Entrepreneur flourishes with essential business management skills
SMMES and partners that he now collaborates with on large projects. “I realised that building a network of reliable partners was the best way for all us small business owners to support each other,” he reflects.
Compiling a marketing and social media strategy that now sees him regularly posting his impressive flower arrangements on a buzzing Instagram account (flowers_bygrantdonson). “A solid online portfolio of the best work I’ve done builds trust with customers. My own style and personality compliments the work I do, so including myself in online marketing also builds my own brand.”
Presenting a succinct and appealing business plan to a panel of business experts (as part of the course) was both nerve-wrecking and life-changing. This experience taught Donson to sell himself and his product without reservation, a skill he has applied many times over the last year, pitching to corporates, event co-ordinators and business owners.
The greatest testimony to the value Donson received from completing the Wits Plus Business Management Essentials course in November 2018 reflects in the numbers: Flowers by Grant Donson has quadrupled in turnover yearon-year in the first six months of 2019; the business client list has expanded tenfold and now includes large corporate companies, regular events planning partnerships and impressive repeat business from influential individual clients. Flowers by Grant Donson has come a long way from pop-up Valentine’s Day rose peddler outside a gym to a flourishing South African SMME, driven by an entrepreneur with a solid grounding in Business Management Essentials.