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Assume nothing expect anything

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The idea or concept of approaching anything in life whether in (business or a big move away from family) with a logical approach, is important. The approach of assuming nothing, by not getting your hopes up about what can or cannot work. This also applies to friendships, relationships, life lessons. It may help to assume nothing from anything or anyone, but prepare yourself to expect everything. This way you have a clear understanding and level of consciousness to be aware of anything unusual about a deal or contract you have to sign. What this helps is to be mindful about the decisions you make. Which teaches you to make sound decisions under pressure. We all know how life can get so overwhelming to a point that you become depressed.

Assuming nothing

The concept of assuming nothing is to create a way of being in which you are able to remove emotion in making critical decisions that could affect important decisions. Life can be quite humbling, leading you into situations you never expected yourself to be in. Planning your future hopes and dreams of having a particular life, but having to face the reality that some of those hopes and dreams may not come true. Depression is something that hits people hard on a daily basis. People are taught to work hard and to follow their dreams. However in reality certain hopes and dreams we have as we grow older, tend to show the fact that we taught from a young age to view the world a certain way. However, when it comes to how life really is we find it difficult to cope, which leads to many facing depression. Depression hits the best of us and we taught to just suppress those emotions and act strong. Sometimes the best option you have is to not suppress your depression but to pay attention to it and let your self heal, sometimes its best to talk about it with loved ones or a specialist. Sometimes you just need to have a day that is specifically designed for you to do things you feel like doing.

A factor that has helped me go through certain aspects of my life with a slight handling, is what I like to call “down days”, which is basically paying attention to me and my health. Paying attention to the food I eat and paying attention to my sleeping patterns and daily routines, working on my bad habits daily and finding good habits to replace those bad habits.

What I will say is that walking into rooms, making decisions on a daily basis like solving problems. I use a very peculiar approach pattern of thought, when it comes to how I present myself as I walk into rooms and how I make decisions. Which is that, I assume nothing and expect anything. By doing this I am allowing myself to be given the benefit of the doubt, by a certain situations. Furthermore by expecting everything I am eliminating any possible chance of having a certain high expectation and replacing it with a logical observation and understanding of that particular situation/moment. I am basically teaching myself to unlearn the fact that I deserve everything. Also I’m giving myself a clear mindset to see things with clarity in order to make the best decision towards a particular predicament I may be facing or the excitement of getting my hopes up before decisions are made. It allows me to manage my stress and it also as mentioned allows me to think logically and ethically about the decisions I make. this also feeds me the right energy to produce humility in my decision and analysis of things irregardless of the outcome.

This concept of assuming nothing and expect anything allows me to build a mindset that helps me narrow down the best decision without using ego or pride to make a decision. This particular process is similar to the concept of failing forward. Because in life things tend to move in a way which leads to you failing a lot. However failing is not necessarily a negative outcome, it is an opportunity for one to learn from their mistakes and to understand what went wrong by analysing what you could’ve be done different, could be lack of preparation, or how you communicate your product or idea.

Im not saying this will cure ones anxiety, but what it will do is allow yourself to not take certain situations into heart and to understand that life is filled with ups and downs, meaning not everything will go your way and that it is okay to be sad or angry from time to time, but its not okay for you to transfer that negative energy towards someone else because you bottled it up inside.

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

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The language of Colours

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By Tshepo Leroy Dube

Colours evoke a sense of
feeling that can be described as a form of language, that is ideally used in
our daily lives to express certain emotions. The particular feeling one gets
when they are looking at a certain colour. How colourful nature gets, on a
spring morning when all the flowers blossom evoking a sense of good energy
around, as the sun shines. When a loved one dies, in certain cultures wearing
black for a few months as a form of mourning, until a cultural ritual is done
to cleanse your body from your loss to signify a clear path to a brighter
future and ready to move on.

  • Red: Passion, Love, Anger
  • Orange: Energy, Happiness, Vitality
  • Yellow: Happiness, Hope, Deceit
  • Green: New Beginnings, Abundance, Nature
  • Blue: Calm, Responsible, Sadness
  • Purple: Creativity, Royalty, Wealth
  • Black: Mystery, Elegance, Evil
  • Gray: Moody, Conservative, Formality
  • White: Purity, Cleanliness, Virtue
  • Brown: Nature, Wholesomeness, Dependability
  • Tan or Beige: Conservative, Piety, Dull
  • Cream or Ivory: Calm, Elegant, Purity

From
what you consider to be your favourite colour. To the common theme of colours
in your closet, to how Robots/Traffic lights communicate with us. Red means
stop, Orange means prepare to stop and Green means go. We are constantly using
colours to communicate on a daily bases certain colours used to indicate
specific signs others to define what we do, from police wearing blue and
medical doctors wearing white coats.

