5 essential questions you need to ask before launching a big new idea

Did you see this news photo in the Huffington Post? The photograph was taken by Zac Noyle of A-Frame Photo and is the property of the photographer and the photographic company.
Did you see this news photo in the Huffington Post? The photograph was taken by Zac Noyle of A-Frame Photo and is the property of the photographer and the photographic company.

We are creatures of habit. Sometimes to our own detriment. I thought about how we are creatures of habit this morning on my run when I came across some rubbish piled at the corner of one street. A few months ago during the cold someone had smashed open dirt bin and made a fire from the rubbish to keep warm. Much later the concrete dirt bin was removed for repair and all that remained was the circle or base in which the dustbin was previously seated. But pedestrians still take their rubbish to the same spot and place it there although there is no dustbin anymore. Continue reading “5 essential questions you need to ask before launching a big new idea”

Information is a commodity, specialised knowledge is valuable

liquid paper (A bottle correction fluid), pict...
Liquid paper (A bottle correction fluid), picture and eraser – Nakhon Sawan, Thailand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the small businesses I was trying to get up and running some years back gave me a lot of headaches. A big challenge was getting the distribution right. Without distribution channels, the business could not get off the ground. Another issue was trying to attract a specialised staff person but with the small business not having any track record.

These are the kind of issues that the person who is starting something from scratch often confronts. Other issues could involve product prototyping and estimating market demand. These are not easy to issues to solve especially when you are a small business person operating on a shoestring budget with your resources only being yourself and meagre savings. Continue reading “Information is a commodity, specialised knowledge is valuable”

How long will it take for you to get your new business idea off the ground?

3_1The founder of Liquid Paper, Bette Graham, came up with an idea while watching painters decorate Christmas Windows at the bank where she was a secretary. She came up with a way to correct typing errors but had to work five years while sending her product from home. She mixed up different colour paints with a kitchen blender until she was able to come up with a suitable product which essentially was correction fluid. After being fired by her boss because of the mistake she couldn’t correct, she started out full-time and grew her business into a large company. Continue reading “How long will it take for you to get your new business idea off the ground?”

Do you have a cash kitty to invest in your new business idea?

227_1At a small rural town that I was visiting I came across an interesting business relationship between a butchery and a small micro-enterprise trading on the street cooking and selling meat products from the butchery. The small enterprise, run by a husband and wife team, had set up and warning canopy and were grilling boerewors (farmer’s sausage) and vetkoek (fat cake) and curried mince. They were doing a brisk trade because many people were stopping at the parking area which also led onto a liquor store. The butcher benefited because customers could taste his meat cooked outside and the small business benefited from the quality of the meat products as well as the steady stream of customers that flowed into the butchery. Continue reading “Do you have a cash kitty to invest in your new business idea?”

Are you working hard enough to grow your small business?

English: Kalk Bay habour, Cape Peninsula, Sout...
English: Kalk Bay harbour, Cape Peninsula, South Africa  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the summer months in False Bay when the snoek run was on we would get up early in the morning, around 3 AM, to go out to Simon’s Town with my father’s ski boat to be out on the water by 5 AM.

When the snoek were biting like crazy we would fill the ski boat fish hold with a load of snoek and take it back to Kalk Bay harbour to auction the fish.

If the fish were still biting and the fish market was still open at Kalk Bay we would go back for a second catch. Continue reading “Are you working hard enough to grow your small business?”

How important is a new idea to the success of a start-up or small business?

English: A close up of the Apple IIGS metal lo...
English: A close up of the Apple IIGS metal logo badge, used in the Apple IIe to IIgs upgrade. Taken from www.macgeek.org (Permission has been received from the copyright holder to make use of this image on Wikipedia). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Steve jobs started out in a garage trying to build a personal computer that he could put into nearly everyone’s hands, he knew the basics about PC boards, electronics and computer programming. In fact, I remember seeing somewhere that he read Popular Electronics, a do-it-yourself approach magazine that covered the new field of electronics in the 1970s. But what was important was when he came up with an idea of how to make his own personal computer Apple that things started to happen. Continue reading “How important is a new idea to the success of a start-up or small business?”

Can you acquire entrepreneurial instincts?

IMG-20141216-00107The other evening I was part of a discussion about business education and entrepreneurship. One of the participants made the statement that an MBA degree could not make you into an entrepreneur but if you were already an entrepreneur it wouldn’t hurt to have additional business knowledge.

I’m not going to argue with this statement because I think it is correct. But it does beg the question about what then do you require to be an entrepreneur? What is entrepreneurship? Even though you may have worked for the family business or a company can you still become an entrepreneur? Continue reading “Can you acquire entrepreneurial instincts?”

Bouncing back after emotional upheavals and falls as an entrepreneur

(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

Some time back after leaving for home after dark I stopped at a traffic light and my passenger front window was smashed and my two cellphones were stolen from my car. It all happened in a flash. I heard the loud bang against the window, the crashing glass and looked up but I didn’t even have a chance to see the criminal’s face. I drove home with glass splinters in my hand and back and when I got out the car I could hardly stand my legs were so weak. Continue reading “Bouncing back after emotional upheavals and falls as an entrepreneur”

Can you count on beginners luck in starting something from scratch?

(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

I took four people on a fishing trip along the Vaal River near Parys. All were beginners who had never caught a fish in their lives before. Neither had they paddled an inflatable raft upstream. But after some basic instruction they were able to paddle the raft about a kilometre up the river. The two fishing guides who were with us did not paddle – they steered and navigated the raft through the river waters. Continue reading “Can you count on beginners luck in starting something from scratch?”

Why do some small business books fail to deliver?

(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

When you start learning a new subject, you want to find a good book that is written by an expert in the field and that will show you the ropes.

I’m not saying that you can only learn through books because there are a range of different media that can be helpful for learning any subject.

But not all “how to” books are made equal. Some deliver on the promise but others fall short miserably.

What are the ingredients of a successful “how to” book that inspires you to learn and understand your subject and, most importantly, persuades you to act on the information and guidance learned? Continue reading “Why do some small business books fail to deliver?”