Month: March 2014

Writing a Business Plan is not as hard as you may think!

Posted on by Business Partners Limited

When you build your home you employ various specialists to assist you to ensure that the plans are drawn up accurately and you know exactly what materials you need to purchase and how much it will cost you. You will also know how long it would probably take to build your house.

These plans include so much detail of your interior finishing’s that you can create a very vivid picture in your mind as to how it will look when you’re done. Would you leave this planning and project management to chance or to haphazard decisions? I doubt it!

Why then should you not have a business plan for your business? Your business has taken probably more of your hard earned cash as well as sweat equity to build yet very few entrepreneurs take the time to draw up a plan and then use it regularly to ensure they keep on track to reach their end goal. Most business owners will tell you their plans are in there heads!! It’s safe up their! Is it really?

Entrepreneurs are highly energetic and have lots of very innovative business ideas. Excitement and enthusiasm and the need to just go for it is what describes how an entrepreneur feels he or she has struck that golden idea (or ideas). This is what sets an entrepreneur apart from most of us. This is what makes the entrepreneur take risks.

Taking risk is good, but the risk must be a managed risk. You invest your money and your time into a venture you expect to grow and provide you with a living and a good pension one day. You should treat your investment with care.

For any business, new or existing, a business plan is a vital component of the decision making process. It should be your blueprint to making your investment grow. It shouldn’t sit in a file and never read. Neither should it be written in the confines of your memory. It should be written in a document to be shared with your management team and staff to ensure that all your resources are managed by the people you employ with the desire of achieving the goals set out in that plan. It allows your teams in departments to align their efforts with you goals.

The following are the main elements of a Business Plan:

  • Cover Page
  • Executive Summary
    • Business Overview
    • Business profile
  • The product or service
  • Management
    • The entrepreneurs
    • The management structure
  • Sales and Marketing Strategy
  • Financial Statements
  • Legal and regulatory environment
  • SWOT analysis and risk/reward assessment
  • Appendices and supporting documents

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the various elements that constitute a business plan and why they are important. We will also discuss where to find vital information regarding markets and trends. We will also try and help you to do a SWOT analysis on your business and then implement the SWOT analysis, empowering you to make intelligent decisions about your business.

Hopefully we will demystify the business plan for you so you can understand why it has the power it has and also realize why it will help you acquire funding for your business. In the meantime you are welcome to access our website to find out more, on www.businesspartners.co.za

Marketing tips for 2014

Posted on by Sanlam

Marketing tips that may be implemented immediately: Evaluate the success of your current marketing actions

Article written by Jannie Rossouw, Head: Sanlam Business Market

In order to properly address this question, we should take a moment to consider the definition of marketing.

Simply put, this is everything we do to communicate our business (in respect of our product or service offers) to existing and new clients within our selected target market.

Evaluation is a continuous process of testing to determine how well our selected marketing mix (the elements we selected) performs against the targets that were set and the market trends within our specific industry.

Please complete the evaluation matrix below and award a point of 1 (inadequate performance) to 5 (meets all the selected targets) to evaluate the performance of you selected marketing mix. Choose “N/A” if you do not make use of the specific element(s). However, ask yourself, “Why not?”

Marketing element Point
(mark selected answer with “x”)
Note – this is not a complete list, but includes the most important elements N/A 1 2 3 4 5
Brand identity
Newspaper advertisements
Advertorials
Radio
TV
Public promotions/articles
Direct marketing/mail/e-mail
Sales letter
Network functions/opportunities
Telemarketing
Events/talks
Newsletter
Website marketing (banners)
Referrals/recommendations by satisfied clients
Sales person/staff
Special offers

 

Use the results in order to decide on which elements to use more or less of.

Below are some more tips on how to determine your marketing success.

  • Ask clients where they heard of your business. Weigh the feedback against the above evaluation matrix.
  • Select specific marketing elements through which you want to market selected offers. Record the successes.
  • Test various headings for advertisements and e-mail campaigns. Determine which headings work best and use these in the future.
  • Publish useful articles and offer free reports. Use these to collect clients’ contact information. The number of responses is a good indicator of the subjects that interest your target market. Use these more.
  • Use business opportunities to act as speaker and to thereby establish yourself as an expert on your product or service within your target market. This is one way to widen your business network and to create enquiries about, or interest in your product/service.
  • When you take on brand name positioning projects (e.g. participation in a trade show) it is important that you determine your evaluation criteria before and after the show.
  • There are surely many other ways of testing the success of your marketing mix. See this as a start to objective measurement. Establish the practice of measurement in your business.

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Top business tips for 2014

Posted on by Webmaster

Our 2013 Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year® winners share their top business tips

Education is an on-going process and according to Christo Botes, spokesperson for the Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year® competition, this is especially true for entrepreneurs, who are faced with new challenges on a daily basis. He says that seeking guidance from fellow entrepreneurs is vital for both the business’s and entrepreneur’s growth.

Botes says that a successful entrepreneur should never stop investing in the most powerful, trusted and best business tool at their disposal – themselves. “Running a business can be challenging and it takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success. However, by continuously networking and seeking guidance and advice from fellow seasoned entrepreneurs, one can obtain valuable advice from those who have walked, or are walking, a similar path.”

The 2013 Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year® winners share their best business tips for entrepreneurial success in 2014 with local entrepreneurs:

2013 Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year® and co-founder of The Daily Buzz, Chris Brown:

Employees are a key asset to the success of any business. Ensure you put the correct people in the correct positions and look after them accordingly, as they will then in return take care of your business.

Anton Rossouw, owner of Life Path Health and 2013 Medium Entrepreneur of the Year®:

Conduct a detailed and thorough viability study and research financial projections. Identifying project scenarios will allow business owners to plan for the worst case scenario. While it may never play out in practice, having done these forecasts will proactively prepare the business for the future and will assist in recognising and dealing with any pitfalls that may come about in the future.

Margaret Hirsch, owner of appliance chain group Hirsch’s and the winner of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement award:

Master your trade. Instead of being an all-rounder, find your niche and become the expert that everyone needs – specialised skills are in high demand, so rather remain focused and become a specialist in a specific trade.

Jonathan Pepler, owner of Silverline Group and winner of the 2013 Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year® award:

Develop a strong business plan. The key to any successful business is to create a firm foundation, which can be achieved by establishing a concrete business strategy. Business owners must have a realistic strategy and action plan with set timelines in place. This will assist entrepreneurs in staying focused on what they want to achieve, when they want to achieve it and provide guidelines on how they going to achieve it.

Tommy Makhatho, owner BiBi Cash ‘n Carry and overall winner of Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year® and Job Creator of the Year:

Do not go into business for the sake of money. Business owners should focus on creating wealth that will be built over time. The value in business is not what you get every day, but what you are investing over time.

Botes adds that whether entrepreneurs are already in business, or looking to start a business, it is beneficial to continually network with fellow entrepreneurs. “Top entrepreneurs attend networking seminars and workshops, even if they feel they have already ‘mastered’ the subject. They do this because they realise that the key to being a successful entrepreneur is on-going learning and networking with fellow entrepreneurs, which provides a great opportunity to learn the secrets of success from other established business owners.”