Week 9 - Your Passion

Following on from the TED video by Larry Smith (available on the course Vula site under Resources/Resources), I would like you to consider & share your passion and what may be standing in the way of your realising this passion....unless...

Week 8 - Working with Others

A big part of making a success of an entrepreneurial venture is to find the right people to work with and to create an environment in which you can all work well together as a team.  For this week's blog post I want you to read the article (on the Vula site under Resources/Readings) titled 'The Team as Hero', and share you thoughts regarding the article and how you would build a team for your entrepreneurial venture.

Week 5 - Financial Analysis

Following the discussion in class regarding the information that can be gained from using various financial ratios, for this week's blog activity, you need to compare the four key financial ratios for Pick n Pay Stores and Shoprite Checkers for their latest financial results.  More important that just calculating the formula, is to comment on what they mean, especially when comparing one store to another.

NOTE: It was pointed out to me at the end of class that everyone will essentially repeat each others entries given that you are all working with the same two companies.   I should have spotted that :)  So - thanks to Caitlin who has responded thus far using P & P and Shoprite, for the rest of you, I need to you identify two other companies from the same JSE sector and do the comparison. Apologies to those of you who have already started looking at the P & P/Shoprite financial information.

Week 4 - Leadership & Management

Having now watched the movie Apollo 13, and having reflected on the differences between management & leadership, I would like you to share your thoughts on the subject in relation to the movie.  Why do you think I chose to show you this movie and in what way does the movies illustrate management practice and leadership?

The picture below is of the original crew - Lovell, Mattingly & Haise.

Week 3 - Risks and Risk Management

After today's lecture you should have some understanding regarding the difference between risk and uncertainty.  Risk being an insurable event and uncertainty being a so called 'Act of God'.  Have a look at the following article and share what you think is the relationship between risk and innovation.

Week 2 - Market Research

OK so now you have a business idea, and you even think its a good one, but is the market ready for your great innovative product or service?  So as you will know from class today, you have lots of questions that you need to ask yourself to determine if this is a 'go' or not.  The Kellogg's Case showed that there are various tools that you can use to analyse & research the market surrounding your product or service.  One of the most common and comprehensive tools is a PEST analysis.  See here from information regarding PEST.

So your last for this week is to apply the PEST analysis to one of your individual business ideas generated and noted in the last Blog entry.

Here is my example using one of my business ideas - Crime Scene Cleanup.

Political - there are no political barriers to operating my business.  Given the current high-levels of crime in SA and the general nature of many of these crimes (e.g. domestic violence), I think there will be a good market for my business.

Economic - the country and the world is in the midst of an economic recession and as such these are not affluent times. That said my service could well be regarded as an essential service or no one will want to live or work in a property that still has evidence of violent crime.

Social - my business addresses a somewhat unpalatable social need - something we would all rather not speak about or know about.  Marketing will have to be done carefully and will due consideration to the nature of the environment in which I would work.

Technological - there are technical barriers to over come which is also good for the business (limited competition).  I would need Hazmat certification and the appropriate training, equipment and insurance.

Cheers,
Jonathan

PS - See the movie Sunshine Cleaners

Week 1 - Business Ideas

Hi everyone

I am sorry for the jumpy start to the course with regards to the venue, hopefully this is now behind us and we can catch up on class time and session activities.  I will be posting a blog entry each week and you will be required to comment as part of your assessment.  There will be two posts for this week (this post and another one tomorrow).

There have been some questions regarding what constitutes a business idea connected to 'the built environment'.  Lets use this post to all share a few ideas.  If you look at the BE sector from a macro perspective we could imagine the following broad areas: -

1. Procurement (design, construction)
2. Servicing (maintenance, facilities management, etc)
3. Professional services (architecture, QS, engineering, etc)
4. Sector support (marketing, finance, etc)
5. Business support (legal, accounting, HR, etc)
6. Ancillary services (estate agency, contract cleaning, security, etc)

So using the list above, please indicate in your comment to this Blog post at least six business idea (one per 'broad area') that are connected to the built environment.  Here are my six: -

1. Procurement - Safety Clothing (aimed at designing & developing branded safety clothing for construction sector)
2. Servicing - Crime Scene Cleanup (aimed at addressing the specific biohazard issues of cleaning a property after a crime has been perpetrated).
3. Professional - Photography Service Business (aimed at documenting the construction of new building).
4. Sector support - Property Marketing (agency focussed only on marketing of high-end industrial & commercial properties on behalf of developers)
5. Business support - Accounting Services (accounting/bookkeeping services for one-man (woman) businesses.
6. Ancillary - Printing Services (outsourced brochure printing and distribution for estate agency sector)

It's as easy as that : ) Lets see your ideas ....