Expert Financial & Business Insights for South Africa
Strategic analysis from Idea Accelerator and ready-to-publish content from Financial News Daily.
A small business owner who started a business in my local community has expanded his business twice.
In these hard times, this is extraordinary.
How did he do it?
Through the applied creativity that comes from identifying a market gap. Creating the right value-for-money product. And, most importantly, friendly, helpful customer service. Continue reading “Are you in need of help in these hard times?”
I had a problem. A small problem. A problem that kept nagging at me.
What was irritating me was when I would sit outside on the metal outdoor bench, when I would get up in bench would jump up slightly from the one side. I wondered how I could fix this problem. What could I use to stop the wobbling?
I gave it some thought about couldn’t come up with anything that was an elegant solution. Sure, you can find something in your house to stop a table or chair leg from wobbling but will it be unnoticeable and effective? You don’t want to continually have to get bits of plastic or other material and keep putting it under the bench leg. Continue reading “Here’s a product that may give you inspiration for coming up with something of your own”
You’ve been treated like a dog and kicked in the teeth so many times that you wonder what you’re still doing hanging around and hanging on.
But you don’t want to follow those eyeing a job in the Middle East or some other foreign shore.
For years you’ve yearned to start and run something on your own but you’ve held yourself back. Continue reading “What is your dream business?”
Felix Dennis, one of Britain’s wealthiest self-made entrepreneurs, says:
“The second myth is that people got rich by having a “great idea”. While this is a more feasible hypothesis than having got rich by accident, it is a trap, because it is a partial truth… The follow-through, the execution, is 1000 times more important than a “great idea”. In fact, if the execution is perfect, it sometimes barely matters what the idea is.”
What you think of this wisdom from Felix Dennis? Continue reading “The myth that people get rich by having a “great idea””
A small business owner who was a “marketing expert” started a small business but soon ran into trouble. The reason was basically because the small business owner had not worked in the retail food market before. But being a “marketing expert”, he thought he knew better.
Within 18 months the small business had to be shut down, the equipment sold to cover unpaid expenses incurred by the landlord and plenty of frustrated customers who wondered why the business had been opened in the first place. Continue reading “A business owners’s experience and skills triumphs over another who just pumps money into their small business”
I was talking to a business owner the other day and she gave an example of laughable customer service at an outlet of a behemoth chain of retail stores. A prospective customer at the retail outlet had asked for an item but the manager said that they don’t stock it. When the small business owner heard this she took the customer and the manager to the top shelf and showed the manager where it was stocked in his store. The small business owner just shook her head and said it was fantastic for a small business competing in the same field. Continue reading “Laughable customer service provides opportunity for small business owners”
The events over the past few weeks have made me wonder about what is a precious gift when you find yourself in times of adversity. We accept bumps in the road and minor setbacks as part of life but when major disasters or tragedies strike it’s sometimes difficult to get back onto the saddle and ride your horse again.
Disasters for small business come in many forms including a cash crisis, loss of a major customer, changing technology and the entrance of a new and strong competitor. These are just some. But as the business founder, the business owner, you are the driving force in the business. When personal or family tragedy strikes such as the loss of a loved one, you may take some time to recover. Continue reading “What is your precious gift in small business?”
Peter Block told a magazine: “I think that people are more afraid now about losing their jobs and feel more vulnerable than employees have ever felt based on what I have seen. It is not caused by the recent recession. It is beyond the recession. Regarding the humanness of our institutions, this is where I don’t see much progress. I am not blaming HR. People are afraid of their bosses, and they are isolated in their work.”
Peter Block has consulted to many of the world’s largest and most complex corporations, government agencies and public service institutions for more than 35 years.
It was my humble honour to eventually meet him in South Africa after following his breakthrough work for many years. Continue reading “Why it’s important to develop alternative sources of income”
A woman who had no experience in baking got hold of a recipe for a butter and almond cake, got the ingredients and prepared the cake just as the recipe said. Voila! The cake was delicious.
She took a piece to work and her boss loved it so much that he asked for the recipe. She gave him the recipe and he cooked the cake for his in-laws who were flying up from another city to visit. Continue reading “You start a business idea recipe but what happens when you leave out key ingredients?”
When I was growing up and we went fishing for snoek off my father’s ski boat at Cape Point we became excited when we were the first to discover the giant shoals of Snoek. When the shoals of snoek were concentrated as they moved into False Bay, the fishing was good. Within a few hours you could catch enough to fill the boat’s fish hold and go home early to market.
In the following days, the commercial fishermen out of Kalk Bay and Simon’s Town and the ski boat fraternity would hear that there was snoek off Cape Point. A whole flotilla of fishing boats would be fishing for the snoek shoals. Sometimes it was chaotic. If you were into a shoal of snoek, other boats would drift next to you throwing out the lines and entangling them in yours. There was much cursing and cussing. Within a few days, unless the South Easter or North Wester came up, the shoals would have dwindled and the fishing would be poor. Continue reading “How do you gain the first-mover advantage as a small business?”
