BIZLAND NEWS 13

Articles
- Feature Article - Alternative Analysis - The Art of Graphology, by Rudi Kapp
- In Brief - How to Set Up a Home Office, by Sally Hetherington
Useful Sites
News Update
Book of the month - The Beermat Entrepreneur
Success Story - Q&A with Kalahari.net
Quote, Unquote

Feature Article: Alternative Analysis - The Art of Graphology
by Rudi Kapp, Handwriting Expert

You are down to the last two candidates for a position you want to fill and you find it hard to choose which candidate will fit in best with your company. Both appear to be hard working, capable and honest people, on paper. You go with your gut feel and make a logical and "obvious" choice.

Not too long after he starts working for your company you get that sneaky feeling that maybe you have made the wrong decision. The person is not what you expected and does not perform as promised. The promised sales performance does not materialise and it is just too obvious that this person just simply does not have the character to fit in with your company. Where did you go wrong?

You did not use one resource that you had at your disposal … Handwriting Analysis or otherwise called "Graphology". Think about it. The candidate can manipulate normal personality tests if he/she knows what type of person will fit into the position. Handwriting analysis does not lie. There is no way to fake it and it is like a fingerprint. Each person has his or her own way of writing. It comes from the subconscious mind and has been shaped by your life up to date. Your handwriting will change as your state of mind changes and are a window to your soul.

Thousands of American corporations use Graphology to profile and employ people. Up to 80% of the top 500 companies in France uses it to screen prospective employees. The FBI uses it to do personality profiles on criminals (child molesters and serial killers, amongst other things) and even where they might strike again. Even Osama Bin Laden was profiled in this way (they actually found that the man is neurotic and worried that some of his followers might be after his position of power). Even schools use it to quickly identify problems a child might have or a problem child, enabling them to act on the problem before it gets out of hand. Psychologists use Graphologists to get a profile on a patient that might otherwise have taken them weeks of therapy to pin down. The list continues and is endless, so why not a small business owner?

As a small business owner you can learn a lot about potential employees by looking at their handwriting. For example, by looking at the letter "t", it can be seen if the candidate is stubborn or if he or she suffers from low self-esteem. From this letter it can be ascertained whether he is she is sarcastic, domineering, a dreamer, self-castigating, procrastinating, depressed or enthusiastic. The "i" can show that a candidate does not complete projects properly and tends to jump from the one project to the next. It can also show that he or she has a good memory and pays attention to detail. Once again, the possibilities are endless and the traits are as clear as daylight in one's handwriting.

So next time, when you look at someone's handwriting, I hope this article will make you pay more attention to the actual writing and not what is said. Pay attention to the strokes and the letter formation. You will be amazed.

Now for the next question … What if you change your handwriting to incorporate some positive strokes and letter formation? But that is a subject entirely on it's own. It fits in with the personal life coach category. Change your writing change your life. It is called Brain Writing.

Putting Rudi to the test...

We decided to put Rudi to the test and sent him a copy of my handwriting. This is what he had to say, with my comments in red:

Your writing is neither really tiny or really large, this aspect of your writing is not a significant piece of your personality puzzle. I can see you are not as intense as those tiny writers and you aren't as "flighty" as some of those really large writers. So, you fall into the middle-of-the-road on this character trait. Yup, I'm a pretty stable person!
Concerning the letter slant of your sample (slant reveals emotional outlay)... you show a midway between vertical and hard right-slant. Your emotional outlay is exactly halfway between an introvert and an extrovert. So, you have the best of both worlds: the ability to think logically and make hard decisions and at the same time you can still be very emotional... which means that you can spend time and get along with both types of people. Right again!
Your emotions are stirred by sympathy and heart rendering stories. In fact, you can be kind, friendly, affectionate and considerate of others. And even put yourself in the other person's shoes. When convincing you to buy a product or an idea, a heart rendering story could mean a great deal. You're an expressive person and aren't afraid to outwardly show your emotions. You probably cry when you hear a sad story, and you always take a box of Kleenex to the wedding... I cry when I see a wedding on TV! But when it comes to buying things I want to know about guarantees, costs, functionality, etc. (probably my CA hubby's influence!)
Looking at the letter "i", the i-dot is just about normal. This is a good trait to have, because it shows loyalty... a true commitment to stand by those people or ideas that you truly believe in. I stand by what I believe in!
I detected that the tops of the humps in the letters "m" and "n", you indicate a variation between rounded and pointed letters. This is the best of both kind of thinkers. You can process information both in a cumulative or procedural fashion and also in a comprehensive or fast fashion. This means that you can adapt to the people around you. If you're with a slow talker for example, you can slow down and explain every detail. If you're talking to someone who only wants the "bottom-line", big picture facts, you can speed up your thinking. Very true... But I am a woman after all and can use both sides of my brain at once! :-)
Your speed of writing seems to be average … tells me that you are a slower more methodical and cautious thinker. Remember I mentioned earlier that you tend to think before you act? Now there you go. This backs it up. Wow right again! All I can say is - thank goodness for word processors!

