When you dress to pitch, imagine you’re going for an interview to a top corporate, and have to make an excellent impact. Evening wear and dress suits are out, but refined and quiet clothes are in, and this will show how serious you are about presenting your pitch. First impressions count – before you start your pitch, the investors will have already come to some conclusions about you based on your appearance, so it has to be absolutely suitable for the event.  

Dressing to Pitch for the Ladies

• Bra-straps: ensure they fit snugly; don’t fiddle with them, don’t adjust them, don’t let them show
• Your cleavage: restrain it and put it to bed for the day
• Long dangly earrings:  choose small neat studs that won’t shake, rattle and roll as you move your head
• Mini-skirts: only acceptable if you’re a prepubescent teenager
• High, high heels: Uh-uh – change them so you don’t wobble
• Chipped nail polish; lipstick on teeth; laddered pantyhose; uncombed hair; suffocating perfume: avoid all these like the plague
• Demure make-up:  this beats gaudy colours every time  

Dressing to Pitch for the Gents

• Your fly: is it zipped to the top? Check and check again
• Butt-cracks: not to be on view, and trousers must fit perfectly and be secured with a belt
• Shirt hanging out: tuck it into your trousers – you’re not going to a picnic nor a braai
• After-shave cologne: go easy on it, as too much is overwhelming
• Deodorant: a must, and no underarm stains please
• Shoes: must be polished if they can be, and washed if they’re sneakers
• Ties: not necessary but shirt collars must lie flat
• Headphones with earpieces: leave them at home  

You’re almost there! You have enhanced your appearance so as to inspire the judges and the potential investors, and now they are eager to hear your polished pitch. Engen Petroleum Ltd, Nedbank, Raizcorp and SAfm, as well as national partner the Youth Chamber of Commerce and Industry, your hosts of the 2016 ENGEN Pitch & Polish workshop and competition programme, look forward to seeing you dressed for polished pitching success!

Dr Leon Grové believes it is the people in your business that will determine whether you survive and prosper through to 2020.

Leon is one of the four featured speakers – along with Bryce Biggs, Clive Coetzee, and Rob Smorfitt - at the Business 2020 workshops being presented by the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business workshops on the 24th and 25th of March. Leon is a registered clinical psychologist, as well as a consultant, trainer, facilitator, author, executive coach and mentor.

He writes, publishes (author of the book ABC of Stress), and consults to a wide range of corporate and government clients. He has a particular interest in the fields of leadership and personal development. This work ranges from working with senior level executives on emotional intelligence to schoolchildren making career choices.

He assists with the assessment of leadership effectiveness and emotional intelligence for the staff  in senior leadership positions. He also takes a keen interest in the development of younger people and assists with assessing and coaching young people in the selection of a career direction. Amongst his younger clients, he is known as “Doc Groovy”.

At the workshop, Leon will address essential people aspects of your business –

-      how to successfully choose partners or staff

-      how to maximise benefits from your networks

-      how to keep your people engaged and committed

On the 24th, the four speakers will be focusing their input on start-ups and new businesses (concept, or start-up businesses, or those under three years since their establishment).

The workshop on the 25th will be focused around the needs of established SME businesses.

Bryce Biggs of Bryce Biggs Consulting is coordinating the Business 2020 workshops on behalf of the PCB. For more details on the workshops, which will take place at the Chamber offices in Pietermaritzburg, contact Lorna Jones on 033 345 2747 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Dr Rob Smorfitt, an authority on SMEs and their funding, is one of four featured speakers at the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business (PCB), Business 2020, workshops.

Two workshops are being held at the Chamber offices in Pietermaritzburg – one for start-ups on Tuesday 24 and a second for established businesses on Wednesday 25 March 2015.

Rob is a portfolio entrepreneur having owned and run a range of businesses over the years, spanning the telecommunications, IT and Internet fields as well as specialised education. He has lectured and administered programme for three universities and believes in “paying back” through the work he does in supervising students working on their PhD, Masters, and Honours-level theses.

Rob’s passion for small business is demonstrated through his involvement in funding fairs. In conjunction with KZN Provincial Treasury Rob is again presenting KZN SME Funding Fairs this year. There will be five this year with the first one being in Richards Bay with others to follow in Margate, Newcastle, Pietermaritzburg and Durban through 2015. These funding fairs are for businesses seeking between R1m and R30m in investment, in the form of debt, grant and/or equity finance.  

Rob will be speaking at Business 2020 on funding fairs and their potential role in assisting you to fund your business. He will also talk on other recent development in funding through crowdfunding platforms.  

The speakers on the 24th will be focusing their input on start-ups and new businesses (concept, or start-up businesses, or those under three years since their establishment). The workshop on the 25th will be focused around the needs of established SME businesses.  

