I am Werner, startup coach, teacher and facilitator of the New Venture Creation Programme I created for the UFS Business School.
This programme is a value-for-money destination for you, as corporate executive, managing budgets for Enterprise Development, Supplier Development and Socio-Economic Development. Also for SETA decision-makers, the programme represents value-for-money skills development, which translates to South African taxpayers’ money being well-spent.
Commitment required from startups
Twelve (12) to 26 weeks* of your time for the New Venture Creation Programme, from idea to business plan and pitch. Or, if you’d like to take up the full challenge, commit 12 to 26 weeks of your time from idea to business plan, pitch and first transactions! It is recommended that you work every day, during this programme – become fit for the grind required during new venture startup and beyond.
* The programme is incredibly flexible, and has been presented from a 4 contact day ‘crash course’ to a 7 month journey with laptops, stipends and mentoring, and various iterations in-between.
The entrepreneurial grind, so-called is true for business and non-profit (social entrepreneurship) ventures. This is constantly communicated to participants.
Start or Start Afresh
Perhaps you wish to start a new venture – a business or non-profit organisation (NPO – social entrepreneurship). How about a creative project? Perhaps you would like to take an existing venture back to the drawing board.If you value learning from taking consistent action, this New Venture Creation Programme will be a good fit for you.
Enquire & Apply: Werner info@wernerschmidt.co.za or +2764 141 4341 [Download brochure HERE]
Journey
The UFS Business School’s New Venture Creation Programme has been designed as a journey. A process you may undertake every time you start a new venture or revitalise your organisation’s venture model, whether your organisation is a business or NPO (social entrepreneurship) venture. A Journey Book has been written for your adventure – most of which comprises blank lines – inviting you to consistently take action – served to you in modules, to pace yourself through your new venture creation journey.
The Journey Book invites you in, to develop the story of your venture model and plan
+ Me
Start with Me. Know Thyself always comes before Know Your Customer/Client(business)/Beneficiary/Donor(NPO). The journey to your new venture has to start with its main character – you! Why? Well, after the excitement of startup, a certain routine will characterise the day-to-day operations of your venture. It is important for this day-in-day-out reality to include key activities which you enjoy. This will bolster your ability to retain your deep desire to make your venture a success. Therefore: Get to know yourself, before you discover your market. In fact, make it a life-long learning habit: there are many treasures to discover within yourself.
Who are you? Why are you here? What is your character and your skills? What have you done with your time during the recent past (we are what we repeatedly do)? What new skills are you learning? What do you love doing? What are your hobbies and interests? What lessons can you learn by studying your personal history, to inform your entrepreneurial future?
How resilient are you? Can you accept that your venture’s boat is afloat on an ocean of rejection and uncertainty, while you navigate towards your next destination, catch fish, compete and partner with other boats? Are you able to enjoy your journey on such an ocean? Can you embrace the learning from rejection and failure to continuously improve your ideas, character, skills, people and processes?
We’ve added regular reflection and discussion to the programme. may you continue learning about your gifts, character, etcetera, to expand your practical innovation, resilience and entrepreneurship as cornerstone personal values.
This process aims to accelerate your self-discovery and development as life-long learning innovator, true to your personal shade of entrepreneurship
+ My Market
From Me to My Market. Identify a gap in the market, whether business or non-profit (social entrepreneurship). Start building a profitable / sustainable market in said gap, for your venture.
What are the needs of people and the environment? The problems/challenges? What gaps do you see, from your unique point-of-view? Study lists of human needs and problems. Work through lists of small business ideas and non-profit (social entrepreneurship) ideas. What resonates with you? What are you already good at? What dovetails with your existing habits, hobbies and interests?
Craft a crystal-clear value proposition – your gift to your market, aimed at specific groups of people, your market segment(s). Will your value propositions bring products to market? Retail or manufacture? Services? Products/services combination?
What do you want customers / clients / beneficiaries / donors to expect from your venture, in terms of relationship? What is par for the course in your industry?
