Many people who start businesses, including me, have little or no experience and just jump in. Over the years, I have compared notes with many fellow entrepreneurs, and I have seen them make the same mistakes over and over again — I recognize them because I have made them all, too. Here is my list of the biggest rookie mistakes:

1. Keeping your rent as low as possible. The key to business is to keep expenses low, right? Wrong. Sometimes it is worth paying more rent if it will generate more customers, if it gives a better image and inspires confidence, if it helps attract the right employees or if it makes it easier to deal with suppliers. In retail, this one mistake can determine success or failure.

2. Hiring someone you know and trust. Competence is more important. While hiring friends and relatives can work, it severely limits the pool from which you choose, leaving out people who could be much more qualified. Friends and relatives can also carry baggage. They can also be very hard to manage, which leads to my ultimate advice: if you can’t fire ‘em, don’t hire ‘em.

3. Buying used equipment to keep expenses down. This, too, works sometimes, but it is often shortsighted. For example, buying a used truck with 100,000 miles on it will guarantee that you will spend valuable time and money fixing the truck when it should be out taking care of customers. Can you really afford downtime with any machine?

via The Top 10 Rookie Mistakes for Entrepreneurs – NYTimes.com.

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A Turkish immigrant who five years ago started making Greek-style yogurt in an aging plant in Chenango County on Wednesday was named the nations top entrepreneur by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Chobani Inc. founder Hamdi Ulukaya used a small business loan in 2005 to buy the former Kraft Food plant in the town of Columbus, where he and about 50 employees later began making a specialty yogurt that was sold in just a single Long Island grocery store.

via Upstate yogurt entrepreneur tastes success – chicagotribune.com.

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BizLaunch was unveiled yesterday in Johannesburg by Clive Pintusewitz, Standard Banks director of small enterprise development.

The new package, aimed at businesses within their first year, will enable small businesses to keep track of their cash, pay suppliers, deposit funds into a business bank account and get basic advice – all for just R90 a month.

Businesses that have been operating informally can also get BizLaunch, even if they have been in existence for over a year.

Other impediments that lead to closure include access to funding and markets, and cash flow management.

“We know that there is a big issue with small businesses and we want to see them grow. What we have done is to look at the needs of those businesses and packaged a solution that brings a lot of support to those businesses,” Pintusewitz said.BizLaunch offers unlimited transactional banking. They are targeting 80000 businesses in the current financial year.

“We have partnered with Softline Pastel, who are the leading accounting software to offer MyBusiness Online, which is a solution built specially for start-up businesses. What we have seen is that one of the reasons businesses fail is because they cannot track their finances and cannot manage invoices and payments,” he said.

“In our interaction with our clients we have learnt that small businesses fail because they do not get revenue. The second is managing your cost and stock. Also, when they have ordered the stock and the customers take time to pay, it creates a cash-flow problem.”

BizLaunch will be available at all Standard Bank branches.

Pintusewitz said for those who do not have access to a computer there was a mobile version if they have a smartphone, and soon an offline version will be available.

via Big chance for small business – Sowetan LIVE.

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The desire to succeed by South Africans has resulted in an entrepreneurial culture, which continues to grow at an encouraging rate that is vital to fuel economic development in the country in 2012 and beyond.

While people can learn the principles of entrepreneurship, I think it is very hard to train someone to be an entrepreneur. The steps and the risks needed to succeed in your own business cannot be taught. Ultimately, building a successful business and a legacy is about passion; having a vision and sticking to it.

Starting a business and finding the right concept and vision is a gruelling process.

via Entrepreneurs need to persevere.

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The January 2012 cover story of Fast Company magazine was all about Generation Flux.You’ve heard of Gen X, Gen Y and more, but what is Generation Flux?

Our business world has been through some tumultuous times: Recessions, financial meltdowns, the massive disruption of technology, natural disasters, nations defaulting on their debt, the Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement and much more.

For every catastrophe and massive shift emerge new breakthroughs and advances. During these past few years, we’ve also seen some of the most interesting companies flourish and grow Apple, Facebook, Lululemon, Amazon, Twitter and more, we’ve seen medical advances at an unprecedented pace and the introduction of new technologies that will forever change our future. In short, this is a time of flux … uncertainty. This makes it hard to chart a course — let alone pull together a five-year plan.Have you taken a look at your investment portfolio recently? Do you honestly think that there is a reliable long view out there? It is with this sense of pandemonium that Fast Company has dubbed us — all of us — Generation Flux.

“To thrive in this climate requires a whole new approach,” states the magazine’s article, This Is Generation Flux: Meet The Pioneers Of The New And Chaotic Frontier Of Business. “ … some people will thrive.They are the members of Generation Flux. This is less a demographic designation than a psychographic one: What defines GenFlux is a mindset that embraces instability, that tolerates — and even enjoys — recalibrating careers, business models, and assumptions. Not everyone will join Generation Flux, but to be successful, businesses and individuals will have to work at it. This is no simple task. The vast bulk of our institutions — educational, corporate, political — are not built for flux. Few traditional career tactics train us for an era where the most important skill is the ability to acquire new skills.”

