Why do we need entrepreneurship?
- We can continue in disillusionment, joke about load shedding, a world-wide pandemic, the resultant economic collapse, or we can change the narrative and seek the opportunity in the catastrophe.
- What is required is a mind shift change from receiving from my government, my parents, or my employer to a self-empowered mind of self-reliance.
- When we become focused on self-reliance, we can learn to connect between problem and opportunity.
- Once we see the magnitude of problems as opportunity, it will be obvious that there is a lot to be done. It is within everyone’s power to be a problem solver and to monetise the solutions.
What is the situation in SA?
- Problem = Opportunity. We have lots of problems
- We must stop waiting for government to give us something.
- We cannot eat politics or hatred
- All the most successful economies are built on entrepreneurship action.
- South Africa is known to have some of the lowest Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rates in the world.
- The only thing we can do to change (if you are not happy) is to pitch up at the next election and vote. Other than that, it is outside off our powers, but seeing what is wrong, and making it better is within us.
- We don’t need more hand-outs from Government, or more jobs for skilled people, we need to become the creators of competitive advantage, the strategists that understand that Covid did not put our economy on pause, but that everything will look different in the future.
What is bootstrapping?
- Bootstrapping is the Entrepreneurial term used to display the idea that people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps once they are motivated and equipped to do that.
- Like with all business strategy, the concept is focused on an individual or groups Vision of their ideal future.
- Bootstrapping is about using the rags effectively to create richness.
- Start-ups often have low levels of resources, but are often not using what they have access to the best of their advantage.
- The development method is focused on what the community / business has to offer, equipping them to use their existing resources to be both entrepreneurial and strategic to develop revenue streams/wealth from this grass-root level.
- Once revenue streams are started and stable, the focus moves to business coaching, governance and sustainability.
Bootstrappers?
- Bootstrappers is about the fundamentals required for Grassroots Entrepreneurship or Business redevelopment.
- The building blocks to sustainability are to live within your organisational means, to get the work, to do the work cost-effectively and to get paid in time.
- BootStrappers can assist with solution based outcomes, from developing business models and strategic plans, by coaching/teaching valuable business skills, sorting out governance issues, which will ultimately turn you into a sustainable business owner.
- Sustainability will enable you to be self-reliant, a future employer on the twisty road to self-realisation.
- If you think about this logically, the entrepreneurial science is built on innovative problem-solving skills that can be taught / learned.
- These skills are displayed by passionate and tenacious leaders, who are willing to start with a big vision, often a small budget and lots of perseverance.
- Bootstrappers is a Strategic Business Development Agency focused on early stage Entrepreneurship Development and/or Strategic Development / Repair of Start-ups or Small, Micro and Medium sized Enterprise’s (SMME).
The South African economy is in serious trouble. As a matter of fact, it was in serious trouble before Covid hit our shores in March 2020. The Government had no or any real space to move. Basically, bad governance, too much debt, socialist views of a big portion of the voting population and blatant theft from leaders without any recourse/restitution has led to disinvestment and downgrades by rating agencies.
It is often easy to blame others for our problems. But we are free to choose/vote, but not free from consequences of our choices. Post Covid, the government
Dr Leslie and Elzabe Boshoff can contribute to strategic entrepreneurship development in South Africa. They have a combined entrepreneurial history of more than 50 years. Leslie holds a National Technical Diploma, a Masters and Doctorate degrees in Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Strategy Development. Elzabe is in the final three months of her honours qualification in business administration.
The post Covid period calls for an Entrepreneurship Business Development Agency to serve as a catalyst for new entities and to assist current organisations to navigate the changes that the post Covid world brings.
The partners chose Port St Francis as their home, and as the home for the agency for some interesting reasons. St Francis already has some very interesting Entrepreneurs. The town also has the necessary infrastructure and a labour pool available. Currently it is a peaceful and a save town to live and we love the water.
Why BootStrappers? Generally, a boot-strapper develops a business model with the lowest possible operating costs and a very short cash cycle i.e. fast inventory turnaround and a cash-only approach to selling. We are living our message, keep your personal overheads low, and spend less than you earn, reinvest your profits, share resources’ with the experts and don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
BootStrappers the will be established and promoted through the office. As we all know, tourism is seasonal in the region. The Port of St Francis office will also accommodate a development service and a booking office for many tourism related businesses. Currently the agency will act as a for commission booking office for the following services:
The next thing that God is speaking about is restoration. “I will restore what the locus has stolen from you”. I was given this prophetically a few times over the last three months. When you think about this, restoration does not only include God restoring us, but it includes us restoring the harm we have done. I am still chewing on this thought, but I want to make a point of listing the people or institutions I have harmed in my past. This is not a list of those who just don’t like me, it has to be a list of those who I justifiably did (or do) wrong to.
Here is my confession, and I am going to use a very old example. About 20 years ago, we sold a trip to a group of international students. The issue was that our business was under so much pressure that we overcharged them. The trip went well, but I justified my behaviour (to myself) that if I don’t do it, staff will lose their jobs thus doing the wrong thing is ok. One could argue supply and demand, but in my heart, I knew our mark up was over the norm and it has bothered me for decades.
Governance, Leadership and Sustainability include a spine. Right is Right and wrong is wrong and if we are expecting God to bless us, not to have holes in the pockets where the money comes in, we have to deal like that.
This extract is from yesterday’s Daily Maverick. “there will be a price to pay for the Covid-19 corruption that has considerably weakened our ability to respond to the pandemic…. It is difficult to countenance the notion that whoever profits off this destruction and impacts our ability to save lives and restore society, can reasonably be said to represent society faithfully. It is so clearly immoral and bereft of ethical integrity that no sane and reasonable person could possibly defend it. It is simply beyond the pale; unacceptable in every way”.
This is our truth, we can no longer use excuses as a scapegoat from our reality. If you choose to lead an organisation, do it with a spine, do not make debt that you cannot repay, govern your organisation well, if you can’t, get a gatekeeper who can (and allow him/her to get on with it). If it is too good to be true, it normally is. As for the terrible individuals responsible for the theft from the poor, it is never too late to change and start the restoration process.
You are not done until the final whistle, God only knows why terrible things happen to good people (and there is a lot of it going around). If you lose your loved one, if you lose your job, or your house, stop think and breathe, take a timeout, it might be God telling you to rethink/redirect. God tells us to stay away from the fighters and the s… stirrers, because they will steal your peace. Talk to someone shining brighter than you, someone that can guide you through the rubble and back into a purpose filled life.