Matsobanemetja Business Consulting Pty Ltd

Common practice will be that you pay yourself the salary that you are worth based on either your talent, merit, market or experience you have in your chosen field. But in reality this is not the case because the new business does not afford you. So how do i calculate my salary?

A business owner must earn a salary from the business from day one. This is the basic principle of the business that many small business owner / start-ups fails to follow. When you are serious about your business you will fight to have the courage and discipline to do it. This is expected out of any business.  

Projecting Your Salary
My advice: The first is paying yourself enough to meet basic living requirements. Depending on your situation, that means enough income to cover your bills, food and other miscellaneous living expenses. Strike all other discretionary items from your life for a while and get used to just the bare necessities. You are almost forced to downgrade your usual lifestyle to at least accommodate the business operating needs until the business makes enough profit to afford the required salary.

To begin planning your pay, you need to put together your own personal financial statement that lists all your living expenses and any credit cards with outstanding balances as well as short-term and long-term loans. This may be one of the most difficult things you’ve ever had to do because you don’t want to leave anything out. You want to make sure that your income from the business will be enough to cover your expenses. Be honest and make correct calculations.

You will start by the listing of all common items that you will always need on a monthly basis and those are your living expenses. Generally, if you can pay-down any debts before going into business, you’ll not only decrease the amount of income you’ll require each month, but also improve your personal net worth, which is important when it comes to borrowing capital to fund your business. Whether the Business is funded by yourself or the outside parties that does not change the concept. A business will always need the next person / party to be funded anyway.

Once you’ve listed amounts for each of the items on your monthly budget, add them all together. This is the amount you will need to pay yourself in order to meet your basic requirements. Remember when putting together your list to include all your expenses. That doesn’t mean just monthly, but quarterly, semi-annual and annual expenses. You must provide yourself with complete information. After all, you will be living on this income for at least six months to a year.

I had two speaking engagements yesterday and i received two quetions each from this events that somehow relate to this topic. First question from an entrepreneur in Sandton. How does the transition happen that you still able to maintain the life you lived while you were still employed? My response: Please plan poperly while you are still employed. Pay all your debts (almost), use part of your monthly salary for basic neccessary business needs such as Branding (Logos, Websites, Banners,etc) so you don’t worry about them in your early stage of business as you would have taken care of them already. Have one or two people that will assist you with servicing the clients. You will train and supervise them and your core role in business will be to bring the work, sign new clients, attend meetings, attend networking seminars, etc. While you are doing this you are assured that production is taking place in your absence. As time goes on you are going to appoint a responsible  supervisor who is going to train your staff and oversee things while you out there looking for business. It is an known fact that as a new business owner you almost hold all the positions in your business. You become the CEO, the Operational Manager, Public Relations, etc. this will be so until the business makes enough pofit so you will be able to appoint people that are qualified and experience to hold this positions.

Second question from a Business owner in Benoni: After my talk the lady approached me and ask that she really want to grow her business but it becomes difficult as after paying all her bills she is left with nothing. And another lady also joined in and retaliated the same thing. Now this is where i realised that you know as small business owners we need to learn early to not work on the business but work for the business. The ladies further explained the complex of their family responsibilities to me to prove a point of how difficult it is for them. I then said to them, this means their businesses is not making enough revenue. I as well exlained to them that they need to plan and have projections in place as this will help them to push for more profit.

The ladies emphasised to me that it is difficult also to sign new clients. Which i agree but you always have to work on it every day. Then i asked them: You ladies knew that you are coming to a business seminar today did you bring your business cards or flyers to distribute? The answer came after a very long pause as No. I asked: Does the congregation knows about your services? And further asked: Seeing that you are in Events and Catering field why did you not volunteer to cook for the congregation today, showcasing your work with the assumptions or knowing that there were chances of visitors attending the seminar? Still no answer. But when i recommended them to advertise their businesses they said they have done them “all”. The technique about advertising in business is that you can’t say you are done, as long as you are in business you continue to do it over and over, because once you stop it is the dying of your business.

It is very important to have projections in your business because they will serve as a guideline or a roadmap in running a profitable business. The fact is a business must generate a profit that changes in growth from month to month. That is the nature of business.