Are you freaked out yet?

via Joel: Think of yourself as a start-up company.

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Starting a business is a big achievement for many entrepreneurs, but maintaining one is the larger challenge. There are many standard challenges that face every business whether they are large or small. These include things like hiring the right people, building a brand and so on. However, there are some that are unique to small businesses – ones most large companies have grown out of long ago. We’ll look at the 5 biggest challenges in this article.

Client Dependence

If a single client makes up more than half of your income, you are more of an independent contractor than a business owner. Diversifying the client base is vital to growing a business, but it can be difficult – especially when the client in question pays well and on time. For many small businesses, having a client willing to pay on time for a product or service is a godsend.

Unfortunately, this can result in a longer term handicap because, even if you have employees and so on, you may be still acting as a sub-contractor for a larger business. This arrangement allows the client to avoid the risks of adding payroll in an area where the work may dry up at any time. All of that risk is transferred from the company to you and your employees. This can work out fine provided that your main clients have a consistent need for your product or service. However, it is generally better for a business to have a diversified client base to pick up the slack when any single client quits paying.

Money Management

Having enough cash to cover the bills is a must for any business, but it is also a must for every individual. Whether it is your business or your life, one will likely emerge as a capital drain that puts pressure on the other. In order to head off this problem, small businesses owners must either be heavily capitalized or be able to pick up extra income to shore up cash reserves when needed. This is why many small businesses start out with the founders working a job and building a business simultaneously. While this split focus can make it difficult to grow a business, running out of cash makes growing a business impossible.

Money management becomes even more important when cash is flowing into the business and to the owner. Although handling business accounting and taxes may be within the capabilities of most business owners, professional help is usually a good idea. The complexity of a business’ books go up with each client and employee, so getting an assist on the book keeping can prevent it from becoming a reason not to expand.

Fatigue

The hours, the work and the constant pressure to perform wears on even the most passionate individuals. Many business owners, even successful ones, get stuck working much longer hours than their employees. Moreover, they fear that their business will stall in their absence, so they avoid taking any long breaks away from work to recharge. When fatigue sets in, the weariness with the hours and the results can lead to rash decisions about the business, including the desire to abandon it completely. Finding a pace that keeps the business humming without grinding down the owner is a challenge that comes early (and often) in the evolution of a small business.

Founder Dependence

If you get hit by a car, is your business still producing income the next day? A business that can’t operate without its founder is a business with a deadline. Many businesses suffer from founder dependence, and this dependence is often caused by the founder being unable to let go of certain decisions and responsibilities as the business grows. Meeting this challenge is easy in theory – a business owner merely has to give over more control to their employees or partners. In practice, however, this is a big stumbling block for founders because it usually involves compromising (at least initially) on the quality of work being done until the person doing the work learns the ropes.

Balancing Quality and Growth

Even when a business is not founder dependent, there comes a time when the issues from growth seems to match or even outweigh the benefits. Whether a service or a product, at some point a business must sacrifice in order to scale – this may mean not being able to personally manage every client relationship or not inspecting every widget.

Unfortunately, it is usually that level of personal engagement and that attention to detail that makes a business semi-successful. Therefore, many small business owners often find themselves tied to these habits to the detriment of the company’s growth. There is a large middle ground between shoddy work and an unhealthy obsession with quality, so it is up to the business owner to navigate the company’s processes towards a compromise that allows scale without hurting the brand.

The Bottom Line

These are challenges, but not death sentences. One of the worst things a would-be-business owner can do is to go into a small business without considering the challenges ahead. We’ve looked at some things that can help make these challenges easier, but there is no avoiding them. An important step in overcoming a challenge is knowing the size of that challenge. Besides, a competitive drive is often one of the reasons people start their own business and every challenge represents another opportunity to compete.

via 5 Biggest Challenges Facing Your Small Business.

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In the 2012 Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), which measures a country’s entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses, South Africa fell from 39 last year to 45 this year.

Nimo Naidoo, project manager of the Sanlam Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year competition, said stimulating entrepreneurship was the key to igniting economic growth and job creation.

“This decline might be attributed to many various factors. But one of the major factors is the lack of a positive entrepreneurial culture in South Africa,” said Naidoo.

She said research had shown that South Africa’s society had a culture that neglected entrepreneurial activities, especially individuals who had failed in the past.

“The South African educational structure (primary to tertiary education) does not place enough emphasis on equipping learners with the correct knowledge and skill to become successful entrepreneurs,” she said.

According to the latest GEDI rankings of the 79 countries surveyed, South Africa has in the space of a year lost ground on nations such as Colombia and Peru, which have significantly smaller GDPs.

