Zanele Matome has experienced the highs and lows of entrepreneurship like few people I have ever met. She went from wininng mining tenders, living in a huge house with a butler to broke and back at her childhood home. But that didn't keep her down as you'll soon find out.

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Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3E4wUbm

Google: https://bit.ly/3KBQgqG

Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

Like many entrepreneurs, Chris Jones built his business off the back of a product that he developed to solve a problem that he had. As an American Football player, Chris noticed a gap in the market for durable catcher's gloves with extreme grip.

He developed a glove, started to produce and sell it and eventually rolled that product into a distribution business with a partner who would ultimately put his business in a very precarious position. In a single meeting, his partner ended their relationship and took with it 70% of his revenue.

In this episode, Chris and I discuss creating a product from scratch, finding partners, losing income and succeeding in the face of certain death.

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Subscribe to It's Not Over:

Apple: https://apple.co/37gY2I6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3E4wUbm

Google: https://bit.ly/3KBQgqG

Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

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Find Chris online, buy his book and follow his social accounts:

Social media links:

Instagram: @relentlesschrisjones

Facebook: @relentlesschrisjones

LinkedIn: @chrisjonesyyc

Websites:

https://www.relentlesschrisjones.com/

https://www.eosworldwide.com/chris-jones

Link to Relentless AF on Amazon - Buy Relentless AF here

When his business eventually ended, it took with it his cofounder relationship, best mate and group of friends from high school.

Jason Bagley's company, Firing Squad, started out as a project-based service business. But thanks to his ability to analyse the data, he pivoted to a more profitable product-based retainer model focused on email management.

Unfortunately for Jason and his business partner, the data can only point you in the direction you need to go, the rest is up to you. Jason landed an enticing client who would mark the downfall of his company with late payment, all-consuming work and the promise of shiny silicon valley like growth and venture capital.

Jason's story is one filled with resilience, recovery, and an unfortunate lack of focus as a single destructive client grew in scope but not in profit.

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Subscribe to this show:

Apple: https://apple.co/37gY2I6

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Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

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Find Jason online:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbagley-copycheck/

https://getcopycheck.com/

Hiten Keshav is an accountant who wanted desperately to strike out on his own and build a business despite his parents desperately wanting him to take a different path to their own.

His first business opportunity was in an unfamiliar industry where he had no experience, no network and was burning through his hard-earned savings to survive.

It's not often that I get to speak to someone who chose to shut down a business, but in this episode of It's Not Over, Hiten reveals the pains of failure and the critical lessons he learned that allowed him to build a better business the next time around.

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Apple: https://apple.co/37gY2I6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3E4wUbm

Google: https://bit.ly/3KBQgqG

Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

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Follow Hiten:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hitenkeshave/

https://www.theunconventionalca.org/

No matter how large your business is or how much experience you have leading, the threat of business death is always looming.

When Mike Abel decided to pitch for the advertising business of the flailing retailer Edgars, he believed his agency could turn the retailer back into a profitable entity.

Unfortunately, a change in leadership at his client lead to underhanded tactics, which threatened the survival of his business.

Mike Abel is a business leader with strong opinions, deep experience and the talent to back up his words.

In this episode of It's Not Over, Mike and I discuss pitching for business when you know you'll lose it, motivating a team that may lose their job and the morals and ethics of doing business with the right partners and clients.

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Apple: https://apple.co/37gY2I6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3E4wUbm

Google: https://bit.ly/3KBQgqG

Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

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Connect with Mike:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-abel-39b53b12/

https://twitter.com/abelmike

https://www.instagram.com/mikeabel67/

http://www.mcsaatchiabel.co.za/

At the start of his business, Fred Roed, like most founders, did everything in the business. Sales, Marketing, Creative Projects, Customer service and finances.

But managing finances for a young business without the appropriate skill or aptitude can leave your business in dire straights. Unfortunately for Fred, this is exactly what happened with his company, World Wide Creative, in the early years.

Luckily Fred had people around him who quickly helped him realise that he needed to focus on what he was good at and get the company's cash flow back on track.

Fred Roed is a heavy chef in the entrepreneurial space, and this episode serves Michelin star business lesson after business lesson.

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Apple: https://apple.co/37gY2I6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3E4wUbm

Google: https://bit.ly/3KBQgqG

Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

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Connect with Fred

https://fredroed.com

https://heavychef.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredroed/

https://twitter.com/fredroed

Andy Higgins is the founder of bidorbuy. In this episode, we look back to the company's first near-death experience back in 2000 when the dot com bubble burst.

Andy's story is a tech rollercoaster spanning two decades, 40 investors, a billion dollar pseudo-valuations, fast hiring and a slow but steady internet bubble bursting.

The tech decline that Andy found himself in the middle of came with retrenchments, personal turmoil, a study break and a slow march towards profitability thanks to Google gaining traction and South Africa emerging from the Internet Dark Ages of the Internet when people were paying per minute to be online.

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Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

Newsletter: https://nicharalambous.com/newsletter

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Find Andy and BoB online:

https://www.bob.co.za

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyhigginsza/

https://twitter.com/andyhza

Cesar Hasselmann is the man who introduced frozen Pizza to Brazil.

But before that ever happened, he was just 13 years old when he accidentally started his first business with a school friend. When a DJ didn't pitch at their friend's birthday, Cesar went home, took his parent's gear to the party and started DJing.

Within three years, he had a DJ business with three cars and six DJs hitting parties all weekend. This business didn't last as a fallout with his young business partner lead Cesar to his next business.

Unfortunately, the good times didn't last in his next business either. Out of nowhere, The president of Brazil announced that he would be taking the savings from individuals and business bank accounts and with that move, Cesar's next business ended abruptly.

An obsessive entrepreneur who appeared in commercials, tv shows, theatre and loves marketing, Cesar Hasselmann had experienced more before the age of 22 than most entrepreneurs do in their lives.

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Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

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FIND CESAR ONLINE:

https://cesarhasselmann.com/

When your biggest client, making up over 50% of your revenue and resource allocation, goes under, what would you do?

Most CEOs would retrench staff, scale back and wait out the rough seas. This is not what Brett StClair did at his AI Business TerraFlow when one of South Africa's largest airline businesses liquidated.

Brett and his cofounders chose to hold on to their talented team and double down on sales. They feared that if they let go of their best talent, their business would never recover. Brett managed to reduce his sales cycle from 18 months to 2 months through focus and attention to key parts of their sales pipeline.

This is an incredible story of resilience and sales which overcame adversity.

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Apple: https://apple.co/37gY2I6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3E4wUbm

Google: https://bit.ly/3KBQgqG

Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

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Find Brett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettastclair/

Work at Teraflow.ai: https://www.teraflow.ai/our-recruitment-process/

What would you do if you received a Dear John email from your biggest client making up 60% of your revenue?

This is exactly what Jonathan Elcock went through with his chatbot business Comparisure. He received an email from his biggest client cancelling their contract out of the blue and had to quickly move to survival mode overnight.

In this episode, Jonathan and I talk about client relationships, finding problems worth solving and why the B2B business model isn't all it's cracked up to be.

My name is Nic Haralambous, and I don't want to keep you waiting any longer, so remember, it's not over till it's over.

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SUBSCRIBE!

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Website: https://nicharalambous.com/its-not-over

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Connect with Jonathan and Comparisure:

Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-elcock-507aaa14

Or visit the Comparisure webpage: https://www.comparisure.co.za/