The 2010 Tax Season for Individuals started on 1 July 2010. Free tax education workshops are presented at most SARS branches across the country by the Taxpayer Service Engagement team. These workshops cover a wide range of topics and are presented on a regular basis.
The aim is to provide taxpayers with information that would create a basic understanding of the various tax types, how these taxes work and what is expected of taxpayers in order to be tax compliant at all times.
For professional advise and tax services you can contact the TaxShop Oakdene, Muhammad Seedat at the following contact details:
Cell:073 802 4440
Tel:(011) 852 1651
Email:oakdene@taxshop.co.za
If you're going through hell, keep going.
"If you're going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill once said.
This quote is really applicable to entrepreneurs. Mainly because rarely, if ever, does the process of starting and growing a company go smoothly. There are often lots of mis-starts and mistakes and course correction is nearly always required.
There are lots of times when entrepreneurs must "go through hell." For example, when the entrepreneur is seeking capital, or looking for initial customers or distributors. Other things like hiring key team members or executing on a new marketing campaign can also be quite challenging.
But as Churchill pointed out, entrepreneurs must keep going. That's not to say that you should put your head down and try to bulldoze through whatever you're trying to accomplish. If things aren't going well, you need to consider alternatives.
Specifically, if something doesn't work at first, you must try, try again. But if it doesn't work a second time, you need to start rethinking and modifying your strategy.
Incremental changes often bring about significant results. And these incremental changes often result from trying something that didn't work at first, and continually modifying it until it does.
One example that comes to mind for me is raising venture capital. In my early days, I met with a lot of venture capitalists to try to raise money for my clients. And I encountered a lot of failure. Meeting after meeting after meeting, but no results. So, I started trying new things, and sure enough, after trying enough new tactics, I found ones that really worked.
Article by Dave Lavinsky, growthinkBlog
This quote is really applicable to entrepreneurs. Mainly because rarely, if ever, does the process of starting and growing a company go smoothly. There are often lots of mis-starts and mistakes and course correction is nearly always required.
There are lots of times when entrepreneurs must "go through hell." For example, when the entrepreneur is seeking capital, or looking for initial customers or distributors. Other things like hiring key team members or executing on a new marketing campaign can also be quite challenging.
But as Churchill pointed out, entrepreneurs must keep going. That's not to say that you should put your head down and try to bulldoze through whatever you're trying to accomplish. If things aren't going well, you need to consider alternatives.
Specifically, if something doesn't work at first, you must try, try again. But if it doesn't work a second time, you need to start rethinking and modifying your strategy.
Incremental changes often bring about significant results. And these incremental changes often result from trying something that didn't work at first, and continually modifying it until it does.
One example that comes to mind for me is raising venture capital. In my early days, I met with a lot of venture capitalists to try to raise money for my clients. And I encountered a lot of failure. Meeting after meeting after meeting, but no results. So, I started trying new things, and sure enough, after trying enough new tactics, I found ones that really worked.
Article by Dave Lavinsky, growthinkBlog
Reach the soweto small business community with a free Ad
Sowetobusiness offers you an opportunity to place a free advertisement of your business freely on sowetobusiness.net and the sowetobusiness newsletter. Use the adverts guideline below to place your free advert. TEXTAD=125 LETTERS including spaces. . Send your Ad to sowetobusiness@gmail.com. This wonderful opportunity to market your business ends on 01 August 2010.
Example Text Ad
Authorised financial services provider.
Tel: 011 492 0902 / 082 406 4443. www.karibuconsulting.co.za
Tel: 011 492 0902 / 082 406 4443. www.karibuconsulting.co.za
ShakeXperince: Lali educating through drama.
The founder of Nobulali Productions , Lali Dangazele, started the organisation in 2008 out of increasing requests for her to host team learning workshops in organisations and academic workshops in schools. It is through these initial workshops that Lali developed and piloted some of the products that her business now offers.
