Magic Johnson is best known as a famous American basketball player as well as an entrepreneur after he retired from professional sport. However, he also helps small businesses with his company Magic Johnson Enterprises (MJE).

MJE helps small businesses in a variety of ways, covering all the bases from connecting them with suppliers, getting approval for building construction, and helping with marketing. MJE knows the importance of having a thriving small business, especially in urban areas that are affected by poverty.

MJE is all about making for a diverse and competitive marketplace that helps to defeat the monopolisation of industries. It also helps by providing employment for many people who would otherwise not have employment.

MJE cares about using strategic partnerships to form key alliances between different businesses. The goal is to create a small business landscape that is as ethnically diverse as possible.

Small business owners in other countries can learn a lot from MJE. The most important lesson is that cooperation can sometimes be more lucrative than being overly competitive, and being smart about partnerships can yield fantastic results.

MJE also shows the importance of giving back and being a part of the community. People like to do business with brands that are a genuine part of the community and aren’t just a faceless corporate presence.

One of the best things any small business owner can do to help themselves is lean into the marketing benefits of being a small business and using this to their advantage. Daring to be different is an important and attractive feature of many of the most successful small business enterprises.

As you can see, MJE does a lot to help small business, and a lot can be learned from the work that is done, no matter what industry you are in.

The coronavirus pandemic precipitated The Great Shutdown, which has had detrimental impacts on the global economy. Large corporations have struggled to survive, and the Virgin Group is one of the most publicised. Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration in April 2020 and have been searching for a financial lifeline in the process. It now appears that this lifeline may have emerged in the form of two private American companies – Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital.

What does this mean for you?

If Virgin is bailed out by both/either companies, the airline will likely remain operational in Australia. However, there are a few conditions, and it certainly won’t be the same airline as before. The average consumer can expect Virgin Australia to likely strip the airline back and re-brand the entity as a mid-market offering. In the past, Virgin had competed directly with Qantas and have struggled significantly, having incurred a horrendous amount of debt before the pandemic had even begun (around $7 billion).

In other words, if Virgin is given a second chance, you can expect it to become a more low-budget airline. Cyrus Capital has links to the Virgin Group, while Bain Capital has a reported $149 billion AUD in assets, meaning they could put down several hundred million for a significant stake in the company. While this is hopeful news for Virgin Group workers, tourists and travellers shouldn’t be getting ahead of themselves. With the restructuring of the company, there’s a good chance that flight paths and coverage will be scaled back massively, which could hurt a lot of regional areas.

Running any small business is going to be difficult, especially at the start. There is so much set against you, and there are so many potential mistakes you can make that can undermine everything you are trying to do.

Tony Hawk is known as a famous skateboarder, but he is also someone you can learn some interesting business lessons from. Tony Hawk has had to take control of his own brand and ensure that it remained something that he was proud of, and that was going in the direction he wanted it to.

Knowing these tips is going to be important for ensuring that your small business is successful. While not every lesson will be specifically applicable to the business you are trying to establish, they are generally going to be sound pieces of advice to remember.

Here are some of the lessons from Tony Hawk that you could apply in the running of your small business.

1.   Take direct control in ensuring your brand is what you want it to be

Tony Hawk has famously had to wrestle back control when it comes to how his intellectual property is handled. He has had his brand name abused in the past and had to learn the hard way why it is important to maintain control.

2.   Do charity work and give back

Tony Hawk has famously done a lot of charity work through his business enterprises, and this is a hugely beneficial thing for his brand. This is a lesson that more businesses should take to heart.

3.   He uses social media in the right way

With so many companies having 3^rd party management of their small businesses, Tony Hawk has done things differently. He knows the power of speaking with his own voice to his target audience.