Building a successful business is a grind. There are no shortcuts, and you must get up every day and face your fear of failure. The payoffs from building a company that produces sustainable cash flow are fantastic. Here are some of the obvious payoffs: 1. You are your own boss…

China has been in lockdown again. The ports in Shanghai are closed, and ships are waiting in the South China Sea. The implications for supply chains are incomprehensible. So is the Chinese lockdown policy, so it seems. Lockdown policies have proven to be a complete failure at reducing the spread…

In a month’s time, a small group of runners will traverse the cliffs and beaches of the Wild Coast. Their route will take them from Port Edward to Coffee Bay. 182km in 7 days. In the days to come, we will travel to another world. A world where time passes…

Several years ago, I came across a book with the same title as this article. When I spotted it on the shelf at the book shop, I did a double-take. I couldn’t resist. I had to take a peek. I got sucked into its fascinating content, and I had to…

I am amazed at the lack of basic financial understanding that many entrepreneurs have. This is especially evident in entrepreneurs presenting to Shark Tank investors. The Shark Tank is a “high pressure” presentation to potential angel investors offering venture capital. Entrepreneurs are generally good at showcasing their products. Samples and…

Owning a business that allows you to choose how you spend your time and allocate your resources is a fantastic privilege. Deciding what you want to do and when you want to do it is freedom. The pressing question is, what learnings from the last 20 years can make the…

Business owners always want to know the value of their business. It is the same as checking in on their share portfolio. The difference is that listed shares have a share price, and the unlisted company doesn’t. It’s not so easy to look up the value of an unlisted company …

The weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is the go-to number representing the expected returns of the capital providers to a business. It is also a proxy for the “riskiness” of a business. In academia, WACC is a subject taught in every business school finance class and is covered in…

After two decades of designing, managing, and teaching executive education programmes, I have a checklist that helps me guide the learning journey successfully so that all parties achieve their desired outcome. The complete checklist is too long to include in this article. I will focus on the portion of the…