nbmedia, Author at EM Solutions

Online Entrepreneurial Education at a Discount

Online education is fast becoming one of the most used tools for up-skilling of business owners and staff. The amount of available platforms has seen a huge uptake in this field of personal development.

Online education allows you to attend lectures at your own time, complete assignments in the comfort of your own space and interact with other students and lecturers with any queries or issues.

We at Entrepreneur Incubator have been hard at work converting our well used tools and tips that have helped hundreds of Entrepreneurs to improve their businesses into online courses. These are now available online at Udemy.

As a gift to you and to help you get into the habit of learning we have listed 5 courses below together with a coupon code that will give you access to this material for up to 60% less than the current going rate. This gives you access to all the video lectures, notes and quizzes for a lifetime. Can’t find fault with this.

Please select any or all of the courses below, follow the link to the site, register if you have not yet done so and begin to learn. The site also have many hundreds of other courses (some free) that will help up skill both you and your staff.

Enjoy.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:42+02:00August 27th, 2013|EI Clients, Entrepreneurship, Marketing|0 Comments

Location Music Location

The old age golden rule for retail will always be location, location, location. This has proved true for a small centre on the main road in Bergvliet over the past 10 years. This centre is occupied by a Post Office and Video store. They have been around for a long time, but the other shops and especially the corner shop has seen a steady turnover of occupants every few years or months in some cases since we moved into the area.

The longest tenant was a Woolies food store that lasted a few years but just could not attract the foot traffic off a busy main road to its products.

Yesterday a new store opened up in the centre. Marshall Music, a specialist music shop offering a range of instruments, electronics and all the bits that go between them. I popped in to say Hi and welcome them to the area and took some pics of their new shiny store.

Interesting that they are a specialist store and do not rely on foot traffic for trade, so they should do well in the area and also attract new customers to the area.

So the question will be answered to, Does Location still remain important if you are a niche retailer? Time will tell for Marshall Music in Bergvliet.

Check them out on www.marshallmusic.co.za or onFacebook. Good luck to Michael McAuley the store manager and his team.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:42+02:00August 2nd, 2013|EI Clients|0 Comments

How to gauge your presentation

When presenting to an audience, how to you gauge the success of your speech? Can you look out over your audience and judge from their faces, or the amount of closed eyes and tilted heads? Or maybe from the level of applause, but then I have clapped hardest for people just as a relief that they were actually finished. Here are six simple questions that you can ask attendees to answer that will give you a clear defined appraisal of your presentation:

Can they repeat the main points?

Could they visualise the product/topic you spoke about?

Will they remember you and your topic by tomorrow?

Could they relate what you spoke about to their own lives?

Did they respect you and your topic?

Did they want to talk to you afterwards?

Using these as indicators, your presentation should be topical, easy to remember, focused, use live examples that your audience can relate to and end with a clear call to action.

By nbmedia|2013-07-29T07:43:07+02:00July 29th, 2013|Business Resources, EI Clients, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Alive Cafe – developing that creative spark

Nestled in the Muizenberg village lies a small yet distinctive venue geared at that inner creative we all seem to share but may not be willing to let out. The Alive Café is an artistic studio, theatre and live music venue. They aim to open the door for each person’s creative spark by offering the experience of participating in a collective hub of creativity.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:42+02:00July 22nd, 2013|Business Resources, EI Videos, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Are you ready to be funded?

Successful funding for small businesses, is a few and far between activity these days. No longer does a thick business plan and a smile get you good credit with your bank, a start-up grant, and funding from the local government agency. Becoming fundable as a business requires a number of key activities to be engaged and completed. These include, but not limited to the following;

a reputation of achievement, perseverance and entrepreneurship stop
a solid financial model around your product offering
having achieved a proof of concept milestone or at least a plan to do so in the near future
a well written plan for your business that contains all the required information
a financial history that is void of red flags and black spots
at least one referral in the funding environment from somebody who actually knows you well
a product offering that is unique either in design or execution
a support team of coaches, mentors and colleagues who have achieved successful business growth and finding either themselves or with past clients
an ability to be scalable to national or international markets
a personal profile and presents that exudes confidence and entrepreneurial ability

Putting all these together is not something one does over a weekend or even within a month. Building up a fundable business can take anything between nine months and five years. Is important to get yourself known in the local markets by joining various programs, entering competitions, and participating in workshops and events. Once you have built a reputation of participation within your sector people will get to know you for who you are and begin to understand the full impact of your business venture, this makes it a lot easier to get those all-important referrals and links to key people in the industry.

It is also important to understand a little about the theory of financing. It is important that you know the difference between the various funding models the content of a term book, how repayments work and the differences in the various equity versus profit models.

It is also important to understand what type of financing you are looking for and where to go for financing. Shopping at the wrong financer for your money will not only results in no loans but also make you look incompetent.

If this is something that you are interested in pursuing for your business, then please feel free to contact us, and we will assist you in this journey.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:43+02:00July 22nd, 2013|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Can successful board games still be produced in SA?

Today I met with Rene van Huyssteen, the creator of an exciting board game Yunomi (pronounced You Know Me). Rene came up with the idea of a new game almost 5 years ago and has been able to develop, manufacture and sell his game across South Africa.

This is no surprise when you consider that Rene sought out the assistance and guidance of Calie Esterhuyse, the creator of the now world famous 30 Seconds. Calie also hails from the Western Cape and has sold over 150 000 copies of his game since its launch.

So the question; can board games still be developed and sold in today’s market of mobile and tablet apps and online games? The answer is a resounding YES. There are still people, families and groups who prefer to enjoy each other’s company around a good game that does not require batteries or wifi.

