Your ENTREPRENUERIAL DREAM can come true

INTRODUCTION

If you are dreaming of starting a business you have two options to contend with: to dream small or think small and condemn your entrepreneurial endeavours to a small enterprise, which may enable you to lead a hand- to- mouth life style or you can start dreaming big dreams and thinking big and start up a business that can grow to be a multi- billion dollar global player.

DREAM BIG AND THINK BIG

Dreaming of starting and operating a business that can be a global player is not only limited to those that are born from already affluent and well-invested families or those that have the highest academic qualifications. You can be born African, black and poor and having only known a poor related subsistence and a wanting environment, but you can change your attitude and elect to walk away from your unfortunate circumstance by dreaming and thinking big. Dreaming big and thinking big business is a choice that everyone has the liberty and the constitutional right to exercise. You can, like thousand other rich people use other people’s money to get rich legally. Raymond Ackerman used other people’s money (shareholders and creditors) to buy the original Pick & Pay shops in Cape Town and today he is an unsung supermarket hero of South Africa.

HARVEST BUSINESS IDEAS FROM THE INTERNET

In addition, the internet has become the biggest source to harvest business ideas of any size to help you in your endeavour without paying a hefty price. Nowadays there are also a number of publications, forums and advisory centres in government sponsored websites of both developed and developing nations that can be accessed by any aspiring entrepreneur. The best place to start harvesting business ideas is namely the www.fsp.co.za and the www.ezinesarticles.com respectively but not exclusively. You can possibly navigate your way around the internet to find other interesting business tips.

FINANCIAL SUCCESS AND ALL OWNED RICHES HAVE THEIR BEGINNING IN A DREAM

It is my contention, therefore, that all financial success and all owned riches have their beginning in a dream or an idea that is coupled to a burning desire to get up and do something. Henry Ford, founder of the famous Ford automobile company just had an idea that the mass production of cars was feasible and he undertook to implement his idea and it paid off immensely; hence we still know about him many-many years after his departure from the planet earth. As matter fact, the man who is ranked the richest man on earth today is not rich because of money: he is rich because of an idea that was coupled to a dream that he transformed into a reality.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, irrespective of your race or current status and ranking in the social stratum, if you have an entrepreneurial dream do not procrastinate or sell your dream short by advancing unwarranted excuses that could render your dream stillborn. You can start your business today- with or without money and by using other people’s money- and make your dream come true. If you get started soon on your entrepreneurial journey, please drop me a line, maybe you’ll be my chosen guardian angel.

TALENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Description and examples

Talent is described as a special gift and or a natural ability. A gifted or talented individual has above average one or more skills in their chosen field of endeavour. For an example, the R&B singer, Ms Beyonce Knowles is not only a talented musician, but she is equally a talented dancer, actress and an entrepreneur with a line of designer fashion items. There a numerous other talented entertainers and sports personalities who have turned their talents into enterprise empires that are continuously making them millions in revenue. The famous golf pro Tiger Wood boast of numerous business ventures that ranging from golf paraphernalia, various brands, and how to play golf books and electronic golf games, which all together yield billions of ZARs.

The internet is an equal opportunity tool

Any individual with average or above average talent can normally exploit other opportunities that direct or indirectly related to their field of endeavours. They can promote items that have to do with the how- to-do-it with an online pay as you use price tag, literature, or a book. In today’s world of information it has become easier to use the internet to sale any marketable item directly or through many online stores that operate 24/7. If one cannot write confidently, they could send documents they wish to publish to language experts for editing and subsequently publishing the information on the internet for sale per click or a downloadable electronic book or pamphlet or publish the traditional way. The internet is an equal opportunity tool that is available to any person who has elementary computer skills or just plainly willing to promote their talent based enterprises international without running huge bills with regards to overheads and advertising costs.

Conclusion

But one can also elect to use the internet to teach the rest of the world their unique skill or any endeavour, or just to share ideas and exchange notes with those that have similar talents. Individual poets, various artists, musicians can upload their works on www.MYSPACE.com or www. YOUTUBE.com

START A SUCCESSFUL PASSION DRIVEN FOOD RELATED ENTERPRISE

INTRODUCTION
A passion often is described as a strong desire of wanting to do something. It can be a strong and unyielding desire to always spending most of your spare time to grow a variety flowers in your garden or maybe to tend your multi variety vegetable or mini fruit backyard orchard. Perhaps your passion is cooking African cuisine and always inviting friends and extended family members to taste your latest food and cocktails recipes, and then you should consider a cuisine outlet. The list is in-exhaustive with regard to passion driven desires we are all involved in. But the most important fact is that all of the above-mentioned and more could be individually turn into a money-making venture on part time or full time basis. If your passion is coupled to the desire to research and know more about your indulgent subject, then you have all the reason to want to consider starting a successful venture.

