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Acquire a new skill to turn into cash

Raw Boerewors. Español: Boerewors cruda. Suomi...
Raw Boerewors. Español: Boerewors cruda. Suomi: Raaka boerewors. ??????: Raw Boerewors. ?????: Raw Boerewors. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other day on a brief visit to Pretoria I stopped at the Groenkloof butchery to buy some boerewors (farmers’ sausage). I hadn’t ever bought boereworse from this butchery before so I asked the woman behind the counter what it tasted like. She said the boerewors was so delicious that some South Africans even tried to smuggle it in their luggage on their way overseas. The woman told me that their record sales on one day for the boerewors was over two tons – on 31 December for New Year’s day parties. The day I was there she said that they had already sold 500 kg by 3 pm.

It’s amazing how the basic skills of practising as a butcher can be turned into something so valuable. Hats off to this butcher who has come up with a special recipe for sausage that is in great demand. It just goes to show how valuable learning a skill can be. Continue reading “Acquire a new skill to turn into cash”

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You may be at your lowest, but you’re not alone

Olive oil from Imperia in Liguria, Italy.
Olive oil from Imperia in Liguria, Italy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Colonel Sanders failed at a number of careers. For over 20 years he had been cooking chicken in his restaurant-come-hotel when a new interstate roadway bypassed his town. It took away all of his business. Saunders was broke.

“I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, no amount of labour, no amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And I have done that ever since, and I win by it.”

Saunders started travelling and eventually found a way to make money through franchising his fried chicken recipe. Within five years Kentucky Fried Chicken had 400 stores.

I remember once when the only work I could find was delivering cooking oil to fish and chip fryers from the back of a bakkie (small truck). At first it was humiliating work. But at the time I didn’t have any other options. I had to make it work. Selling cooking oil to the general trade is a tough business, especially when your product isn’t the lowest priced.
Slowly, after making repeated visits to fish and chip and chicken fryer outlets I made a personal breakthrough. One owner bought ten 20 litre cooking oil drums from me. It lifted my spirits. I finished the day excited and ready to keep on selling the next day and beyond.

In that dark tunnel where you see no light for what seems an eternity, it’s hard to hold on to your sanity. It’s tough to keep going. But you’ve just got to knuckle down and carry on with hope that you will eventually see the light.

A tornado hit the small town of Vilonia in Arkansas some time ago. One of the small business owners lost all his tools and his construction equipment. He lost two houses in an area where 38 houses were downed. He had bought them all. Now like other small business owners he is trying to get help.

Some of the small businesses devastated in the tornado had no insurance, others were paid out insurance but it didn’t cover everything they had in their business. Small businesses were turned down by the federal emergency management agency. But they are trying and applying again.

The mayor is encouraging businesses to stay in the town and reopen. Some have already planned to reopen their businesses in June. One woman who lost almost everything said she had learnt that it was important to “just keep looking forward”.

Col Saunders was able to find “the best that there was in me”. The human will to survive is strong when you dig in and find it. If you are just starting out, you may not know if you’ve got it. If you’re an experienced professional out on the streets, you could believe you will never make it. But if you keep on keeping on your resilience will get you to the other side.

Looking back, it took me more than three years to get back on my feet at one stage in my life but I made it. No matter what your circumstances are find the best in you and keep moving forward.

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The power behind decisive decision-making

IMG00406-20111014-0959I was faced with making a decision but put it off for several months until circumstances became such that I had to decide quickly. It’s a strange phenomenon but once I had made that decision, things seem to miraculously fall into place. A solution appeared from out of the blue, support came from an unexpected source and the whole process moved so fast that I was astounded.

Have you experienced this phenomenon where when you decide on something things fall into place quickly? Do you find that it takes a long time to make a decision – I’m talking here about big decisions involving possible risk – but there seems to be a right time to make your decision? What is behind the power of decisive decision-making? Continue reading “The power behind decisive decision-making”

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Are you showing enough sensitivity to your pricing in this economy?

Thrifty Gas Prices in San Pedro
Thrifty Gas Prices in San Pedro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other day I spotted a new Portuguese restaurant next to a boutique hotel. I wondered what the food was like and the prices. Next time I was in the area I went inside and got hold of the menu. I was shocked at the prices.

To give you an idea, the quarter chicken was priced at R63. That’s 233% higher than what you’d find in a reasonable priced restaurant. Another product that easy to compay: fishcakes. They were selling for R48, which was 160% higher than any reasonably priced restaurant.

We won’t ever be eating at that restaurant. Continue reading “Are you showing enough sensitivity to your pricing in this economy?”

