Is your client portfolio aligned to the size of your business? Do you look after your small clients like you do big clients? Small businesses always aspire to get one or two big clients. Getting big clients means we get more revenue. There is nothing wrong with aiming high. Startup entrepreneurs always aspire to get…
4th Year Anniversary of Blogging
Today marks the 4th year anniversary of me vandalizing my blog wall thoughts with so-called ideas. In 4 years I have blogged 1465 blog thoughts, which basically translates into one blog post a day for the past 4 years. It was author Seth Godin that motivated me to begin this journey. He said: “Don’t wait…
Questions for a new entrepreneur: Patience
Do you have the patience to build a business that will take you more five years before it starts to bear fruits? Are you willing to stick it out? Are you willing to see through the dip for longer periods of time? Do you have the patience to wait, and put in the hours even…
Questions for a new entrepreneur: Cash Flow
A few things came up over coffee the other day. His idea is good, his funding is solid, there are many choices. Some of the questions that don't usually get asked: Are you aware of your cash flow? Often entrepreneurs are obsessed with getting that million rands deal. On the outset there is nothing with…
Familiarity breeds contempt
When you drive after getting your license, you push your seat closer to the steering wheel, you hold the steering wheel with both hands, you make a complete stop at the stop sign, you use your indicators when you turn, you drive cautiously, and you keep a safe following distance. When you bake a cake…
You are not your job
By the time you were probably in your standard three [grade five], you were asked the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" In our society, job titles have come to define who a person is. By defining yourself by what you do rather than by who are you can put…
Win the fight, lose the customer
Does it really matter if you are right? Given the choice between acknowledging that your customer is angry or proving to her that she is wrong, which will you choose? You can be right or you can be happy. You can be right or you can have empathy. In most instances you can't do both.…
Book Review: Maru by Bessie Head
Book Review: Maru by Bessie Head
LORA Entrepreneurship Series: Mandla Mvelase – Saturday, 03 September 2016
LORA Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship strives to bring thought leaders, men and women who are pathfinders, entrepreneurs and change agents, men and women who have affected the very fibre of our thought processes, who influence our set of beliefs, and engage our mindsets in elements of value. LORA has invited 10 experienced entrepreneurs to share their…
Speak before the decision
.... not complain afterwards. This plane is headed to Cape Town. If Cape Town is not your destination, this would be a great time to deplane. Often we sit in meetings, in relationships, silently not raising or registering about views about certain issues, and then the situation goes bad, we then have the guts to…
The voice in your head…
That voice in your head is describing what you are about to do after a different part of your brain has already initiated that action. Your body decides, the voice in your brain narrates. Be careful how you talk to yourself because you are listening.
How They Blew It: Mixing business and politics
Building your business on tenders because you have good relationships with politicians is a dangerous cocktail. Politicians comes and goes, you may be able to build your empire for 5 years when your favorite politician is in power, but you risk losing everything when that politician loses power to his rival. When political climate changes,…