Testing out commonalities in colour
communications leads to discovering, that most countries and cultures use same
colours to express the same meanings without even realising how colours are a
universal language. The colour GREEN is mostly associated with nature. RED
being the colour commonly used to communicate power or danger or love. ORANGE
regarded as the colour that signifies Energy,
Happiness or Vitality. Black is known to represent a more Mysterious approach,
Elegance or Evil look. The colour white has been seen as a more Clean, Pure and
Virtuous representation. Other colours such as BLUE represent Calmness,
Responsibility and sometimes Sadness hence the phrase Blue Monday or feeling
blue when one is under the weather or feeling down.

Fun Fact about Colours in Japanese
culture

Ever heard of the saying Japan Blue?
And wondered why? When foreigners were allowed to
enter Japan during the Meiji period (1868－1912),they were so astonished at the
fact that indigo blue was everywhere in Japanese towns that they called it
“Japan blue” Kimono, bedding, hand towels, noren–Japanese people would use it
for everything.

Indigo is a natural dye
made of fermented leaves of the indigo plant mixed with water. At first it was
used by aristocrats, but in the Edo period (1603－1868), all sorts of people
from common folk to samurai wore dyed clothes. Indigo-dyed clothes were not
only fashionable, but they also had three additional benefits: the fibre
becomes stronger after indigo dying, it has an insect repelling effect, and it
has a UV protective effect. Nowadays this colour is still used in a lot of
Japanese items, even blue jeans. https://kokoro-jp.com/culture/298/

When you enter certain
business fields you start to see how colours are important and also in certain
religious beliefs. In corporate life the suit blue is regarded as someone who
is trust worthy and responsible this can also be said as the reason for Police
being known to wear blue. Orange is a common colour known for energy, happiness
and vitality. Monks are known to wear Orange as a way to represent exactly
that, seeking happiness and having constant energy and not just any kind of
energy but the energy that can be received as peaceful and filled with Joy just
by being in their presence.

Many people in the
business field adapted the concept of colour importance. It could be stated
that in the past colours were used to differentiate the different rankings in a
certain company and also colours are used in places like restaurants such as
McDonalds chose the colour yellow as one of their main colours because that
colour represents happiness, joy. That also connects why their food is designed
to bring families together. 

Now that we know that
different colours symbolise different energies, it is easier for those who are
designing logos and starting new companies to understand that whatever they
pick from uniforms, to how their company looks colour wise. The colours need to
be communicating the right feeling, that speaks to their target market. You
want to make sure that the colours you pick make your customers feel safe
enough to want to use your services/product/goods.

your everyday life
…

miuc.org

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

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hedonic treadmill theory

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By Tshepo Leroy Dube

“The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.” wikipedia.

To understand hedonic treadmill a bit better I’m going to tell you a story, a story that contains a father and son. Daedalus known as one of the greatest architects to ever live in the greek mythology. He was famously known for being the key architect of how Crete looked and designing a spectacular labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. It is said the labyrinth was so cunning that those who entered could not find their way out. The only way out was with a magical clue that would assist you find your way to the nearest exit. One day it is said King Minos imprisoned Daedalus together with his son Icarus. While imprisoned in the tower it is said Daedalus would watch the birds that would fly by and study their aerodynamic ways of flying. This is, where he thought of the idea to craft wings from fallen feathers and wax. By doing this he understood he would be building a risky escape plan for him and his son. It is said that Daedalus spoke to his son Icarus before taking flight, stating to him that they should not fly too high or too low and to follow his lead in order to have a safe journey. As usual Icarus felt the need to not listen to his father, believing he new better and he could reach the sun. It could be said he could have been mesmerised by his feeling of flying, after being in prison for so long. Wishing to go as high as possible in order to reach the sun. It can be said that sun was the only thing besides the birds that Icarus could see, which made him dream about reaching the sun one day escaping, his anxiety could have played a major role in wanting to escape his reflection of earth and reach the sun. By not taking heed to his fathers warning, lead to Icarus’s wax wings melting and his feathers scattering, leading to him falling to his death.

