Almost done week one of work which is pretty hard to believe and, for the most part, business practices seem pretty similar to those in the states (with the exception of working fewer hours). I still am having trouble understanding those with a very thick SA accent though and find myself asking people to repeat themselves often, especially their names! I DID learn a phrase in xhosa this week though - walala wasala - you snooze you lose.
As mentioned earlier, The Business Place's main purpose is to provide guidance to entrepreneurs who have started or are thinking about starting a business. We got to sit in on two different "navigation" meetings (which is TBPs term for consulting) which couldn't have been more different. The first was for an organization that uses peer education to promote HIV prevention and healthy behavioral change among SA youth - they are interested in expanding their business to include a consultancy arm and are fairly far along on the planning (have a business plan, projected cash flows/financials, marketing, etc) but The Business Place is helping to poke potential holes in their expansion. Mimi and I were able to sit in on the meeting and provide suggestions to issues they hadn't considered (we DID learn things at school last year). The second navigation meeting was with a couple who are thinking about starting their own garage door instillation project and were completely the opposite than the first in therms of preparation - they hadn't done much market research, didn't have evidence of a need for their service, hadn't thought about where to get the money, etc - so as you can imagine, the conversations were quite different.
Additionally, yesterday we got to sit in for part of a day-long program called The Best Game. The objective is to provide aspiring entrepreneurs with skills, tools, and a grounding in practical decision-making and planning to enable them to start (and run) a successful business. We had a room with 20 entrepreneurs (4 groups) and both Mimi and I got to observe a group. As I could understand it, 3 groups were given a loan and then had to determine how much to use to buy products and how much to save. Then they had to negotiate with the 4th group to sell their products (and make a profit). There were four rounds (and special "life cards", rent, etc. as well) so the goal was to make the most money by the end and then calculate the variable costs, fixed costs, and total profit. The majority of the group did not understand the difference between variable and fixed costs (although one of our members, who was previously a police man, did) which made me question how successful their businesses have the potential to be...
Since we've been here, we've had a number of conversations with various individuals about how poor the eduction system is in SA so I thought it was really interesting to see adults who were struggling with skills that are obviously necessary to run a business yet very few had even considered the challenges they may face without them.
[As a random aside, the wind here is incredible. I honestly have never seen anything like it although apparently, it gets worse. It causes the windows in our apartment to shake so much that I seriously thought they may shatter (they haven't, phew) and there are times that it is so strong that it's hard to walk. Kirsten and I tried to run in it yesterday which, in hindsight, was a huge mistake. I tried to take a picture but wind is very tricky to capture in a photo. Regardless, the first night we heard it, both Kirsten and I thought we were in a tornado/hurricane/tropical storm, so take my word for it, it's intense.]
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