When people think about employee engagement, compensation almost always comes up. But here’s the truth: engagement doesn’t come from competitive pay. Engagement comes from equitable pay.
Competitive pay means outbidding every other employer. Equitable pay means employees believe they’re being paid fairly for the work they do and the value they deliver. And that belief—more than the size of the paycheck—is what builds trust, loyalty, and long-term commitment.
Why Equitable Compensation > Competitive Pay
Competitive pay is a race you can’t win. If your only strategy is “we pay more than the company next door,” someone else will eventually outbid you. This game is especially impossible for small businesses.
Equitable pay is different. It communicates fairness and consistency. It says:
We’ve benchmarked your role.
We’ve tied pay to responsibilities and value.
We apply the same standards consistently.
Employees rarely leave just because of an extra dollar elsewhere. They leave when they feel undervalued, cheated, or ignored.
The Emotional Side of Equitable Pay
Pay isn’t just math—it’s a message. Every paycheck carries emotional meaning:
Dignity: “Your work is worth this.”
Value: Compensation tied to contribution, not favoritism or negotiation skills.
Justice: Leadership that plays fair and treats people equally.
When employees believe pay is equitable, they trust leadership. That trust drives engagement far more than any signing bonus.
How Transparency Builds Perceived Fairness
Even if your system is balanced, employees won’t trust it unless they understand it. Transparency builds credibility.
Benchmark roles: Compare to industry and regional standards, then explain your pay decisions.
Explain the process: Show how raises, promotions, and reviews connect to pay.
Stay consistent: Avoid favoritism or hidden deals.
👉 Remember: Employees talk about pay. If fairness is missing, trust evaporates.
Creative Ways to Compensate Fairly in Small Businesses
You don’t need Silicon Valley salaries to practice equitable pay. What matters is alignment between contribution and reward. Consider:
Growth investment: Training, certifications, and career development.
Non-cash perks: Profit-sharing, wellness stipends, extra vacation days.
Purpose alignment: In businesses, meaningful work is often valued as much as money.
The win isn’t in out-spending competitors. It’s in out-thinking them.
Real-Life Example: Pay Equity in Action
A company had sky-high turnover. Exit interviews revealed the problem: “I don’t feel valued.”
Leadership assumed the answer was higher salaries. But the real issue was inequity. New hires had negotiated higher pay, while long-term employees lagged behind for the same role.
The fix? Leadership conducted a pay equity audit. They leveled salaries based on role and value, raised some wages, and froze others until balance was restored. Then they communicated the process openly.
The result: turnover dropped by half, morale improved, and employees began referring friends. The culture shifted—not because of higher pay, but because of fair pay.
Final Word: Pay Is Communication
Every paycheck tells a story.
Competitive pay says: “We’re playing the market game.”
Equitable pay says: “We respect you. We value you. We’re in this together.”
For leaders, equitable compensation isn’t just good HR—it’s fair pay which reflects values of dignity, justice, and honesty. It strengthens trust, loyalty, and engagement all at once.
Fair pay builds trust. Trust builds loyalty. Loyalty builds impact. That’s the kind of return every leader should want.
If you need assistance in bench marking your positions, or implement FAIRPAY, cont us on +27 83 417 0319, email, nevillesol@icloud.com
💡 You’ve worked hard, but results still feel unpredictable.
The Feeling
Thabo had been pouring his energy into his business for three years.
Early mornings, late nights, endless hustle.
He’d done everything he thought a successful entrepreneur should do — networked, marketed, hired, and even took a few online courses.
Yet somehow, the results never felt consistent.
Some months looked great — customers came in, sales picked up — but then suddenly, everything went quiet again.
He started to wonder:
“Am I doing something wrong, or is this just how business is?”
The Turning Point
When Thabo finally sat down with a business coach, something shifted.
They didn’t talk about working harder — they talked about working clearer.
Together, they unpacked his business model, reviewed his systems, and discovered that his biggest issue wasn’t effort — it was alignment.
His marketing didn’t match his message.
His team didn’t fully understand the goals.
And his systems couldn’t support consistent growth.
Once they started closing those gaps:
✅ creating structure,
✅ defining measurable goals, and
✅ tracking progress — he noticed something incredible: results became predictable.
The Lesson
Thabo’s story is like many entrepreneurs’ — effort isn’t the problem; structure is.
If you’ve been working hard but still feel like your success depends on luck, it might be time to step back and assess what’s missing in your foundation.
That’s why we created the “Foundations for Success” program under TIKVAH Pathways — to help business owners turn their hard work into repeatable results.
Because when effort meets structure, momentum becomes inevitable.
Call to Action (for newsletter or video outro):
🔗 Ready to build predictable success?
