I met an entrepreneur the other day who lost everything in his small business. At one time the small business was highly successful. He took a back seat, moved to a another town and went into semi–retirement. Disaster struck. His manager who he’d trusted to run the business stole everything out of the business until there was nothing left. Continue reading “Comebacks in small businesses can be a hard and long path”
Eighty percent of entrepreneurs make this costly idea mistake
Most people wanting to start a new income stream come up with the wrong ideas because they focus on a product or service idea.
You see, when you go for a new idea you can face too many obstacles. You have to spend money testing your idea. You need to develop your idea and find distribution. All this costs money. The worst thing is that you only have an outside chance of success.
Even the big companies in FMCG don’t get new product development right. Something like 76% of new products in FMCG failed between 2011 to 2013 within a year. About 66% of the products never reach the sales volume of 10,000 items, according to a news report. Continue reading “Eighty percent of entrepreneurs make this costly idea mistake”
Don’t knock the one-person dream business
Some people like to take sideswipes at the one-person entrepreneurs dream. It’s easy for an executive in a large and successful conglomerate corporation to knock the little guy but the truth is that they wouldn’t be in these big positions if it wasn’t for the initial one person who sowed the seed for the business.
Yes, it’s true that the one-person entrepreneur may perhaps lack the expertise to scale up their business or not even have the best start-up model when starting out. It’s not for nothing that the dropout rate of small businesses runs close to 80% in the first year of operation.
But with the right experience and outside expertise entrepreneurs these days can easily find an experienced business adviser or retired business people to help them develop their revenue model, business model, start-up model and operational model to realise their dream. Continue reading “Don’t knock the one-person dream business”
What does it take to start something of your own?
On Saturday afternoon I met a young woman at the local gym who has four years in academic entrepreneurship training but has yet to start something of her own.
She is now selling subscriptions to the gym to hone her selling skills. After close to five years she still doesn’t have any clue about what she could start herself. Continue reading “What does it take to start something of your own?”
What does it take to start something of your own?
On Saturday afternoon I met a young woman at the local gym who has four years in academic entrepreneurship training but has yet to start something of her own.
She is now selling subscriptions to the gym to hone her selling skills. After close to five years she still doesn’t have any clue about what she could start herself.
This is the way it goes for many would-be entrepreneurs. She has spent R200,000 ($20,000) to learn how to be an entrepreneur from a so-called top academic institution but still has nothing to show for it. You’d think that completing a degree in entrepreneurship would move you a lot closer to finding an idea to start your own business. But many people just try to get a degree certificate to have some paper behind their name. Yet after completing a four-year entrepreneurship degree you have to pay a lot back if your parents are not financing your education or if you were unable to get a study bursary. Continue reading “What does it take to start something of your own?”
Is there really 1 big mistake entrepreneurs make with their new ideas?
I wonder how many times I see the same familiar email pop up in my inbox:
“What is the # 1 single biggest mistake entrepreneurs make with their new business idea?”
I must have deleted this email because I can’t find it.
One mistake.
Really? Continue reading “Is there really 1 big mistake entrepreneurs make with their new ideas?”
Secret sauce for small business start-ups
Now with the economy as it is, formulas, systems and processes to start up a business of your own are flooding email in-boxes and splashing on the cover of small business magazines.
Nothing wrong with that except for the glaring omissions in the advice, making it sound like a small business is so easy to start it’s like child’s play. We’ve covered the importance of transforming personal resources into business resources, market research, testing and implementation plans. But there’s still one secret sauce that doesn’t appear in these offers, books and articles written by gurus (gooroos), academics and instant authors, publishing hundreds of thousands of instant e-book’s each year.
That ingredient is so obvious that it’s left out or left alone because the authors seem to have no idea of how important it is. Continue reading “Secret sauce for small business start-ups”
Sing in the shower for brilliant ideas and profit from your innovation
This African proverb is a great way to think about new ideas and innovation:
“An axe without a handle does not cut firewood.”
Combinations lead to innovation.
Connections among your experiences, feelings, emotions, deep thinking, facts and observations can spark new ideas for products, services, fresh thinking and stunning insights.
Three quick examples:
– Ballet and shoes = ballet pumps
– Surfboard and kite = kite boarding
– Internet and friends = Facebook
How do you discover these golden connections? How do you ignite these golden threads? How do you spark of these golden opportunities? Continue reading “Sing in the shower for brilliant ideas and profit from your innovation”
