April
2002
Welcome to Bizland News - Edition 6
Editor's
Note
Miracle
of miracles - it is actually raining today. After weeks of heat ranging from
dry to humid to dry again, finally we have some relief for our thirsty gardens
and fuzzy minds! What a nice change - at last I get to pull something out
of my winter wardrobe! But even if the rain continues, I will be escaping
to tropical climates for ten days of sun, sea and sand...
After
a hectic year-end audit and many weekends spent at work while I maintained
the home-front, my husband is whisking me away for a second honeymoon - I
know, I know, two years' of marriage hardly meets "second honeymoon"
criteria since the first one wasn't too long ago, but hey - would you turn
down an island holiday for two? I didn't think so! I will try and include
a picture in May's edition! I will be out of the office from 13 to 23 April,
so if you need anything urgently, please contact Piers on (021) 671-4424 or
email piersv@saratoga.co.za.
But
I digress... This month we bring you an interesting success story about Peter
Carruthers (of "Pete's Weekly" fame) - a man who had to deal with
the hardships of failure before finding success - a story that will hopefully
inspire those of you who have at one time had to struggle to keep things going.
Peter offers some interesting views and good advice - so make sure you read
this month's success story. I was also fortunate last month to have attended
a small business club meeting (more about the club below) featuring Raymond
Ackerman - what an incredible, humble, generous person. We will be featuring
Mr Ackerman in a future edition, so keep checking your inbox! Do you know
of someone who is equally inspirational? Email
us and we will try and get their story! As always, feel free to send this
newsletter on and encourage your friends and associates to subscribe -
removal instructions at the bottom.
In this month's issue:
Feature Article: Outsourced People Management
Solutions - A Unique Approach for Small Businesses - by Kevin Alborough, Managing
Director, Human Alliance
Introduction
The
SME market in South Africa, although not new, is very large and continues
to grow, and is crucial to labour absorbing GDP growth, and more importantly,
job creation. It is fundamental for the future growth of the SA economy and
is the area where Government is focusing all its attention and incentives.
Consequently, Government strategies rely on strong growth in this sector.
The biggest challenge facing Government is the provision of a macro-economic
framework that stimulates managers to maximise the return on assets under
their stewardship. But what is the major business challenge facing all SME
owners?
The Business Challenge - Job Creation and People Management
Any
form of business beyond a sole proprietor or partnership requires people.
As business owners take risks and work hard, jobs are created. The moment
people are taken on and utilised in the business, the management of people
becomes the critical success factor. The cliché is often heard "People
are the most important asset". But how is this common cliché realised
by the business owner? More importantly, a successful business needs the right
people, at the right time and all doing the right work in order to meet the
overall business objectives. The wrong people can do significant damage and
even kill the business. Sadly, the right people badly managed can also be
detrimental and cost millions in lost opportunities.
Web of Legislation
Whilst
the Government is trying to stimulate economic growth, it has created a complex
web of labour market policy and legislation that has made the management of
people a daunting task, to say the least. It has attempted to get rid off
mass unemployment, poverty and crime through a contradictory approach of "regulated
flexibility' and improved remuneration i.e. more and better jobs.
SME's
are therefore subject to employment legislation such as the Labour Relations
Act, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Employment Equity Act, the
Skills Development Act, the Unemployment Insurance Act, the Compensation for
Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, the Occupational Health and Safety
Act, the Guidance and Placement Act, the Aliens Control Act, the Income Tax
Act and statutory Bargaining Council Collective Agreements.
In
order for small business owners to successfully operate within this complicated
legal web, professional and cost effective HR advice is necessary and desirable.
Many opportunities are lost simply because the business owner is unaware of
the framework, for example, skill development grants (which in all probability
pay for the HR advice and services).
Many
SME's find it too costly to hire someone to manage this and other non-core
functions themselves, and they tend to fall by the wayside or get managed
inefficiently. Others simply don't see the benefit of outsourcing, preferring
to struggle along on their own, instead of relying on the experts and allowing
themselves the time to focus on core issues, asking for help only at crisis
point.
Research
based "Best of Breed"
In
order to provide creative people management solutions, it is important to
focus on researching HR service providers in order to identify, select and
deploy "best of breed" solutions for the benefit of your company.
This focus on thorough research introduces a unique approach to human resource
management and is a competitive advantage. Human Alliance's team of HR Specialists,
for example, is able to draw on the research, provide the best solutions to
their clients and switch HR service providers if their performance and delivery
falls off. This approach relieves the business owner of pondering around looking
for the right HR solutions - often selected in a haphazard way and costing
more time and money than is necessary.
HR
Specialists
Human
Alliance is proud of its team of highly skilled HR Specialists who have had
extensive experience in most sectors of the SA economy. In order to provide
a cost-effective HR service to small businesses, our HR Specialists are personally
assigned to Clients and depending on the service levels required, are based
on the Clients premises (for example, for 1 day a week). The added value is
the availability of the whole Human Alliance team when this is necessary (e.g.
strike).
Conclusion
We
are currently in a climate that is continuously restructuring itself by outsourcing
non-core activities - a trend which is beginning to gain momentum in South
Africa. Most small businesses do not have the expertise, time or experience
to manage these activities themselves, yet often ignore the opportunities
that outsourcing offers. Outsourcing non-core business activities such as
HR, Payroll or Administration allows the small business owner time to focus
on growth rather than administration. Makes sense.
For
more information about Human Alliance's offerings, click on the Services button
at www.h-alliance.com
*Want to share a problem or experience with a fellow small business
owner, or simply comment on an issue of relevance? Leave your message on our
Discussion
Forum!
Back to Contents
Bizland News
NEWSFLASH!
Small business club launched in Claremont!