Join our next coaching intake — or start with a free business assessment to see where your foundation needs strengthening. Book your 30 minute free session here: https://www.pzshort.link/cBtyZCIE2F
To read more about the Foundations for Success see the link on the right.
You can’t scale a business that’s built on guesswork.
“Every
skyscraper begins underground. The higher you want to rise, the
deeper your foundation must go.”
✨ Building on Vision, Structure, and Clarity
Every successful business begins with a clear vision — a picture of where you’re going and why it matters. But vision alone isn’t enough. Without structure, even the best ideas crumble under daily chaos. Structure gives your business rhythm and repeatability — it’s how you move from “busy” to “productive.” And clarity of operations is what connects your people, systems, and goals into one focused direction. When entrepreneurs align vision with structure and clarity, they stop reacting to problems and start leading with purpose. That’s the foundation every lasting business is built on.
💡 Foundations for Success: More Than Coaching
Foundations for Success isn’t about coaching for the sake of coaching — it’s about building a business that can survive growth. Many entrepreneurs start with passion but struggle when opportunity comes too fast or systems fall behind. This program helps you put the right structure, processes, and mindset in place before growth happens, so your business can expand without breaking. It’s not about motivation; it’s about preparation — creating a foundation strong enough to sustain success long after the excitement fades.
"Unprecedented results are preceded by unprecedented preparation" - Unknown
If you’re constantly firefighting, your foundation isn’t solid
🧱 Is Your Business Foundation Solid?
Check yourself against these signs:
✅ You spend more time fixing problems than planning ahead.
✅ Your team depends on you for every decision.
✅ Sales are growing, but profits aren’t.
✅ Systems exist — but only in your head.
✅ You can’t step away without things slowing down.
✅ You react to issues instead of anticipating them.
If you checked three or more, your business is growing on cracks — not concrete. Foundations for Success helps you repair that before scaling. Join our next Foundations webinar and build a business that won’t
crumble when growth hits.
Most entrepreneurs don’t fail because they lack ideas — they fail because they don’t know where the real gaps are.
From Stuck to Scaling — The Real Bridge to Growth”
Bridge the Gap Coaching Programme
“You’ve done the work, you’ve shown up — but your
business still feels unpredictable. The truth? There’s a gap
between what you’re doing and what’s working.”
💼 Real-Life Example: “The Chicken Shack That Couldn’t Scale”
Business Type: Small grilled chicken restaurant Founder: Passionate entrepreneur with a strong recipe and loyal local customers
The Idea Was Great
The owner had a hit product — people loved the taste, the price was fair, and there was consistent foot traffic. Encouraged by early success, he planned to open two more locations within a year.
But Then Things Started Slipping
Orders got mixed up.
Cash was short, even on busy weeks.
Staff turnover increased.
He started advertising heavily to “drive sales,” but profits didn’t improve.
The business wasn’t failing because of the idea — the product and demand were both solid. The real issue?
He didn’t see where the gaps were in his operations, finances, and systems.
🔍 The Hidden Gaps
When we assessed the business, here’s what we found:
Systems Gap: No standardized procedures — every staff member did things differently.
Financial Gap: Cash flow wasn’t tracked daily; sales were good but expenses were unmonitored.
Marketing Gap: Ads were being run without measuring ROI — lots of noise, little direction.
Accountability Gap: No one owned specific responsibilities; performance was reactive.
🚀 The Turning Point
Once we introduced simple daily checklists, basic cash flow tracking, and weekly accountability meetings, the business turned around within months.
Profit margins improved by 22%
Staff turnover dropped
Customer satisfaction increased because service became consistent
💡 The Takeaway
The founder didn’t need a new idea — he needed clarity about his blind spots.
That’s exactly what your Bridge the Gap programme does: it helps entrepreneurs see what they can’t see — and fix it before it breaks their business.
For a detailed descrition on our programmes, see the menu on the right.
For me, entrepreneurship is primarily a matter of doing. However, it requires an entrepreneurial mindset.
As Cicero put it 106 years before Christ, “Character without knowledge has more often led to success than knowledge without character.” For sure, a man with undoubtedly a lot of knowledge and character.
Entrepreneurship is, therefore, about who you are, and your attitude partly determines the behavior you exhibit. You learn to fall and stand up, but also to stand out. What about you? Take our DISC personality test.
Due to damage and sometimes shame, here are 10 wise (read hard-learned) entrepreneurial lessons (with a brief description about each one). It has become my “business handbook” that describes my lessons learned in entrepreneurship. It may sound pedantic at times, but that is really not my intention. I hope it helps your entrepreneurial journey and gets the success you want!
