So we paid a second visit to Bloemfontein, where I was invited to act as a keynote speaker together with Terror Lekota and Prof. Francis Petersen, Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), at the Small Business Institute’s (SBI) Free State indaba. The SBI was until recently still known as the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut (AHI). The theme of the indaba was small and medium business growth in South Africa. Theo Vorster, well-known TV presenter and CEO of Galileo Capital, led the panel discussion.

My latest Klipkouers interview was also incidentally conducted with Theo. Click here to listen to Episode 61 with Theo Vorster.

The three problem and opportunistic points that are close to my heart are the following:

 South Africa’s undeveloped opportunity as white-collar factory

• Opportunity for more foreign businesses to outsource product and service needs to South African businesses. For example, with Klipkouers I spend my British pounds on Afrikaans acoustical engineers, transcription services, website services, designers, et cetera.

The shortage of practical business training and resources for existing businesses and business students

• Business training at university level is mostly theoretical nonsense and doesn’t prepare students at all for the workplace and business.
• Existing business owners also don’t have access to relevant and practical training in order to grow or improve their businesses.

The shortage of internship programmes

• Most universities don’t have any contact at all with the private sector. Students are left to their own resources to look for work.
• Internship programmes offer existing or newly graduated students the opportunity to get their hands dirty and really learn something.
• Internship programmes remove the “iceberg effect”, which entails that you cannot see what really takes place beneath the water. This assists employers in identifying the cream of the crop in a country where dangerous “pro-employee labour legislation” is at the order of the day.

As you should know by now (or not), I launched my first series of digital products. The eBook is a business resource of 62 pages and includes 104 sales strategies and business errors of Afrikaner business gurus, as well as a brand-new KLIPKOUERS digi-magazine. Click here for more information.