Tag: new business ideas

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Can you turn your ideas into gold (without a sweet-smelling corpse)?

Lao Tzu, traditionally the author of the Tao T...
Lao Tzu, traditionally the author of the Tao Te Ching (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In ancient China alchemy was part of the larger tradition of Taoist body-spirit cultivation that developed from the traditional Chinese understanding of medicine in the body. The alchemists tried to refine base metals into gold believing that immortal life would be delivered if the “fake” or synthetic gold was ingested.

Alchemists wanted to transform things into something more valuable such as converting copper, lead, iron and tin combined with cinnabar (a mineral with a reddish brown colour often found at deposits of mercury, or more lethal components such as arsenic and sulphur into gold. Taoist alchemy was concerned with transforming human beings so as to give them longer life and bring them closer to the Tao. They worked in laboratories, grinding, mixing and eating various substances together in search of the magical compound. Continue reading “Can you turn your ideas into gold (without a sweet-smelling corpse)?”

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Little-known ways to test your business idea

Customer Service Forum 2013 @ St George
Customer Service Forum 2013  (Photo credit: mylearning)

Low cost. Inexpensive. No cost. Magical words. Flop, failure. Unsuccessful. Not words anyone looking to start something on the side or even a would-be small business person would want to hear.

After selecting your most promising idea for a product or service and assessing its potential, next up is the important step of testing it in the market.

Leave out testing and your business idea could quickly go West. Continue reading “Little-known ways to test your business idea”

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Are you a victim of a crisis of the imagination?

Imagination!
Imagination! (Photo credit: Stephh922)

I was at a small event the other evening where the conversation was about the environment, economics and imagining futures better than the one at present.

One of the speakers mentioned that the reason why it is difficult to envision or create new futures is because of a crisis of imagination.

The problem is that we are stuck in traditional thinking ruts, we respond to change in predictable ways and we have not learned to re-imagine ourselves and the world around us. Continue reading “Are you a victim of a crisis of the imagination?”

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Mexican blasted on Second Avenue

The Mexican... gone but not forgotten. Photo credit: Kevin Sutherland, Times Explorer
The Mexican… gone but not forgotten. Photo credit: Kevin Sutherland, Times Explorer

At 11 o’clock in the night we searched for the Mexican in the dark. We just didn’t seem able to find the Mexican. After driving around the block twice, I called my friend to tell him that we couldn’t find the Mexican.

That’s when he gave the secret away. After dinner at the Bella Casa, we decided to go to the Mexican restaurant in Westdene in Bloemfontein. The general idea was to have an evening closer whiskey (I wasn’t driving). I was particularly looking forward to seeing Steve the Scottish owner of the Mexican and tasting one of his top recommendations, Singletons whiskey. Continue reading “Mexican blasted on Second Avenue”

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10 reasons why you must not start a new product, service or business (unless you know how to deal with each)

Risky Business (soundtrack)

It might seem ridiculous to put you off taking your idea and turning it into a product or service and starting a new business.

But I’ve seen too many would-be entrepreneurs’ dreams lying shattered because they didn’t plan beforehand, acquire the necessary know-how, skills and experience before they took the leap.

New product development and starting a business is risky. Unless you personally manage the risk every step of the way, you could lose a lot more than your shirt.

No incubator or six-week seed workshop will remove that risk nor will it give you the know-how to start and run a money-making business. You only develop know-how by doing.

Here are 10 reasons why you shouldn’t start a new product, service or business (unless you have a solid plan to rectify these weaknesses): Continue reading “10 reasons why you must not start a new product, service or business (unless you know how to deal with each)”

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10 reasons why you should start a new product, service or small business (and why the recession could be the best time to begin)

Tasty Food Abundance in Healthy Europe
 (Photo credit: epSos.de)

Why is it that we wait until the worst possible moment to act on important things in our lives?

We plan our annual holiday so late that all the best places are fully booked. We may have left our retirement planning for late in life only to find out that we should have started years ago. We always wanted to start a business of our own but we did nothing about it and now we are unemployed or too old to have the energy to make a go of things.

Here are some reasons why you should start a new product, service or small business: Continue reading “10 reasons why you should start a new product, service or small business (and why the recession could be the best time to begin)”

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Spine-chilling fears of small business owners (six of the best capsules of terror – not to be taken at bedtime)

Alexander the Great battling monsters, the French 15th century miniature (Credit: Public domain work of art)
Alexander the Great battling monsters, the French 15th century miniature (Credit: Public domain work of art)

My father who retired early at about 55 because of ill-health signed surety for a motor business owned by some real smart characters in Cape Town. He was excited to be a business owner for the first time in his life. Unknown to him the other part owners in the business were spending the money my father had put into the business hand over first. Large bank loans were outstanding.

The bank came and confiscated every asset my father owned including the family house on the side of the mountain at Kalk Bay where I grew up. He never died before his time of a heart attack but because of a broken heart, lying in a cheap boarding house in Wynberg.

Be very careful of signing a surety. Know the danger from your business adviser. Check and double check with your lawyer. I will never sign surety for anyone or anything. Continue reading “Spine-chilling fears of small business owners (six of the best capsules of terror – not to be taken at bedtime)”

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Find your golden monkey without tricking your brain (warning: your “rational” brain may resist)

Golden Monkeys of China
Golden Monkeys of China (Photo credit: afrowolf)

You tell your mind to come up with a new idea… and nothing comes. Minutes flick by. Then hours. Perhaps days.

You’re walking somewhere, could be around the block in your suburb in the evening, and a solution hits you. You could be cleaning the dishes and suddenly an idea pops into your head. Or, you could be driving in the traffic and an idea just springs out from your brain seemingly from nowhere.

Ever heard of the monkey mind? Some call it the mosquito mind. Often you find your thoughts running all over the place, distracting you from what you really want to think about.

Continue reading “Find your golden monkey without tricking your brain (warning: your “rational” brain may resist)”

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You’ve got ideas. What to do with them?

ideas
ideas (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

Not all ideas are equal. You’ve come up with an idea that you think is brilliant. You may have several ideas bubbling in your head or staring at you in your notebook. You might have used idea-generation tools and solo brainstormed perhaps 100 ideas.

To make eventual money from your new business ideas for products and services you need to have some process to select the best ones and experiment with them. Continue reading “You’ve got ideas. What to do with them?”