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With the evolution of cloud services over the years, entrepreneurs from across the world can compete with each other by simply having access to the internet. Cloud services may have its perks, though having access to the skills to adequately develop innovative internet-based products and services are either scarce or too expensive for your average SME -- especially in emerging markets.With a focus on startups in Africa, StartSmart offers turnkey software solutions to other companies that don't have the adequate ...
To many small and medium business owners, even the word ‘governance’ sounds scary and Victorian. However, despite popular opinion, the value the governance process adds to even the smallest of enterprises is fundamentally misunderstood.Business owners often go into their particular business because they are passionate about it. They may know anything from a little to a lot about actually running a business, the particular industry they are entering and the roles that will be required. Among this group of business ...
When the ecommerce boom first hit, retailers scrambled to develop an online presence. Whole departments were created to manage this separate branch of commerce and create an identity and back end that was both distinct and similar to their brick-and-mortar experience.At the time, it made sense that the ecommerce business and the brick-and-mortar business should be run in separate silos. After all, something that seemed so new required a different approach from traditional retail — or at least that was ...
As Microsoft charts a new course under Satya Nadella, the company's former head and now Microsoft board member, Steve Ballmer, has been candid about his experiences at the Redmond software giant. The ex-CEO's latest public words came via a fireside chat hosted by Professor Peter Tufano, a long-time friend of Ballmer's and Dean of the Saïd Business School, part of England’s Oxford University.We've extracted some entrepreneurial gems from the talk, but if have an hour to kill, the school has ...
If you had to pick any industry that Africa seems to have clung onto since its tech boom, it has to be ecommerce. For the most part, it's relatively easy to set up an ecommerce shop. There may be some logistical challenges, but it seems to be an easier industry to play in.Ecommerce globally is a big deal these days, but the fall of EcoMom shed some light on online shopping's dark side. A telling report by the company's financial ...
The saying rings true: Turnover is vanity, profit is reality, cash flow is sanity.The importance of cash flow management in business.With looming deadlines, urgent customers, growing priorities and narrowing margins robbing you of your sleep at night, I know how far down 'proper' financial management is on your list of things to do.For entrepreneurs, financial management seems like a luxury afforded to more-established businesses, and definitely not something we need to apply in the early days of business start-up.Read more ...
Innovation plays an integral role in the longevity and existence of any startup or company, irrespective of which line of work you are in. Customers today are always looking for what their service providers can do for them. And they want you, as the service provider, to provide them with solutions to problems before they even realise there is an issue.Companies are also struggling to retain important knowledge and intellectual value, as key skills are sometimes lost to competitors looking ...
Last week I attended the SiMODiSA forum set-up for South Africa’s entrepreneurs and investors to help promote the conditions necessary for entrepreneurial activity to flourish -- something South Africa desperately needs.Malik Fal from the Omidyar Network opened up with some powerful numbers:There are 50 million South Africans of which 15 million are economically active. Of these, 10 million are employed with only 5 million earning sufficient income to be registered taxpayers. This is a ticking time bomb, as he ...
The much talked about success story of Africa tends to highlight the continent's growth. The economy might be improving at an impressive rate yet there's still a growing pool of young, talented and creative citizens who are left unemployed. To remedy this, big businesses play an increasingly important role to foster Africa's noteworthy potential.To give you a better idea of how such programmes can really change the lives of people around the continent, winner of the 2013 Anizsha Prize, ...
If you’ve spent more than a minute in the African tech scene, you’ve probably heard of Ushahidi -- and the Kenyan team behind the non-profit software didn’t stop with their crisis mapping, crowd sourcing service. It went on to create iHub, a space for Nairobi’s geeks and innovators to meet, collaborate and turn their ideas and code into the next wave of exciting startups. It then went on to rock Kickstarter with the BRCK -- its backup generator for the ...
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