Don't lose sight of the kid in you! A tip for Innovation

Well, it's been a while and the past month or two was quite hectic (hence the low number of posts to this blog). I completed my MBA final year exams and started on a new project distributing Tree Lucerne (also known as Tagasaste), see http://www.treelucerne.co.za if you're curious about what we're doing.

Enough about me, let's talk about something fun, let's talk about the Super Soaker Water gun. You know, the water gun that really took the world by storm in the 1990s.


I remember it well, the soaker took water gun battles to a whole new level.  What's better than a really powerful water gun? And the soaker was, and still is, just that.  

One thing that you may not know about the soaker is that the guy who invented it is actually a real life rocket scientist with a degree in nuclear engineering. Yes, this is according to the August 2010 edition of Popular Mechanics. Lonnie Johnson invented the Super Soaker after he had an idea of a pressurized water gun that would be safe for children.

The idea came to him while he was working on a heat pump. 

What can we learn from this story? Alan Duggan of PM neatly extracts three lessons for entrepreneurs and innovators:

1. Be alert to possibilities - good ideas may enter our minds while doing something completely unrelated.

2. Success requires faith, staying power, and persistence - the Super Soaker was preceded by  many failed prototypes before achieving success. We see this trend with many successful people.

3. Never lose sight of the little kid inside of you - your childhood interests and dreams often provide valuable insight into your destiny. Sometimes we have to listen to the kid inside of us.

I think that the best ideas, innovators can have, are those that make you feel like a kid all over again. This certainly worked for Lonnie Johnson; the Super Soaker is estimated to have produced retail sales of more than 8 Billion ZAR.

What a cool story! Happy innovation. 

How to approach a Barter Deal in 5 Easy Steps

Welcome back! Things have been busy the last couple of weeks. But rest assured we haven't forgotten about our readers. 

I am excited to include the key points from another article about bartering, which I have posted on my small business site.  

So, if you have read our previous article and you think that bartering may be able to help your business grow. Take a look at the following points on how to approach a Barter deal which I have taken from my article on my small business site.  

Step 1: Make a list of what you have to barter with

Step 2: Make a list of the goods or services your business needs to grow

Step 3: Make a list of  people in your trade network with whom you may be able to trade

Step 4: Broadcast your barter deal to your online or offline networks

Step 5: Be patient and consistent

Read the complete article here, How to Approach a Barter Deal in 5 Easy Steps.  

I am also happy to announce that I have made available a free gift for new subscribers of vedaconsulting.org, my small business site.  Visit the link to for details. 

Happy reading!  

If you are using bartering in your small business, then I would like to hear how it is working for you. Please share your thoughts in the comment field below.  

    

How Bartering Could Help Your Business in a Downturn

I recently read about a pub in England. A pub that's very different from what I'm used to. But what's different about this pub? What's different about them is that they accept payment in pheasant, chard, and fish. 

Image: maya picture / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

That's right, you shoot it, hook it, or grow it, then bring it to the The Pigs, and if its good, you get your cold beer for free (or at least for less than usual). The owners of The Pigs, Edgefield, trade fresh game, vegetables, fish or meat in a classic barter system.

Apparently the sign on the wall of The Pigs states: 

"If you grow, breed, shoot or steal anything that may look at home on our menu, then bring it in and let's do a deal!" 

Reading about this system makes me happy. It makes me happy because it is a cool example of a small business owner 'thinking outside the box'. It's an example of a local business being relevant to their community. It helps both the client and the business to improve cash flow. At this pub, if your tomatoes are good enough, you don't pay for the beer. So the customer saves. The pub's management wins by getting streams of fresh produce delivered to them. 

Direct expenses are probably reduced for food supplies. I'll also venture a guess that the people that deliver the food to the pub are proud of it. This system allows for community; personally, it's much nicer to eat food, Judy from next door has grown, than the I'm-not-sure-what-they've-done-with-this-food commercial variants. I know that such a system won't work everywhere, but The Pigs is a good example of what is possible through bartering.     

Wikipedia tells us that bartering is a direct exchange of goods or services, without the use of a medium of exchange. That means money is not changing hands, which may be a good thing, especially during times when money is scarce (and scary).

