There is no doubt that the South African economy is going through tough times and for many entrepreneurs, the natural instinct is to compete on price.

Many small business owners will then say that their cost base is X and if they can sell Y number of widgets, hours or contracts at R1 / R10 / R100 / R1000, they will cover their costs. This results in them under-selling themselves on low margin work.

Entrepreneurs who exit corporates will immediately argue they can do something “better and cheaper” than their former corporate masters because they don’t have the same infrastructure costs. This could in fact be the wrong argument as the higher margin clients are specifically looking for partners who provide security through reputation and infrastructure.

Be careful around how you position yourself.

This video from Rich Mulholland gives some great insights: