Entrepreneurship Requires Many Cogs

This week my chat with you is quick and easy. Instead of writing an article, I'm going to let The Journal for Convergence do the talking!

Here is the feature article I recently wrote for the journal 'Entrepreneurship: Creating a Vibrant Small Business Sector: Requires Many Cogs'

Enjoy... and a big thank you to the journal for supporting us!

Chat Soon

Regards
Greg

Big Mac Conversion

It was one of those things you just have to do when on holiday in France; eat snails in a proper French restaurant in the South of France.

But, the Escargots arrived in a form never seen before. Perplexed how to get them out of their shells, sitting and starring. Picture the scene: frown lines on forehead, head hanging over plate of little molluscs; elderly Frenchman from across the room, clearly realising the confusion not able to contain himself with outward and very pointed and guttural laughter, being handed the pre-requisite implements only to have the scene from 'Pretty Woman' with the waiter catching the flying shell come flooding back adding further pressure to the challenging episode. It was one of those moments that just sticks.

There were many other fond memories from the trip: the Zimbabwean born USA winger running around Bryan Habana, and then Bryan presenting him with his own Springbok rugby jersey at the end of the game; the vicious local French support for the underdog at the Fiji game, the tremendous country of France, family, and of course walking around the cheese and cold meat section in the local supermarket. No jokes, four 20m long isles, filled with every conceivable option and flavour, and realising it cost much the same price as it does in South Africa!

This sparked my interest in doing the 'Big Mac conversion' for real. Yes, surprised? They do have 'Mikkie D' in many of the 14th century little villages we passed through in the magnificently beautiful rural Provence.

So off to the local MacDonald’s in our small town of Pertuis (Per-twee) where we were greeted by two well rounded Springbok supporters in full battle gear - flag, horns, jersey, socks and a pint of Castle in the car park! They were passing fearful looks at all French men and winking at all the passing ‘French’ ladies including my life-partner, imagining what proud, powerful and fearful warriors they must look.

Well the Big Mac was 3.40 Euro about 33 Rand, and in Durban, RSA its 15.95 Rand. So the Big Mac costs a little more than double in France. With this widely accepted economics, this 'Big Mac conversion' basically means that as a tourist from South Africa, it is twice the price to exist in France!

Of course if you work in France and are earning a proper currency like the Euro then this conversion is invalid.

Discussing this with the petrol attendant yesterday, I explained that a litre of Diesel in France is almost double what we pay here. He was surprised and said we should, 'stop crying'.

It still confuses me though, why most of the food in France's supermarkets appeared to be much the same price as in South Africa?

The Hague Community Fair

One of the most energetic Ka-Ching! Affiliates, Tony Krijger, has gone to extraordinary lengths to promote his Ka-Ching! Business. He felt that by meeting parents face-to-face would help explain the need to teach children financial literacy and to introduce the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting course.

There is no question, having human contact will help parents feel confident that the course is indeed an investment. So, if you are in The Hague, Netherlands this weekend, why don't you pop into The Hague International Community Fair, being held at the city hall atrium and chat to Tony.

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Developing intrapreneur skills

Our letter this month is written by Midge Hilton-Green presently Headmaster of Bishops Prep school in Cape Town and co-founder of the Ka-Ching! Business parenting course.

Midge agrees that not everyone is an entrepreneur, but anyone who considers entering formal employment can benefit from developing 'intra-preneur' skills and attributes - characteristics that set employees apart.

'Way back in the 80's I attended a school speech Day and the guest speaker was Mike Sander, at that stage CEO of AECI. He had a message for the school leavers and the message was simply about "the TEN things that businesses look for when interviewing prospective employees". This topic captivated the audience and myself because there had been much publicity around unemployment and the fact that less than 10% of school leavers were likely to find employment in the formal sector and, worse still, less than 40% of tertiary graduates were likely to find employment in the formal sector!'

'Being the head of a Primary school at the time and keen to provide as much added value for the pupils in my school that I possibly could, I was keen not to miss any important points. As I was an invited guest I did not feel it would be respectful to get a pen out of my jacket and start scribbling down everything that was about to be said, so I fell back on something that I had been teaching our Grade 6 pupils during the previous few weeks.