The feeling of not being satisfied with what you have. The feeling of, whatever you may achieve or get is never enough to make you happy, so you constantly wanting more. This also means that people who feel like they need to get to a certain stage in their career or life to be happy, quickly learn that wherever they go they still face problems. The trick is to find happiness/peace irregardless of your circumstances or life situation, understanding that life is meant to be lived through all kinds of problems and that the key is to understand that the worlds filled with ups and downs.  The spirit of Daedalus is a strong key of what we could consider as the hedonic treadmill theory, as you look at his story of how he designed an amazing labyrinth for a king and that same king placed him in prison later on with his son. In prison Daedalus. Daedalus at his lowest could have easily given up but his strong will lead to him designing a master plan for his escape. His son Icarus on the other hand is the example of what happens when you don’t find a balance in your life, this state is known as the Icarus effect.

When you chase your dreams or set goals always make sure to expect the journey of reaching yours goals to have ups and downs, twists and turns, reason being that every goal set or dream chased, comes with challenges that will test your limits and sometimes you will want to give up.

So in closing the key meaning to not only understand, but to take from this thread is that you don’t need a miraculous life in order to be happy, happiness is a state of mind and not a place.

The myth of Daedalus and Icarus

The Hedonic Treadmill: From Consumerism …

vacounseling.com

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

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If tress could talk

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WHAT WOULD THEY SAY?

Fun Fact About Trees

“Trees can live anywhere from less than 100 years up to more than a few thousand years. It all depends on what type of tree it is. In the United States, the tree with the longest lifespan is the bristle cone pine, which grows in the mountains of Nevada and southern California. A singletree can live up to 5,000 years!”

Trees are known to live for thousands of years longer than the people who plant them. In those centuries it would be interesting to know what the trees have seen and experienced the difference in temperatures and weather changes over the years. Different animals who have occupied or fed from the trees. The stories that trees could tell would be far interesting. To live so long could it be said that trees could tell us our journey as human and how civilisation took place?

Civilisation

If we were concious enough to speak to trees could they tell us their pain from watching their families being cut down daily for human benefits? Could trees tell us about their trauma from listening to their loved ones crying for help as their cut down. They could tell us about the toxic pollution they’ve had to endure as we create our chemical based factories and constant smoke over the centuries. They would tell us about the droughts and fasting they’ve experienced the stories they could tell us could help us reflect on our own evaluation.

Humans

The love, hate relationship trees would have with us humans, would be a very interesting factor or discussion. What do trees think of us, have we been good to them?  The knowledge we could learn, in order to rectify a lot of our errors. Think of the information they’ve passed down generation after generation, knowledge that surpasses human existence. The stories they’ve been told by their ancestors about life before humans. They could tell us about our development over the years to our current state of Homo Sapiens.

Extinctions

Plenty of animals and plant based creatures have gone extinct in the past few centuries, imagine the stories trees could tell us about such creatures how they lived and what they particularly like to do during the day and what they did in different seasons, how they seemed to feed and choose to eat and what caused them to go extinct, what could have been done to prevent such from taking place. What could be done differently to prevent the next animals from going extinct. Imagine the amount of time effort it would save certain  scientist to learn about certain things, not only scientists but also historians and farmers and garden lovers, so many could benefit from communicating with trees, would we be better humans if we could communicate with trees? Would we see things differently if we could take a slight glimpse into what trees have seen over the years?

Health

Imagine the health benefits we could get from different trees, the knowledge we could learn from trees about certain things that they have that could be used to cure diseases and cure illnesses and how we could prevent certain animals from dying not only humans but all living creatures.

Fun Fact About Trees

Some tree species — such as silver maple, green ash, sweet gum and black willow — are thought to be more tolerant to flooded soils than other trees like black locust, black walnut, tulip poplar, sugar maple and American beech.

Recovering From Disaster

Great Basin bristlecone pine

At roughly 4,800 years old, this Great Basin bristlecone pine is one of the oldest trees in world. Methuselah grows nearly two miles above sea level in California’s Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. It’s been in good company over the past several thousand years.