It appears that bartering is on the increase; logical, considering the plight of the world's financial system at the moment. Wikipedia notes that bartering replaces money during times when the currencies become unstable; so when money sucks we return to basic trade.  

Bartering seems to be a more sustainable economic system. Maybe because you cannot inflate or increase your tomatoes with some kind of western banking voodoo (printing money), like our, now infamous, western banking system was able to do.   

In a bartering economy, you can only exchange something of value with something else of value.  

An example of the bartering phenomena is currently active in Greece. The financial crisis, in Greece, has led to the emergence of an alternative barter economy, running alongside the normal economy. People are exchanging goods, services and time, without the exchange of cash see I'm Broke. Let's barter. Greece's alternative economy (a 2.47 min video on youtube). 

So how could bartering help those of us in small businesses? Proponents of bartering tells us that it helps businesses to utilize excess capacity; something many small businesses and start ups typically have a lot of. 

It also helps you to control your cash flow by reducing direct expenditure.  Businesses often barter things like excess inventory, free capacity, or dead time, with other businesses, which if done right it helps both parties.      

I think we'll have to be much more creative and needs sensitive in a barter economy. "I have X, I need Y, how can I make the exchange happen?, who do I know with Y, uhmmm maybe Joe from ABC Corp ... but does  he need X?, Maybe Steven I met on Linked In? (etc.)". See where I'm going with this? 

Bartering opens up new possibilities. Instead of trying to trade with money, which we often don't have enough of, we could expand our businesses by trading things we have an excess of, time inventory, or capacity. This seems like a good way for SMME's to collaborate.  

Bartering may just take us from "I cannot do that because I don't have enough money" to "I wonder if someone will trade me this stuff I don't really need, for the things I actually do need to make my business grow". Seems to expand our possibilities, doesn't it?   

But does bartering work? I recently posted a question on Linked In to the Johannesburg Business Club Group asking whether the members of the group used bartering, and if it was beneficial to their businesses (see the discussion here http://www.linkedin.com/groups/I-am-curious-are-any-131389.S.74654001). 

The responses I gathered so far was very positive (thanks to all you guys that responded; I really appreciate it). One member suggested it (bartering) is a quick way to achieve mutual benefit. Another business owner expressed the value of bartering when in a restricted cash flow situation, especially during the start-up phases. An owner from Johannesburg suggested bartering  to be a powerful way to help a new business build a client base. 

So, we find that bartering may be able to help our businesses grow. But there are downsides to bartering. Arguably the most difficult thing about bartering is finding someone to barter with. There may not be an immediate demand for the goods, services, or time you wish to barter with.  

This highlights the importance of networking in a barter economy. The more connected you are the more likely you are to barter successfully. Fortunately this should not be hard considering the volumes of social networks we have online lately. Another possible drawback to consider is that bartering income is also taxable in most countries, but that's a story for another discussion.      

Curious about how to approach a barter deal? Read some suggestions here

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your stories and views about bartering and business.    

Why It Sucks to be a Necessity Entrepreneur

Welcome back to our Letters to an Imminent Entrepreneur Series. 

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Dear Imminent Entrepreneur

In my last letter we have looked at our businesses, and how to position them as energy giving entities.  I discussed some thoughts on how to position your business as a life giving place of empowerment.  Remember that to be empowered yourself, you'll have to empower others. There's no way around that, in my opinion at least, 'life' cannot flow to you, if it is not flowing from you.  

Today, I want us to look at the distinction between necessity-driven and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship. I’ll highlight some reasons why it sucks to be a necessity entrepreneur, as I found out for myself. We'll then consider opportunity driven entrepreneurship in some detail. 

But first, let me explain the difference between the two. 

Simply put a necessity-driven entrepreneur starts a business out of necessity. This is someone who starts a business for the lack of other alternatives, maybe someone who has lost a job, for example, and has to start a business in order to survive.  

In contrast, an opportunity driven entrepreneur identifies a real business opportunity in the market and puts together people, resources, and money to profit from the idea. The latter is focused on a real opportunity.    

