Introducing JRJ le Roux to Rotary

Last night I was given the opportunity to introduce myself to my fellow Rotarians (Newlands) - instead of a long speech, I decided to do it slightly differently...

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TYzpjN88600)

Making socially sustainable differences

In the previous post I alluded to focussing on the core elements that have an impact on an organisation’s reputation.

As part of this Dynamic Businesswoman’s blog, I decided to chat to dynamic business-people and get their views on these different elements.

My first interview was with Vivienne Schultz, Founder of the A2B Transformation Movement. I was first introduced to Vivienne when a good friend lent me Vivienne’s book – From Dependency to Dignity 

Social Business Impacts in the form of Corporate Social Investment (CSI) projects lie very close to my heart, as does investing in our communities and especially investing in South African products and companies. As I read the book so many pieces of the CSI | NGO | hand-outs | community work | how we are all guilty of perpetuating a society of dependency fell into place.

I was so happy to catch up with Vivienne when she recently visited Cape Town – here are her thoughts when it comes to investing in communities.

(Incidentally – Vivienne mentions that you need to challenge yourself each day and get yourself out of your comfort zones – this is the first video that I have ever edited, so I was way out of my mine, but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, and had my own “I CAN!” moment - hope you enjoy it too J.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWqMRvqbBXI&feature=youtube_gdata

Help ordinary kids do extraordinary things

Making a sustainable social investment is really important; this is something that I believe Zip-Zap Circus School are doing incredibly well. If you are in Cape Town this weekend, please support this local charity auction. Zip-Zap Circus School does amazing work with children living with HIV (www.zip-zap.co.za)  

How healthy is your reputation?

The reputation health check has gone live - to access it, visit our website (www.reputationmatters.co.za) and click on the image (below) - alternatively, click here. As we have just launched it, complete the questionnaire by Friday (25 October 2013) and we will waive the fee.

Reputation really does matter.

We as a team are working very hard at building our own reputation of not being 'just another Public Relations company', we are so much more!

It has been, and is - quite a process. Initially it was just easiest to say that we do PR & event management; but that really did not do justice to the full spectrum of business communication services that we offer when it comes to building an organisation's reputation. 

We are the "Swiss Army Knife" of business communication; we have a solution for all your business communication requirements!

One of these ‘Swiss Army Knife’ tools, and something that I am incredibly proud of that I believe sets us apart from being ‘just another PR agency,’ is our Repudometer^TM. We have developed and refined this research tool over the past eight years; holistically and scientifically measuring organisations’ reputations, and providing recommendations for different business functions that can positively impact the overall reputation.

There are five elements that we interrogate to determine what impacts an organisation’s reputation:

Strategy | Dialogue | Capital | Positioning | Performance

I will delve into each of these dimensions separately going forward.

We will also be launching our “Reputation Health Check” on our website soon – watch this space!

The right message or nix - net so!

Listening - an under utilised tool by too many people

Life explained

The adventure of life is to learn. The purpose of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The opportunity of life is to serve. The secret of life is to dare. The spice of life is to befriend. The beauty of life is to give. 

William Arthur Ward, American Author and Poet

Taken from "Brand Pretorius In the Driving Seat - Lessons in Leadership". 

Recruiting

The recruitment process is interesting isn't it...?

As much as I would love to give everyone a job opportunity, it is not realistic. One would imagine that in this day and age of unemployment, potential employees would trawl through the Internet and read every piece of literature available on applying for a job and conducting interviews that make an impact; sadly not so. 

Our recruitment process whittles candidates down to those who are potentially a good fit even before laying eyes on each other. It is quite a process, but worth investing in. We continuously look for candidates so that there isn't a mad dash to hire someone just for the sake of it as the company grows. 

Below are my top five recruitment lessons | experiences | irks - 

1. In our industry, reading and being detailed orientated is important, we need to be very aware and zoomed in on a spectrum of things when looking after reputations. So, when we advertise and invite candidates to apply for a position, we always indicate that they need to do so online; the application form is on the home page of our website (www.reputationmatters.co.za).  You would be surprised how many people miss this and still send through their CVs. All I then say is ‘thank you for self-eliminating yourself from the process and saving us both time’. 

2. Then, when the online application form is found, there are quite a number of people that are put off by its length, it is not abnormally long, but people that are serious about applying will take the time to complete it. A half filled in application form is not going to get the candidate through to the next round.