One other thing i observed from the ladies is as much as they were asking questions with hope of seeking guidance they also tried to reject my suggestions as they were busy defending  with excuses why they cannot achieve what they want. You need to try almost everything and continuously so before you decide that they are not woking. We need to stop making excuses for not trying new things because that is exactly the reason we will remain stagnant. Because as much as word of mouth advertising shoud not be undermined but we really cannot rely only on it as the ladies did especially in this very competitive world.

Compiled by Dee The Coach.

Happy Trading!  

Starting a Business is never an easy thing, it is a very challenging and lonely journey simply because how our friends started does not mean if we follow suit we will be as lucky as them.

Getting clients, signing deals, getting capital, funding and getting some recognition has never been an easy exercise and unfortunately it is never an ending until you actually crack how to do things.

But also i have just three little things to mention that we need to be careful of in the name of business. Spending so much time doing this things might be a total waste of time instead  of concentrating on what matters most.

1. Chasing customers

We do this in many ways. It is basically our Marketing or Advertising strategies. It could be through Word of mouth, Websites, Flyers, Business cards and many more ways. But i say please do it in a way that your potential clients won’t get annoyed and want to run away from you when they see you. I agree Passion is too important but shape it nicely when selling your services or products to your clients.

Tell me once or twice about your product but please don’t be in my face all the time forcing me to buy. Do not remind me every chance you get, especially if i have shown interest. I do not discourage follow ups but do them in a very nice way where i wouldn’t even realise. The thing is i might show interest in your product but not ready to buy instantly, therefore you don’t want to be so pursuing that i loose the same interest.

Now that i know about your product, look for another creative way to convince me, even if you are not showing me directly believe me it might grab my attention and i end up giving in. Maybe do some Demonstrations. Chasing after same client over and over to purchase your product sort of remove the essence to need the product, it reveals so much that it is only the money you are looking for and shows too much of desperation. I would like to believe that you started the business because you wanted to solve our problems, now you don’t want to loose the meaning by being too pushy. I know this because i sure knows how it feels when it is done to me and i see how people react to it, it is not pleasing. I also do various things to attract potential clients, some they are referred to me by people i haven’t worked with but because they have seen something and somehow they believe in me. Don’t waste so much time following Dee for 6 months in hope of buying, more ready clients are passing by while you chasing one client for long. Be Creative.

2. Applying for Tenders / Funding

You might have with you a perfect Business idea and have a good plan for it but not able to move forward with because of limited resources. What do you do? Of course you don’t let good idea die but also do not spend so much time looking for capital, filling thousands of application forms and be so hopeless that it even feels like there is nothing you can do without. What if you start doing something achievable and that you can afford to assist in obtaining the capital for your big idea? I for example my initial Business idea was Property Business, i had registered the business and have the Business plan for it but i had some difficulty in getting capital to start because property requires so much money and it is not every institution that will be willing to help you from scratch so i decided to start the current business and not to say i am less passionate about but i could afford to start without being funded. I started it without a laptop or my own Computer by the way. I started knowing that the current business will help fund the property.

Very soon actually i will convert my private property into Business and be able to grow both my Accounting and property Businesses. We really can start small while we try obtain those funding. The thing is the Funding thing is not guaranteed because if it was i would not have a problem if we spend so much looking for them. Just don’t lose your focus.

3. Chasing Quotations

It’s no secret that a request for a quote give us so much hope that at least a client is buying and we are getting an Income but also let us not lose focus because it is a quote. A quote means a client is testing waters, comparing your prices with that of your competition. A quote is a dummy Invoice! So therefore a quote aint a guarantee that they are buying.

Also don’t waste so much of your time chasing after quotes because if they are ready and sold they will definitely come back. Like i said earlier while you are chasing one quote, many of potential clients whom would like to be invoiced are passing by. Because a quote is not a guaranteed purchase you cannot also hold the client responsible, under which law? Sometimes we as clients use this quotations to plan for the future.

When they request for a quote please submit but with an open mind that it might not convert into sales immediately or might never. Do follow ups but have a strict time limit.

