| Business budgeting for tough times | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/business-budgeting-for-tough-times | Business budgeting for tough times | Business owners could be forgiven for thinking that things are changing so fast that budgeting is not really useful anymore, and that it is better to fly by the seat of your pants and to keep things flexible. The truth is quite the opposite, says Jeremy Lang, regional general manager at Business Partners Limited. In these uncertain times budgeting is more important than ever for a business to survive. A budget is like a compass and a rudder for a business. | 2021/02/16 10:00:00 PM | | |
| How to find reliable business news in the new information jungle | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/how-to-find-reliable-business-news-in-the-new-information-jungle | How to find reliable business news in the new information jungle | All of the troubles of 2020 might have been slightly more tolerable for business owners had they not taken place against the backdrop of the very disrupting information revolution. | 2021/01/26 10:00:00 PM | | |
| How to make the most of black Friday 2020 | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/how-to-make-the-most-of-black-friday-2020 | How to make the most of black Friday 2020 | Black Friday, a global shopping phenomenon celebrated on the fourth Friday in November, unofficially marks the start of the holiday shopping season, with stores offering massive discounts and sales to eager consumers in hunt of a good deal. This trend has successfully been taken up locally, with 2019 seeing Black Friday and Cyber Monday purchases hitting the R6 billion mark. | 2020/11/25 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Finding a path ahead through a changed landscape | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/finding-a-path-ahead-through-a-changed-landscape | Finding a path ahead through a changed landscape | In the aftermath of every crisis there are moments when you are able to stop struggling, stand still for a minute, look around, and think about what just happened. By now, most business owners would have experienced some of these lulls, however short, from the emergency mode into which the Covid-19 lockdown and its repercussions had thrown them. And hopefully these breathers will become more and longer as time goes on. | 2020/10/25 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Survival strategies for tourism businesses in 2020 | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/survival-strategies-for-tourism-businesses-in-2020 | Survival strategies for tourism businesses in 2020 | With the slow and tentative revival of the tourism industry after its worst year ever, every step that a tourism entrepreneur takes can mean the survival or demise of their business. Now, more than ever, the owners of tourism businesses have to keep their wits about them, says Arnold February, regional investment manager at Business Partners Limited. | 2020/09/16 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Tips for supporting SAs Superwomen in the workplace | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/tips-for-supporting-sas-superwomen-in-the-workplace | Tips for supporting SAs Superwomen in the workplace | Just when South Africans thought the worst of lockdown was behind them, President Ramaphosa dropped the bomb that public schools were closing again for a full month to curb the spread of COVID-19. | 2020/08/23 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Three ways to maintain a positive company culture in the new normal | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/three-ways-to-maintain-a-positive-company-culture-in-the-new-normal | Three ways to maintain a positive company culture in the new normal | In keeping with social distancing guidelines, working from home (WFH) has become the new reality for many South African office workers. While this is a necessary measure for businesses to take in combatting the spread of COVID-19, it can impact company culture. | 2020/08/18 10:00:00 PM | | |
| 5 ways to add supplementary revenue streams to your business | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/5-ways-to-add-supplementary-revenue-streams-to-your-business | 5 ways to add supplementary revenue streams to your business | One thing that the COVID-19 crisis has definitely taught business owners, is that the diversification of revenue streams is crucial to long-term commercial sustainability. This is because, by never relying solely on one product, market or service, the risk of failure is spread and thus reduced significantly. After all, you never know when one of these streams will suddenly stop flowing – or be blocked – amid a new iteration of lockdown regulations. | 2020/07/22 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Four ways to adapt your business to a brave new world | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/four-ways-to-adapt-your-business-to-a-brave-new-world | Four ways to adapt your business to a brave new world | The global COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing nationwide lockdown meant that many South African businesses experienced disruptions on an unprecedented scale. Now, as the country gradually exits lockdown and prepares to return to full production, we are faced with the realisation that the pandemic has irrevocably changed many aspects of our lives. Instead of returning to normal, it is becoming increasingly clear that businesses are going to need to adapt to a new set of challenges and circumstances. | 2020/07/22 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Five ways SMEs can save this savings month | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/five-ways-smes-can-save-this-savings-month | Five ways SMEs can save this savings month | Generally speaking, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have two options when it comes to bolstering business profits – either increase sales or cut back on costs. While more effort is usually applied to the first option for obvious commercial reasons, the reality is that sales can be heavily impacted by external forces – as we’ve seen recently with the national COVID-19 lockdown. | 2020/07/21 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Nine tools for business owners to tackle the uncertainties of the Covid crisis | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/nine-tools-for-business-owners-to-tackle-the-uncertainties-of-the-covid-crisis | Nine tools for business owners to tackle the uncertainties of the Covid crisis | The only certainty about the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis is that the world will be quite different once the pandemic and the different levels of lockdown pass - and that includes your town, your community, your industry and your business, says Jeremy Lang, regional general manager of Business Partners Limited. | 2020/05/11 10:00:00 PM | | |
| The planning business owner’s guide to budgeting | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/the-planning-business-owner’s-guide-to-budgeting | The planning business owner’s guide to budgeting | Business owners are doers, and so tend to neglect formal business plans and processes in favour of action and intuition. Often an annual budget, if it is drawn up at all, is simply last year’s income statement with an inflation adjustment. | 2020/02/24 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Tips for business recovery after the festive season | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/tips-for-business-recovery-after-the-festive-season | Tips for business recovery after the festive season | For most businesses, the festive season at the end of each year is a feast or famine affair. Either they experience their busiest month in the run-up to Christmas, or things go very quiet as clients leave on holiday. Either way, almost all businesses experience the festive season as a disruption of sorts that can easily throw them off balance.
