IN THIS ARTICLE (click to expand)
Maybe you had a flash of inspiration at 1 in the morning, have been slowly iterating on your dream of working for yourself for years, or googling "how to make money" over and over and finally landed on something that is keeping you up at night because you can't wait to get started.
Whatever your origin story, you're here because you have an idea for a business and it is time to take action.
Welcome, entrepreneur. We're excited to take this journey with you.
“I’ve got a great business idea…now what?”
Starting a business in South Africa — anywhere for that matter, but this series is mostly aimed at South Africans — is a complex journey full of strange jargon, mysterious documentation and seemingly endless things that could go wrong.
That’s where this series comes in. In collaboration with specialists and successful business owners, we're building a roadmap to help you navigate the complex journey of transforming a simple business idea into a thriving enterprise.
We will cover every step of the process, from generating and refining your business idea to achieving a consistent cash flow and exiting with swag and pizzazz (well, we can’t necessarily give you pizzazz, but if you already have some joie de vivr you’ll certainly flaunt it when you close the sale of your first company).
The main goals of these articles are:
To demystify each step of the process and give you a clear, easy-to-follow guide with actionable steps
To provide practical tools and resources you can immediately put to use
To introduce you to some of the businesses we trust if you are currently looking for a service provider in their field.
By the end of this series, we want to ensure you are equipped to navigate the entrepreneurial landscape with confidence, clarity and a network of trustworthy business partners to help you on your way.
“Will this be useful if I’m in [x phase] of my business?”
That is certainly the plan. Whether you’re learning new things, discovering helpful tools you wish you’d had earlier or getting a valuable refresher on things relevant to you now, part or all of this series should be useful wherever you are in your business journey.
(P.S. If you're wondering, “Okay great, but what are you actually going to cover?” there will be a list of topics at the bottom of this post. If there is any part of the process you want to know more about and don't see it listed, let us know and we'll do our best to cover it.)
“Is starting a business really that complicated?”
Technically speaking, no. If you are earning money providing a service or selling a product — whether you are building websites, selling lemonade or walking dogs — you've started a business. Congratulations!
However, if you want that business to thrive you will need to put in a lot more work. The details vary from industry to industry, but even the smallest business that wants to succeed will benefit from developing and following a structured business plan and knowing what it will take to scale.
A structured business plan serves as your roadmap, outlining your business goals, strategies, and the steps needed to achieve them. It clearly defines where you are heading and how you plan to get there. This is important anywhere, but particularly in South Africa where we are blessed with challenges like load-shedding, BEEE, the Rand’s volatility, and infrastructure that ranges from first-world to horrifying.
You can’t plan for everything, but the more you plan the less the nasty surprises you will encounter will hurt your burgeoning business.
Helping you set up a business plan is just one of the many outcomes we’ll be tackling in this series to help uncomplicate and smooth your journey towards a profitable business.
“Who are you, and why are you doing this?”
Oh hey, apologies. We are Concessus Consulting, a turnkey business solutions provider based in Stellenbosch and Pretoria. We started as lawyers, but while doing our articles we realised that most large law firms are more geared towards creating red tape and pointing out all of the ways entrepreneurs could get stuck instead of helping them cut through the red tape and get started. So we started our own company specifically to help entrepreneurs, startup owners and aspirant business owners like you get to a thriving business as quickly as possible.
We have years of experience working with businesses of all sizes (from helping startups get going to providing full solutions for large corporates) and have a strong network of business specialists to call on to provide top-tier solutions, no matter how complex the problem.
At the end of the day, this series is about you and giving you the tools you need to succeed.
We’re also practising what we preach through this series by implementing our business plan, improving our SEO and brand awareness and sharing so much valuable stuff that you’ll wish you had us in your corner as you grow your business (which you absolutely can — just click here).
“Okay, where’s that list you mentioned?”
As we mentioned above, this is going to be a comprehensive journey. Here are all the main topics we’ll be covering (many of which with input from our network specialists):
Introduction (you are here)
A Customer-Centric Mindset: Always keep this top of mind
Ideation: Finding and validating your business idea
Branding: Your most valuable asset
Business Planning: Crafting a solid business plan
Legal Foundations: Setting up your business structure
Staying Tax-Compliant in South Africa
Funding Your Startup: Navigating financing options
Cash Flow Management: Ensuring financial health
Product Development: From prototype to market
Marketing and Branding: Making your business known
Sales Strategies: Turning leads into customers
Building Your Team: Recruiting and managing talent
Scaling Your Business: Growth strategies
Navigating Challenges: Overcoming common obstacles
Sustainability and Social Responsibility: Building a future-proof business
So there you have it. We’ll see you in the next one where we share some critically important things to keep in mind regardless of where you are in your business journey.
Until next time.
The Concessus team.
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