Bryce Biggs of Bryce Biggs Consulting is coordinating the Business 2020 workshops on behalf of the PCB. For more details on the workshops, which will take place at the Chamber offices in Pietermaritzburg, contact Lorna Jones on 033 345 2747 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Event organiser Kinetic has confirmed that industry-giant Performanta has signed on as platinum sponsors for this year’s anticipated 6th edition of their successful flagship event; the IT Leaders Africa Summit.

The event, taking place from 18 - 19 March 2015 at The Maslow Hotel in Johannesburg, is set to go beyond your usual routine business conference, evolving to deliver on a more exciting, topical, trendy and current platform, utilising both the latest technologies coupled with the latest in conference trends internationally.

Together with Performanta, the event aims to deliver an expert-lead agenda that features an educational conference program backed by the latest in technology workshops and demonstrations. 

Performanta’s workshop; Safeguard your organisation now, your wallet will thank you later; focuses on measuring your organisation against the industry on 10 information security and privacy measures, derived from real-world assessments.

Performanta Consulting was established by Anthony Olivier 4 years ago, aligning information security consulting services to the Performanta Technology & Services stable. Performanta Consulting has provided services to primary South African banks, insurance companies, brokers, mining companies, service and retail organisations. Their key differentiator: senior, qualified, experienced consultants, integrated frameworks and fair pricing. Furthermore, the team has assisted in addressing security problems in seventeen African countries and has a thorough understanding of the continental landscape.

As thought-leaders in the industry, they are amongst the most active South African participants in industry conferences, blogs and podcasts.An expert-led advisory panel will lead the summit with industry giants Robert Sussman, co-founder and joint-CEO of Integr8; Hugo Timmerman, Head of IT Southern Africa at British American Tobacco; and Tunde Coker, MD of Rack Centre (A Jagal Group Company).

The event also features over 35 speakers, keynotes, panel discussions and numerous educational workshop sessions hosted by key industry providers, all sessions led by some of today’s most notable individuals who are shaping the IT landscape in South Africa and beyond.

Speakers, just to name a few, include; David Visser, CIO of Coca-Cola Southern Africa; Anthony Hlungwane, Group IT Director of Mr Price Group; Sal Laher, CIO Eskom; Rocky Gwewera, Global Head of Infrastructure Architecture at Sasol; Stephan Ekbergh, CEO and founder of Travelstart; and Sunil Joshi, MD and CEO of Neotel.

Some sponsors and partners include; Telkom Business, HP, Performanta and Blue Coat Systems, SITA, Airwatch, Kofax, Dimension Data, Neotel, Meso Systems, Sage Pastel Accounting and ERP Africa, and Blackberry.

For more information on the event to register to attend or to sponsor, visit www.itleaders.co.za or contact the event organisers Kinetic on +27 21 180 4700.Follow the event and stay up to date on Twitter. @ITLeadersAfrica and join in on the conversation using #ITLAfrica.

Bryce Biggs is one of four speakers featured at the PCB workshop on Business 2020 that takes place on 24 and 25 March 2015. The workshop on the 24th is aimed at start-ups, while that that on the 25th is for established businesses.

Speakers (Dr Clive Coetzee, Dr Leon Grové, Dr Rob Smorfitt, and Bryce) will tailor their messages each day to meet the needs of the two audiences. On the 24th, Bryce will focus on business opportunities resulting from current digital disruption as well as on what you need to do to create a viable business model. On the 25th, he will focus on how one maximises the market/sale value of your business and whether or not your business model is likely to endure until 2020.  

Bryce says “The list of businesses and professions that is currently being disrupted or is about to be disrupted –often on a massive scale - is a long one. It includes education, health, manufacturing, retail, security, and transport. Two examples of disruption from the health field: In the USA one of the highest paid medical professions - anaesthesiology - is currently in the early stages of being replaced by machines (e.g. Sedasys from J&J). At present, this replacement is only in certain routine procedures. Also in the health field - a recent blood-testing innovation is set to disrupt a major (highly profitable) health service sector. The innovation comes from a business owned by a 31-year old who is the wealthiest self-made woman billionaire in the world (she is worth $4.5 billion according to Forbes). In both these cases of disruption, patients (and medical aids) stand to save significantly.

New business models are developing every day. Businesses that lock into previously tried and tested business models run the risk of being eliminated in the next 5 to 10 years”.  

The good news for small business according to Bryce? If you can survive the increasingly litigious and regulated business environment, you may be able to leap ahead of established competitors. This is because you are not emotionally, financially, and/or intellectually invested in an existing – often failing – business model.

