In connection with our drive to start 100 new businesses in 40 minutes here is the initial list. We will add to these from input we get from listeners during the show. If you are interested in starting a business and want to find out more about what it takes to start and grow a small business then please attend our Business Basics workshop this Saturday. Register here to reserve your seat.

Specific Opportunities

Bottle Craft

Turning trash into cash. Learn how to use old glass bottles to make glass products that can be sold. Easy to learn, no cost for raw materials, unlimited products. Training provided. email info@bottlecraft.co.za to purchase a starter kit.

Green Tree Technologies

Become a cell phone air time reseller and earn money from others you introduce to the system. No upfront costs. To signup sms “EI” + your email address to 31573.

Go Net Ready

If you are interested in getting involved in web design or know people who need or use websites Go Net Ready will assist you in making money for anyone you introduce to their systems. Very good product, excellent value. Monthly fee of R200 to register. Register here

Buy the Ticket

Become an agent to events coordinators in the music market. Applicants should know the music or arts industry and be wiling to sell and travel locally. Send personal info to info@buytheticket.co.za for application forms.

7 Year Wealth Plan

Learn how to get rich slowly in line with God’s Word. Learn to principles of money management and wealth creation. Attend a free introduction talk to get more information. email clive@7yearwealthplan.com for details.

World Cup Soccer Opportunities

• Become a volunteer at one of the events
• Apply as a casual worker at one of the events
• Use your skill as an Entertainer
• Sell legal soccer related goods
• Get involved in the tourist or hospitality industry
• Let out your house to visitors
• Share accommodation with a tourist
• Clean up after events and games
• Evangelize the people who come to the games

General Opportunities

• Recycling of waste products like paper, plastic and metal
• Upcycling of products such a clothes, wool, shoes and books
• Start a Monthly sales club
• Rent out and swap Video games
• Offer assistance to video gamers
• Virtual Assistant
• Virtual Researcher
• Virtual social marketer
• House sitter
• Plaster cast painter
• Photo editor
• Skills Trainer
• Web marketer

If you are interested in starting a business and want to find out more about what it takes to start and grow a small business then please attend our Business Basics workshop this Saturday. Register here to reserve your seat.

An innovative website now up for South Africa world cup: 2010 Unlike, is one of the best we have seen detailing an unbiased list of events, shops accommodation and great coffee bars. Each major SA city is featured and allows the user to create their own selection of places in their ‘tour’ to be saved or sent to others.

A brilliant site that offers both ease of use and creativity as well as being portable on different platforms. We look forward to more brilliant ideas like these to boost the Entrepreneurial spirit in South Africa. Come on get those party hats off and put them thinking caps back on.

One of the hardest issues for any new business owners to get their head around is their logo. A good logo will carry your business to new heights and give it an identity all of its own. Or will it?

There are more horrid logos in existence than there are good ones and to no surprise there are those who profit from both. A website titled “Your logo makes me barf” is dedicated to showing all that is horrid, wrong and distasteful with logos around the world. Take a trip down barf lane and see what is not hot, ugly and just too nasty to ever make it onto a business card.

Then there is good news. Another website “Logo Faves” here looks at the best of the best, the top designs in the world with top invoices attached. Compare the two sets of logos to see the difference and then determine where yours fits in.

Here are some rules for logo design. If in doubt give Nic a shout, he seems to do a pretty good job for us and most of the EI members.

Every year we are faced with some challenging prospects of what to buy our clients to boost their loyalty and show our appreciation for all their money throughout the year. The changing economy has clearly changed the type of gifts people are looking at this year. Here are some examples of what you can expect;

Donate to a charity of your choice and then let your customer know what you have done with the money you intended to spend on their gift. This is a great way to promote your CSI and will often prompt further donations from the client. Just make sure that you actually donate the money.

Team up with a health spa and purchase treatment certificates or vouchers to a fitness boot camp and give them away to your clients to use themselves or give away to their spouses or family. This is a double giving and will often score serious points for all the relationships.

With the World cup on our doorstep some kind of memorabilia with either your or your customers logo on it. These can include the normal gifts from a business like EPG or go the extra mile and get a Kelp Vuvuzela or a Custom labeled wine bottle. Think creatively and do something differently.

My all time favorite is chocolate. It is very easy to customize, not too expensive and will always get a good response. Businesses such as Chocolate Time or Chocolate Graphics will help make your gift just that little extra special. Try stay away from the normal  supermarket stuff it smacks of a lack of imagination.

In these bad economic times you can also give the gift of reconciliation and write of all or some of the debt on your debtors books and then tell the person it is a part of their Christmas gift. Not too sure how the accountants or taxman will see this but it will sure bring shouts of joy from people who were previously hiding from your phone calls.