3. I find it bizarre how many people apply for a position within the communication industry, and can't get the basics of grammar and spelling correct. If you refer to yourself as " i " (personally one of my absolute pet hates), and don't do a basic spell check – my thanks goes out to you for self-eliminating yourself.

4. Punctuality is important to me, so I must admit that I do watch the clock when meeting a recruit for the first time (mind you, any of the meetings set up throughout the process). Being slightly early makes a (positive) difference. In the past I've had fairly senior people apply for a position who forgot about the meeting! So, for starters - show up, and if you really want to make a good impression be slightly early. 

5. Finally, preparing for the meeting definitely helps. At minimum have a look at the company’s website. A while back I was interviewing for an assistant, and I asked one of the candidates why they wanted to join Reputation Matters? She looked a bit quizzical at me and said that she did not really know what the company does – ‘what is it that you do?’, she asked me. She did not get the position - thank you for your self-elimination.

What interesting recruitment scenarios have you experienced?

It's not inside it's...ooon top!

Lesson 5 - Work ON the business and not IN the business

This fifth and final lesson has been quite a mindset change of how to tackle the beast of being a business owner.

Just over a year ago, I invested in a business coach. Business had been ticking away fairly well, but there was a discrepancy between the number of hours I was spending working versus the monthly financial outputs. I was working incredible hours with nothing really to show for it at the end of the month, except being totally run down and a warped credit card to cover monthly expenses - things were just not adding up.

Kathi Clarke - dynamic business coach, owner of Building Best Business and an ActionCOACH coach; changed the way that I look at running the business. I will be the first to admit that I was very skeptical and wondered whether I really did need a coach? I think on some level I was thinking that I was failing myself if I had to ask for help - but... all professional sports people use coaches to continuously improve - and when I had that analogy, the penny dropped and I realised that this was something that I needed if I wanted to grow the business and take it to the next level.

One of the biggest lessons so far, was realising that as a business owner you need to be a lot less hands on, you need to be working ON the business opposed to IN the business. It it your responsibility to lead, motivate and steer the ship - you can't do that if you are on the ground entrenched in operations.

I have incredible support from those who are near and dear to me, however - running a business can be a lonely process. With Kathi's wealth of experience, she provides an objectivity, a soundboard and motivation to help me keep an eye on the bigger picture.

Something else that I am very appreciative of is the support structure created within the coaching environment, e.g. yesterday we had a Growth Club session where all the business owners who have invested in coaching with Kathi come together to plan and set goals for the next quarter. I always feel very invigorated after such a session, there is so much positive energy and ideas shared during the day- and it is a space shared with like-minded people who have taken that leap of faith of becoming a business owner and wanting to take their business to the next level. There is a camaraderie, a safe space of knowing that you are not alone in this - there are other people also on this journey, who without having to say anything just know and understand.

It is an exhilarating experience to see and experience the building and growing of a business; it provides inspiration for the next quarter - and who knows what other business opportunities lie around the corner to sink my teeth into.

Write things down

Lesson 4 - Always keep an audit trail

A big lesson learnt here is that you always need to document things.

Confirm everything in writing.

It is very difficult to try and prove a conversation, especially when it is only between two people. Whose version is correct and how do you prove that it was said?

Some time ago I went through an 'interesting' recruitment process - where an appointment was made based only on telephonic and Skype interviews (incidentally, steer clear from doing in this way - but more on that another time). On the first day of meeting the person they didn't take kindly to the fact when told that reputation matters and that it did not bode particularly well to be late. During a conversation that ensued, I was told that the person 'was not feeling the vibe'. Not a great first impression or way to start a career in reputation management. To cut a long story short we agreed that this was not going to work out and mutually decided to cut our losses and move on.

In good faith, I believe we had moved on as I had telephonically requested a letter indicating that they did not accept the job offer and this was confirmed. There is no such thing as good faith. Lesson learnt loud and clearly a couple of months down the line when the conversation had to be proved at a CCMA hearing for unfair dismissal.

Keep an audit trail of everything. Keep evidence of conversations, be it through an email,  minutes or scrap of paper if need be, but get it documented.

The Wheel Turns

The wheel does turn, sometimes not as quickly as we would have hoped it would, but inevitably it will. It's important to keep in mind how you interact with those around you and to ask yourself if that is how would like to be treated; how would you feel if you were on the receiving end? Inevitably, you get what you give.