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Is your small business keeping its promise to customers?

Promises, Promises
Promises, Promises (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have you ever broken promise to someone? The saddest is promising to be home early to spend time with your children but you end up staying late at work. On wedding days solemn promises are made but many are broken years later. Public officials make promises especially during electioneering times but a few months down the track are they delivering on their promises?

In the real world we see promises and commitments being broken all the time. Basic services to communities are not delivered, equipment is not maintained and electricity, water and even postal services are not available for extended periods. Continue reading “Is your small business keeping its promise to customers?”

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How to kickstart your creativity

(Copyright © 2014 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2014 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

A team of researchers designed a creativity test and gave it to a group of 45-year-olds. Less than 5% of this group were judged to be creative according to the test. The researchers tested other ages: 40, 35, 30, 25 and 20-year-olds. The 5% finding was essentially constant for all these groups. At 17 years old the percentage of creative individuals increased to 10%. They also tested five-year-olds and the creativity score rose to over 90%. The research team concluded that most people are highly creative at the age of five.

This doesn’t mean that people in their mature years are not creative. Other research shows that creativity can be increased through training and rewiring your brain to look for opportunities. Everyone has creativity but it can lie dormant if it is not nurtured and used. Continue reading “How to kickstart your creativity”

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How hard are you prepared to work for your small business?

English: Jack Ma speaks during The Future of t...
English: Jack Ma speaks during The Future of the Global Economy: The View from China plenary session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China 28 September 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An interesting video surfaced on the Internet just after the Alibaba IPO in the United States about how Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of the Internet e-commerce site, started his business.

If you look at the video, you will see that Jack had a clear vision for his Internet company, Alibaba right from the outset. In other words he came up with a creative vision for not only having one of the top e-commerce site in China but also in the world. In his address to his five or so new employees he tells them that their goal is achievable but they must not underestimate how much hard work the Silicon Valley crowd put into their companies. He said that it was going to take them three to five years of tremendously hard work to get up and running and to build their company with the international presence of an eBay, Yahoo or Amazon. He went on to point out that they would not be an eight to five pm company but that they would have to put in the hours, working hard, if they were to succeed. Continue reading “How hard are you prepared to work for your small business?”

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Do you suffer from a shortage of new ideas for your business?

Breakthrough (Aya Hirano song)
Breakthrough (Aya Hirano song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A small business owner was battling in a shopping centre where the demographics had gradually change. Instead of running a full men and women’s wear retail store, he came up with the idea to reconvert it into a smaller, focused store that caters for school clothing. He has also narrowed the range of clothing to six or seven schools. Within a year the business is doing well and the business owner has put it on a new, surer footing.

Start-ups and small business owners need to come up with new ideas all the time not only for new products and services but also new ways of positioning their business, locating their operations and responding to competition. But if they’ve got urgent problems they need to attend to them urgently. Continue reading “Do you suffer from a shortage of new ideas for your business?”

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What does selling “harder” really mean for your small business?

Cameras, Memory & Batteries, for sale at ABF
Cameras, Memory & Batteries, for sale at ABF (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other day I saw a notice in a Spar supermarket that caught my attention. It was a letter written by a young girl on an A4 sheet of line paper with the small cut out, tear-off strips at the bottom, you know the ones that you usually find on notice boards. Well, the young wrote a brief later explaining that her silk worms had hatched and now she had too many of them. Her dad had suggested to her that she earn some pocket money by selling them at 25 cents each. She noted that all you needed was a shoebox and some mulberry leaves that you could get from a tree in the park across from the shopping centre. She gave her dad’s contact details. Already one or two of the tear-off address details had been removed. Continue reading “What does selling “harder” really mean for your small business?”

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Enviroentrepreneurs come up with new ideas to make money

English: Thin plastic shopping bags Polski: To...
English: Thin plastic shopping bags Polski: Torebki foliowe – foliówki (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When you look at the streets, they are filled with plastic bags. Drive out on the highway – more plastic bags. Even drive along a country road and you’ll see plastic bags. Walk along an inner city river and the banks are festooned with plastic bags.

Many years ago environmental authorities introduced a concept to reduce the number of plastic bags used by shoppers. The idea was simple: place a levy of a few cents on the plastic bag. Some years later everyone or almost everyone seems to have forgotten about that. Plus if you go into how the levy was used sadly all you will find is mismanagement on a bizarre scale. No one likes to admit it but it was an idea that failed horribly. Continue reading “Enviroentrepreneurs come up with new ideas to make money”