Cape town jan 16

The

Magazine

January 2016

Western Cape

Lizette Pretorius Talents Never Stop

Features Alan Hirsch Lorette Grobbelaar

Newest C o u r i e r C o n c e p t in South Africa

W

elcome to our first issue of 2016 of the Western Cape Edition. On the cover of this issue we have the multi-talented Lizette Pretorius from Blauwberg Strand. From music teacher to designing her our jewelry range, her talents for creativity never stops.

We had the honor to interview Mr. Alan Hirsch, owner of Hirsch’s Stores.

Read about what Mr Hirsch had to share about his life and the advice he have for small business owners.

Lorette Grobbelaar SACBW’s - Business Woman of the Year, shared her road to becoming the winner of business woman of the year with us.

The SME Magazine are also proud to announce that we are now officially part of the following institutions CCBC - “Capital City Business Chamber”, Abconn - “Africa Business Connect”, Global Entrepreneurship South Africa and SACBW - “SA Council for Business Woman”. In our future issues we will focus on SACBW branches country wide.

For us at The SME Magazine and Centurion Online Magazine developing SME’s are important. We aim to improve and grow their businesses. For this reason we are proud to announce that we partnered up with “PostCO” to give an extra service to our SME’s and expand their businesses. Read more about what is on offer by PostCO for our SME’s in the article on page 26 of this issue.

I hope that you will enjoy this issue and please feel free to give us feedback on this issue.

Friendly greetings

Dries

Joint Venture Project By:

The

Letter from the Editor

Great News Issue

Magazine

South Africa member of

Capital City Business Chamber member of

member of

Western Cape The SME Magazine Team Publisher Centurion Online Media Services Editor-in-Chief Dries Petzer editor.mag@centuriononline.co.za Graphic Services CO Graphics Advertising Dries Petzer (071) 317 - 0233 Finance Andre Coetzee smemagazine@centuriononline.co.za

Distribution Centurion Online Contributors Henriette Brand Wilna Grobler Chanelle Labuschagne Henta de Witt Bennie Keen Aldo Cilliers Tania Cilliers Andre Coetzee Frank Grobbelaar Proof Readers Henriette Brand Wilna Grobler Contact Details Tel: (071) 317 - 0233 Fax: (086) 510 - 2295

January 2016

Contents Cover Page 2 Talents never stops Lizette Pretorius

Finance Focus 7 Outsourcing your bookkeeping

Law Issues 10 Adhere to labour legislation 19 POPI Act 24 Copyright

Motivational 11 Self development

Charity of the month 13 Munsieville

Email Address sme@centuriononline.co.za Web Address www.smemag.centuriononline.co.za Social Media www.facebook.com/thesmemagazine

Features 15 Look after your people 30 Business Woman of the Year

Twitter @thesmemagazine

1

Cover Page Story

Talents never stop Lizette Pretorius

by Dries Petzer

“Always go with the flow” the saying goes. Not with Lizette Pretorius. She is always on a new path to success.

Lizette studied music and became a music teacher.

Running a successful music studio in Bronkhorstspruit Gauteng, a church organist as well as a examiner for The Academy for Contemporary, Jazz & Gospel Music of South Africa, Lizette had bigger things in mind also.

After she and her husband, Erich moved down to Cape Town a few years ago she was determent to expand her own options. She started a new music studio. Lizette had the dream of owning a second business. She started of with designing her own jewellery and card business.

What makes this cards and jewellery unique is that each one is made with love and made to order and requirements of the client.

The client can choose the design as well as the colour scheme they want. For Lizette the client comes first.

Lizette will be soon launching her online shopping website at www.lizettepretorius.co.za

Visit L’zet Creations Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KaarQsen-T-shirt-serpies-deur-LZet393671364157943/?fref=ts

Colourful designs by

L’zet Creations (082) 578 - 6760 2

3

Features

71 Ultimate Marketing Tools

by Dries Petzer

J

on Butt wrote the following in his book “71 Ultimate Marketing Tools the following:“ I’m the owner of a few small businesses, but i don’t employ any sales people”

In this series of articles we are going to explore the marketing tools that Jon suggest we use to market our businesses. Let’s make use of these tools and grow our businesses.