Do you see the difference? I started my first business out of necessity. I found that necessity often leads entrepreneurs to jump on the first semi-viable idea that crosses their path, even if that idea may not be the best idea to pursue. Necessity creates pressure to do something or anything to pay the bills. You probably know the story.   

Maybe I should mention that many necessity entrepreneurs succeed in building excellent companies. However, I am sure, in such cases success depended on the necessity entrepreneur making a mental shift, at some point, from survivalist to opportunity-driven entrepreneurship. Maybe someone could comment on this from their own experience. 

I am not degrading the necessity entrepreneurs; I think it is admirable to start a business, rather than to just sit at home.  However, I am concerned that such businesses do not adequately reward their owners for their troubles. I'll also venture to say that these businesses are at a greater risk of failure because of inadequate planning.      

The danger of necessity/survivalist entrepreneurship is that the entrepreneur may spend too little time on really evaluating the feasibility of the business idea. Pursuing any entrepreneurial idea will cost you. It'll cost you in time, money, energy and reputation. 

Evaluating the feasibility of entrepreneurial idea is critical for success. Wasting money hurts, but wasting time hurts even more. Let's try not to waste time on poor ideas.

We must learn to identify good and feasible opportunities. Successful entrepreneurs are successful because they are firstly able to identify and secondly able to exploit profitable ideas.    

In a 2009 study conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) it was found that necessity-driven entrepreneurship doesn't meaningfully contribute to job creation in South Africa.  Thereby not helping unemployment, a big problem is SA.  Less than 3% of necessity-orientated businesses create six or more jobs.

That's one reason why we'll have to build businesses that do more than merely survive and to do that we have to switch to opportunity entrepreneurship.  

We’ll consider how to evaluate and exploit a true business opportunity in my next letter.     

Yours sincerely,

Gerhard 

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Thank you for reading. Please share your comments, experiences or advice, on this topic, in the comment field below. 

Is Your Small Business a Parasite?

Dear Imminent Entrepreneur

Something is bothering me.  Something, I often wonder about. Something, I don't have the answer too. But, I feel I have to say it. Here it goes; I sometimes feel like many of the small business owners, in our country are, how can I put it?  ... well  like parasites.  Maybe I am completely wrong about this, but hear me out. 

Parasites live to take energy and life from other creatures. School biology taught us that parasites benefit at the expense of other creatures.

A business with a parasitic mentality will drain the energy, creativity, and funds from others, without the readiness to reward and to give back in a fair measure.

The cruel irony is that when parasites withdraw too much energy, they can actually kill their hosts. Businesses that continually pay their suppliers late is just one example. So also are those that overwork their staff without paying overtime. Maybe you could think of some more examples.
     

I recently followed a discussion on one of the big social networks. The discussion was directed at small business owners about the employment of staff.  I remember a comment from one of the participants, a business owner, who in no small measure described how employees generally are unreliable, lazy, and only out to rob her business.

It's a common perception among some business owners, isn't it? Luckily you don't have to take my word for it, Douglas McGregor's in his famous Theory X/Theory Y studied the effects of such a management perspective in detail. Not going into too much detail, we have to recognize that the beliefs and expectations we have about people typically have ways of coming true through something called self-fulfilling prophesies.          

I know that there are some unscrupulous employees out their. People you really do not want in your business. I get that such people have done much damage to businesses.  I get that, but I've also seen on numerous occasions how business owners, especially small business owners, actually harm their own staff.     

Let me illustrate through some examples I've seen: 

1) Small businesses often fail causing staff to lose jobs vital to them.  

2) Small businesses are often understaffed, causing employees to work too long and too hard, often up to the point of burnout.   

3) Many small businesses do not invest in systems, training, and measures that allows staff to succeed.   

4) Many small businesses do not adequately define and structure work in the business, which causes a lot of stress on employees and managers, as everyone scrambles to keep tabs on everything and no one is responsible for anything.    

5) In reality, small businesses cannot provide the same career opportunities to staff as larger firms are able to. Yet small business owners typically expect "A plus" performance from staff. (They have to because staffing is critical, smaller numbers are employed, and each position, in a small company, is critical to the success of the business).   

