entrepreneur-incubator-blog

Overcoming the ability to keep your resolutions

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:34:47 +0100

Every year people make New Year’s resolutions. They tell their friends and family, feel good about them for a few days, but before they know it they find themselves backsliding.

As a self-regulating system, we have a built-in push towards equilibrium called homeostasis.

Homeostasis Works to Keep Things the Way they Have Always Been, Regardless of Whether a Change is Good or Bad.

If you have developed a bad habit, homeostasis will resist your efforts to break that habit. The bigger a change is from your normal equilibrium state, the stronger the resistance to that change will be. So how can you make a change last?

The first step to combating homeostasis is to be aware of it. Learn to negotiate with your natural resistance. If you take one step backwards, take two steps forward. You want to push your state of equilibrium towards your goal.

The longer you are able to fight the resistance and maintain the change, the easier it becomes. Over time your equilibrium adjusts and homeostasis will be on your side. Maintaining the resolution will become easier than backsliding.

Learning Entrepreneurship is about attitude

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 04:51:58 +0100

Check this young lad, he is only 8 and already he possesses a lot of what we have been trying to instill into our clients for years. What is this X-Factor that people have that makes them able to so easily be networkers of note?

DA Youth Entrepreneur Competition Winners

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:32:05 +0100

Over the last three months, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Youth has run a national competition to challenge young entrepreneurs to develop business plans for small enterprises.National Youth Director, Aimee Franklin says: “We believe that by encouraging young South Africans to take control of their futures and become job creators, that we are making a positive contribution to addressing the escalating youth unemployment crisis.”The competition itself forms part of a broader campaign being run by the DA Youth that seeks to develop constructive ways in which the DA can assist young South Africans with achieving economic freedom in their lifetime.

According to Franklin, the DA Youth’s economic freedom campaign, which began in 2010, has included the following:

• Lobbying for the introduction of a youth wage subsidy, which would incentivize business to give opportunities to inexperienced young people in exchange for tax breaks and could create hundreds of thousands of new jobs for young people.

• Promoting entrepreneurship as a means of addressing the youth unemployment crisis by creating a document that was handed to the Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies that outlined a series of proposals for ways in which government can facilitate increased youth entrepreneurship. The plan was well-received, and Minister Davies praised the DA Youth for our pro-active campaign and pledged to carry the proposals forward.

“Today we are pleased to announce the winners of our business plan competition. We have been blown away by the creativity and innovation their entries displayed.”

“We received a large number of excellent business plans,” says Franklin, “all of which were judged by an independent panel of entrepreneurship industry experts including Lydia Zingoni of the Teen Entrepreneur Foundation, Charles Maisel of Innovation Shack, Bruce Wade of the Entrepreneur Incubator Academy and Dr. Ruben Richards, author of ‘Bullets or Ballots: The ultimate solution to crime and unemployment in South Africa’.”

Two entries tied for winning position:

Green Boards: Luvuyo Toni
Many schools cannot afford chalkboards, and those that can often have their boards stolen. Green Boards aims to leverage corporate sponsorship to paint green chalk boards onto the walls of every underprivileged school in South Africa with a specialist washable paint. These boards cannot be removed or resold and offer students and teachers a permanent and extremely cost effective space to express their creativity.

Ultimately Green Boards aims to expand into the Khayelitsha community and may even one day be able to offer communities spaces on the streets to express their views and creativity.

HUHO Street Gyms: Suzainne de Kock
HUHO Street Gyms gives people living in townships access to gym facilities at a low cost relative to expensive gym contracts.
The company manufactures compact weights from concrete, paint tins and steel bars. It hopes to sell this equipment along with branded t-shirts, a beginners exercise manual and sign board to township entrepreneurs, who can then charge people in their street a fee per minute to use the apparatus.

“Not only will this business give opportunities to myriad entrepreneurs,” continues Franklin, ” it will give young people access to affordable exercise facilities as an alternative to joining gangs or using drugs.”

Both Luvuyo and Suzainne have won:
• R5000 cash
• A R15 000 website design and hosting package
• A mentoring session with a professional small business coach

In addition, the other three entrants in the top 5 will each receive a R15 000 website design voucher.