Rudi charges R200 for a 6 page profile. He can be contacted on 083 408 8132 or click here to email.

In Brief: How to set up a Home Office
by Sally Hetherington, Bizland Webmaster

Setting up a home office is a good solution when starting your own business. Not only is it convenient, but it allows you the opportunity to build your business in a cost effective manner, without spending a small fortune on fancy office space which could be put to use elsewhere, for example on marketing. There are, however, a number of things that you should consider before deciding to run your business from home.

Consider factors such as location, budget, permits and insurance. Click here to read on.

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The Beermat Entrepreneur - What You Need to Know to Turn a Good Idea into a Great Business

You've got a bright idea that you think maybe could become a brilliant business. But what next? The Beermat Entrepreneur takes you through all the crucial stages between those first notes on a beermat and a business that is sound, lasting and profitable. It tells you what the other books don't - the lessons that most people have to learn by bitter experience; the tricks that all entrepreneurs wish somebody had told them before they set out. Full of advice and insight for any aspiring business person, within an existing company or starting up on their own.

Click here for more Tep Ten books

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This month's Success Story: Q&A with Kalahari.net

Kalahari.net is synonymous with convenience, service and range, offering everything from DVD's, music and books to wine, software and PC games. We spoke to CEO Hein Pretorius to find out the secret of this online portal's success in the wake of the many dot.com failures...

Q: When did the idea to start an online shopping portal first come about?
A: The idea came about late 1998 early 1999. Several tests were conducted over a period of 18 months with the big business launch taking place in October 2000.

Q. How did you go about setting up the portal?
A: The shopping site was initially built using the internet expertise of M-Web. In parallel the business processes were designed and implemented by the management team who are all experts in their respective areas.

Q: Did you model it on Amazon.com?
A: Initially it was modelled on Amazon, but we very quickly realised that over-diversification would not be the key to us building a successful online venture in SA. We then refined the model and became a "head shop" merchant, focusing on products with emotional and or sensory connotations, i.e. audio, visual, taste, smell, etc. This defined our core product range as being books, music, videos/DVDs, computerware and wine.

Q: What was the initial aim of the venture?
A: The initial aim is still the same as our vision today, which is to create the largest active e-tailing customer base in South Africa through servicing previously neglected market segments.

Q: How did you go about setting the site up, what products did you initially decide to try sell, how long did the whole process take?
A: We started off with selling books and a few music and video titles. The initial set-up took about 6 months as we had to get all the products into electronic formats to be able to sell them on the Internet. Kalahari virtually created the first electronic databases for books in South Africa. We then moved on to create the first electronic database for music in SA and then later also the DVD/Video databases in SA. We have become much more sophisticated since then and today we have various partnerships with suppliers of electronic product data.

Q: Tell me more about the whole start-up process from start to finish?
A: First of all we had to create the site, which included transforming physical product into electronic data, copywriting and marketing & design aspects. Behind this we had to establish product and customer databases and of course payment gateways linked to the banks. We had to set-up a
customer service center and a logistics department handling the various suppliers and the logistics through our warehouse. Most importantly we had to get suppliers on board, locally and internationally. That was just the beginning.
Then there was the creation of effective business processes within the organisation to allow for a customer centric approach to everything we do. We have automated many of our processes and are continuing to do so. Today we have over 300 suppliers electronically connected to us, allowing us
automated product updates and stock positions within their warehouses situated locally and internationally. In addition to this we also have a corporate e-trader network of over 700 organisations, which allow for electronic trading from their portals into ours.
With this we had to design a marketing strategy through which we not only launched the business, but also attracted the customer segments we were targeting. And then we had to deliver on our promises to retain the acquired customers through which we could build a solid foundation to move
forward.
We continually evolve with the dynamic requirements of our customers and thus we are continuously improving the depth and breadth of our product offerings. Today we offer over 2 million products. We also continuously improve the value we deliver to our customers, constantly seeking to expand the boundaries of outrageous service!

Q: What sort of pitfalls did you face when starting up? How did you deal with these?
A: Any start-up faces major pitfalls. They are numerous, but we will just highlight the main ones.

	·	Credibility with suppliers - when you start out, suppliers are not that quick to jump on your train and ride into the unknown future. You need to establish credibility through delivering on your business plan and vision, step-by-step, as sold and promised. As with any business, building the relationships with our suppliers have become key and are very valuable to us today.
	·	"E-commerceability" of players in South Africa - this was a major stumbling block in the beginning. We were building an e-commerce venture, through which we obviously wanted as much done electronically as possible. Unfortunately many systems in South Africa and even some in the UK were just not e-commerceable at the time. It is frustrating to build something electronic when everything else is manual. It adds many risks to your business and of course has a major impact on how you service your customers.
	·	Supply Chain - In the beginning our supply chain was dismal, to say the least, and we disappointed many customers with absolute shocking service. We had to learn these lessons the hard way and we quickly corrected these through having the correct people on board.
	·	Thinking technology could solve everything and realising only people make a difference.

