesses close down, when relationships come to an end, when bad things happen to good people, it’s hard to say that everything happens for the best. The only silver lining it seems in tragedy is that the suffering ceases, the family and caregivers learn how to mourn, overcome grief and go on with their lives.

Continue reading “Does everything happen for the best?”

Posted on

What is the secret to your success?

The Shadow
The Shadow (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An Australian physician Barry Marshall and a colleague discovered that peptic ulcers were due to a bacteria and not stress as previously thought. In 1984 Marshall did the ultimate test by injecting himself with a bacteria, developing the symptoms of the disease and then successfully treated himself with antibiotics.

Marshall and his fellow pathologist spend many years trying to convince the medical establishment of the validity of the work. In 1994 the World Health Organisation accepted that the bacteria (H. Pylori) is a causative factor in stomach cancer. The work of Barry Marshall and Dr Robin Warren received the Nobel Prize for physiology in 2005.

This Australian physician was certain that he knew the cause of a disease and could come up with a solution. But no one in the medical establishment would believe him. He couldn’t do the experiment on other human beings so he chose to do it himself. Continue reading “What is the secret to your success?”

Posted on

Your rights as a small or medium size business when dealing with the media

English: EBZ Business School See
English: EBZ Business School See (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The business media can be useful to promote your product or service but there is a huge potential downside in that your business could be put in a bad light. We’ll get to the potential dangers in the moment but don’t be lulled into thinking that the business media will tell your story accurately, freely and in a balanced way. Those are just words they parrot but be careful because they have a very rigid agenda. Continue reading “Your rights as a small or medium size business when dealing with the media”

Posted on

Does your small business have a business continuity plan?

The African oystercatcher or African black oystercatcher (Haematopus moquini), is a large charismatic wader resident to the mainland coasts and offshore islands of southern Africa. This near-threatened oystercatcher has a population of over 6,000 adults, which breed between November and April. Source: Wikipedia
The African oystercatcher or African black oystercatcher (Haematopus moquini), is a large charismatic wader resident to the mainland coasts and offshore islands of southern Africa. This near-threatened oystercatcher has a population of over 6,000 adults, which breed between November and April. Source: Wikipedia

I went into a small shopping centre the other day to take my clothes to the dry cleaner. The shopping centre was without electricity and the dry cleaning staff couldn’t accept my order because they don’t even have a manual system in place. The supermarket in the same centre was running its diesel generator to protect and preserve its perishable stock such as frozen products and refrigerated goods.

Power outages unfortunately affects the livelihoods of small business owners. In the instance that I mention, the power was out for two days. Water services that have been out in parts of the city have affected all sorts of small businesses including hair salons, gyms and car wash operations. Postal services have been down for more than three months with critical mail undelivered to small businesses. Yes, you may say that small businesses can use courier services but the costs for regular items can be astronomical. Continue reading “Does your small business have a business continuity plan?”

Posted on

How do you get to opportunities first?

Brian with giant kob off the Breede River
Brian with the giant kob he caught with rod and reel in the Breede River in the late 1960s. Photo courtesy of his book, “Fish Aren’t Fools” published in the 1970s.

Today’s blog post is dedicated to my father Brian who celebrated his birthday on 31 October. As a dear friend said of my father this week after reading a recent article on the skiboat pioneers in South Africa in SkiBoat magazine, Sep/Oct 2104, “It’s a pity that his real, great legacy isn’t out there for all to see and admire –  like he deserves it to be.” 

My father Brian was a keen fisherman, a pioneer in the skiboating scene in the Western Cape, who chalked up records for catching giant bluefin tuna in False Bay.

As a sideline to his main job of motoring editor of the Cape Times, he wrote a regular angling column for the Cape Times.

We’d go out fishing on his ski boat at, for example, the Bellows or South West Reef off Cape point and get stuck into shoals of longfin tuna.

Out there on the blue water we’d have the shoals all to ourselves or perhaps with one or two commercial fishing boats because he had identified the shoals first. Continue reading “How do you get to opportunities first?”

Posted on

What can you control?

IMG_3645If you try to control everything, your actions lead to stress, frustration and sleepless nights. As a start-up, small business owner or entrepreneur you can only control so much although you’d like to control everything.

When you have so much to do, so much to get off the ground, so many elements to control in your new product, service or new venture, things can get out of hand. I was reminded about this the other day when I heard an entrepreneur who runs an aerospace engineering company talking about how difficult it is sometimes just to get some sleep. Cash flow, he says, can be a nightmare that keeps you awake, getting only two or three hours sleep a night.

What can’t you control? Continue reading “What can you control?”

Posted on

How did you learn to sell?

Old way to call to a door
Old way to call to a door (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the summer of 1993 a young man at the bottom pole of a company was supporting a young family with two toddlers. When he got back from a holiday at the coast, he was told by the human resources manager that he would be retrenched together with 100 fellow employees.

The CEO who was trying to make a name for himself among investors put the knife into his head office specialist function employees. Blood flowed every where. Employees who had been there for many years were booted out. Only the HR manager who had worked with this CEO at a previous company survived the massacre. Continue reading “How did you learn to sell?”

Posted on

Do you have the courage to give it another shot?

IMG_3157How have you handled personal crises in your life? Have you started something new but given up too soon? Can you think of people you’ve known who have given something just one more try and made it work?

Even people who have reached the top of the ladder in their fields have been plagued by doubt. Shortly after Ray Kroc signed the contract with the McDonald’s brothers he wasn’t quite sure what he had taken on but he was eager to go into action. “I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gallbladder and most of my thyroid gland in earlier campaigns. But I was convinced that the best was ahead of me.” Continue reading “Do you have the courage to give it another shot?”

Posted on

Growing your business through community marketing

English: A commuter cyclist in the London morn...
English: A commuter cyclist in the London morning rush hour, kitted out in specialist cycling gear (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A local Italian-style restaurant has been operating out of the same location for a number of years but in recent times it became neglected by the previous owner. The new owner has upgraded the washroom and toilets, modernised the kitchen and refurbished the main dining area. All of these are expenses which the new owner and his partners expect to recoup.

The restaurant owner has installed a large bicycle rack for the many cyclists that are starting to come to his restaurant on Saturdays and Sundays. The number of weekend cyclists has grown exponentially. The restaurant is located just above where the cyclists gather near the cycling trail that runs along the Braamfontein Spruit. This restaurant owner has identified a big school of fish which he can catch on weekends. All he has to do is reel them in by making his restaurant cyclist-friendly and catering for their dietary needs. No expensive advertising, high-priced public relations consultants or web designers required. Continue reading “Growing your business through community marketing”