6) Some business owners have unrealistic expectations, expressed by an attitude we may phrase as: "we want someone good with marketing, with sales skills, able to do also the books, fix the computers, solve problems, and make coffee". Unfortunately, I am yet to meet such an employee.

In recruitment we called this the search for the "superhero employee". An employee that's expected to, like superman, to "swoop in" to put out all the fires and emergencies produced by poor systems and management.   

We live in an age where the employer typically has more power than the one being employed.  Employees typically do not call other businesses for character references on a potential employer,  as is nearly always done on potential employees. Maybe this has to change.

We have to recognize that we may also become one of those bad employers in our businesses.       

I've met people who've burnt out in a small business settings. Believe me, a small business environment is often the ideal place to cultivate employee burnout (or even owner burnout).

The sad reality seems to be that it is often the best, most motivated employees, who eventually burns out. I have often heard business owners recount how they were harmed by employees, but I am hoping to show that it goes both ways.

Inherent to a new businesses, you'll often find lacking business systems and inexperienced management. Clearly not a well ordered business environment - an environment which is not always good to the people working their.         

So why I am telling you this? Why I am I speaking in such a negative tone?

I am doing this to remind you that it is a privilege to live in a country that makes small business and entrepreneurship possible. It's a privilege to be a business owner. With such a privilege comes very real responsibilities.  

It also because I want to remind you that we are ultimately  responsible for our businesses. And we are responsible to act in the best interest of our stakeholders; our investors, our employees, our families, and ourselves (last but not least).       

   

Remember, we're responsible to control our business's environments. Were responsible for our products, services, and for what happens in our companies.

Micheal Gerber tells us, in his highly insightful book, the Emyth Revisted, that as business owners, we have to develop a 'game' our staff (and investors) wants to play with us.

We have to develop a game that inspires employees to new heights, a game of learning, a game they would be proud to participate in. A game that properly rewards and empowers  performance. A game that energizes and motivates. A game that does not cause harm to those coming in contact with it.  

Fortunately, Imminent Entrepreneur, you can set the stage, you can write the rules of the game in your business, you control the game.  So why not develop the best, most inspiring game for your people to follow? Why not think of creative ways to empower your staff to succeed? Why not build a business that adds real value to the lives of people, instead of one seeks ways to rob their lives of life?

Don't be ignorant of Karma, the sowing and reaping thing. To get, we have to give. To succeed ourselves, we have to empower others to succeed.  To be empowered, we have to empower others.    Please don't leave the development of the 'game' up to chance.

Yours sincerely,

Your Friend in Business.  

What to expect during your first year in a new business

Dear Imminent Entrepreneur


In my previous letter we looked at one crucial belief all entrepreneurs/business owners should have.  That is a rock solid belief that whatever they are working on, be it a project, idea or potential business, may just work. Entrepreneurs are inherently positive.

Remember the cynic in my previous letter? A cynic can tell you all the reasons why an idea won't work. To the cynic, it is easier to sit on the sideline and criticize others, not taking any risks of their own.

I've been cynical at times in my life, and believe me, being a cynic does not pay very well.

We must realize that we'll need wisdom to distinguish between people with valid criticism and the cynics in our lives. Ignore the cynics; they rarely have the entire picture.

Today, I would like to share a bit about what you may expect during your first year of running your own business. I've identified 10 things experience has taught me.  

1. Your income is not secure
Obviously, you're the boss now. You're responsible to ensure sales, revenues, and the payment of your employees (if you're employing).  The steady paycheck, you may have depended on for so long, is not  coming anymore; and worse, you are standing last in line for payment.

Your own payment depends on how much you make. In your first year, and thereafter, you'll have to master the art of managing your cash flow.  Without regular funds, your business will die.

2. You have to manage your own time
At your previous job someone may have guided you on how you had to spend your time.  You had projects, time lines, and goals to guide you.

You probably also had an overseer; someone like a boss or a manager, checking up on you. Well, now the overseer is missing, the boss is 'dead', sound good doesn't it?

But wait, now you have to provide your own guidance, direction, goals and time lines. In reality many new entrepreneurs become their own worst bosses, much worse and much more demanding, than the one they had previously in their jobs.