What saved me that day was one of the Tony Buzan Memory Systems which is available in the Ka-Ching! manual. I had been fascinated by his ideas at this stage in my life and had been passing them onto my pupils, but I had not yet tried them out for myself and certainly not in a situation such as a formal Speech Day. It certainly focussed my attention!

At the outset, I decided to use the Number/Rhyme system – the easiest one to learn.

At the end of the 2 hour function, I raced back to my office, opened a foolscap pad and started jotting down what I had remembered. Here they are – still as clear in my mind as they were 27 years ago. The ten attributes that businesses look for when employing people are:

• Leadership
• Teamwork
• Problem solving skills
• Interpersonal Relations
• Drive and Determination
• Specific skills
• Honesty and Integrity
• Communication skills
• Open Mindedness
• Thinking skills

The skills I used on that day to recall the important speech that was made, can be found in the Success Skills section of your manual, as well as the original images in that system to recall the above ten characteristics – forwards (1 to 10) or backwards (10 to 1) or randomly! Turn to your manual now and try them out – I give you my word that you will use them for the rest of your life.

I have taught my wife this system and hardly a week goes by without her bragging to me in the morning about how she woke in the middle of the night with worries clouding her mind and how she was able to apply the system and then fall asleep knowing that she would wake in the morning and recall every issue that was a problem to her….all this without pencil or paper and all in the dark! To this day we both use they system regularly, not only during the night, but when we are driving long distances and often when we have to prepare speeches at short notice and cannot use pencil and paper!

This is just one of the many tools we cover, but I hope that you have explored the Ka-Ching! manual with your sons and daughters and made use of this brilliant tool – you certainly will not regret it.'

Midge Hilton-Green

Can you create an entrepreneur?

In layman's terms the best way to understand what an entrepreneur is, is to consider the self-employed flower seller on the side of the road waiting for passing traffic to buy her flowers.

She only graduates from being self-employment to entrepreneur when she contacts all the hotels, wedding planners and funeral planners in her area to secure bulk contracts for supplying her flowers, and then looks to enter the export business of selling dried flowers to Europe or China, and takes a portion of her profits and invests it in something that will provide her passive income in time.

Governments, education departments around the world are paying far more attention to entrepreneurship education. It is being introduced into school curriculums and policy is being moulded around encouraging and promoting small business.

So what is the fuss all about? Do we even need entrepreneurs or an expanding small business sector? And are you not borne an entrepreneur, and surely you can't create them? It's something that happens naturally, isn't it?

Well if you look at what prestigious tertiary institutions have to say on the subject, like the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, it quite clearly identifies:

'One of the most important findings is that potential entrepreneurs lack the mindset and skills to become true entrepreneurs.' GEM South Africa, 2006.

Looking at this, it is quite interesting to consider that if you believe entrepreneurs do in fact create innovative solutions to solving problems both as intra-preneurs, inside large corporations, and through the small business sectors in terms of job creation and growing the economy in general; and if like me, you believe that we could do with a far more successful, dynamic small business sector in our country, steered by highly capable forward thinking entrepreneurs, and most importantly you agree that to create more successful entrepreneurs is through creating the necessary 'mindset and skills', then we have a major breakthrough!

I am not trying to simplify the wheel of creating more successful entrepreneurs, of which 'mindset and skills' are just two cogs - but just for a second allow yourself to dream. Just for a second, think of the possibilities of creating the correct mindset, like the flower seller, imagine if she understood her long-term goal.

If we were able to allow the creative juices to flow by implanting similar long-term goals in our young learners, where they understood the possibilities and had a clear idea of where they wanted to go, in simple terms. Isn't having the end point in mind half the battle won?

Then we just have to make sure the other cogs in the wheel such as skills, support and access to finance are provided. Imagine for a second this started at a Primary School age where not only are they learning the appropriate skills, but that they also understand, like the flower seller, where they want to get to.

Catch up soon....

Greg Bunyard

Western Province Prep School introduces Ka-Ching!

I am delighted to announce that Western Province Prep School, 'Wetpups', recently introduced the Ka-Ching! School's Programme to their prestigious school in Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa.

