Tag: start-ups

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Knowing how to identify entrepreneurial risks doesn’t make you a wimp

English: Young Dutch entrepreneur Danny Mekic
English: Young Dutch entrepreneur Danny Mekic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A year can be a long time in the life of an entrepreneur. At the beginning of this year a new fast-food takeaway restaurant outlet started in my local community with much promise. The product quality was good and the staff really tried to give good service. But before the end of nine months this business shut its doors.

You know how it is, once a business person like this decides to open a new business family and friends tell him or her what a good idea it is and give him or her all the encouragement. They say well-meaning things like “you’ll make it”, “I know you can do it” and “you’ve done it before, you can do it again”. This is in the nature of things. People are encouraging and want to be supportive. But comments like this may give you a sense of false security, thinking you can do what others have done but better. Continue reading “Knowing how to identify entrepreneurial risks doesn’t make you a wimp”

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Start-up risks that could spell game over for your new enterprise

English: Hydrangea macrophylla - Hortensia hyd...
English: Hydrangea macrophylla – Hortensia hydrangea, picture from Longwood Gardens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One late evening recently I was at a garden nursery and was taken around the place by two of the managers. We went down to goods receiving where a supplier had brought in a load of hydrangeas late in the afternoon after closing time. The managers who are also horticulturists took one look at the hundred or so crates of hydrangeas and unfortunately had to reject them because of the quality. To me the hydrangeas looked pretty and appealing but to the expert eye there were major flaws. The grower of these hydrangeas had grown them too close together which meant that they grew trying to reach for sunlight, which lengthened the stems. The result of this was that the hydrangeas had long stems and either drooped or fell down. Not every nursery has such strict quality control and most nurseries with lower quality standards would have accepted them. But how can you claim to be a tip-top garden nursery if you display hydrangeas like these on your nursery floor? Continue reading “Start-up risks that could spell game over for your new enterprise”

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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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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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No shortage of opportunities, only a shortage of imagination

Your Imagination
Your Imagination (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Think of all the new products and services that have come about over the past five years. Products for the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room, the home office and small business tools. All these products and services were initially conceived in the minds of people who used their imagination to think up new ideas. In the next five years there will be many more new products and services for the home, working environment, entertainment and sports field. Many of these products and services will come from the imaginations of entrepreneurs who’ve taken the time to explore their world and people around them and have come up with new solutions to problems and challenges.

You see, there isn’t a shortage of opportunities but a shortage of imagination. Whether you use your imagination to come up with a new product or service, many others will do so because of the opportunities that abound. If you took yourself back five years or even further into the past, and looked ahead over the years to where you are right now, you would be amazed at the number of products and services that have been introduced into the market over this time. As a famous entrepreneur said, they is no shortage of opportunity, only shortage of imagination. Continue reading “No shortage of opportunities, only a shortage of imagination”

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Do you have the courage to give it another shot?

IMG_3157How have you handled personal crises in your life? Have you started something new but given up too soon? Can you think of people you’ve known who have given something just one more try and made it work?

Even people who have reached the top of the ladder in their fields have been plagued by doubt. Shortly after Ray Kroc signed the contract with the McDonald’s brothers he wasn’t quite sure what he had taken on but he was eager to go into action. “I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gallbladder and most of my thyroid gland in earlier campaigns. But I was convinced that the best was ahead of me.” Continue reading “Do you have the courage to give it another shot?”

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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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What does selling “harder” really mean for your small business?

Cameras, Memory & Batteries, for sale at ABF
Cameras, Memory & Batteries, for sale at ABF (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other day I saw a notice in a Spar supermarket that caught my attention. It was a letter written by a young girl on an A4 sheet of line paper with the small cut out, tear-off strips at the bottom, you know the ones that you usually find on notice boards. Well, the young wrote a brief later explaining that her silk worms had hatched and now she had too many of them. Her dad had suggested to her that she earn some pocket money by selling them at 25 cents each. She noted that all you needed was a shoebox and some mulberry leaves that you could get from a tree in the park across from the shopping centre. She gave her dad’s contact details. Already one or two of the tear-off address details had been removed. Continue reading “What does selling “harder” really mean for your small business?”

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Does your experience count?

English: Kalk Bay habour, Cape Peninsula, Sout...
English: Kalk Bay habour, Cape Peninsula, South Africa Deutsch: Hafen von Kalk Bay, Kap-Halbinsel, Süd Afrika (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A pair of guru business consultants was sprouting platitudes about how business owners should change their outfits into so-called learning organisations. The fan boy of the two consultants instead of challenging them was praising them to the nines about the fantastic work they were doing. After all three were waxing lyrical about how business leaders and owners need to change, not mentioning how well this would fit in with self promoting their consulting service, one of them attacked experience. Continue reading “Does your experience count?”

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How often do you as a small business owner get out to see what is going on in the market?

IMG_0284I mentioned to a small business owner the other day that a similar business to his had started down the road. He told me that he spent so much time in his business that he didn’t even know about it. Perhaps when he gets a chance to take off an hour or so he may go down the road to look at the business and see what his competitor he is doing.

How often do you get out of your start-up or small business to go look what’s happening in the market? Do you have the time? Is it worth your while? Continue reading “How often do you as a small business owner get out to see what is going on in the market?”