South Africa: Entrepreneurship – Ideas Stage from ENGEN Pitch and Polish
Engen Petroleum Ltd have partnered with Raizcorp to bring the Pitch & Polish programme to cities and towns across South Africa, for the fifth time. The main objective is to help educate and grow entrepreneurs. In line with this, below is a release on the Ideas Stage of a business. Please share with your audience.
Criytone Revanewako
What’s an idea worth?
Engen Petroleum Ltd, understands that Small and Medium Enterprises have great potential to contribute to the economic growth of South Africa, to the creation of jobs and to the reduction of poverty. It often all begins with the spark of an idea. Pitch & Polish, an annual entrepreneurship programme, was first pitched by Allon Raiz, CEO of Raizcorp, to his peers. Thus began the journey of Pitch & Polish, which now celebrates its fifth anniversary and along with Engen Petroleum Ltd and longstanding media partner, SAfm, looks forward to an even better year than ever before.
How many times have you seen a new product or service causing a buzz in the market and thought to yourself, “Wow, that is such a simple but effective idea – I wish I had thought of that!” The truth is, the best ideas are often the simplest. Yet communicating the idea is where most people get tongue-tied.
So what do you need to do to come up with a winning business idea? Below are a few ways to get your creative juices flowing:
1. Start close to home: You might have the breeding ground for a great idea right in front of your nose. Criytone Revanewako, winner of ENGEN Pitch & Polish 2012, did just that. Living in Witbank he noticed the volume of industrial waste that was polluting the ground, which ignited an idea of recycling this waste, known as slag, for reconstruction and infrastructure development. His business has since received funding and is on the verge of expanding to four additional sites.
2. Talk it over. And over again. Rehearse your pitch by talking about your idea to anyone who will listen. Consider their feedback and slowly your idea will start to take shape.
3. Think about what ticks you off the most! If a product or service gets your goat for one reason or the other, there might be an opportunity for change and innovation. Automation and industrialisation often takes place to improve on clunky or time consuming processes. A great example is the modern razor blade invented by Gillette. He simply got sick and tired of sharpening his old fashioned blade all the time and passionately believed that there had to be an easier way and went on a mission to find it! The rest is history…
4. Look at what you love. Many successful entrepreneurs have turned their hobbies and passions into a successful business. Criytone, as a metallurgist, is qualified to examine the physical and chemical behavior of metals and alloys. He was able to combine his skills with his idea.
5. Take a trip. Experiencing new cultures, new cities and new ways of looking at things can be fertile breeding ground for great business ideas.
Unathi Njokweni-Magida, Group Transformation Manager from Engen Petroleum Ltd says, “ENGEN Pitch & Polish is one of our exciting partnership programmes, where we identify smart business ideas that can be developed into successful business opportunities.”
2014 promises to be bigger and better than before as national and local partners join forces with ENGEN Pitch & Polish workshop to achieve the common goal of building entrepreneurship in South Africa.
For more information visit www.pitchandpolish.com, 011 566 2000 or pitch@raizcorp.com