Table of contents
Wise lesson #1: Give before you take
Wise lesson #2: Do what you can’t let, but don’t let what you can do
Wise lesson #3: First good than fast and then lots
Wise lesson #4: Think from the other person’s filter, starting with the customer’s
Wise lesson #5: Listen before you speak
Wise Lesson #6: Whatever you really want, you can
Wise lesson #7: Make sure you hear yourself talking
Wise lesson #8: Do not find yourself successful, because then it will be too late
Wise lesson #9: Stop checking, start learning
Wise lesson #10: Never give up
Wise Lesson #6: Whatever you really want, you can
This hart learned lesson is about believing in yourself. About effectiveness, as measured in the DISC. This lesson actually refers to all entrepreneurial lessons. It means that if you really want something, you will find a way to take you there.
It is not without reason that there is a well-known saying that there is no road impassable for the persistent person. Where there is no road, you can always build one. But that is only possible if you firmly believe you can create that road. So, it is only possible if you’re highly internally motivated. That’s why you see it in the eyes of successful entrepreneurs. You see, their eyes sparkle and twinkle. They have that rock-solid conviction in what they want and eventually, get it done.
By getting up again every time you have fallen, you’ll eventually succeed.
Tip: start with the end in mind. After all, that’s what you want. The more concrete your end goal, the easier it gets. So, if you already know what you want. Then you have to do it.
Do what you really like, and make sure you become the best at it!
Wise lesson #7: Make sure you hear yourself talking
This entrepreneurship lesson is about your inner voice. It deals with what you think and what you want. In other words, it refers to your autonomy and creativity and not what others want you to do.
Do you live by your fantasy? Don’t be distracted by what others think or say. By that, I don’t mean you can ignore everyone around you from now on. They want the best for you. Doubtless. However, they also have their filter and interests. They view you and your company from their perspective. Everything they say is related to that.
Listen, consider their advice or opinion, especially if good open questions on their part preceded it, but ultimately make your own decision. No one else is so intertwined with your company. Only you know all the ins and outs. So listen to your intuition, to your inner gut feeling.
Your feeling knows much more than your mind can think of.
Dr. Martijn Driessen
Wise lesson # 8: Do not find yourself successful because then it will be too late
This eighth lesson of 10 entrepreneurial lessons, which I learned, is about keeping both feet on the ground. Of course – you will never hear me say – you can’t celebrate your successes. Please do celebrate. But try not to let it go to your head.
By finding yourself successful, you have a good chance of becoming arrogant. Arrogance is the enemy of every entrepreneur. Don’t get stuck in there. Do not think for a minute that you are already there, because then you relax and you start lacking behind.
The future is always ahead of you, not behind you. Although, of course, there is nothing against looking back and reflecting from time to time.
What can you do differently?
Is there anything you can do better next time?
What options do you have?
How can you make it happen?
After all, you know very well what you want. Right?
After all, you know very well what you want.
Wise lesson #9: Stop checking, start learning
“I told you so; I knew it better!” Managers and Specialists – as entrepreneurial thinking styles – are more likely to suffer from this way of thinking. They love to double-check – if not triple-check – before moving ahead. They are the first to tell you precisely how things are and should be. It is not good or bad, but it is less effective, depending on the situation.
It is more useful when you ask yourself: what is different, what is actually meant, what possibilities does it offer me, and what can I learn from this? Exactly, here again, it starts with asking the right questions. This time you are asking open-ended questions to yourself. Because that’s where the learning starts! Learning by reflecting and improving.
#10 of my entrepreneurship lessons: Never give up
The tenth wise lesson is not consciously mentioned last. Wise lesson numero uno is no more important or better than number ten. Nevertheless, if there is one personal characteristic that you, as an entrepreneur, should have enough of, then it is the ability never to give up. So, perseverance.
As an entrepreneur, you find yourself in new and unknown situations more often than you would like, which sometimes demand the utmost. Things that don’t go as you expected. That makes a massive appeal to your motivation, to your passion—the reason you ever started your own business. But if the reason you started for yourself is still there – no matter how small or far away – then you will eventually continue. Then you will find the motivation to think of another way that will take you to what you so eagerly and eagerly desire.
Your desires are your friends. Your expectations are your enemies.
an investor and entrepreneur
With these entrepreneurship lessons, I wish you much wisdom and success.
For me, entrepreneurship is primarily a matter of doing. However, it requires an entrepreneurial mindset.
As Cicero put it 106 years before Christ, “Character without knowledge has more often led to success than knowledge without character.” For sure, a man with undoubtedly a lot of knowledge and character.
Entrepreneurship is, therefore, about who you are, and your attitude partly determines the behavior you exhibit. You learn to fall and stand up, but also to stand out. What about you? Take our DISC personality test.
