Insight-driven growth for business and lifestyle
Chesney Bradshaw
A woman who had no experience in baking got hold of a recipe for a butter and almond cake, got the ingredients and prepared the cake just as the recipe said. Voila! The cake was delicious.
She took a piece to work and her boss loved it so much that he asked for the recipe. She gave him the recipe and he cooked the cake for his in-laws who were flying up from another city to visit. Continue reading “You start a business idea recipe but what happens when you leave out key ingredients?”
I had a bright idea to start a new business. This was some years back when I knew next to nothing. I got the business registered. I bought an email address. A shipping agent helped me obtain an import licence. I got hold of a supplier in Europe who was only too happy to ship me product.
Everything went wrong. I tried to get distribution for my product range only to have doors shut in my face. After many personal visits and phone calls one retail outlet was prepared to take on my product range. Continue reading “True confession: I still cringe when I think how I failed at this one business”
An accountant who worked in large companies has started an advisory service for small businesses in her home town. The accountant is focusing on smaller businesses who often receive poor business advice which leads to horror stories.
The service for small business is mainly about financial advice, money transactions and dealing with tax. In this area, according to the accountant, businesses often close because of bad advice. Continue reading “Don’t become a horror statistic by choosing the wrong business adviser”
Some small business owners fail big time. On a radio show the other evening a small business adviser told the story of a business person who secured a large order with a chain store. The owner went to his bank, took out a big loan and built a plant to manufacture product. The chain came back and renegotiated the product’s price and made it clear that his business would need to pay for delivery costs. He hadn’t factored these costs in his business plan and now he is on his way to financial ruin unless he comes up with a solution fast.
How do you deal with failure? What have you learnt from failure? What are the more effective ways of dealing with business failure?
First time entrepreneurs fail a lot. In fact, many Internet marketers brag about their early failures and recite many valuable lessons that they have learnt from their failures. Continue reading “Are you failing fast enough?”
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”
You see it all the time. It’s puzzling. A video shop, a hardware store, a clothing retailer and a restaurant. Suddenly a business that you thought was doing well disappears and is gone forever.
It’s not just the mom-and-pop stores that you see in your local shopping centre that fail. You read about it all the time: smaller airlines have collapsed, information technology companies that have gone to the wall and even fruit and vegetable growers have collapsed. Continue reading “The mystery of disappearing businesses”
