My passion is to help people to systematize and scale their businesses. I help with strategy formulation business model innovation and implementation. My current focus is to assist entrepreneurs to take their businesses online as this is where my passion lies.
Taking a business online requires you to think completely different about your business. For example, how does relationship building look within an online world? What new opportunities do you have in the online world that you do not have or were restricted to in the offline world? How do I sell my products online effectively? How do I do after sales follow-up? What systems do I need to help me do all of this?
There are so many questions, and it is my passion to help you navigate the digital world. The problem is that the online world has so many systems, and one person would swear by one system, force you to use that system. Often this is because they are used to that system only!
My approach is to first find out what your longer term strategy is and then look at the technological requirements of your business. The last thing you want is to build your business on a system that is not future proof in your business, because changing systems are very expensive. I help you look at variables beyond the bells and whistles. For example, a system might look fancy, but then how well will that serve you in the future?
Often in the online world one has to choose between looks and substance. I found that a careful balance between the two and your strategy is extremely important if you do not want to have money going into an endless pit.
We don’t know the future, unless we design that future. You do not want to get stuck in your business because a system does not do what it is supposed to do… Buying you time and giving you freedom!
I have helped several businesses, and my story starts as a child. I was about 14 years of age. I wanted to have parties at home and invite all my class mates. For that I needed DJ equipment so that I could make the music. I also wanted lights. Lights fascinated me. All of this cost money!
My mother had an estate agency, and I saw that she printed out from an old system the addresses and contact details of prospects, about 4 per page. She printed hundreds like this. I then decided I could help save paper and make it easier for her and her team to canvas for new business.
I created a software programme that would scrape the details from the old system, place the data in the appropriate fields based on patterns that I had identified on the way the old system works. From the database I could then print the records on paper in a more logical and easier way for them to do their canvassing. This also saved 8x the paper they would use otherwise. I then sold this software to other estate agencies (her competitors).
This was my very first business, but it was short lived because soon I could afford the DJ equipment and start the parties… That too was short lived as I soon realised that is not my Gig…
My next business where I helped people to systemize their processes was when I was at university. I studied Management Services, which basically trained me to become a management consultant and business analyst. However one of the modules was based on time studies, and I saw a great need for a piece of software that would manage the huge amount of data in a better way and do the calculations. We particularly used this in our consulting, and then ensured consistency regarding our reporting and accuracy of calculations.
This software was also sold to big manufacturers at the time. I then realised I am an entrepreneur and like to help businesses to improve and get better results. To learn more, I joined the university as an academic and completed my PhD.
My PhD was to systemize business coaching in an online environment. The challenge was the engagement of participants in the online coaching versus offline coaching. This problem I have solved through my PhD by introducing various interventions in the programme.
Currently I am helping small businesses scale their businesses using the internet and appropriate technologies. Sometimes they don’t like my recommendations but eventually return so that I can help them. My favorite is to help you expand your market online using digital marketing, and then automating that process as soon as possible.
TAKE MY BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