“Congratulations to both our winners!” says Franklin. “We look forward to helping two young businesses successfully enter the South African economy. As the DA Youth, we will continue to run campaign of this nature aimed at realising positive change for young South Africans.”

CherryFlava - Trend Prediction 2012

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:26:10 +0100

We follow Jon Cherry on his blog Cherryflava to keep up with the inside to marketing and trends. Yesterday on Cape Talk Jon was asked to predict a trend for 2012. His reply got me all excited about next year, read what he said, take from his blog:

We made a trend prediction for 2012 on Cape Talk this morning, which is more of a ‘holding thumbs’ prediction than one based on any kind of analysis. The hope is – that as South African consumers, we become less seduced by big brands and their advertising illusion and rather start an active support of local entrepreneurs and small business.

We can talk until we’re blue in the face about how government should be offering tax breaks, support, less red tape and all that good stuff to entrepreneurs, but the fact is that buying the goods that entrepreneurs sellis the only thing that’ll really drive this economy forward. Talk and support and legislation is great, but what are you – the consumer – doing about finding and buying things from a small business instead of just blindly buying from large listed companies who’s profits [in the form of our money] head to some foreign investment bank as a dividend cheque.

It’s not that we are anti-capitalist, on the contrary we’re huge fans of a fair capitalist system, but for South Africa to prosper, it’s not the outdated notion of creating jobs that’ll do it – it’s the creation and support of a thriving entrepreneurial infrastructure. One where South African brands are exported to Europe and the US for a change – rather than the other way around.

The key to this prosperity is however not more workshops and talking about how we need small business – it’s about getting off our asses and finding products and services to buy from entrepreneurs and then telling others about the ones you really like.

Conscience Consumerism – one where you make active and informed purchasing decisions about what and from whom you are buying from – is the answer.

So our marketing and business prediction of the biggest emerging trend in South Africa in 2012 – is that we being to Buy Small South African Business. We keep money circulating within our communities and actively go out of our way to source, support and sing about great local small business.

It takes a bit of work and effort [the best cheese shop in Cape Town is off the beaten track in Obs - not Canal Walk], but our country’s future depends on the success of the ones that take the leap and start their own thing. They’re not going to stay in business unless they can do business with you.

If you’re reading this – make Buy Small SA Business your mission in 2012. It’s a revolution worth supporting.

Looking back to plan forward Part 4

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:10:29 +0100

This week we will take a short journey through a series of exercises that we use to cement the leanings from the past year and prepare for the quantum leap into 2012.

The final part to this planning exercise is to make a list from your outstanding issues that needs and can be addressed in the remaining time this year. So many of us just write off December as down time and spend far too much time playing Angry Birds and not getting the small items off the list.

Take your list from Part 2 of this series and write out all the A items that need to be addressed and sorted before the close of the year. Add to this any items that need to be done. Often small items around the office such as backups, cabling, lights or equipment servicing can be included and done during this time.

Then allocate resources; actual names and dates to each item. Good time for a staff coffee meeting and let everyone have a copy of your list. Communication, feedback and accountability is always a great way to get things done. Celebrate when the list is done and take the afternoon off to do your Christmas shopping. Do not forget to get me something.

Learn something new to make extra moola

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:16:38 +0100

Want to do something different these holidays and get to learn to earn some extra moola? The Entrepreneur Incubator is offering a series of workshops that will teach you a skill that you can utilize to make a number of items to sell or use as gifts.

Designed especially for Teens and Adults these workshops are part craft, part business skill.

Seed Bead Critters, these are the small beads that are woven together to make a number of unique designer animals, people and sea creatures. These can be added to clothing, gift cards, jewelry or as standalone items.

Pipe Cleaner Bear, turn a simple pipe cleaner into an adorable bear that can be added to any occasion as a table decoration or gift accessory. The practical use of these bears is unlimited.

Glass Etching, transform your plain glasses into the party taking point with names, company logos or funky motives. Great for home or party use but also perfect for branding gifts ideas. We will also look at some other glass craft and business ideas.

If any of these prick your interest or tickle your fancy then click here for additional information and the booking form. All workshops cost just R50 and include materials and refreshments.

Looking back to plan forward Part 3

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:05:08 +0100

This week we will take a short journey through a series of exercises that we use to cement the leanings from the past year and prepare for the quantum leap into 2012.

