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Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: EmptyTrips Get Creative with Cargo with BENJI COETZEE The founder of EmptyTrips, Benji Coetzee, is disrupting the cargo transport industry. Elevator Pitch: Who is Benji Coetzee? When the conversation veers towards her profession, Benji tells people that she’s a techie who aims to do good business. She has an online marketplace where they have digitised an old-school industry – the supply and demand for cargo transport. Benji also works as a consultant. Starting Out Benji calls herself a “nerd at heart” with a Masters in Maritime Economics and Law from Stellenbosch as well as a Masters in Corporate Finance and Law from Goethe University in Frankfurt. She initially wanted to pursue investment banking as a career and joined the HSBC team. After a year she was approached by the Boston Consulting Group. She used her years there as an opportunity to learn as much as she could about running a company. Benji hails from a conservative Afrikaans family where the importance of a good, stable job was always accentuated despite her entrepreneurial spirit. Her mother advised her to first build a buffer if she wanted to bootstrap her technology business. While building the online marketplace, she realised that she was in actual fact building 3 businesses at once: you build a demand for the product, the supply thereof as well as the portal to facilitate the service. Find the Gap Benji’s consultancy background definitely helped create the idea of EmptyTrips. She didn’t have any experience in logistics at that stage. The different puzzle pieces came together and they lauched EmptyTrips in April 2017. They have even incorporated online auctions in order to get corporates to start behaving differently. Different tools are used to get people to act more aware and competitively online. Bootstrap the Business It’s important to get your minimum viable product (MVP) out as soon as possible. Do not attempt to create the perfect product at first. They interviewed close to 20 freelance developers before finding the right candidate, Herman, who is now the CTO. She sourced potential candidates from online discussion portals, Google Meetups and even contacted universities. Benji identifies new products and grows the business, while Herman is responsible for the technical side. Their team has also grown significantly since inception. After a while they added cargo insurance to the services they offer. Benji suggests reading The Lean Startup for excellent ideas to launch a business. Big Partners In the near future EmptyTrips will partner with a JSE-listed company. This is an essential step for them to grow the company as venture capital is scarce in South Africa. In this instance, getting large corporates involved may take 6-8 months. Prior to investment you should anticipate to fund your own business for up to 18 months and still not turn a profit. Negotiate a Partnership Benji was approached by many venture capitalists who asked for 70-80% stakes in the company. She was adamant, however, to never give away more than 20% of the company. She was completely transparent on what the money would be used for from the get go. Before you enter these types of negotiations you need to decide what percentage of your company you are willing to give up. Rounds of Funding During each round of funding you raise capital for the next step in the company’s growth. The company releases a certain amount of shares with each round of funding. That can either mean a new investor or an additional investment from existing investors. Each round of funding is based on the previous round as well as the traction gained in that round. All capital raised goes directly to the business. Build a Network Benji attributes some of her company’s success to the network she built as a consultant. Being referred carries a lot of clout. The network has taken her years to build and was hard work. Always deliver on your promises. She doesn’t underestimate the power of media and marketing – winning awards, speaking the right lingo and being professional. Benji used an array of different opportunities to build her network and professional relationships. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? The idea of peer-to-peer financing and digital banks fascinates Benji. She is also intrigued by gamification – to gamify mundane, day-to-day administrative tasks. There’s a multitude of positive impacts including making work more satisfying, increasing productivity and decreasing human error. You initiate some friendly competition between colleagues. Benji also feels that there’s nothing wrong with a good trading business. The post MBA 063: Get Creative with Cargo with BENJI COETZEE appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Flexy ANNETTE MULLER, Paving the Way for Women in Tech. The founder of Flexy, an online platform for on-demand workers and one of Forbes Magazine’s top female entrepreneurs in the tech space in 2014. MBA 062: ANNETTE MULLER, Paving the Way for Women in Tech. Elevator Pitch: Who is Annette Muller? Annette would describe herself as an entrepreneur. She is the founder of Flexy, an online platform for on-demand workers. Forbes Magazine named Annette one of the top female entrepreneurs in the tech space in 2014. She is experimenting with flexi-living – really trying to feel what it is like to be a digital nomad. Starting Out Annette feels she was born with entrepreneurial spirit, starting her first business at the age of ten. At boarding school she ran her own little tuck shop. She studied in Spain and at UCT, but was highly disappointed when she didn’t immediately find a job after university. This made her realise that no-one else will make your dream happen for you, you have to do it yourself. Whenever Annette felt that she had learnt all she could from a company she would move to another with the potential for personal growth. She likes to invest in herself and keep her knowledge current. Annette also mentions that travelling is one of the best investments in yourself that there is. In her final year at university Annette started a company called StyleSpotted. Essentially it was an app that allowed you to identify items of clothing, similar to what Shazam does with music. Their aim was to build a trend database to eventually sell to a retailer. It was difficult to convince investors of the concept. Flexy Her latest venture, Flexy, was born out of her previous business, DOTNXT, and had been in development for the last four years. She came up with the idea of a network of digital agents in answer of a real problem they faced at DOTNXT. They couldn’t afford to pay someone a full-time salary, but still needed an on-demand workforce. The administration got too much for such a small company to manage. They then started this network of top innovators in South Africa and kept track of their employment on rudimentary spreadsheets. Unique Selling Proposition Flexy has a network-based approach as opposed to other job marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. These marketplaces are primarily centred around a specific job or project where Flexy is not a job board. Flexy is an on-demand workforce management tool. It works like a booking tool for your on-demand workforce team. This solves what is a very inefficient process at the moment. Developing the Toolset It’s especially difficult in the beginning to work with a partnering company. Annette can now identify the pros and cons of doing so. It is to your advantage to be forced to develop very detailed specs. She realised there would be risks involved when working with a company, so they opted for in-house team of developers instead. Annette initially made use of freelancers to get a prototype out. Multiple Income Streams They carefully had to consider their business model for longevity as most companies see their fee as a grudge purchase after a while. This prompted them to relook the fee structure. Other similar platforms tend to look after the specialists and look past any problems the hiring companies might encounter. Because Flexy was born out of a company, they could approach this differently. The freelancers do not pay any fees for services rendered. Tools of the Trade Annette wants to emphasize that it’s about the mindset rather than the tools when it comes to being a digital nomad. You will need to change some of your deeply set beliefs that some things can only be resolved a certain way. Many things that we hold as truths we very well need to unlearn. They make use of Slack, a cloud-based set of team collaboration tools and services. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? Annette would have loved to go into medicine, she especially values the technology behind it and the data we have at our disposal. She thinks that deep down she really wanted to be a doctor. Last Words Just do it! What’s the worst that can happen? The post MBA 062: ANNETTE MULLER, Paving the Way for Women in Tech. appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Legwear Safari MBA 061: Find your Feet in E-Commerce with TRACY KRUGER Founder of the online hosiery store, Legwear Safari. Elevator Pitch: Who is Tracy Kruger? Tracy created an online hosiery store called Legwear Safari. Starting Out Tracy worked as a hairdresser for 10 years before she opened her own salon at her home. After that she also did freelance copywriting in-between hairdressing which she eventually stopped completely. She learnt a lot about SEO and content creation for websites whilst working as a freelancer. This led her to start her first e-commerce store in an attempt to present crafters with a global market. Her husband then suggested that she opens an online legwear shop. Legwear Safari was founded in 2013. They started with a Facebook page for the brand and were blown away by the response and requests they received. It was a challenge to develop a functioning online shop while another hurdle was to find local suppliers. They eventually found suppliers abroad who were extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Looking for Suppliers From Tracy’s copywriting days she knew to search for suppliers through the images on Google. They came across Falke Hosiery in Cape Town who was willing to supply them in small, manageable quantities. Finding a local supplier allowed them to slowly phase out some of the more expensive international brands. Legwear Safari currently has suppliers locally and in the UK. Finding Your Niche Right in the beginning Tracy stocked those items that she would like to wear until they received enough feedback from customers. It surprised them to see that hosiery sells throughout the year. Marketing Tracy feels as if she severely underestimated the amount of advertising one needs to do for an e-commerce store. They started out with only a Facebook page. Tracy now manages all of the digital marketing and advertisement campaigns as well as e-mail marketing. Legwear Safari also makes use of Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to reach their customers. She uses Google Analytics to track their reach. She urges entrepreneurs to find out exactly where their traffic comes from before investing in an avenue. Technology of E-commerce Do research on the various platforms and find the one most suitable for your site. They use WordPress and Woocommorce – it’s easy enough for Tracy to upkeep herself. When starting out it’s not the best idea to try and do this yourself. Find a reputable company or individual developer to build your site in such a way that you are able to learn to manage it yourself. Also look at the after-sales support that they offer. If you are not technologically inclined you may want to look into keeping them on some kind of retainer, so remember to budget for that. Any external supplier that you make use of as part of what you offer immediately becomes an extension of your business and contributes to your brand image. Examples of these are the courier company you choose to use and where you decide to host your website. Payment Gateway Legwear Safari makes use of Sage Pay as payment gateway. After interviewing all of the major local payment gateway companies, Tracy decided on Sage Pay. Firstly because of the way they deal with fraud and secondly for the confidentiality of the customer’s information. She also chose it for ease of use, not forgetting that Sage is a reputable international company. Shipping Couriers remain Tracy’s largest nuisance. Because of how remotely they are located in Tulbach, transport costs get quite expensive. If the courier fails to deliver the package on time, it reflects badly on your company, not that of the courier. Most courier companies provide a free plugin for your online store where customers can track their parcel. The couriers require all parcels to be sealed, but each package from Legwear Safari is individually wrapped to look special. Live Chat Facility Customers love the fact that they offer a live chat facility on their site. It’s the quick alternative to sending an email and having to wait for a response. A small business owner can even link the live chat to his or her mobile phone to answer queries when not in the office. At Legwear Safari they find that more customers make use of the live chat than calling them on the phone. Local vs. International Tracy would prefer to keep as much of their business in South Africa, but unfortunately even local suppliers import their yarn. Customs take a big chunk when you import textiles. At the moment it is cost-effective for Tracy to import some of the products from the UK. When they first started out, Legwear Safari’s customers comprised of about 40% from abroad, but that’s dwindled since. The Team Legwear Safari comprises of a team of four people who work in a virtual office. Tracy does not expect her employees to move to Tulbach. Find people with strengths in their industry that complement yours to join your team. She suggests you find someone to do your bookkeeping and another person to manage the technical side of things. The third person you need is someone who is good with customer service. When starting out you should be prepared to roll up your sleeves and take up any one of those roles in your business. Starting an E-commerce Store Do not underestimate the costs of advertising for an online store. According to Tracy you won’t be able to run an e-commerce store part-time. The first few years will require a tremendous amount of work and time. To have an online store built will cost you anywhere between R5 000 and R50 000 today. You can start off with something very basic. The advertising will cost you about R3 000 to R5 000 per month. