I am super excited that you have landed on our website and I am assuming you are here, because you would like to Start a business venture of your own. If that is the case you have come to the right place!

My name is Dr. Graham Ward and in June 2016, I was “told” to create the Start a Business ™ website to help budding entrepreneurs with their new ventures. 

I have started and owned over 13 businesses, ranging from hot dog stands, to real estate agencies and for the past 14 years I have been running our Training company (Award Training) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Start a Business ™ is an online, self-study programme designed to assist you create a professional business plan you can use to attract an investor for your business venture. The Skills Programme is made up of 7 modules. Each module comes with Learning Manuals, Summary Slides, Videos (35 in total) and self-assessments. In addition, I provide Case Study videos, where I give you real life experience from my 37 years in business.

I was so intrigued with the entrepreneurship topic, that in 2017, I conducted a global doctoral study into the entrepreneurship worldwide. My findings were that 1 in 10 individuals are entrepreneurs globally, whilst in South Africa on 1 in 52 are entrepreneurs. The exclusion of black South Africans into the national economy due to Apartheid, is largely the reason for this.

For your information, the findings of the doctoral study are as follows:

1) We are 99% sure an entrepreneur will require mentorship,

2) We are 99% sure an entrepreneur will need to have the socio-emotional traits – these are:

     a) Propensity to risk taking,

     b) Opportunity seeking, and

     c) Creative problem solving skills

3) We are 95% sure a South African entrepreneur will need access to start-up funding.

 

Thank you, and I wish you all the very best of luck with the venture you are starting!

 

From myself and the rest of the Start a business ™ Team, we hope you like the Skills Programme as much as we did making it!