My Community

MY COMMUNITYTRUTH, RESPECT &

Why face-to-face business within
My Community is key to my financial success and personal sense of fulfillment

There is a saying in Cape Town, Local is Lekker. Broadly translated this means local goods and services are preferred.

Let’s consider LOCAL for a moment or what ii means to provide your business offer within your community first – in other words, locally in your area.

Example:  My business is computer training, teaching specialist software training like CorelDraw, AutoCAD and Adobe Suite.

Now the question is…do I make money by selling my computer training material online through shopping cart websites or do I focus on selling my training offers to my neighbors first, the people in my suburb and city i.e. my community?

I do both, but I spend more or less 80% of my time giving face-to-face computer training and 20% of my time goes to making money and promoting online.

Isn’t it true that, today, most people’s time tends to lean towards what is most profitable compared to what is most fulfilling or purposeful. 

People tend to “go where the money” goes.  Nothing wrong with this I guess, but for me it is more about the impact or contribution I can make to my community first and not compromising people for the sake of profits.

Doing anything in life purely for the money is never better than “doing it” out of a place of principles/values and then because you have a passion for it and it makes a difference in your community. Only then the money aspect becomes a consideration.

 

Once your business, career or any work you do is in alignment with your principles and you have compassion and empathy for the people around you, only then will you find happiness, contentment, peace or whatever word you want to use to describe a sense of fulfillment.
For me, it is not enough to work daily online and only make money in front of the computer.  I enjoy the one-to-one interaction with the many different individuals whom I teach.

I like to see their growth and how they “light up” when they have mastered a new computer skill.  I like the rapport that I have with all my students – each with their own unique personality.  It is my purpose in life to help them grow and upgrade their computer skill level in such a way that it impacts their business or career by leaps and bounds.

Example:  Although musicians have to spend time in the recording studio as well as on stage, it depends on the balance: do they spend 20% of their time in studio recordings and 80% live on stage?  It all depends if they enjoy interacting with their audience.

This is why I say “Local is Lekker”, because the people around us, our family, friends and community must benefit from our talents first and only then should we spend our energies spreading it out to reach the rest of the world. 

Once we take an interest in serving our community with our business offer, then our business will become more sustainable in the long term.