Brakish

It's obviously very embarrassing for Experian to admit that they handed over this information to a random person, considering that this was not a hack and is information that is available to Experian clients (such as banks), is the problem that this information ended up in the "wrong hands" or that this person did not pay for it? The employees of Experian clients also have access to this information (and what checks are there to avoid abuse?) so does anyone who does a credit check using a service like Windeed. If indeed the issue is that it ended up in the wrong hands I think it is very naive to think that this person did nothing with the information the months while he had it in his possession. Clearly we have a crafty individual skilled in social engineering (or Experian is just very incompetent), the fact that the dataset did not end up on the internet or dark web (yet) does not mean anything. It's not like its difficult to hide, he/she could have it backed up on a flash drive. It is very interesting that while on the one hand Experian tries to downplay that they peddle information that can be used to steal your identity, trying to calm the public that the problem is that this information is not one of their clients like their clients can't misuse that information.

Something like that. It can be outside or delivered to their workplace. Now remember at the moment his main clientele might be blue collar workers so there might be a shift in target market to white collar workers, unless he is parking outside of factories. But his current way of doing things is unsustainable, getting a R1600 fine every time, which effectively wipes out days if not weeks of profit is not a sustainable way to run a business.

This is a good strategy when starting with little resources, you don't want to end up with unsold stock, go with the popular even if it is common. The trend spotters are saying Dior Sauvage for men and La Vie Est Belle for the ladies. See if you can find generic equivalents but you also can't go wrong with Issey Miyake if you fail to acquire those. The later on you can visit his YouTube channel to see the other Top 5 or Top 10 as you have more resources to grow your range.

Very good example of starting with what you have and not some fantasy that will never be a reality. Based on publicly available figures (if correct), it appears he still has some way to go before he is ready to grow to the next stage, but that is fine, he has started and now has a real picture of what his business is and what it needs and its challenges, something you don't have when it's just an idea in your head putting him miles ahead of people who are still dreaming. Based on media reports his business looks a bit like this: Sales of R20 000 per month with a 100% markup over 4 locations (sales channels). As he is working from home for now, let's work on the 100% markup on ingredients only (minus rent/labour): Sales: R20 000 (based on public figures) Cost of Sales: R10 000 (based on 100% publicly disclosed markup) Profit: R10 000 Assuming he is working 20 days (Mon-Fri) that works out to R1000 a day in turnover and R500 a day in profit, divide that by 4 locations and it averages R250 per day in turnover and R125 in profit per location/sales channel. The article you linked to mentions they sell from 4AM until 10AM (6 hours). Each location making on average R20.83 an hour profit. In this video he mentions the selling price as R20. That would mean his cost price per sandwich is R10 and that he is selling 50 sandwiches a day (R1000/R20). If the labour is not included in the "100% markup" he was publicly quoted then he still has to pay the person from the R125 in profit per location. As you can see there is still a way to go if the public figures are correct. Now these are only sandwich numbers I have seen some photos of him with cakes and sweets so he will be making extra there. I personally would only pay on commission. 50/50 profit split. For every sandwich the location sell they get R5. Assuming he is doing this then he is making R62.50 per location in profit or R250 a day. If he is working one location, then he is taking R312.50. This means that each seller is only making R62.50 from the sandwiches from that six hours work. But he can sweeten the pot for them and just stick to sandwiches and let them sell the sweets and keep all the profits for them. He does the food they can sell the dessert. There are a few things that can be done immediately: Optimise sales channels: Find a way to sell more at the four locations. Get sellers more motivated so that can sell more. After all they will be rewarded. Increase sales channels: Add more locations/sellers. Offer to supply existing traders with your stock on consignment and give them R5 per sale. He is currently making enough profit per day to add an extra 25-30 sandwiches which can be doubled. Notes It is worrying that he does not know for sure what his most popular sandwich is. He is doing small enough volumes to manually keep track and should know to minimise wastage. I also disagree with his retail shop growth strategy, retail space is expensive and if he gets space it should be in the form of a commercial kitchen, that can be used as a depot and base for all his sellers. As for his food trucks that are going to travel around the country going to stadiums. I don't know how workable that plan is, it sounds a bit unrealistic to me unless he has a national network of trucks that work other places during the week and does stadiums on weekends the way some people do with Sunday markets. A proven concept he should aspire to is something like Sandwich Baron but on a cheaper scale, where you operate in an area and people can order via phone, WhatsApp, Website or Email and have their food delivered to them. But instead of a shop you work from a food truck, the truck does not even have to be the sales channel, just use it as a kitchen, he can park in a central location in a business district and have someone hand deliver to the buildings, this will also negate the problems that he has facing with metro police as a street vendor.

Open a shop selling R500 t-shits, R1000 jeans and R2000 shoes and the people of Dunoon will make you a millionaire within a year.

Yep, South Africans can be poor but they will still waste money on expensive stuff like DSTV and disposable diapers. A newborn can use up to 10 (sometimes more) diapers a day.

