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Hello!
If self-help books worked, there would be only one.
Where to find help is sometimes confusing with the plethora of books, web sites, publications and general media exposure dedicated to helping entrepreneurs grow their skills and businesses. Although, I won't complain too much because if all those self-help books had already done their jobs, ProMentor's mission of supporting entrepreneurship would be an infeasible business proposition!
Still, with all the self-help noise, it's easy to lose sight of how simple, in fact, the business owner's role really is. That's why we're keeping this month's Fulfilment sensibly simple:
- Featured program: Virtual Boardroom Program: If you're an owner of a small to medium business (or an NGO executive), you can't afford to not check out this program! Achieve your strategic goals and build your skills as an executive -- see details in the launch announcement below.
- Article: The 3 (Simple) Duties of Successful Business Owners: Too many business owners are working too hard for too little reward. Perhaps it's because the role of the owner isn't clear? Find out in my article what your job is as business owner -- it's really simple!
On a celebratory note and, a proud feather in the cap of our ProMentor team of associates, ProMentor has been awarded a project with a major pharmaceuticals company to design and deliver 32 workshops in about 22 cities around southern Africa in 2010. Well done team!
We're also delighted to have run our Wealth & Freedom workshops for entrepreneurs in Joburg and Cape Town this month. The learning was great, the sharing was generous, and the actions plans can transform our businesses!
Look out for this workshop again in February and more workshops like this in future. (Emphatic advice from our workshop participants is that these workshops were grossly under-priced. We'll take this into our planning and, the good news is, we promise not to raise prices as much as was suggested!)
Resources:
On the theme of the owner-manager's role, you can find more resources on managing your entrepreneurial venture in these articles published previously in Fulfilment:
- Aligning Projects with Strategy: Business success today relies increasingly on management's ability to select and execute well those projects that have an indirect connection with the business' long term objectives. Read my story on how to assure business success through project success.
- Book Review: Fifteen Business Calculations: Alex Noel summarises the value of this little book for the entrepreneur, namely the 15 key formulas for taking care of business.
Next month in Fulfilment:
In November we explore the importance of planning beyond health and fitness goals. You know the pattern: you set your weight-loss target, you work hard to achieve it and you celebrate your success, but then maintaining your healthy weight becomes a nightmare. How do you sustain your new you? We'll find out next month and don't think this is only about weight loss -- the analogy with business should be obvious!
All the best until November.
Brent Combrink
Fulfilment editor and ProMentor's founding owner
Cell: +27 (0)82 425 2708
Email your letters to: brent@promentor.co.za
PS: We're taking bookings for our Small Business Mentoring Program and Virtual Boardroom Program to start in Cape Town and Joburg in February 2010 or as soon as we fill each group. So see the blurb below and call us (021 683 7575) to find out how to fast-track the growth of your business and fulfil your wealth and freedom needs!
Launch Announcement:
ProMentor's Virtual Boardroom Program
The board of virtual directors for SME owners who are growing places.
As an employee in your own business, it's terribly easy to lose sight of your executive role and bury yourself in the nitty-gritty technical work.
What keeps big business focused on strategy are boards of directors. But a healthy board of executive and non-exec directors is seldom financially accessible to the SME -- a modest remuneration for a medium-sized business' non-exec is easily over R100,000 PA. Nor is such a board practical for SMEs without the know-how of forming a team of board members, applying corporate governance through the board and chairing the meetings.
That's all changed with the launch of ProMentor's Virtual Boardroom Program. Now, owners of SMEs and NGO execs can access their own team of virtual directors and advisers at a fraction of the cost of a regular board and without worrying about meeting administration or governance.
ProMentor's Virtual Boardroom Program matches 6 to 9 business owners who can support, challenge and hold each other accountable to fulfil their entrepreneurial ambitions over a 14-month program
What you can get from participating:
+ A supportive space where you can test your strategies with peers +
+ Maintain focus on strategic objectives and strategic activities +
+ Be held accountable by your peers to achieve strategic
targets +
+ Build a support network that can grow beyond the board meetings +
+ Grow your executive skills by contributing to and learning from other business' strategies +
+ Through the ProMentor chairman, tap into a rich database of resources such as business plan templates, policy templates, procedure manuals and strategic business thinking +
Logistics:
+ Currently available in Cape town and Joburg +
+ First groups scheduled to start in February 2010 +
+ 14-month program in groups of 6 to 9 entrepreneurs +
+ A 4-hour board meeting held each month +
+ Includes all board packs, meeting notes and actions lists, venue and catering +
All this for the tiny investment of only R1,350 ex VAT per month. Think about the difference this rigorous program will make in your business' results and your leadership development!
To book or find out more call ProMentor at 021 683 7575, or email info@promentor.co.za
The 3 (Simple) Duties of Successful Business Owners
by Brent Combrink, founder of ProMentor
15 October 2009
It should be obvious that, as the business grows, the owner-manager should reduce his / her technical work and focus more on strategic work. What's less obvious is what the work of the owner entails and, harder still, how to step out of the worker mode and into the executive role.
To help answer that, it may be useful to clarify the generic roles in any business, namely those of owner, manager and worker.
Read more...
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