Whether you’re pitching to a customer, or an investor, or a regulator, or whoever, always do your homework. Find out what the counter-party wants from you. Find out what surprises he can spring. Find out what he can give to you. Find out everything. You may not get what you want, but you won’t go…

You might not be passionate about company secretarial work, or accounting, or taxes. You are not alone. But that doesn’t mean you should neglect it. Make sure all your admin is done from day one. It will save you headaches, late nights and cash later on. More important, if your admin is up to speed…

There will be many trials in your journey as an entrepreneur. Shareholder politics, cashflow headaches, staff hassles. Every trial will teach you a lesson. Pay attention to the lesson. Every lesson will be applied one day, in a way you’d never anticipated. Your journey is leading you somewhere, and every lesson learnt will be needed…

Sometimes you have to give critical feedback. Your employee is simply not cutting it. Last chance. The worst thing you can do is to be mielie-mouthed. First, you don’t get your message across, second, the recipient doesn’t realise he’s on a  final warning. Rather say it as it is. Give the person a fair chance…

You will have competition. You will have critics. You will have to defend yourself, and sometimes you’ll have to go on the attack. When you do, remember this: Don’t engage in personalities. Don’t get personal. Don’t play the man. When the noise dies down you don’t want a personal enemy.

Great businesses are sustainable. To be sustainable you must sell a product that is used. Any product that is not used is not sustainable. Your customer may wake up one day and realise she is paying for something she doesn’t want and BOOM! you’re out of business. Businesses that sell products that are not used are fragile….

If you think you can do it all yourself, you have a problem. Your dream is not big enough. It means you don’t need a team. Only teams can solve big problems. You need to put yourself in a space where you realise you need a team. That way you can solve a big problem…

An empty, boring life will kill you. Maybe you will physically survive. But your soul will die. For every entrepreneur that has failed, there are a thousand people who wished they’d tried but allowed themselves to be dissuaded. Do you want to be one of the living dead? Rather die alive than live dead.

Hard issues are straightforward: Need to cut costs? Retrench staff. Price war? Cut prices. Much harder are the soft issues. Motivating staff. Getting your customer to love your brand. Keeping your team on the same page. Just because they’re “soft”, doesn’t mean they’re easy.

The best time of the day to work is early morning, whilst your brain is fresh and you don’t have the distractions of calls/emails/meetings. Why would you use this precious time to clear your email inbox? It’s like pouring a fine bottle of Bordeaux into your stew as flavour. A waste. Wake up early, and…

When you weld a piece of metal to another piece of metal, the joint is called the weal. After melting the two adjoining metal pieces, you have to tap on the weal and break off the slack (or flux). Then you weld again. Then you break off slack again. Weld. Break. Weld. Break. Until you…

If you neglect it, it will rot. The rot can happen from the inside or the outside. Sometimes you can cut off a few layers of rot and find useful onion inside. Sometimes the rot is from the middle and you must throw away the onion. Same fro your business. Don’t neglect it. Best case,…