What communication channels will you use to get, keep and grow your customers / clients / beneficiaries?
How will you communicate the story of your venture through your branding?
How can you determine realistic pricing for your products and/or services?
If you venture into business, pricing should result in sufficient sales and cash profit growth.
If you venture into non-profit (social entrepreneurship) territory, pricing/costing should result in value-for-money service and/or product delivery, with sufficient cash surpluses to grow your impact. Bolster donor, investor and stakeholder confidence through pin-point knowledge of your pricing/costing.
It is recommended that your value propositions be stress-tested in conversation with thirty (30) to fifty (50) prospective customers / clients / beneficiaries / key external partners.
Do you know which questions to ask, to engage in a process of non-sales selling? Have you accepted the fact that we are all sales people, every day, in multiple ways?
There will never be a better market discovery instrument than an actual transaction. Are you in a position to start your venture at a very small scale, and use actual transactions in your market discovery?
The above process enables you to discover your market and craft a focused marketing plan, aimed at framing your market in the gap, with reasonable profit / sustainability potential, whether you create a business or non-profit venture
Enquire & Apply: Werner info@wernerschmidt.co.za or +2764 141 4341 [Download brochure HERE]
+ My Operations
Visualise the day-to-day operations of your venture.
What key activities will be required, day in and day out, to:
+ deliver your value propositions – products, services – to your market – clients / customers / beneficiaries?
+ continuously improve your value propositions?
What key resources should your venture utilise to deliver and improve your value propositions? Team members (human resources), financing, ideas (intellectual property), processes, raw materials and so forth?
What key external partners would your venture need to deliver and improve its value propositions? Suppliers. Professionals specialising in accounting, finance, tax, business registration and compliance. Legal advisors. Marketing consultants. When is the best time to acquire key external partners? Etcetera.
How should the leadership, management and organisation of your venture be structured. What is the best location for your venture? What registration and legal compliance processes are required for your venture, whether a business or non-profit (social entrepreneurship) venture? It is recommended that registration and legal compliance processes be performed by specialist key external partners.
This process leads to the identification of key activities for you as founder and owner-leader of the venture, and activities to be performed by your team and key external partners.
+ My Financial Story
You have the opportunity to predict your revenue streams and/or receipt streams, based on realistic pricing/costing of your products and/or services. Comparison of your revenue or receipt streams to your cost structure will inform your startup financing or venture refinancing needs.
How can you craft a useful financial story/plan which echoes the narrative of your business plan? It is recommended that your financial story/plan be developed in conversation with a specialist key external partner. The numbers should tell the same story as the words.
+ Business Plan
From the moment your value propositions start taking shape, the New Venture Creation Programme guides you in building your business plan, in words and numbers. For each completed component of your business plan, you will extract a short summary, which forms a building block towards your business plan summary.
+ Pitching To Pass, or …
From your business plan summary, you will prepare a 3 to 5 minute pitch, to be delivered in-person, via video-conference or video upload to a circle of trust. The New Venture Creation Programme aims to link you with experienced individuals who may serve recommendations for further improvement of your venture.
Together with your 2-page business plan summary, your pitch completes the compulsory final assessment of the programme.
First prize will be when you pitch from the experience of your first transactions and make network connections for your venture’s journey during the New Venture Creation Programme. Make it happen, you can do it!
Enquire & Apply: Werner info@wernerschmidt.co.za or +2764 141 4341 [Download brochure HERE]
+ Launch!
Why don’t you wait for your first 100 completed transactions, with revenue / receipts in the bank, before you launch? In this way, your launch will take place with people who have experienced your venture’s value, who have invited their connections.
In this way, your launch will accelerate your startup growth.
50+ Shades Of Entrepreneurship … What shade are you?
50+ Shades of entrepreneurship, in fact, every individual human being has a shade of their own. What shade are you? Independent, pioneering brand creator? Social entrepreneur? Franchise owner? Part-time entrepreneur, e.g. 10% of your time? Solo-preneur? Intrapreneur?