You must learn to manage your time well; in such a way that you'll be able stay healthy, prosperous, and without a broken family, while building your business. That's a real challenge.    

3. You have to set your own goals
Started simply; if you don't set the strategy and goals for your business, nothing's worth while is going to happen. Remember that success, almost always, follows careful planning.

4. You have to juggle many unfamiliar tasks
At your previous job, you've probably worked at a specific function in you boss' business, maybe accounting, IT, or some other function.

Now, you have to do that function, usually the technical work required by your business, in addition to an entire range of other functions.  Functions you may not necessarily be familiar with.

You'll have to devote time to all these functions. You should expect a steep learning curve, you should expect to be inundated at times, and also expect to drop some of the balls at times.  

5. You may have to live with temporary isolation
If you have moved out of an office environment, maybe to a home based setting, you should expect to feel lonely and isolated at times.  Especially, if you're planning to run a one man enterprise.  It's important to actively build a strong social network to support you in your endeavor.

6. You have to constantly evaluate your self-beliefs
It is a rare person who's able to remain positive and motivated at all times. At some times, especially during the hard times, you'll be wondering if you are doing the right thing.

Sometimes your confidence will waiver. During such times it is important to have a well developed strategy and a plan to follow. The hard times, are the times to work the plan, no matter how down and demotivated you are feeling.

7. You'll have to believe in a vision others may not yet see
Obviously, you'll be excited about your idea. If you're not passionate and hopeful about your business,  be very careful before proceeding with it.  But not everyone will be as excited about your idea as you are, and that's OK. It is your vision, and you'll have to carry and share it until the world picks up on your excitement.

8. You'll become personally involved  
It's highly likely that you'll become much more involved with your own business than you've been with your previous jobs. That's a good thing, it should give you much energy to drive the process with.

But, personal involvement may also amplify your failures. It easy, when something had not worked, to take the failure very personally. That may be highly demotivating and you'll have to develop the ability to evaluate failures objectively.
 
9. You'll reach your personal limitations very quickly
Remember what I said about the steep learning curve. Running a business is challenging and  you'll, very soon, reach a point where your own skills and talent are not enough. Where your time is just too limited, and you just cannot do everything your business requires, on your own.

To overcome this, you'll have to build a strong team of people to neutralize your weaknesses and constraints. You have to become a master at identifying, inspiring, and managing talent toward your vision.

10. You'll have to deal with reality of your business while remaining positive 
Sometimes your business will have very real problems. I think that a good entrepreneur is someone who is able to see those problems objectively, but without losing hope and giving up.

To quote George Clasen: "Life is a series of problems to be solved", and your business will be the source of many of those problems.

I am hoping that you'll look at these 10 points, thinking about how you are going to overcome these problems in your own business. Hopefully, one day you'll be able to impart what you've learnt to other potential entrepreneurs, teaching them how to also run a successful business.

Thanks for reading, wishing you all the best with your future business.

Faithfully

Your Friend in Business

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If you have something to add, or some advice for potential entrepreneurs, please comment in the fields below.

What if the Cynics are Wrong about Your Business Idea?

Overview

These letters form part of our mindset for business success series. It is written from the perspective of someone who's also on the road of entrepreneurship, maybe only a few paces ahead of some, but a bit further down the road.

The idea of these letters is to prepare imminent entrepreneurs, and business owners, for the journey of entrepreneurship. It considers what is needed to succeed as an an entrepreneur. 

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Dear Imminent Entrepreneur

So you've finally decided to go into business for yourself.  If you are anything like me, you've been playing with the idea for some time. Pondering on ideas for your own business, imagining   what it would be like to do your own thing.  

Then, one day, you've decided you're actually going to do it.  You're going to start your own  business.  

I congratulate you for making that decision! It takes a lot of guts to do it.  Starting and running a business is not the easiest thing to do.  It's also not the least risky option.  That's probably why so few people actually do it. To be honest, it is a challenging, scary, often lonely, but exciting road to take.   

You've probably been working for a boss these past couple of years. Like I also did before venturing into business ownership. But now that's going to change.