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? Tracy would start another e-commerce venture. She enjoys all the possibilities it brings. Small, non-perishable items that don’t weigh a lot would sell well. Last Words You don’t need all of the skills required to run a business. Bookkeeping, digital marketing and web development are all things that can be outsourced. Reach out to a colleague or someone in a similar direction to bounce ideas off of each other. You will need to reinvent your brand each day. Keep changing all the time to stay relevant. The post MBA 061: Find your Feet in E-Commerce with TRACY KRUGER appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: FreeeUp MBA 060: Free up your time by outsourcing with NATHAN HIRSCH Nathan Hirsh, 28-year old serial entrepreneur. Apart from being involved in an e-commerce business, Nathan co-founded FreeeUp, where they connect businesses with skilled freelancers. Elevator Pitch: Who is Nathan Hirsch? Nathan refers to himself as a serial entrepreneur. As a way to make extra money as a student, he started an Amazon business 8 years ago. He had a dropshipping business long before the term was even coined. This resulted in a multi-million dollar business being run from his fraternity house. He needed to hire more and more employees to help him. He saw a need for an online hiring marketplace. Daily Routine Nathan typically focuses on the sales and marketing of his online hiring platform as well as coordinating the internal processes of the business. The first part of his day is spent liaising with his employees whilst the rest of the day is usually set aside for meeting with potential customers. In-house vs. Outsourced Employees There are no in-house employees in Nathan’s businesses. He did have a more traditional setup based in an office when he was a young entrepreneur. Nowadays they only hire candidates who have made it into the FreeeUp network. Making Mistakes and Learning From Them Diversification. Nathan learned a valuable lesson when he went on holiday, leaving his company in the hands of his manager. On the first day of the holiday he was told that the supplier had dropped him and that his manager had quit. This taught him that your business should have more than one supplier. FreeeUp This is their marketplace for freelancers and contractors. Only the top 1% of applicants are added to the network, so their clients know that they’re getting the best person for the job. Applicants apply online and they follow by an interview and a test. They need to constantly be aware of what skills are in demand. Target Market Their clients and contractors are scattered all over the globe. Roughly 40% of the freelancers are based in the US, about 40% in the Philippines and the remaining 20% are spread over the world. The skills they offer on their network include everything from bookkeeping and graphic design to writing and Amazon experts. Income Streams FreeeUp takes a percentage of the freelancer’s hourly rate. From their side they do their best to source excellent contractors and continually add new customers. You are paid an ongoing referral fee if you refer a new candidate or client. Systems and Toolsets Skype, Trello and Jira are the tools that Nathan uses every day. Skype remains the quickest way to communicate with people all over the globe and it’s free. Trello is used to organise his short- and long-term projects with his team. It’s simple and easy to understand. Start Outsourcing Nathan suggests that entrepreneurs who want to grow their business make a list of everything they do on a day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month basis. Then rank the tasks from easiest to hardest. Hire a virtual assistant to take some of those tasks off your plate. You should also make a list of your strengths and weaknesses then you can hire somebody in those areas where you are less strong. The onus rests on the employer to ask for feedback to continually try and improve the culture so that the employee is happy to work there. Keeping a Freelancer Motivated Communication is key, according to Nathan. If the client leaves too many grey areas, it can be confusing for the contractor to interpret. Spend some time to figure out what you want and then clearly communicate that. Acknowledgement and appreciation are just as important. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? Nathan has always enjoyed selling things online and doesn’t foresee himself opening up a burger joint any time soon. If he had to do something else it would probably also be moving product or selling a service online. Last Words Keep the mentality of “work hard, play hard”. When you’re at work, give it your all, and when you have fun, give it 100%. The post MBA 060: Free up your time by outsourcing with NATHAN HIRSCH appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Vuyos Turning a TV Commercial into Real Life Business with MILES KUBHEKA Owner of Vuyos, a restaurant that offers modern African cuisine. Elevator Pitch: Who is Miles Kubheka? Miles likes to test people’s reaction by telling them he sells boerewors rolls for a living. Often they automatically assume he is a sidewalk hawker when he answers their question like that. He feels that for some reason people tend to look down on boerewors rolls, something that is inherently South African. Starting Out Upon finishing his studies, Miles worked for Microsoft. It afforded him to see the world and he learned many things, but he knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur. He left Microsoft to start a boutique software company. Before long his company was approached by Microsoft for a huge investment. In the end Miles had to leave because of some friction within the company. Miles saw an advertisement on the television. In the ad a character called Vuyo has big dreams for his sidewalk boerewors roll business. He grows his business into a billion dollar business and it was Vuyo’s tenacity that appealed to Miles. He didn’t want the idea to go to waste. Miles took the fictitious brand from the advertisement and trademarked it. Making Mistakes and Learning from Them Entering a new industry is always daunting and risky. In the restaurant industry you need to ensure that your location works for breakfast, lunch and dinner, says Miles. His first restaurant’s location was suited to the lunch trade, but not so much the rest of the day. His income was effectively reduced by two-thirds. Open Up Shop Establish why exactly the prospective site is empty. Ask the previous tenant how much their rent was and compare that with what the landlord expects you to pay. Now that he’s been in the industry a while he knows that there are expert site selectors, people who are trained in that. The site should be on street level as people are reluctant to use stairs and ramps to enter a restaurant. Keep in mind the direction in which your store is facing. This is important for climate control and natural light in your store. The corporate identity you decide on should be the glue that connects your customer with your product. Differentiate Yourself from Competitors Miles calls their offering “modern African cuisine”. They are not competing with your ability to cook, but would rather provide you with convenience and an experience that you won’t find at home. Indigenous cuisines have often been overlooked in the restaurant industry. Marketing Miles is not convinced that social media is the right platform to utilise to draw customers to your restaurant. Customers are much more likely to complain about your restaurant on social media than compliment it. The complaint hardly ever reaches the owner or the manager in order for them to rectify the mistake. Insider Information about the Restaurant Industry Ultimately you are still selling a product. You might find the profit margins on coffee to be quite good. If you make 800% profit on a cappuccino, for instance, it makes up for other items you need on your menu that aren’t that profitable. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? If Miles could choose any other profession, he would want to build cars. He values the fact that there’s a template to it. South Africa’s minibus taxis are manufactured abroad and imported. Miles feels this is unnecessary as we manufacture premium vehicles in this country. Last Words He feels the right guy for the job doesn’t look for motivation externally, but already possesses it. True entrepreneurs are self-motivated. Failure often pivots you in the right direction. Instead of quitting, one should learn to pivot your approach. The post MBA 059: Turning a TV Commercial into Real Life Business with MILES KUBHEKA appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Learning about Entrepreneurship A Solo Session with Dewald on the topic of Learning Levels of Learning Dewald believes that you should try to learn from people that are closer to the level you are as opposed to the books we get in the bookstore that just features the Richard Branson’s and Elon Musk. Just in Time Learning We tend to have a fear of missing out or in short, “FOMO” which translates to many areas of our lives, this also applies to what you are learning. What I have found over the last year is that I have spent lots of time on the latest trends in terms of social media marketing, email marketing and lots of other things that I was learning for the sake of not being left behind but not implementing it in my businesses. It is better to understand your business barometer and what is the function or skill that would make the most difference, then spend time on that and implement ASAP. Learning from Successful Entrepreneurs The interview has been structured in such a way to get a broad learning experience with the focus on the following: 1.The journey of the entrepreneur which is primarily for the sake of inspiration and getting an idea of it not being overnight. 2.Mistakes are the learning experiences we can take away to try and avoid them in our own business journey. 3.How the business work and income streams 4.Reset scenario is to get an idea with what is currently trending and some strategies on how they would approach starting over. The post MBA 058: Learning about Entrepreneurship – Solo Session appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Boss Mom Dana Malstaff A Boss-Mom with a passion to help other mothers balance their business and family life. Elevator Pitch: Who is Dana Malstaff? Dana helps mom entrepreneurs start businesses so that they can change the world. By doing this she wants to show children that following your passion can actually be a sound decision. Starting Out She has always worked for small startup companies and enjoys the challenge they bring. The last job she had she worked with a consultant who saw potential in her and suggested that she starts her own business, specifically as a consultant. Having a mentor to guide her through the process really put her at ease. Immediately after starting her own business she fell pregnant. Dana jokes about her becoming an entrepreneur and parent at the same time. It was never her intention to be a stay-at-home mom; she wanted to run her own business. She wondered whether that made her a bad mom or a bad entrepreneur. She wanted to be good at both. During that time they also moved to be closer to Dana’s family. Coincidentally California was also more conducive to her business. She found it easier to connect with other entrepreneurs. Dana approached a book coach in her mastermind group. She wanted to write a book about the guilt she felt for wanting to run a business instead of raising her son at home. The book Boss Mom was born. She despised the fact that society tried to make her feel bad for wanting to excel at both. First Business In Dana’s first business she worked as a content strategist, but the business was slow to grow. When you run a business that’s based around services and products it’s a slow growth. However, if you decide that your brand is to be more than the services and products offered, according to Dana that’s when the magic starts to happen. When Boss Mom was released many people could relate to Dana’s situation. After that she started a podcast and group coaching programme to help those in similar circumstances. Boss Mom evolved from a book to a business, seeing rapid growth. It helped her to hire great people to brainstorm with her. They challenged her to think past the obvious and to come up with excellent ideas. Dana really sees the value in surrounding yourself with an amazing team. Only around two years into her own business Dana started to make good money. Dana offered business coaching where she helped moms run their businesses better. From the coaching she gained the knowledge that she would eventually combine in a course, Raising Your Business. Catalysts When she first started working for herself and things were moving at a slow pace Dana attended a conference. During the course of the conference she learned that you should establish what it is that you do best and leverage that. She identified that she had a particular gift for content strategy and helping all the pieces of a business fit into place. Dana outsourced the parts of the business that didn’t align with her gift and could subsequently start to scale the business. Adding Routine Dana finds that routine simplifies her business. She has dedicated days for interviews and other days where she sees colleagues. Fridays always involve people, usually in a networking sense. Weekends are spent with her family. She also teaches her clients to batch tasks together. Making Mistakes and Learning From Them Even if you have a mentor you’re still going to make mistakes. The hardest part is being decisive and a good coach helps you to overcome that obstacle. Your objective shouldn’t be to not fail but to recover as quickly as is humanly possible after failure. Multiple Income Streams Initially Dana made her money from one-on-one executive facilitations. In her second year she built some coursework on Udemy and Skillshare to generate more revenue. Dana mentions that for every additional direction your business expands into, your expenses go up, so you could be making more money, but not taking more money home. As soon as she started employing people her expenses went up, but she saw it as a challenge to generate more income. Between increasing her passive income and increasing her prices slightly Dana’s income currently sits just below $30k per month. Increasing the Sales They utilise various methods to increase their visibility – Dana hosts talks, she’s feature on podcasts, they use Facebook ads – because they feel visibility is the scaling factor. As soon as people sign up to the email list they enter their sales funnel. From there they are introduced to products that would be meaningful to them, but financially beneficial to Dana – it’s a win-win situation! Tools and Systems Dana and her team use Trello, a free project management and workflow system. They also use Zapier to integrate different apps and tools. This allows for consistency in the process. Voxer, a “walkie-talkie” tool for their phones keeps the team in touch with each other. It allows for rapid-fire questions and answers. Acuity is the scheduling system that they use. Google Calendar integrates well with everything else. They also make use of Ontraport to create sales funnels. Source your Team Dana is a firm believer that your team should consist of your ideal client. She sources them from her community so she knows they are already familiar with and fond of her brand. Only her videographer and audio technician are men who don’t have children, but she either met and had a really good connection with them, or they were referred to her by someone whom she really trusts. