St Francis
- We can feel summer – on the coast it is also entrepreneurship season
- Most of the SME’s are getting ready for season
- Expectations of a busy time for SA tourists
- International tourism season from January
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 / problems.
- 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 self-reliant, 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 monetize 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 racial 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 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.
- The idea 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.
What is the difference between a small business owner and an Entrepreneur?
- 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.
- Small business ownership is a franchise, or a coffee shop. It is not innovative as such but can still create lots of wealth.
Bootstrappers?
- Bootstrappers is about the fundamentals required for Grassroots Entrepreneurship or Business redevelopment.
- Generally, a boot-strapper develops a business model with the lowest possible operating costs and a truly 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.
- We want to serve as a catalyst for new entities and to assist current organisations to navigate the changes that the post Covid world brings.
- 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).
Sustainability and Governance?
- 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.
- Governance is Godly – assist with 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.
Where is the opportunities?
- 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.
- But we have problems to solve!!!!
God and restoration
- Entrepreneurship is creative. God is creator.
- God’s purpose for us is the serve him and to serve others.
- Our calling is to create businesses that creates self-worth and a community in owners and workers
- The next thing that God is speaking about is restoration. “I will restore what the locus has stolen from you”.
- When you think about this, restoration does not only include God restoring us, but it includes us restoring the harm we have done.
- 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. Maybe I can still restore that in my life.
- 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 must deal like that.
- 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.