Small business made easy

I run web design courses in various shapes and sizes, using mostly Joomla and WordPress as the underlying framework. Students often ask me why they need to go the extra mile. Is a basic website not all they need?

My answer to this question often depends on the sophistication of the audience.

Before I answer this one let me clarify something quickly. I operate in George,  which is in the Garden Route, where the typical web design student is a small business owner that sells to real people within the local area, and not to online customers.

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The Garden Route has long been a quiet tourist destination, with little technology focussed business happening in the coastal towns of George, Knysna and Mosselbay.

The top industry sectors in the region has always been tourism and agriculture, with building and property development coming third. Recent economic changes has seen the building industry shrink, and the ongoing drought has made agriculture less sustainable. The economic profile of the region needs a change in order to sustain growth and employment.

Repositioning the region as a technology destination is not only a smart economic move, it is also the ideal move given all the region has going for itself already.

It has the infrastructure, the people, political will and the ability to make it happen.

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GARDEN ROUTE IT CONSORTIUM READY TO BECOME TECHNOLOGY HUB

A consortium of Garden Route based companies is ready to launch an IT technology hub in George which will create jobs and train up new skills.

George’s IT company owner Imel Rautenbach is currently drumming up support for the initiative at provincial and national level.  The consortium aims to use the Western Cape Province’s business arm to market and develop in order to get launched nationally and internationally. IT technology and electronic centred businesses will be the engine that will drive this local initiative. “The idea behind pooling resources and skills is to keep all our software and hardware developmental work in the Garden Route. We already have around 30 businesses on our data base that have all the necessary skills and technology to form the nucleus. “

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