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? Is she had to start over, Dana would prefer to do exactly what she does now, but go straight into consulting with companies. She would help them brainstorm to develop their products and services. She doesn’t regret going the route that she has, but she now sees how she could’ve make a lot more money much quicker. Last Words Dana is a firm believer in the 80/20 rule. You’ll find that 80% of the time things won’t work, it won’t be fun and it may be challenging. There’s nothing wrong with that. You need to recognise the 20% that is working and pool your resources into leveraging that. Secondly, Dana stresses the importance of an excellent team, because she feels that you cannot scale the business by yourself. The post MBA 057: Raising a Business with Dana Malstaff appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Website: Income School, Improve Photography, KnifeUp, Camper Report. Jim Harmer Blogger and super-successful online entrepreneur with a passion for photography. Elevator Pitch: Who is Jim Harmer? Jim prefers to introduce himself as a blogger instead of a photographer. He finds that people don’t tend to see blogging as a serious profession. It baffles them that you can earn an income from your blog and being a YouTube personality. Starting Out Upon finishing his Bachelors degree, Jim made the decision to study law. In the interim he worked at the Dollar Store in the evenings and listened to podcasts to fight his boredom with his job. These podcasts were mainly about online businesses. Simultaneously he started to learn about photography and enjoyed it greatly. When his classes at law school started, he decided to teach evening photography classes at the local high school. For this he created a blog to communicate with his students. To his surprise the traffic to those blog posts grew to hundreds of thousands and eventually it’s in the millions today. Jim did finish his law degree, but was never a practising attorney. In his final year at Law school, Jim realised that he would earn much more from his online business than he could ever earn as an attorney. A Day in the Life of an Online Entrepreneur Jim doesn’t follow a set regime and he tends to work in sprints, as he calls it. He found that he doesn’t like working set hours. When he feels like working, he puts all his effort into it, but when he takes a break, he focuses all his attention on his family. Jim is able to work so hard in business because he loves what he does. If there’s a specific part of his job that is not particularly enjoyable to him, he will outsource the task. Jim feels his efforts are best utilised in content creation. Outsourcing The very first thing that Jim outsourced was the finances for the business, a task his wife took off his hands. It’s the type of thing you can’t entrust just anybody with, so he was glad she offered. Shortly after he outsourced their customer support as he feels that this is not one of his strengths. He handed this task over to a virtual assistant (VA). The independent contractors he uses are based all over the globe, most have another day job and he only employs them for one small task. Jim finds it to be much more cost-effective. When a position needs filling, he has in the past made use of platforms such as Fiver and the like. These days he turns to his existing audience, with great results. Social Media in 2017 Jim started his business 8 years ago, a time to which he refers as the heyday of social media. He had a greater reach when he posted on his social media page. Social media has undergone many changes since then. It is just much more difficult to get your message noticed in the noise that is Facebook these days. Contrary to popular belief, Jim will spend as little time as possible using social media as a marketing platform. He recommends only focusing on those channels you can control. In his case this is his podcast, his blog and his email list. With any new websites he starts he doesn’t even bother building a social media following for them. Jim’s advice is to build a stellar blog right from the beginning. How to Build a Tribe If not with social media, then how? Jim identified a niche and created a website with a blog to answer questions. He suggests you write long, decent articles on the topic. For a specific blog on boating he wrote 33 long articles on the subject. Jim published the articles on his blog and left them there for Google to rank. It can take up to 12 months for you to see any real increase in the traffic to your posts. He doesn’t attribute the traffic to SEO or link-building or social media. Monetising your Blog or Website The income from Jim’s blog was 100% from Amazon affiliates. Once you reach around 80 000 views per month the revenue from advertisement space also becomes much bigger. He only earns about $7 per 1000 views, so he suggests that you get your traffic up first. Photography Community Since Jim started teaching photography he’s been building a community. He estimates that he bans about 100 people from the community per month, mostly because of negative or downright mean comments. The result is a super positive and supportive community. Jim hosts global photography meetups for free, just to build his community and increase the quality thereof. Multiple Income Streams Jim started the monetisation of his blogs by selling e-books. These days there’s so much more competition for e-books. Next he incorporated Amazon affiliates, which has been a constant income for many years. Thirdly he started online photography classes, but not long after that YouTube somewhat saturated the market. These days his income comes mainly from his conference, Amazon affiliates, a membership site for photographers, Lightroom presets and advertisements on the website as well as the podcast. Jim suggests you diversify your online income because of the volatile nature of the field. At the moment Jim is working on an app to connect photographers with the best locations for photo shoots in the world. Social Media The two social media sites that Jim still sees value in are YouTube and Pinterest. Unfortunately YouTube tends to bury your links in the description. He realises the downside to a podcast is that it rarely directs listeners to your website. If he wants to make a sale, he utilises his email list as those people are on their computer when they receive the email. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? Like he’s done in the past, Jim will create a niche site and write great articles for blog posts. When coming up with ideas for these niche websites, he looks towards his hobbies. He also looks for a hobby with products that cost between $150 and $250 and create Amazon affiliate links and add advertisements to the site. Nobody spends $7000 on a product online, but they are inclined to spend in the vicinity of $200. It’s enough money to generate a decent commission, but not so large an amount that people need to consider the purchase for a long time. Jim prefers products to businesses that sell advice or a service. He also tries to limit the need for customer service. You want to focus on a topic that will be relevant for at least five to seven years. Last Words Quite early on Jim decided that he would not rot in some office and spend 40% of his waking hours away from home. If you have a family you need to provide for, you should carefully plan that leap. You don’t want to sit without income for a period. He urges people to think what that flexibility in terms of time could mean for their family. The post MBA 056: A Hobby Turned Full Time Income with JIM HARMER appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Official Website Dale Beaumont Award-winning technology entrepreneur, international speaker and author of 16 best-selling books. Owner of multi-million dollar business at the mere age of 25. Elevator Pitch: Who is Dale Beaumont? Dale runs his own business in the education space. He loves helping other people to access quality information to improve their life. Lately he focuses on helping people around Australia and New Zealand improve their businesses. More recently he developed an app called BRiN that uses artificial intelligence to provide business education. Starting Out When Dale was a child his mother decided to channel his excessive energy into gymnastics. By the age of 9 he was training for the Olympic Games. He spent up to 36 hours a week in the gym in preparation. He looks back and sees that this is where his entrepreneurial discipline comes from. There he learned about hard work, time management, how to motivate himself and how to be resourceful and relentless. He finished his career as a gymnast at the age of 19 and entered the corporate world. After 6 months he felt frustrated by the slow pace at which everything was happening. The fact that he was not in charge of his own destiny also dismayed him. Starting his own business would put him in control of his own future. He attended a few personal development coaching courses. Once there, he noticed that he was by far the youngest attendee. This made him realise that there was a gap in the market for developmental courses aimed at younger people. He founded his first company, Tomorrow’s Youth, where he taught teenagers the life skills they didn’t learn in school. Millionaire at the Age of 25 When he was 24, Dale put together a series of books called The Secrets Exposed. He interviewed highly successful people in different fields and put their best ideas into a book. The sales of these 16 books provided him with a solid financial foundation. He wants to emphasise that it didn’t happen overnight and that it required much hard work. Making Mistakes and Learning from Them Dale equated success with owning many businesses, so by the age of 27 he juggled 5 businesses. He learned that he couldn’t give each business the attention that it needed to thrive. In the end he had to sell the businesses and focus on only one for a couple of years. Behind the Scenes Business Blueprint, a business education company, is Dale’s main focus these days. Around 2007 he noticed a shift in business. As the Yellow Pages got increasingly smaller, other channels started to emerge – Google, YouTube, Facebook and the like. Business owners realised that this was the technology of the future, but they weren’t entirely sure how to embrace it. Dale started to facilitate workshops to help these established businesses to embrace new technology. They started with 10 clients and that grew to over 500 today. Dale’s 12-Month Programme The programme comprises of 4 live events, 24 webinars, access to their library of over a thousand training videos, a coach to help them when they get stuck as well as a support community and email access to Dale and his team. His programme makes use of what Dale calls “blended learning” – a combination of online learning, live events, phone calls and personal coaching. Marketing Dale likes to use both online and offline marketing methods. With the 1,8 billion users on Facebook you can target very specifically and control who you want to reach with your message. They make use of Google AdWords to run advertisements on YouTube and have seen great results. A few times a year they do cross-promotions with other companies. They find the publicity generated by media exposure to be useful and also make use of direct email marketing. Technology has enabled them to market their business much faster and smarter. Income Streams Business Blueprint has become a 5 million dollar business and it’s by far the largest chunk of Dale’s income. He does still generate some revenue from book sales. Dale gets dividends from companies he has invested in and he also generates passive income from his property portfolio. BRiN App Dale wanted to give everyone access to a business advisor right at their fingertips. The app uses artificial intelligence to provide the user with guidance. While most business advisors are generalists, this app is able to provide specialist advice. By using the app you won’t need to consult with ten or twenty different specialists. To monetise this technology they can either manage the app as a subscription service or partner with sponsors who want to reach their audience. Tools, Systems and Processes In order to spend more time with his family, they made a joint decision to work for two consecutive months and take the third month off to travel. Over the past seven years they’ve seen close to 75 countries. Dale suggests you take great effort in the beginning to build the right processes. They use Google Sites to store all of the intellectual property of the company. He suggests finding some good project management software, they use one called Teamwork. Dale also makes use of a CRM programme. Employ a great team of people around you is his advice. Who to Employ Dale partially believes in “hire for attitude, train for skill”, but experience and competency in their specific role is also important. He values efficiency and resourcefulness. Look for people who are realistic about their time management, who would say no if they won’t be able to deliver something. Work ethic is another important thing to look at as well as confidence in their role. