{pp}2007 has been marred with Industrial Action in the workplace with a variety of high profile strikes, threats and protests hitting organisations of all shapes and sizes. With major sporting events like that the 2010 World Cup coming up quickly we can expect to see an increase in these kinds of activities.

{pp}An important dinner was held in Cape Town last night at which the Mayor of Cape Town, Mrs. Helen Zille, met with a group of leaders of some of the biggest and most influential Cape businesses under the umbrella of Accelerate Cape Town.

The purpose of the dinner was to bring business leaders together in an informal environment with the Mayor to jointly discuss issues around accelerating business participation and investment in 2010 and beyond.

{pp}Gauteng based IT group makes it through South Africa's biggest business plan competition for start-ups

{pp}Despite their best intentions, some organisations aimed at empowering business women tend to emit the distinct aroma of a ladies’ tea-party, which is great for socialising, but not for very much else. Women in Finance is NOT one of these organisations. Here’s why you should get to their next meeting, particularly if you’re a guy.

Despite its emphasis on empowering female entrepreneurs to get ahead in business, one of the great achievements of Women in Finance since its inception in 2005 has to be its unique approach to helping businesses owned by women as well as men to thrive.

{pp}From a vision towards reality: Accelerating Cape Town towards becoming a global capital of Creativity and Innovation

Accelerate Cape Town (ACT) is a business-led initiative aimed at bringing together stakeholders in Cape Town and its surrounding region to develop and implement a long-term vision for sustainable, inclusive economic growth.  The organisation grew out of regular discussion sessions during 2006 and early 2007 held by a group of some 30 influential Cape business leaders.  They were brought together by a common concern over the lack of pace and direction of change in the Cape and particularly the inability to attract and retain new and established businesses and talented young professionals.  These discussions led to the formal establishment of ACT in March 2007.

{pp}Small to Medium Enterprises need to tread carefully when entering new markets. Before the company can enter a new industry / marketing campaign they need to carefully assess a number of factors:

{pp}At the SAP Partner Awards on 9 May 2007, Derek Kudsee (Director – SME) and Paul Vermaak (Channel Manager) of SAP handed over the award to Cornel Schoeman, Britton's Director.

{pp}Old Thinking New Times Times have really changed, and it is not only the crime and violence, the escalating drug problems or the fathers that wipe out their families, but time itself have changed. The need for companies to scale down staff compliments, coupled with increase in competition, demand for better and faster service has inevitably resulted in more pressure on the employee, The divide between rich and poor is being extended day by day and a bigger portion of the world populace and especially South Africa is finding themselves living on the breadline.

Most are trying to maintain a lifestyle that is quite common to them while the financial burden increase month by month.

{pp}The Business Women's Academy, the first of its kind in the country concentrating on women in business, was launched by USB Executive Development Ltd (USB-ED) of the University of Stellenbosch Business School, in association with HERS-SA, on Tuesday, 22 May 2007. HERS-SA is a leading non-profit organisation dedicated to the advancement of women.

{pp}Small businesses have been gradually migrating the systems of their entrepreneurial-focused companies away from a PC-centric environment, towards a web-based one. SME’s should focus on leveraging the power of the Internet to grow their small businesses.