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Small businesses are losing out by ignoring Twitter

English: All Day Breakfast Early morning custo...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other day I was talking to a restaurant owner who has become expert at using Twitter to build relationships with his customers. He finds it exciting because it relieves the boredom that sometimes creeps in during the day. Plus it gives him an opportunity to vent at things he finds wrong in society and elsewhere.

This is an example of a business person who has educated himself about the social Twitter site and uses it to communicate with customers, promote upcoming events, and publicise specials. His business tweets also help attract new and repeat customers to the shop. Continue reading “Small businesses are losing out by ignoring Twitter”

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Does starting a business make you an entrepreneur?

Limonadedmg
Limonadedmg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other day I saw this article that add the following headline “Starting a business doesn’t make you an entrepreneur: study”. The piece made this claim as a summary to a study by two Swedish academics from an industrial economics research institute but quite frankly got the whole thing wrong.

What these two Swedish academics were really saying was that when the rate of self-employment in the country is high, the rate of billionaire entrepreneurs is lower. When they compared for correlation between the presence of billionaire entrepreneurs and the rate of self-employment in a country, they came to a surprising conclusion: countries with many successful entrepreneurs had lower rates of self-employment.
Continue reading “Does starting a business make you an entrepreneur?”

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Are you showing your customers enough empathy?

Customers talking to a Relationship Manager du...
Customers talking to a Relationship Manager during the Edelmetallmesse (Photo credit: GoldMoneyNews)

Big companies say they care for their customers. Some are now trying to use empathy as a way to increase their value, change their marketing research and focus more on people. It’s easy to take potshots at these big companies but what about when the focus turns to small businesses? Are you using caring as a business tool?

I’m sure many of us have our examples about being treated just as a transaction from the larger supermarket chains, especially in retail. I recently bought a juicer machine only to find out when I got home that the pulp container section was broken in the box. I called the store. No apologies – nothing like that. One hour after buying it, I was asked, “When did you buy it?” That’s all. No apologies for the inconvenience. No free parking ticket to go back to the shopping centre. No speedy service to resolve the issue when I went to the store.

Continue reading “Are you showing your customers enough empathy?”

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It pays to be positive

Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay po...
Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you (Photo credit: symphony of love)

It’s easy to slip into a negative rut and remain dogged down. Sometimes things in life don’t seem to be going your way and you just can’t seem to be able to dig yourself out of your hole. Yet the sooner you find ways to break out of depression and make yourself happy the better because your creative ideas and business operations depend on it.

A series of negative events can strike out even your most optimistic self if you’re not careful. Starting the New Year companies and public utilities are increasing their monthly rates, the petrol price is shifting upwards with no end in sight and the currency is on a steady decline southwards. It’s a year where economic uncertainty remains and politicians are spewing out hurtful and spiteful comments to win votes in the upcoming general election. Continue reading “It pays to be positive”

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Simple products sell

English: Mosquito on finger This image is part...
Mosquito on finger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we have high temperatures here in Johannesburg in the day and at night getting a full quota of sleep is difficult. It’s enough coping with 30°C during the day and up to 27° as late as 11 o’clock in the evening but the real challenge comes in the early hours of the morning.

You’re sleeping and are suddenly awoken by a sharp singing sensation on your shoulder. Then you hear a buzzing around your head. Next thing a mosquito has bitten you on the nose. That’s where it really hurts because of the many nerves in your nose. It feels like you’re in a dream on the Mosquito Coast.

Continue reading “Simple products sell”

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Starting something from scratch – fear trip or adventure?

English: ladder and sky.
English: ladder and sky. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes we get trapped in our fears. No place to turn to. Or so we think.

A middle age woman wrote to an agony aunt telling her that she hadn’t been romantically intimate with a man for five years and asked how she could get out this cage she had trapped itself inside of. The agony aunt recognised and acknowledged the woman’s situation. She praised where the woman crying out for help was in her life and acknowledged how difficult it was to get back into relationships and feel intimacy, friendship and trust again. If she continued creating greater mental barriers, the more difficult things would become.

The agony aunt advised the woman to take small steps such as signing up for a dance class where she would be able to hold hands with men and press some flesh, practice talking to strangers, harmlessly flirt with men in appropriate situations and perhaps even sign up to an online dating agency. Continue reading “Starting something from scratch – fear trip or adventure?”

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Stupid mistakes home-based business owners make

Chow Chow, Mi?dzynarodowa Wystawa Psów Rasowyc...
Chow Chow, Mi?dzynarodowa Wystawa Psów Rasowych, Szczecin 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Don’t you get just a bit uneasy when you hear statements like “do what you love, the money will follow”? It’s the kind of statement that can get you into a lot of trouble if you don’t know what you’re doing.

One of the biggest mistakes is thinking that your hobby or passion automatically leads to money. But the so-called gurus leave out the crucial step – the time that it will take to acquire and develop skills that enable you to sell your products or service at a commercially viable level.

Continue reading “Stupid mistakes home-based business owners make”

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An old idea gets wings

English: Ostriches at the Cape of Good Hope, S...
English: Ostriches at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I was growing up my father would come back from a business trip from Oudtshoorn in the Cape Province with ostrich eggs and other handmade ostrich egg shell products. Me and my brothers were fascinated when my mother would cook the yolk from the ostrich egg. We were amazed at how many normal chicken eggs made up the giant ostrich egg. We would ask our parents how many and get all sorts of answers but I think it was about 20 to 24 eggs. Continue reading “An old idea gets wings”

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How small businesses can compete on quality

Loaves using six-seed wholemeal dough

Most newspapers are battling to survive in the Internet age, experimenting, coming up with new formats and trying to balance their print business with their online offering. But it seems that they are missing the one key ingredient that will attract and retain customers.

Jeff Bezos who recently purchased The Washington Post seems to be on the right track. He intends putting the focus back on the reader. It will be interesting to see how he goes about doing this because quality editorial comes at a cost. You need to train and hire journalists that come up with news and information that people either want or need. Continue reading “How small businesses can compete on quality”

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Stay open to possibility

NYC - Eataly NY: La Mozzarella di Eataly
Cheese making. NYC – Eataly NY: La Mozzarella di Eataly (Photo credit: wallyg)

We may walk down the same path every day but never see something new. Then one day we are on the path and suddenly something leaps out at us that we’ve never noticed before. It could be a special flower growing along the walkway, a sapling that has been slowly growing out of the earth and has suddenly shot up to waist level or a bird nesting in a tree.

This analogy about a well-trodden path and being observant is very much how we go about our day-to-day life not noticing new things, change or trends. Unless we keep our eyes open often we don’t see things even though they are staring us right in the face. Continue reading “Stay open to possibility”