Fun Debate Topic

I leave you guys with a cool fun debate to have with your friends and family, on the endless possibilities of this question. IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST AND NO ONE IS AROUND DOES IT MAKE A SOUND? Remember the more you ask questions about this and think outside the box the more interesting it will get.

For those interested to share their results after their Debate email me at tshepod@nsabasi-publishing.co.za.

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

@NsabasiNBR

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Quantum Computing 

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As complex as quantum physics is the theory and practicality of a quantum computer seems like something straight out of a science fiction movie. The idea that one can possibly be able to access information at a far superior rate will be the biggest game changer since the landing on the moon.

IMAGE COURTESY RIGETTI COMPUTING. PHOTO BY JUSTIN FANTL.

One of the definitions found online state that; “Quantum computing is the use of quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform computation. Computers that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers”.

Now for someone like myself who is not truly in tune with quantum physics that definition is a lot to digest , so I took it upon myself to find out how I can easily understand what quantum computing really is and what it could theoretically do in the future. Now to distinguish the difference between a quantum computer and our regular computer or classical computer.

Our modern/classic computers (cell phone, laptop, desktop, smart TV, etc.) all function on bits which predict things in 0’s and 1’s meaning your information has 2 alternatives to choose from. To elaborate a little further what is meant by that is, when you take a coin you notice that there’s 2 sides: heads and tails. Now if you were to flip that coin you get either heads or tails it cannot be both at the same time. So this means that you have a 50 % chance of being right with your predictions when you toss a coin. This applies to research when you are searching something it will take longer to find a cure with modern/classic computer as it would with a quantum computer.   

Now with a Quantum Computer first thing I noticed was that it does not look like any computer I know or have ever seen. Now with what I know about normal computers using bits to function a quantum computer uses what is known as quantum bits or for short “qubits”. Now to explain Qubits continuing with the coin analogy. We have distinguished a computer functions like a flip of a coin. Qubits allow a quantum computer to change the scenario by functioning using amplitudes, which allow the computer to not flip the coin but make you spin the coin which allows one to have a series of possibilities because now your information can be 1’s or 0’s or both, because by spinning the coin your predictions are no longer heads or tails but because you have a spinning coin it is able to distinguish the best way faster than a normal computer. So in other words what would take years for a normal computer to do will take a quantum computer seconds.

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

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Ikigai: A word that transforms a life time of decisions

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By Tshepo Leroy Dube

Pronounced as (eee kee guy) .

Ikigai: A personal, process of finding your true purpose in life. The process of truly understanding what you are good at. What you truly love. How you feel when you are doing what you love. Knowing, how you start your day everyday affects/defines, how your day will look like for the next 24 hours. In a nutshell it is a journey of discovering your balance through stages and phases of your life.

Now there are four stages of this flow-state process, to identifying your ikigai.

  1. Doing things that you are good at
  2. Doing things that you love to do
  3. Doing what the world needs
  4. Doing what generates money

Now the trick is finding a balance between these four stages in order to find your true level of ikigai.

  • What you good at + what you love = passion
  • What you love + what the world needs = mission
  • What you can get paid for + what the world needs = vocation
  • What you’re good at + what you can be paid for = profession

Without all four of these in motion at the same time you have not reached ikigai. Another way to look at how it works, picture four pillars. These four pillars, hold your purpose of being up and keep it at balance. The moment you remove any one of the four, the entire flow-state crumbles. So ideas such as retiring become non existent because what you’re doing is so fulfilling. Therefore with each stage and step of your life you are able to adjust it into your circumstance and able to face any hurdle / obstacle, that is placed your way. You are never certain which curve ball life will throw at you, nevertheless your flow-state is prepared for such situations and this too can be said for ones business.

Finding ikigai is not something that comes lightly as it requires you to dig deep and do a little bit of soul searching, while grasping your strengths and weaknesses. Understanding that your past and future are filled with attainments of growth. When you’re at your bliss, to remember the lessons learnt on your bad days. When you’re dealing with bad days it is ideal to understand that good days are coming. You just have to be patient and understand that life is a balance of every emotion. The journey is finding a true balance within your chaos and success, this is the state of ikigai.