The first set of tools is called the “Admin Tools” and they are:

ADMIN TOOLS GOOGLE APPS Your business converted to Google Apps and now you will have coordinated calenders, easy email, cloud storage. Drive hangouts, zero spam and all while using our own email addresses. For personal use, you can use free Gmail, which comes with all the same apps. A must have.

EVERNOTE Until you start using Evernote you won’t realise how it simplifies your life. It syncs across your PC, Mac, iPhone and iPad. All your ‘doing now’ notes, lists, photos and shared docs are in there. You can even search the text within images.

Another must have. The free one is great to use.

ROBOFORM Roboform is a favorite tool on the list. Working online, you have hunders of passwords and this saves them the loads into forms in one click. Everyone must have it and can syncs with your iPhone and iPad and between computers. The basic version is free.

DROPBOX Dropbox has become the easiest way to share fiels, images and videos with others across the world, and the way it integrades into everywhere is genius. Its free, but the paid version was recently upped to Terabyte of stage. You can also store company backups on their cloud. The SME Magazine will soon be shared via Dropbox.

4

We want to say thank you to Jon Butt for given “The SME Magazine” permission to make use of his publication and allowing us to assist our readers and business owners to grow their businesses with this information.

Finance Focus

Benefits of outsourcing your bookkeeping

by ChanĂŠlle Labuschange

B

An experience bookkeeper may be able to ookkeeping is one of the most essential advice about how to improve profit tasks of any business. Without proper margins and where to cut costs. bookkeeping, your business could very Bookkeeping services provide expertise, quickly and easily crash into a wall. Small knowledge and experience to your business owners can do their bookkeeping on business. You are put in control of your their own, but many invest in a bookkeeping cash flows. You can use customised reports service that will save them not just precious to make valuable and important business time but the risk of making very costly financial decisions, prepare budgets, review past mistakes. performance and maximise profits.

Outsourced bookkeepers can be beneficial, which makes this an attractive bookkeeping 4. Peace of mind option for business owners.

You will be assured that a regular reporting 1.

Time saving system is in place, processes are up to date, Think of the weekly hours it will take to you are managing cash flow, paying either perform the bookkeeping tasks suppliers in time and be aware of any yourself or manage an in-house unpaid customer invoices. You will be bookkeeper, taking away from the time informed of all the important lodgements you can spend on business- and dates i.e. SARS, CIPC, etc. relationship building activities. It allows you to focus on core business. With more time to devote to customers, you may There is a misconception that a business owner find more customers willing to offer you will lose control if they outsource the their loyalty. bookkeeping. Using a bookkeeping service allows the business owner to focus on what is 2. Financial saving important, both within and outside the business.

Saves payroll and overhead costs.

Standard employees cost by far more than outsourced contractors. By It will alleviate any concerns about your business outsourcing bookkeeping, you only pay financials so you can refocus on what is important for what you need. There is no need to to you. This function should be a natural buy and maintain expensive accounting extension of your business.

It is indeed an software or invest in expensive training i nvestment and development of staff. And you may well made. contract for an hourly fee or a set rate that occurs weekly or monthly For more 3. Accuracy & Expertise on your side information Perhaps the most important is that you c o n t a c t have to know whether your business is Chanelle at generating a profit and how much of a (061) 051 profit is it that you are actually making.

6454 You need to know which product and/or services are actually making money, which costs too much and how your time can best be spend to bring in the highest possible profits.

Dependable Bookkeeping

7

Dependable Bookkeeping * Day to day on-site or off-site Bookkeeping Services * Monthly Payroll Services * Monthly Management Reports * Financial Year End Preparations * VAT& Pay-As-You-Earn submissions * Debt Collection * Box Sorting * Personal Income Tax Returns (IT12) on e-filing * Financial Peace of Mind

ChanĂŠlle Labuschagne Cell: (061) 051 - 8492 Fax: (086) 730 - 0678 Email: dependablebooks1@gmail.com PO Box 2830 The Reeds 0158

Labour Law

Adhere to Legislation

by Wilhelm Stulting

E

mployers have to adhere to relevant legislation. Amongst labour legislation is the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act.

The above act stipulates, amongst others, employers responsibilities.

