The obsolescence of the middle class never hit home before as much as it did when I read ‘Choose Yourself’ by James Altucher. He describes in his book how robotics and technology are set to take over most of the jobs performed by the middle class and coined the phrase ‘you have been replaced’  by robots – many people just don’t know or realize it yet.

He believes that unemployment should be around 50% as most employable people should be entrepreneurs and/or outsourcing their skills to various clients. Yet in South Africa, many young people are looking for jobs and one wonders what jobs they had in mind. It seems robots over time would take over the performance of most repetitive or mundane tasks – or even highly skilled tasks – like taking over agricultures’ crop production by analyzing, for example, soil for crop optimization. Another example that comes to mind is the surgeon performing precision and detailed procedures that robots can do better than humans.

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As more and more shopping malls and strip malls sprang up around the country, the big supermarkets flexed their corporate muscle by building in exclusivity clauses into their leases which often prevented smaller supermarkets, butchers, bakeries, greengrocers, and delis being part of the tenant mix.

After five years of the Competition Commission’s Grocery Retail Market Inquiry, their final report makes strong recommendations on the food retail industry, including a call for the monopoly leases between landlords and the big supermarket chains to come to an end. The exclusivity lease practice will be phased out as those implicated supermarkets’ existing leases will need to run their course which could take as much as five years.

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When opening a business, it is important to identify factors that make your enterprise unique. These factors can be used to market your business and attract clientele. When opening a Signarama franchise, you have a specific service to offer clients – signage and branding solutions – and you should build your marketing efforts around this.

Investing in a Signarama franchise instead of opening your own signage or printing business permits you to benefit from the brand’s established reputation from the start. A company’s brand and reputation influence potential clients’ purchasing decisions. If a prominent food critic, for example, eats a meal at a restaurant and delivers a bad review, it will indirectly change your opinion of the specific restaurant – sometimes without you even realizing it!

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FASA and the franchise community take this opportunity to send our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Francois Swart, Managing Director of The Specialists Group.

On Sunday, 27 October Francois Swart suffered a brain aneurism and thus started the final fight of his life.

Bongi Zulu, Marketing director at The Specialists wrote this tribute: “I have never known Francois to give up easily, and I know he tried valiantly, but sadly he succumbed and passed away on Sunday, 17 November.

We lost a good man, a respected colleague, true friend but most of all, a loving father to Carmen and Gaby, son to Johan “Blackie” and brother to Johan and Werner. “He will be sorely missed by all, but never forgotten.”

Francois was a man who left his mark in the Franchise Industry where he assisted in the growth and development of a National QSR Franchise to over 300 branches. Following this, he spent 10 years in Executive Management in the Pest Control and Hygiene Industry and for the past 2 years, as Managing Director of The Specialists Franchise Group.

In this role, he developed relationships and friendships that will never be forgotten. He will be remembered as a person with immense knowledge of his industry, respected management skills and a friend that one could truly rely on.

In addition to his love for his daughters, Francois was a true lover of nature, sacrificing many hours as an honorary game ranger in Pilanesberg, fighting rhino poaching, doing insect, reptile, plant and bird surveys, thus making an unselfish contribution to our heritage. He left a void here that can never be filled.

As his friends and colleagues, our thoughts are with his family, and we wish them serenity and inner peace, taking comfort in the knowledge that they were the ones who mattered most.

FASA’s help-line received an interesting inquiry on paying royalties for playing music in public places as there seem to be two different collecting societies claiming

Question

Both SAMRO and SAMPRA appear to be invoicing franchised outlets that play music in their outlets.

– SAMRO is a copyright administration business dealing with primarily the administration of music composers’ and authors’ Performing Rights.

– SAMPRA is a collective licensing society of copyright owners of music sound recordings.
How would a franchise owner verify the collecting society’s legitimacy and should the business pay both these organizations?

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Does this sound familiar? You go online to buy that one-of-a-kind dress, that new juicer or presents for Christmas and spend the next few hours struggling to navigate the site, are frustrated with the slow speed and then when it comes to paying, the system crashes.

Now that South Africa has climbed onto the pre-Xmas frenzy of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all the other incentives to buy online, every business with an online presence must make sure that their technical side is working optimally and is ready to handle any eventuality.

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The festive season around the corner is a business’ only hope to end off the year on a high note, giving business owners an opportunity to see all the pistons of their business firing and the harvest rolling in. Or, it can turn into a nightmare rather easily if not enough preparation has been done in the run-up to the season. Arnold February, regional investment manager at Business Partners Limited gives us the following tips on getting ready for the peak season. Read More

A franchisor asked FASA’s Help Line to explain the CPA’s stipulation that the marketing fund must be a separate account and how that can be practically interpreted.

Question from a franchisor:

From a practical perspective our marketing contributions are in a separate accounting account/cost centre, but not in a separate bank account. The reasons are purely practical and an effort to save banking fees and also to make the life of franchisees easier in paying everything into one bank account, although they are invoiced separately.

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Compliance with legislation can be intimidating, especially for business owners without a legal background. Labour law is not negotiable and poses a business risk to the employer. To comply with legislation is not a luxury, it is a must and can be overwhelming in terms of specialist knowledge, as well as time-consuming. Employers should, however, realise that legislation can also be used to protect your business and minimize risk by proactively positioning the business with regards to possible future disputes.

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As we sit on the cusp of a new decade and head into the throes of the 4th Industrial Revolution, never before have we questioned our place in the new world order or have had to reassure ourselves that we can still be effective entrepreneurs.

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