It is fairly easy to speak about successes but, it’s very difficult to talk about our failures. With ikigai flow-state you’re suppose to see the bigger picture in your flaws as much as in your successes that balance is what fore fills your fuel to keep doing what you’re doing when you see the right results. It is the process of taking care of you’re self physically mentally

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

@NsabasiNBR

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Collaboration in the business

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By Tshepo Leroy Dube

A picture from –What Is Collaboration and Where Does It (seapointcenter.com)

Collaboration in the Business Sector

The meaning of collaboration is to work jointly on an activity or project with the intention of reaching a certain goal. This is one important factor for business. Most start-up companies fear the idea of collaborating, because they fear the image of their business will be tarnished leading to their profits dropping. Most small businesses cringe at the thought of collaborating with a company trying to reach the same objective/s as them.  The fear of being out of business, fear of risk taking can sometimes be the downfall of your company. Such thoughts are a state i like to call “defensive mode”, where companies start to compete. Most reasons why some start-up companies don’t make it past five years is truly because the passion, vision and timing of why they started their business goes out the window when they try do everything alone, with hopes that no one takes claim of their success and so forth. Similar businesses start to look like threats so you compete and start to lose the reason why you started your business and what makes you different.

However collaborating with someone or a company to achieve the same goal, shortens the time frame of your goal being reached earlier. The reason being, it is no longer just you doing all the work. You are now able to trade with other people information and learn some of the things that you couldn’t have learnt alone and through this process, new projects are born for you to immerse yourself in. More valuable hours are put into your craft, with the help of a team that understands your mission. The approach of collaborating can be elementary if you ask very specific questions that have to do with you and your company. For example: what do I gain from working with them? How does my company benefit from this? How can we best work together? Why do I need to work with them? What value do I bring to the table oppose to the value I gain from collaborating?.

“What value do I bring to the table oppose to the value I gain from collaborating.”

To dissect this a little further, once you understand your value and the value of your company, it becomes easier for you to position yourself in places that make you understand what you have and lack (finding your niche). When you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your company. The process of projecting, what it will take for you to achieve or grow your company to its full potential, begins. The next step is then to position yourself with companies (networks) that have what you need. Which places you in a position to make collaborative decisions to benefit you and your collaborative partner/s. For example take a company that designs and manufactures tables for a living. The company may be doing well financially but until that company takes the approach to collaborate with a “chair company”, their sale may never grow as much as they want it to. The value of a chair company is the ability to now have a complete set to sell (table/desk & chair) from this you could split the profits and keep your individual profits from your original work separate. This makes each product viewed from collaborative aspect and individual aspect. The amount of time it would take you to start up and build a story line for your new chair line and “perfect it” to the desires of your clients, is shortened by collaborating. you not only get their experience from selling chairs. You have first-hand experience, their data base and  the time frame of getting your new products ready for market is far simpler as you both have the capabilities of making individual products on time then collaborative products should then be easier and faster to process.

You access their database to create a bigger database you both have a new target audience

Most of the time new companies who choose to compete find themselves losing the direction of where they originally wanted to take their business, because their vision is now blurred by wanting to be ahead of their competitors by seeing what they are doing and trying to produce a better product. By doing this you are not only closing your companies innovative potential you also tend to start forgetting about your clients needs and wants. You completely tarnish the reason why you started your company and everything starts to feel like a drag and your lack of passion starts to be seen by your staff and clients and that case your company starts to lose its value and next thing you know you have lost your company and your drive. When you could have avoided everything by looking at what your value is …and what you have to offer and how you plan to offer it without losing sight of why you started your business and why customers trust you.

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

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Grey Matters – Putting the Grey Entrepreneur First

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September 2020 – Middle-aged professionals and entrepreneurs have consistently shown to form the economic engine of our country. Their capacity to drive economic growth by creating employment opportunities, generating consistent tax revenue, and being substantial consumers in their personal capacity is far greater than their younger counterparts.

In the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, The Grey Incubator is pioneering a new approach to help the economy recover by saving our biggest economic contributors, middle aged entrepreneurs. They develop more mature entrepreneurs, fondly known as grey entrepreneurs, referring both to their grey hair and the collection of grey matter in the brain and the knowledge it represents.

Not only do many grey entrepreneurs begin with more financial capital or an asset base to start their enterprise but the worldwide average age of a successful start-up owner is 47 years old. Showing an international trend towards successful entrepreneurs being consistently middle-aged.

Their experience, skills, networks, and assets represent an incalculable value that grey entrepreneurs have generated through years of working. Not to mention that they have often faced stress, and failure before, making them more resilient.