In this article some of employers' responsibilities regarding registration with the Compensation Fund are highlighted: Who are regarded as an employer in terms of the above act?

Any person, including the State, who employs an employee, and includes: a) Any person controlling the business of an employer; b) If the services of an employee are lent or let or temporarily made available to some other person by his employer, such employer for such period as the employee works for that other person; c) A labour broker who against payment provides a person to a client for the rendering of a service or the performance of work, and for which service or work such person is paid by the labour broker.

Domestic employees, employed as such in private households, are not included in the definition of “employee” according to the above act. A private household with domestic employee(s) is therefore not regarded as an “employer” in terms of the above act.

When must an employer register with the Compensation Commissioner?

Within seven days from the date when the first employee is employed.

What must be done if any changes occur which affect an employer's particulars with the Compensation Commissioner?

The employer must notify the Compensation Commissioner within seven days of such changes.

This article contains only limited information. Detailed information can be obtained from: · The Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act · The Department of Labour · The Office of the Compensation Commissioner Compensation Aid (Pty) Ltd has the required personnel and expertise to represent employers and employees at the Office of the Compensation Commissioner. We save our clients' money and time by handling routine actions as well as complicated/problematic matters on their behalf.

We also visit the Compensation Commissioner's Office regularly for enquiries and to hand documents in personally.

For more information contact Wilhelm at (082) 902 - 4800

9

Motivational

Why Personal or Self-Development

by Bennie Keen

In life you cannot be someone else, be yourself, we all are in competition with our self's, being the best you possibly can be. Each and everyone is uniquely created, for their own specific purpose and equipped with the necessary potential, we only need to be willing.

Investing time and money in your own personal or self-development, discovering your purpose and the dream you want live and knowing HOW TO identify “THEM” and to always be prepared to face “THEM” during your journey, it's in your own best interest.

How do you know who are these THEM? They are all those people that are the NO Sayers, the ones who say you can't be successful and can't follow your dreams, the ones that are too scared to try and follow their own dreams or quitted on their dreams long in the past, because “U.D.S.A” previously, convinced and recruited them. They are everywhere, you don't know who they are until it's too late and you are confronted by them, be warned their success rate are 90 – 95% in their strategy of winning you over, letting you give up.

They are the “U.D.S.A” undercover agents, infiltrated everywhere, family, friends, secretly members of the United Dream Stealing Agency, managed by Murph the founder of “Murphy's law” as we all know it.

The first encounter with the agency, will be when you will have to leave your comfort zone, to make a change a difference in your life, then these U.D.S.A agents, will 1st make their appearance, to give you excuse, after excuse, why you will have to stop pursuing your dream life.

Then your commitment to succeed in making your dreams happen, will be challenged, the small things that people ask you to, and get you to do that are still important but has nothing to do with finding your way to living your dream life. Most of the time these things could and should have been done by some-one else.

These things, small things will happen and can and will miss guide your direction, and it may eventually let you to quit out of frustration with yourself. That's their plan, keeping you from reaching your true potential, they couldn't persist…will you!

When you overcome the commitment committee, Emotional trauma will be re-entering the battle, by family and friends, “you” do not spend enough time with them, “you” do not love them and “you” spend too much time on your projects, working towards your dream life.

By now Self-doubt kicks in…you do not see the results fast enough and you start to believe the stories that maybe they are right and it's not for you, they almost overturned you. Now is the difficult times, will you or will you not give up. The financial struggle seem be the hardest. Keep going, a person will be remembered for the size of the obstacle that it takes to stop them. You may compare your challenge you face with a bear that is chasing you, do not stop when you get tired, only stop when the bear get tired, (when the obstacle is gone). Do not stop and talk to the bear, it will destroy you.

Your mind can and must be your best friend, unfortunately most of us were trained that anything that is not normal, is wrong, so our mind is our biggest enemy, most of the time. Your mind is like a muscle, we need to train it and exercise it by self–development and motivation, guidance of people that have done it before. Be prepared and equipped with tools, and how to use these tools, to defeat the United Dream Stealing Agency and their agents, and live your dream.

