The legends magic series

Entitled 'The Legends Magic Series', the workshop is being presented by the Old Mutual Legends business development programme, as part of their annual curriculum for the 60 beneficiary organisations they support.

The event was originally intended for Legends beneficiaries alone. However, according to Catherine Wijnberg, Legends originator and MD of implementing agency Fetola, numerous requests from organisations not involved in Legends to attend have seen a small number of places at the workshop being opened to the public.

The Legends Programme
Legends is an award-winning enterprise development programme with a special focus on Black-owned, women-led, rural and community-based businesses. Started in 2007, this Old Mutual funded initiative currently supports over 60 organisations and 1500 individuals in all nine provinces, making it a flagship programme in Old Mutual's CSI stable.

Legends provides a blended offering of workshops, skills training, e-learning, remote and face-to-face mentoring and peer support to help small and emerging businesses attain a new level of success. The overall vision of the programme is to change lives for the better, forever.

The programme has grown by 600% since 2007, and is now one of the largest 'virtual incubator' enterprise development programmes in SA. Over 500 businesses applied to be part of the 2011 programme, of which 65 were selected based on a number of criteria including social impact and a willingness and desire to attain new levels of success.

September Workshop
The upcoming workshop, to be held on the 27 & 28 September at the Cape Town Lodge, will see Legends beneficiaries from all corners of the country being flown in to attend.

Many of these beneficiaries are from rural areas and have never been to Cape Town before, let alone flown on a plane.

The workshop will focus on two areas of business that according to Wijnberg are the Achilles Heel of most small businesses, namely sales and finance. The full and diverse programme has been designed to give participants maximum value over the course of the two days.

The Business of Business
Anton Ressel, senior business consultant on the Legends programme, believes that a focus on business fundamentals and doing the basics well, combined with several key innovations that have allowed even the most rural and remote businesses to become Legends beneficiaries, are the reason for the continued growth and success of the programme.

A few places are still available for the upcoming workshop at the end of September. There is a cost attached for small business beneficiaries, but these are subsidised and significant discounts are available for non-profit and community-based organisations.
Participants also get to attend the pre-workshop cocktail and networking function to be held the evening before the workshop begins.

Speakers at this industry event include Crispin Sonn, Director of Corporate Affairs Media and Marketing at Old Mutual.

For more information, please click here, contact us on az.oc.alotef@ofni or 021-7017466.

Date: 27 September 2011
Venue: Cape Town