Business Plans Gone Wrong

-


Approaching the bank for a business loan? Good luck. However, you need a business plan. It’s both a financial and legal document, prepared in a certain format, and language that can only be dissected by accountants and corporate lawyers.

Your business plan will be perfect I’m sure, after forking out a couple thousand dollars to the person who prepared it. Then you wait in anticipation for the bank’s positive respond. It all depends on the people around the table. The human element must identify with what is on paper. They must be in sync with why you want to make designer pampers for dogs. They must understand how it will affect pet stores and that is in the business plan.

This blog was triggered by Davids Tea. I was surprised to see all the flavored tea on drugstore shelves. The last time I saw the brand, was some years ago before the 2020 pandemic. Davids Tea was a stand-alone store in shopping malls, very attractive store layout and colorful tea in eye catching colors. They had tea tasting some times. I don’t know how Davids Tea put their idea in the business plan, but I was one of the skeptics. Whether flavored or not, Canada is coffee country. My mother drank tea like all mothers in the British Empire. As grandchildren, we knew when it was time for uncle, grandma and grandpa’s tea.

I started drinking coffee in the U.S. Other students dragged me along to coffee shops. There was no ‘tea break’ only coffee break. Time passed, and I got addicted to coffee until my teeth turned yellow. I had to reduce the consumption. If I had been part of the bank panel about giving Davids Tea a loan, I would have recused myself. Davids Tea was about flavored tea in coffee country. It was not going to make it. By the way, tea addicts don’t want hibiscus or lemon tea. They want it raw.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elections And Political Bullies

-
Image
Forget democracy.   It should be called political bullying. We are watching it in the prelude to the Canadian election on the 19 th of October, 2015.   Americans have also started their political bullying for the looming presidential election next year. So many trees wasted on books about democracy.   Some countries have big budgets for invading other countries ‘ to defend democracy’ but it is seldom practised in campaigning for elections.   Calling opponents names and printing flyers attacking each other is behaviour that will not be tolerated in kindergarten, but it is all legal, in campaigning.   It is irritating and such a let-down to the whole notion of democracy.   Grown-up men and women behaving like Grade One kids. It is also misleading because many voters believe it is real hatred.   Don’t let that fool you.   These politicians play golf together, attend the same dinner parties, eat and drink at the same social events, share jokes and cut deals in parliament.   They
Read more

Comfort Food As Regret Food

-
Image
Chicken curry. Comfort food is good for the soul, which usually bleeds in winter from icy roads, bad drivers that want to annihilate pedestrians, frozen fingers and toes that take a sabbatical.   What happened to my toes?   I thought I was wearing special socks for boots? We therefore have a right to comfort food which throws doctors’ orders out of the window and has no loyalty to calories.   No calculator on the table, thanks very much.   Piece of bread 5 calories, half a banana 10 calories, sugar-free cheesecake 2,000 calories.   Ah! Ah!  We only live once. Naw!   Comfort food is old school food with its compulsory second helping.   It involves licking fingers and giving a big sigh, about the good life, which is shelter, food, love and debt.   The problem is the zip.   The jeans remind you that comfort food can also be called you will regret food .   Home sweet home is even sweeter in winter after surviving blowing snow and bumper to bumper traffic. What is more welcoming th
Read more

No Air Miles

-
Image
I don’t have Air Miles.   I’m considering putting that on a T-Shirt because I cannot go to the drugstore (chemist) or coffee shop without the cashier asking me if I have air miles. We waited for about two minutes the other day, while this guy looked for his Air Miles card in his overweight wallet.   For what?   For a few points. I don’t have air miles because Mathematics is a foreign language.   I was never good in numbers. That is why I squashed the idea of being an investment banker very early in life.   I understand you can invest in cornfields before the soil is turned up or pork bellies even before a baby pig is born. That is how I view air miles, investing in tomorrow or the unknown.   I’m the dumb one.   Some people understand this air miles’ thing so well, I overheard one customer saying: I can even convert my points into cash. Points and air miles are the same thing in Canada and the U.S.   Drugstores or clothing stores even give you a card to collect point
Read more