We at Bizland are proud to be associated with 3 to 1 Business Club, who operate
the Tygerberg Business Club. They have recently launched their Constantiaberg
counterpart, which Bizland staff are going to be managing, so please let
us know if you would be interested in receiving meeting notifications.
Constantiaberg Club meetings are held every second Tuesday of the month at
7pm at the Träumerei Coffee Shop in Cavendish Square (by the Woolies
entrance - email me
for directions). The next Constantiaberg meeting takes place on the 9th
of April, and the speaker is Ivar Drew, who will be talking about Learning
about Business from Japanese Tradition. Entrance is R50 which includes
a cup of filter coffee and the opportunity to network with fellow SME's. The
Tygerberg Business Club happens every fourth Thursday of the month at the
Träumerei Coffee Shop in the Upper Level Tyger Valley Shopping Centre.
For more information about the Tygerberg Club contact Monica
Bower.
New
Labour Seminar - Developing South African Leaders
Chennells
Brümmer & Associates & Bev Ingram & Associates, are conducting
labour seminars in Cape Town on Developing South African Leaders in our multi-cultural
society. For more information about this course click
here.
What's
new on the website?
ANOTHER
NEWSFLASH! We have revamped the Bizland homepage to make it easier to navigate
and faster to load, with all the useful links easy to find on the right. We
have also added a nifty feature to our articles - you can now email articles
to friends and print them at a touch of a button. If you haven't yet seen
our variety of useful small business articles, click
here to visit our articles pages. If you would like to comment on the
new look or make a suggestion, feel free to leave a message up on our Discussion
Forum.
COMING
SOON: We have negotiated with Dimension Data to include online tax filing
on our website, and this facility will be up shortly. It is SARS approved
and 100% secure - we will notify you when this excellent feature goes live.
Don't forget that you can download various goverment and tax forms for free
at our download
center.
We
will be adding new features on a regular basis, so keep visiting http://www.bizland.co.za to
keep up!
*Need to brush up on tax requirements? Click
here to read our handy Tax Guide for SME's.
Back to Contents
Success Story
This is YOUR space. We want to know who you are, what annoys, inspires
or impresses you in small business, funny stories, advice, or how you got
on the road to success. Please share with us and we might publish your stories
or comments in the next issue. Send your contributions to success@bizland.co.za - we look forward
to hearing from you.
This week's Success Story: Succeeding on a Crashcourse - Peter Carruthers
of CrashProof your Business
"This
isn’t a job – it’s a passion" - Peter Carruthers, CrashProof
your Business & Pete's Weekly
|
The
name Peter Carruthers may not ring too many bells when dropped in
casual conversation, but mention "Pete's Weekly" and everyone
knows who you are talking about. Through his weekly newsletter with
over 17 000 subscribers, Peter has become synonymous with his frank
opinions and fighting for the rights of the small business owner,
a man well respected in the small business community. But Peter arrived
at this point in his now successful career learning the hard way,
and now teaches other entrepreneurs what not to do in his popular
seminars on how to "crashproof" your business.
Peter
entered University having completed matric in 1975, with the intention
of completing a medical degree. However in his second year he
|
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realised
that this was not the field for him, and ended up completing a banking diploma
via correspondence while employed at Barclays Bank. Having been transferred
to their Johannesburg branch as Assistant Accountant, he felt that things
weren't working financially, and he left to take up a position handling mining
group Samancor's banking. While at Samancor Peter developed a love of computers
and spent a couple of months installing computer systems at various mines,
which in 1984 eventually led to him opening his own company, focussing on
supplying software services to IBM minicomputer users.
Peter
built up Link Technologies' reputation as having great expertise in connectivity,
and by 1990 Link Technologies was amongst the three most admired computer
firms in South Africa, with branches throughout the country. It was in 1992
that things started to go wrong, when one of Link Technologies' major banking
partners was taken over, and Peter was forced into liquidation.
For
the next three years Peter sold life assurance to small business owners,
and he used this opportunity to speak to them, asking questions to try and
find our how they survived while he didn't. He soon developed a reputation
for being an expert on the subject of business failure, and soon people
were coming to him for advice. Eventually his wife suggested that he run
a seminar to prevent people from getting into trouble in the first place,
and the first CrashProof Your Business seminar was run in November 1995.
Peter relied heavily on direct marketing to advertise the seminars, and
now runs three to four a month throughout the country.
In
1999 Peter spent some time investigating opportunities in Australia and
being lonely, started sending emails to previous delegates comparing Australia
and South Africa, the beginnings of Pete's Weekly, which now has over 17
000 subscribers. Peter believes that people enjoy his emails because he
looks at the issues that others fail to approach, rather than being inundated
with technical jargon.
Peter
spends his spare time with his wife and children on the Knysna lagoon, and
has a passion for reading, getting through between four and six books a
week! He attributes his drive to the fact that he was once told that his
diabetes would shorten his lifespan, so he makes sure that he can get as
much as he can into fewer years, even though he is still going strong!
He
offers the following advice to small businesses: don't focus so much on
the technical aspects of your business, and read as much as you can on the
business aspect to keep up with what is happening, in order to provide perspective.
He believes that in South Africa, it is better to ask forgiveness than to
ask permission. He stresses that one should not worry about what others
think, but to get out there and do it, and focus on making it profitable,
then better, then excellent!
A
final word: "The bad times are there to learn from. The good times
are there to enjoy not having bad times. But both are seasonal - they come
and go like winter and summer so don't get distressed when you're in either
season".
Back to Contents
Next month…
Next month we will be talking about Short Term Insurance for Small
Busineses, so send us your comments or questions about this topic to comments@bizland.co.za.
Until
next time... hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the islands I go...
Sally & Piers
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