As such, she assisted in developing a creative expression of the client’s corporate values. She was recently commissioned by Wits University to direct an interactive adaptation of Othello, which toured schoolsand provided a creative way of understanding and excelling in Shakespeare. Lali’s community participation is something that she hold dear. She has works in schools mostly to educate, train and develop learners through drama. She has worked at the Sizwille School for the deaf where she developed asix week self awareness course for the grade eleven learners. She has also collaborated with Mondeor High School, where she developed and interactive, five-day workshop with the learners and together created what Nobulali Productions now refers to as the ShakeXperince™ workshops and camps.
Access the internet cheaply.
Access to the internet is a major problem in townships, the number of internet users is estimated at 5-million in South Africa but we have more than 10-million cellphone with internet capabilities. Accessing the internet on your Cellphone is the best option, but your cellphone browser makes it an expensive choice, choose no more, Opera mini is the answer. Opera is the smart choice for browsing on expensive wireless data plans. Using Opera to browse the Web with your mobile phone can save you money on your phone bills, by reducing your data usage substantially. Opera Mini uses only a tenth of the bandwidth of other browsers, compressing Web pages by up to 90%. On Opera Mobile, turning on Opera Turbo compresses data up to 80% or leave Opera Turbo off to get full Web site data, as you would on a PC. download opera mini on your phone or read more
Not being on the net is last century.
Many small businesses don't have online strategy for their businesses, it may be lack of knowledge, thoughts of prohibitive costs or simply technophobia. Without a web presence you are missing on many low cost marketing opportunites available through the internet, can you afford not to market your business?
Establish a low cost internet presence for your business through a customised blog.
It cost as little as R99 to register your business Name or Trademark as a domain name. Domain names are registered and renewed on a annual basis, meaning you pay once every 12 months. Register your domain name with Sowetobusiness webHost and get a free customized five-pages blog. Register your domain now.
Visit this blogs for examples: kgatliso interior design or SowetoBusiness
( sowetobusiness.co.za domain is undergoing tranfer and will be available soon.)
Another option is to simply park your domain to protect your business name or trademark. Domain parking enables you register and reserve your business or personal domain name and website address for future use.
It is a good way to ensure that a domain name you wish to use for hosting your website will not be registered by someone else in the meantime.
Establish a low cost internet presence for your business through a customised blog.
It cost as little as R99 to register your business Name or Trademark as a domain name. Domain names are registered and renewed on a annual basis, meaning you pay once every 12 months. Register your domain name with Sowetobusiness webHost and get a free customized five-pages blog. Register your domain now.
Visit this blogs for examples: kgatliso interior design or SowetoBusiness
( sowetobusiness.co.za domain is undergoing tranfer and will be available soon.)
Another option is to simply park your domain to protect your business name or trademark. Domain parking enables you register and reserve your business or personal domain name and website address for future use.
It is a good way to ensure that a domain name you wish to use for hosting your website will not be registered by someone else in the meantime.
Thoughts on BEE
It is important to remind ourselves of what (the dti) stated when it laid out its strategy on Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) that; "Apartheid systematically and purposefully restricted the majority of South Africans from meaningful participation in the economy. Assets of millions of people were directly and indirectly destroyed and access to skills and self employment was racially restricted. The accumulation process under apartheid confined the creation of wealth to a racial minority and imposed underdevelopment on black communities. The result is an economic structure that excludes the vast majority of South Africans
read more
This article appears in anc.org.za
read more
This article appears in anc.org.za
Warning! Virus
I got a copy of the following massage in my inbox, might benefit you but use own judgement as to the content matter.
HUGE VIRUS COMING ! PLEASE READ & FORWARD !
This has been checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus! and also checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to all your contacts ASAP.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!
You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C drive of your computer.
This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address on his/her contact list. That is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it!
If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even if it is sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.
It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.
Sowetobusiness' suggestion is if you receive the above massage in your inbox do not send to all, rather copy and paste as a new massage and remove all links or attachments. You have to wonder who is the fool when dealing with cyber attacks.
