Red faced monkeys enjoy living in the trees high above the Amazon jungle, searching for fruits and berries. They also come down from the tree tops to forage for insects and Brazilian nuts. Most of them shy away from other animals and especially people but one red monkey, sharper than the rest, sails down from the tree rooftops and occasionally gives out advice that may surprise you.
“Hey, Red Monkey what do you have to say for yourself today?”
“You called me down from where I was hanging in a tree so it must be important because you know I don’t like being disturbed.”
“I’ve been thinking,how do you get people to understand about how important it is to come up with ideas for new small business opportunities.”
“You called me down from my favourite place in the trees to talk about this. Haven’t you got anything better to do?”
“But you know how it is. People aren’t like you Read Monkey. They don’t enjoy the kind of freedom you have. They have to earn money in the human jungle otherwise they won’t survive and thrive.”
“Why don’t you talk about what you saw today when you were out shopping at the butcher today?”
“What you mean?”
“Tell them about those three young school girls finishing Matric and what they were doing.”
“What’s there to say?”
“If young people like that can come up with an idea to make money, why can’t adults?”
“Yes, what those young Matriculants school girls were doing all started with an idea. The three of them want to go to the coast for holiday when they finish their Matric this year and so they decided to dress up in Hawaiian beach gear, bak shortbread biscuits and were going around with a tin asking Saturday morning shoppers to donate towards their end-of-school holidays.”
“That’s what I mean. I don’t understand you humans. You make things so complicated. That’s all it takes. It all starts with an idea. But you’ve got to give something of value in exchange. Look at those young schoolgirls, they knew if they just went around empty handed they may have got a few donations but not much. So they decided to bak shortbread cookies themselves and let people on the streets decide how much they would exchange for each biscuit.”
“But these are young schoolgirls. Small business is different, isn’t it?”
“Do you really believe that? I might be a monkey but I’m not that stupid. Take that guy you know, John, How did he start his business which is doing so well now?”
“I suppose you’re right, Red Monkey. His idea was to start a new kind of restaurant where he could give customers better value than they were getting from the big chain restaurants. He started out small to test these idea and it took off.”
“Talking about food is making me hungry. I’ve got to go. I know of a tree where the berries have just started ripening and I want to scuttle off now before the other monkeys find them.”
“Well, Red Monkey, you never cease to amaze me. Go feast on your berries and come back soon because we’ve still got a lot to talk about.”
“It’s all just monkey business if you don’t do something about what you talked about today. If you want things to happen for you, you’ve got to be like those young girls and get into action, making and testing your product. It’s only monkeys like me that can monkey around. You humans have to work so you better find things that you enjoy doing.”
The “Red Monkey Tales” is a occasional light-hearted small business series which stimulates ideas and new thinking by monkeying around.