thots of a maverick

Failure!

2016-06-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

I think fear of failure drives most entrepreneurs, I will leave this here

Internet advertising now!

2016-06-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

When I started out with internet advertising I was the only agency doing Adwords and Facebook ads. Now everyone is doing it, especially Facebook ads since its easy to create a campaign and some companies are doing it in house. This means competition has tightened to a point where my previous partners are now pushing me to the side and competing with me.

The general reception of internet advertising is changing and companies are starting to ask the right questions. I have been to presentations where it shows that their marketing team has been researching in this new area of marketing and they are getting the hang of it. However it still feels like they are hesitant to take the bold decisions, companies still do not want to sign long term contracts. Its encouraging but at their pace will I be able to survive?

How low can you go...

2016-05-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

2015 was a tough year things went down, 2016 was a continuation of going low. This low is way lower than what I experienced in 2012, in 2012 I was inexperienced and maybe naive but now maybe I am experienced a bit. At some point I was wondering if this is depression or what, despite all this I have kept a sense of "This too shall pass", I think that is what keeps entrepreneurs alive and going. This was also made worse by the fact that for a while I had to work at home again, back to beginning, you feel a sense of failure and that transition from closing office can hit you hard but the spirit is to keep believing no matter what

We are hiring

2016-03-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

The company had one employee last year and because things were heading downwards she left. It was a learning experience for hiring and growing your team. They say people are your most valuable asset and you should hire the best. How can you hire the best if you cant afford the best?

Well I hired on budget because of finances, I hired a recent graduate. So there was a lot of training I did as internet marketing is not taught at school. At times I felt the employee was not taking the job seriously and just spending time on social media on non related work matters. If you think about it, how do you tell a recent graduate that you can spend time on Facebook looking for content that can be posted on company Facebook page. I mean they would look for 5 mins and suddenly off they are searching for something else. Hell even I still struggle with that and a lot of people get lost in doing work on Facebook.

At some point I thought to myself was I like that when I graduated, I did some self reflection, or maybe I may be the problem and not the employee. Maybe I was like that when I was a graduate, just maybe, but I started having regular one to one meetings with employee. Often the meeting would be after month end discussing performance stats on company internet property because employee prepared the reports and managed the properties. There was still some lazying around which was discouraging but the turning point came when I set out weekly reports to be delivered by employee on what she had done for the week, I set out clear goals which she had to meet and report would show stats as to whether goal was met.

My learning experience at this was, I do not want to manage people, I hate it even though I still find myself having to, even now and then if I engage someone else for a project. Also setting goals is key as people have a target to work towards, it must not be vague let it be clear.

2015

2015-04-28T07:15:00.002-07:00

Time certainly flies even when you are not having fun. It has been a while since my last post. Well to update you on what happened, I did get funding from a government initiative scheme last year and then things sort of went sour and this year I repaid every cent of it. Moral of the story, do not seek business funding from those that dont value and understand business, time is valuable in business and one cannot have policies that give a hard time to businesses that one wants to help.

The business also had a decent 2 year run with revenue but the challenge now is competition. New players are coming in, big brands are now offering similar services and company has lost big clients. The future right now looks bleak. The company has also moved from home to a proper business office, sharing with a business partner and company has an intern. Essentially we are looking at staff of three people in office. Right now we are on our second location having moved from our first office because it was expensive and internet services was not worth it. Our new office is cheaper slightly bigger and we get our own internet provider. We still have the same problem, payments are not made on time, guess business ethics here are terrible. Not paying on time simply kills small businesses.

The future is uncertain. Right now the plan is to acquire some stake in small businesses and eventually merge business. This approach means we do not have to worry about employee salaries but at the same time we acquire expertise. We are open to to mergers with big brands so this year might be interesting, we might not exist at all or we might be in a far better position.

The rise and fall and.......