PASSION IN GARDENING
a. A passion in gardening of any kind could be turn into a venture specialising in commercial production of organic fruits and vegetables to supply supermarkets or start a large scale venture that could export to a number of countries which are yearning for chemical free and carcinogenic free fresh produce. On the other hand, flowers could be produced and marketed all over South Africa and exported all over the world year in and year out. If you have already started tending an acre flower garden, look no further. The 2010 world cup extravaganza coming to South Africa (SA) could be your ideal stepping stone to launch your flower selling venture.

PASSION IN COOKING AFRICAN CUISINE
b. A passion in cooking economical, quality and tasty African cuisine is a sure ticket to a profitable venture. You could start a local outlet in a good location in your local town or city. If you couple your passion to a good production process, accounting and marketing skills, you could duplicate your business in major cities throughout SA through franchising. There are a number of listed companies and professional bodies that could help you with franchising at a nominal fee. Your unyielding desire to improve your production process, could even duplicate your venture to the rest of the world because we know about the Chinese food and the Italian pizza duplication in SA and nothing or very little about any African cuisine outlets in Shanghai, China, or Sicily, Italy. Remember. People have to eat at least three (3) meals a day. And on weekends, young and old couples and families not only prefer to eat out, but they prefer to sometimes explore and experiment with different dishes. African cuisine outlet could be one of the choices.

CONCLUSION
The market for your flower garden could be realized sooner by exploiting the demand that will be represented by the 2010 soccer extravaganza in SA. There is also a market in South Africa and the world for chemical and carcinogenic free fresh produce. And there is even a bigger potential market for African cuisine outlets in small to big metropolitan areas of South Africa. Basically, the potential for marketing African cuisine is limitless and grossly under-traded from Cape to Cairo. Your passion for cooking African cuisine could, therefore, be turn into a venture the world has been waiting for the past centuries.

START A VENTURE: REAP HUGE PROFITS ON YOUR IDEA(s)

The following article is aimed at encouraging individuals to act on their idea(s) by turning them into a business venture. It is coupled to future articles that will discuss how to turn one’s *passion, *dreams and one’s *talent by starting a profitable venture to help solve the lack of entrepreneurship and employment in our communities. And perhaps to offer solutions to the myriads of problems we are currently facing.

START A VENTURE: REAP HUGE PROFITS ON YOUR IDEA(S)

Do you know that your idea(s), *passion, *dream(s) and *talent can be turned into a business venture that can make you thousands of rands, or even millions of dollars? As a matter of fact, everything that is man-made and you today depend on started as someone’s idea, or passion, dream or talent. The idea originator did one thing: (s) he took his/her idea to the next level by acting on it. Thereafter, the idea became tangible and usable. By acting on the idea/passion/dream or talent, their names have been etched in the annals of history into perpetuity.


The good thing about man-made-things is that individuals that acted on their ideas, passion, and never deferred their dreams or buried their talents are no better than you and me. In addition, you do not need to be an A-student or a genius in a particular field or to know about rocket science in order to start a sustainable business venture.

As an example, the following items that have become essential tools and gadgets in our lives all started as an idea: cellular or mobile phone started as idea not so long ago. But today we cannot leave home without it. The mobile or cellular phone in today’s lifestyle is regrettably an indispensable communication tool the world over. The software (MS Office) we are so dependent on as individuals, business, government and schools started as an idea.

If you have been exposed to electricity and the many things that cannot work without it, life becomes unmanageable; you do not only feel inconvenienced, but you’ll feel that your life is topsy-turvy and completely disrupted. Now think. If Messrs Faraday,Volta, Telsa and Thomas Edison separately and individually never acted on their life changing idea, would you even worry about power outages? On the other hand, would you have been afforded the opportunity to use your laptop or Personal Computer, if Bill Gates did not act on his life altering idea which was based on Intel 8008 processor which was invented by- then a not so famous- California based company, Intel?