HUGE VIRUS COMING ! PLEASE READ & FORWARD !
This has been checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus! and also checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to all your contacts ASAP.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!
You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C drive of your computer.
This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address on his/her contact list. That is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it!
If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even if it is sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.
It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.
Sowetobusiness' suggestion is if you receive the above massage in your inbox do not send to all, rather copy and paste as a new massage and remove all links or attachments. You have to wonder who is the fool when dealing with cyber attacks.
Fifa countdown, small business unusual. Get some of the proceeds.
South African group Freshly Ground FIFA and Control Room, a producer of global music events, today announced the final line-up of African and South African artists for the FIFA World Cup Kick-Off Celebration Concert. Five-time South African Music Award (SAMA) winners Freshlyground, legendary South African musician Hugh Masekela, the Soweto-based Mzansi Youth Choir, two-time Grammy Award winners Soweto Gospel Choir, as well as African hip hop artist K’NAAN, will take to the stage at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg on the eve of the opening match of the FIFA 2010 World Cup.
All net proceeds from the concert will be donated to “20 Centres for 2010”, the official campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, whose aim is to achieve positive social change through football by building 20 centres across Africa offering education and healthcare services as well as football training to disadvantaged communities.
Is your small business prepared for an opportunitty were net proceeds stays in your pockets or your business bank account.
All net proceeds from the concert will be donated to “20 Centres for 2010”, the official campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, whose aim is to achieve positive social change through football by building 20 centres across Africa offering education and healthcare services as well as football training to disadvantaged communities.
Is your small business prepared for an opportunitty were net proceeds stays in your pockets or your business bank account.
SAB KickStart Enterprise Development Competition 2010
SAB launched its KickStart programme in 1995 as a poverty alleviation programme but it has subsequently become a platform to stimulate sustainable enterprise development. Specifically, KickStart promotes business awareness through training, supplying grants as start-up capital and providing post-training mentorship and assistance during the setting-up phase of the business. Aimed at 18 to 35 year-olds from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.
The results speak for themselves. 64% of grant winners from 2001 to 2005 are still in business, with 87% of those who received grants in 2004 and 2005 still operating. No fewer than 83% of SAB KickStart participants have reported that their businesses are growing and the turnover of KickStart businesses has increased by an average of 375%.
Almost one third supply goods and services to SAB. Many of these enterprises have grown into multi-million Rand organisations, employing a significant amount of people.
Registration Now Open until 25 June 2010 - go to the soweto SAB branch for your application form.
The results speak for themselves. 64% of grant winners from 2001 to 2005 are still in business, with 87% of those who received grants in 2004 and 2005 still operating. No fewer than 83% of SAB KickStart participants have reported that their businesses are growing and the turnover of KickStart businesses has increased by an average of 375%.
Almost one third supply goods and services to SAB. Many of these enterprises have grown into multi-million Rand organisations, employing a significant amount of people.
Registration Now Open until 25 June 2010 - go to the soweto SAB branch for your application form.
Sanlam and Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year ® Competition
Initiated in 1989 by Business Partners, this annual Entrepreneur of the Year ® award aims to give recognition to the vision, innovation, perseverance, drive and commitment of the individuals who run successful small and medium enterprises.
Previously only open to Business Partners clients, 2010 sees the competition open to all SMEs in South Africa, with Sanlam as main sponsor.
The three award categories this year, with R20 000 prize money each, are: Emerging Entrepreneur (business younger than three years old), a Small Business Entrepreneur (turnover up to R20 million) and a Medium Business Entrepreneur (turnover greater than R20 million, but less than R200 million).
The overall winner of the Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year ® 2010 , will receive R100 000 in cash, the opportunity to attend an international conference or trade show, as well as extensive exposure in the public domain to get the sales rolling in.