In the words of Maya Angelou, and a thought for the week ~ "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Keep family and friends far from your business

Lesson 3 – Don’t do business with family and friends

Yep it’s another lesson I learnt the hard way through the school of real life of managing a business. It all sounds great – working with those in your life you have an extra special relationship with – a family member or a really good friend. You've got each other’s backs and best interest at heart – right? Initially yes.

But it does not work.

Due to this extra special relationship – things get ‘extra special’ to manage especially when business-specific matters need to be addressed and the family / friend / business line needs to be drawn.

The dynamics change when friendship and business mixes. I have personally found it particularly challenging  to raise performance issues when working with family / friends.  I wanted to be the compassionate understanding friend, and tended to ‘pussy-foot’ around issues; but realised that unfortunately it is not how the world of business operates. Friendship does not pay the bills; but those invoices and salaries still need to be paid at the end of the month. Tough decisions need to be made when friendships and business is on the line.

My advice - keep them very far apart, and may they never meet.

Interestingly I read the following on the plane back from Bloemfontein this morning – from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War –

(On soldiers) -  if you are so nice to them that you cannot employ them, so kind to them that you cannot command them, so casual with them that you cannot establish order, they are like spoiled children, useless. (Master Sun)

Partner at your own peril

Lesson 2 - Don't go into partnership

From my own experience and from all the stories that I have heard, the positives unfortunately do not outweigh the negative experiences shared when it comes to forming partnerships in business.

My entrepreneurial path started off with a business partner, and yes there definitely are benefits to a partnership - sharing costs, someone to soundboard with and having someone to share the ups and downs with when you have decided to embark on a path of building your own business. However invariably, there is always going to be one party that feels that they are contributing more, be it financially, workload, time, resources, ideas, bringing in business etc.; at some point or another one of the parties is going start feeling that the other person is not sufficiently pulling their weight and the resentment starts.

If however you do decide that going the partnership-route is the way for you, my advice is that you have a very clear contract in place from the outset outlining the partner responsibilities in as much detail as possible. It is also important to determine up front what does happen the day when things don't work out - i.e. how will things be wrapped up, what happens to the assets, the employees, the finances, the sharing of profit, sharing of debt, clients, restraint of trade. Don't make the mistake I made of thinking "we'll be different and make it work | we have such a good understanding | we trust each other | we'll prove the world wrong..." - you won't.

A tremendous team

Our team is amazing! So proud of +Annette Jansen van Rensburg 's article in The New Age newspaper today. A great article on Reputation Matters' insights when it comes to measuring reputations.

Account for the Taxman

As indicated in one of my earlier posts I have learnt A LOT of lessons, which I am more than happy to share so that the same mistakes are avoided by others who want to venture into their own entrepreneurial venture. I have identified five key lessons, which will be delved into over the next five Fridays.

Lesson 1 - pay SARS 

The taxman is not going to go away.

You need to make sure that you pay your dues and set that % aside for tax | Vat | PAYE. I know that when you are starting up you need every single penny; bills come in, salaries need to be paid and paying that amount (which is usually not a pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless) over to SARS seems near to impossible and crippling. But trust me it is a lot better than it all adding up and contending with late payment penalties and interest, which you will have to if you don't settle it.

This is where a good accountant comes into play (this in itself is a lesson - but I think it fits nicely with the SARS lesson).  I have invested in MANY accountants, both in Johannesburg and in Cape Town. An accounting lesson - there is no such thing as creative accounting - SARS will need to be paid whether you are creative or not, and I have found that the more creative the accountant tries to be - the more colourful your language will be in the long-run.

It has taken me eight painful years to find the right accountant-fit. Business Accounting Network (BAN) (www.ban.co.za) has been my beacon of hope in the accounting world. They specialise in small business accounting and are the first accountants who have taken a real interest in the business' finances, not only doing the figures, but also helping with budgeting and financial planning so that there are no 'surprises' from SARS. They also value building a rapport with the business owners that they work with; we have monthly meetings where we discuss the finances and what the financial health is of the business.

The finance part of the business is so crucial, the best is to make peace with SARS and to find that accountant-fit as soon as possible in your new business venture, so that you can spend your time on the actual purpose of your business.

Inspiration from Daddy

Over the past couple of weeks, I have found myself on an interesting journey. One of the goals that I have set myself is to align myself with positive, inspirational people. So when Nicole Rollings (@NicoleKRollings) invited me to Daddy's Dragons' C(R)ash Course, I was intrigued firstly as it was going to focus on cash flow - something that can really make or break any business; and I am always keen to learn how to do new things that will help in this area, and secondly, thinking- who knows, there could be interesting people to meet.

