Please Advice, I have been using my personal bank account while conducting my business, now I would like to open a Business bank account, which bank provides the best services for a start-up small business? ...

I have my Logo in place, my marketing idea in mind, and my goal at heart.Today I will start to work on the info for my website, luckily I have good friends who are very good at uploading and hosting websites. Its alot of data, specific data for each and every...

Today I awoke to the sun peeking its head out from behind the Hottentot Mountains greeting the earth and blessing us with its rays.Birds sing going about their business of being birds.  Snails snailing along the wet grass avoiding being gobbled up from the beings above.Yes a beautiful morning in Cape...

I was literally speechless when a complete stranger called me up and said that he wanted to donate money to BizStart. He’d listened to me talk about my project on the radio and liked what he heard. He also wanted me to introduce an additional component and his organisation would pay!...

How to free yourself from the debt trap 9.6 million credit active consumers had negative payment records in December 2009 according to the latest Credit Bureau Monitor Reports. Hundred of thousands of newly purchased cars are being re-possessed by the banks every month – proof of consumers still living beyond their means.

You may be surprised to hear that there are only 5 ways to increase your profit. It may sound scary, but actually, when laid out in a business framework it is easier for you to work on your business.

  Financiers are getting it wrong, says Allon Raiz: the business plan should not be the primary consideration when deciding to lend money to a small business. This is the fundamental premise of Raiz’s new book, Lose the Business Plan: What they don’t teach you about being an entrepreneur, which hit...

Hi! I;m Barry and used to have a construction business until the recession took it away. I am sure there is many more people like me who lost it all, including the jobs that go with it, but we have to somehow get up and running again.

Problem: What can one do to get finance from a financial institution for a new venture? Here's the bad news: Without at least 80% (and mostly 100%) security for the loan, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! I have an business plan rated by all banks I applied at as "EXCELLENT". Loan required only R200 000 - R250 000, gross profit estimated around R1.3 mil in the first year, but "Sorry, we can't help you." 20 permanent jobs in 12 months, more to come, good profit, excellent business plan, cheap to run, excellent profit prospects, what more would they need? IDC, Shuttleworth Foundation, Khula, a wheel barrow full of others: NO GO.

Although motivation is a great by-product of the coaching process. The way I see it, if you own your own business, you already have motivation. You either want the big house, car, yacht or whatever else you’re striving for, otherwise you have bills to pay and creditors beating down your door.

Now your motivation may wax and wane and in my experience it moves in direct correlation to how empowered you feel as a business owner. If things are going well, you will feel powerful and motivated. If things aren’t going well and you find yourself thinking from the ‘effect’ side of the cause and effect equation you will feel like you have very little motivation.

Business Coaching is about taking control of your situation, evaluating your options and then taking action. It is in taking action that you are returned to the ‘cause’ side of the cause and effect equation and your motivation returns by the shed load! When I was running my business in London for the past few years I moved from one side to the other side of this equation many times but once I studied how to be a coach and started coaching myself I learned how to get myself back to the right place quickly....

A young friend of mine, who has his own home caretaking (construction) and project management business proudly announced he’d bought his wife (who has the cleaning side of the business) a Volkswagen Beetle. Whilst he was driving it back to his home he came up with all sorts of wonderful ideas to market his wife’s business around the words bug, after all, the car is affectionately known as a Beetle Bug. His first creative attempt was “has the cleaning bug bitten you yet” with visions of this slogan painted on the side of the royal blue Beetle. The name “The Cleaning Bug” pinged for me and I suggested they use it for this business as it didn’t have its own name, trading only under his business name. And so the name “The Cleaning Bug” was adopted. Catchy – yes! And there’s more. The creative juices continued to flow and he’s decided to put an advert into the local newspaper which read “has the cleaning bug bitten you yet? Get vaccinated – phone ..” Catchy? Yes. Effective? No, no, no!