Due to damage and sometimes shame, here are 10 wise (read hard-learned) entrepreneurial lessons (with a brief description about each one). It has become my “business handbook” that describes my lessons learned in entrepreneurship. It may sound pedantic at times, but that is really not my intention. I hope it helps your entrepreneurial journey and gets the success you want!
Table of contents
Wise lesson #1: Give before you take
Wise lesson #2: Do what you can’t let, but don’t let what you can do
Wise lesson #3: First good than fast and then lots
Wise lesson #4: Think from the other person’s filter, starting with the customer’s
Wise lesson #5: Listen before you speak
Wise Lesson #6: Whatever you really want, you can
Wise lesson #7: Make sure you hear yourself talking
Wise lesson #8: Do not find yourself successful, because then it will be too late
Wise lesson #9: Stop checking, start learning
Wise lesson #10: Never give up
Wise lesson #1: Give before you take
The first of the 10 entrepreneurship lessons is mainly about networking but also about collaboration. I have visited many networking drinks and held collaborative discussions. So, I spoke to many people. The majority takes first before giving back. Those “takers” first want to know what they can get or take from you. They will only give you back something later if it proves helpful for them. But even then, some didn’t return anything. Whether it is later or never, it isn’t sustainable. Therefore, my lesson is – before you take – to simply ask:
What can I do for you?
When visiting a networking event, simple ask this question.
Again, the “takers” get shocked anyhow. They did not expect your kind gesture. If everyone does that, you will eventually get what you initially wanted.
Wise lesson #2: Do what you can’t let, but don’t let what you can do
Number 2 of my 10 entrepreneurship lessons is about passion, drive, and perseverance. As an entrepreneur, you are really thrown into the deep. You can no longer hide behind your position, or your colleague, or your excuses such as: “this is not my department.” You irrevocably encounter yourself in all your strengths and weaknesses. It can be confronting. Yes, It does.
Therefore, the entrepreneurial lesson I learned is, above all, to be yourself. There is no point in hiding. So, do whatever you really want to do. That one thing that you are passionate about and you can’t live without it for a day. Then it also becomes a lot more fun, even if you earn too little to live by.
Of course, there is always less fun work left to do in your business. Rather the opposite. So what is left for you to do today? Do it. Now!
Do what you can’t let, but don’t let what you can do.
Wise lesson # 3: First good, then fast, and then lots
This third lesson of my 10 entrepreneurship lessons is about building a foundation. In short, about planning and organizing. A bitter necessity if you want to make it a real company. Because if you keep making mistakes, you’ll easily get burned out. Of course, mass is money, but without a sound basis – read: proven processes – mass becomes a mess.
Hence, this lesson is actually very simple. Make sure that what you do is right first. Please test it out in small steps and in small quantities. If that all works well, you can start to think bigger and faster. But, again, test, test, test. Only after that can you start focusing on the rest.
Wise lesson #4: Think from the other person’s filter, starting with the customer’s
This is the biggest lesson in successful entrepreneurship I learned, however challenging to master. But I’m going to try to teach it to you. It is about market orientation, thinking from the customer, and how the thinking style of a salesperson works. It is primarily about the filter. I do not mean the coffee filter, but the filter every person has. So, your filter and that of your customer. You can view the filter as a pair of glasses that you wear.
Not literally, of course, but a virtual one that allows you to see the world around you every day. Those virtual glasses are the sum of your upbringing, your norms and values, your character traits, your thinking styles, etc. Actually, everything you have experienced so far. The way you view the world in your unique way, the customer does in his unique way.
So, to sell something to your customer, you need to know their unique glasses. Only then will you actually know whether and how you can meet their needs. How do you do that? Very simple, actually. By asking questions, you find out about his or her glasses. An important detail is to ask open questions. They always start with how, what, who, where, and when.
Another tip: if you are really interested in your customer, it goes effortlessly.
When I say apple, what do you think of?
Wise lesson #5: Listen before you speak
This fifth experience of the 10 entrepreneurial lessons that I learned is about social orientation and communication. So in a way also about the filter. Your customer’s filter; what thinking style does he have? What preoccupies him?
Of course, you are full of yourself and your company. You have gold in your hands. But 10 to 1 that your customer has something different on his mind. For sure, he has something else on his mind. Something that he does not immediately throw openly and honestly on the table, especially when he feels that you want to sell him something.
So, first, you must put him at ease and gain his confidence. That starts with asking questions. Exactly: open-ended questions. If you still feel the urge to talk, bite your tongue, and curl your toes.
Another tip: you listen with your eyes. In other words, look closely at what is not said by looking at his body language.
Listen with your eyes & you listen to the SILENCE!!
This is a split newsletter, I will continue with the next 5 in the next newsletter, so keep watching for it.