A recent report in the The Guardian blames a delay in the United Kingdom's National Health Service getting PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for the COVID-19 pandemic on Just in Time (JIT) logistics contracts. Just-in-time is a strategy employed to "increase efficiency and decrease waste by receiving goods only as they need them for the production process, which reduces inventory costs. This method requires producers to forecast demand accurately". This is in contrast to “just-in-case” inventory management which means holding plenty of surplus inventory or stockpiling in the medical context. Read more at The Guardian

Selling Edcon will be in everyone's best interests, say BRPs (Business Rescue Practitioners) - fin24 Edcon's BRPs say the company can only be saved through accelerating sales of its divisions to interested parties. No parties have shown interest in investing in, or providing funding to, Edcon. However, say BRPs, several parties have expressed interest in the sales process. The business rescue practitioners for Edcon say the only way to save the company and the livelihoods of its thousands of employees is through "accelerated sales" of the clothing retailer's divisions to interested parties.

I share this problem as well, municipal values impact both rates and resale value yet the approach taken to get there is problematic especially in a "popular" city like Cape Town where there is a high cost of living but an extremely dangerous place to live. Will greedy goons like the City of Cape Town revalue and adjust properties value? No probably not. But the receiver of revenue better be prepared to accept transfer duty at far below what is considered "market value".

Just to echo the sentiments of @Material Boy and @Mesa Verde what you have is a "comparative advantage" if you can produce it at a lower cost than anyone else. Now having a comparative advantage is not that you are the best at something in your case it means that you have less overheads and can produce at a lower cost per unit. Does this mean you have a viable business? No. As others have pointed out unless you can manufacture enough in a day it won't be sustainable. Your competitors will have an "absolute advantage" in that they can produce a larger quantity than you in the same amount of time, the more volume they do, the more they benefit from economies of scale making it viable for them. To find your competitive advantage you need to find what is the "opportunity cost" of your competitors, an opportunity cost is the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. When your competitors decided to manufacture as many pairs of slippers that they could in a day they "gave up" on producing more specialised, customised slippers or slippers aimed at a particular health issue. They gave up producing shoes or boots with the same comfort of slippers as it will take too long to make. That is probably where you will find your sweet spot. Look here, someone on Gumtree selling sheepskin and wool boots for R1200 (wool instep) and R1400 (leather instep), thick soles according to the advert, you can go shopping with these. Ugg moccasin's cost R2000. A starting out producing genuine sheepskin boots that retails for "much lower" than competitors and making only R100 profit per pair will be a slog especially if you a one man business.

It's interesting that Checkers has in recent years been repositioning and focussing more and more on the premium end of the market where Woolworths is instead of the middle alongside PicknPay you would think that they would sell better tools and sell these low cost brands in Shoprite.

How will the conronavirus pandemic and the resultant global economic collapse affect the private equity industry? The only honest answer is that nobody really knows. The industry has been working hard at shedding its image as corporate raiders and barbarians at the gate who buy and leverage and strip assets to ones that are good custodians of the portfolio companies that they invest in and the only honest answer is that nobody really knows how this is going to impact any sector. As a health care crisis the most recent the Spanish flu is a hundred years old and so offers little use to measure its global sweep and impact as an economic event it raises many unknowns about how the sudden demand shock and the existential dread will affect business activity and the consumer behaviour especially if the lockdown persists for an extended time through the various levels here in South Africa. Yet a close look at the impact of previous economic shocks can provide some clues as to how private equity funds and their limited partners will behave in a period of rapid contraction, one thinks of the global financial crises here.

Struggling retailer Edcon, which owns owns Edgars and Jet, is set to commence with voluntary business rescue proceedings according to a letter sent by its CEO Grant Pattison to creditors and suppliers. For more than 90 years, fashion retailer Edgars has been the mainstay in South Africa's high streets and the anchor tenant of choice in malls that began populating the country's landscape in later years. But after numerous attempts over the years to resuscitate the store and its other brands such as Jet, its owner Edcon has applied for voluntary business rescue. Read more... They burnt through all their bailout money they got in March last year (R2.7 billion in cash) and can't pay creditors; it was either business rescue or liquidation. Business rescue kicks the can down the road a bit further but I think it's the end of the road for them or it should be. The coronavirus is a convenient scapegoat but Edcon was on borrowed time, they did nothing compelling with the bailout money to turn the group around.

S&P downgrades SA's credit rating further into junk, citing impact of coronavirus The rating agency announced it had downgraded SA's long-term foreign-currency credit rating to 'BB-', or the third tier of non-investment grade. The outlook is stable. Read more...

"Dead" is a strong word, people will always need a place to live and businesses will need premises, but good paying tenants are becoming harder and harder to find. The question is when do all these factors combine to make it unviable from a buy-to-let perspective. I think we need to have a dedicated thread to discuss and assess the feasibility of buy-to-let, residential vs. commercial, deposits and bond payments, the challenges increasing rates and taxes, maintenance, delinquent tenants and its impact on return on investment. And also look at the future property market liquidity in case you need to exit the investment, which will be impacted by the economic climate (and expropriation without compensation if/once implemented) which will spook buyers.