The Entrepreneur Incubator goes HD

And Action…

Today our offices were invaded by HD cameras, lights and sound equipment as we went about filming a series of new promotion videos for the Entrepreneur Incuabtor. Some of you may have seen our current short clips on the web and Youtube, well the good news is is that they are all due to be upgraded with better sound and visual quality.

 We will keep you posted about the progress of editing and uploading of our new marketing tools. Look forward to Bruce in High Definition coming to a screen near you.

 Many thanks to Marius Boaden for his expertise and direction for these videos.

Cut

EI Assist

Not every business owner wants coaching or intervention in their business. Most do not have the time or money to invest in the areas of their business that require change or development.

 Entrepreneur Incubator has now launched EI Assist, a series of worksheet workshops designed to step you through the principles and process of key focus points of small business. EI Assist offers these as pdf downloads that you can work through on your own or to use one-on-one together with a Coach to guide you through to the process.

 Currently we have 10 modules available:

Module 01 Discover your Passion and Niche

Module 02 Developing a Marketing Plan

Module 03 Creating a Financial Plan

Module 04 Assembling a Business Plan

Module 05 Defining your Business

Module 06 Creating Goals for your Future

Module 07 Defining the Processes and Procedures

Module 08 Creating Strategic Network Teams

Module 09 Coping with Financial Challenges

Module 10 Create Learning and Wisdom

 For more information on EI Assist, please contact me via our website.

It’s All About Me!

This is the title of our recently run workshop for all Entrepreneur Incubator members. The day was a huge success as all participants were challenged to answer some philosophical questions about life and themselves.

 It is never easy when we come face to face with just me, not title or job to hide behind, just plain old me. As we unpacked this concept of who, what and why I am we took a look at the attributes that we comprise of; Mind, body, heart and soul. Each was discussed in detail with assessments, worksheets and lots of group chat.

 As always there was a lot of referral swapping with new business between the members and their contacts.

 

To begin to understand your strengths is life’s greatest treasure. To put them into practice is life’s greatest pleasure.

 Many thanks to those who made the day a fun filled event. We look forward to our next Network Workshop

Incubator Clients go Valentine

The Fish Hoek valentine fair is underway at the Moth Hall this weekend. Two of the Incubator members have stalls there hoping to spread a little love through their offerings.

Irene from Irene Photography is on hand with her camera to snap some pics of you and a loved one lounging on her huge red beanbag. Irene also has her portfolios of pictures and websites on display.

 Lara of the Chocolate Moose has her stand oozing with calorie filled delights just waiting to go home for that romantic after dinner snack with that someone special. I bought an Almond triangle, a chocolate croissant and a cup cake. The cup cake I gave to Irene, the others did not even make it home. Back to gym for me.

 Other stands comprise of plants, teddys and flowers to help make the special day all squishy and romantic. Cool, go love go. If you are in the area drop in and say howzit to our budding Entrepreneurs.

A sneak preview to our next Incubator workshop

At this very moment there is a bunch of budding Entrepreneurs working frantically on their homework for our next EI workshop.

 For those who are knocking on the door and contemplating joining the exclusive group of business owners who have the ‘unfair advantage’ over the rest; here is a sneak preview at some of the questions the members are working through.

1.  Think back over your life: what has stirred the most passion within you to do something or to be someone? 
   
2. What is your most inner fear?
   
3.  Why do you think you do the work that you do?
   
4.  Give a percentage of how much about yourself you do not know.
   
5.  If you could speak to someone you could completely trust what would you talk about?
   
6.  When you wake up in the middle of the night, what do you think about?
   
7.  What five people or activities motivate you to do things you would normally not do?
   

 Our workshop titled “It’s all About Me’ will cover the journey all business owners need to embark on to become confident in both emotional and physical aspects of their lives. We still have a few seats left if you shout now we could fit you in.

Threats to business sustainability

Attending the quarterly ABSA business forum at the Ritz hotel in Sea Point was today of great benefit for all who made the effort to get up early and fight the traffic to get there by 08:30. Not a normal day for most entrepreneurs.

 The Keynote speakers came in the form of Fred and Mike from World Wide Creative and Nico Jacobs from ABSA. More detailed info on the event here. But I wanted to highlight just four points that Nico spoke about under the heading of threats to our business sustainability.

 Imitation: When your product or service is copied or replicated in any form it reduces the value of the original. This applies to manufactured products and their Chinese versions to fly by night services who use other people’s notes and models.

1. Substitution: When there is another product or service replaces the need for the one your currently provide. The old dial up modem is the best example I can think of.
2. Hold up: Delays in you delivering your service or product at the specified price and time. This comes from demand levels or just poor serve from your suppliers or further up the chain.
3. Slack: The silent killer of small business, theft, absenteeism, non engagement and waste or ineffective use of current resources

 All these are cancers to your business and need to be managed on a regular basis. Keep your finger on these points and learn to manage then effectively to avoid becoming another statistic at Nico’s next talk.