2013-08-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

It seems like I have made it a habit to take months without posting but anyway here goes my latest post. What I can say is that this year is proving certainly better than last year but the company is still in the mud, and yes, somehow the company survived the last couple of months I don't know how. I guess the boot-strap was strong enough :). One important thing to mention thou is that this year has new challenges, different from last year. I have had more experience now and I think I am more realistic with my expectations but I still get surprises sometimes. The company has been getting clients here and there but the major issue has been getting payments on time, they say cash is king. This is a major challenge and a solution is needed asap. Without cash coming in, it becomes very difficult to take on more or bigger projects and you cant grow the company in terms of getting more resources. The bank is also hesitant to give you a large loan since there hasn't been consistent cash coming in, this is an important point I have come to learn from my bank account relations manager. For the next couple of months before year end I am planning on getting more funding for the company, get involved in partnerships with either an investor or merge with another company and increase the team. Partnership can be done next year but the plan is to have laid some ground this year in getting to understand the potential partner and the relationship.

2013 Happy New Year!

2013-01-13T12:56:00.002-08:00

Its been a long while since I wrote a post, 2012 is over but what did it bring for me? Well the year was tough , probably the toughest in my life, but I would say I learnt a lot. For one, bringing an innovative product to people who find it difficult to embrace change is a huge challenge. As a start up as well I had to build credibility and learn the business culture around here. In all 2012 taught me a lot but financially there was no progress. As for 2013 I think its more of continuation from 2012 and I hope to get opportunities my way, persistence pays! I am still very optimistic about my business but at this point in time I am facing a cashflow crisis, the number 1 killer of start ups. The company still has a bit of cashflow to run a few months and hopefully get some contracts but personally I have enough for 1 month then I dont know what to do. Something will come up and I am positive. I have a meeting tomorrow with a potential client and I am hoping this will be my first contract.

Target market

2012-05-08T19:19:00.001-07:00

When I started out beginning of the year I was targeting small companies, believing I would help them grow big and in turn help me. One thing I overlooked is that small companies are afraid of technology and new things, they tend to want to see big companies do it first then they follow. But this analogy does not always work because when the technology or service is initially offered to them it is often at affordable rates, by the time its offered to big companies it will be expensive simply because the supplying company is capitalising on profit and they wont afford it then. This seems to be the case I am seeing. I tried offering my services to small companies but they were just unwilling, I suppose maybe they just did not have the budget or the balls to go for it. I have now revised my strategy to focus on big companies only. I expect this to be difficult because these companies already have contractual relationships with other service providers. Its is a David against Goliath case, hope David wins again. Although the last few months did not bring any success with the small clients it brought a lot of operational structuring for my business. It has given me opportunity to structure my operational processes and prepare myself for offering services to bigger clients. One software I found incredibly useful for start ups is Business-In-A-Box, its a free download and helps you draft business documents and contracts.

Several months later

2012-05-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a long while now since I put up a post on this blog. So what has been happening, one may wonder. I can say the past couple of months were among the toughest in my life. For one, the business has not made any income yet, it seems entrepreneurship is way tougher than I had thought. My initial impression was that within 2 months I would be well off, but allas!! I am still here! I am not giving up yet, I am still very positive but I admit its very hard. Over the past couple of month I can say it has been a learning experience. I have learnt quite a lot about the industry I am in and what the market expects from other businesses. For example I learnt that companies are highly unlikely to call a small company and ask for their services, rather the small company should approach the big company. I have also come to learn that internet advertising your services is not effective, people still believe in print advertising in order for a company to have some business credibility. Noting this, it must be said that this is different from country to country and industry to industry therefore one needs to learn and understand the way a particular industry works!

Festive holidays and business

2011-12-29T13:08:00.000-08:00

I just came back from my home village for Christmas and well my company hasn't moved forward much. The company account is still cashless, my cheque was declined, apparently I forgot to put date on the cheque, I guess I still have a lot to learn. What I found funny though was that I was initially sent a text report that deposit was successful, and then a couple of days another text saying deposit failed. For now I will have to sort that out, make another deposit tomorrow. As for my credit card I am still waiting for them to call me, its now over 7 days now but they haven't called me to come collect it. I guess that is the case with doing business around festive holidays or maybe its just the service we get around here. One other thing I found frustrating is the red tape that is involved in almost everything you do with the bank, for example in order to get a debit card for my business account I need a letter from the company secretary which I find retarded as I have the account and I am the managing director of company, why cant I just write the letter instead. Its not like the secretary makes that decision and its not a matter that will require board meeting for approval, any-ways its one of the senseless protocols that we will continually deal with and hope some day will be gone away with.