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? The technology space is something Dale would seriously consider, especially artificial intelligence. Technology allows us to scale businesses, a thing that wasn’t possible before. He also recognises the potential in owning property. Last Words BRiN is a vast resource, containing a thousand videos to help you with everything from time management and leadership to marketing and building system. Dale suggests watching a training video once a week or so to continually educate and better yourself. The post MBA 055: Millionaire by Age 25 with DALE BEAUMONT appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Steve Olsher, Reinvention Radio Steve Olsher Entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, online marketer and speaker. Elevator Pitch: Who is Steve Olsher? Steve Olsher is an entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, online marketer and speaker. He’s known as a “reinvention expert”. He believes that there’s one thing that keeps us from living a life of happiness – not knowing your “what”, that one thing you were born to do. What vs. Why You can choose your “why”, the driving force behind what you do. That is external. Your “what” is written in your DNA, in a way it has chosen you and not the other way around. It is internal and needs to be uncovered. Your “what” is comprised of three elements – your core gift, the vehicle you use to share that gift and the people you’re most compelled to serve. Case Study/Example Steve helped a man by the name of Johnny Imerman. Johnny was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer at the age of 26. After treating the cancer Johnny went into remission only for the cancer to return, this time on his spine. What stood out to Johnny during his process of recovery was that he was surrounded by people who really loved him and that it was their support that pulled him through this experience. While walking through the cancer ward he saw other patients suffering alone. He promised to do everything in his power to ensure that those inflicted with cancer never had to endure it alone. After he beat cancer for the second time he started an NPO called Imerman Angels and they focus on matching cancer sufferers with cancer survivors. This is an example of a person who found their “what” and how his life is changed for the better by it. Life-altering experience to uncover the “what” Steve mentions that some people are born with the clarity of what their purpose in life is. He calls them “birthers” and says that we’re often jealous of them because there’s never been any doubt in their mind as to who they are and what they do. But the vast majority of the world isn’t that lucky. More often than not it takes some sort of life trigger to lead them to ask these types of questions, it could be a divorce, a death or just being fed-up with your job. Some people just wake up one morning to the realisation that they’re not happy with where they are in life. Pursuing your “what” Steve suggests not quitting your day job just yet – rather use the outside hours to pursue your “what”. Use the hours after work, on your way to work or on the weekend. That way you let someone else fund that transition. At the moment 100% of your income could be derived from something that you don’t want to be doing. Once you start utilising your outside hours to generate income from what it is that you really want to do, your income could now change to 95% from your job and 5% from you “what”. Over time that ratio will change and at some point you will be able to do away with the job to fully pursue your “what”. The timeline on this can vary greatly. Tertiary Education 85% of those who graduate with a four year degree do not work their field of study within five years of graduation. That is why Steve believes that tertiary education isn’t the best investment for a parent to make. It’s only when they enter the “real world” after college that adolescents discover what it is they want to do. More often than not their degree is not related to their purpose at all and could very well be seen as a waste of money. If the onus rests on them to pay their own education and they are held accountable in that way they’ll get a lot more out of it. Monetise your “what” Taking advantage of the technology that is available to you, here are some ideas for you to get paid for doing what you love: having a social media following, building an email list, having a podcast and driving traffic through that show, creating online courses, writing ebooks, selling services, etc. Once you’re clear on the third piece of the puzzle – finding the people you’re most compelled to serve – you’ll gain more clarity as to what their needs are and be able to create products, programmes or services to meet those needs. Steve feels that instead of just showing people what to do, many people would actually prefer that you do the job for them. They will pay a premium if you’re able to do something faster and save them time. Differentiate Yourself from Competitors Marketing and promotion is about sharing who you are and what you do in a way that’s most comfortable for you. You get to choose the platform. If you like to talk, podcasting could be the right platform for you. If you’re more inclined to write try starting a blog. If you love videos then shoot videos. Ultimately the way you market yourself should be in a way that you love and that you’re most comfortable with. Fastest Way to Pay the Bills Put something forth for the world to consume as soon as possible. Whether it’s a product, programme or service, create an offer and offer it! Market it, get it out there! You may not find many takers initially, but the first buyer is guaranteed to inspire you to reach more. Before you throw in the towel or change your strategy, you need to give it your best effort. For everything to really fall into place, you may only need to subtly adjust your approach. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? If Steve had to start from scratch today, he would probably look for a corporate job. He envies those who work from 9-5, especially since he has two children. He says he would be pickier about what he does with his time and focus more on those things that bring him joy – in his case this is speaking, teaching and being with people as opposed to sitting behind a computer. Last Words If people are still wondering about their purpose, Steve suggests they get their hands on a free copy of his book, a New York Times best-seller. The sooner you come to realise that you are the solution to someone’s problem, the sooner you can start to discover and ultimately monetise your “what”. Be willing to take the first step and set the example for other to follow. The post MBA 054: Pursuing your “WHAT” with STEVE OLSHER appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: MWF Motivation Rob Dial  Founder and host of a motivational podcast that is focused on helping you find your purpose in life. Elevator Pitch: Who is Rob Dial? Rob Dial is a motivational speaker, although he doesn’t care much for the term. He runs a short, to the point motivational podcast and does coaching as well. Starting Out As opposed to most entrepreneurs, Rob chose to go the entrepreneurial route before he went into corporate. At the age of 19, while at college he worked as a door-to-door knives salesman and earned commission on his sales. He worked for that company for 5 years and trained over 2000 sales reps. When he eventually entered the corporate world, he hated it. Rob worked for a few different companies where he did sales and training of sales staff. He left shortly thereafter to start his own business. He agrees that the safety net of a steady income is appealing to most people but he was at his most unhappy when he was working in corporate and had the highest base salary and commission. He didn’t want to come to a point, look back on his life and see unfulfilled potential. Rob mentions a quote that states that you can fail at what you don’t want to do, so you might as well take a chance on something that you love. Becoming Obsolete With the way technology is constantly evolving, many professions will become obsolete within the next five to ten years. It is our responsibility to consider that and think of an exit strategy. Think of a way to incorporate that technology today, sooner rather than later. The easiest way to become an entrepreneur is to figure out what everybody’s problem is and how to solve it. Making Mistakes and Learning from Them In retrospect, Rob can identify problems with his initial authenticity. He used to spend a lot of time planning the podcasts, reading scripted lines and editing the podcast to perfection. Perfection came at a cost to his authenticity – he sounded like he had no personality. Much time also went into editing in such detail. Eventually he decided that it wasn’t sustainable and stopped editing the podcasts completely. This was when he really started to gain traction with the audience. People started to respond to the authenticity. More than anything else, Rob feels it’s important to just be yourself. This will help with job satisfaction and building a loyal fan base. Rob says if he always strives for perfection, he won’t complete anything and that’s true for many an entrepreneur. Don’t use perfection as an excuse for not getting things done. Differentiate Yourself In Rob’s industry it all boils down to your personality. Some people will find your unique style appealing and others won’t. When he first started his podcast he was nervous to compete with the likes of Tony Robbins when he wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable. He then heard an interview that made him realise that many people know much less than him and could relate to his message better. This helped him get over the impostor syndrome. Rob also continues to use himself as a guinea pig to improve. Rob’s Morning Routine Rob doesn’t advocate getting up at a certain time, because he knows that everybody needs a different amount of sleep to function optimally. You need to figure out how many hours of sleep you need per night. If you work for somebody else, wake up earlier and start your morning routine on your own terms. You can’t control the rest of the day, but you can control what you do before you start work. Rob’s morning routine checklist looks like this: breathe, meditate, read, cold shower and yoga. When he wakes up, he starts the day with a breathing exercise called the Wim Hof Method. This essentially floods your body with oxygen. That is followed by his own recorded meditation. After that he reads for a bit, takes an extremely cold shower and does yoga. Now that he works for himself at home, he sees the value in adding structure to his routine. Income Streams If you’re thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, Rob suggests only leaving your current job if you have at least six months to a year’s worth of savings to cover their expenses. Gary Vaynerchuk talks about your steak and sides. The steak is your salary. When you have your steak, you start building on your sides by adding other income streams. The advice Rob gives is to stay at the company you work for, but stay later, stay up later, work on weekends on your other revenue streams. People also need to realise that they can live off much less than they think, that they’ve inflated their standards of living over the years. His income comes from coaching. What’s My Purpose in Life? Many people get stuck on this question. Rob quotes Elizabeth Gilbert: “The world is divided into two kinds of people: there are the jackhammers and there are the hummingbirds.” She continues about the difference between following your passion and following your curiosity in life. Rob associates with the jackhammer – he knows what his purpose is and he is happy to fully pursue it. But most people aren’t that lucky, they still search for that purpose. This puts them under a lot of pressure. Hummingbirds move from one flower to the next. This is an analogy for those people who shift from one profession to the next, searching for that right fit. It’s not the end of the world. Find something that you can focus on for the next three years and commit to that. To Build the Next Uber That’s a lot of work! There are two reasons why a person would want to build the next Uber – they’re searching for significance or they want the money. Rob feels he gets enough significance from his job as well as other perks such as a lot of free time. If you’re attempting to build the next Uber, you won’t have that freedom. Figure out what’s important to you – do you want to build a massive company to impact the world or do you want to build a massive company because you’re searching for some sort of significance? Or are you doing it for the money? Or do you want to make a decent living and have freedom in your time? Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Rob’s advice is to start right away. Start today. Figure out how your business can make money today. From there you can start making different plans and adjustments. Rob uses the phrase “Ready, fire, aim!”, not “Ready, aim, fire!”. Get a business idea and execute it as soon as possible. Only then you can spend time on making it better. Don’t try to make it perfect first. People tend to slow themselves down and hold themselves back. