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Managing your Business

The Need for Product Innovation and Business Development Skills

The development of the Micro-industries, specifically craft, is a potentially powerful means of bringing job creation to thousands of people in many provinces. Home businesses thrive on the creative industries and in addition to that, Arts and Crafts that focus on our unique heritage have enormous potential to provide employment and promote wealth creation. There is however, a critical need to develop crafters to produce work of consistently superior quality and design and to effectively market their products both in South Africa (where the perception of their value is extremely low) and internationally.

Lessons from very tiny businesses

by Seth Godin

1. Go where your customers are.

Jacquelyne runs a tiny juice company called Chakwave. I met her in Los Angeles, standing next to an organic lunch truck. Like the little birds that clean the teeth of the hippo, there's synergy here. The kind of person that visits the truck for lunch is the sort of person that would happily pay for something as wonderfully weird as her juice. And the truck owners benefit from the rolling festival farmer's market feel that comes from having a synergistic partner set up on a bridge table right next door.

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The process of dismissing staff

When it comes to disciplining or dismissing staff, most experienced managers will shudder with fear; more often than not, they have had to answer to the CCMA due to a disgruntled quote97perc

employee and this can be a time consuming and draining process.

So how do you as a small business owner avoid the often costly mistakes that others have made?

The CCMA (Centre for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration) is the first place most employees turn to if they feel that they have been unfairly dismissed, and you would be forgiven for thinking that the CCMA favours employees above all others. However, it is very important to remember that Labour law is not the same as Criminal law due to one very pertinent fact. As a victim of crime you have to prove that the crime occurred whilst the accused remains in neutral status, in labour law, the “victim” of unfair dismissal (the employee) does very little besides raising the issue and the accused (the employer) is obligated to prove that proper processes were followed and that there was a justifiable reason for dismissal.

The 80/20 Rule:

One Little Statistic That Can Change Your Life

Anyone who has been through a business, marketing, or economics class has apparently heard of the 80/20 rule. I somehow managed to miss that one! Recently though I bought a little book called "The Four Hour Work Week" in which great emphasis is placed on this principle, and it makes sense. But what about those who aren’t business majors? Do they even know this rule exists, much less how it applies to our lives, and in my particular case, how I can apply it to my business?