I returned from the two day course hosted at the Old Mac Daddy Luxury Trailer Park in Elign (www.oldmacdaddy.co.za), on such a natural high from interacting with amazingly, inspirational people. Albeit the course not focussing on cash flow in the accounting sense per se, it focussed on seeking different opportunities to get your business flowing, which in the bigger scheme of things will ultimately help with the flow of cash. 

The people that I have met, the stories shared and lessons learnt is humbling. It was incredible to be in a space where ideas and thoughts were shared across industries and personalities with no right or wrong, no judgement- just what can we do to think even bigger and better to take the businesses and business ideas to the next level.

I am very grateful for the Daddy-brand for creating this space to help entrepreneurs to channel their energy and to think big. 

They are already sold out for their July course, but I think there are still a couple of spots available in August

www.daddysdragons.co.za/daddys-crash-course. A highly recommendable investment! (and an added bonus is getting to experience their wonderful air-stream trailers!)

All Entrepreneurs have this

Great article - thanks Steven Goh (via @crazygrape)  http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/all-great-entrepreneurs-have-this.html

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. ~ Joseph Addison

"...if you've got time to Facebook ... you've got time to read for a half hour each day ... guess which one will make your dreams a reality ..." is (ironically) something I saw on Brad Sugars' Facebook page some time ago.  Robin Sharma also says, "Commit yourself to reading for 30 minutes a day." 

I'm slowly but surely instilling a culture of the importance of reading with the team, and as of the beginning of the year set everyone a goal of reading at least one (business-related | relevant) book a month.

Proudly I have personally kept up with this challenge, (can't not practice what you preach). Initially it was really easy to make excuses to not read, but I am always up for a challenge, so reading has now become a part of the day's routine, admittedly 30 minutes is not always possible, but I try and read at least three pages a day.

A book that I highly recommend, especially for people who have been running their own business and feel that there is a discrepancy between the time invested in the company and the outcomes, and also a really important read for people considering to start their own business to know what (potentially) awaits you, is "The E-Myth Revised," by Michael E. Gerber.

What book is on your top recommendation reading list for businesses?

Wise words to start off your Wednesday

International relations

I am so super happy that Reputation Matters is associated with the ECCO International PR Network (www.ecco-network.com) and representing them in South Africa. We recently participated in an international survey pertaining to journalists' use of social media.

Yesterday I did a dance of joy when I saw the results published in the July 2013 ADvantage Magazine - (what a pity this publication is no longer carrying on - a real blow for the industry).

Being a part of this network helps us to leverage off international best practices and share knowledge; something that I have become quite passionate about and what I say in the article as well, is that all too often we as South African's sell ourselves short; in reality we are very competitive and right up there when it comes to international trends and providing world class service -  we have so much to be proud of!

It's all about balance

I believe that a big part of striving towards success is to have a balance in life - mind | body | soul; work & play, as well as then setting goals accordingly. One of the 'body | play' goals I have set is to complete the Old Mutual TwoOceans 1/2 Marathon next year, so am slowly but surely building up my stamina towards this.

This morning I participated in the Tigger Trail Run; after a dismal performance the last time I participated in a  trail run (for those not familiar with what a trail run is, it means running up and down a mountain); and promising to never do that to myself again, I found myself in a very dark and wet Newlands Forest early this morning - for the 10km Tigger Trail run (using the term "run" very loosely). There was an eerie peacefulness of running in the rain and mist. The camaraderie was incredible, everyone helping each other across rivers and up very steep muddy embankments. At just over the halfway point,  everyone had a photo taken with Tigger, given a Chomp and motivation for the next stretch. What a marvelous way to start the day. The ladies organising these trails do it for the love of it and all entry fees are donated to the Tygervalley Children's Hospital; they are doing this with no other funding (www.facebook.com/TiggerTrails). Although I was so tempted to not go this morning, and then to turn around when we started, the lesson for the day was that what goes up must come down - the only way to enjoy the downhills and fun parts is to go through trials and uphills.

A responsibility

It is the responsibility of all business owners to ensure that their businesses are successful. Ultimately you are contributing to improving the lives of everyone associated with the business, so in the bigger scheme of things positively contributing to the country's economy.

I have been running my own business for almost eight years and have learnt A LOT of lessons during that time, but also realise that I still have A LOT to learn.

Through these posts I will share my experiences and would love to hear and learn from other business owners who are willing to share their knowledge and experience.