Covered By: Thabang Ledwaba
Occupation: Serial entrepreneur, Facilitator, PR Practitioner and Public Speaker.
Interest: Adding value to people’s lives through business speaking.
Objectives: To stimulate and intensify innovation and great business attitude of South Africa’s current and future business drivers.
Blog inspired by: Chika Onyeani’s Capitalist nigger, The CEO Sleep-out by talk Radio 702 and Sun International, and Stanford Ledwaba simply by being an awesome writer and an influential person.
Golden Projects
Golden Projects refers to core marketing activities, and management attitudes which if implemented correctly will result in strategic success of any kind of business. Dear reader: please note that in this article, a spade is being referred to as a spade. 8 out of 10 small businesses in South Africa fail within their first two years of operation. The Golden Projects movement aims to change the attitudes of small business owners for the better so that we can have individuals who will think globally and act locally. We aim to motivate, stimulate, and cultivate innovative behaviour of our entrepreneurs. Golden Projects will not only criticise but will give credit where it’s due. In this article the success of Pretoria’s very own clothing company the Pexa Brand which will be evaluated and referenced. We will also look at the downfalls of Mofaya energy drink and the Apple technique #GoldenProjects
Wealth vs Success
Wealth, if you use it, comes to an end; learning, if you use it, increases. That’s no rocket science, that’s a basic fact. A lot of South African small business owners fail because they confuse success with wealth. In every project or organisation let’s work towards our business objectives, vision, and mission. If you do not have clearly defined objectives and you call yourself an entrepreneur, then I’m afraid you claiming the tittle you do not deserve. Similarly if your objectives are based on money making rather that growing and satisfying customers’ needs, then no please do our economy a favour and try something else. Please pause reading this article and think about your business or business idea. I mean it, please PAUSE… Great now ask yourself this question, does your business live or doest it exist? Keep the answer to yourself for now. Back to basics, why do you want to accumulate wealth? Do you want to prove a point to anyone? I urge all business owners to add value into people’s lives and develop objectives that speak about delivering value. Wealth should then come as a result of success and not the other way round.
Connect Your Brand to With Your Target Market.
A young business owner by the name of Bakang Tefo clearly understands the need to connect to targeted individuals which is why his company, Pexa Brand was nominated by the Tshwane Spotlight awards as the best local brand in the city of Pretoria. “If there your objectives do not connect to your target market on an emotional level then your brand exists it does not live” said Bakang when asked about his projects. Golden Projects are those activities that make your brand to not only earn income but also learn how to emotionally connect your brand with your prospect. Learning increases when you use it, remember? (I know what you are thinking, I’m a great writer thanks for the complimentJ). Now let me go back in time and share with you how Pexa Brand (PTY) LTD managed to win the hearts of hundreds or maybe thousands of Pretorians by incorporating learning in their branding.
Internally, the director of the brand is not afraid to invest in his partners and employees. A bad entrepreneur will say to you “What if I invest in them and they leave” a real business owner will think “What if I don’t invest in their learning and they stay”. The differences between the two entrepreneurs is that one of them understands that adding value on people’s lives is one of the key factors that a successful business person must posses, the other one thinks wealth is success, so he rather spend his money on purchasing some luxurious brands cause he has a point to prove not the world to change. By learning we do not necessarily refer to academic literature, but we acknowledge its importance. Investing in people’s learning may for example include taking them for extra software training or trusting them with your important files so that they can run the business when you are not around.
Externally, Pexa Brand understands the importance of stakeholder relationships and the significance of social responsibility. “Pexa as a brand also advocates for a community that gives back to itself hence we give people who are less fortunate food parcels and those who can’t pursue their studies we provided them with bursaries.” By the way Pexa Brand is less than a year old and they decided to focus on solving problems rather than accumulating wealth. The brand also has creative approaches to the customer’s special needs in order to find unique and tailored services solutions.
Innovative YES
Rocket Science? NO
Innovation and Marketing
Let us not confuse innovation with technology, although innovation through technology plays a vital part in every organisation. Innovation simply means coming up with services that your customer has never experienced before. Something you customer will not get from any of your competitors. Below is a picture of how Pexa Brand uses their logo to come up with exciting designs, something we do not see anywhere else. INNOVATION!