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? Rob is certain that it would be in technology. He recognises the massive amount of technology changes over the last few years. Rob says he would probably approach a tech-savvy friend to handle the technical side, while he would be in charge of sales. He predicts that in the next ten years technology will encompass everything. It would have to be something that he is completely passionate about as well. Last Words While Rob was transitioning from the corporate world to owning his own company, he went to every single networking event after hours. He worked at building his following. He followed each person of significant value in his field and observed their social media habits. He didn’t copy them directly, but picked up priceless tips. He advises up and coming entrepreneurs to just start. There won’t ever be a perfect time, so don’t delay. Once you start making the first money, you realise it’s real, you’re on the road to becoming an entrepreneur. Afterwards you can start making adjustments. Ready, fire, aim! The post MBA 053: Finding my Purpose with ROB DIAL appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Website: Karen Wessels, SnappSales Karen Wessels Digital Marketing specialist and co-founder of SnappSales. Elevator Pitch: Who is Karen Wessels? Karen is the co-founder of SnappSales, a premium marketing agency in the B2B space. They help their clients find quality sales leads through inbound and outbound marketing both nationally and internationally. Starting Out When she left one corporate position for another, Karen was approached by a former client to work on their national marketing campaign. This opportunity served as the catalyst for her to start her own business. Sales and Marketing for Small Businesses When considering whether to employ either a sales or a marketing team, Karen calls it a “chicken and egg scenario”. You’re not going to grow your business without sales, but at the same time marketing is very important. Karen suggests that a small business starts with marketing as the foundation. Because many people “fear” sales to a certain extent, marketing can serve to fill the sales pipeline. The growth and success of any business is dependent on both sales and marketing. Social Media Marketing Social media offers the smaller business great reach within a limited budget. Before you start marketing consider whether your business is B2B or B2C. Facebook and Instagram are great for marketing products whereas Twitter and LinkedIn work better for B2B ventures. The advantage of social media is that it’s free, easily accessible and user-friendly. LinkedIn as Marketing Platform Karen understands LinkedIn quite well and the majority of their client base originates from that platform. Your profile is there to speak on your behalf. When creating your profile on LinkedIn, Karen suggests starting with a suitable business profile picture, not a picture of your company logo or your family. Use a professional image that portrays you in the best light. Consider your description – what are your skills and what are you passionate about? What could your company do to bring value to the person viewing your profile? Be as descriptive as possible when listing things on your profile. An insightful profile will be all the more engaging to the viewer and could lead to more connections. Qualifications, Experience and Skills Even your part-time varsity job, something as seemingly insignificant as bartending could highlight certain secondary skills. It all depends on how you word your experience. Some viewer may read through your profile in detail while others will merely skim over it; the onus rests on you to keep both types of people in mind when creating your profile. Making Connections You can randomly connect to people for the sake of connecting and to get your numbers up, or you can be smart about it and build connections more strategically. You can carefully consider the field your business specialises in and the kind of people you want to connect with – do they add value to your network? Like many aspects of marketing you need to spend time on this every day. Karen suggests you put aside 20 minutes per day to build new quality connections and engage with existing connections. It’s difficult to assign an ideal number of connections as it varies from one business to another. Making Mistakes and Learning From Them People neglect to add a suitable photograph to their profile. When you represent your company, people want to see what you look like. Another common mistake is having an incomplete profile with too little information. Karen strongly suggests you do not use the standard LinkedIn connection message but rather opt for a personal message. Elevate your Profile Besides making quality connections, make use of LinkedIn publications to air your view on topics and to share your knowledge. Aim for a publication per fortnight or even as frequent as once a week if you are able. This helps to establish you as a thought leader and yet another way to engage with your connections. Status updates and pictures have their place on LinkedIn, as long as it’s business-related. Keep in mind that it is not a social platform, but one for business interactions. If there is an article that pertains to your business, like, share or comment on it. Tips and Secrets If you see a post on LinkedIn that you would want to share sometime in the future, Karen suggests you like the post. When you are ready to post the article, go to your own profile and look for it under “current activities”. From there you can see all the posts and articles that you have liked and you are able to share it. A secret Karen shared with us is to put your business name next to your own name on your LinkedIn profile. This way when you comment on a post or share an article your business name also reaches your connections. This is great for brand awareness. Last Words Often when a business is in financial dire straits the marketing budget is the first to be cut. Karen warns against this as there is then no way to get the word out to prospective clients. We need to shift our paradigm to grasp the importance of marketing to a business and sales go hand in hand with that. If you feel marketing is too time-consuming and you are able allocate a budget to it, outsource your marketing. When you’re comfortable enough with a marketing agency or consultant to generate leads for you, you are free to focus on growing the business, the operations or sales. The post MBA 051: Level Up Your LinkedIn Profile with KAREN WESSELS appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Jen Su Jen Su  Jen wrote the book From Z to A Lister: Building Your Personal Brand and advocates the fact that you are your own brand. This isn’t optional, it’s a necessity. Your brand is what you are able to offer others, a trait that is unique to you. Once you have created and established that brand you can start to market your personal brand. Elevator Pitch: Who is Jen Su? Jen Su is a television and radio presenter. She’s been a news anchor for Business Day Television and also Sky News African Business Report. She worked as the Hollywood reporter on Gareth Cliff’s show for many years and later on CliffCentral as well. Su was also a presenter on SABC 3’s Expresso. Acting lists as another one of her many talents. These days she does a lot of brand ambassadorships, events and social media activities. Starting Out Jen’s long journey spans six countries. She was born in the USA in Philadelphia but is of Chinese descent. Her school years were spent in Taiwan and from there she moved to Thailand and later Hong Kong. After that she relocated to South Africa and recently to Shanghai, China with her expatriate husband. Moving so frequently was especially difficult for somebody so career-focused, because she had to start from scratch in each new location. The immigration consultant wasn’t very hopeful that Jen would be able to secure a job in South Africa with her Chinese face and American accent. It was difficult and Jen had to work very hard at it but she was eventually called for a few interviews. Upon finding out they were moving to South Africa she was scared of the way the country is portrayed in the media as a crime-ridden place. Only once the immigration consultant told her of her slim chances of working in the entertainment industry did she feel motivated enough to give the country a fair chance. What they perceived as her drawbacks – looking and sounding so different – actually became her unique selling proposition. Manage Your Reputation Consistency is very important. Jen suggests working hard, being persistent, networking and follow up with all your contacts. Show appreciation by writing a thank-you note every once in a while. Use social media to your advantage. Combine all that with what Jen calls “old school grace, charm and etiquette”. Whenever somebody was sick at work Jen would fill in for them – that highlights reliability. Be thoroughly prepared for your job and always look your best. Be sincerely interested in people’s lives. Keep in mind that you need to continue this process even once you ‘make it’ to uphold your image. Passion for Your Work Jen loves the fact that she can help others through her platform – that is why she wrote her book, to help others with the struggles she faced. It’s this passion for her job that gets her up in the morning. She agrees that her job can be very exhausting especially when you don’t get the feedback you anticipated. Charity work helps Jen see why she is in this business, helping others is worth all the hardships and criticism. Writing a Book A book is a fantastic way to establish your own personal brand and a great marketing tool – it stays with you for life! Take extra care that the book is well written. Don’t bother writing it chronologically, just start writing! You can also try using voice notes on your phone and speak it out if you find that easier. Jen’s strategy was to write a short anecdote every time she was on an airplane. Slowly but surely her content grew. Writing online is another good idea. This could be in the form of a blog. If you’re comfortable in front of a camera you may want to try a vlog. Starting Out with Social Media When asked which social media platform to focus on when you’re just starting out, Jen mentions that it is dependent on your market and the business you’re in. Once you’ve thoroughly researched your target audience you can decide which platform suits them best. When using Facebook you may opt to use Facebook Ads to reach the right audience. Even once your page is established you should still continue with research. Use Facebook Analytics to track your progress and to gain further insight into your audience. Twitter is great for short messages whereas Instagram is a very visual platform, ideal for bright pictures, especially targeted at a younger audience. Invest in good equipment if you want to film or record yourself and keep your messages short and concise. Multiple Revenue Streams Social media influencers are on the rise at the moment. There are a few ways you can make money from your social media channels. If your YouTube channel attracts enough attention they will contact you and pay you for advertisements on you channel. Another way is to be a brand spokesperson or brand ambassador. These people often get paid per tweet and remuneration can be anywhere between R1 000 and R20 000 per tweet! The art of being a social media influencer lies in not making it look like a hard sell. Jen herself is paid an endorsement fee when she attends events. A person could also generate income by being a MC at events. Jen suggests that you don’t oversaturate your image with too many brands as this dilutes your power. You also want to be able to devote enough time to each brand. Making Mistakes and Learning From Them You should always take care of your appearance. You never know at which event you could meet your biggest client and if you don’t look professional an opportunity may pass you by. As an example Jen talks about the MTV Europe Music Awards. She was about to wear an unassuming outfit when a well-known South African celebrity suggested something else. Her new fire-red dress turned heads and had celebrities approach her as a journalist on the red carpet. This resulted in wonderful footage and many a great interview. This incident made her realise that you can never rest on your laurels when it comes to your appearance. Jen recorded herself for the purpose of listening to her voice and improving the tone. She remembers a time when she would walk into an interview without rehearsing and now sees the value in rehearsing your questions and answers. Also take note of your non-verbal communication, your body language. People often form an opinion of you before they start talking to you based on how they perceive you. Another skill Jen suggests you learn is how to deal with negative criticism on social media. Oftentimes she writes a response in a Word document and saves it for later after she’s cooled down. More often than not she’s glad she didn’t post the reply immediately. Building and Maintaining a Network Every time Jen meets a person she follows up with them. She always thanks the organisers of the event even if it wasn’t her favourite event. RSVP if you plan to attend and be on time. You could mention them on social media or send them a WhatsApp message to follow up. Send them a message on their birthday or even a small gift to the office as a token of your appreciation. Make sure you possess the right contact details to reach the right person. Jen mentions using modern-day technology with old-school charm and old-fashioned good manners. Don’t forget about face-to-face interaction as a message can be misinterpreted or lost in translation when in text message format. Charity work is also a great way to put things into perspective and to realise how lucky you really are. Last Words Building your personal brand is a lifelong process. Whatever you do should align with what you decide your personal brand is. All your efforts are indexed on social media and in search engines. In order to stand out from the rest you want to be unique – rock at what you do, be the go-to person in your field. Find a way to balance your life, your work and your family. Stay positive and keep moving forward towards your goal. Stay focused and don’t get caught up in the little things. Do what you do for love and not money and always look your best. Reinvent yourself when you need to and keep up to date with trends and what’s happening in the news. The post MBA 050: Elevate Your Personal Brand with JEN SU appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Website: GG Alcock and Minanawe Marketing GG Alcock  Marketing to the African mass market. Elevator Pitch: Who is GG Alcock? When people hear of GG who is an expert in the black or mass market they tend to expect a black woman and is instead met by a white man. GG grew up in a Zulu village