Business Sprint 2018 – Year End Planning Master Class

My daughter came home the other day and asked me, “Dad, how do leaves come out of sticks?” The dry and not very attractive stick on a tree seems to magically produce a small green bud followed by lush green leaves that in turn produce feedback to and nourishment to the stick, branch and entire plant.

Good question. Very similar to “How do we get results out of dry business processes?”

To coach any tree into the required shape there is always pruning, feeding, tying up and throwing away required. How is your business doing? Need some pruning, feeding, tying up design and throwing away?

Year-End Planning? – Does planning not only happen at the beginning of the year and not now?

Taking time for a short strategic planning session at this time of year will set you and your business up for a huge strategic advantage for the coming year.

Join me for an online master class on all things business planning on Wednesday 28th November at 12:00

Bookings on Quicket at http://qkt.io/5JQvgk Investment just R150 per business.

By |2018-11-19T15:23:51+02:00November 19th, 2018|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

NTT DATA to hold Open Innovation Contest 9.0 in search of new partners and businesses

NTT DATA Corporation (NTT DATA) will host its 9th Open Innovation Contest and is currently accepting applications through the contest’s official website: Regional contests will be held in 20 cities across 18 countries. Local ICT company Dimension Data will host the South African applications on 8 February 2019, in Cape Town, with the regional winners being invited to the Grand Finale in Tokyo in March of 2019.

Any start-up company is welcome to submit a proposal for a collaborative business with NTT DATA in fields such as Healthcare & Life Sciences / Finance, Insurance & Payments / Automotive & IoT / RPA & Back Office / Storefront & Digital Marketing / Data Distribution / Disruptive Social Innovation. NTT DATA welcomes business solutions, which are designed to achieve sustainable development goals.
The Grand Finale in Tokyo will be held in March 2019. NTT DATA will cover travel expenses for the presenter of each winner of a regional semi-final. The Grand Finale winner will receive a three-month in-kind contribution to support the development of their proposed new business.

Closing date for entries is November 16, 2018, 5 PM (JST) For more information and how to apply, please visit: http://oi.nttdata.com/en/contest/

By |2018-11-09T12:15:43+02:00November 12th, 2018|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Business Sprint 2018 – Branding

This week we unpacked some of the issues around our company branding from Purpose to Slogan and everything in between. Too often these things are just ignored or passed over for other more important items on our busy agendas as business owners.

Take a few minutes to watch this video and make some notes on what may need some attention for your brand before the end of 2018.

 

By |2018-11-09T09:29:39+02:00November 9th, 2018|Entrepreneurship, Year-end planning|1 Comment

Airbus to foster new aerospace business models with African startups

Airbus today announced the launch of its second edition of #Africa4Future, a joint accelerator program between Airbus’ global aerospace accelerator BizLab and Make-IT in Africa.

For this second edition, Airbus calls for African tech startups that are actively working on solutions related to unmanned logistics and remote sensing technology, including automation and drones, electrification, the blockchain, artificial intelligence, data analytics and material composites and manufacturing.

Startups can submit applications for the program, from today until 30th November 2018 via https://www.airbus-bizlab.com/africa4future. Following a review, ten applicants will be chosen to receive the opportunity to join #Africa4Future, a six-month acceleration program, starting on 7th January 2019.

By |2018-11-05T09:25:05+02:00November 5th, 2018|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Business Sprint 2018 – 4D Products

In our current series dedicated to sprinting to the close of 2018 and finishing strong, last week we unpacked the 4 Ds of Products. Here are they again for you:

Define your Products: Each of your product offerings should be well defined detailing amongst others the Features and the Benefits of that product. Knowing how to describe your product goes a long way to creating an effective sales funnel for the business.

Develop your Products: Your products should always be in development, but not ever changing. Getting feedback from your clients and customers and gathering information will give input into an agile approach to product development and improvements.

Data about your Products: Gathering data about each one of your products is key to understanding how they interact in the market. You need to know how well each product sells, to whom and when. Any type of data is important, collect, store and do analysis as often as you can.

Diversify your product: It is always important to look at other ways your product can bring you income. Too often products are created for a specific purpose and never looked at again for an alternative use of income generation.