Get entry form Here
Previously only open to Business Partners clients, 2010 sees the competition open to all SMEs in South Africa, with Sanlam as main sponsor.
The three award categories this year, with R20 000 prize money each, are: Emerging Entrepreneur (business younger than three years old), a Small Business Entrepreneur (turnover up to R20 million) and a Medium Business Entrepreneur (turnover greater than R20 million, but less than R200 million).
The overall winner of the Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year ® 2010 , will receive R100 000 in cash, the opportunity to attend an international conference or trade show, as well as extensive exposure in the public domain to get the sales rolling in.
Get entry form Here
Reduce your product research costs through micro-testing
Microtesting is marketing a product online before spending much on research and development or inventory. The idea is to develop something with the minimum amount of features or information needed to gauge the marketability of a product online. That might mean mocking up a website with potential features and seeing how many visitors click on the item. It might also involve buying pay-per-click ads to see how easy it is to gain potential customers. Or it might mean selling a few products on a site like bidorbuy to see how well they perform before ordering in bulk from a wholesaler.What sets this approach apart from practices like using focus groups is that companies base product development decisions not just on what customers say they want but on how they vote with their wallets.
Start-up business factory shop.
Paul Graham's business school and investment fund, Y Combinator, has launched 145 companies -- for a lot less money than you would think.
Graham's start-up days are more than a full decade behind him, but he can't help recalling them with a shudder. "It's like talking to someone who went to war," Graham says. "It sucks to run a start-up." His company, Y Combinator, is a hybrid venture capital fund and business school that invests in, advises, and, literally, feeds 40 or so early-stage businesses a year. Investments are small -- less than $25,000 per company -- but Graham supplements the money with smart advice, introductions to later-stage investors, technical help, and a sense of community.
Graham encourages founders to spend all their energy on product development. In most cases, companies are expected to release a finished version of something -- whether it be a Broadband App or a photo-sharing widget -- before the three-month program is over. That's an incredibly short amount of time for a two- or three-person team. It requires that founders work more or less around the clock.
Y Combinator began as an experiment in angel investing, conducted during the summer of 2005. The pitch was straightforward: $6,000 for a company with one founder, $12,000 if the company had two founders, and $18,000 if the company had three. In exchange, Y Combinator would get roughly 6 percent in common stock.
Graham believes, deeply, that start-ups are the answer to the world's problems; that they are easy to make if you are determined enough and cheap enough; and that it's getting a lot easier to start one.
Graham's start-up days are more than a full decade behind him, but he can't help recalling them with a shudder. "It's like talking to someone who went to war," Graham says. "It sucks to run a start-up." His company, Y Combinator, is a hybrid venture capital fund and business school that invests in, advises, and, literally, feeds 40 or so early-stage businesses a year. Investments are small -- less than $25,000 per company -- but Graham supplements the money with smart advice, introductions to later-stage investors, technical help, and a sense of community.
Graham encourages founders to spend all their energy on product development. In most cases, companies are expected to release a finished version of something -- whether it be a Broadband App or a photo-sharing widget -- before the three-month program is over. That's an incredibly short amount of time for a two- or three-person team. It requires that founders work more or less around the clock.
Y Combinator began as an experiment in angel investing, conducted during the summer of 2005. The pitch was straightforward: $6,000 for a company with one founder, $12,000 if the company had two founders, and $18,000 if the company had three. In exchange, Y Combinator would get roughly 6 percent in common stock.
Graham believes, deeply, that start-ups are the answer to the world's problems; that they are easy to make if you are determined enough and cheap enough; and that it's getting a lot easier to start one.
Soweto Business Guide
If you are operating a small business is soweto you can't afford not to be in the Soweto Business Guide online directory, or you are missing a chance to be in the most comprehensive directory of businesses operating in Soweto, providing the public with immediate access to a variety of service providers. The is a problem though with many of the listed small businesses, No website. Soweto Business Guide is an online directory which means people using it are on the internet, the first thing they want to do as soon as they find your business in the directory is to look at your products or services suite online, get a website or set up a blog, having a web presence is critical.