Join the millionaires club right now. It is absolutely free. The only requirement is a resolution to act on your idea- today and not tomorrow- to turn it into a profitable venture, and reap huge profits. Failure to act will certainly condemn your name in the rooster of the nonentities of this world. The saddest fact is that your indecision to act could possibly rob humankind of the best solution to some of the problems we are currently facing. Remember, by acting on your idea/passion/dream or talent, it is very possible that your name could be etched in the annals of history into perpetuity.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE PART 3

Entrepreneurship in South Africa is tinged with the ideology of classifying the ability of individuals with the pigmentation of one's skin color. Blacks have for centuries been regarded as drawers of water and hewer of wood and only to occupy designated occupations. And, white supremacist propaganda stated that blacks were not attuned to understanding the complexities of business. The spread of the apartheid gospel in 1948 to discourage entrepreneurship in the black community was further aggravated by the introduction of a myriad of legal barriers, which confined blacks in designated areas which were lacking basic social amenities like shopping centers and skills training facilities (Smollen, et al, 1986).



The consequent of the previous policies encouraged and promoted a culture of dependency in the black community throughout South Africa. By implication job creation was viewed as a government's (read white man) burden. As the political views of the previous government spread its tentacles to every fibre of the society of South Africa, they then manifested themselves as impediments that were to prevent blacks from starting businesses, or even thinking of starting employment and wealth creating ventures for themselves. On one hand, the financial institutions and white businesses went along with the policies of the government and failed to assist blacks that demonstrated talent of entrepreneurship.

On the other hand, the white academicians reinforced the notion that blacks are cultural not inclined to business by advancing nefarious theories that ignored particularly the history of black people in South Africa, and Africa in general. This manifestation of the lack of strong business inclination and the culture of enterprise need and entrepreneurship cannot be addressed by the markets because they lack the capacity and the drive to foster such ideals to the black population, only the state can intervene directly.

The 1945 Bantu Urban Consolidation Act recommended that there was no need to encourage the emergence of a Black capitalist class in the urban areas. Black urban entrepreneurs were only restricted to supplying only the daily essential requirements of their community (Smuts, 1986: 25). In spite of that, there were exceptions. The Business Report (2000: 2) reporting on the success of a pioneering Black cane furniture manufacturer Mr. Shikwane, who triumphed against adversity and apartheid humiliation states that: ''During the heights of apartheid blacks were not allowed to own manufacturing businesses in Soweto and other ''White areas''. But Shikwane defied the authorities and started a manufacturing concern in Orlando. However, during the forceful removals and relocation of blacks in early 1970's Mr Shikwane and Mr Kgabo, leather product manufacturers, were forced out of the urban areas. They became the only two successful black pioneer manufacturers operating in the homelands of Bophuthatswana and Venda respectively (Potgieter 1979: 13).

However, the plight of black entrepreneurs has not changed for the better since 1976, when the then Nationalist Party government lifted the ban on the type and the number of businesses that may be operated by blacks. The SA Development Monitor (1998: 9) is of the opinion that the current policies have not yet adequately addressed the demise of the true black entrepreneurs in the township because most township entrepreneurs are long on energy and enthusiasm but short on credentials. They also lack the universal perspective of exploiting the niche markets and the comprehension of markets beyond their neighbourhood. Therefore, the starting point for any policy would be to address the fundamental problems of entrepreneur education before offering added solutions.

THE AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EXPERIENCE PART1

According to Smuts (1986: 10) the concept of entrepreneurship is alien in the traditional Bantu society and to the African culture in general. The introduction of business activities in Black society came about as a result of contact with Western culture. McMarthy (1998: 429) opines that because indigenous entrepreneurial classes and a dynamic private sector did not exist, and also since dependence (in the case of African states) on foreign investors was to be avoided, the state assumed the role of entrepreneur. However, there is no evidence to suggest that, once contact had been made, there has never been a shortage of Black South Africans who were not prepared to take business risks (Smuts, 1986: 12).

Smuts and McMarthy's assumptions are however refuted by Caputo (2001: 106 - 118) who states that “for more than 2000 years Africans traded with the Arabs, Indians and Chinese along the Indian Ocean, from Mogadishu to Mozambique. By 1000 AD Africans from the interior settled on the eastern coast to farm and fish; they later adopting Islam from Arab traders. The African converts to Islam became known as the Swahilis. These Swahilis later became leading traders, and consummate middlemen, who sold gold, ivory and slaves to Asian merchants whose ships arrived on monsoon winds.''