Pause a little and relook at your products through each of the 4 lenses above and see what you can do to improve your business before the end of 2018.

This week we look at staffing issues through the R-Lense. Join us on Wednesday at 12:00 noon. https://zoom.us/j/723567165

By |2018-10-22T09:18:37+02:00October 22nd, 2018|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

2018 Business Sprint: Business Compliance

Last week was the first in a series of 10 webinars that we are presenting on Wednesday’s at 12 Noon. Each one aims at tackling a specific area of your business that may need some attention before the end of the year.
Our first webinar addressed issues of compliance, regulation and legislation. We thought we would start off with a hard one, and based on the feedback we go, it hit a few nerves and open wounds. But this is what running a business is all about, sometimes it is fun, but other times we need to do what needs to be done. Once done, we can go back to having more fun.
If you missed it, you can watch it below, but do not miss this week Wednesday Weekly Webinar at 12 Noon as we address issues related to your products and services that may need some attention to finish the year off with a bang (in a good way)
The link to the webinar each week will be: https://zoom.us/j/723567165

By |2018-10-15T14:17:55+02:00October 15th, 2018|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

The Cape Chamber’s Innovation Initiative – Networking event, 17 October 2018.

Come and join your fellow Chamber members at our monthly Innovation Initiative networking event with Judy Sandrock, Co-Founder of Xinabox Limited.

We will explore the world of electronics and rapid innovation techniques developed to assist inventors and students to develop prototypes of their electronic ideas in just a few minutes, using a newly developed product from Xinabox.

Xinabox designs develop and sell modular electronics for the Internet of Things (IoT) and STEM education markets in senior schools as well as universities.  Xinabox accelerates speed-to-market by creating scalable and upgradeable solutions.  Robust and cheap enough to be used as a final hardware product for small run projects.

This event is not to be missed.
Light refreshments will be served.

You can get all the details here or contact  Linda on 021 402 4300

By |2018-10-12T13:20:37+02:00October 12th, 2018|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

2018 Business Sprint Webinars

There are just over 80 days left on the calendar for 2018.

It has been a year of water focus, mayor disputes, petrol price hikes.

Now we have rain, the winter cold has gone and the end of the year is just over the next hump. Shops already have Christmas puddings and decorations for sale. Yikes.

But the next few weeks could be the most important of your year. It is a time to focus and finish with a sprint, not a whimper. So why not create a sprint plan for your business to get you to the desired end point before you shut down for the holidays and enjoy a rest.

We have 10 working weeks left in the year. Each week we will focus on a different aspect of your business and help you focus and get things done. Each of these will be done via an online live webinar broadcast every Wednesday for the next 10 weeks, starting this week on 10th Oct at 12:00 Noon.

The topics we will cover, not necessarily in this order, are:

1. Business compliance

2. Products and services

3. Customers

4. Internal processes

5. Financial management

6. Marketing internal

7. Marketing external

8. Branding

9. Risk Register

10. Year-end tips

Join us each week from 12:00for a 45 minute live webinar as we unpack your business to help you stay in business and be ready for2019.

The link to the webinar each week will be: https://zoom.us/j/723567165

By |2018-10-08T16:27:33+02:00October 8th, 2018|90 Day Sprint, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

August spotlight: Marriet

Marriet is a FlYght Coach, and is also a self-published author of the book and board game named “Ready, Steady, Fly!”. Marriet is a public speaker on the topic “Start to Finish” and the author of the “Plan to Action” and “FlYght Coach” Programmes.

Initially, Marriet struggled to find her own special place in life, with this she created intelligent tailored solutions and hopes to touch and encourage others to discover their own potential and to act on it. Her goal in life is to help people find their unique place and to implement their purpose in life. She believes everyone is unique and is capable of playing a role in society and the teams we operate in by bringing about their unique contribution in life.

Marriet is a multi-talented person who enjoys piecing life’s lessons together in a fun-filled manner. She shares her life experiences and feels it could change the way we think. She loves to encourage people based on her lessons learnt through her experiences of being torn apart.

In addition, Marriet is also an artist who enjoys arts, crafts, writing blogs and making music. She has published her own songs and paint on consignment. She also has a great passion for learning new things everyday.

By |2018-08-16T14:03:19+02:00August 16th, 2018|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments
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