You're probably feeling like you are heading out on an unfamiliar path. I've also been there and freaked out at the thought of it.  Not that I am claiming to be an expert, not at all, I've perhaps only walked a bit further than some on this road.

I am hoping that I could give you some pointers to guide you on your path, some things to think about. Things I picked up along the way. Maybe I could spare you some trouble, or help you to start off better than I had done.    

I've had some successes, some failures, some good times, some bad times.  Overall it was very challenging, but exciting road. I cannot promise you that it will be an easy road, but I can tell you that you will definitely grow during the process.  You have to. The road of entrepreneurship requires that from all of us.   

It requires us to face our fears, to continuously walk outside our comfort zones. It requires us to rethink how we treat people; our clients, our employees, our business partners, our communities.

It requires us to learn many new skills, skills you wouldn't necessarily have bothered with before.

It challenges our beliefs; our beliefs about the world, our beliefs about work, our beliefs about money,  but, mostly our beliefs about ourselves. It requires us to remain positive in the hardest of situations. It requires us to keep our heads up even when everything else is seems to be going to hell.

Entrepreneurship requires faith. Faith in your idea, faith in the worth of your product or service, faith in the value of your business. But mostly, it requires us to have faith in our own abilities.  That being said, it also requires us to deal with the reality of our businesses, while dreaming about what could be.

Entrepreneurship requires persistence, persistence to keep working on our ideas, maybe even for years without much payoff. To keep working while many of your friends and acquaintances are excelling in the job market and their careers.  

Clearly, it is a demanding journey.

Allow me to share one thing that really meant a lot to me. Something about people an their opinions.  Something I learnt while watching a one of Jamie Oliver's programs. Something I also had to grow in; which is, the ability to handle negative feedback and criticism. 

I respect Jamie Oliver as a chef and entrepreneur.  In one of his recent shows he had an idea to convert an unhealthy town in Britain to a lifestyle of cooking and healthy eating.  Jamie had a big dream, a dream to use this little town as a template for changing the way the rest of Britain eats.  

In the show, Jamie recruited a number of novice cooks to 'pass on' a number of simple recipes to their friends. The idea was that friends will teach other friends how to cook and that they, in turn, would teach their friends to cook, and so forth. Jamie hoped to change the entire culture of this little town trough this 'pass it on' process.    

But Jamie had a critic on his team.  A very cynical lady, named Julie, who rarely had a good word to say about any of his ideas. During the episodes she continually criticized every idea and tactic Jamie tried.  During the final show, she again told Jamie that one of his ideas would not work.  She said that the town's people were just too busy, too poor, and not interested in  learning how to cook.  

During the series of episodes, Jamie intently listened to her issues, her complaints, her opinions, and her excuses. I could see that she often upset him and the rest of Jamie's team through her negativity.

Finally, during a pivotal moment in the final episode, he asked her: 

"Julie, what if you're wrong?" 

Jamie then said "Julie, if you're wrong, its gonna be a beautiful thing"

To me that summarizes a core element in the mindset of successful entrepreneurs. A belief that 'it', whatever 'it' is, may just work.

Jamie had his critic and you'll have your critics. People will often find fault with many of our ideas. That is a given and we'll have to manage such feedback constructively.  Typically, we'll have to listen to such opinions with an open mind (sometimes the critics may be onto something). We'll have to decide if what is being said has merit or not. But, crucially, we'll have to do this without losing faith in our dreams and ideas.  

Remember that attitude is often the only difference between those who fail and those who succeed.  Let's take a tip from Jamie's playbook. Let's ask ourselves, what if our critics are wrong? What if they cannot exactly forecast if our ideas will work or not. In the series Jamie saw what could go right, while Julie only saw what could go wrong. Don't be that way; seeing only what could go wrong .

This is still hard for me. A naturally positive mindset was never imparted to me while I was young and I have to work hard at overcoming many of the negative ideas I gathered while growing up.  It's probable that you'll have to do the same.  

As an entrepreneur, you have to continuously focus on what could go right. I am not saying to run blindly into each situation, ignoring all the problems. What I am saying is that we must stay focused on the positives, while considering the negatives. That takes lots of discipline.

Remember that if they, your cynics and critics, are wrong; your idea may just prove to be a beautiful thing.

