Bruce Wade, Author at EM Solutions

Celebrating Women Entrepreneurs

We celebrate women entrepreneurs this month with a number of programmes, a workshop, and items of interest.

Next week we offer a special Business Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs workshop on:

Tuesday 9^th August (Women’s Day)
10:30-12:30
Woodstock, Cape Town (directions here)
Cost: R195

Are you already on the pathway to a successful business, are you just starting out on the journey, or are you assessing the various roads your life may take? We will walk you through the basics of a successful business model and share some of our secrets and short-cuts to getting things moving in the world of entrepreneurship.

Join us for fun, food and friendship at this fully loaded workshop and take the next step in your life’s journey.

Please contact Carlyn on 021 839 2281 or admin@em-solutions.co.za to reserve your seat.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:06+02:00August 1st, 2016|Bruce on Business|0 Comments

Understanding Chaos and Stress of an Entrepreneur

Patrick Bet-David shares in this short video how we need to reprioritise our focus on chaos to alleviate the effect it has on our lives.

He explains the four main categories of chaos: Family, Financial, Health and Business and how some people create chaos as an excuse for failure or conversations.

People who handle chaos and stress well always anticipate chaos, ask for help and process the issues quickly towards the desired resolution.

Here are 7 good actions when faced with chaos in your life.

It is all perspective; do not turn molehills into mountains. Ask: is it really chaos?
Seek wise counsel from professionals
Focus on what you can control not on what can’t be controlled
Over prepare yourself and your team
Come up with the next 3 steps on what needs to be done
Study the birth of the chaos: understand the origin and change
Do not take chaos personally

Watch the video for the full talk.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:06+02:00July 13th, 2016|Business Resources|0 Comments

Making Teen Bosses

Last week we, together with SA Teen Entrepreneur and Over the Rainbow ran the first TeenBos Teen Boss Day One_169sm s event in Cape Town.

#Teenboss is a three-day business start-up programme designed especially for high school students
ts. Participants are divided in
to business teams and presented with a social problem to solve using entrepreneurial mindset and tools. Over the three days each team is guided along a path of a business development framework touching on all the critical aspects of business development.

The finale on the 3^rd day allows teams to present their business ideas in a structured format to a panel of business mentors in a Dragon’s Den style.

This first event was a 13537685_1067066933341080_2419558491690817115_n way for the team to prove our processes and content and we are now ready to reach out to all schools, communities and cities across the Western Cape, South Africa and into Africa in the near future.

The new format of the programme will run from Friday afternoon to Sunday delivering a punch, fun learning experience for up to 50 youth at a time. This programme can be run at school halls, churches or community halls in almost any area. We will soon have a complete ‘business in a box’ system providing all the required information and materials to run this yourself.

We will keep you posted on progress.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:06+02:00July 8th, 2016|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Who Am I?

The age old question of who we are, where we came from and where we are going has been on the thoughts of many since the beginning of time. We aim to explore this a little during the month of “People”.

Who am I? in this video we ask the questions about the questions. These have, as academics do, confused and clouded the issue somewhat but I am keen to look at ourselves through the eyes of the entrepreneur and business owner.

What makes an entrepreneur? Is there a formula or profile that we need to discover and follow in order to be the best fit to start and run a business? I fear that all our discovering may leave us as confused as when we first begin, but I am confident that the journey will be worth the effort and we will discover a lot about ourselves and the way to lead and manage a business.

The journey will look at the composition of mankind. Our history and makeup will define our functions and purpose. We will then proceed to uncover the aspects of participation in life that reap rewards and define progress and success. But always looking at ways to manage the levels of health and stress as we go along.

Join us this month and we begin to peel back the layers and find the true self that may lie hidden beneath the cloak of societal illusions.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:06+02:00July 4th, 2016|Bruce on Business, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

What is Disruptive Innovation?

Disruptive innovation is doing something that is not necessarily new, but doing something that is currently done by others in a new and cost-saving way. This disrupts the bigger companies market and attracts customers from their business to yours.

Watch this short video in the blog post to understand this concept better and how you can become a disrupter business in your market.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:06+02:00June 14th, 2016|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

4 key ways to innovate in your business

Companies need to innovate. Innovate their processes, procedures, products and marketing. But how is this done, where can this happen.
We look at the 4 different categories of innovation that will give you a reference to work from in your business.

The four categories are:
Market Pull Innovation: A problem exists and is identified in a system or market. People get together to address this problem. This is solved either by using new technology or by reinventing the current processes or products. This results in a new solution that can be implemented and sold.
Technology Push Innovation: After much research and development a new technology breakthrough is achieved. This brings a new concept product offering to the market. The problem it solves is then identified to the market sectors and the product sold to address this new found problem.
Frugal Innovation: With a current system or process, the question is asked about improvement and how to do more with less. This results in cost saving, a positive environmental impact, and improved efficiency.
Marketing Innovation: The marketing for a product or service needs to reach a new breakthrough for either a new or existing product. The marketing is developed to address the market in a new and innovative manner resulting in deeper market penetration and improved sales.
What can your business do to be innovative in your current processes, procedures or new product ideas?

