Bad Entrepreneur

… well sort of.

There has been some mumbling from the Gauteng quarter, that not enough has been done to involve them in the whole Silicon Cape initiative.

Having chatted to Justin Stanford last week, he seems to be of the view that it should be an all-embracing community initiative which encourages community driven events and idea sharing. That includes extending it beyond Cape Town, even to the plebs of Johannesburg.

The flip-side of that, is that some of the tech entrepreneurs in Cape Town feel that it detracts from the idea of a close-knit innovation sharing community.

Me, I’m of the humble view that the more the merrier and technology has meant that we can exchange ideas and opportunities from Gauteng, Durban, Cape Town, Limpopo (howzit Julius Malema!) or anywhere else.

No reason to limit networking under the Silicon Cape banner if it benefits the industry.

With that in mind I bounced it off Justin last week and we’re going to try and test the waters in Gauteng to see what people are saying and doing and maybe some feedback about what their expectations of Silicon Cape is.

But this is where I need some input:

• What’s the expectation of an event in Gauteng? Is it to share a couple of drinks and network a bit?
• Do you want a speaker from the Silicon Cape steering committee to give you their take on life and where the initiative is headed?
• Do we need a minimum dress code to keep the bankers (cold shiver) out of the room?
• Any objections to somewhere in Sandton?

Catherine Luckhoff and I opened our big mouths and have decided to make a run with a Gauteng event some time in the next few weeks but we’re kinda shooting in the dark in terms of expectations and what people want. Plus we’re always keen to have people volunteer to commit some time / ideas to making it run smoothly.

PS if anybody feels like sponsoring a couple of crates of Spiced Gold for the organisers I won’t complain… I promise to disclose them to Julius’ satisfaction and will be totally transparent with the gift register.

Ok jokes aside – a couple of us are prepared to run with this, but we need guidance from the Gauteng community. All input would be appreciated!

I hate to gush about a product – especially when its from a bank (cold shiver) – but FNB’s Instant Accounting package is simply awesome and will (in my humble and probably worthless) opinion be one of the most revolutionary products for the small business environment in 2010.

I’ve mumbled about it in a couple of previous articles but today I got to try it out firsthand. Suffice to say that I may not be a huge fan of FNB but I’m but I’m opening an account with them to get my grubby little paws on this tool.

If you are one of those SME owners who hates doing their admin and tends to collect all their paperwork in a shoebox somewhere then this program will change the way you work completely – and its not even complicated to use!

Plus it’s FREE which makes it frikkin awesome.

In a nutshell it is a rules based book-keeping package which runs off of your bank statement. According to the guys over at FNB 98% of the transactions that you will need to capture into your book-keeping package will be on your bank statement anyway so all the system needs to be told is where to allocate the income and expenses.

I’m just a lowly journalist but I couldn’t find any faults with it – the system does anything that I would need as an SME owner and a few more things than I expected it to be able to do.

And it’s not just aimed at small and micro businesses. The guys over at Cash Converters use it to track and do reporting on their other various stores and helps management pull up reports to compare different operating units.

Apart from the usual book-keeping up to trial balance functionality there is some nice reporting features on it including:

- Budgeting and budgeting variance
- Financial performance against previous financial year
- Cash-flow forecasts
- VAT reporting

The product is also very flexible. I had expected a “rules based” product to be very much an ‘out the box’ offering which could not adapt to different industries. The demonstration I saw included the services industry and a retail company. By FNB’s own admission it’s not ideal for manufacturing type businesses but for the rest you can configure this thing to your hearts content.

Nice product, I tip my hat to FNB and its developers – I’m sold on it.

I have to say that I was a little surprised that my column on Fin24.com this morning did not generate a bit more debate in amongst the comments section.

Anyway for those who don’t have the inclination, the gist of the column was about how technology had been a fantastic leveller of the playing fields, specifically when it came to financial tools to empower small businesses.

The problem with technology is that alot of entrepreneurs with that mystic thing called “budget” assume that SME’s can make investments while there are those out there who are scratching their heads and wondering how the next salary bill is going to be paid. If you don’t have money you often don’t look at investing in technology which might make you more competitive.

I thought it might be a bit of fun to create a post and try and list some of the
(South African) tools that are available for entrepreneurs. I’ve tried to limit them to South African companies so that we can support local businesses.

Feel free to post / add to them in the comments below:

Free blogging platforms

A lot of tech-savvy entrepreneurs take for granted that they will have a “web presence”. But for many smaller businesses this is something they have no clue about. Free blogging platforms such as Bundublog.com, Blat, iBlog and 24.com are all ideal places to get yourself some kind of presence at no cost in an existing community.

Website and marketing tools

Blog aggregators such as Afrigator, Myscoop, Amatomu are all great ways to build traffic to your site. They’re free, mahala, cost you zilch and used correctly they can help build awareness of your company or brand.

Can’t afford a professional designer but have a few bucks to spend on some webdesign tools? What about things like Yola and WooThemes?

Want to market your company but can only afford to pay for marketing which results in sales or leads? What about using things like TrafficSynergy or OfferForge to promote your business?

Don’t forget Sean Rileys AD:Dynamo business which is a very affordable marketing solution (heck we can afford to use it!).  Nice way to advertise your business on web, TV or mobile.

Looking for a clever piece of communication, networking and database tool for SMEs to manage their contacts? Have you tried Scott Cundills MajesticWay?

They’re not local technology but if you are loooking to zero in on building contacts or a local  professional network – have you tried Twitter,  Facebook, LinkedIn?

Financial

Book-keeping packages, credit assessments, basic financial management tools – these cost a small fortune and often need some skills to use them properly.

One of the funkiest things I discovered yesterday was Instant Accounting from FNB. I’m going for a demo on this tech next week but I have to say that this has to be one of the most innovative packages I’ve heard about in a while.

Other local suppliers and tech which jump out at me include Netcash, MaristIT and iTrust.

I’m sure there are plenty of others with some really neat solutions so please post ‘em below. Don’t make it an out and out plug for your business but I think it could turn into a really fantastic post and something which could empower up and coming South Africa entrepreneurs.