These are just a few, lets add to the list and see how creative we can become.

Ok, if you have been hiding under a rock and do not know about the Silicon Cape Initiative then welcome to the sunshine. More importantly is their networking event tonight at the old Biscuit mill  at 18:00.

I am running a bit of a hide and seek game at the event. See here for more info. See you there, if you can find me.

Google Maps has just been revamped and launched for the South African market. These easy to use directions and power packed business profiles gives your business the unfair advantage over others if loaded and used correctly.

If you have a location that you want people to come to then get listed. This is free and will only take up a few minutes. Watch this short video to give you a head start. If you still have problems, give us a call and we will do it for you.

Going to market with you new product is never an easy task. We are competing against thousands of others and your small budget is up against the giants on industry and their marketing partners. So how do you get it done?

Here are five ways to manoeuvre in the market place through clever press releases that you can do yourself. Thanks to Small business Trends for the info.

1. Publish Case Studies, Data and Surveys
If you have research to share, a press release is a great way to do it. So maybe you looked through your customer list and found that small businesses with a blog get 5 times more traffic to their web site. Expand that and send it out!

2. Make Lists
Just like this post, you can create stories around a list. Information like “The 3 top sellers this spring,” “10 business opportunities for the future”, “5 Best Online Tools for Small Businesses,” or catchy ones like – “6 ways to push your product uphill” make good stories.

3. Publicize a Good Cause
Look for true reality human stories that relate back to your products. Animal stories also seem to attract the sympathy of the public. Always include a good picture or two. Make sure to link back to your product or business. Look for these types of “feel good” stories and write them up in a press release.

4. Give the Major News Story a Local (or your) Spin
You’ll need to act fast to capitalize on this opportunity but it can be worth it. When big news hits and you can add your take, you can be a local expert on the topic. With hits on the web skyrocketing with news worthy events, you can piggyback on these to get good hits and improve your SEO. Just be careful not to get involved in stories that may have a negative affect on your business, so stay away from political issues or controversial public figures.

5. Highlight the Strange and Bizarre
This idea can go viral more quickly. Find the odd, sensational, strange and deranged to write about. The stranger the story, the more likely you’ll get publicity from your press release. This is extreme marketing. You can find examples on the web in up to date posts in Digg or Twitter. Once again be weary of stranger than strange to avoid fall out. This could also be some fun way to entertain viewers but keep it in line with your values and vision.

When posting these make sure they go to the correct platforms and apps. Try to spread them around and use hyperlinks to attract attention back to your site with  read more… links or more info here…

When developing a new product it is never easy to know how or where to begin the marketing. The simple answer is: Product Positioning. Traditional marketing consultants will steer you towards their ‘Five generic competitive strategies’ diagram and begin to analyse product differentiation and market segment. Now, I am not suggesting this is wrong, just complicated and not easily understood unless you already know the market and have a bunch of other related products to measure against.

So enter the new EI version of product analysis. A simple tool to assess your product on eight different scales that will define your marketing strategy for you. In brief the assessment points are:

1. Does the customer get value for money?
2. Does your product include an ‘Experiential’ aspect?
3. Which market sector best suited to use the product?
4. Is it a product of service?
5. Is the product easy to use without serious education and manuals?
6. Does it offer a good return on Investment?
7. Does it generate repeat business?
8. Do you offer guarantees?

Each question asked and answered on our assessment form builds a profile that can easily be translated into a marketing launch programme to take it to market. Easy as 1 2 3.

If you have not yet signed up to our membership list then please do so on the right of the screen. Many benefits await you just a few clicks away.

Last night and for the next week or so the lights will be tested on the new Green Point stadium in Cape Town in preparation for the Soccer world cup.

Pic compliments Cape Talk 567.

Green Point stadium lights up

E-Bear at the Peninsula Hotel

Today a small yet exclusive group of people gathered at the Peninsula Hotel in Sea Point to listen to author, speaker, accomplished businessman and entrepreneur Eric Parker. This event sponsored by Exclusive books was a first in what we hope will become an annual event by the book shop to promote our local authors and entrepreneurs.

Eric shared with us the story of the birth of Nandos and other businesses that he has been involved in. We also heard from Guy Le Ray Cook director of Kauai and consultant to Nandos. Even though the talks had a distinct franchise flavour to them (not the main focus of EI) we were all inspired and informed by what was said and shared.

Many thanks to Maryanne Hancock, events manager from Exclusive books for putting on the event and to Eric and his team for sharing some trade secrets and good solid business information with us all. We look forward to the next event.

Also found a great marketing watchdog site to add to our list of ones to read. The House of Marketing