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What happens if your small business is stuck in the middle?

Fresh Mozzarella Bread
Fresh Mozzarella Bread (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Sunday morning we went shopping at a Woolworths at Cresta Centre, Northcliffe. I noticed an instore bakery that had some delicious looking fresh breads in baskets on wooden racks. I bought a fresh wholewheat seed loaf in the form of a French loaf. I don’t think I would have bought the same whole-wheat loaf unless I had known that it had been freshly baked. It was delicious later that evening when we had it as an accompaniment with supper. Continue reading “What happens if your small business is stuck in the middle?”

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Being your best at the worst of times

English: A group of acorns.
English: A group of acorns. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I heard a story once about how a sales manager in the depression years encouraged his salespeople to make their daily sales targets. He would tell them to put five acorns in their left pocket and that they could only go home after they had transferred each of those acorns into their right pocket. To transfer an acorn, they had to call on a potential customer. Continue reading “Being your best at the worst of times”

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Outside and inside forces that can bring small businesses to their knees

Traditional Fish 'n' Chips
Traditional Fish ‘n’ Chips (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A tire manufacture that was once a household name recently complained that imports from China were helping to destroy its business. It was looking for help to rescue its business from financial difficulties. One doesn’t really know all the forces that are affecting this business but it’s circumstances does make one think what has management been doing to avoid the crisis?

Small and medium-size businesses can be impacted by outside and inside forces. By external factors, I mean the competition, customers and markets. It could also be legislation. Interior factors would include management, processes and controls as well as costs, cash flow and product quality. Continue reading “Outside and inside forces that can bring small businesses to their knees”

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Do you have what it takes to start a new business in your mature years?

English: Don Chow Tacos Ultimate LA Taco
English: Don Chow Tacos Ultimate LA Taco (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A business radio program gave an example of a man who retired and invested R5,000,000 of his savings into a “Vet Koek” (a traditional Afrikaner pastry made from dough which is deep-fried in cooking oil) business in a coastal Town which shortly thereafter went bankrupt.

The radio topic was on how people in the mature or retirement years can start something of their own. With many people needing to work beyond their official retirement date and with people living longer because of healthy lifestyles and modern medicine, there is much debate about entrepreneurship or small business ownership post retirement. Continue reading “Do you have what it takes to start a new business in your mature years?”

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A simple “thank you” goes a long way

Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A little while back I stopped in front of our local Chinese restaurant but didn’t get out of my car because there was a commotion going on in front of the restaurant. Lucy, the Chinese’s co-owner with her husband Leo, was holding her one-year old daughter Jessie in her arms and was shouting at a customer who was sitting at the open area of the restaurant alongside. Lucy was furious. She was shouting at someone who had come into the shop and had complained. She continued shouting until the centre manager had to come along to calm her down and tell her to get back into her shop.

Lucy takes great pride in her restaurant and the Chinese cuisine that she serves to customers. Perhaps she is young and hot headed but she has a good heart. To get her into this state of frustration she must have been provoked by extreme rudeness on the part of the customer. Continue reading “A simple “thank you” goes a long way”

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Does your experience count?

English: Kalk Bay habour, Cape Peninsula, Sout...
English: Kalk Bay habour, Cape Peninsula, South Africa Deutsch: Hafen von Kalk Bay, Kap-Halbinsel, Süd Afrika (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A pair of guru business consultants was sprouting platitudes about how business owners should change their outfits into so-called learning organisations. The fan boy of the two consultants instead of challenging them was praising them to the nines about the fantastic work they were doing. After all three were waxing lyrical about how business leaders and owners need to change, not mentioning how well this would fit in with self promoting their consulting service, one of them attacked experience. Continue reading “Does your experience count?”

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How does a system of entrepreneurship help you implement your best idea?

Fresh red chile de árbol chili peppers
Fresh red chile de árbol chili peppers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Start-up founders were asked the following question on a popular online forum: “What does it feel like to be the CEO of a start-up?”. There were many replies to this question from start-up founders and owners with a lot of them saying how difficult it was to “turn it off”, to create a vision, a culture, to find the right people and to get enough sleep.

One entrepreneur said that you learn to do what you need to do when you get punched in the face many, many times. You also learn, said the entrepreneur, that you are bad at many things, lucky if you’re good at a handful and the only thing you can ever be great at is being yourself “which is why you can never compromise it”. Continue reading “How does a system of entrepreneurship help you implement your best idea?”

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How much do you value your personal entrepreneurial freedom?

Siberian Tiger
Siberian Tiger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I visited a farm where two large tigers are kept in a huge cage. They are free to pace up and down their enclosure but that’s where their freedom ends. They are trapped. They can’t get out.

How free are you? Are you like the tiger trapped in a cage? Even though you know you are free are come is it that you still feel trapped? Continue reading “How much do you value your personal entrepreneurial freedom?”

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How can some small businesses afford to play fast and loose like this?

Fish Hoek beach, seen from the hills on the so...
Fish Hoek beach, seen from the hills on the southern end of the bay, looking northwards. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A customer stormed out of a local Italian franchise restaurant on Sunday evening before 8 o’clock. He was shouting “you’ve lost a customer”, “you’ve lost a customer”, “you’ve lost a customer”. No one from the restaurant rushed out to calm him down or give him assurances.

The problem with this restaurant is that the manager had not informed this customer and others that the closing time had been changed on Sundays from 9 o’clock in the evening to 8 o’clock. No notices, no informing customers personally, nothing. Continue reading “How can some small businesses afford to play fast and loose like this?”

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Test before you invest – practical ways to test the market

IMG_3026
The largemouth yellowfish or Vaal-Orange largemouth yellowfish (Labeobarbus kimberleyensis) is a ray-finned fish species in the family Cyprinidae.

An entrepreneur had developed a sunglasses holder for cars, manufactured several hundred products and secured placement in discount pharmacy stores as an impulse item near the checkouts. He got one sale in three months.

Your new idea for a product or service could turn into a nightmare if you fall in love with your fabulous dream idea and don’t test it beforehand in the marketplace. The most visible product failures are those involving physical product. Bedrooms, garages, studies and sheds can stay filled up with unsold product if you don’t do your homework. But the same applies to entrepreneurs who come up with smart phone apps – the only thing is you don’t get to see unused or unsold product. You won’t find a pile of unsold inventory for a new service because only the business owner will know how well his or her service is performing. Continue reading “Test before you invest – practical ways to test the market”