Business owners and start up Entrepreneurs

Do you as a business owner find that the recession has hit your business ?  Or do you use that as a handy excuse for the state of your business ? Someone once said that if you can learn to fly in a storm just think how easy it is going to be when the sun shines !
All the basics of running a business is exactly the same in a recession than in normal times.  The only difference is that it requires more of  the skills of the Captain to keep the business on course in present times than when it was plain sailing.  You cannot afford not to understand some of the basics.
As part of our history where we were involved in the finance of SME's and our training background Optima has developed a course for Entrepreneurs starting out in business as well as established business people to sharpen their senses and give them the knowledge they need to make a success of the business.
The course is a 3 day intensive training experience where we will focus on the following:
Understand the basics of entrepreneurship by defining it , placing it in context and show you how to develop and improve entrepreneurial abilities.   We will show you how to establish the processes , assess tge profitibilities of your product or service , perform market analysis and consider the purchasing , costing an pricing models.  Lastly you will get to know how to instill serious management principles , determine record keeping requirements, how to calculate break-even point , compiling an income statement , balance sheet and cash flow analysis, perform stock and credit control , determine financial needs and learn how to source finance. We sill discuss in detail how to sell, market and build customer relations , manage and grow your business and finally the importance of compiling a business plan. 
If you ever felt uncertain about aspects of your business or have come to an important decision making stage in the business this short course is going to change your life.   If you have recently started out in business this is a must for you.  Should you consider retirement and possibly a small business as a hobby or a need you will be best advised to talk to us immediately !

The Small business man's dilima

In South Africa there are all sorts of Business clubs , Entrepreneur Clubs and small training institutions that try to give directions and to offer help to Small and Medium Business owners and start up entrepreneurs.
Should you wish to start a business and grow this into something of value to you and your family and prospective employees you need to run this business professionally.  Medium to large corporations have normally access to all sorts of training providers either in-house or external.  When utilizing external  providers the businesses normally has an HR division that have the time and expertise to establish the credentials and expertise of these providers.

Small business does not have this luxury but still need this training and expertise to either start their business with some experts behind them or they may need to develop the business and obtain some skills they might not have.

Start ups especially need a business plan - This is very seldom a proper document and if it was needed for obtaining finance it was most probably drafted by an outsider for that purpose and the business owner has not made it his own.

As business knowledge developers we have brought together experts in the field of small business to bring  a unique business course to the market - Details can be found on this blog.

The partners in this venture is Optima (full details here : www.optima.nu) and The Academy for growth acceleration (Pty) ltd (South African Services Seta accreditation pending).

This course will enable both prospective Business owners and existing ones to sharpen their axes for the challenges of the business world.   The contents of the course focuses the following three aspects of Small business and we see this as the most challenging :

1.     Develop an Understanding of Business ownership
2.     Develop the business processes
3.     Instill sound business management Principles

Details of these courses will soon be available and posted on this blog