Phonebooth Free gives small businesses
Bandwidth.com is launching phonebooth free for small businesses. Phonebooth Free gives small businesses, freelancers and independent professionals a way to have a professional-sounding phone system at no cost. While there are already Web-based voice applications designed for basic social use, Phonebooth Free provides 200 minutes per month of inbound calling plus the call-routing features, like an auto-attendant and support for multiple users, that small businesses and professionals need. If you are a virtual company, with employees who are on the go or working from home, there is no better phone solution than Phonebooth Free. South African small businesses can only hope for a similar system, this is a US based service currently.
Join the ecommerce revolution
Many small businesses are in the dark ages as far as ecommerce is concern, with many lacking a basic web presence as they consider setup cost prohibitive.
Facebook is now a community of over 300 million people, most of them well educated high living standard measure consumer group, and if you don't have a web presence you have no way of reaching them.
There is n o excuse for not being online. The easiest way is to register a blog, its FREE! checkout blogger for your-self. You can do a little customization by registering your domain name which could be your company name, name of your product or any fancy name you like, such as fancyname.co.za. Registering a domain name will cost a little once off payment, check the domain registration prices on SowetoBusiness.
There are many free online selling tools to go the whole fifteen yards and turn your blog into an ecommerce site with applications such as Setcom and Payfast, no monthly fees or setup cost.
Sowetobusiness offers free blog customization to domain registration clients, register your domain and send us a blog setup and customization request at sowetobuisness @gmail.com.
Facebook is now a community of over 300 million people, most of them well educated high living standard measure consumer group, and if you don't have a web presence you have no way of reaching them.
There is n o excuse for not being online. The easiest way is to register a blog, its FREE! checkout blogger for your-self. You can do a little customization by registering your domain name which could be your company name, name of your product or any fancy name you like, such as fancyname.co.za. Registering a domain name will cost a little once off payment, check the domain registration prices on SowetoBusiness.
There are many free online selling tools to go the whole fifteen yards and turn your blog into an ecommerce site with applications such as Setcom and Payfast, no monthly fees or setup cost.
Sowetobusiness offers free blog customization to domain registration clients, register your domain and send us a blog setup and customization request at sowetobuisness @gmail.com.
Reaching customers cost money
The hardest part about being a start-up entrepreneur is coming up with a cost effective well thought out marketing campaign. This is not easy as your initial marketing spend might get gobbled up by unsuitable media, testing or experimenting is an unavoidable process in launching a new product or service on an unsuspecting market, a necessary cost of doing business.
It is difficult to raise business finance in South Africa, and even harder if you are planning on covering your initial operating expenses through quick sales. It is going to be harder and take longer for a start-up company to make the first big sale than it took to develop the product and bring it to market , unless you have develop few sales contact during product development phase.
Whatever you do in the start-up phase of your enterprise, remember to have enough money to take your product to customers, if you cannot reach customers, they won’t buy from you if they do not know your product or service exist. If you don’t make sale, you don’t have a business.
It is difficult to raise business finance in South Africa, and even harder if you are planning on covering your initial operating expenses through quick sales. It is going to be harder and take longer for a start-up company to make the first big sale than it took to develop the product and bring it to market , unless you have develop few sales contact during product development phase.
Whatever you do in the start-up phase of your enterprise, remember to have enough money to take your product to customers, if you cannot reach customers, they won’t buy from you if they do not know your product or service exist. If you don’t make sale, you don’t have a business.
SowetoBusiness encourages self-employment
SowetoBusiness aims to encourage self-employment and the development of small businesses in soweto region as a way of reducing unemployment by providing the latest news and information on business opportunities, tenders, small business training and skills programs, business tools and many more business opportunities available to budding enterpreneurs in the soweto region. SowetoBusiness intends to be the premier platform on news and information related to soweto's business and economic landscape.
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