Tag: small business

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How to develop a good start-up idea

IMG_3628 croppedEnis Bacova had a business idea which came to him after he crashed his motorbike and spent 48 hours in a coma.

This Australian business person has designed and launched Rippr which is a web-based loyalty scheme business which rewards people for being social. The concept allows people to create groups which receive rewards from businesses.

Stories like this make you wonder. For possible successes like this one still need to think of the hard part of struggling to get a start-up of the ground. Perfectly developed business plans can be shredded quickly by customer objections or competition. Often there is a lot of advice on how to go about developing your idea into a successful business but information is scant or short on how to turn around or recover from inevitable screw ups. Continue reading “How to develop a good start-up idea”

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How much is a new business idea worth to you?

Ideas are the Basis of Progress. Every Improve...
Ideas are the Basis of Progress. Every Improvement in This World was the Result of Someone’s Idea – NARA – 534220 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A civil engineer came back home after his contract ran out in Papua New Guinea. Because jobs are hard to find in his home country he sat around sending out more than 300 CVs, started running out of his savings, eventually had no money to make cellphone calls and by the hair on his chinny chin chin after one year secured a job in Saudi Arabia. This is the prison that the person with no new ideas experiences. All he or she can sell is skills and time.

A young woman landed up in Worcester, Western Cape, fell in love with the place and wanted to stay but there were no jobs. She wracked her brains, desperate to find some idea to make an income so that she could live in the town. Even though Worcester sauce is made by the giant food manufacturing companies right there in Worcester, she came up with an idea for her own special Worcester sauce, developed her product and it took off. Continue reading “How much is a new business idea worth to you?”

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Firing up the workshop of your imagination

English: An elderly at stretching exercises in gym
English: An elderly at stretching exercises in gym (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been trying to get back into running after a long absence. I had to drop out in the winter because of a calf injury I suffered one morning running below 0° with out doing warmup stretching exercises. The doctor said I could get back into running after three weeks but a friend in Cape Town who has gone into running in a big way said it would take 10 weeks. Guess who was right? The runner, the one who has knowledge of the road.

I practised walking for about two weeks before I took my first run. When I went out running the run seemed smooth flowing. But a few minutes after I got back I could feel the spot where the old injury was and my muscles were sore. The next day my muscles were so stiff that I took a break and went back the next day. Not everyone is interested in running, I realise, but it provides an excellent analogy for other areas in our lives such as our imagination, which is really the workshop of our minds in which all new ideas, concepts and solutions are fashioned. Continue reading “Firing up the workshop of your imagination”

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Growing your business through community marketing

English: A commuter cyclist in the London morn...
English: A commuter cyclist in the London morning rush hour, kitted out in specialist cycling gear (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A local Italian-style restaurant has been operating out of the same location for a number of years but in recent times it became neglected by the previous owner. The new owner has upgraded the washroom and toilets, modernised the kitchen and refurbished the main dining area. All of these are expenses which the new owner and his partners expect to recoup.

The restaurant owner has installed a large bicycle rack for the many cyclists that are starting to come to his restaurant on Saturdays and Sundays. The number of weekend cyclists has grown exponentially. The restaurant is located just above where the cyclists gather near the cycling trail that runs along the Braamfontein Spruit. This restaurant owner has identified a big school of fish which he can catch on weekends. All he has to do is reel them in by making his restaurant cyclist-friendly and catering for their dietary needs. No expensive advertising, high-priced public relations consultants or web designers required. Continue reading “Growing your business through community marketing”

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You may be at your lowest, but you’re not alone

Olive oil from Imperia in Liguria, Italy.
Olive oil from Imperia in Liguria, Italy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Colonel Sanders failed at a number of careers. For over 20 years he had been cooking chicken in his restaurant-come-hotel when a new interstate roadway bypassed his town. It took away all of his business. Saunders was broke.

“I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, no amount of labour, no amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And I have done that ever since, and I win by it.”

Saunders started travelling and eventually found a way to make money through franchising his fried chicken recipe. Within five years Kentucky Fried Chicken had 400 stores.

I remember once when the only work I could find was delivering cooking oil to fish and chip fryers from the back of a bakkie (small truck). At first it was humiliating work. But at the time I didn’t have any other options. I had to make it work. Selling cooking oil to the general trade is a tough business, especially when your product isn’t the lowest priced.
Slowly, after making repeated visits to fish and chip and chicken fryer outlets I made a personal breakthrough. One owner bought ten 20 litre cooking oil drums from me. It lifted my spirits. I finished the day excited and ready to keep on selling the next day and beyond.

In that dark tunnel where you see no light for what seems an eternity, it’s hard to hold on to your sanity. It’s tough to keep going. But you’ve just got to knuckle down and carry on with hope that you will eventually see the light.