Compiled by Dikeledi Seoloane – on behalf of Matsobanemetja Business Consulting, Coaching Division.

http://www.matsobanemetja.co.za

The popularity of  startups being taken for a ride has pushed me to tackle the issue a bit.

Not a week goes by without me being called or e-mailed for an advise on some decisions to be made, and most of the time the start-ups are being put under a very compromising positions and unfairly so. I am not going to reveal all the details here but just bit of my advices.

Being the beginner of anything in life is scary and that’s natural.

Ever seen how toddlers become so fearful when they start walking or stand on their own? They are shaky and doubtful to continue after first step but always eager to repeat their moves. Because we can’t walk on their behalf, we cheer them up, sing for them in motivation to continue with their new found journey of growing up. While they are doing it they fall, but they do not stop, they try again with joy and laughter.Now the same applies with Business.

It is understandable that as a start up you will find it difficult to resume providing your services, sometimes it is because of scarcity of resources, which is the most challenging thing facing many entrepreneurs. To a point where they find themselves confinding their situations or sharing their ideas to those that have been in the field before them and seem succeeding at it in hope of some assistance. Though it is a very good idea and sometimes advisable it has its own disadvantages.

Not everybody will be willing to help without getting anything in return. Some request an equal share of a certain portion in your Company, a share in profit, or whatever they will find suitable and convenient for them, whereas at times it’s just a mere advice you are seeking for. Instead of receiving the advice or guidance you are looking for from our experienced brothers and sisters, it does happen that it is not what you will always get. They will want more.

Some of them they even get extreme and threaten you of the failures you will meet without them. My fellow start up,my advise to you is that you do not ever find yourself compromising so much of yourself and business. Don’t fall for their intimidations and threats of failure, because they will make you feel it will be impossible without them, therefore you will see the only option is tagging them along in your projects.

Do not find yourself desperate for assistance especially from such selfish people. Be wise enough to recognise them and reject their favours before it even gets far. Do not be scared to fail, you shouldn’t even get threatened by the thought of it. Do know failure is part of the process. We learn, mature, grow through our own failures and no one should be allowed to take that experience away from you. They should not deprive the experience of failure because it will be no fun to celebrate your achievements.

I find the sole intentions of the selfish people as that you must always be dependant on them because they will keep on quoting and sort of imposing their failures to you and discourage you to not even attempt to try doing it the other way, it is always their way over yours. And because your confidence is also not so strong as you are a startup you will fall into that trap. Your whole faith will be in them.

I see it as a selfish act because they choose to overlook the fact that we are not all the same, we are blessed with different gifts and talents. What have been a failure to them does not automatically qualify to be a failure to you. You are easily deprived from discovering your own unique talents or gifts as some of important major gifts are found through failures.

The other thing you need to be careful of is being rushed to do something especially when it involves money, you must be allowed enough time to think things through before you take any decisions. Please do realise Entrepreneurship is a journey, it is a process, you are meant to discover lots of valuable lessons,therefore you should never be promised to get to it quicker. According to my own understanding entrepreneurship is a non ending journey, it is forever continuing, it evolves, it moves from phase to phase, the reason I will never understand why you should be rushed.

Many unnecessary and costly decisions are because of rushing to success. And at times some of the decisions unfortunately will leave you depressed, discouraged  and demotivated.

And lastly get a Coach or a Mentor, those that are in business too.They will help you from making decisions and assist in planning. As a start up you are more likely to be clouded by too much information around you and that might end up confusing you, as not all information you hear is meant for you, the guidance of a Mentor or a Coach will help you.

Choose somebody who will work with you, someone who will be in support of your vision and is very clear of your goal. Not someone who is only looking for a paycheck from you.

Compiled by Dee, on behalf of Matsobanemetja Business Consulting – Coaching Division.

I am a startup too *

Dear Entrepreneurs

Let’s talk about Time. In my two years in Business there is  nothing as precious  and valuable  as time.
I have learned that who you spend most of your time with, where and how shapes you and the business. The sucess of your business is determined by your time spending.

A true entrepreneur will value the importance of time all the time. Things like decision making for instance.
Some of our clients, suppliers or business associates they request for a meeting for  the  services that can be performed online without having to meet. We must remember a meeting is very costly – I count traveling expenses, food or drinks, as well as time consuming – as you need to allocate the time off from work for this meetings.