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“ NO CHALLENGE IS TO BIG”

Entrepreneur and Personal Development Consultant Cell: Email:

(082) 551 - 1123 me@benniekeen.co.za

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Charity of the month

Munsieville Krugersdorp

by Dries Petzer

I

n 2014 after a 9 year long court battle the white squatters of Coronation Park were evicted from their last resort home.

They were given two options; Either move to Kleinvallei, a farm where they would work and in return they would receive food and shelter until the farm is self sufficient enough to give the squatters ownership and a future for them and their children. Or Munsieville, a black township in Krugersdorp, where the government will provide shacks and eventually RDP housing.

This is the story of the white squatters that moved to the edges of a black township not wanting to give up their cats and dogs or not wanting to obeyed by the rules of no drinking or smoking on the Kleinvallei farm. They have stopped receiving donations and sponsors as much as they did at Coronation Park, many have taken to begging on the streets or accepting any possible work they can find. They seem to be a forgotten group after the great help and international exposure they received at Coronation Park. Yet life continues and always find a way.

How you can help The Munsieville website was created as a joint project by: THE SME MAGAZINE, CENTURION ONLINE, SANTA BOX FAIRIES, INVICEM and HB WEB to help create awareness to the deteriorating situation in Munsieville as well as creating a Platform where people can assist a community in need and help all the people of Munsieville!

Keeping in mind how many fake and dishonest organisations there are, was it decided that we will ensure there is a monthly report published on the website whereby we will provide a report on all donations received financially or otherwise together with how the donations was distributed.

It is very important to remember that this project was created by established businesses not to take advantage of you who we ask for help but to help us assist a community in need... Munsieville!

Please visit the Munsieville website at www.munsieville.org.za for more information or contact email the at dries@munsieville.org.za

Want to feature your charity in this magazine?

Contact Dries via email editor.mag@centuriononline.co.za 12

Advice from a Leader

Look After People and Your Team

by Dries Petzer

When you hear the name Hirsch’s you will recognise it as a well known brand name in South Africa.

We spoke to Mr. Alan Hirsch about his history and for advice It is not a well known fact that Mr Hirsch did not matriculate or even passed Grade 10. His father said that he would never get a matric and told him to get a trade and became an appliance technician repairing appliances.

He went and studied his apprenticeship at a company called Fuchsware, which has unfortunately closed since then but it was a very good South African brand.

After finishing his apprenticeship he worked for a company in Durban North, he also won a awards as Marketing Man of the Year in KZN. During his time at the company he realised there was an opportunity to sell to someone, a product if their product was not worth repairing. He then started his own business.

This came with very hard work and dedication towards his clients and his staff and today he bares the fruit of his hard work.

We ask him how does he handle bad publicity in the press? If we get bad publicity in the press, which is very seldom, we have a policy at Hirsch's that we want happy customers who return often so we will find out what went wrong and rectify it.

What advice will you give other business owners? You have to be passionate, if you start your business and not just to make money. If that is the case he thinks you are going to have a problem, if you start a business to look after people and your team, I believe you will have a successful business.

What is you view on the future of small businesses in South Africa? I think it is a country of opportunity but it takes hard work and dedication and if you wait for someone to help you, you are not going to be successful you have got to do it yourself. Take advantage of the opportunities in this country and you will be successful.

We ask him “If you can tell us one thing that you will not recommend for business owners, what would it be?� The first thing I would believe is don't put yourself in a financial position which will be hard to commit to from the beginning, don't start a business believing you are going to make it, if you can't afford to work it. For example some people go into shopping malls with a dream of opening their own store but if you have not got enough money to live on for three years, you are wasting your time and you are not going to make it.

In every business there must something funny that happens and ask him to tell us something happened in his career? There are two instances that come to mind.

The first one we had a really big sale where we put a marques up and had some crazy prices, we got a security company on the Saturday afternoon when we finished work to look after the stock, we went out to dinner that night and when we drove past the marques, I thought I would check everything was okay and we found a person sitting outside with their flask and sandwiches and he was going to be the first person to buy the one and only special of a hob we had for R49.

We went into the marques and found all the guards sleeping but I was not too concerned because I knew the guy sitting outside would be awake all night.

continue on page 14

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Advice from a Leader

Look After People and Your Team

by Dries Petzer

continue from page 13 The next morning when the sale opened at 08H00, we let him in at 08H55 to choose what he wanted because he had been there all night.