Mr Andre Goosen (HOD Technology) first contacted us at the end of last year to investigate introducing appropriate material that would improve their Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) learning experience. On 19th June this year, Jacqui Taylor (our curriculum advisor) and myself completed the hour and a half on-site train-the-trainer session. The teachers present were: Mr A Goosen; Mrs J Wilter; Mrs M Bold; Mr C Verdal-Austin; Mrs A Mc Naughton and Mrs B Johnson.

A lively discussion followed the training including the important aspect of 'parental involvement'. We look forward to meeting and talking to as many of the Wetpups parents to encourage their vital role in their children's EMS learning.

It is still early days with Ka-Ching! at Wetpups, but we look forward to supporting and working towards ensuring the best possible learning experience is achieved.

I look forward to the journey ahead!
Gregory Bunyard

Ka-Ching! Foundation and Ikamva Youth

The Ka-Ching! Foundation was approached by Ikamva youth with the following letter,

"It is thanks to generous support of our work in providing for the holiday programme that 150 disadvantaged youths from Khayelitsha and Nyanga are able to participate fully in supplementary tutoring, career guidance mentoring, life skills workshops, entrepreneurship education, computer literacy training, art workshops, documentary making and a photography project.

IkamvaYouth operates without core funding, and every person involved at every level of the organisation is a volunteer. It is only through donations that we are able to provide a quality service to disadvantaged youth, and enable them to realise their potential. Last year IkamvaYouth achieved a 90% pass rate, and 62% of last year's grade 12's are currently enrolled in tertiary education, and many have returned to the organisation as volunteers.

IkamvaYouth has an upcoming event with which we are hoping that you will be able to assist us. The July holidays are the last chance for learners to get some intensive studying done before the final exams. IkamvaYouth will be offering supplementary tutoring during the holidays, from 9am to 5pm. Offering lunch to our learners during this crucial time is imperative for ensuring that they are able to concentrate on their studies all day.

We would appreciate any contribution that may be beneficial to the programme.

Many thanks and kind regards,
IkamvaYouth

Some more about Ikamva:
IkamvaYouth is a by-youth, for-youth community-based non-profit organisation that drives social change in South Africa by enabling disadvantaged youth to access post-school opportunities in tertiary education and job-based training.

Based at the Nazeema Isaacs library in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, and the Nyanga library, we work with learners in grades 10 to 12.

The project is driven completely by the commitment, enthusiasm and creativity of the ikamvanites (volunteers and learners). Our volunteers are a diverse and amazing bunch: students from UCT, CPUT, UWC and Rosebank college, unemployed graduates, and young professionals working in NGOs, government and the private sector. Forty to fifty percent of our current volunteer base comprises ex-learners. This, together with our high success rate, is a striking indicator that our work is highly valued by our beneficiaries. It is owing to the great need for what we do and the fun we have doing it that Ikamva has been in existence since 2003 without funding."

Well it is early days, but I have been adding my five cents worth to the Ikamva cause. So far I am most impressed with the calibre of student I am talking to. They are impressive students - some of them want to study medicine, computer science, and land surveying. They are eager to learn, attentive and hungry for information.

I have only two sessions with each group over the next two weeks which seems hardly enough to cover the interesting subject of entrepreneurship. So what I am going to do is keep the feedback going by adding another string to the Ka-Ching! Blog and invite you and the students to stay in touch. I will add more pictures and anything interesting as it comes along.

Chat soon,
Gregory Bunyard

Mount Vernon Presbyterian School and Ka-Ching!

The prestigious Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta USA is running a week-long Ka-Ching! Entrepreneurship course. The week has only just started, but the feedback from Kelly Hilton-Green is that the kids are 'extremely excited'.

Kelly is getting the kids to start and run a real business following the Ka-Ching! structure. We will keep you posted as soon as more feedback comes in!

Kind regards
Greg Bunyard

Momentum Save Thru Spend and Ka-Ching!

Think you are a bit of a financial whiz yourself? Then you won’t be able to resist the Ka-Ching! / Momentum Save Thru Spend benefit:

If you buy your family a copy of the Business Parenting Course, you get a percentage of your money back into your Momentum savings contract.

So, what exactly is your benefit?