 Thanks to ABSA and World Wide Creative for a great session.

EI goes on air with CCFm

Bruce Wade will be interviewed by Lynn Baker live on CCFm in Cape Town this morning. The topic of Entrepreneurship and Incubation will be discussed.

 As we see more and more people moving from corporate into the private sector together with many South Africans returning from abroad, this has created a huge influx of opportunities for them to launch into the SMME sector. But this is not as easy as just waking up one morning and opening a business. The Entrepreneur Incubator, is just that a place where yourself and business are incubated to adulthood through all the potholes and hoops, our team will help you jump and survive the critical 1000 days of doom that sees 80% of businesses fail.

 Listen in on 107.5 Fm in the Cape Town area or online at www.ccfm.org.za. Look forward to your feedback.

What has hunting got to do with Entrepreneurship?

The traditions of the Koi San tribes has been of interest to me since childhood. Recently I have done extensive studying of their hunting and gathering techniques and found huge similarities to modern day entrepreneurship.

 The Entrepreneur Incubator now offer a new one day or half day workshop or a 3hr or 1hr talk based on the hunter-gatherer lifestyle as we unpack and resolve the makeup of small business. Learn the fascinating tracking techniques and we explore marketing and how to make poison from the root of the Boophane plant is similar to customer service. Never before has a business course been so fun and educational.

 Getting back to the roots of business, to obtain more info or book at our next programme, click here.

Why women make better Entrepreneurs

As we see the entrepreneur wave begin to take shape and move from south to north over Africa we at the Entrepreneur Incubator can clearly see that women are taking the lead. The basic characteristics of an Entrepreneur being; ·

• Creativity – ability to think outside the box of every day issues
•  Persistence – stickability when things get tough
• Problem Solving – whole brain problem solving techniques
• Multi Tasking – ability to do many things well at the same time
•  Balance – finding the right investment between family, business and self 
• Accountability – doing what you say you will do
• Financial Acumen – money wise 

Women have more of these characteristics naturally and therefore should become the leaders in the Entrepreneur Revolution. So this is a call to all you ladies out there to take up the reigns of life and begin to live your dream and passion, start that business you have always dreamt about and begin to stake your claim on society.

Us men will stay home and watch cricket and bath the kids.

I have an Entrepreneur Quotient assessment to take if you are interested is an indication of your ability to run your own business. Email me on bruce@hep.co.za and I will get it to you.

Going head to head with big business

The entrepreneurial sector is thriving in this new economical downturn market. Big businesses with their huge overheads and international footprints are having to tighten their belts and bite the bullets with budget cut backs and retrenchments on the cards.

 Small businesses are beginning to realize huge opportunities in these seemly unstable times. We are firstly able to retool and change a lot faster to refocus our products and offerings but also able to offer the client focused service and products that the market is demanding.

 This fast service delivery cycle of small businesses with our strategic network alliances are beginning to rise up the service food chain and become the preferred option in the market. More skilled people are entering the sector bringing their corporate experience and expertise leaving the bureaucratic ways of corporate behind. This has resulting in many more enquiries to businesses like ourselves and Business hubs being contacted for guidance and information on starting and growing a small business.

We welcome the new trends and look forward to the Entrepreneurial Wave gaining momentum in the months leading up to the soccer world cup and beyond.

Entrepreneur Incubator to stem unemployment tidal wave

Cape Town, 02 February 2009 – Fears of rising unemployment has heightened the importance of entrepreneurship and small business development. Cape Town based Entrepreneur Incubator has enhanced its offering to help stem the tide of unemployment.

 Dubbed “The Unfair Advantage” the Entrepreneur Incubator develops entrepreneurs and business owners from inception through personal coaching, business mentorship, network workshops and access to their team of professional resources and products.

 Ranked the most entrepreneurial city in South Africa, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, Cape Town has been earmarked as the future entrepreneurial hub of the world with many new business owners venturing into or expanding their dream business.

 But doing small business has never been easy; there are always a multitude of hoops to jump through making it seemingly impossible to succeed. The enhanced offering from Entrepreneur Incubator caters for the new challenges facing small business and opened its new look doors in February to provide a more streamlined and affordable service to entrepreneurs and business owners.

 The Entrepreneur Incubator offers those in business a chance of beating the odds of 9 out of 10 failures by creating a support network of information, products and services to smooth the rough road of business and finance. “Many small businesses have already realised the success of the incubator programme taking their businesses from concept to success in just a few months” says entrepreneur coach Bruce Wade. Those who have been on the programme for a longer period have seen a steady growth in product development, client base and financial rewards.

 The Entrepreneur Incubator provides more online support with reference articles, blog notices and referral strategies. “Our new strategy of ‘bring one get one free’ offers members double benefits by growing the network and by getting a free month of membership for any successful referrals” says Wade.

 Aspirant entrepreneurs and business owners are encouraged to visitwww.hepincubator.co.za  The next networking workshop will be held on 18 February 2009.