After noticing that entrepreneurs between the ages of 30 and 60 have been overlooked and ignored by most entrepreneurship programs, founders Willem Gous and Eugene Beetge began using their 50 years of joint experience to enable these grey entrepreneurs to start and build their ideas into a business with minimal risk.

The Grey Incubator combines expert consultants in entrepreneurship, with a business community of Grey entrepreneurs to facilitates the learning process at all entrepreneurial levels.

“Although the internet provides abundant access to information, courses, and training, it lacks cohesion,” says co-founder of The Grey Incubator and entrepreneurial expert Eugene Beetge. “Information is organized into small isolated silos with little to no knowledge sharing on how the components required to run a successful business come together. Learning how to be an entrepreneur using all these isolated bits of information, is possible but it is an inefficient and time-consuming journey.”

Beetge believes that to be a successful entrepreneur you need a roadmap, guidance, vision, motivation, support, and skill.

“Combine these elements with accountability, sound boarding and masterminding, and it is possible to avoid big financial risks,” he says.

For the grey entrepreneur, a start-up often requires risking their last available capital, and guidance from conception to fruition in the current economic environment can be invaluable in preventing failure.

The Grey Incubator program pairs small, carefully curated groups of individuals into cooperative teams that work together with experienced overseers and mentors to help develop their businesses and ideas. These groups are guided to make sure they stay on track while helping them avoid costly mistakes. As each group progresses and achieves their weekly goals, third party specialists are made available to help groups go through the natural growth phases of a start-up.

The Grey Incubator uses a subscription-based model that allows start-up founders to invest in themselves and their business without long term commitment thereby reducing their financial risk.

Although many mature professionals’ livelihoods have been disrupted by the COVID 19 pandemic, learning how to start and grow a successful business in your middle age can be an invigorating experience.

Like any first venture into entrepreneurship, it can be overwhelming, risky, and costly without the correct guidance. By creating a business community in which older entrepreneurs are surrounded by like-minded peers and can be guided by experienced mentors, The Grey Incubator is investing in our economy, inspiring people to rediscover their dreams, and providing a path for them to rebuild their lives.

ENDS

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

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It’s the fear of failure that destroys innovation in small businesses

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NORTHERN BUSINESS REVIEW

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Innovation is the development and application of ideas that improve the way things are done or what can be achieved. Innovation can help your business grow by improving productivity and efficiency. Your ability to innovate will also help your business to remain competitive and respond to changes.

“Being innovative takes a lot of hard work and a little bit of risk. But, if you want to thrive and stay ahead of the game, it’s an essential part of being a business owner”, Mike Anderson: NSBC Founder and CEO

There are many sources you can use to help generate new ideas for your business. Suppliers, customers, employees, and strategic alliances can all make valuable contributions to the creative process, as well as providing support and encouragement.

“Your employees are a vital asset in generating innovative ideas. To get the most from them, you need to create an innovative environment and encourage creative thinking. Most ideas never get off the ground because business owners are afraid to take a risk and fail, and employees are not permitted to try new things and take some risk. Those who have achieved real success have overcome the fear of failure and often risked the most to get there.”, says Anderson.

To succeed, you have to move out of your comfort zone, continuously challenge the status quo and innovate. Always be on the lookout for new ideas and new ways of doing things that will improve your business. Do things differently, walk on the wrong side of the road, swim upstream, and always keep looking for the next big thing.

Winners always look at the bigger picture while losers cannot go beyond the way things are at the time. If it doesn’t work you can always go back to the drawing board. This is far better than not trying and doing things differently.

John Maxwell asks why so many people work so hard without ever achieving or making an impact, while fewer who don’t seem to work hard achieve so much. The reason is simple – it is because of conformity. Research has shown that only five percent of the people in the world are able to achieve their life goals. Why? Because the remaining ninety-five percent are blind conformists who go through life accepting the way things are. Doing things differently is the most powerful key to success.

You also need to listen to Albert Einstein who said, ‘Doing things the way we have always done them and expecting different results is one of the definitions of insanity.’ If you want to experience a change, you must do things differently. Stop following the crowd and you can be among the top five percent.

“If you want to live an impactful life, you must break the mould. Stop being a blind conformist who just keeps to tradition. Challenging the status quo gives you the seeds of vision and opportunity. There are always better ways of doing things. Strive to be the one who will discover the better way. When you do this, windows of opportunity and abundant wealth will open widely for you”, concludes Anderson.

