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May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 27 2012 13:09
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May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
1 BEING TOO ENTREPRENEURIAL: Those include being too opportunistic and not sufficiently selective and focused; to be too optimistic and miss or ignore the warning signs; to be too impatient and expect too much too soon.
2 LACK OF STRATEGIC DIRECTION: The owner-manager becomes preoccupied by operating decisions and all the demands on his time from customers, employees and the constant fire-fighting, leaving little time for fire prevention.
3 FOCUSED ON PROFIT: Most entrepreneurs are very focused on managing the bottom line by monitoring sales, gross margins and expenses. The business may appear very profitable but have constant cash flow challenges, because management is neglecting inventory and receivables.
4 POOR MARKETING/SALES: “The product sells itself”, “Price is all that matters”, “Our sales reps need to do a better job”. Those are signs of poor strategic marketing and sales execution.
5 DISTRACTED BY PERSONAL ISSUES: Family businesses, in particular, run the risk of favouritism and having family matters interfere with business success. Personalities and their issues are often ignored until they become a problem.
Source: http://www.smallbizupdate.org/