and spent his life working in a township environment. This puts him in a unique position to understand the mass market. Starting Out GG’s parents were political activists and he grew up in a mud hut with no running water or electricity. He says he grew up as a Zulu child and from there the great understanding of the Zulu culture, language and black informal sectors in general. From there he moved into a township space. His business always sought opportunities within that space and he recognised a huge growth in the informal sector. He calls these sectors invisible to many, yet they make up a large part of the economy. Education He didn’t study marketing, instead his skill to communicate to that market comes from his deep understanding thereof. His value lies in being able to communicate and explain that environment to corporates. GG describes himself as an avid reader, especially of the business and news sectors. He also enjoys TEDtalks. GG spends a lot of time doing research, talking to traders in the market to better understand what makes them tick. Oftentimes people are retrospective in terms of research – they believe what happened in the past is a prediction of what is to happen in the future. GG tries to look for certain indicators of future trends. Predicting Trends in the African Market In South Africa, like with many other developing economies, the informality and individualisation of businesses is growing extensively. The informal sector allows retailers to supply different products that suit people in different parts of the country, which is the ultimate personalisation. The large retailers are not in such an adaptable position. About 100 000 foreign traders have moved into local informal spaza stores and research shows that that sector is now worth around R200 billion. They are growing at a rate of around 7-8% while the formal sector is at a much slower 2-3%. A retailer may need to adapt a product to different segments of the market. Making Mistakes and Learning from Them One assumes that your clients are visionary; that they are able to see the opportunities. In GG’s case nobody took notice when they tried to explain to them the potential of the mass market. Only after a report by UCT called “The Black Diamonds” did clients sit up and take notice of their strategy. You cannot assume that other people are able to see your vision. Opportunities are often not quantifiable and many companies miss the chance because they are fixated on the metrics of a business. Differentiate Yourself from Competitors GG feels you have to be particularly creative and innovative in the way that you do business. At the moment their competitors offer what they were offering a year ago. You need to keep up with the pace of change of the industry in which you are. Ideally you want to set yourself up as the expert in the field. By being the thought leaders and giving away insights and research on the market for free, GG’s company is perpetually positioned on the leading edge. Their competitive edge lies in constantly innovating what they offer and continually being in touch with the consumer. Marketing Establishing themselves as thought leaders in the market is advertising enough for them. They do this by talking at conferences, writing articles and distributing research. When they pitch to a client, they do not present their credentials, but rather lead with their knowledge of the market. The reason they do this is to add value to the client’s day. He recommends looking at PR opportunities to promote yourself – utilise social media and blogs for this purpose. Entering the Township Market If GG feels he doesn’t know enough about the market, he would go to the consumer in that market and place the product in the environment. You need to find out how suited your product really is to a specific consumer. Don’t assume you know your consumer. Start your research without preconceived ideas. From there you can determine whether your product fits the market. Secondly you need to differentiate your product from the rest – what makes it different and better? Does it fit a future trend or merely following a current trend? Customise your product for an exact sector. Branding and Price Sensitivity It’s GG’s opinion that price sensitivity is not so important to customers. It does however come into play when people compare brands that are all perceived to be good brands or products. He feels that the majority of people are still very brand conscious. People are looking for a premium product; even the poorest people want a product that rewards them in some way. GG reminds us that we shouldn’t think poor people want cheap things, particularly in the South African market. Buying a branded product is a “cheap” way of rewarding yourself. Income Streams About 40-50% of GG’s company’s revenue comes from typical marketing promotions. However, that margin is quite low, because they compete against many other companies. They try to focus their income streams where the margin is higher: having clients pay for the use of their extensive database of outlets, including schools, clinics and spaza shops. Their other income stream comes from consumer insights where they research a specific segment for a client. Although this comprises of a small percentage of their total revenue, it often leads to other business opportunities for them. They hand over the research together with a solution. GG suggests that your different income streams be synergistic for you to manage all of them at once. Build a Database GG didn’t build a database with the intention of selling it. With the database he is able to provide his clients with valuable contacts. He puts them in contact with the market segment they’re looking for, but he is then going to do the work. The database comprises of 30 000 outlets segmented by various criteria and access to this obviously has a premium attached to it. Building a database of this magnitude and using it for analytics is on par with the likes of Facebook and Google. This gives him a competitive edge. Effort should be taken to keep your database updated. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? There’s a huge opportunity in support to entrepreneurs and businesses in informal settlements. This includes logistics, business support, services, point of sale systems, training and even funding. GG also advocates for changing mindsets. He talks about the credibility of a payslip, to earn a salary each month. Entrepreneurs don’t get payslips at the end of the month and are often not able to open store accounts, although earning a decent living. Being self-employed and having a fluctuating income should not be frowned upon but recognised as a viable alternative to traditional employment. Last Words Entrepreneurship can be terrifying! Accept that. If you aren’t passionate and excited about the industry and your business then it’s probably not worth it. Passion causes optimism which leads to success and perseverance when times are tough. The post MBA 049: Marketing to the Informal Economy of Africa with GG ALCOCK appeared first on MisterBA - Business Analyst..

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Website: Legal Legends Kyle Torrington   Co-founder of Legal Legends, Africa’s first e-commerce website for legal services. Elevator Pitch: Who is Kyle Torrington? Kyle is the co-founder of Legal Legends, Africa’s first e-commerce website for quality legal services at affordable prices. The site features a catalogue of the available services, all corporate, commercial and startup-based. Starting Out The entrepreneurial spark came from watching The Social Network movie. The movie did however not give him an indication of the actual hard work it would require to become successful. Kyle was busy with his law articles when he looked into the idea of legal-related ventures. He developed a website called eServe that catered for attorneys who were in litigation. With the site they attempted to minimise the time it took to handle documents. For about 18 months they tried to launch the project, but were met by red tape around every corner. Eventually they had to give up on the idea. An online trademarking site was their second business and after that they founded LexNove, the predecessor of Legal Legends. Technology in Business At that stage Kyle didn’t have any formal education in technology, but calls himself a “tinkerer” in the field. For the first venture, they approached a software developer, but in retrospect experienced the whole process as too tedious. When he started with the second venture, the online trademarking site, Kyle decided to try his hand at website development himself. He built that platform through Wix websites. The LexNove website required a set of developers because it was quite technical in nature. Holes in the Business Plan Kyle and his business partner identified a few shortcomings in their original business model. Attorneys didn’t want to carry on submitting proposals that were not converting. Clients were unhappy with the 48-hour proposal period. Kyle also noticed the high bounce rate of their website. They contributed that to the fact that people were not aware of what the service would cost them. There were also issues with their visibility on Google. They identified the fifty or sixty most common services rendered and listed them as one would do on an e-commerce platform, together with their prices. At the same time they changed the name to Legal Legends as they felt it would be more memorable. Making Mistakes and Learning from Them The assumption that they would all be able to quit their jobs immediately was one of the biggest mistakes Kyle made. He assumed LexNove would be a success on their first attempt. He underestimated the amount of time it would take to launch a successful business. Talking Timelines It took Kyle about 18 months of hard work before the business turned profitable. He moved in with his parents which allowed him to concentrate solely on the business. It’s not like the movies would have you believe, entrepreneurship is a long, hard path. Funding The business acquired a grant fund from the Netherlands through a startup competition that they entered. South African law dictates that no other entity can hold shares in a law firm unless they are also a practising attorney. In Kyle’s opinion it’s very hard to come about venture capital in South Africa, because of the small percentage of technology consumers in the population. Behind the Scenes Upon waking up in the morning, Kyle goes for a cycle. At the office he usually works on the actual content of the legal work, as opposed to expanding the business. Around lunchtime he visits the gym. Afternoons and evenings his time is split between the legal work and growing the website. On the tech side of the business, Kyle’s learned enough over the last couple of years to build and code their own site. They are in discussions to outsource their social media management. At the moment Kyle’s biggest frustration lies in not having enough time to grow the business. Competition There’s a business similar to LexNove in Cape Town, but apart from traditional law firms, they do not have any direct competition. The fact that Legal Legends operate like an e-commerce site sets them apart. Kyle draws attention to the reluctance of lawyers to charge fixed rates. The Ideal Customer Legal Legends only cater for startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses. Newly founded businesses can purchase a startup package, including company or trademark registration, memorandum of incorporation or employment agreements. Slightly larger companies who have been in business for a while longer could be looking for a custom memorandum of incorporation or a custom shareholders agreement. What is a Memorandum of Incorporation? This document sets out the relationship between the directors of the company and the company itself. A shareholders agreement sets out the relationship between either all the shareholders or a small number of shareholders. Marketing They are starting to outsource some of the marketing. Their predominant marketing platform to create awareness is Facebook followed by a focus on Google AdWords for “demand harvesting”. Kyle also writes a monthly column in an entrepreneur magazine on the legal hurdles faced by small businesses. They also receive many referrals by word of mouth. Income Streams The LexNove business model had them take a small percentage of each transaction. Though great in theory, it wasn’t enough in this unfunded economy. To solve this they established their own law firm that does the work through the platform. They saw the need for an annuity-type income and launched a number of monthly membership packages. These include a Skype package and SMS package. Many new companies are in need of legal services, but do not have a revenue stream at present. Because they are not a registered credit provider they opted to offer interest-free instalment transactions. The vast majority of their revenue lies in once-off services while the membership packages probably comprise of about 2%. Tools or Systems that Help the Business A social media posting tool called Snappa makes it easy for them to create attractive images and Kyle finds it indispensable. They use Google Analytics in conjunction with AdWords and Facebook to measure their performance and return on investment. Their website is built in WordPress. Freelancer.com enables them to save time on smaller tasks. Google Docs and Sheets are their preferred method of sharing documents and it allows them to be completely paperless. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? Kyle would like to identify an industry where he can concentrate on growing the business vs. working in the business. He mentions that he would probably opt for something less risky as transforming industries can be a great challenge. He wants to diversify his risk portfolio. Kyle is involved in another business – affordable, quality leather bags – where he isn’t required for the day to day intricacies of the job, but mainly engaged in the expansion thereof. Last Words Carefully consider your niche and how you’re going to differentiate your product. Kyle is adamant that it’s so important to stand out from the noise, especially if it’s an online business. The post MBA 048: KYLE TORRINGTON – Leading the Legends of the Legal World. appeared first on MisterBA - Business Analyst..