He took the hob he wanted and when we opened the gate he was still inside looking around at various things and I remember him putting the hob down next to him to look at a radio, and he turned around and the hob was gone.

There was a lady standing in the queue holding the hob. He just walked over to her and gave her a smack, she dropped the hob, he picked it up and carried on walking around the store and she just walked out and nothing was ever said. It is funny now, at the time it was a disaster though.

Another incident was when we had an allnight sale, we had specials on every hour for an hour but it was crazy prices and the craziest price was at 2 or 3 o clock in the morning, we had a washing machine on special which was 20 or 30% below our cost.

“Look after a customer and they’ll look after you”

People were Mr South Africa 2015 waiting for it Armand du Plessis and you to be there to get it, people were w a i t i n g outside and this one guy kept saying make a plan for him and let him have the machine, anyway he disappears and at 3 o clock we sell a l l t h e washing machines, he came back at 03H30 and I had to tell they were all sold.

He actually went mad, ended up spitting at me and gets hold of the phone and phones his wife. She asked to speak to me and start screaming at me that her husband had been there all night why didn't he get a washing machine, when I told her he left at about 23H00 and he had just gotten back to the store.

She said she wanted to speak to her husband, he took the phone and I could just hear her screaming.

Meek as a mouse he put the phone down and walked out and one can just presume where he went and the reception he got when he got home.

We would like to thank Mr Hirsch for granting us this interview and for all the advice that he gave to our SME’s.

The SME team

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Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is very fragile

by Chris Moerdyk

T

he objective of branding today is to make customers so loyal to your company or product that they don't even think about going somewhere else. I have always stressed the importance of retaining existing customers not only because this is cost efficient but absolutely critical for growth and sustainability.

So, I am always delighted when I experience for myself just how fragile brand loyalty is and how easy it is for a company to change a customer's mindset, almost without that customer knowing it is happening.

For years now, my family and I have been customers of our local branch of Specsavers.

Their service has always exceeded our expectation to the point where none of us would go and get quotes from other suppliers. They really have been excellent.

I called in there last week, as I do probably once a year, to have those little nose pads on my glasses replaced when they wear down. I always ask what I owe them for the service and they always smile and say: "It's on the house for our regular customers." - nice touch. But last week, when I asked for the nose pads to be replaced the sales assistant (presumably new as I had not seen her before) said: "That will be R10." (No please, just a statement of fact. When I mentioned that this had always been done for free, she replied: "These are new regulations, we c h a r g e R 1 0 . " I didn't complain or even look irritated, I just paid. But as I walked back to my car through the shopping centre, almost without conscious thought or premeditation, I popped into a competing optician and asked them what they charged for nose pads. I can't remember the amount but I did walk out of there thinking that in future I was going to get quotes from them on glasses, eye tests and repairs.

Now all of this h a p p e n e d subconsciously.

Suddenly that resolute brand loyalty I held for Specsavers was gone. I didn't force it away. It just w e n t .

So who is to blame? Certainly not the new sales assistant. But, most definitely Specsavers management. While they were perfectly at liberty to start charging for nose pads, where they made a mistake was to not think about unintended consequences. Someone there should have thought about the impact, because it is little things like this that damage b r a n d l o y a l t y .

When the instruction was issued to start charging for nose pads, there should have been terms and conditions: "Yes, charge for nose pads but before you do, look up the customer's records and if they are a long-standing customer spending thousands of rands with us every year, for pity's sake don't ask them for a miserable R 1 0 . . . " Brand loyalty is all in the detail. The tiny, almost i m p e r c e p t i b l e d e t a i l .

It might sound petty. But it isn't, because there are a lot of consumers just like me who have no control whatsoever over their subconscious downgrading of brand loyalty to a company or product that let them down in even the tiniest way.

15

POPI Act

Popi Act & the IT Industry

by Dries Petzer

T

he importance of data management has increased considerably in recent years due to the advances in big data mining and the benefits it offers businesses. The nature of data management is again undergoing substantial changes, due to the introduction of the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act.

If the consumer requests an update or deletion of personal information, when the data is no longer relevant, the company has to comply with this wish.

