The Fun Side of Being SeriousA FirstStep Guide to Online Business
ISBN: 9780620487047
Imprint: ReadHill Publishing

The book is split into two sections; it starts off with a ‘textbook approach’ on how to start your own sustainable business, highlighting the Internet as the most practical medium. It provides guidelines from business ideas, to dealing with the wilderness that is the World Wide Web to the reality of the online business market. The next section is Yashivan Govender’s story, a young, upstart South African who defied the odds and helped pioneer online youth business in South Africa. While facing the likes of grumpy corporate executives and a semi-conservative Indian father, our hero dodges his way past stray golf balls and tackles business in the virtual world. It is an adventure that Indiana Jones would be proud of had he surfed the net. From upstart business and sustained personal success to taking on the world stage, the story is more epic than a Bollywood movie! It is a practical and theoretical guide to help and inspire the youth –not only of South Africa, but of the world. The financial recession is a reality and no matter how much one tries to run and hide from it, it cannot be avoided. Creating solutions and starting your own business is no longer an impossible dream but a necessity. This is the FirstStep Guide to Online Business.

The authors: Yashivan Govender and Shaun Ryan

Yashivan Govender was raised on the east coast of South Africa. While
studying a bachelor’s degree in business, he started FirstStep.me which soon
became a leading website in South Africa and eventually took that
impressive global leap. Seen as a leader in the South African youth business
market, Yashivan believes young individuals need to explore the concept of
doing business as soon as they can - when they have little to no risk on their
hands. He believes that, ‘”the future of world rests solely on the shoulders of
the youth.”

Shaun Ryan completed his studies in 2008 and graduated with a Master of Social Science degree in
media and cultural studies. He met Yashivan as a first-year student through the university’s cricket
club. Shaun played a pivotal role in the development of FirstStep.me, which included taking the
serious approach of Yashivan and bringing the Fun Side to the website. Shaun currently works as a
journalist in Durban.

The book is sponsored by, PPS Insurance, The International Hotel School and The Association
of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and FirstStep.me (www.firststep.me).

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