A tornado hit the small town of Vilonia in Arkansas some time ago. One of the small business owners lost all his tools and his construction equipment. He lost two houses in an area where 38 houses were downed. He had bought them all. Now like other small business owners he is trying to get help.

Some of the small businesses devastated in the tornado had no insurance, others were paid out insurance but it didn’t cover everything they had in their business. Small businesses were turned down by the federal emergency management agency. But they are trying and applying again.

The mayor is encouraging businesses to stay in the town and reopen. Some have already planned to reopen their businesses in June. One woman who lost almost everything said she had learnt that it was important to “just keep looking forward”.

Col Saunders was able to find “the best that there was in me”. The human will to survive is strong when you dig in and find it. If you are just starting out, you may not know if you’ve got it. If you’re an experienced professional out on the streets, you could believe you will never make it. But if you keep on keeping on your resilience will get you to the other side.

Looking back, it took me more than three years to get back on my feet at one stage in my life but I made it. No matter what your circumstances are find the best in you and keep moving forward.

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How to kickstart your creativity

(Copyright © 2014 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2014 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

A team of researchers designed a creativity test and gave it to a group of 45-year-olds. Less than 5% of this group were judged to be creative according to the test. The researchers tested other ages: 40, 35, 30, 25 and 20-year-olds. The 5% finding was essentially constant for all these groups. At 17 years old the percentage of creative individuals increased to 10%. They also tested five-year-olds and the creativity score rose to over 90%. The research team concluded that most people are highly creative at the age of five.

This doesn’t mean that people in their mature years are not creative. Other research shows that creativity can be increased through training and rewiring your brain to look for opportunities. Everyone has creativity but it can lie dormant if it is not nurtured and used. Continue reading “How to kickstart your creativity”

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Outside and inside forces that can bring small businesses to their knees

Traditional Fish 'n' Chips
Traditional Fish ‘n’ Chips (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A tire manufacture that was once a household name recently complained that imports from China were helping to destroy its business. It was looking for help to rescue its business from financial difficulties. One doesn’t really know all the forces that are affecting this business but it’s circumstances does make one think what has management been doing to avoid the crisis?

Small and medium-size businesses can be impacted by outside and inside forces. By external factors, I mean the competition, customers and markets. It could also be legislation. Interior factors would include management, processes and controls as well as costs, cash flow and product quality. Continue reading “Outside and inside forces that can bring small businesses to their knees”

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Do you have what it takes to start a new business in your mature years?

English: Don Chow Tacos Ultimate LA Taco
English: Don Chow Tacos Ultimate LA Taco (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A business radio program gave an example of a man who retired and invested R5,000,000 of his savings into a “Vet Koek” (a traditional Afrikaner pastry made from dough which is deep-fried in cooking oil) business in a coastal Town which shortly thereafter went bankrupt.

The radio topic was on how people in the mature or retirement years can start something of their own. With many people needing to work beyond their official retirement date and with people living longer because of healthy lifestyles and modern medicine, there is much debate about entrepreneurship or small business ownership post retirement. Continue reading “Do you have what it takes to start a new business in your mature years?”

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A simple “thank you” goes a long way

Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A little while back I stopped in front of our local Chinese restaurant but didn’t get out of my car because there was a commotion going on in front of the restaurant. Lucy, the Chinese’s co-owner with her husband Leo, was holding her one-year old daughter Jessie in her arms and was shouting at a customer who was sitting at the open area of the restaurant alongside. Lucy was furious. She was shouting at someone who had come into the shop and had complained. She continued shouting until the centre manager had to come along to calm her down and tell her to get back into her shop.

Lucy takes great pride in her restaurant and the Chinese cuisine that she serves to customers. Perhaps she is young and hot headed but she has a good heart. To get her into this state of frustration she must have been provoked by extreme rudeness on the part of the customer. Continue reading “A simple “thank you” goes a long way”

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Fire up your sales – discover ways to recharge your dead spots

IMG00015-20101214-1532I walked through OR Tambo Airport in the early morning on a flight to Cape Town and saw most retail shops were not doing any business. Sales assistants were giving directions to commuters or chatting to their colleagues. Other sales people were sitting around texting messages on their cell phones.

Sure, the restaurants were doing brisk early morning trade. Travellers who had arrived at the airport and hadn’t yet had anything to eat were having breakfast. But the retail outlets might not have even opened because trade was slow or non-existent. Stores selling clothing, computer accessories, music, branded goods (such as Ferrari) and gift stores — not even a trickle of sales. Continue reading “Fire up your sales – discover ways to recharge your dead spots”