A client of ours had given us a phone call as they have received from our email distribution the promo that we were running, he was showing an interests on the  promo but was also requesting for a meeting. I then explained to them that it won’t be necessary to meet as they can just e-mail the documents and information needed and we proceed. The client said “I was hoping I can come to your offices so we can sit down and talk”. I found this very disturbing. What exactly are we going to talk about? The promo was very  straight forward, even if the client needed some clarity we were still  able to explain over the phone.

Look at this points:
~ We are running a promotion which means we have decreased the price of that specific service.
~ The service is an online service whereby you email the docs and information needed, we start the work and as soon as we have completed the work then we revert back with the final product if there is any.
I then explained to the client that the meeting is unnecessary, he was not impressed.

But honestly I stand by my terms because we don’t want to loose the essence of business, by creating expenses. How is a business to grow? A business must make profit. And we are not discouraging meetings but at least realise the need to meet, a business ‘s profit is not determined by how many meetings you have attended but by how many sales with less expenses. Once we reduce our business  time to more production then we will be able to be both productive and profitable.

I am aware of the need to socialise or develop working relationships as a business person but the time for that still needs to be allocated accordingly, there should be discipline and planning involved, let’s not do it recklessly.
A business leader should not plan or attend any meetings simply for the sake of routines or obligation—or fixing any appointments really just for the sake of courtesy—but  make sure any engagement which takes up his time should be somehow relevant, better yet, contributing to achieving his Key Result Areas in one way or another.

He should understand that time is the most precious kind of resources to be managed—since every single elapsed moment is gone forever.

By Miss Dee – On behalf of Matsobanemetja Business Consulting  (Coaching Division).

A friend posted a question on Facebook:
Will your skills and passion gives you a purposeful, fruitful and rewarding life?
I volunteered to respond with a Blog on this question.  However I had a blog post similar to this topic a while back: Talent is Overated in business. I allow you to visit the blog and read it too.

My view and understanding is that as far as business is concerned Passion is very important to an entrepreneur.

Passion is an intense emotion, a compelling enthusiasm or desire for something. 
It is so unlikely for entrepreneurs or anyone for that matter to not succeed in their pursue of business or carreer in their chosen field that they are passionate about.

Skill is a learned ability to carry out a task.

Anyone can learn a skill about anything but will the skill learned with no passion last for long?

For example I can cook, and I can learn other and further type of dishes but I am just not passionate about cooking. People who gets to taste my food they are always happy with them but believe me it always a force for me to cook, if it was up to me I would love not to cook and only do it when I feel like it, this is regardless of how skillful I may be. Therefore I shouldn’t even be tempted to start a business that will want me to cook because I am just not passionate about it. What happens when I reach those difficult challenges in business? I will easily give up because passion was never the foundation of the cooking business.

But when I do things I am passionate about nobody reminds me, instead I want to learn more and more (obtaining skills) you know why?
Passion is a motivation, passion drives you, and you do your work with no complaints, you actually look forward to solving problems if any.

Unlike when you are depending on skills only. As much as this two goes together but I emphasise on Passion first. A person who is only skillful tend to be limited because they are relying mostly on what they know and when the going gets tough will need the urge to push them or even need the same passion because once they have it they will be able to want to learn further and be more skillful.

I remember when I finished school, Nursing was the “in” thing, the most popular career that was advertised, that was mostly open for jobs. You do training while they pay you for two years and on completion you were offered a permanent job. I was given the forms and lots of information on how to go about it, but I refused to join because I just didn’t see myself doing the job. I am a very sensitive person, I am really scared of dead people, I can never look at wounds unless maybe it’s me affected or people close to me needing help. I fear blood. So imagine if I had allowed myself to be pushed by the pressure of the availability of jobs in this sector where would I be by now? Miserable. I would be skillful yes, but happy?  Never. The reason there are  many  people that are stuck in jobs and careers that makes them miserable, because they have chosen skill over passion. You don’t want to be a miserable CEO.

Therefore my advice to my fellow Entrepreneurs is to choose to pursue business in fields that they are very passionate about because even if it said it won’t work but You will make it work.

Passion First.

