South African entrepreneurship gets major, practical boost

South Africa’s chronic unemployment crisis is a major threat to the country’s economy and stability. Calls from all quarters of society, including the President, to boost entrepreneurship must be heeded, particularly since the reality in South Africa is that jobs continue to be shed rather than created and entrepreneurship is a major stimulus of new employment. (Global Entrepreneur Monitor (GEM) 2010 Report).

However, since there is a 96% failure rate among new small businesses that are established out of necessity rather than genuine opportunity, the problem is massive. What is the solution?

Allon Raiz, CEO of Raizcorp, a company heavily involved in supporting entrepreneurs, recognised the deep need and became committed to providing existing and potential small business owners (SMMEs) to entrepreneurial thinking and knowledge. He designed a dynamic programme, born out of a GIBS (Gordon Institute of Business Science) thought-leadership weekend, which was taken up by brandhouse™ who adopted the idea and became the headline sponsor of the programme.

The programme, a series of workshops called brandhouse™ Pitch & Polish, was launched in 2010 throughout the country. According to Raiz: “I believed in the powerful format, but was astonished at level of excitement at each workshop and the fantastic feedback from both competitors and audience.” Because of this success, a second series will be starting in July this year.

The competition-based workshops – which are free – have even greater energy and stimulation than a reality-type TV programme such as “Idols”. This is because the audience is fully involved. Primed to act as investors and bankers, they must decide if they would invest in the entrepreneur, the contestant, after she or he has presented, or “pitched” the business idea.

What really grabs the audience is that they learn as much as the contestant from the facilitator’s constant feedback. Both contestants and audience discover how to produce a compelling, well-rounded presentation. This is judged not only on what the business idea encompasses, but how the contestants present it – their tone and clarity of voice, their appearance, their ability to engage the audience, and numerous other nuances that “polish” the pitch.

This unique combination of training, audience participation and competition makes brandhouse™ Pitch & Polish one of the most stimulating business events of the year – and everyone leaves the process enriched! To thank all, contestants and audience, for their participation, in addition to going through a priceless learning experience, everyone enjoys a tasty lunch – also free – and is given a valuable basket of gifts worth R500.

In creating the brandhouse™ Pitch & Polish, one of Raizcorp’s prime objectives for 2011 is to help smaller towns and cities to move forward in the wake of the recession. Workshops will be held in Vereeniging, Polokwane, Bloemfontein, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth, Rustenburg, East London and Khayelitsha. Five contestants and a judge will be drawn from each town: the balance of the judges will be from Raizcorp. The semi-final and final will be held in Johannesburg.

For more information please visit www.pitchandpolish.com.

Brandhouse Beverages (Pty) Ltd was formed on 1 July 2004 as a joint venture between Diageo, Heineken International and Namibia Breweries Ltd. It is South Africa’s leading premium drinks company with an unrivalled portfolio of brands across the spirits, beer and cider categories. These include Johnnie Walker, J&B, Smirnoff, Bells, Baileys, Jose Cuervo, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan, Amstel, Heineken, Windhoek, Foundry, and Guinness among others. For more information about brandhouse, its people, and brands visit www.brandhouse.co.za.

Allon Raiz is the CEO of Raizcorp, the only privately-owned small business ‘prosperator’ in South Africa, the only service provider with a head start of eight years in this field and the only Enterprise Development faculty with CHE accreditation. In 2008 Raiz was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. To find out more about Raizcorp’s entrepreneur support programme, telephone 011 566 2000 or visit their website at www.raizcorp.com.

GreenQueen Communications
PO Box 64319, Highlands North, 2037, South Africa
+27 (0)11 728 4729
Jodi Lynn Karpes
jodi@greenqueen.co.za

This release was published on openPR.