According to the World Bank (1989: 136) two important items of intra-African trade was salt and iron, which were not only relatively scarce but were also restricted in limited locations. Iron and iron working skills also formed the basis for intra-trade because they were in demand and rather scarce. Furthermore, the World Bank states that entrepreneurship has a long history in the Sub-Saharan Africa. In the tenth century, before the continent of Africa was discovered there were free markets at Timbuktu, Salaga, Kano and other routes of Trans-Saharan trade up to the present day Zimbabwe, where archeological evidence indicates that mining activities were linked to Arab export market on Africa's Southeastern coast.

In the latter years, slavery and colonization impeded the rate of growth of entrepreneurship amongst Blacks in South Africa and in the rest of the African Continent because of the usurpation of fertile agricultural land by the colonial masters (Moll, 1991: 152). Agriculture was the main engine of economic growth in the developed world during the last fifty-three years (Drucker 1978: 5). Peter Drucker's statement simply means that the coterie of black entrepreneurship and the basis of wealth were wiped out during the process of colonization. Therefore, it cannot be denied that the decline of African entrepreneurs was also impeded during the balkanization of Africa, and was further aggravated by African bureaucrats during post-independence by introducing and implementing ill-conceived development policies, which favored large-scale enterprises over indigenously owned and operated businesses (Vosloo, 1994a: 120).

According to the World Bank (1989: 136) two important items of intra-African trade was salt and iron, which were not only relatively scarce but were also restricted in limited locations. Iron and iron working skills also formed the basis for intra-trade because they were in demand and rather scarce. Furthermore, the World Bank states that entrepreneurship has a long history in the Sub-Saharan Africa. In the tenth century, before the continent of Africa was discovered there were free markets at Timbuktu, Salaga, Kano and other routes of Trans-Saharan trade up to the present day Zimbabwe, where archeological evidence indicates that mining activities were linked to Arab export market on Africa's Southeastern coast.

In the latter years, slavery and colonization impeded the rate of growth of entrepreneurship amongst Blacks in South Africa and in the rest of the African Continent because of the usurpation of fertile agricultural land by the colonial masters (Moll, 1991: 152). Agriculture was the main engine of economic growth in the developed world during the last fifty-three years (Drucker 1978: 5). Peter Drucker's statement simply means that the coterie of black entrepreneurship and the basis of wealth were wiped out during the process of colonization. Therefore, it cannot be denied that the decline of African entrepreneurs was also impeded during the balkanization of Africa, and was further aggravated by African bureaucrats during post-independence by introducing and implementing ill-conceived development policies, which favored large-scale enterprises over indigenously owned and operated businesses (Vosloo, 1994a: 120).

THE AFRICAN ENTERPRENEURSHIP EXPERIENCE PART 2

The above discussion established that South Africa has a very low enterprise density. Only 2 per cent of the South African population are entrepreneurs as compared to an average of 10 per cent elsewhere in the world (Ntsika, 1997). In comparison with a selected sample of the developing economies particularly that of three neighbouring states of Southern Africa, namely Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe have on average a higher enterprise density than South Africa.

The low number of enterprises in South Africa can be attributed to the previous policies that were not in favour of individual initiatives in business, but were more inclined to favour large corporations and big businesses. This can also be attributed to the policies of apartheid, which restricted non-whites from owning and operating businesses in designated urban areas. The low number of enterprises does not augur well for solving the current nagging problem of unemployment, especially in the black communities, both in the urban and rural areas of South Africa.

However, culture is a missing concept in the theory of entrepreneurship and economic development. Moreover, it has led wittingly or unwittingly to a tendency that has come to be known as the ''Eurocentric or paternalistic approach to development''. This is true where there has been a historical incident of colonialism as is the case in South Africa, and Africa where the previous colonial governments created a black underclass, which was robbed of role models from which the young generation could be inheriting entrepreneurial skills.

It is therefore concluded that the SMMEs sector could play a vital role in the economy by creating the much-needed jobs, and thus help in the alleviation of poverty and in facilitating the distribution of income. As Smuts stated above: "There should be no restrictions relating to the provision of resources and know-how; in particular, there should be no distortions and imperfections in the market for capital, (skilled) labour, and essential facilities such as transport, utilities and business premises.''