We are currently working with Wayde Holland who is in the process of developing a new game concept that should hit our shelves by Christmas next year. (no pressure Wayde)

I can assume you have played 30 Seconds, give Yunomi a try, you will not be disappointed and keep a look out for yet another successful board game to emerge out of the Western Cape soon.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:43+02:00July 17th, 2013|Business Resources, EI Clients, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Continuing education, a choice or a must

The phrase ‘ the school of life ‘ is used by many occasion to relate to lessons learnt on completion of our formal education. But have you ever wondered exactly what the school of life is and where we get our education from. I am not just talking about lessons learned from our mistakes or experience, but they are currently many many different online schools and learning platforms that offer excellent ongoing education programs that entrepreneurs should be continually involved. The concept of ‘I have learnt how to do my job and now I don’t need to learn any more’ is a very false and shortsighted. I highly recommend that every entrepreneur or business owner attends and completes at least one new business course and one new trade course every quarter of the year. This will ensure that you get and keep your education on par with industry trends and advancements in technology.

For the past year I have been attending courses onwww.coursera.com and to date I have completed five courses that have enhanced both my business knowledge as well as my network with other academics and business owners the world over. Another brilliant website that I have been involved with iswww.udemy.com . This website allows you to change shorter courses in video format together with file downloads and quizzes. This website is filled with many different skills enhancement and education courses. In fact I would like to invite you to attend one of my courses recently submitted on to Udemy. If you’re interested in creating a marketing strategy for your business or want to learn more about sales funnels and then please click on one of the links below and it will direct you to the course of your choice, and using the coupon code you will be able to take this course for free for a limited period.

This is a option open to only those on this mailing list. If you wish to take advantage of this is do so in the next week as both space and time has been limited.

Creating a marketing strategy for your business coupon: Free2me

Implementing sales funnels in your business coupon: Free2me

By nbmedia|2013-07-15T11:39:46+02:00July 15th, 2013|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Idea Feasibility

What makes an idea feasible? It is not just an emotional feeling more a gut feel, or feedback from your mother. Feasibility can be measured using some will used business tools.

We have created an assessment tool that has been widely used by entrepreneurs and business owners for a number of years. The purpose of this tool is to help determine the feasibility of a concept or idea before going to the next stage of fleshing it out into a business plan.

Almost all of the data you will gather for this exercise can be carried forward to your business plan so the exercise will not be wasted. This assessment is based loosely on the Porter Five Forces model with additional assessment questions.

There are different factors that influence a business from conception onward. These you have little control over but can manage the effect and influence they have on your sustainability.

If you would like a copy of this feasibility assessment, we would like to take this opportunity to offer it to you for free to assess your business idea. Simply click here, complete the form and we will e-mail you a copy for your personal use.

We would love your feedback, on your ideas and how you found our assessment. Trust that this will be a helpful tool in developing your new business idea.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:43+02:00July 8th, 2013|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

How to tell if your idea is a good one

Okay, so you have an idea, now what. How do you know if this idea is going to be any good as a business concept? This is the question that a lot of the entrepreneurs are faced with, but not all good ideas are good business concepts.

There are three categories that ideas can fall into; Revelation ideas, Evolution ideas and Iteration ideas.

Revelation ideas or ideas that are new; this could be innovation and technology, new inventions in science and discovery, or news stories or ideas in the arts. It is my experience that very few entrepreneurial ideas fall into this category, even though the entrepreneur himself is convinced that the concept is a revelation.

Evolution ideas are ideas that have come through and evolution process from other ideas. Most business ideas are concepts that have been seen elsewhere and that have just been involved in two a new reforms or a new look. Thus we see a lot of thin in technology, Web concepts and apps. These ideas are not necessarily bad but should be described as such and not as new.

Iteration ideas are ideas that use existing technology or concepts and combine them to come up with a new business solution. A good example of this is taking a GPS locator, which already existed for a number of years and combine that with a mobile phone to offer geolocation and direction solutions to the end user. This is a mashup of ideas that create a new solution.

Understanding into which category your new business concept falls will give you a good understanding on how to present it to the market and represents it in a business plan. This still does not mean that it is a feasible idea, this needs to be assessed separately and non-emotionality by the business. We have seen many good ideas that seem wonderful on paper and exciting when presented, but still do not match up to the feasibility assessment.

In our next post we will explore the feasibility assessment and give you a chance to take your business idea through this assessment that will give you a score based on market experience and fact and not emotion and hype.

By nbmedia|2013-07-04T11:44:28+02:00July 4th, 2013|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Why do we need a business plan?

Going into business without the business plan is like running blind on a freeway against the traffic. We hope not get wiped out, but sooner or later we will. This is so true yet so many entrepreneurs seem to plough ahead into the business doing first, thinking second, and we all know where they have ended up.

A business plan is a document that should be created primarily for the purpose of serving the business owner and the business. A good, well written business plan creates a sense of confidence within the business that gives the business a daily true North to steer to. It needs to be a reference document that is read and reviewed on a regular basis. A good business plan will give not only a final destination but also a mapped out course with milestones and checkpoints to guide the business from where it was to where it should be.

The business plan is also used to raise start-up capital (seed funding), angel funding, venture capital funding or even assets funding. The business plan is also vital when looking for partners, contracts or tenders.

So what does a business plan contain? There are many many templates out in the marketplace that can be found on the web each with its own criteria and format. Selecting the incorrect format could be hazardous to both the process and the purpose for your business. In coming posts throughout this month we will explore various options and layouts and give you links to possible formats and templates that can be used in different circumstances.

I want to close this post with one vital bit of information; your business plan must never be written by somebody not connected directly with the business. We have seen too many business plans written by contract consultants that are a copy and paste job filled with crap and misinformation, these business plans are no good for anything other than maybe toilet paper.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:43+02:00July 3rd, 2013|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments