Entrepreneurship and sales: Mastering the moment

Be where your customers are; be available when they want a quote. Think about it – no one expects translation services companies to do the actual translations on a Sunday night – but what if they could issue a quote at this time? No one wants to do their first home loan application on a [...]

Don’t be a square peg and a round hole

I’ve worked in enough places to have had a range of bosses; some whom I respect, some whom I don’t. Ethical judgements aside,  what’s emerged lately is some thoughts around averages: The Average Boss vs. the Average Employee in terms of psychographic profiling. Okay, okay, My Average Boss vs. Me. What made them successful, in [...]

Legal risk – are you allowed to be doing what you’re doing?

This may be worth checking up on before you start marketing shit in the financial services space. There is something called the Financial Services Board (FSB), and as it turns out they regulate shit around here. (And yah, you’re on it, I’m thinking Snoop and Nate Dawg as well.) So either way. The gist of [...]

Success: Right place, right time?

Being at the right place at the right time generally means either being fucking lucky, or spending a lot of time in the right place… but kind of like at the wrong time. Good investment returns isn’t about timing the market well, but rather about how much time you’ve spent invested in the market. If [...]

Instant Life Insurance launch campaign scheduled for December 2009

During a recent interview with Fred from Ideate Instant Life Insurance’s Jan Kotze announced that their revolutionary online startup company, Instant Life, will be kicking off their launch campaign in December 2009. Featuring an innovative online platform, this direct insurer has managed to cut brokers, call centres and a host of adminstrative inefficiencies out of [...]

Web affiliate marketing: Why the model makes sense

When it comes to growing your business, the scalability of your business model will determine how fast you can grow, and how sustainable that growth curve will be. For example: If you want to open a mini-movers business in Cape Town, the amount of business you can do will be limited by the number of [...]

Thinking about business modelling

So. You’ve found a way to create business queries you can monetise. You’ve signed up to the referral network. You’ve registered the relevant web real estate. Your mates, business associates and former coworkers are all helping you get the ball rolling. You’ve carefully distilled your service offering and an appealing value proposition, and your corporate [...]

From jack of all trades to Master Jack (TM)

Oldschoolers derisively dismiss the jack of all trades as master of none. I am all for specialisation. Doing your 10 000 hours and becoming an expert. But as an entrepreneur, you’ll need to move your thought processes beyond the traditional moulds and stereotypes. Start thinking in terms of becoming Master Jack of Many Trades. As [...]

Learn how to build profitable websites with the Heavy Chef Project

In light of the fact that this blog doesn’t provide material on the building and populating of profitable website yet, I will refer you to this online marketing course in the meantime. Covering aspects such as project management, development and basic seo copywriting and search engine optimisation techniques, this will be a good introduction if [...]

Wanna start shit? Say hello to risk

Risk is an integral part of any form of investment. If you’re going to ever start your own business, you’re going to need to get at least semi-comfortable with the idea taking some risks. As an entrepreneur, there are many  you will face. Business risks, financial risks, operational risks and even legal risks may come [...]