Today we will begin to look ahead to 2012 and put pen to paper on what your BHAGs and WIGs are. Let’s start with goal setting, this is preached at every business and personal development and time management seminar you will ever go to and for good reason. Setting Goals do actually work. Simply by writing out your goals and sharing them with other people, you have already done up to 40% of the work towards achieving them. So get going. Set some goals for 2012. We are encouraged by John Maxwell to set BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goals. These are goals bigger than ourselves, a little larger than we would be comfortable with and just out of reach of our normal way of operation. What this does to us is causes us to grow in ourselves and learn to rely on others to achieve them. Both are not so bad things. We are also told by Covey to set and keep a list of WIG’s, Wildy Important Goals. These are the top 3 to 5 goals that we spend 80% of our time on each day. We read them when we get up and re read them before we go to bed, they are top of mind at all times.

So what are your goals for 2012? Write out a list of 20 main objectives for the new year. Remember to include some of the following categories: Finance, Business, Personal Development, Family, Fun Time, Product Research, Networking and Holidays. Have fun with this and allow your mind to dream a bit. If your list scares you a little you have done it right. Now select your top 5 WIGS and circle them in red. Job done.

New Teen Animation School

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:11:23 +0100

Last week we, Entrepreneur Incubator and Motivate Cape Town put together our first Teenage Animation School programme. Advertising through the Home Schooled network and Teen Entrepreneur we were able to gather a good bunch of keen young entrepreneurs into our training room.

Our first lesson consisted of the basics of marketing, Sales Cycle and how video can play a role in this for small businesses. We then did a once over of GoAnimate software in preparation of the homework assignment. We decided to use the easy simple route of GoAnimate to allow the participants to gain entry into an otherwise complicated and very technical world.

The homework asked for 3 videos, one for each Inform, Educate and Sell part of the sales cycle for one of three given products. Yesterday we began to receive the completed videos in from each of the participants. We have had so much fun going through them and working on the final cutoff for the second workshop. To give you an example of what was done here is Keren’s videos for her Nutty Wonder Bread. Video 1, Video 2, Video 3.

Next week we take the top 5 on a further journey into the world of animation videos and add a bit of business education to assist them to begin to market their talents to the small business owners as a new channel for advertising their products online and via social media. It is our vision to up skill each one to a point where they can offer top quality products at a fast turnaround time at way below the professional industry rate that is often out of reach of the normal small business owner. More news on our progress in a few weeks.

Looking back to plan forward Part 2

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:11:06 +0100

This week we will take a short journey through a series of exercises that we use to cement the leanings from the past year and prepare for the quantum leap into 2012.

The next exercise is to rid yourself of any guilt that you may carry into the festive season and holidays. Make a list of all outstanding issues, programmes and not yet done tasks that you have been well meaning to get to this year. This could include simple things, such as replacing the kettle to your new website or office renovations. This list is your Parked list. We are not throwing items out, just parking them to identify them as not yet fully addresses.

Too often we set our sights on a task that is outside our main focus and when reviewed it just seems not important anymore. Now is a good time to kill these babies and get back on track. Go back over them and cross out any that are no longer relevant or required.

For the issues left, mark them with an A or C. A being important still need to be done this year and C being can wait until later next year.

Then take the afternoon off. Just by doing this simple exercise, you have already gained enough motivation to get cracking on any outstanding issues. We will come back to these later in the week.

Looking back to plan forward Part 1

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:52:03 +0100

This week we will take a short journey through a series of exercises that we use to cement the leanings from the past year and prepare for the quantum leap into 2012.

The first exercise is a simple one but so many people neglect to do this each year let alone each day. Take time to pause and reflect on your achievements. Make a list of all the highlights that both you and your team have achieved throughout the year. Go through each month, pull out old notes or your diary and make a celebration list.

Once you have exhausted your achievements, jot down, next to each item, the reasons why you achieved these. What was the catalyst or mechanics behind each one? What we are looking for here are the cogs that turned and engaged that resulted in success. This is the real learning here, to understand what was done to achieve the results you experienced. When you are done with this, share these with the team and chat about what went right and what went not so right this past 12 months.

Celebrate the victories and learn from the failures.