Cape Regional Chamber

I got to attend a meeting of the Cape Regional Chamber this week and got to listen to Prof Wolfgang Thomas from USB chat to us about the challenges of working in a small business in these economic times.

 Here are just a few points to ponder on:

Stay away from businesses in or related to any of the following:

            Motor Vehicles

            Mining Sector

            Tourism

            High-end specialty services or products

These areas have and will continue to show negative growth for some time.

Get involved in:

            Functional foods and services

            Lipsticks (this is a very interesting one)

            Bottom of the pyramid products

 Action to take:

            Reduce costs at every point of the supply chain

            Improve efficiency

            Maximize production

            Sharpen advertising efforts

            Continue to build value add business channels

 Never:

            Cut back on Marketing

Cut back on training

            Cut back on education

            Reduce the BEE programmes

            Stop CSI

 Some interesting food for thought: If you need an explanation on any of these give me a click back and we can chat. Lets build together to survive these times.