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Courage Ventures, Courage Ventures Funds Will Cardwell  Disrupting entrepreneurial education in Helsinki, Finland. Elevator Pitch: Who is Will Cardwell? Will Cardwell is originally from the United States, but has lived in Helsinki, Finland, since 1996. After marrying a Finnish woman they moved to Finland where he completed his MBA. He returned to his home country to complete his PHD at the University of North Carolina. Shortly after that he returned to Finland to teach and research. Will wrote a book that compared Finland and Israel’s venture capital and tech finance systems. Starting Out Will started his career in the investment banking industry. He realised he liked the seed and pre-seed stage more, so he left that company. He ran Valimo Wireless, a software company for a few years as well as a chain of incubators. In 2010 three universities merged together to form a new university in Finland, called Aalto University. Will was hired to set up die entrepreneurship centre there. He left Aalto in 2013 to form a venture capital firm and advisory under the brand Courage Ventures. They invest in very early stage startups, mainly in Finland. Will also does innovation and entrepreneurship training around the world, including South Africa. He’s recently been invited by his alma mater, the University of North Carolina, to be Adjunct Professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. Will also founded an education technology accelerator in Finland called xEdu. Disrupting Education Although physical assets are still important in certain cases such as laboratories and libraries, Will feels that the classroom is where most of the disruption is taking place. The nature of lecturing – one lecturer to many students – lends itself to the online class format. The physical assets are important for building communities, so Will suggests that universities are built to maximise the interaction between people. From Segregation to Integration At Aalto University the focus is multidisciplinary in an attempt to jump-start the innovation activity. Aalto Design Factory was a multi-disciplinary experiment by the Department of Engineering in 2008 where they converted an old factory into a makerspace. They hosted vocational skills classes there parallel with rigorous academic content. The result was a cross-pollination between the business, engineering and creative faculties syllabi. In 2011 they joined forces with Stanford and started an online class in writing a business canvas model. The emphasis was very much on customer development. At the same time Nokia, the national champion company of Finland, was struggling and could not employ as many people as in the past. Students had to find other places of employment. More Dynamic Educational Content The Business Model Canvas and Customer Development should be your focus. They are different ways of looking at business processes. Most importantly they enable you to track your progress. Will is involved in many programmes around the world where they use an online tool to monitor the progress of teams. The teams set up their canvasses, as well as their hypotheses and then document customer interviews for feedback. They try and simulate the activities in as fast a way as possible that is necessary to understand how a business should emerge. The online tool serves as a way to evaluate the business model. The Business Model Canvas Will suggests a lean launchpad course on Udacity. A person can learn the basics about business processes and the vocabulary in about 6-8 hours. After that an entrepreneur can think about approaching potential customers to discuss their needs. By doing this you get an understanding of the problem. From there you can figure out your solution, where are you going to add value. Customer Segmentation Build customer journeys – potential investors love looking at a detailed storyboard. To have a deep understanding of your customers is a mindset. A popular mistake is thinking that your solution is for everybody. Based on the problems you’ve identified within your customer segments you can develop your value proposition. You are ideally discovered by customers, not the other way around, otherwise the business isn’t scalable. Should you Protect your Idea? Will feels that this is where a stellar team comes into play. You should feel so confident in your team that it doesn’t matter who knows about your business idea. If you are too protective of your idea you could end up with something that is misspecified or it takes too long to enter the market. Extra care should however be taken with intellectual property and ideas that need to be patented. Prioritise Activities Firstly start by making a list of all the activities your company needs to do. Identify where your core competitive advantage lies, those areas that differentiate you from competitors. After that you are left with the activities that are not key to your business. Once you’ve prioritised them you can decide whether or not to outsource them. How to Grade Students/Entrepreneurs Will grades students based on their activity and their cycle time, the amount of hypotheses they have managed to test. Even disproving a hypothesis and coming to the conclusion that the business isn’t feasible, results in the student learning. Once you’ve reached your hypothesis you can pivot your business model. Will suggests failing fast so that you can move on to something successful. Link between Entrepreneur School and Seed Funds Digital channels allow for that link between the two. Will agrees that to reach the right people to help your business grow you need to utilise digital channels. The cases where he’s seen the most growth was entrepreneurs with the right mindset and a good business model canvas that were put in contact with the right mentors/investors. Nowadays you can find capital from anywhere in the world. Prerequisite for Funding Will needs to see a certain passion for the Customer Development process. He has to get the idea that an entrepreneur has genuine deep insight into the problem. An entrepreneur needs to convince him that this is a significant problem. The problem is not as important to Will as the person who took the effort to identify it. Again he mentions the importance of an all-star team; aggressive yet modest. This requires some introspection on the entrepreneur’s part – hire people to fill in the gaps where you lack. Will needs to feel a certain chemistry between himself and the team as they’ll need to spend a lot of time together. The last thing he considers important is a great communicator in the group. Soft Skills for Entrepreneurs An affinity for public speaking could give you the self confidence to present your idea. A person’s emotional quotient, or EQ, is very important in Will’s opinion. That is the knowledge of how to conduct yourself in any given situation. Entrepreneurs often forget to listen. Revolutionise Entrepreneurship Training You need to identify companies that are willing to do projects with students. At Aalto University companies could suggests internships and projects for students. They would work on a problem together with the students; they could source innovation from the student groups. Afterwards the companies suggested it as an ongoing project because it worked so well. Corporates should be educated on this to get them involved in similar local projects. The only way we will achieve this in South Africa is if we have large numbers of people who demand this type of interaction. Last Words Consider these lean processes even after you’ve already started your business. There is value in the business model canvas beyond the starting phase of your business. Also carefully consider the customer development side and integrating that in product development. These tools help you get over barriers that you may not even realise you have. The post MBA 047: Educating the Entrepreneur with WILL CARDWELL appeared first on MisterBA - Business Analyst..

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow Allon Raiz on Social Media: facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Follow Raizcorp on Social Media: facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Blue Heart Warrior & Raizcorp Allon Raiz  Founder and CEO of Raizcorp, the largest private, unfunded incubator on the African continent. Elevator Pitch: Who is Allon Raiz? Allon is the founder and CEO of Raizcorp, the largest private, unfunded incubator on the African continent. They “look after” about 500 businesses across Africa at the moment; in South Africa, Angola and Tanzania. Allon has been in the business for 17 years. He teaches at Wits Business School as well as Oxford, where they are educated on the Raizcorp business model. Incubation When a business is in its post-revenue growth phase, you create an environment around that business that enables it to thrive. When you supply entrepreneurs with a support structure – physical infrastructure, like boardrooms and discounted or free services, staff training and mentorship, you contribute to the flourishing of that business. Allon doesn’t use the word “incubator” when talking about Raizcorp. He feels that the term connotes weakness and illness. That is why they coined and trademarked the term “Prosperator”. Starting Out In his early twenties, Allon worked for a friend in the clothing retail space. After he helped turn the business around, he was featured in a newspaper article. That very same day Allon received a call from a very wealthy man who offered to fund any business he ever wanted to start. He started a fast food shop which failed dismally. His benefactor and mentor wouldn’t allow him to throw in the towel. The second time around, Allon’s mentor surrounded him with a whole team to support him in the business and this resulted in great success. Raizcorp was founded to pay-it-forward. Making Mistakes and Learning from Them Allon feels the biggest mistake made by entrepreneurs is miscalculating break-even. They tend to forget about all sorts of hidden expenses and at the same time inflate their income in the planning phase. He suggests you put buffers into your plans that allow for these over- and underestimations. Margin is another thing that people don’t understand all that well. When to Pull the Plug From the entrepreneur’s side, Allon suggest you keep asking yourself different questions. If you keep getting different answers, you should keep going, keep trying to save the business. But this can only work if your business model is structured correctly. From the incubator’s perspective it’s similar. Allon insists that he backs entrepreneurs and not businesses. He looks for a certain attitude and energy in an entrepreneur. If the business model is structured correctly, or if he can help fix it, he will continue to support the business. Characteristics of an Entrepreneur The academic qualifications of a “jockey” are not relevant to Allon when he considers a business to invest in. He concurs that some form of qualification is useful, but when you join the entrepreneurial programme at Raizcorp you are taught all you need to know. Allon looks at character, resilience, flexibility, ability to learn – a list of 17 different characteristics. From their Partner Elite division’s side they look at the scalability of a business. Differentiate Yourself from your Competitors Allon has been in the business for 17 years and Raizcorp has had 10 200 businesses through the various programmes that they run. Their original equity partner from 17 years ago is still their partner today. Raizcorp has a massive infrastructure of resources and an elite team of 130 people. The Business Model Partner Elite (the equity deals division) is very low profile, it doesn’t even have a website at the moment. You contact them through their network after which they will meet with you for discussions. They charge a small fee every month, but really only make money once the business gets profitable. It’s the prerogative of the entrepreneur in question whether they want to buy out the equity after a certain amount of time or have Partner Elite remain. For each deal there is a hurdle rate in place and a guarantee for growth. They never take a controlling stake in the business, but anywhere between 30% and 50% is the norm. The second division of the business is called Arise and here they focus on enterprise and supply development on behalf of big corporates. Arise was founded to create bursaries specifically for black-owned businesses. This is a fee-based business model. The final division is their African division. Growing Ideas Allon mentions that Raizcorp’s main focus is not the funding of ideas, but they have in the past had great success with these types of deals. They are much better geared for the stage right after that, where the entrepreneur already launched the idea, started the business, but is battling to take it to the next level. They don’t require the business to be profitable at this stage. Built to Sell vs. Built for Legacy Allon has personally never started a business with the intention to sell it but concurs that the way you build your business would be subtly different when your aim is to eventually sell it. Strangely, it may require more discipline from an entrepreneur when he intends to sell the business at a later stage, because the timeline may be shorter. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? He thinks about this a lot and calls it the Renewal Fantasy – would he survive if it all went sour. Allon is not entirely sure which business he would go in if he had to start over, but he is sure of the group of people he would want to take with him. He is certain of success in any field with this team. He would, however, want to have an impact on people’s lives. Last Words Value should be at the core of everything your business does, whether it’s in your interactions with your clients or your staff. After you have identified your value you can focus on selling that value. Allon feels that many entrepreneurs are reluctant to knock on people’s doors and sell themselves. This stems from their fear of rejection and it ultimately holds them back. Entrepreneurs should remember that they are seeds of positivity in the economy. Don’t fear failure – failure is not the end, just the beginning of a new curve. The post MBA 046: Raise your Business to New Levels with ALLON RAIZ appeared first on MisterBA - Business Analyst..

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Futureneers Jo Booysen Serial entrepreneur and Chairman and Founder of Futureneers. Starting Out Jo started his first business in 1991 when he identified a gap in the market for affordable food and fresh produce in the townships. He succeeded in bringing down the cost of food significantly and subsequently scaled the business to various townships. Upon selling that business, Jo joined his brother in a business where they rented out sheds to builders. That specific venture grew to become one of the largest manufacturers of prefabricated houses. Jo and his brother later opted to sell the company. Jo prefers the thrill of a start-up to the stability of an established business which is why he tends to sell his businesses once he’s grown them sufficiently. He feels his creativity would be stifled in a mature company. Jo proceeded from the retail space to the construction space and eventually moved on to the tech space. In-between all that, he founded a fast food chain after he saw the need for quality hotdogs in South Africa. They have about 300 outlets as part of that franchise at the moment. From Jo’s passion for alternative advertising came Yonder Media. Differentiate Yourself from your Competitors Private equity companies in South Africa are mostly risk-averse, according to Jo, because they comprise of corporate bankers who haven’t been exposed to startups. To stimulate economic development the government started the J12 tax incentive and many new venture capital companies fall in this category. Jo agrees that when investing in very early stages of a startup, you need to invest much more than just money. He handpicked his co-founders to be part of the team at Futureneurs. They all have multiple success stories behind their names. Advisory Board A few people on the advisory board are investors in Futureneurs, but most are philanthropists who want to see others succeed. Joe feels that successful entrepreneurs naturally lean towards helping new entrepreneurs. The real value proposition of Futureneurs lies in their potential to mentor each entrepreneur who goes through their programme. Income Streams Futureneurs charge a 4% annual fee for their board of experts to really get involved in these startups. Based on various factors an equity deal is negotiated with the owner of the startup. Considering Factors Futureneurs do not fund ideas at the moment – they do not invest in the very early stages of a business. Jo is however considering a seed fund cluster in the near future. At the moment they still require a startup to have a minimum viable product (MVP) for them to invest. They look at your ability to protect the technology of your idea. Furthermore they will take into consideration how long it will take to scale your idea. Jo and his team also do due diligence on the entrepreneur in question to give them an indication of how much time and effort is needed to mentor this person. Although he feels that it is technology that differentiates startups, they do not only invest in tech businesses. To have access to capital at the right stage in your business can make all the difference. Jo uses Uber as an example – the founders identified a problem that they wanted to fix and had capital input at the right stage to scale their business to a global level. Equity Jo believes that entrepreneurs should be properly incentivised at all times and acquiring too much equity only discourages the founders. This also negatively impacts the nature of the relationship between investor and entrepreneur. That is why Futureneurs feel it should be a fair agreement for both parties involved. There is a window of opportunity for a business with working technology to scale their operations and that window is much smaller than it was 30 years ago. Your competition could be right behind you with the same technology. You should always be thinking of ways to maximise your business. Parting Advice If an entrepreneur has a good idea and is making profit off of it, but he feels the urge to take his business to the next level, he will need assistance. If he wants to grow his business internationally he will need global investors. Futureneurs are capable of exposing you to the most appropriate investor. By means of their network of connections they lower the risk of investing in your business. The post MBA 045: The Future of Entrepreneurship with JO BOOYSEN appeared first on MisterBA - Business Analyst..

