In business you must imprint the following on your brain: Business is about making money Businesses do not make money The first point is key for understanding where your priorities lie. Politics is about serving the people, journalism is about the truth, NGOs are about helping the less fortunate.Business is about making money.The second point…

Some people think that work and life are separate worlds, never to be mixed.You go to work to make money so that you can spend that money to live.Entrepreneurs can’t afford to do that. An entrepreneur is always working, so he must ensure his work is living, otherwise he will never have a chance to…

Some people make money so they can squirrel it away in the bank or pile it in the bath. They take pride in size of their bank balance, they love to bathe in R100 notes.These people are not entrepreneurs.Entrepreneurs make money to spend money. What’s the point of having cash if you can’t live the good life?Living…

Some companies pay boast of valuation or revenue or profit or user numbers.To an entrepreneur these numbers are meaningless (outside of Silicon Valley).The only meaningful metric is cashflow. You need to spend less money than you make.The easiest way to positive cashflow is to be frugal and to sell sell sell. Easy as pie.Ignore the accountants, ignore depreciation, ignore…

Entrepreneurship is not about saving the world or creating jobs or making awesome stuff.Its about making money.In order to make money maybe you need to save the world, create jobs, or make awesome stuff, but never forget these are just steps on the path to the end goal.Making money.Before you start a business you need to…

Some people have a passion for cars. They have gas in their veins, petrol in their brains, also know as “Petrol-heads.”This article is not for them. This article is for people like me, who don’t know a carburettor from a spark plug, and who can’t tell the difference between driving an M3 and a GTI.My people…

If startups are like planes then cash is runway. More cash = more runway.The secret to starting a business is having enough cash so that your plane can take-off before you run out of runway, and so that your plane can stay in the air…There are three factors that affect your runway: Savings Simple. The more…

  The secret to financial independence is low overheads. Low overheads are about being frugal.   In order to be frugal in business you must be frugal in life. Its just not possible to live in two worlds, ie: drive a Ferrari and drink Ricoffy at the office.   Being frugal doesn’t have to mean being a…

As a successful entrepreneur you will be hounded by parasites. Chief amongst parasites are financial advisors.Don’t get me wrong, there are many excellent ang honest financial advisors. And many of the smartest investors in the world use financial advisors themselves. The reason the profession exists is because it adds enormous value.But there are also many conmen…

The danger with being a startup specialist is that you can forget what the purpose of “capital” is.Capital is not meant to be spent on anything unless it will generate a return on capital. Ie: if you buy something or hire someone you must be able to correlate that expense directly to new income which…

  Many youngsters rock up at my door asking for money to chase their dreams. Some of the ideas are great, but the pitch is amateurish.If you can’t execute your pitch, most investors will assume you can’t execute, period.Here are some tips. These are not Silicon Valley tips. These are tips for pitching to South…

There are two kinds of businesses you can invest in:Those with a variable cost of sale (consulting firms selling hours or retailers selling stock), and those without a variable cost of sale (IP businesses).The former brings returns that are a function of capital employed, whilst generally carrying a lower risk.The latter brings returns that are…