IT staff need requisite skills The legislation means that companies that deal with personal information do not only have to invest in the best possible security systems and Although the aspects of the Act that apply to processes, they also need to ensure that the IT companies are not yet in effect, the envisaged staff members they employ have the necessary 12-month period between enactment and skills sets to work with these systems. compliance is relatively short, and companies are advised to start their journeys towards Equally important is to ensure that these compliance as early as possible. While the Act employees can be trusted, especially about the will provide consumers with peace of mind, the level of information they are exposed to, as the obligations placed on business are quite POPI act makes a distinction between personal weighty. information and special personal information.

The latter includes more sensitive information The personal data of clients and potential clients such as race, religion, criminal records and offers substantial value to companies in terms of medical history. These are subject to higher how to target them. The more extensive the security standards. Companies therefore need to available information concerning each ensure that different tiers of data are subject to individual, the more trends can be identified to d i f f e r e n t t i e r s o f s e c u r i t y . help inform the business' marketing strategies.

In all likelihood, specialist IT positions will be However, personal data has great power and can created in larger companies to deal specifically also be used to the detriment of the individual, with POPI compliance. New titles such as which is why the POPI act introduces data privacy officers are already beginning to management legislation that all companies that surface. process personal information have to adhere to.

Deleting data These principles include making the consumer Managers in charge of data storage need to aware of the purposes for which any personal look at the act carefully to ensure that standard information will be used, and destroying the data practices, some of which may have been in after this purpose is achieved. The onus is also on place for many years, do not violate the act. companies that deal with this data to ensure that the correct safety measures are in place to keep For instance, many companies hold data for a set number of years before destroying it. the data confidential and unaltered.

However, the POPI act instructs companies to The Act also guarantees control of the data by the get rid of data once it has served the purpose consumer. for which it was collected.

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continue on page 18

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Cell: (082) 884 -9454 24

POPI Act

Popi Act & the IT Industry

by Dries Petzer

continue from page 16 Businesses need to ensure that they keep all the legal intricacies of the Act in mind when dealing with data. For instance, when a contract with a client ends, it is advisable to keep the data on file for a number of years, in the event of a dispute. However, after this period, the data has to be destroyed in a m a n n e r t h a t m a k e s i t i r r e t r i e v a b l e .

Companies may also want to look closer to home in terms of website hosting and compliant software. Local software producers and IT practitioners know the provisions of the Act and can be b e t t e r p o s i t i o n e d t o e n s u r e c o m p l i a n c e .

In conclusion, the importance of the security of this data cannot be underestimated and not only to the consumer. Hackers have shown how inventive they are when it comes to accessing personal information. When a company's database is hacked and this information is made available online, the brand image and trust of that company are easily destroyed.

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Copyright on Social Media

Copyright On Social Media

by Dries Petzer

T

witter is a free social networking site that allows its users to send messages, or "tweets", which are limited to 140 characters or less, to other Twitter users and to see the tweets of others by "following" them.

Inevitably, as is always the case, when it comes to the sharing of thoughts and ideas, the question has arisen as to whether or not a tweet can be protected, particularly, under the veil of copyright.

Recently, a freelance writer, complained to Twitter that one of her tweets was being plagiarised. She argued that, being a freelance writer, who makes a living writing jokes such as this one, her intellectual property was being infringed upon by third parties who copied her joke without giving her credit.

Twitter's response has been to protect tweet from being copied by others as if it were their own, by deleting them. But is there any merit in the argument that a tweet could amount to a form of intellectual property?

Some argue that it would be pointless, even petty, to assert copyright in a tweet (and question the practical benefit to be gained in doing so), particularly bearing in mind the nature of Twitter as a social media platform designed to allow its users to follow, share and comment on each other's tweets.

Others, argue that their tweets are original thoughts, jokes or expressions, which ought to be protectable in terms of copyright law and, in any event, Twitter's terms of service provide that a user owns his/her own profile and materials.

Twitter does not, however, specifically define these as "intellectual property" as the existence, or not, of intellectual property rights such as copyright, is a legal question?

W h a t d o y o u t h i n k ?

Why assert copyright in a tweet?

