CrashProof  your Business

The seminar is the result of 16 years of intensive work with small business owners in South Africa. We have a very entrepreneurial culture. It seems that the less academic education we have, the more likely we are to start our own businesses. (Academics tend to have an easier time finding a job!)

This means that we typically start out with a lot of hope, but very few formal skills. Running your own business is not a 40-hour-per-week job. It takes huge effort, and there is very little time left to learn on the job.

I closed an eight-year-old business in 1992. As it all unfolded I lost everything that I had worked for until that point in my life: my home, my car, the furniture, my life savings, and my self-respect.

I traded all of that, (as well as another R2 million that I didn't have) for one hell of an education.

In 1993 I met with 300 small business owners in the Western Cape. I was trying to find out what I had done wrong. I had a banking diploma, for heaven's sake, and nobody could be so stupid.

 Each of those 300 small business owners assured me that they had done exactly what I had done to protect myself -- nothing. They had made no preparations whatsoever. They had, however, signed a surety for each loan and overdraft, just as I had. They also assured me that this could not happen to them.

I read every book I could find on the subject of entrepreneurship. There is almost nothing about entrepreneurs -- the owners behind the businesses. There is far more than enough about business.

The best book I found on how to build a quality small business, offered some startling survival figures. In his book The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber quotes the following numbers:

• Half of all start-ups will fail in the first year;
• Eight out of every 10 will close by the fifth year;
• Just four out of every 100 start-ups will survive ten years.

Michael then goes on to outline how you can build a business that can grow without pain. (But not without a lot of work.)

My concern lay with those business owners already in business. Suddenly I started getting phone calls from many of the people that I met with. Now they too were in trouble!

It was that sudden call from their bank manager at ABSA, telling them that their application for new finance, already three months overdue, was being denied. Or Nedbank bouncing 15 cheques over month-end. Or First National Bank recalling their overdraft. Or a staff member running off with a pile of the firm's cash. Or SARS demanding R200,000 that the accountant assured them was under control. 

There were dozens of reasons, but the prognosis in each case was obvious: The business would close very soon and the owner (who had no protection) would lose everything as soon as the first judgment came in. (About three weeks after the first summons!)

This was like GroundHog Day for me! I was reliving the worst time of my life in the lives of other people. And that's when the idea came to share the ideas and strategies through a seminar.

The seminar focus is on how to protect you - the business owner - from the effects of closure.

Remember all those sureties you signed? They will be used against you. (Even if the debt has been repaid!) However, we've noticed that the folk who put these ideas into action in their lives also run much better businesses as a result.

We look at some key issues that most of us don't usually think about when it comes to business. We spend hundreds of hours each month inside our businesses, perfecting products and services, chasing sales, etc. We spend less than one hour each month looking at whether we - the owners - are getting richer or poorer.

We look at the following issues in detail:

• Why Business Advisors are often wrong:
• • Why your bankers advice is sometimes in your interest, but always in his, and why that distinction is crucial;
  • How your accountants advice is sometimes exactly the opposite of what you need as a small business owner, and how your accountant is the person most likely to give away your house;
  • Why your attorney's assumptions can lead to huge personal judgments after a business closure;
• How to compartmentalise your business risks away from yourself;
• • What the ideal business structure is, and why;
  • What sureties are, why they're so dangerous, why most of us blithely sign them, and how to borrow without them;
  • How to reduce the damage from any sureties you have already signed, and how to get them back;
• How to legally hide away all the assets you have accumulated over your life so that they're not at risk from this current venture;
• • Your car, your home, your investments, your life assurance, and everything else;
• How to build cash resilience into your business to buffer against setbacks;
• How to build cash resilience into your personal life to buffer against the day when you don't have that business income.

You will be astounded at how much of the BS you will recognise. Ever heard a banker say this...:

• Everybody signs this.
• It's our standard form.
• If you won't stand behind your business how can you expect my bank to stand behind your business.

Yep, none of it is as true as they wish it was! The reality is that the sureties, guarantees, and other standard documents you sign will come to haunt you when you close your business, or liquidate your firm. (Not quite the same thing.) And then you will stare personal sequestration in the face, and it is a scary place to be. Business closure does not have to lead to personal bankruptcy.

We have this material as a complete website segment, a downloadable book, and a comprehensive 180 minute video, recorded in December 2008 in Cape Town. (If you'd attended your fee would have been R1997-00, but this material is free to all members.)

The main reason for pulling all this material under the Business Warrior banner is that the biggest challenge I used to face is just this: After every seminar I faced 50 people the next day wanting some personal help. (Doing four seminars/week in different parts of the country made this impossible.)

Nowadays, those questions are easily and quickly answered in the Forum. (Most have already been asked a few times.)

Please join Business Warriors. We can help you get quick answers to any questions. But we can also amplify your voice a thousandfold.  It's a zero risk option.