If you are a Save Thru Spend or Save Thru Spend Multiply member, you will receive a 20% rebate when you purchase a copy of the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting Course for your kids. This enhances your existing long-term savings, which can significantly improve your investment return when your contract matures.

Why is this such a great idea?

Save Thru Spend and Ka-Ching! are giving you the opportunity to make a double investment:

By purchasing a copy of the Business Parenting Course you are investing in your children’s future wealth and well-being and,

By doing so as a Save Thru Spend member, you are investing cold, hard cash into your Momentum savings contract.

Not only will you be teaching your kids how to save oodles of lovely money, you will be saving plenty yourself!

How do you get this amazing benefit?

To buy the course you need to either phone the Ka-Ching! call centre on 0860 639 929, where an obliging consultant will assist you with your purchase; or visit www.Ka-Chingworld.com

In each case keep your 13 digit Momentum Save Thru Spend number handy.

On the website, go to the Ka-Ching! Store. You can make your purchase online using your credit card, or you can print the order form and fax it to 088 021 671 3052.

The important thing to remember is to enter your Momentum Membership Number into the field provided on the website or form; or give it to the call centre consultant to add.

Catching them young

By: Peter Delmar, Editor, It's My Business - Sunday Times, Friday 4th May 2007

I didn't go to one of the posh schools in Cape Town, and my interaction with the likes of Bishops and Rondebosch was largely confined to the rugby field where we would try our darndest to donner the boys at those rival schools.

Recently, I found myself at Bishops Prep, interviewing that school's headmaster and five of the boys (who have now all graduated to the high school). I must admit that I was hugely impressed with everything I saw and heard there.

Almost a year ago, It's My Business ran a story about a kid in East London who was running a little business growing and selling plants. The reaction from readers was fantastic; it seems that as much as millions of South Africans dream about being self-employed themselves, they also harbour the same dreams for their children.

So I thought of revisiting the whole question of creating an entrepreneurial spirit among our children. The headmaster of Bishops Prep is Midge Hilton-Green who is a great champion of getting youngsters to think entrepreneurially. For some years, under his leadership, Bishops has been running a regular entrepreneurial competition (as do many schools nowadays). The five lads I interviewed were the "board of directors" of a company called Trash 2 Treasure. They did the usual thing of buying sweets and toys and selling them on Entrepreneurial Days but they also organised a couple of discos, held at the MD's house, which raised thousands for their business. And thousands in "tax" which they gave to their school and to a local charity.

The boys were all quite charming and obviously very excited about the whole experience of running their own small business and earning their own money.

In the next issue of It's My Business, appearing in the Sunday Times this Sunday, we feature that interview with the boys from Trash 2 Treasure. And then, on Wednesday 9 May, SABC1 is carrying a short interview with them and Midge Hilton-Green. (It should be on at about 10.20am or so.)

While I was talking to Midge in his office, it dawned on me that he is the stepfather of Greg Bunyard, who I have been talking to for some time about the brilliant kiddies' entrepreneurial programme the latter runs called Ka-Ching!

It was a happy coincidence; in fact, I learnt that Midge largely wrote the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting course.

I'm not an educator but some of my colleagues at Johncom Learning are real experts in the field of education and training so when Greg lent me a copy of the course, I asked my clever colleagues to have a look and to tell me what they thought. They were all so enthusiastic about the course (one immediately bought it for her 12-year-old son) that I prevailed on Greg to let me offer the course to It's My Business readers at a 25% discount.

The course normally sells for R1 150 but, in this Sunday's It's My Business we tell you what the course consists of and how to get a quarter off the regular selling price. If you're committed to giving your children every chance in life you won't want to miss it.

Until next time

Peter Delmar

To find out more Click here http://www.ka-chingworld.com/programmes/

Broadhurst Primary and Ka-Ching!

You have to be impressed with Robyn and Tim Jackson of Broadhurst Primary in Gaborone, Botswana. They are equipping young entrepreneurial minds with great skills. About 3 months ago they started their own Ka-Ching! Club, and wow, you won't believe how much fun they're having.

Please take a look at the Ka-Ching! Forum's where you can read the actual feedback from these budding businessmen!

Keep up the great work!

Regards,
Greg Bunyard