Knowing your shade of entrepreneurship enhances your confidence in building your venture
Reflect, Discuss & Weekly Conversations
You are encouraged to consistently reflect on your actions and to discuss your successes, failures and challenges with your fellow programme participants.
Online New Venture Creation Programme: Weekly communication over a 12-week period, including webinars.
Face-to-face New Venture Creation Programme: 12 days contact time spread over a 12-week period (typically: 5 days, Week 1; 4 days, Week 5; 1 Day each, Weeks 10,11,12), with group communication in-between contact sessions.
Accelerate your learning through reflection and discussion
Take ACTION with Lean Theory
The theory is at a bare minimum in the UFS Business School’s New Venture Creation Programme. This is to make room for you building the story of your new venture.
Enjoy being the author of your success!
Discover & Build
Discover your character and competence and build a personal routine your on-going development as resilient, practical innovator, true to your shade of entrepreneurship. Discover your (gap in the) market through focused conversations with prospective clients / customers / beneficiaries / key external partners, and actual transactions. Build your profitable / sustainable / value-for-money market in said gap.
Embrace a rhythm of ‘Discover & Build’ to further fuel your prowess as resilient, practical innovator.
Embody
The journey content of the New Venture Creation Programme is offered to you in a way that promotes embodiment of your business model. What do I mean by ’embodiment.’ Simply that the story of your business should be ‘in your bones,’ which means that you should be able to authentically tell (sell) the story of your business from the heart, at the drop of a hat, or during the time that it takes to ride an elevator.
+ Multi-media content: video, audio, focused bursts of text
+ Bite-sized chunks of content, followed by calls to action
+ Micro-learn through daily, disciplined work through the bite-sized content, take action, reflect on your results, learn, take action …
Enquire & Apply: Werner info@wernerschmidt.co.za or +2764 141 4341 [Download brochure HERE]
Grow Habits
When you fully engage with the New Venture Creation Programme, you will naturally be invited to enhance certain personal habits. Habits which will allow you to keep chipping away at your goal, fueled by the deep desire to see your venture to the various stages of success, as defined by yourself.
+ Networking: if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a network to raise a venture, whether a business or non-profit venture
+ Present: embody your venture’s business model to allow the authentic telling (selling) of your story, from the heart
+ Innovate: enhance the habit of practical innovation + regularly spot gaps in areas which interest you
+ Grow resilience: bounce back from mistakes, ‘no,’ ‘no, thank you,’ rejection, etcetera, like the red and blue ball, one of the metaphors which rolled into the New Venture Creation Programme
Learn & Make Mistakes NOW: Launch with …
… reasonable confidence. Accelerate your market discovery. Fail before you launch, that you are able to launch with reasonable confidence of new venture success, whether your idea grows into a business or a non-profit venture.
Integrate
Integrate the rational/logical and the emotional. The narrative and the numbers. Opposing ideas and viewpoints. Etcetera. Develop a kind curiosity through which you primarily activate your creative imagination, and only use your critical imagination when it serves you and your goals.
+ Stories: Eagle and Tortoise, The Potter Girl, The Unhappy Entrepreneur & The Wise Woman, Nasrudin Takes A Bath aka The Best Business Plan
+ Poetry: Various ancient and contemporary seeds, scattered through the Journey Book, growing entrepreneurship through the ages …
+ Metaphors to summarise cornerstone elements of the content, e.g. the red and blue ball
+ Reflections: You are invited to reflect on your thoughts and actions, to accelerate your learning
+ Quotes to inspire you, like Thomas Edison’s various light-bulb moments
Accept The Challenge: A certificate versus a new venture
Of course you can complete the journey just to pass and obtain a UFS Business School Certificate of Competence. Alternatively, you can fully commit to developing your idea to business plan, pitch and first transactions, in 12 weeks
