“As an entrepreneur, one of the biggest challenges you will face will be building your brand. The ultimate goal is to set your company and your brand apart from the crowd.” (Ryan Holmes, Founder and CEO of Hootsuite) Trying to get a business off the ground is challenging. Every step of the process requires a mountain of time and investment. Choosing between going it alone or involving others as partners or investors is a decision that should not be taken lightly. In this article we’ll break down the options available and take a look at the pros and cons of each. 1. Going it alone Self-funding, also known as bootstrapping, is when a business owner goes it alone, providing all funding, time and energy themselves. Pros of bootstrapping Whether you’re finding the money from savings, or your monthly pay cheque at another job, bootstrapping is perfect for the entrepreneur who wants full control over their business. With no partners on board, all decisions are yours to make, and all the profits, achievements, and losses are yours alone. Apart from the independence it offers, bootstrapping can also be easier. There’s no time spent filling in application forms or putting together pitch decks to impress would-be investors. There is also no accrued interest on the debt involved and no loss of equity in your own business. This makes running the business far simpler. Cons of bootstrapping On the downside, bootstrapping can be much slower. Each cent spent on the business needs to come from your own pocket and so necessary investments need to be prioritised from month-to-month. Things that are essential for success may need to wait another month – and this can mean your break-even point takes longer to arrive. Bootstrapping also increases your chances of failure, as some expenses simply can’t wait if you want to make money. Bootstrappers are also more likely to become frustrated with the slow pace and give up.    2. Tapping into venture capital Venture capital (VC) is one of the most popular routes for finding funding in entrepreneurship. This is where a company or an individual provides funding to your business in exchange for a percentage of ownership. Pros of VC Venture capitalists are able to offer significant investment in the company and can often provide all the funding necessary to take the company from start-up to established business. What’s more, venture capitalists likely come with significant experience in business and a strong network of contacts. Cons of VC Working with venture capitalists requires that you give up some control of your business. This new partnership can create friction if the person who pays the bills doesn’t share your ideas of where the company should be headed. In some instances, their investment may even give them a majority stake and the dream you had of being your own boss might now be a thing of the past. 3. Touched by an angel (investor) Angel investors are also happy to provide the financing necessary for…

“The unfortunate need people who will be kind to them; the prosperous need people to be kind to.” (Aristotle) Strategic business partnerships are an integral part of any successful business and yet very few entrepreneurs think of the opportunities which arise from partnering with non-profit organisations. Collaborating with NGOs and charities has been shown to offer many of the same benefits achieved through regular business partnerships – as well as a few additional, and perhaps unconsidered ones. Here’s why helping others may also end up helping you. Make the circle bigger Like any other business partnership, aligning with a non-profit gives businesses shared access to one another’s contacts and opens up doors that previously may have been locked, or not considered. By hosting combined events you’re sure to not only meet the leaders of other companies in your position, but may also uncover new talent, enthusiastic and empathetic leaders and creative mentors and volunteers. Greater brand exposure By moving into these new areas, brands stand to not only make valuable business allies but are also likely to expand their own customer base. By partnering on events or activities with a non-profit, your brand immediately becomes exposed to the non-profit’s audience in a way that’s real, and likely to generate a warm first impression. According to research conducted by Consumer Goods, 82% of shoppers want a brand’s values to align with their own. When a charity’s audience sees you offering your support, they know you care about the same things they care about. Improve employee happiness In a survey commissioned by former Unilever CEO Paul Polman in 2023, a whopping 76% of respondents said that they want “to work for a company that is trying to have a positive impact on the world”. The study further found that more than half of employees said that “they would consider resigning from their job if the values demonstrated by their employer did not align with their own”, while 35% of respondents claimed to already have quit a job for this reason. Improve your image How your business is presented in the media impacts consumers, current and potential employees, and prospective partners. Good press is therefore vital for business expansion – and assisting a non-profit is a great way of ensuring that what’s being said is positive. When you help a charity, you put your brand values and ethics front-and-centre for people to see and admire. This goes a long way toward fostering goodwill toward your company and building positive brand association. Reap the tax benefits There can also be tax benefits to assisting charities and non-profit organisations. The donations made can be in cash or kind, and must be made to qualifying public-benefit organisations (PBOs). These organisations are registered with SARS and will issue donors with a certificate in terms of section 18A of the Income Tax Act. The total deduction must comprise no more than 10% of your taxable income for the given year of assessment and must be made with no…

