Business Blog: True entrepreneurial spirit
As part of Business Partners Socio Economic Development program, we are involved in a school's project where we have a mini entrepreneurship competition. The school is IR Griffith Primary School and what is unique about this project is a very special lady called Mrs Moira Holtz. Mrs Holtz teaches at the school but her contribution to entrepreneurship education is commendable.
For a number of years now, she has built the entrepreneurial project into what it is today. The grades 7's are required to come up with a business idea and do market research on it. They are then expected to draft a mini business plan and then implement that business plan in an entrepreneurship week.
"Entrepreneurs are able to see the opportunities that others do not and capitalise on it – it is survival of the fittest."
Reality bites
Dealing with difficult market conditions
Go fetch a mirror.
Hold it up to your face and take a good, long, hard look at the reflection.
Now, says Business Partners Regional General Manager Willie Nortier, you need to make a couple of tough decisions.
To start with, you need to decide if you simply manage a business, or if you are an entrepreneur.
Owning and running a business is not the same as being an entrepreneur. This distinction, he says, is of utmost importance at the moment given the extremely difficult market conditions we face.
"You can cut costs to a point and streamline to a point.
EOY entrant:
Pharmacist pursues entrepreneurial freedom
Lovely Letsoalo, owner or Wespark Pharmacy
Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes but there is one common element that binds them: vision.
Where others saw an abandoned post office in Pretoria's West Park, Lovely Letsoalo saw a beginning.
While it would be the beginning of a pharmacy, it would also be the beginning of a new business empire.
The pharmacist and Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year finalist says that during her rise in the corporate ranks, there was always a yearning to own her own business.
Peter-Jon Gaddin, owner of My Wardrobe Promotions
EOY entrant:
Forewarned is forearmed
My Wardrobe Promotions supplies its corporate customers with branded clothing and promotional items.
There are many other promotional and branding businesses in South Africa, particularly in Gauteng, and they all tend to offer much of the same service.
Yet, the business' turnover has been increasing substantially each year.
Yet, the business keeps on growing and winning more clients.
Yet, owner Peter-Jon Gaddin still invests in the business each month.