Communicate Benefits Not Features and Personal Goals
Remember marketing is about creating values, communicating it then delivering it to your customers. Let me explain to you, the success of Apple In-corporations, which is the most valuable brand in the world. Apple Inc did not reach the market share that they have by telling customers that they want to be billionaires. Now compare Apple Inc with our very own Mofaya Energy drink. The CEO, Sibusiso Leope was not ashamed to spread his objectives of becoming a billionaire. Well we spoke about good vs bad objectives. When communicating value to the customer, always make sure that whatever you communicating brings value to the customer not yourself. As a customer I will not just “support” somebody, I have a need that I have to satisfy, don’t beg me to buy your product because you black. Now back to Apple Inc, they communicate their value in a rather fascinating way. ad many notable advertisements since the 1980’s. The advertisements have maintained a style of contemporary art focusing on showing how the product is used rather than telling consumers about the product while also incorporating popular culture references. So they do not go around telling customers about their brand or product features, but rather tell or show customers about the benefits of their products.
Be a Golden Manager
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, please stand up and act golden. It is better to die in the sustained efforts to reach your goals, than die from fear of not even venturing. You should not wait for a miracle, you just have to push those mountains and start acting like a future Golden Projects Manager. All startup entrepreneurs, let’s all act like true Golden Managers. Create that innovative value, communicate it in an innovative way whilst showing benefits, and then deliver it in an innovative way if possible.
There is still a lot to discuss. If all goes well, we will have the book version of
#GoldenProjects. With all being said (critics and examples) I would like to add that I respect Sibusiso Leope as an entertainment entrepreneur and the critics are nothing personal. Special thanks to Bakang Tefo (Teffo) for his time and everybody who gave me a feedback on my first blog. Join the movement fellow Game-Changers.
June 20, 2015 at 8:42 am
Big up to Golden projects,inspiring and eye-opening….enetrepreneurs,business-owners and those of us who are still thinking of owning a business one day,THIS ONE IS FOR US
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June 20, 2015 at 12:23 pm
Thank you for this great piece of writing (Golden Projects) Mr. Ledwaba. I am personally inspired, I learned quite a few things that I believe I am going to carry them for the rest of my life. Keep making this world a better place for all Sir!
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June 21, 2015 at 11:12 am
Thanks for the feedback. Glad you liked it. There’s more coming #OrioleGoesGold
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June 20, 2015 at 6:30 pm
well said brother man, keep going and write more, ill be waiting for more and more from you. #BringTheBook
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June 21, 2015 at 11:11 am
Glad you like the post man! The book is now becoming a reality/possibility.
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June 20, 2015 at 8:09 pm
This is amazing, informative and eye opening for some of us trying out this business venturing journey. Thanks Kopi
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June 21, 2015 at 11:10 am
Thanks for the feedback Bokang. I appreciate it, glad you love my movement. God will provide strength for us to write a book.
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June 21, 2015 at 5:53 am
as a young inspired like this,i don’t think this word FAILURE will play a role in your life…keep on motivating us….#BRING THE BOOK
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June 21, 2015 at 10:23 am
Thanks for the feedback. The book shalll come soon
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June 23, 2015 at 2:55 am
This blog will help an inspire a lot of upcoming businessman/woman. Going back to the #WhySelfEmpowerment that’s one of the topics that touched me!
I’m inspired.
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June 23, 2015 at 7:38 am
Your comparison of Apple and MoFaya is out off mark. Sibusiso Leope’s objective is to create a successful full black owned energy drink. He is connecting with his target market by stating that for every can sold, a black child will be put in school. He is also the founder of SELF which is an initiative that gathers Great Speakers across the world to inspire Entrepreneurship. You judgement on MoFaya is based on selective media consumption. There is nothing wrong in aspiring to be a Billionaire. This has always been part of Sibusiso’s plan. He wrote the book Leadership 2020, with the aim to inspire people not to think only to the level of Thousandnaire but Billionaire.
Overall, your blog is engaging (sparks debate) and your skill of writing is improving.
My advise is to do extensive research…
Bravo.
Continue with some good work. I might get advertisers to advertise on your blog.
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June 23, 2015 at 8:02 am
Thanks for the feedback. I do not blog without thorough research. The argument about Sibusiso is that be careful what you communicate, you cannot tell me you have a goal of being a billionaire and then ask me to support “you” by buying your products. Customers care about their needs, not yours(as the business or business owner) Mofaya has a great opportunity to penetrate the market share but recent scandals are making us as customers dto be doubtful, especially the fake SABS Approved logo.
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August 5, 2015 at 12:52 pm
Thanks brother. really inspired
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