Bank account and credit card

2011-12-13T08:11:00.000-08:00

Since yesterday I have been running around trying to finish off my company registration and open a bank account. Well I managed to get a company secretary and got share certificate today. Now the difficult part has been trying to open a business bank account and get a credit card. For one, my business is starting out at home and I need to have a utility bill under my name in order to open the account. The issue now is I don't have one, I am staying in my parents house and they don't stay with us, they are in the home village. I got a letter from my secretary instead, to confirm my place of business, but they turned it down, wont fly. What next? They gave me a form to complete at the local Kgotla which I have no idea where it is, but I will try some place in Phase IV, I hear there is a customary court there. This whole process is proving more difficult every time, too many requirements. Now with regard to having a company credit card it will be impossible, need to have been operational for a year therefore I fail the first test.But, I can try get a credit card as an employee of my company which will be a bit tricky because I need payslip, letter of employment and the salary must somehow be reflected on my personal 3 months bank statement. I am hoping I will be able to do all this in one day. I want to have my company structures in order before Christmas and get operational beginning of next year. Right now I feel FNB is the bank for me and I am very positive I will get through this year if not early January with opening a bank account and getting a credit card. They also have great products to offer, I just hope they will also offer quality service to compliment their products.

Photography as a business

2011-12-05T07:24:00.001-08:00

For the time I have been in the delta I have been taking plenty of picture and wildlife mainly for fun, but as an amateur photographer. I am now wondering if I can take my hobby further, make money out of these pictures. There are online agencies that sell photos at a commission and I could possibly sell to them. My skills however need to be improved quite well. I have only had the camera for around 6 months now, and I also need a much better lens to be professional. This will take time but this is an alternative. I believe my Nikon D3100 can take me the distance!!

Resignation letter

2011-11-30T10:48:00.001-08:00

I finally gave in my resignation letter, and the response was kind of different to what I expected. Well I was expecting the manager to be surprised, it turns out he was expecting it. Well, from what he says is that people have been talking about me looking for a job elsewhere, which is true but I was never successful in finding that job. Its now a few weeks in the notice and I am now doing my last month end reports, and have one last freight to sort. I am looking forward to the new life and hope to be successful.

Personnel

2011-11-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

It has come to my realisation the importance of personnel in an organisation. People make the organisation and they make systems of a company. Without strong individuals there are no systems for a company. A company also needs well trained individuals in order to do their job. Another important issue is to have people who are "infected" as described by Kawasaki and principle for hiring people at Apple. In essence you need to hire people who are passionate about what they do and are willing to go the extra mile. It is quiet difficult to work with people who don't enjoy their job or are unwilling to go the extra mile. Right now I am experiencing an environment were people do not feel motivated but are looking on ways to get paid for overtime. For it may be a management problem for how the overtime issue is managed. And to some level people are frustrated with new management, not to say previous management was the best. But overall people need to be inspired with their job, and i must say right now I am not inspired with my job and i am seeking inspiration!!!!

Another thought

2011-11-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a thought, or rather what happened. Well I have finally created a PayPal account which can work in Botswana. I have been trying to set-up an account in South Africa for a while and couldn't, even after PayPal became available last year but only for South African citizens. Well my account got verified last week and I am looking forward to exploring the services. I cant really do much here as the network is slow, its a satellite connection. I will properly do more at home. I will try out some of the business ideas I had, like an on-line store. This is a great opportunity for local business and myself and I think we should embrace it. It opens up international business markets for small businesses. I can also try out trading on-line and apply my finance skills.

First thoughts

2011-11-04T05:18:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here on my office desk feeling bored and frustrated by my job but very much in love with the place I am in. I am in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, I think its one of the most beautiful places in world. I dont ever regret having came here, I feel it was a good change in environment, from city to the wild. It was a great change I must say. But anyway I feel I have been here long enough, this is my 8th month and I feel I need change. My question is then where do I go. I have finance and accounting qualification and I can pretty much get a job in South Africa but I still want to be in Botswana. My thoughts are to go entrepreneurial but I dont have any business running on the side yet. So I am confused as to whether I just dive in or wait a few months.