Well, there is no straight answer to this, in fact there could be many different answers depending per an individual. But what I can tell you is that we will all answer as according to our area of expertise in a certain field and we still won’t be wrong by saying so. For example, I personally will openly and confidently say Business Accounting is the most important factor in Business and I am not wrong, is surely is. And this will be supported by a long list of reasons. An expert in Fitness and Health can also loudly say their field is the main factor in business and they are also correct, and they too will give supporting reasons.

But let’s forget the technicalities a little bit. What exactly is the main factor in business. Maybe lets start by answering the following questions. What start a business? What builds a business? Before anything or everybody else what runs a business?
YOU! YES YOU THE BUSINESS OWNER. You are the most important Factor in Business.

The below elements are what made me come to that conclusion because if we get the elements right and push them right through the right direction I am more and more convinced that successful businesses will be built.

1.Who am I
In my coaching I always say: Your customers or clients before they buy or come to you for your services they first have to buy YOU, COMPANY then PRODUCT. In this order. If it always happens this way you are guaranteed to have a repeat business. Therefore, how you carry yourself, how you do things, what you say matters all the time. We really like to lie to ourselves and say “it is my life” or “i dont care” but we are lying and consoling ourselves. We really do care, and we care a lot. The thing is the day you chose this path was the day you cared. You need to understand this: By just being a Business Owner or an Entrepreneur you carry a lot of influence, hence you need to be careful of the type of an influence you carry, for it to be beneficial to both your business and the consumers. Constantly guard your behaviour and your ways.

2. Where I’ve been
You are living and you are growing. All this happens through experience. We sometimes experience joy and sometimes pain or hurt, now all this emotionally or physically builds a person. I call them a lesson. Therefore your  businesses also depends on the decisions you make as the owner. So make sure your experiences are really going to add value into your business. Be open minded and mature about situations, circumstances and things. Learn, challenge yourself and achieve. A business grow with experience.

3. Who I hang out with
Your life is influenced by the people you surround yourself with.There is no way that you hang around positive people and you come out the negative. The company you keep will always have an influence on you, whether negative or postive. Are the people in your network adding value in your life or business? Are you learning when you around this people? Are their lives appetising?  Be With people that will push you to do better and more, people who will motivate and build you. Your business need that. Be With people who simply challenges you.

By Miss Dee on behalf of Matsobanemetja Business Consulting – Coaching Division

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Often you hear people talk about protecting their new ideas. Do not be too extreme that you are not able to even bring the idea to life. Fact is whether an idea is new or old you will always have competition once it is brought to life. What you just need to do is to know how to deal with Competition. A healthy competition is encouraged because it will help you not to be stagnant, but creative and growing.

Five ways that will help you in dealing with competition

1. Do it many times better
It is useful to always check and follow what your competition is up to but that does not mean do it similarly as them. You are allowed to add the elements missing that will improve and gain you more recognition. Remember you are both fighting for more customers/clients therefore this should give you an opportunity to become creative and add valuable ways that will attract more clients for you. Your ways of marketing for instance. If your competition is running a promotion, you can run it too but your way of doing it must sound better and appetising so that it can serve the purpose. Obviously this should not be done in a way that you compromise on your revenue. Be careful, creative and calculate the risks.

2. Be one step ahead
While you checking on your competition, make sure you find their mistakes and develop a solution to it and introduce it into your business. You need to provide solutions to customer before they even ask questions. Your competition’s errors should motivate you to do even better.

3. Do not be too much of a Copy Cat
You should also not concentrate and spending too much time  on your competition, because that will block your creativity. You might find yourself copy each and every concept of your competition and that will say to your customers: You are not original. Then some trust issues might arise as well. Be more creative in your business and do not fear to be unique.

4. Offer better customer service
It doesn’t get any basic than this. Smile, be polite, build relationships with your customers and respond to complaints quickly and calmly. It might be difficult thing to do at times but remember your source of Business Income!

5. Better payment options
You can create an environment that will accommodate both cash and credit type of clients. But be careful not to affect the rapid flow of cash. You can choose to have types of payment terms in place that will help you control your cashflow. Different options of payment will help you having a greater edge over than your competition.