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Website: Cactus Advisors Zachariah George Business Accelerator Programmes meet Venture Capital Advisory Unit Elevator Pitch – Who is Zach George? Zach facilitates corporate venture capital accelerator programmes on the African continent. These programmes help create, develop and scale technology-enabled startups in Africa. He calls it “company building” – the aim is to assist in deals with large corporates and to raise funds. They are in a very specific niche and could be called a venture capital advisory unit. Starting Out Zach was born in India, grew up in the Middle East and spent most of his adult life in San Francisco and New York. He received his MBA from Stanford in 2004. After that he worked as an investment banker on Wall Street for nearly 8 years. Throughout that time Zach always felt drawn to the tech startup community. Whilst on holiday in South Africa in 2010 Zach noticed certain similarities between Cape Town and Silicon Valley 20 years ago. He resigned from his job at Wall Street to do something more “pioneering” in Cape Town – building startups. Making Mistakes and Learning from Them People assume that if something works in Silicon Valley it will work in India, China or Africa. That is not true. Zach assumed that if you have a good product, people will buy it – in Africa that is not the case. You cannot grow your tech startup in Africa by raising funding alone as is the case in other places. The problem lies in the route to market. It took Zach a long time to learn that the quickest route to market in South Africa is through large corporates. Startups need to work with the large corporates, not against them. The Accelerator Industry Zach pioneered corporate innovation programmes that facilitate startups and corporates working together. The startups use the corporates’ networks and resources, whilst the corporates benefit from the startup’s ability to quickly perfect a concept and their capability to recover fast from a failure. In Africa, B2B businesses are far more likely to succeed than B2C businesses. The opposite is true in Silicon Valley and Europe. They want to create a pipeline of innovative ideas and to work with large corporate divisions. The programmes they create serve their corporate partners and enable them to work with startups. At the moment startups are taking business away from large corporates through innovative technology. Corporates have in the past bought the startups, but that resulted in hindered growth. Startups feel they can’t be as innovative and creative when they don’t hold majority equity. Your Clients The corporates themselves are the clients, they fund the programmes. Startup Bootcamp, the number one accelerator in the world (outside the US), recently contacted Zach last year to work with them. Accelerator vs Venture Capitalist A Venture Capitalist may invest in a startup for a large equity stake. When the founders don’t own the company anymore though, future funders are disincentivised from approaching them. Startups often raise funding without knowing why they are raising funding. Access to market and the right partnerships with corporate give you revenue and traction – then you don’t need funding. You can turn to your suppliers and customers for alternative ways to fund your business. Joining an Accelerator Programme When you as a startup join an accelerator programme you get to focus on your business while receiving all the help you need in terms of legal, tax, accounting, social media, product development and marketing. You will be mentored by top-notch industry specialists. In a 3 month period they help build your company with you together with their corporate partners. This is a full-time commitment; you attend the programme Monday to Friday for 8-10 hours a day, sometimes weekends as well. Even if your application to join the programme is not successful, the corporate sponsors still have the right to enter into discussions with you apart from the accelerator programme. Scaling the Business Zach plans on growing this business to multiple cities, not just in Cape Town, as well as other African countries. Promoting the Programme At the moment they market through channels like Ventureburn, Silicon Cape and Disrupt Africa. Entrepreneurial magazines also contribute. Quality applicants are preferred above quantity. Job Creation Zach believes that startups have the potential to create even more job opportunities and have an even bigger impact than social enterprises. If you take Uber for example – it has created more jobs in South Africa than any other startup. Problem to be Solved in Africa The cost of data in South Africa is extremely high – among the highest in the world. This prevents ordinary Africans from doing business. The lack of infrastructure like fibre and bandwidth is a huge impediment on the growth of business on this continent. Another problem is education. If you can make education accessible to remote locations at affordable prices, you will solve many problems. South Africa unfortunately has the dual problem of a lack in education and exorbitant data costs. Health is another issue Zach mentions. There are no electronic health records in South Africa. The Cloud could be the answer that disrupts the way our health system works. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry, what would it be and why? Food security and basic essential living are issues close to Zach’s heart. He would look at an industry where you can grow organic sustainable food and supply clean drinking water. Also harnessing wind power and other renewable energy sources. Last Words Zach feels strongly about the importance of creating a culture of entrepreneurs at a very young age – at school level, not at university. He believes that entrepreneurship development at high school level will really move this continent forward. The post MBA 044: Accelerate your Business to go Global with ZACHARIAH GEORGE appeared first on MisterBA - Business Analyst..

Content hosted by iono.fm Follow the Interviewee on Social Media: Twitter LinkedIn Website: GroTech Clive Butkow, Venture Capitalist Clive, former COO of Accenture South Africa, has 28 years consulting experience. Now CEO of GroTech, venture capital company, focused on disruptive technology. Part 1: What it Entails to be a Venture Capitalist Elevator Pitch – Who is Clive Butkow? As a venture capitalist, it’s Clive’s mission in life to make entrepreneurs more successful. Venture capitalists help grow small businesses in order to sell them at a later stage. Starting Out The very first business Clive started when he was just eight years old, was making and selling kites. Later Clive worked in a clothing store to put himself through university where he completed a BSC in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Right after starting a technology business, Clive was offered a position with another company in their consulting division. This opportunity allowed Clive to travel abroad and to apprentice under great mentors. He retired 28 years later. Although he was working in a corporate environment Clive worked directly with entrepreneurs and small companies. Making Mistakes and Learning from Them Ideas don’t equal good, investable business. Ideas don’t make you money, people make you money. Get the very best people for the job. Build a team around yourself of people whose skills supplement your own. How Your Business Works Grotech is on the second capital raise at the moment and they focus exclusively on disruptive digital technology. They do not invest in asset-intensive businesses or any business that needs a lot of working capital. The reason they focus on technology is because these types of businesses are capital light and capital efficient. Their fund in South Africa is a Section 12J fund, mimicked off the Venture Capital Trusts in the UK. It is about stimulating economic growth through investing in startup entrepreneurs. The investments are tax refundable and becoming quite prevalent. Differentiate Yourself From Your Competitors On the Grotech board there are various business builders. They have first-hand knowledge of the entrepreneurial world. Financial capital is, in Clive’s opinion, the easiest to supply. At Grotech they aim to provide mentorship capital – valuable advice and guidance to the entrepreneur to realise his potential quicker. Social or relationship capital is the other type of support offered by Grotech – access to a relevant market. Clive also mentions human capital where they can put you in contact with the very best person for a particular job. Marketing Inbound interest: every person on the Grotech board has an exceptional track record, so entrepreneurs tend to seek them out for their capital. Outbound interest: the company actively seeks entrepreneurs to sell their capital to. They identify these people through their network and offer them the necessary capital input. The Purpose of Many Board Members Clive and his colleagues picked people with a diverse set of specialties to serve as members on the board – entrepreneurs, accountants and marketing and sales experts. With their collective knowledge on these different fields they can mentor their clients all the better. The Skills of a Venture Capitalist Many South African venture capital companies are run by accountants and people with a finance background as opposed to the ex-entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Clive feels that entrepreneurial and business-building skills are the most important factors that add to the success of a venture capital company. Income Streams There is a capital raising charge, in their case 3%, as well as a 2-3% management cost that is ongoing for the duration of the fund. Grotech only makes money if they make money for their investors. Reset Button: If you had to start over in a different industry. What would it be and why? Clive would use his Computer Science degree. He feels that entrepreneurship has become democratised. The barrier to entry is so much lower today – you can start a business with very little initial capital. If you choose technology you can go global with your business, yet be situated in any part of the world. Part 2: Businesses looking for Funding Your Ideal Customer Grotech focuses on technology startups where the initial capital required is relatively little. They invest growth capital to take companies that already have customers and a product that works to the next level. They take customer, channel and market risk, not management or technology risk. Clive prefers to invest in generalists rather than specialists. Requirements to Apply It is not a requirement for a company to be profitable for Grotech to consider investing in them. The board looks at the growth of the company to come to a decision. Business Plan vs Business Model Canvas Clive doesn’t want to read a 50 page business plan, but rather a 2-3 page executive summary. That highlights your USP (Unique Selling Proposition), your barrier to entry, your value proposition, and that shows your financial projections. Remember that a venture capitalist’s time is valuable and you need to keep your proposal short. When to Talk to a Venture Capitalist Clive suggests that entrepreneurs first try and bootstrap the business. Use your own funds and customer funding to grow and build it to a certain stage before you approach a venture capitalist. When you need to scale the business you can speak to a venture capitalist – when you need growth capital as opposed to startup capital. The best way approach a VC is through an introduction, so find someone who knows the person. You will appear before an investment committee and given a term sheet with certain conditions if they decide to invest in your business. Never over-value your company to the VC. Due Diligence After you agree to the terms the VC company will do a very thorough due diligence on your business where they look at your financials, they find out if there are any legal cases against you, they research the members of your team and they check if the technology is scalable. If every aspect of your business checks out, you enter a long-term agreement with the VC and you are then business partners. What Happens After Successful Funding? Firstly the VC would have a strategy session with the company where they look at all the different components of the business. Different VC specialists sit in meetings and take you through the whole process until they get a signed contract. After investment the VC will help with sales, marketing, product development and tech development – active, hands-on capital. Last Words Get to know your VC company. Understand what stage the investor needs to invest in and what type of investment they offer. Speak to some of the other entrepreneurs to confirm what the VC tells you. You will spend 5-7 years with the VC and you need to do due diligence on them as well. Capital is just a means to an end – paying customers are the only things that validate your company. Solve a big problem, make a ‘need to have’ instead of a ‘nice to have’. The post MBA 043: Funding for growth with CLIVE BUTKOW appeared first on MisterBA - Business Analyst..