In terms of South African law, authors of works in which copyright subsists, have an exclusive right to do, or to authorise others to do, certain acts to exploit that work for personal gain or profit. In short, if you are a copyright owner no third party can make reproductions or adaptations of your work without your consent.

This would mean that, if a tweet can be protected by way of copyright, third parties would not be able to copy it without the consent of the author of the tweet.

How does one acquire copyright?

In South Africa, copyright is an automatic right.

It does not require registration. Copyright comes into being as soon as a new work is created and reduced to a material form. This is an important point - the work must be reduced to a "material form" - because no matter how good an idea might be, it is not protected until it materialises into something tangible.

A statement would therefore actually have to be tweeted (and not simply be an idea for a tweet in the mind of the Twitter user), before copyright could potentially subsist.

Is a tweet a "work"recognised in terms of the Copyright Act? The Copyright Act of 1978 protects certain categories of works such as, for example, literary, musical and artistic works. A collection or composition of words, letters or numbers, such as an article, letter, novel or poem, would constitute a literary work.

A "work" need not be extremely inventive to enjoy copyright protection but, of course, must also not be entirely trivial.

continue on page 20 19

Copyright on Social Media

Copyright On Social Media

by Dries Petzer

continue from page 19 Some individual effort and skill on the part of the author must have gone into the creation of the work for copyright to subsist.

The question of triviality is one that will be particularly relevant when considering the protection of tweets under the law of copyright.

Those familiar with Twitter will know that tweets can range from the utterly mundane such as "I ate a cheesy pizza", to profound but well-known quotes, or original expressions of opinion, h u m o u r , a n d p o e t r y, f o r e x a m p l e .

It is clear that, whilst Twitter can be a forum for sharing entirely pointless information, it can also be a forum for artistic expression. Tweets consisting of trivial statements, or entirely factual content,

should not be capable of copyright protection as these are unlikely to be considered original or, bearing in mind that tweets are limited to 140 characters or less, have been the result of any protectable individual effort or skill. To allow monopolies to be gained in respect of ordinary phrases or expressions of fact, by way of the use of a social media platform meant to encourage the sharing of information, would simply not be sensible or, indeed, legally s o u n d .

However, that is not to say that lines of poetry, profound sayings or jokes tweeted by Twitter's own poets, sages and clowns (whether they are professionals or simply social users of the site) cannot be original, involving the personal effort and skill of their authors.

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This Home Delivery Service Business can b e r un f rom h ome a nd h as l ow overheads & costs to owner.

(071) 317 - 0233

Advertise your business in this magazine Contact Dries at smemag@centuriononline.co.za

Business Woman of the Year

Business Woman Of The Year

by Dries Petzer

T

o become SACBW - Business Woman of the Year is hard work. We spoke to Lorette Grobbelaar about being nominated as business woman on the year.

We are able to assist virtually any and all of our clients' needs, for example: The national transport OLIVER TREADS MOSSEL BAY has been in companies calls us to town for nearly half a century and for the past two attend to a flat tyre in decades it has been in the capable hands of a the middle of the night. woman, LORETTE GROBBELAAR, the manager.

The new attorney in town needs a run-flat Originally from Sutherland, she embarked on a tyre fitted to his journey which ran through the KWV (marketing treasured BMW and the quota system, wine tasting and the enquires beforehand parliamentary quotas). Not letting the wine go to whether this will be done in accordance to the her head, she also did her Credit Control Diploma latest industry specifications.

– and she doesn't allow anyone to pull the wool over her eyes.

The mummy of three picks up her three hungry, tired kids from school and pulls onto the In 1995 she joined OLIVER TREADS as workshop drive-way to “quickly” have a manager and became a jack-of-all-trades. In suspected slow puncture checked. She needs a those days the business had an average turnover comfortable place to wait with the kids, access to of R350 000 per month and under her guidance it clean toilet facilities and snack-and-drink has escalated to R1,6 mill average a month. As if vending services. it was not enough, she also added SUPA QUICK MOSSEL BAY in 2002 to the stable.

Oliver has made it a key sales strategy to be able to cater for all of the above and many more!

