Tag: learning

Posted on

Passion is not enough – compact guide in business and entrepreneurship for college and university students

January 2017. Copyright Chesney Bradshaw
January 2017. Copyright Chesney Bradshaw

If you want to form and run your own start-up business, you won’t find it landing up on your doorstep ready to turn the switch. It will take acquiring new knowledge, experience and time and effort. If you’ve never started or run a small business before, there is no other way but to put in the hours.

Where do you start? It all begins with a seed of an idea. Some instant experts claim that an idea is 1% of what it takes to start a new product or service and the other 99% is execution. It’s probably 20% idea and 80% execution. Why do I say this? It’s because you’re unlikely to come up with one promising idea and use it straight off the bat. If you have a look at my book “Breakthrough Ideas”, you’ll see that you need to generate or find several ideas before you come up with something that matches your potential market, your passion and your own skills and knowledge. Continue reading “Passion is not enough – compact guide in business and entrepreneurship for college and university students”

Posted on

Are you stuck because of what you know?

Waiter
Waiter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After a movie the other evening we went to a local restaurant where we were served by a waiter who had just started at the restaurant. His manner was uncaring, his attention to detail lacking and his insistence that we order more wine was rude. When the second glass of wine did come, it was a sweet red wine but he tried to con us into believing that there was something wrong with our taste buds.

A waiter who has been at this local restaurant for several years overheard our conversation, took away the two sweet red wine glasses and replaced them with a dry red. We thanked her.

This story isn’t about moaning about poor customer service. Rather it’s about a man who has worked as a butcher for a small butchery but at his age feels aggrieved that he wasn’t able to get shares in the small business. So he has branched out into learning the restaurant business, starting out as a waiter. Continue reading “Are you stuck because of what you know?”

Posted on

Acquire a new skill to turn into cash

Raw Boerewors. Español: Boerewors cruda. Suomi...
Raw Boerewors. Español: Boerewors cruda. Suomi: Raaka boerewors. ??????: Raw Boerewors. ?????: Raw Boerewors. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other day on a brief visit to Pretoria I stopped at the Groenkloof butchery to buy some boerewors (farmers’ sausage). I hadn’t ever bought boereworse from this butchery before so I asked the woman behind the counter what it tasted like. She said the boerewors was so delicious that some South Africans even tried to smuggle it in their luggage on their way overseas. The woman told me that their record sales on one day for the boerewors was over two tons – on 31 December for New Year’s day parties. The day I was there she said that they had already sold 500 kg by 3 pm.

It’s amazing how the basic skills of practising as a butcher can be turned into something so valuable. Hats off to this butcher who has come up with a special recipe for sausage that is in great demand. It just goes to show how valuable learning a skill can be. Continue reading “Acquire a new skill to turn into cash”