Arnold February, regional investment manager at Business Partners Limited, offers the following tips on how best to help your business recover after the festive season. | 2020/01/19 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Nine tips to get your business ready for the peak season | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/nine-tips-to-get-your-business-ready-for-the-peak-season | Nine tips to get your business ready for the peak season | The busy season in the tourism industry - or any other industry with a sharp seasonal fluctuation - can be an exhilarating time, giving business owners an opportunity to see all the pistons of their business firing and the harvest rolling in. | 2019/10/23 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Eight tips to protect your business from cyber attacks | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/eight-tips-to-protect-your-business-from-cyber-attacks | Eight tips to protect your business from cyber attacks | The false impression that cyber-attacks are aimed solely at large organisation is understandable. It is only the big data breaches that reach the news, says Jeremy Lang, regional general manager at Business Partners Limited. | 2018/10/29 10:00:00 PM | | |
| New Year resolutions checklist for entrepreneurs | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/new-year-resolutions-checklist-for-entrepreneurs | New Year resolutions checklist for entrepreneurs | The beginning of a year is infamous for all types of aspirational New Year’s resolutions. However, the number of gym routines and diets that are abandoned by the first week of February are enough to make anyone cynical about these resolutions. | 2018/02/04 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Year planning too important to end up in the bottom drawer | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/year-planning-too-important-to-end-up-in-the-bottom-drawer | Year planning too important to end up in the bottom drawer | In the current slow-growth economic conditions, business owners are either going to win market share, or have market share taken away from them, says Jeremy Lang, regional general manager at Business Partners Limited. | 2018/02/04 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Ten-point checklist for prospective property investors | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/property/ten-point-checklist-for-prospective-property-investors | Ten-point checklist for prospective property investors | The current economic environment in South Africa poses both opportunities and dangers for business owners who want to buy investment properties, says Stanton Naidoo, property management COO at Business Partners Limited. | 2017/11/29 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Nine tips for handling the seasonality of your business cycle | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/nine-tips-for-handling-the-seasonality-of-your-business-cycle | Nine tips for handling the seasonality of your business cycle | Very few industries are immune to the ups and downs of annual fluctuations, and most entrepreneurs have experienced the dread of a silent telephone or empty inbox as the lean season kicks in. | 2017/09/28 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Ten tips for increasing diversity in your workplace | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/ten-tips-for-increasing-diversity-in-your-workplace | Ten tips for increasing diversity in your workplace | When businesses start up, they are often small, tightly-knit groups of pioneers that come from the same background, even from the same family. This works very well in the early survival stages of a venture, but as soon as the business reaches a more stable post-survival growth phase, the founders have the opportunity to look around a bit more widely, and to diversify their workforce. | 2017/08/29 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Fifteen essential tips for starting your own business | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/fifteen-essential-tips-for-starting-your-own-business | Fifteen essential tips for starting your own business | Petro Bothma has seen many start-ups come and go during her three decades at Business Partners Limited, most recently as head of enterprise development and non-financial support. She compiled the following essential tips for anyone thinking about starting their own business: | 2017/06/29 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Pitching your idea to potential funders | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/pitching-your-idea-to-potential-funders | Pitching your idea to potential funders | Before you approach the bank or other form of financier to fund your start-up or business expansion, you need to be sure that you've done your research and have confidence in your Business Plan. | 2017/04/02 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Ten ways to improve your planning for the year ahead | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/ten-ways-to-improve-your-planning-for-the-year-ahead | Ten ways to improve your planning for the year ahead | Each entrepreneur has his or her own style of planning, but not all of them are equally good at it. Anton Roelofse, regional general manager of Business Partners Limited, believes entrepreneurs can and should constantly try to improve their planning process. Here are ten ways in which to become better at planning for the year ahead: | 2017/02/23 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Ten ways to hone your delegating skills | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/ten-ways-to-hone-your-delegating-skills | Ten ways to hone your delegating skills | The ability to delegate is as crucial to business owners as planning, selling and prioritisation skills. Without it, the business will always remain in the realm of the freelancer – small, stagnant and wholly dependent on one person, says Gugu Mjadu, executive general manager of marketing at Business Partners Limited. She offers ten tips on how business owners can hone their delegation skills | 2016/12/13 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Becoming a mentor | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/useful-articles/top-tips-and-blogs/becoming-a-mentor | Becoming a mentor | If you are a veteran in the SME sector, are running a very successful business or just feel you have something to offer a budding entrepreneur, you may consider becoming a mentor. Let's look at the characteristics of a good business mentor | 2016/11/15 10:00:00 PM | | |
