In a report released in early 2013, South Africa showed dismal performance in comparison to other emerging countries in creating new entrepreneurs. The 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report stated that entrepreneurship statistics were lower in 2012 than that of the previous year. Daniel Marcus, Cape-based chief executive officer of conference and events company Living Your Brand says that while entrepreneurial success is possible in South Africa, a positive outlook and a never-say-die attitude are key for survival.

Speaking of his own experience, Daniel says that Living Your Brand, which this month celebrates three years in operation, was born out of fresh thinking and a general frustration with the state of a certain niche. Together with Jaco van Zyl and Jacobus le Roux, who run the events and conferencing divisions of the business,  Daniel has established Living Your Brand as one of South Africa’s leading events and conferencing agencies in just three short years.

“I’m a firm believer in the old cliché that ‘you can never be too positive’. In South Africa there are so many negatives that we could focus on instead of finding our individual window of opportunity and jumping at it.” Daniel started Living Your Brand after a series of both successful and unsuccessful business ventures, to which he attributes the success of the company. “You’re unlikely to succeed unless you’ve experienced failure at some point.”

In addition to private events, Daniel and his team conceptualised the popular Integrated Marketing Communications conference (IMC) concept.  The conference, which is now in its fourth year, has run in both Johannesburg and Cape Town – with a third event to be held in London in 2014. He credits the success of the concept to the passion and enthusiasm of the team at Living Your Brand, as well as the gap they filled by focusing on integration in the marketing sector.

Over the past three years the company has built up an impressive client profile which includes brands such as Bentley SA, FNB Wealth, Nedbank Capital, Sanlam Investment Management, Vodacom, Standard Bank, Lanxess, Landis & Gyr, GEMS and The Jacob Zuma Foundation.

“We are very excited about what the future holds for the company as well as the industry.  The passion and belief in achieving new heights for clients that our team brings everyday is what will continue to set us apart,” says Daniel.