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Welcome to our "GET GROWING" Entrepreneurship Initiative.
Our goal is to mentor and, within our means, assist deserving entrepreneurs with four defined projects.
Our first project involves the Sharing of "Business Concept Pitches". We present these pitches to our community on our blog and invite comments, reviews and suggestions. The club will filter projects favoured to succeed with mentoring and seed funding.
The next project targets entrepreneurs with limited technology resources. Our "Micro Business Programme" takes micro-businesses online. Typically they will have a smartphone, but they will not have a PC or laptop. The goal is to elevate them to have an online presence that enables potential customers to find them on the internet. In either a classified advert or business listing, these micro informal businesses will be able to extend their reach from one-on-one word of mouth or "pavement placard" marketing outside hardware stores etc. Our mentors coach them to be able to upload classifieds or business listings onto the Webo Directory and site builder. The club sponsors A6 mini flyers that the entrepreneurs distribute to promote their product or service offerings to potential customers who can review up to twenty pictures of their workmanship and any reviews posted by past customers.
We have partnered with the Webo Directory and Site Builder, an international Directory and Site Builder mooted to be the most comprehensive directory site builder globally.
Our third project is a pressure test of commitment and more. It takes the form of a FREE 14 Day "Digital Marketing Bootcamp" presented and entirely sponsored by Webo, which supplies the online training and "Software as a Service" / SaaS needed to build an advanced online digital marketing platform. The Bootcamp is open to all entrepreneurs who have access to the internet on a PC or laptop. Interalia, participants will be exposed to a range of eBusiness, eCommerce and eMarketing tools that include coupon marketing, loyalty marketing and referral marketing enablers designed to get customers to grow the business. Every customer receives an online loyalty account and will carry a printed or on-phone Rotary Loyalty Card.
The best is that all participants can join the Rotary Loyalty Programme that will collectively market participating businesses and allow customers to consolidate rewards redeemable at participating businesses.
At the end of the 14 days, Bootcamp participants will have progressed to various stages in building their digital marketing platforms. However, they will have received an online correspondence course with online support on building an advanced eBusiness, eCommerce and eMarketing Platform, including coupon, loyalty, reputation, and referral marketing.
Those who complete the Bootcamp will benefit from the Rotary secured bulk discount on the monthly SaaS fee and a fifty per cent Rotary sponsorship for a year. Participants will be required to pay only R240 pm for the hosting and firewalling of their eBusiness, eCommerce and eMarketing platforms, including say, 2,000 customer loyalty accounts. The sponsorship award is automatic and open to all Bootcamp participants who will continue to build their Digital Marketing Platforms to the point where they present them for review to our Rotary Entrepreureurship Panel.
The outcome of the Bootcamp is an online eBusiness, eCommerce and eMarketing Platform custom-designed to grow their businesses. In other words, they will be online with all or a part of a website, blog, and store, plus they will have active coupon, loyalty and referral marketing campaigns that are informed by agile quizzes and more.
A positive review of a digital marketing platform will open the door to our final project, the "Get Growing Contest". This contest will see participants complete an online course titled the DTHT (Double Turnover in Half the Time) challenge. Over nine weeks, the course will run with a weekly webinar replay and a weekly online live Q&A webinar that will coach participants to succeed in the DTHT challenge and a Business Performance Enhancement Programme. Live Q&A webinars will also have a panel of Rotary mentors online to offer opinions and advice.
The idea behind providing webinar replays is that contestants will be able to watch the online classes at a time and pace that suits their busy schedules.
The outcome of the Get Growing Contest is the provision of a business plan to be judged, and three contest finalists will be selected to receive mentoring and seed capital for first, second and third place awards.
We invite other clubs to follow our progress, and globally, clubs may join us in our Get Growing entrepreneurship initiative. We also ask our community to join us by signing up as entrepreneurship mentors.
Please note that our entrepreneurship mentors are from the communities that we serve, and they are not necessarily Club Members.
Finally, our programme is in its fourth year and has continuously evolved. To this end, we welcome ideas, comments and suggestions so that we may be the best that we can be because we believe that entrepreneurship is the key to the growth of our economy.
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