Two Bits

Don’t get me started on #FeesMustFall and an infantile minority who think that burning universities and schools will do them or the country any good – or the fact that the government only listens when citizens riot. Don’t get me going on Hlaudi Motsoneng and a pathetic SABC board that hasn’t a clue of how to govern. Ditto on a cabinet that appears clueless on how to stop either mess. I believe we are facing all these troubles because the ruling party made promises it cannot keep, has underfunded education disastrously and thought that the country would stand by while they stuffed their pockets from the public purse.
No, let’s not get started on that. Though it might be satisfying to vent and rage, the here and now is more important. The topic I want to talk about this week is: What does it take to be successful in business?
The members of the Ilembe Chamber of Commerce, businessmen and women who play a part in powering the economy of this region, support an annual project called The Entrepreneur. We’ve all heard of it. This year there were 125 entrants, of which 19 were selected for the full course.
They were assigned a mentor, an experienced businessperson who gives freely of their time to drill them for 12 Saturdays on things like goal setting, budgets, business plans, marketing and a whole lot more. The entrants are all people who have started their own businesses, but who want help in all those good things. Some are well educated, others have little, some are not badly off, others are dirt poor.
What they have in common is a burning desire to move on from where they find themselves, to run their own businesses and be masters of their own destiny. All that is easier said than done.
Looking back on my own experience, I was strongly motivated by a mixture of desperation and fear of failure. Desperate to get out of the job treadmill, out of Jo’burg and a corporate workplace where I was a face and a number, and once we made the leap to the North Coast, fear of failing kept us battling and working through the toughest times.
But those are not the only factors. And there are as many factors as there are people, I guess, because everyone has their own reasons for what they are doing.
It should go without saying that the first ingredient of starting a business is to have a vision. Why do I want this business and what is it going to do?
The next steps are the hard part, and that is what the Chamber mentors try to coax out of their charges. Beyond a vision, in practical terms you need a plan; a plan that is written down. That can be in words, or in figures – preferably both. You need a budget. A spreadsheet of real figures is like a splash of cold water in your face. It cuts through the dreaming and makes you focus.
Our experience, learned the hard way, is that a key ingredient of a successful business is efficient administration. You must have persons or people (or whip yourself into shape) who understand figures, billing and collection. And to be efficient you must be strict with your customers. Understand that if you let people get away without paying you, they will laugh as you sink beneath the waves.
You must also learn how to market your business. Time and time again, sitting on the panel of judges, I heard these budding entrepreneurs say they are marketing themselves through social media only. I am not saying this because I own newspapers and magazines, but anyone who thinks they are going to grow a real business this way is kidding themselves.
I understand why they should think of promoting themselves through Facebook or similar – it ranges from free to relatively inexpensive. Free is good, right? Not really. Free may help publicise a small business, but it is virtually guaranteed that it will remain small.
Entrepreneurs who want to grow their business need to place themselves in the public eye, often. The most effective is television coupled with print. Next is print, followed by other media. Word of mouth is a prince, but Capitec hasn’t grown on Facebook and WOM alone.
Some businesses do quite well on the web, that is true, but they are servicing niche markets (except Amazon!). The web has stolen a chunk of advertising from print, but even businesses that spend heavily on the web have learned the benefits of keeping a visual presence in newspapers, magazines, billboards etc.
But I digress. The real ingredient of success in business, small or big, has to be sheer, relentless, unputdownable determination. Don’t think of the money you might make. If your business succeeds, the money will take care of itself. “I want to win” beats “I want to go on a fancy cruise” any day.
So, of the 19 entrepreneurs who went through the Chamber’s crash course, some will win, some will fail. But well done to the Chamber, its member businesses and the mentors for putting out a helping hand. The SABC, university fees, delivery failures and all that nonsense are the downside of our country, but at least there are people like the Chamber and its supporters who believe in the future.
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I received this from Richard Brooks, as an explanation of South African rugby after Saturday’s shambles:
We have an outside centre playing inside centre and a full back at outside centre. We have a left wing on the right wing to make room for a scrum-half on the left wing and our fullback is actually a fly-half.
Things get really interesting when the replacements come on. If you want to replace your left wing who is on the right wing you must send on a full back who can then take the place of your first fly-half who is at fullback. You must then move your fly-half at fullback to the right wing.
When the scrum-half gets injured you have to send on an eighth man to replace your open-side flanker who is actually playing on the blindside. You must then move your open-side blindside flank to the left wing and your scrum-half on the left wing must replace your injured scrumhalf.
This is called team management . . .

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Why do I have to press one for English when you’re just going to transfer me to someone I can’t understand anyway?