Local Entrepreneur making moves with mass marketing solutions in Africa

Accurately tracking your return on investment (ROI) on an often very costly advertising campaigns, featuring mainstream channels , among others, television, billboards, radio, as well as traditional magazine and newspaper adverts has always been extremely complicated. 2Engage, a customer engagement and incentives solutions business, has been working predominantly in Africa for the past nine years […]

In the business jungle, standing out is a matter of survival

The occasional description of the business world as a jungle is apt in many ways, not least because the frantic competition between plants to reach the sunlight above the jungle canopy is very similar to the struggle of businesses to stand out from the mass of their competitors. Nowadays the competition is more intense than […]

Ten tips for increasing diversity in your workplace

When businesses start up, they are often small, tightly-knit groups of pioneers that come from the same background, even from the same family. This works very well in the early survival stages of a venture, but as soon as the business reaches a more stable post-survival growth phase, the founders have the opportunity to look […]

Getting the most out of a mid-year review

Research compiled by the University of Applied Sciences in Germany in 2016 has shown that only 20% – 30% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa survive longer than five years. In addition, the research found that the common trait distinguishing a successful business from a failing business is its owner’s ability to […]

Ten tips for managing the lifeblood of your business

By Byron Jeacocks Regional General Manager, BUSINESS/PARTNERS Nothing is as important to the financial health of a growing small business as the constant, predictable flow of cash, because if the cash dries up, the business will die. Cash is to a business what oxygen is to a body – it simply cannot survive without it, […]

Tips for small business owners to keep their employees motivated

By Ben Bierman Managing Director at Business Partners Limited Zig Ziglar, renowned American author and motivational speaker said: You don’t build a business. You build people and people build the business. As a small business owner, the up-keep of staff morale is vital to keep employees motivated so that they can contribute towards building and […]

Nine tips for entrepreneurs to attract investors and secure funding

By Ben Bierman Managing Director at Business Partners Limited The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor South Africa 2016/2017 reports that two-thirds (67%) of small businesses closed in 2016 either because they were not profitable, or because they encountered problems in accessing financing. Access to finance is not only a significant constraint for early-stage entrepreneurs in South Africa, […]

How to raise profit margins without losing customers

By Ben Bierman Managing Director at Business Partners Limited The beginning of the year is the ideal time for small and medium enterprise (SME) owners to explore additional revenue streams and other means of increasing their profit margins. However, this process is expected to still present some challenges for SME owners owing to South Africa’s […]

Ten financial tips for business owners in hard times

By Veroshen Naidoo Area manager at BUSINESS/PARTNERS Financial management naturally tends to slip down the list of priorities for business owners when the economy is booming, finance is cheap and clients are plentiful. But when the tide turns, your ability to control your finances, especially your cash flow, becomes probably the most important survival tool […]

Four steps to create an inclusive work environment for your business

Business owners are lucky that they create their own work environment, unlike managers in large corporations who step into rigid, pre-created cultures. However, many business owners allow the working culture in their businesses to flow organically from their personality, without giving much thought to how it could be perhaps better engineered. Kgomotso Ramoenyane, executive general […]