Q: Tell me about your competition. How do you keep ahead of the game?
A: Our largest competition today is still Amazon. It is hard to compete against them from a technological perspective, so we are competing on a service front and we are beating them. In October 2001, our customer base surpassed that of Amazon's in South Africa. Our other competition is more on the traditional retail front, such as Exclusive Books, Musica, Look & Listen. We understand our market and customers intimately and the correct use of this knowledge will always allow us to stay ahead of the pack.

Q: How did you market the site initially? And now? What was the initial reaction to the site?
A: When the big launch took place in October 2000, we went onto TV and did some very creative advertising. In 2001 we exclusively used radio to great effect and acquired a considerable customer base through this medium. In conjunction with this we have a very strong electronic communication
campaign with our customers. Today we use a combination of radio and TV to acquire new customers and our highly effective newsletter communication to keep our customers informed.
We also have an e-trader network of over 700 corporates through which we continuously market our products, amongst these are the portals - who play a vital role in our marketing strategy - the likes of m-web, worldonline, msn, news24 and icanonline.

Q: There has been a lot of talk about the whole dot.com phenomenon, and how many of those initial companies failed. How did you manage to stay alive?
A: By sticking to the basics. We have never tried to be too smart and one of our most basic principles in the business is "at least deliver what you promise". We have a great culture in Kalahari where anyone challenges the status quo to ensure that we are continuously improving. We also survived due to the great guts and determination of the wonderful people working in this organisation.

Q: Tell me about some of your successes?
A: Our main successes were:

· Christmas 2000 - we had our first R1million month.

· Jan, Feb and March 2001 being bigger months than the festive season.

· Christmas 2002 - doing more turnover per day than we had previously done in a week.

· The first e-mail from a customer thanking us for our exceptional service.

· The first e-mail from a customer congratulating our copywriters on their magnificent newsletters.

· The combination of an exceptional management team and the greatest culture any company could ever hope for.

Q: What sort of advice would you offer to aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those wanting to move their businesses online?
A: I would offer the following advice:

· Make sure you intimately understand the market you want to be involved in.

· Understand what the business entails from start to finish (on-line models are sometimes more complicated than they might appear).

· Make sure the business is designed and set-up with the customers being the centre of your entire universe and reason for living.

· Above all, make absolutely sure you have the right people with the right expertise and mindsets on board.

Q: Tell me a little about the people behind Kalahari.net?
A: I have already mentioned the fantastic team of dedicated staff who all go the extra mile for the customer. That is not to say that we are all work and no play. We regularily take time out to get together socially and to let off some steam - paintball, go-kart racing, tenpin bowling and the like. A punching bag to relieve stress is a favourite amongst the staff.
The management team consist of five individuals who all bring their unique strengths and expertise that has contributed to the success kalahari.net enjoys today - Andre de la Harpe (our ops manager) , Susan van der Schiyf (product development manager), Gary Hadfield (marketing manager) and Samantha Alexander (finance manager).

Q: What is the way forward for Kalahari.net?
A: Kalahari will continue to evolve, especially in servicing more niche markets, previously disregarded. We will continue to defy the service barriers and constantly challenge those organisations that only offer lip service, through the delivery of excellence, as expected by our customers.

We would like to thank Mr Pretorius for taking the time to answer our questions.

Click here to visit Kalahari.net.

Let us know if there is a success story that you want us to investigate, or if you have a story to share with us. Send your contributions or suggestions to success@bizland.co.za - we look forward to hearing from you.

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"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall" - Nelson Mandela

Please send us your comments or questions to sallyh@bizland.co.za or post them on our Discussion Board.

Until next time...

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	·	Christmas 2000 - we had our first R1million month.
	·	Jan, Feb and March 2001 being bigger months than the festive season.
	·	Christmas 2002 - doing more turnover per day than we had previously done in a week.
	·	The first e-mail from a customer thanking us for our exceptional service.
	·	The first e-mail from a customer congratulating our copywriters on their magnificent newsletters.
	·	The combination of an exceptional management team and the greatest culture any company could ever hope for.

	·	Make sure you intimately understand the market you want to be involved in.
	·	Understand what the business entails from start to finish (on-line models are sometimes more complicated than they might appear).
	·	Make sure the business is designed and set-up with the customers being the centre of your entire universe and reason for living.
	·	Above all, make absolutely sure you have the right people with the right expertise and mindsets on board.