Bryce Biggs of Bryce Biggs Consulting is coordinating the Business 2020 workshops on behalf of the PCB. For more details on the workshops, which will take place at the Chamber offices in Pietermaritzburg, contact Lorna Jones on 033 345 2747 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Dr Clive Coetzee, KZNs “go-to-guy” if you want to know where the economy is heading regionally or internationally will be speaking at two back-to-back Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business (PCoB), Business 2020 workshops, on 24 and 245 March. Clive is General Manager:  Infrastructure Management and Economic Services for the KZN Provincial Treasury, a position he has held for the past seven years.

People interested in the shape of things to come eagerly await their monthly email from Clive where he provides a crisp and thoughtful analysis of the provincial economy and where it is heading. His PhD, published in 2012, clearly shows where his interests lie – “A Research Approach to Keeping Informed of and Monitoring Local Economic Conditions: A Kwazulu-Natal Case Study”.

Clive has lectured for three Universities and a number of private training institutions and is an in-demand speaker on topics related to the economy. He is a prolific writer on his topic with over 20 papers delivered at conferences and 30 working papers published.

Clive will be talking on likely growth areas and sectors in the first Business 2020 workshop on the 24th. This workshop is aimed at start-ups or recently established businesses. On the 25th, the workshop is aimed at established businesses. Here Clive will be placing greater emphasis on the economic climate existing businesses can expect to face moving forward to 2020.

Bryce Biggs of Bryce Biggs Consulting is coordinating the workshops on behalf of the PCoB. For more details on the workshops, which will take place at the Chamber offices in Pietermaritzburg, contact Lorna Jones on 033 345 2747 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

SMEs in KwaZulu-Natal that are aspiring to boost productivity and growth have a new resource in local businessman Frans Van Rooyen. Small and medium sized companies can access professional business support provided by Frans, who recently joined the prestigious Business Doctors team.

Business Doctors, an award-winning support network that is based in the UK, now has two representatives in South Africa as a result of the growing demand for high-calibre, proactive business support services.

Originally Frans was researching the network to see what Business Doctors could do for his existing company, he was so impressed and was inspired to join them.

“I have a real passion in assisting businesses to improve their turnover, and working with people to help them overcome their barriers towards success,” he said. “Once I learned about what Business Doctors could do, I realised they could assist me in helping other businesses.”

Frans is also a licensee owner and he manages other licensees in South Africa for Brain Gain, a company that supports people to improve their cognitive ability with neurofeedback training.  

Looking forward to working with all kinds of businesses in a variety of sectors, he has previous experience in the motor trade and business brokering, and also brings skills from his experience as a teacher. “The first step for an SME is to get in touch with me and arrange a free Business Doctors health check,” he said. “This will identify strengths and shortcomings, and help design a plan of how Business Doctors can be of assistance.”

Rod Davies, co-founder of Business Doctors, said: “It’s exciting for us that our services are in demand, and that we have people like Frans coming aboard – he brings solid skills to the table and he is genuinely passionate about helping other business people achieve.”

When he’s not at work Frans likes to spend time with his family, especially on camping trips, watching rugby and reading.

Business Doctors’ advice is geared to drive business growth and include strategies for boosting profits, and advice for effective people management, accessing finance, and acquiring other companies.

Frans can be contacted on 079 494 5237. For more information about Business Doctors consultants, visit www.businessdoctors.co.uk.

NOTES TO NEWS DESK

• Image: New Business Doctor Frans van Rooyen Contact Frans on 079 494 5237, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Contact Business Doctors head office in the UK on 0845 219 7077
• Press release distributed for Business Doctors by every1 marketing agency

Where will your business be in 2020? Will your existing business model still be viable? How will you fund it?

You will find answers to these and other key questions at one of two, one-day, workshops being presented by the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business on 24 and 25 March. The workshop on the 24th is for start-up businesses - businesses that are still to be born or that have been in existence for three years or less. The workshop on the 25th is focused around established businesses and their needs. Speakers will tailor their presentations to meet the needs of these two groups of participants.

The Chamber has been fortunate to secure four recognised speakers to take participants on this exciting journey of discovery. They are: Bryce Biggs who will focus on your business opportunities and model, as well as how to increase the market value of your business. Dr Clive Coetzee of KZN Provincial Treasury will be gazing deep into his economist’s crystal ball to forecast for you what is likely to happen in key sectors of the economy and where the growth will be.

Dr Leon Grove will address essential people aspects of your business – how to successfully choose partners or staff, and how to maximise benefits from your networks. Finally, Dr Rob Smorfitt, a leading authority on business funding, will be advising you on accessing funds through funding fairs and on how to crowdfund your business.

