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Simple ways to make your small business fail

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

During the time before the large commercial fishing boats decimated the shoals of snoek, yellowtail and bonito in False Bay, we were able to make good money from a ski boat in the bay. The crew that we selected for fishing would pull their own weight and help us to produce catches that were big enough to pay for the boat’s running costs.

On occasion we would take out what we called a “day-tripper” which was someone who had a deep interest in fishing but when they actually tried to fish they were not successful. But we usually kept an eye on the naturally talented fisherman who could become part of the permanent crew. Continue reading “Simple ways to make your small business fail”

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How would you solve this business challenge?

Photo credit: Wikimedia commons
Photo credit: Wikimedia commons

It’s everything you want. You’ve got a new idea and it holds great potential but you don’t know how to turn it into a viable business. What you do?

A skateboard maker Ted Hunter, a 62-year-old furniture design Professor at a Canadian university and founder of Roarockit Skateboard Co. with his wife, Nora Jackson, has come up with a new way to shape wood veneer. He found a way to “punch” layers of wood veneer to make them ripple like the surface of the ocean but at the same time strengthening the product and still preserving the flat, rideable side of the board. The conventional process involves inserting pieces of veneer to create contours. Although he has patented the pinch process in Canada and the United States, Ted has to work out how to use this new process. He wants to start manufacturing but doesn’t have a lot of cash. He could also use the process in furniture and housewares. Continue reading “How would you solve this business challenge?”

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It starts with a small step

Aircraft_Rescue_Firefighting_training
Manuel F. Guerrero, U.S. Marine Corps – This Image was released by the United States Marine Corps.

Scary events when you are a child stand out forever in your mind. When I was a young boy, probably around five or six years old, my parents went on a trip to Witsands near the Breede River in the Western Cape Province. On route there a car passed us at a terrifying speed. My father said to my mother that the driver in the car was being reckless driving at that speed. Not so long afterwards, we came across the same car. It was lying across the road upside down in the ditch with its wheels still spinning. The driver and passenger were dead. Continue reading “It starts with a small step”

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What are the elements of a good business plan?

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Photo credit:  Chesney Bradshaw (Copyright 2014)

You get some new or would-be business owners who scoff at the idea of preparing a business plan. For the business hobbyist, someone who may only be growing vegetables in their garden for sale to friends and family, perhaps a business plan is not required. But for any business that requires reasonably substantial resources, investing money from your savings account or using other people’s money, then it’s hardly likely that you are going to get away without a business plan.

Not having a business plan is like taking a road trip but not planning beforehand. You don’t have a map, you have no petrol in your tank, you haven’t taken the right things to go with you on your journey and you have a general sense of where you going but no specific idea. Well, if that’s how you like to travel in a spontaneous, free-flowing way, then don’t blame anybody if you get lost along the way and never reach your final destination. Continue reading “What are the elements of a good business plan?”

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What it takes to stand out in a crowded marketplace

800px-Andre_Rieu_und_Carmen_MonarchaOn a recent weekend I watched the violinist and conductor André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra performing in his home town of Maastricht, Holland. Andre, with his curly hair swept back and his personal warmth and onstage stories, is a master showman. He has an orchestra of 120 and the dresses of this singers are in brightly coloured taffeta ballgowns.

The show itself is breathtaking if you’re into this kind of music. People find him charming, fascinating and entertaining. He has made classical music accessible and fun rather than stuffy. Continue reading “What it takes to stand out in a crowded marketplace”

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How well are you motivating employees in your small business?

CBPENCILSKETCH LIGHT BULB webI had a nightmare the other night. An old boss had crept into my dream world. The sight of his face almost 25 years later still filled me with revulsion.

This “boss” was a first-time manager, inexperienced, lacking empathy and possessing an ego as tall as the building within which we worked at the time. He had called me out for something I had done wrong, some mistake I’ve made, but did it in such a way to make me feel inadequate and that I didn’t matter.

I’ve forgiven him long ago but the mere mental image of him stirs up old memories of someone who lacked skills and experience in dealing with people. He tried to make up for it later with a lunch between the two of us but it never made up for his bad behaviour. Continue reading “How well are you motivating employees in your small business?”

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Do we need all these “box” metaphors for the creative process?

View of Infanta
View of Infanta (Photo credit: Salem Elizabeth)

When we used to visit my grandparents in Witsands, Western Cape, during the September holidays my grandmother Thomasina would take out a carving knife on Sunday mornings and go down to the chicken run. In those days Witsands was a small traditional fishing village on the Breede River. The chicken run had a huge open space in front of it that looked across to an old “BP” double-decker bus that someone had converted into a holiday home. Anyway, my grandmother would select a chicken from the chicken “hok”, tuck it under her arm and cut its head off. She would place the wildly fluttering bird on the ground and it would run with its head off, blood spurting through its neck around the open piece of gravel yard until it keeled over and died. My grandmother had beautiful blue eyes and when she was in this mischievous mood to scare us “city boys” she would chuckle loudly at our horror of seeing the whole gruesome episode. Continue reading “Do we need all these “box” metaphors for the creative process?”

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Praise for the waste paper basket

PainA guy I know came to me the other day with what he thought was a brilliant idea. Before talking about this idea, I must give you total assurance that all ideas discussed with me remain strictly confidential. In this case the idea was so general that it has no proprietary value. It came out of a general discussion not a private consultation. It is also an idea in the public domain that would only become proprietary if a specific piece of software, system or offering was developed.

The idea was the same that hundreds if not thousands of consultants are peddling to both commercial and residential buildings. The problem with such a broad idea is that it will take many hours of work before it can reach something that is commercially viable. The original form of the idea needs to go through several iterations before it can be shaped into something worthwhile. Continue reading “Praise for the waste paper basket”

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Mining for consumer gold

ShopperThe Sandton City shopping complex recently hosted a Japan week that showcased a range of consumer products. Products ranged from musical instruments, motorcycles, motor vehicles and stationery to exquisitely designed gel nails.

Looking at the array of products, you can’t help thinking about how much investment must go into designing products that will be desirable for consumers. Take the Yamaha compact sound system, for instance, which comes in a range of exciting colours and incorporates modern technology such as Bluetooth, USB input and a docking station for smart phones. This compact sound system under the respected brand name of Yamaha is so desirable that you want to buy the product on the spot. Same goes for the Clavinova made by Yamaha which was played by an international musician with digital sound almost exactly like the original instruments such as the violin, drums and piano. Continue reading “Mining for consumer gold”

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How marketable are your new business ideas?

A pair of modern silver pepper grinders with Peugeot mechanism. Hallmarked Asprey & Co Ltd,. Birmingham 1935.
A pair of modern silver pepper grinders with Peugeot mechanism. Hallmarked Asprey & Co Ltd,. Birmingham 1935.

For start-ups and entrepreneurs who want to come up with viable business ideas the first thing is to consider the marketability of your new ideas.

How do you know if your business idea will be attractive enough to get potential customers to buy? What makes one idea more marketable than another? What could you do to increase the chances that your new business idea will sell?

One of the first things to ask yourself is if your business idea solves a real problem for potential customers. So many products and services run aground because they don’t solve people’s problems easily, quickly and cost effectively. The other day I saw an app that lets you customise your own newspaper. Does this really solve a “problem” for online readers who may enjoy a range of publications. Continue reading “How marketable are your new business ideas?”