Doing Business in Africa
This week we attended a workshop presented by the Cape Chamber of Commerce on the challenges of doing business in Africa. Some very interesting speakers were present; here are some snippets of their wisdom:
Identified Risks
- Non payment of accounts
- Exchange control issues with unstable currencies
- Problem and expense of moving people around different regions
- Many different staffing regulations
- Credit risk insurance
- Freight and logistics issues
- Labour unrest
Some recommendations
- Find quality partners in each region before launching a new venture
- Visit places personally, do not do internet meetings
- Mitigate risks by investigations and relationships
- Cover all your bases with legal contracts and clauses
- Build in arbitration and mediation clauses into all contracts
- Do not hurry business deals, let them evolve at their own pace
- Plan for the worse, hope for the best
Even with all the challenges and risks, Africa remain the most lucrative market on the planet with countries boasting growths in excess of 25%. First one in gets the catch.
Missile Marketing 1
In military terms there are four ways to fire a missile.
You can aim as well as you can and fire and HOPE that you will hit, or come close to the target. You can use a more sophisticated missile and guide it as it goes using MCLOS or SACLOS or you can use super advanced guidance using FAF technology.
In this series this week, we will use missile targeting to look at four ways that your marketing could be running. Each has lessons that we will chat about.
E Bear makes his return
E-Bear has finally made his return to the business. After his initial adventures,detailed on his own Blog, he will merge his future journeys and adventures here to be told as part of the whole EI story.
We look forward to having him share pics with our clients, guests and famous people.
Could this become the newest form of appreciation for Entrepreneurs?
E Bear visited the Shanduka Black Umbrellas Entrepreneurship workshop today.
Social media tips week: Get selling
When it comes to social media, you are NOT allowed to sell anywhere other than your own website, unless of course you have paid for the right to do so with FaceBook Ads or Google Ads.
So be careful not to promote your goods as For Sale in the social cloud. A better strategy is to talk about the benefits of your product offering and then provide links to a sales or landing page within the article. You can do this on other websites as well in their comments. But be careful not to offend or ruin a relationship. It could destroy that access point for life.
Selling online is a lot harder than in person, so my strategy has always been to get the person on the phone or in front of me as soon as possible to convert and close the deal. Do not keep a person hanging online by providing them with lots of emails and links with all your product features and pricelists. Chat to them directly and list to their needs, then propose a solution that will satisfy them.
Just to recap the weeks tips:
- Get Online – Register yourself and your business
- Get Profiled – Load good quality images and descriptions
- Get Linked – Link up all the platforms so they work together
- Get Landed – Create landing pages to convert sales
- Get Selling – run campaigns that attract clients back to your website
Social media tips week: Get selling
When it comes to social media, you are NOT allowed to sell anywhere other than your own website, unless of course you have paid for the right to do so with FaceBook Ads or Google Ads.
So be careful not to promote your goods as For Sale in the social cloud. A better strategy is to talk about the benefits of your product offering and then provide links to a sales or landing page within the article. You can do this on other websites as well in their comments. But be careful not to offend or ruin a relationship. It could destroy that access point for life.
Selling online is a lot harder than in person, so my strategy has always been to get the person on the phone or in front of me as soon as possible to convert and close the deal. Do not keep a person hanging online by providing them with lots of emails and links with all your product features and pricelists. Chat to them directly and list to their needs, then propose a solution that will satisfy them.
Just to recap the weeks tips:
- Get Online – Register yourself and your business
- Get Profiled – Load good quality images and descriptions
- Get Linked – Link up all the platforms so they work together
- Get Landed – Create landing pages to convert sales
- Get Selling – run campaigns that attract clients back to your website
All set, ready, go