For more details on the workshops, which will take place at the Chamber offices.
Contact:
Lorna Jones
Tel: 033 345 2747
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

International cash transactions and transfers are complicated and dragging. Sending and receiving money from the United Kingdom to South Africa through MoneyGram or Western Union has a lot of procedures and takes a lot of time. Funds in internet financial services like Paypal and Bitpay and digital currencies like bitcoin are not yet easily usable in the real world in local merchants and stores. Local small business vendors have difficulty accepting credit and debit cards during transactions because of the lack of a simple system that makes that possible and become limited to cash-only transactions which limits the number of sales they make.

Well a start-up based is Pretoria has taken it upon itself to solve all these problems and make the world smaller, or more globalized. Riovic, Inc. provides a cloud-based banking infrastructure and a service that lets people send cheques/checks to each other globally online and convert these cheques/checks into real usable cash within seconds. The money sent comes from their credit/debit cards, paypal and bitpay and the cheque can be cashed online and at authorized Riovic™ finance facilities. They want to enable family members, friends and business partners to send and receive money globally in real-time without any hassle. The only information needed to send a cheque/check is the names and email addresses of the sender and the receiver. Every vendor with an email address will be able to receive payments from credit/debit cards, paypal and bitcoin improving and revolutionizing their business.

The company will provide a service called Riovic TranXact. TranXact facilitates financial transactions and transfers through a cheque/check generating system allowing recipients to receive money in real-time and the service is available globally. Users can save money on the company's cloud-based banking facility in their accounts which is linked to their Riovic bank card. These funds can be used in shops globally, online or can be withrawn at ATMs. The company also has an e-commerce platform which facilitates online sales for virtual goods (e.g. music, ebooks) through a search engine experience. This platform also has a directory for music labels and publishers. The company does not charge any royalties for items sold on the platform but returns all revenue back to labels and publishers.

This new company is determined to break traditions and change the way people transfer money in the world.

South Africa and the African continent as a whole is home to some of the world’s most valuable natural resources. From gold, to diamonds, chromium, cobalt, and hydroelectric power potential, manganese and millions of acres of untilled farmland Africa is in reality the world’s richest continent.

Despite the potential of the continent’s natural resources and the incredibly skilled and talented people calling this continent home, leaders across the continent have failed to stimulate and retain the most powerful resource – the people.

It is with this view in mind that the SA Teen Entrepreneur Foundation continue to promote the course of creating a culture of entrepreneurship amongst teens and leaders that influence the lives of the country’s youth.

Since its inception, the Teen Entrepreneur Foundation has created a number of workshops, seminars and competitions in partnership with schools, to nurture and encourage entrepreneurial thinking.

“We know that innovative thinking and business acumen can be developed through connection and learning from leaders that have gone before us and paved a way in business,” says Lydia Zingoni Founder and Director of Teen Entrepreneur Foundation.

“For this reason, we have created the Awaken the Giant in You breakfast series, which aims to create a platform for leaders and mentors in business to practically share their journeys with South African youth to not only inspire them, but teach them that hard work, commitment and determination will reap a future reward.” She continued.

The success of the breakfast series to date is the calibre of speakers that the foundation has managed to attract, to share their skills and expertise. The next speaker in the series is global business icon Gareth Penny. 

Gareth Penny is non-Executive Chairman of MMC Norilsk Nickel, the world’s biggest producer of nickel and palladium and a leading producer of platinum and copper.  He has worked in various forms of mining over the past three decades and holds positions on several boards across Europe, Africa and the United States.

His passion to inspire and stimulate the interest of young people in business is evident in his role as regular visiting lecturer at the London Business School’s MBA and Sloane programmes.

Born in Cape Town, Gareth is a prime example of the richness of the people resources that this country has to offer the world. His experience of building a career in the mining industry will also teach one valuable insights about the resource rich continent we live in and how to find opportunity in some unlikely places.

“I have always regarded myself as an entrepreneur from a very early age.  At school I spent time organising fetes and other business ventures.  My National Service was done at the Small Business Corporation, focusing on start-ups, and my first job at Anglo American was to launch an Anglo American/De Beers small business initiative, which today has assisted or built 25,000 jobs.  My next role in De Beers was to start from scratch a diamond cutting factory in a small village in Botswana called Serowe,” says Gareth Penny.

“I have always tried to be an ‘intrapreneur’ (an entrepreneur inside a big corporation),” he continued.

Gareth will speak on the topic of “Preparing for Business Leadership” and will share his life and business lessons. The event is open to youth, their parents, teachers, community leaders, government departments, the broader business community and particularly those who are tasked with teen and youth development.

The event is taking place on Saturday 7 March 2015 at 08h30 at the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands. Tickets cost R150 for adults and R75 for students. Bookings for the breakfast can be made on-line at www.teenentrepreneur.co.za or by contacting Nadia Snyders on 021 447 6183 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..