Here are 10 success-boosting innovative tips for your business:

  • Get your team on-board. Have them involved in the entire innovation process, such as solving problems during a meeting and providing a suggestion box. Reward innovation and celebrate success. Appropriate incentives can play a significant role in encouraging staff to think creatively.
  • Make innovation a routine. Schedule an hour or so each week to brainstorm and exercise you and your team’s creativity, and establish goals that encourage you to improve your business. 
  • Encourage suggestions. Ask or survey your employees, customers, and even, suppliers if they have any suggestions on how you can improve your business.
  • Create a supportive atmosphere in which people feel free to express their ideas without the risk of criticism.
  • Encourage risk-taking and experimentation – don’t penalise people who try new ideas that fail. Remember, fear destroys innovation.
  • Stress that people at all levels of the business share responsibility for innovation, so everybody feels involved in taking the business forward. The fewer the layers of decision-making in your business, the more people feel their ideas matter.
  • Look for imagination and creativity when recruiting new employees. Remember that innovative thinkers aren’t always those with the most impressive list of qualifications.
  • You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Keep innovation simple by improving your existing products or services, trying out a new marketing strategy, or finding a supplier that is offering you a better rate.
  • Invest in innovation. Purchase technology and equipment that can improve your business operations. Also, invest in developing new products and services
  • Educate yourself. Continue to learn new skills or information by attending workshops, webinars, conferences, local industry events, and reading everything from blog posts to books.

‘Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do’. – Steve Jobs

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

@NsabasiNBR

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Small Business South Africa. A Plea to Big Business and Government

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NORTHERN BUSINESS REVIEW

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“Getting Big Business South Africa and Government to pay their small business suppliers on time is one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses and when the problem persists too long, it can ultimately shut down a small business. More than ever before, now is the time to ensure that all your small business suppliers are paid quickly. We are urging Big Business South Africa and Government to release these all important payments now”, That’s the urgent plea from Mike Anderson: NSBC Founder & CEO.


COVID-19 and the economic downturn has and will continue to have a devastating  impact on small businesses throughout South Africa. Small businesses need to pay their workers, their rent, suppliers and other key operating expenses, and survive as a family. What they don’t need right now, or at any time in fact, is that additional burden of not receiving payment on outstanding invoices. We have limited control over how long the pandemic will disrupt our nation, but we are in control how quickly we can pay our small business suppliers , says Anderson.


For any business, the amount of money flowing in or out is critical to its success. When money is tight, paying basic bills can get challenging. But when cash is plentiful, a business can invest in its future by expanding, buying new equipment, hiring key staff or retaining key staff by rewarding them further.  


Anderson continues, through the Prompt Payment Code, a National Small Business Chamber (NSBC) initiative, the NSBC is challenging the way small businesses are being paid. We are championing the importance of big business and Government paying small business suppliers within 30 days or much quicker. It’s a highly recognised process where Business South Africa and Government openly commit to paying small businesses on time.


The findings of the recent COVID-19 National Small Business Survey clearly indicates that late payments are at an all-time high as small businesses are waiting too long to get paid. The average amount owed to each small business is now at its highest level. Big Business and Government are mainly to blame for small businesses waiting for payment. More than half of all small businesses in South Africa are burdened with late payments. The result is that small businesses are going out of business due to late payments.


Intentional late or non-payment is totally unacceptable, says Anderson, as in most cases when a small business goes out of business a family goes out of business. Procurement policies urgently need to be changed to accommodate for early payments. Late payments to small businesses coupled with the current crisis and the economic downturn spells out disaster for many small businesses, the mainstay of our economy, the very engine of our society and the future of job creation.


We see small businesses going out of business every day, in many cases due to cash flow as a result of late or non-payment. Prompt payment is vital to the cash flow of every business, and especially to smaller businesses. The Prompt Payment Code is about encouraging and promoting best practice between government, larger organisations and their small business suppliers.


“We all have a collective responsibility to do whatever we can to keep small businesses in business and their workers employed. By paying small businesses quickly, this is the most meaningful step in the right direction


Media contact:
Twané Gouws
Email: twane@nsbc.africa
Website: www.nsbc.africa
Cell:  084 603 1763

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

@NsabasiNBR

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