Posts

Posted on

Do you take on any customer you can find or are you selective?

dazzled maniac Jim Morrison drowns out the hau...

I visited a new fast chicken and sit-down restaurant where the staff gave friendly and swift customer service. This service was so excellent that when the manager and co-owner came around to ask us were we happy with our meal, I asked him could he explain just one thing to me.

My question was: how come your staff are so helpful and friendly compared to the national chain of chicken restaurants that previously had a similar operation on the same premises? Continue reading “Do you take on any customer you can find or are you selective?”

Posted on

What can you do when costs get out of control?

Johannesburg
Johannesburg (Photo credit: austinevan)

The Free State’s Young Farmer of the Year for 2014 shared his saddest day in his farming career:

He had to sell his 400-strong dairy herd five years ago because his declining profit margin made it impossible for him to continue.

The local agricultural publication Farmers Weekly reports that the farmer has now gone in for diversification to spread his risk through beef cattle and sheep, irrigated wheat, maize, sunflower and lucerne. Continue reading “What can you do when costs get out of control?”

Posted on

Is it your idea or implementation that will make you successful?

Rolling Stone reports that Pono is in fact a music ecosystem: a music download store, a tool that converts digital audio files into analog-sounding recordings, and a range of audio players.
Rolling Stone reports that Pono is a music ecosystem.

You watch other people come up with new ideas and wonder just how do they do it. Is it their idea? Or is it their implementation? What makes one idea more successful than another?

You may wonder what the real answer is but have more pressing things that rob you of your time. Your car needs to be taken to the panel beaters. Your roof is leaking and you have to call a roof repairer. Your child needs to be taken to the doctor. Your dog is sick and you must get to the vet urgently. Continue reading “Is it your idea or implementation that will make you successful?”

Posted on

What’s under your hood?

Spiderman (Madame Tussauds London).
Spiderman (Madame Tussauds London). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No. I’m not referring to any activities as caped crusader. What I’m referring to is your business engine. When last did your business have a checkup?

We’ll take our motorcars in for a regular checkup, let the motor mechanics run diagnostic tests on our motor vehicle and gladly pay for anything that they may find wrong with our car. When you have little or no access to public transport, you rely heavily on your motor vehicle. It’s not only the danger of breaking down late at night but also these days in broad daylight. A breakdown in a crime-infested area can lead to massive problems or even untimely death. Continue reading “What’s under your hood?”

Posted on

How good are you at opportunity spotting?

English: A photo of a cup of coffee. Esperanto...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A middle-aged man was out of work. He’d been a slacker. Now he was out of income. His lifestyle was going down fast. One day he saw something that gave him idea.

The man’s idea was to run a gourmet coffee mobile stand outside a petrol service station in a local community. He made an arrangement with the petrol station manager and soon people who filled up their cars with petrol got used to also buying a cup of fresh, delicious coffee from the man. Continue reading “How good are you at opportunity spotting?”

Posted on

How to select a small business adviser

cape town kalk bay harbour
Cape Town Kalk Bay harbour (Photo credit: moron noodle)

When I was at high school if any of us were in trouble we would go and see our “sea lawyer”. This was the term that was used for an authoritative person amidst our ranks who would advise us on what to say in defence to our teacher or principal and lay out a strategy of mitigation and even coach us on the finer points of how to take a caning with the least amount of pain.

Some definitions put “sea lawyer” as an eloquently and obstinately argumentative person. Others have a less optimistic view of a sea lawyer and indicate that it is an old Navy term, when at sea a sailor is a law expert but in reality knows nothing.

When you look for an adviser for your small business it’s best that you stay away from “sea lawyers” who may pretend to know a lot about running a business but their advice could be misleading at minimum and at worst fatal for your business. Continue reading “How to select a small business adviser”

Posted on

Simple ideas work best

Credit: Image courtesy of KTH The Royal Institute of Technology
Credit: Image courtesy of KTH The Royal Institute of Technology

A new, simple solution for traffic congestion in many cities could be an ancient transportation mode – the boat.

Researchers in Sweden, at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, are supporting a strong case on how water buses could be integrated into Stockholm’s mass transport system. Continue reading “Simple ideas work best”

Posted on

How do you avoid bad business decisions?

This is my picture of a closed sign. I am usin...

At least 4,000 businesses went insolvent in South Africa in 2013. It’s an unbelievable number of bad business decisions. These are insolvencies that are reported. Imagine how many businesses went bankrupt without being reported.

The human impact and scale of so many insolvencies is so huge that it’s difficult to even comprehend the full extent of the tragedy.

Small business owners who had to shut their doors and try something new.

Employees who lost their jobs.

Stock that had to be sold at reduced prices. Continue reading “How do you avoid bad business decisions?”

Posted on

10 survival tips for small business owners

Sea survival

The reality for many small business owners is that they were forced into starting something of their own. Perhaps they were retrenched, fired or unable to find a job.

What this means is that often small business owners really haven’t even had time to obtain some training in basic small business practices such as finance, human resources management and marketing.

The other real danger is that the small business owner works so hard in the business, trying to push for more sales, handling negotiations with suppliers, making month-end payroll and trying to get big customers to pay on time that they don’t catch major problems in their business before they become a threat to their businesses survival. Continue reading “10 survival tips for small business owners”

Posted on

How do you find an idea for a business?

40px|border|Flag Deutsch: Leysin: "Champs...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other day I came across some business advice from a an enterprise organisation for a city that encourages new business start-ups. But the problem with this guide was that it assumed that you had already come up with the right business idea. There was no advice or tools on how to come up with or identify a right business.

Coming up with the right business idea proceeds a business plan. How can you start a business plan if you don’t have a business idea for a product or service that you’ve tested by doing basic market research or at least validating your idea in the marketplace? I found it a bit strange that the business adviser suggested that you should survey customers either through interviews or questionnaires (mail or email) before you’ve even had a chance to develop your business idea into a prototype or test service. The advice given was that you should start your market research by interviewing about 100 people if it’s a consumer business such as a restaurant or hairdressing salon but if it was a business product such as building materials you should talk to at least 20 builders. Continue reading “How do you find an idea for a business?”