In a hands-on capacity she takes full control of all purchasing of operational expenses as well as Coupled with a prime business location, a strong, office equipment and workshop machinery and dependable team and reliable product brands, she vehicles. She is also responsible for the believes her strong leadership skills are a key marketing of the business and customer care. contributing factor to the levels of success the “On a personal level I believe the fact that I am a business has maintained over an extended period woman in a pre-dominantly male business of time. She grew up on a farm near Sutherland environment gives me an edge over my where she learned the value of hard work, competitors,” she said. perseverance and team-work.

From a business perspective, our current combinations of products and services enable us to attract a wider spectrum of clientele than most of our competitors who focus on a smaller automotive sector.

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We asked her what is her strengths as a business leader? I am especially grateful for my natural competitive spirit and inclination to take the initiative. Furthermore, I am unafraid to take calculated risks, I am ambitious, and place a very high premium on my personal and professional integrity.

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Business Woman of the Year

Business Woman Of The Year

by Dries Petzer

continue from page 22 My ability to manage and develop the resources at my disposal, including employees, clients, products etc. has given me credibility not only amongst my competitors, but also with clients and suppliers. Therefore, when a challenging situation requires assistance from external sources, it is usually very easy for me to garner the necessary support.

I believe these character traits contributed greatly to the establishment of a large, longstanding client base whose loyalty is almost unshakeable.

We ask her what is the biggest lesson she has learned since starting at the business?

Meeting clients' expectations will merely keep them satisfied and it is unlikely they will tell other people about their business experience with you. Exceeding clients' expectations will surprise them, ensure they return to your business and increase the possibility that they will spread the word about the excellent service received.

When you or your staff make a mistake, be courageous enough to admit it. Deal with it through open and honest communication, striving to find the best solution for all parties involved.

What why do you market the business? Privately owned small and medium businesses normally do not have a big marketing budget. It was no different when I started as branch manager of Oliver Treads in 1998. I soon realized that I will have to be creative and optimize the marketing budget to be effective in this area. Here are some ways she suggested: * Social Media & other technology * Sharing of knowledge and expertise * Media Campaigns * Eye to Eye

What advice do you have for business owners? I believe in hiring smartly – the right people on the bus will take the business to the next level.

Spending time in the shop by talking to our “walk-in� clients and other private clients, enables me to build relationships and also get a better understanding of what it would take to give them a better shopping experience.

Advice she had on how to motivate your staff, she replied; The necessity of working in a clean, safe and friendly environment is not negotiable.

I believe it is imperative that my staff have all the physical tools they require to do their jobs properly.

The last advice she had for business owners: * Actively expanding the range of products currently on offer for your clients. * Growing your sales talent by continued training and development with focus on new skills and client service; * Continued improvement of your sales systems, processes and management; * Continued marketing focus to obtain new business.

We would like to wish her all the best for the future and hope that our readers may have learned a few things from Lorette.

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Joint Venture

POSTCO for SME’s in Centurion

by Dries Petzer

Centurion Online and PostCo has joint hands in offering our SME’s in South Africa to ad a additional service to their clients and members of the public.

Business owners now has the change to become part of the PostCo - Postal and Courier Service in South Africa. Shop owners can become a local Post point for PostCo. Offering the collection and distributing of letters and parcel.

Business owners that has a shop with internet access can apply to become a post point.

The question on your mind is what will this cost me as business owner? Due to agreement between Centurion Online and POSTCo we can offer this to the business owners for free. The best part is that you as business owners will get paid for each letter or parcel that you send.

What do this do for me as a business? *No financial outlay for you. *You are paid per postal item or parcel. *Opportunity to extend the range of services offered to your customers. *Introduces new customers to your business. *Simple and quick three-step parcel handling process. *High levels of repeat business. *Increased basket spend therefore increasing your overall profit. *Highly competitive commission scheme. *Reinforces your community credentials. *You are provided with everything necessary to run as a Post point. *Daily Collection of Postage & Parcels 6 Days a week

Centurion Online will manage the Centurion HUB that will collect and deliver the letters and parcel from you on a weekly basis.

For more information to become a post point in your area please contact Dries Petzer on (071) 317 - 0233 and he will come and explain to you how it will work.

Become a Post Point for POSTCO and earn a extra income

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For more information contact Dries Petzer (071) 317 - 0233