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:06+02:00June 13th, 2016|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

How Innovative are you?

Innovation comes in two forms. Either you are looking for new ideas that address and solve problems that don’t yet exist in the public realm or you are looking at way to redo things that already exist.

New innovation requires a lot more work, money and effort to get a new concept to market. The length of return on investment and issues of going through prototype designs, market research and market penetration requires a huge effort. This is required to move the world forward into new technologies and concepts that create progress for society and mankind.

The second type of innovation occurs when we look at the status quo and decide that it is not good enough and needs improvement. This could be related to an existing business or services or even a product. Looking for new ways to do old things in a new exciting way that offers better convenience at a cheaper rate is always welcome to the market.

Watch this week’s episode of Bruce on Business and begin your journey of innovation into the future of sustainable business.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:06+02:00June 6th, 2016|Bruce on Business|0 Comments

Looking for Funding – Seed Afrika

Seed Afrika was established to help promising entrepreneurs in the Southern Africa region connect with seed stage capital and mentorship from Silicon Valley.

Seed Afrika work with the political and business networks within key verticals in Southern Africa to source vetted seed level deals for early-stage investors looking to find sustainable, profit-based investment return opportunities in Africa. Simultaneously Seed Afrika expose top African entrepreneurs to the networks they need to build pipelines to wealth and job creation for their own local communities.

Call for Entrepreneurs

Seed Afrika is currently looking for applicants for the 2016 funding round. Qualifying businesses will be matched to investors based on their profiles and investment needs. Both investors and businesses owners will meet together in Cape Town in October 2016 for a final round of discussion and pitching. During this time investment deals will be offered to those businesses that are accepted.

Seed Afrika is currently looking for businesses with the following criteria:

Legally registered with CIPC
Tax clearance certificate from SARS
Available annual financial statements
Operate within the Energy, Water (sanitation, management), Healthcare and finance/financial transactions sectors
Have a minimum viable product (MVP)
Reached Proof of Concept (POC) with paying clients
Defined pipeline of customers
Scalable business model

Funding deals range from $25k to $5m for either seed or series A funding rounds. Applications for Seed Afrika can be done through their local Cape Town based partner: Entrepreneur and Management Solutions.

Interested businesses should contact Bruce Wade directly on bruce@em-solutions for a detailed application form and initial assessment process.

Entrepreneur and Management Solutions will conduct an initial assessment and due diligence before advancing applications to Seed Afrika for consideration.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:07+02:00May 31st, 2016|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Is it time to say Sorry?

When was the last time you said sorry? As a leader of anything the word sorry os one that needs to be used both strategically and sympathetically at all times.

We see two types of leaders who misuse the word Sorry. The first are those who seem to start each sentence or communication with a Sorry. “Sorry to interrupt bu….”. “Sorry I am late…”. “Sorry I have an opinion…”.

Too many low self-esteem leaders have this learnt behaviour of using Sorry as a filler word just to begin speaking and add their opinion to the conversation. This is not the way to lead people. It creates a low image of the person in the eyes of others in the room and in return a sense of doubt.

The other side of the spectrum are those leaders who never say sorry. Those who in their own eyes are never wrong and have the need to apologise. These individuals are people who seem to live above the law both legally and do not do anything wrong.

In this short video we expand on both these types of leaders and look at their reasons for their behaviour.

We would love to hear some of your comments and thoughts.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:07+02:00May 23rd, 2016|Bruce on Business, Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

How Should Leaders Reflect?

cake This weekend was my birthday, not anything special, but a birthday nonetheless. Each year at this time a few things happen that have been designed to allow me to reflect and pause a while in response to the year that has gone by:

I get an email from the FutureMe app. This email is from myself, written a year ago to my future self, now, the present day self. I have been doing this for 8 years now and each year it is a difficult email to read. I am never easy on myself and set huge expectations for my personal self, relationship and business goals. The email normally outlines the expectations and dreams I had for the year as well as giving hope and encouragement. But listening to yourself from a year ago is a strange and unnerving experience.

I then get to write another email, this time to the future self 12 months from now. How difficult it is to predict the future and hope for certain achievements and goals. We do not know where we will be unless we set our sites on the future and aim high. But this year seems just that little harder than before. There is so many uncertainty issues that hold the cards to my future, personally, in relationships and in business. I am also very focused on some health issues. So what does one say to the future?

I also get to celebrate this day with friends and family in the now. Time spent chatting, celebrating and living in the moment. The best time we have as we cannot begin to change the past or predict the future, we can only enjoy the moment we are in now.

Some interesting leadership themes here that I will allow you to unpack and marinate in your own time as I do. I can only trust that the future will be and that the present is and all that I do will be sufficient for both.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:07+02:00May 16th, 2016|Business Resources, Leadership|0 Comments

About Bruce Wade