Measure your success

Gcobani Ndabeni 224x300 Measure your success

Gcobani Ndabeni

Last month we saw the hosting of the second annual South African Premier Business Awards where business owners were acknowledged for achieving exceptional results with their businesses.

It is really inspiring to see icons like Sam Motsuenyane being recognised for his lifetime contribution to economic growth, and to hear about the achievements of the other category winners. In this edition of Small Business Connect, we report on the winners and their businesses.

We salute all the winners, like Motsuenyane saluted all the people he worked with during his lifetime as an entrepreneur and a driving force in establishing successful black businesses in South Africa.

However, only one page of the newspaper is dedicated to the awards – there are 19 more pages where you will read about many other businesses who have not received such recognition.

For them, like most other entrepreneurs, the greatest achievements are not reflected by winning awards (although it would be great to do so). For them, the recognition lies in the satisfaction they offer their customers and the profitability of their businesses.

The women entrepreneurs who completed the Bavumile training course, the informal traders in Port St John’s, the Eastern Cape contractors who were trained by Sanral, inventor Neil du Preez and the small suppliers servicing the needs of their customers

How do they measure success?

You may have a business similar to any of those covered in Small Business Connect.

The question to you is, how are you measuring your success?

For each business, the answers to these questions will be different, but, the common goal is to ensure that we are on track toward the successes we aim for.

Without keeping a “scoreboard”, we will not know how we are doing – we will not know if we are “winning the game”.

My challenge to you is to compile your own “scoreboard” and then assess your progress every month. You may include financial targets, production levels and product improvements, but what you measure is dependent on your situation.

Decide what you’ll put on your “scoreboard” and keep your “score”.

It may just lead you to winning an award in the near future!

Gcobani Ndabeni
Operations Director
Small Business Connect

 

, Gcobani, Motsuenyane, Ndabeni, Neil du Preez,

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