Competing in a noisy world is hard. When there are many like you, you need to gain an advantage to stand out. Getting this right means building your business differently. Here is how…

Imagine you were in the cup business. Cups are a necessity so that’s a good business to be in. But Many people think so and therefore many people are in this business all competing to get ahead and grow.

Across seven events in 3 days, I met over 1,500 business owners. The biggest, a fourth-generation family business achieving R450m annual revenues. The smallest, a 9-month-old township business growing towards R78 000 annual revenues. A smorgasbord of entrepreneurs, business owners and warriors. All fighting against increasingly tough odds, to simply survive. Many, thriving too.