Naidoo said most economically competitive countries in the world had significantly higher levels of entrepreneurial activity.

She said the latest data gathered by Endeavor Brazil, which revealed that SMEs were responsible for 96% of the jobs in Brazil and represented 98% of all companies in the country.

Naidoo said promoting a culture of entrepreneurship was the responsibility of the public and private sector.

“It is essential that each party works together to create an environment within society that serves as a sustainable platform for a positive entrepreneurial culture to grow,” she said.

“Government also plays an important role in ensuring that policies and programmes are aligned with fostering entrepreneurial growth.”

via ‘No business culture in SA’ – Sowetan LIVE.

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OVERREGULATION and red tape are the biggest constraints to business expansion in SA, according to a survey by accounting, audit and advisory firm Grant Thornton.

The survey was based on the views of CEOs, chairmen and business owners in the fourth quarter of last year.Red tape was now as pervasive a problem in SA as in other Brics Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA countries, Grant Thornton Durban managing partner Deepak Nagar said yesterday.

The survey found 37% of privately held business owners in SA cited red tape as their chief constraint, followed by a lack of a skilled workforce, at 36%.

Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew Layman said the results were “spot on” and SA’s regulatory environment, for small businesses in particular, needed to be reviewed.

The increasing complexity of regulations such as additional tax or governance requirements, labour issues, black economic empowerment, the time taken to register companies or change directors’ names was stunting the growth of business, Mr Layman said.

The second-biggest constraint to business globally was reduced demand for products — the effect of economic problems in the US and Europe. In SA, the second-biggest constraint to business was a shortage of skilled staff, said Mr Nagar.

Keith Brebnor, CE of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said it had become “very intimidating” for young people to start a small business in SA because of the onerous regulatory environment. Dealing with crime and a lack of skills also added significantly to the cost of doing business in SA, he said.

via BusinessDay – SA business growth ‘choked by rules and red tape’

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Businesses have long been calling for amendments to the labour legislation to assist in the recruitment and dismissal of workers. According to Johan Botes, Director in Employment at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr business law firm, a critical re-think of South African employment law might  assist in motivating especially small businesses to reconsider their reluctance in employing inexperienced job applicants.“Presently, employees who are incapable of performing can only be dismissed from employment after the employer had determined that 1 the employee failed to meet the required work standard, 2 the employee was aware of the standard, 3 the employee was afforded sufficient opportunity to meet the standard and 4 dismissal is the appropriate sanction. This process is not always clearly understood by employers frustrated by an employee that is clearly not able to do the work,” Botes explains.According to a labour survey conducted by the Institute of Race Relations, fifty-one percent of South Africans between 15 and 24 are unemployed.The legislature brought some relief to employers in 2002 when introducing a lower threshold against which employers are tested should they dismiss a probationary employee for poor performance Schedule 8, Item 8 to the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995.Botes notes that if the intention is truly to get businesses to act as institutions of learning, where on-the-job training is provided to workers fresh from school, university or colleges, a relaxation of the strict rules against dismissal for poor performance for first-time job seekers may be the way to go.“Employers are often reluctant to grow their business where such growth requires the hiring of new staff. One of the reasons for this is that it is difficult for the average employer to dismiss staff who is thought to be capable of doing the work required, but could then not come to grips with the work once employed.“If employers are able to readily terminate the service of new recruits who lack the necessary experience, they may be more inclined to give such youngsters a chance in the first place.Botes thinks that employers and needy job seekers may both be pleasantly surprised by the results.“If an employer knows that it can terminate the services of a new job-seeker at will or whilst being tested against for reasons that are automatically unfair only, the employer may decide to provide employment to a larger group of staff than those actually required, knowing that it can retain the best of them after a short trial period.“While the rest of the workers who were not the best at the tasks may then fail to remain employed with the same employer, they would have gained invaluable experience which may assist them greatly in obtaining further employment. The difficulty in getting that into the employment market presents a huge obstacle to our goals of meaningfully reducing unemployment.”He adds, “The current high hurdles laying in the path of employers before being able to dismiss employees for incapacity due to poor performance has not incentivised employers to become institutions of on-the-job training. A different approach is needed if business is expected to actively assist in addressing our skills shortage.”

via School-leavers would gain more employment if SA labour law was amended –  | Political Analysis South Africa.

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“A sole proprietorship, also known as a sole trader or simply a proprietorship, is a type of business entity that is owned and run by one individual and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business. The owner receives all profits (subject to taxation specific to the business) and has unlimited responsibility for all losses and debts. Every asset of the business is owned by the proprietor and all debts of the business are the proprietor’s. This means that the owner has no less liability than if they were acting as an individual instead of as a business” (Wikipedia).

See more on sole proprietor’s here: SoleProprietor.co.za

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