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syncing their online shopping cart with the fulfillment house.
Finally, it’s good to pay attention to what created the initial success even if it
seems accidental or coincidental. In Jen and Omar’s case, it may have been a
fluke the first time they were featured on a major design site, but what if they
could make that happen again? It did happen again, over and over, because they
built relationships and pitched their new projects in a low-key, commonsense
manner. This is a process we’ll look at more in the next section of the book.
In a microbusiness built on low costs and quick action, you don’t need to do
much formal planning. Mostly, you need the elements we’ve discussed
throughout the book: a product or service, a group of customers, and a way to
get paid. Check out the One-Page Business Plan template on this page for a
helpful tool.
Freely Receive, Freely Give
As you think through the questions of freedom and value, the most important
one is, “How will this business help people?” This isn’t simply about being
generous, because as a business helps people, the business owner gets paid.
Some people design an entire for-profit business around the social component,
others shift to focus on it as they go along, and still others integrate a social
project within a for-profit business.
Apartheid came to an end in South Africa in 1994, ending nearly half a
century of white-only rule in Africa’s most economically developed country.
Nelson Mandela was elected the first black president the same year, and the
country began a slow process of creating true equality for its “rainbow nation” of
people. In addition to the negative association of apartheid, South Africa was
known for many good things, one of which was its popular prize-winning wine.
The wine region of the Western Cape is older than California’s. South Africa
provided the royal courts of Europe with wine for over 350 years, and South
African vines were used to start the Australian wine industry in 1781.
