All posts filed under: Small to Medium Enteprise

BREADrev launches SA’s first mobile bakery school

Published by Media Release

Efficient wood-fired rocket ovens and the aroma of baking bread have turned some local Kalk Bay bakers into change agents. “We’re passionate about baking bread and I love doing things differently so I started an uprising, so together with fellow revolutionary, Pete Rutherford, we’re focusing our skills and passion on teaching people in poor communities to bake bread in highly efficient and effective wood-fired rocket ovens, which require no electricity”, said Jeremy Barty, the visionary behind the project. “BREADrev is a mobile bakery school, the only one of its kind in South Africa”, said Barty. “Our ovens are portable and so is our bakery school. ‘Aside from my passion for baking artisan bread, I want BREADrev to help individuals and families create an income opportunity with minimal capital inputs and low overheads to generate daily revenue that is equal or better than basic formal employment’, said Barty. We launched our Thundafund campaign last month and our aim is to raise R45 000 for the first micro-bakery in Nkanini, Khayalitsha, one of the poorest communities in …

Small business – tips on weathering the storm

Published by Kim Barty

I’m reading Henri J M Nouwen’s, The Inner Voice of Love, his personal journal during a time of deep anguish to freedom. It’s a book about spiritual imperatives.  I wondered whether these could be mirrored in business imperatives.  So this is a journey I am going to pursue. Small business is under pressure and it is challenging to maintain a smile, hope, creativity and new ideas.  But small business is critical to our country’s blooming. Some estimates indicate that the total economic output of SMEs makes up about half of South Africa’s GDP and that SMEs provide employment to about 60% of South Africa’s labour force. In an SME (small to medium enterprise), there is usually a handful of people who come up with the idea, produce the item, take it to market, handle complaints, do the books, manage the admin, remember to tweet, capture news on Facebook, update the website, and make coffee.  When competition, rejection, regulation are just the breeze of any day, that’s a lot to manage without falling over. As an …