By Miss Dee on behalf of Matsobanemetja Business Consulting – Coaching Division

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Why must you learn to be charitable as a business owner?

Besides feeling good when you give, it is also beneficial for both the giver and the receiver. Often people think giving is of monetary value only but in actual sense giving can be in a form of knowledge, skills, time, etc.

I have realised that small business owners become so greedy with giving, and overlooks or not aware of how giving can help in growing their businesses.

Ever seen how the big retailers use the opportunity of giving and use it as their Public Relation activity? They do not have to, but because it adds to their advantage therefore they do it. In every Financial year end when planning their budget they make sure that  PR is included, a number of charitable project will be included.

Four ways on how successful business benefit by giving to charitable causes:

1. Building respect and a good reputation in the community
Learn to identify needs within the community or ask prominent local organisations what they need help with and make targeted efforts to contribute. This way you will be able to  be recognised by the community and the support from them will come easy in future, as they know you always give back. But I also advise not to do it with pride, it should be a genuine help or else it will be confusing and misunderstood.

2. Making your community a better place to live.
There isn’t a way that you will not gain recognition and support from the community because they will be knowing you as a business that has the best interest of the community’s environmental affairs. This improves a company’s image in the eyes of community members.

3. Employees respect leaders who do good
Often employees that works for a company that gives back to the community they pride themselves in working for such company. It adds a good feeling to them and make them more motivated to work there.

4. Connections and Networking
Giving back also offer an opportunity to meet or associate with powerful individuals. For an entrepreneur or business person, the connections are valuable resources. The people you know determine what you can get done and what opportunities you can take advantage of. This help in developing a mutual trust and respect for one another, which are essential factors in doing business.

In closing if all this big corporates / giant retailers can use the opportunity of giving why wouldn’t us as small businesses, start up use it? 
We might not have same resources as them but i am sure there is a little that we can do, fund a gap and use what we can because really giving is necessary for any organisation.

By Miss Dee on behalf of Matsobanemetja Business Consulting

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We are often busy looking for new clients so we can provide our services or sell our products to. But should we? Do we even ask ourselves why the old ones are not staying with us? Or why are they not referring us?
Our customers/ clients are too sensitive yet too special to us as they also seek certain qualities from us.

1. Show Gratitude towards your clients
In this very competitive times you cannot afford to miss an opportunity to show your clients how grateful you are to be at their service. It is not easy to score a client, it takes all the hardwork, emotions and tactics to finally bring one on board. Therefore when you have managed to get one be grateful that they have chosen you out of millions of service providers that offers same services as yours.

2. Show you care
You have chosen to provide services that you have realised that there is a need or gap for it and therefore you wanted to meet and satisfy people ‘s needs and get paid for it.But don’t let the motive be the money only, but show that you are happy doing what you do before you even get paid. Hence I always advice that when you choose to be in business please choose the field that you know you are passionate about before the money factor or any other benefits. This way you will always add in your personal touch in your services to your clients and this make them feel special and they will keep coming back.

3. Never compete on Price alone
Many Business owners think the only thing they should look at from their competitors is their prices and it shouldn’t be the only case, especially if you want to build an ever growing client base. Find an element that is missing from your competitors and add it to your product or service so you can be able to attract more clients with.
At times we (as Consumers) don’t really care about the price but the quality of service we are getting from you (as the service provider). By the time your competition copy from you, you will already be advanced and able to climb to the next level. Be unique and be good.

4. Make Customer service your top priority
When I was working as a cashier at one of the top retailers I remember at our first training we were trained that we should always treat our customers as the Kings and Queens of the business. Reasons being without them we have no business really. Nothing will beat your smile, good attitude and being friendly. Treat them as visitors in business, when they feel welcomed in your space they will sure come back.

5. Invest in leave-behinds
Have yourself branded materials (with your contact details and your services) such as key holders, writing pads, pens, mugs, etc, like we do with business cards to give to your clients so they can be reminded that you are still available for business. It is very easy for our clients to forget, like I have mentioned before that we are living in a very tough and competitive times where there is many that offers or sell same services / products as ours.

There are many points i could raise / mention but above all as long as you are in business and you want to keep growing and stay relevant you will understand that a GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE IS KEY.