Hope that inspires you on your journey. 

Sincerely, 

Another Imminent Entrepreneur.     

Note: some authors make a distinction between being an entrepreneur, and being a business owner, and for good reason. I also consider this distinction to be important, but we'll get to that a bit further on in this series.      

Do you also have some advice for imminent entrepreneurs, feel free to add by commenting below. 

The beauty of innovation and entrepreneurship

Welcome back to our blog! As with many bloggers, I like to write about topics that interest me.  Recently, while doing the series on money, I started thinking about the challenges facing the South African SME business environment. Something I am passionate about. That led me to this series on a mindset for business success.      

Since I have never really worked in large corporates, I am mostly familiar with the SME industry in South Africa. I have some experience in the running of a small business,which makes me familiar with many of the challenges facing the management of SMME's in South Africa.  And there are many challenges facing small business owners.

My journey into the small business circles was not easy, not by a long shot, it rarely is. When doing something difficult, we often reflect on the reasons that led to us to choose the hard road. So I have, lately I wondered why I chose the road into small business in the first place.    

To me, finding employment after university was not easy. That was definitely a factor.  I completed an Honours degree in psychology; which I later found was not in very high demand among potential employers. So began my stubborn journey into small business and consulting.   

I am sure I am not alone in this situation.  I think many budding entrepreneurs and business owners, kind of, 'fall' into their own business at some point. Many of us started a business after having what Michael Gerber in The E-Myth Revisited terms an "entrepreneurial seizure", a sudden influx of entrepreneurial inspiration (excellent book by the way).  

Reading statistics on small businesses, we see that the picture is not pretty. While the stats are debatable, in essence, most small businesses are more than likely to fail. The chance of becoming the next Zuckerberg, Gates, or Branson is also very small.  So why then do small business owners take the road of the business startup?

Why start a business? Why start something that, more often than not, is a very crappy, high risk, low paying job for the first number of years. I am sure the answer will vary. Some may answer money. Yes, indeed, money is part of the motivation - many entrepreneurs are very wealthy, maybe also freedom - the ability to be set your own schedule. But during the startup stages, most owners will tell you, there often is very little money or freedom.

I  agree with Robert Kiyosaki, who tells us in one of his books that money is never enough of a motivation for success in business. So why start a business?  

I can only comment on something that inspires me.  That is the link between innovation and entrepreneurship. A critical part of the mindset of many entrepreneurs is the desire to innovate, to start something new and valuable. Steven Vanderleest, in an article, beautifully defines entrepreneurship as the 'art and science of innovation' - the innovation of new products, new businesses, and new approaches.

And we desperately need such innovation in South Africa. We need new ideas, new approaches, new businesses, and new systems. Entrepreneurs are at the beachhead of those. Maybe we don't need more funding, less taxes, and more support. Though those would be nice Mr Government!

What we need are new ideas. Ideas truly have the power to change the world. Ideas took the world from agriculture to industry, and from industry to the information age. Are there any limits on the value of ideas? I think not. A good idea could affect millions, even billions, of people.

The world needs new ideas. Like ideas on how to extract clean energy from see water.  Or ideas on how to effectively harness the energy of the sun.  We need ideas on how to solve the HIV/Aids epidemic.  There are a myriad of problems that need new ideas.  South Africa desperately needs new ideas.

Fortunately, ideas are the basic hardware entrepreneurs work with. It is from ideas new industries grow , I believe, It is ideas that will create the jobs needed to counter unemployment in South Africa.

Within this innovation mindset, problems always represent entrepreneurial opportunity. Pollution brought the opportunity for clean energy technologies. Communication problems stimulated the development of the internet and cellular phones.  Transport problems stimulated the development of cars, trains and air travel. A problem often is the seedling of opportunity, I wish we'll start seeing it that way in SA    

I am hoping that all of us looking to do entrepreneurial work will shift our attitude from a negative to a positive outlook.  I hope that we will stop seeing what is wrong, and start seeing the opportunities in our nation's problems. I am hoping that we will have faith that things can change and that we'll  keep our eyes open for the opportunities.

Thanks for reading and happy innovating!