Most people would be excited to own and run a $150m business. Most people would consider themselves successful with a $150 business. But businesses with thin margins are vulnerable to fluctuations of any kind and for Howard Mann, the fluctuation came in the form of a recession. In the latest…

Shawn Johal worked in his wife’s growing family business until the tides turned and the listed company went bust. …

Growing your business is important. It’s all the rage, isn’t it? Growth. Growth for the sake of growth. Growth because investors expect growth. Growth because what is a business if it’s not growing? Well, Sean Hidden would argue that your business needs to be stable to grow. In the latest…

Raising funding feels like a victory but can often be the kiss of death for a startup. You have more money than you know what to do with or you have plans to spend the money but your situation changes and you struggle to step back from the cliff. This…

There was a time when I believed that things happened to me. The universe, I believed, was actively working to thwart the efforts I made to build my business, to close a deal, to hire that person or to do something good. There was a time when I believed life…

The Daily Maverick is an important business. It’s a bastion of objective journalism in South Africa, a country that battles evil politicians, rampant unemployment, systemic corruption and myriad other social, political and economic issues. Building a news organisation is no small task, especially in the age of social media, the…

If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will always feel like a failure. If you judge your success by someone else’s definition you will always feel like a failure. Your success is not mine. My success is not yours. His success is not hers…

I have a shocking confession to make - I am an optimist, not a pessimist. This is shocking because a lot of the time I feel like a permanent pessimist and sceptic. I challenge norms, push boundaries, disagree openly and publicly and put myself out there opposing the common narratives. …

Since leaving school I have been trying to figure out if I want to be a generalist or a specialist. When you are the founder of a startup it’s important to have generalist skills. You need to understand how to sell, how to make a good product, how to tell…