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.” (Colin Powell, United States Secretary of State) Of course you plan for your business to grow. But in an environment of constant change, it can be hard to know where to place your energy. These three focus areas will help you position your business for growth, regardless of the external circumstances. 1. Clean up your finances A business that’s ready for growth is one that understands its finances. How much money can you afford to spend on advertising? What investments need to be made to maintain infrastructure or hire the right staff? And can you afford to keep going if there’s a disruption in your supply lines? Businesses with tidy finances are able to answer all of these questions and more.  If you can’t answer every conceivable question about your finances, then you need to ask your accountant (that’s us) to help you get them in order. Here are a few pointers: Separate business and personal financesBusiness finances that are intermingled with personal ones create confusion and make it difficult to get a clear picture of just where the business is headed. Introduce bookkeeping softwareYou may not have the time to stay on top of your finances when you’re running the business – but that’s okay. Using bookkeeping software can keep you one step ahead of the game, and it will definitely save your accountant time. Regularly update your financial statementsAsk us to keep a set of financial statements up-to-date and on hand at all times. Financial statements can open doors, allowing you to get necessary funding, apply for awards or government incentive programs and/or build an accurate business strategy. 2. Optimise your client base Improving company finances doesn’t have to mean introducing new products or expanding into new territories. It’s far simpler to maximise the benefit you’re getting from your current market. Do this by ensuring your sales and marketing teams are functioning at the best possible level, getting the right information to your clients, and then maximising the impact they have on those clients. Focus on building genuine relationships with your customers by engaging with them and their needs, providing top-level service and offering value beyond the sale. If you truly care for your customers they will care for you, and you will find yourself at the front of the queue when it comes to new market information and advice on how your product could be improved. Your sales team should also be encouraged to follow up with potential new clients to ensure opportunities aren’t being missed.  3. Analyse your existing offering Growth can also be generated by making sure you’re offering the products your clients need at the right price. It’s no good pouring money into a product that’s not right, or which isn’t as good as its competitors. The first step to finding out if you’re on the right track is to ask yourself the question, “If we stopped…

“There's life and death in every email.” (Bill Gates) Over the past 25 years, email has become synonymous with office life: a recent study found that the average worker sends between 9,000 and 15,000 emails a year. All of this is happening despite email being fundamentally flawed in multiple ways that choke businesses and, in some cases, even kill them off. Here are four reasons why email needs to go. It thwarts productivityThe first thing most employees do in the morning is to check if they have any important emails. Undoubtedly, they do – but these are often buried among a slew of customer queries, spam emails, company newsletters, messages from business partners, employee announcements, HR updates and IT memos. According to one study, wading through these emails to find the vital pieces of information can take employees up to two-and-a-half hours every day.The need to constantly check emails can interrupt employee thinking processes and break the vital concentration they need to keep their workflow going. This can slow down projects at every step with the hours adding up dramatically over each project’s lifetime. Worse, the need to be permanently online can mean this is happening with personal emails too. It slows down collaborationFor one-to-one communication, email retains a powerful role. But in groups, it’s seldom efficient. Email threads where some are always included, and others seldom lead to email dead-ends, lost information and uninformed team members. Even if you are kept in the loop, it can still be confusing. Is the version of the document in your inbox the latest one? Or has it been updated by someone else on another thread?  It’s damaging staff mental healthThe two challenges above lead directly to a third, perhaps more dangerous one – an attack on employee mental health. The need to constantly be available, connected and ready-to-reply is exhausting and can lead some employees into anxiety or depression. Humans simply aren’t wired to have their attention constantly divided. No wonder email overload can lead to a notable decrease in our ability to function, with one study suggesting this to be the equivalent of a 10-point drop in IQ.  It’s a threat to your safetyThe internet is full of scam artists, criminals and opportunists – all of whom are trying to find a way to steal your data and/or your cash. While antiviruses and firewalls may offer protection from many forms of attack, they can’t protect from everything. According to Seacom, 40% of cyber events that result in loss are Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams. BECs – emails designed to trick staff into giving up vital information or downloading malicious software – result in an estimated R53bn in global company losses each year.  So, what can you do? Train your staff  Email isn’t going anywhere. All enterprises, no matter their size, need to find the budget to adequately train their staff in the correct, most efficient way to use emails to reduce the burdens on themselves and their colleagues, while also reducing the…