Expert Financial & Business Insights for South Africa
Strategic analysis from Idea Accelerator and ready-to-publish content from Financial News Daily.
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”
The answer to the question of “What has been your biggest disappointment since you started on your journey of establishing your business?” from a new start-up owner is surprising:
He said that it was the length of time that it has taken to establish his new business, the detours that he has taken on the way.
This answer comes from an entrepreneur who has established software to help small businesses determine their cash flow, including their outstanding debtors. Continue reading “What is your biggest disappointment in starting your new business?”
A lot of people say you should not buy newspapers, turn off your radio and not watch TV. I even know some small business owners who avoid the media altogether just so that they are not affected by all the negativity.
Who can blame them?
We don’t know when or if the down economic cycle is going to end but at the moment it seems as though we are in the perfect economic storm. Interest rates are rising, the currency has gone South, fuel and other energy costs have skyrocketed, consumer debt is at unimaginable heights and demand in certain sectors has shrunk. Continue reading “What do businesses do with their unwanted people?”
The other evening I went to buy supper at a new burger joint that’s been introduced into the local market. The queue was amazingly long. This is after the burger place has been on the market for a few weeks. The most amazing thing is the demand for this product probably because it’s new to the market.
It makes you think about these big burger operations and what their innovation is really all about. They’ve been able to create a manufacturing and assembly operation in your neighbourhood and roll it out to anywhere in the world. The branding, hype and advertising makes it all seem so desirable. The innovation is really in the business model which produces high revenue from relatively small real estate space. Continue reading “Can a burger joint be innovative?”
For many years now I have visited a small coastal town once twice a year. In this town I have seen businesses start up with enthusiasm in the New Year and by the time I get back on my next visit they have disappeared. Yet there are success stories of new businesses that have been introduced into this community and despite people thinking that they are going to fail, they continue to do well.
This town is like a small incubator for new ideas. I have also seen several businesses that are resilient and have continued to thrive over many years. Continue reading “Simplicity is always the best strategy”
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”
The other day I was looking for a small speaker to play out of my cellphone because my ball speaker had blown out after about four years of use. I was in a hurry to get a new speaker and came across a Bluetooth wireless speaker. It sounded good in the music store and I bought it thinking that this was better than my original speaker, which despite the small size put out a mean sound.
I should have known better. This new speaker is almost useless in the car and doesn’t even put out enough sound in even a small-size living room.
Settling for the first thing you come across whatever you are searching for isn’t always the best thing to do. The same applies when generating new business ideas. If you settle for your first best idea, you may not be able to achieve as much if you continued pushing the envelope and coming up with even better ideas. Continue reading “Will you settle for your first best idea?”
A lot of people say you should not buy newspapers, you should turn off your radio and not watch TV. I even know some small business owners who avoid the media altogether just so that they are not affected by all the negativity.
Who can blame them?
We don’t know when or if the down economic cycle is going to end but at the moment it seems as though we are in the perfect economic storm. Interest rates are rising, the currency has gone south, fuel and other energy costs have skyrocketed, consumer debt is at unimaginable heights and demand in certain sectors has shrivelled. If you look at the results coming out from the listed companies, you’ll notice how certain businesses are under huge strain, especially those in highly competitive markets such as banking and retail. Continue reading “What do businesses do with their unwanted people?”
I have a friend who is a professional fisherman but overnight he has lost the status “professional”. He has been fishing from Kalk Bay harbour, Cape Town, for over 40 years. He recently had a heart attack. A lot of it was due to putting his boat up on the costly slipway and spending a lot of money to refurbish the boat and fix up the engine so that his wooden commercial fishing boat is seaworthy.
Everything changed for him when out of the blue when and on 10 PM on 31 December 2013 the fisheries department confiscated licenses from over 300 traditional line fisherman whose families involvement in fishing go back for generations and dished them out as they saw fit.
It’s a tragic situation where thousands of traditional line fisherman all along the coast are now out of work, jobless. Millions invested in fishing boats and equipment are now sitting idle. Thousands of families have no income because the main breadwinner, the traditional line fishermen, have been robbed of their jobs.
I suppose from the fisheries perspective this seems like the right thing to do. It gives people who haven’t been in the fishing business an opportunity to enter the industry. It’s also probably well timed for vote-hungry politicians with an eye on the elections.
If you look at things from the point of view of the new entrance themselves, many would be pretty excited to make money from catching fish.
Who knows? In any legislation change there are going to be winners and losers.
The thing that really interests me is people who work in an industry or market for a long time don’t seem to think of upskilling themselves. Why is it that people can work for so many years in an industry but they seem to be oblivious of the changing circumstances around them? How come they don’t learn new skills?
I’m not pointing fingers. I’ve been there too. I also had my fair share of mistakes. What I’m talking about is people who don’t see the warning signs, try increase their skills or don’t diversify. Suddenly their livelihood is cut off.
If you think about it, it’s not only legislation that can be a risk to your livelihood but also technological obsolescence, demographic changes and simply trends that have changed in the market. Anything can be a threat or risk to your livelihood or business.
But it’s a lesson for all of us. Maybe if we’ve not been developing new skills, we might need to look into it. New skills whether for a craft, trade, engineering or professional services are all valuable for starting a new business or running one.
Yes, some might say that these line fishermen made so little money from their fishing because of the dwindling fishing stocks that are not being properly managed anymore that hey have never even had a chance to find opportunities to learn new skills. It’s a difficult one. This may well be the case for some of the older fisherfolk who could decide now to pack it in and not try anything else and live off their savings. For the young fisherfolk, they still have an opportunity to turn things around personally and move into new areas.
For those who are going into a new venture or doing something on their own such as starting a business from scratch, it would be worthwhile to try get a sense of how that industry or market will develop over the next 10 years or so. I know it’s very difficult to make predictions of this sort but when professions and markets can suddenly be shut off overnight with no compensation, no extended period for making alternative arrangements, no support for developing alternative skills and no regard whatsoever for human beings, then it pays to be sensitive to possible dangers lurking in the future.
Even so, for those smart entrepreneurs who can spot opportunities between the cracks and in the gaps, new possibilities will still be available. A smarter, sharper breed of entrepreneurs in the fishing industry have already started to develop opportunities for themselves. The money sometimes is not just in the harvesting, pulling up one fish at a time on a line. The food industry is expected to grow by something like 60% by 2030. Staying under the radar in h hard-working, difficult and dirty industries where you can do things faster and smarter and when no one can beat you in your game will offer rewards to entrepreneurs that are risk takers and have courage, work ethics and values.
One evening at a coastal town I went to a fast-food pizza shop to buy my daughter a pizza. I was surprised at that time of the night – around 10 o’clock – to find a manager in the store working on the store’s human resources systems. I was impressed by this leadership and curious to find out more.
The manager at the store was one of five managers who look after different parts of the business of a chain consisting of six franchise pizza outlets in Cape Town. The owner is himself a top human resources practitioner and it was interesting to see how even without him present how much emphasis is placed on the human resources side of the business. Continue reading “What leadership lessons does Pope Francis offer small business owners?”
