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Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People

April 29, 2008
11:30
How to Promote Yourself
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People
Do you have something you can offer to others? Are you really good at work you are doing? Then, it is essential that others know about it. This will help increase your business - and contrary to what your mother might have taught you, it is not necessary to feel guilty or shy about promoting yourself.

Here are some way to do this in an effective way.
1. Attain a high level of expertise: Before you start promoting yourself, it is important that you take pains to obtain extra skills and that you possess a high level of expertise. You need to stand out in your field if you are to get and keep business. Seek out new training courses and mentors. Find a way to get your name out there without looking like you’re trying too hard.
2. Speak in front of an audience: When you get a chance to speak in front of an audience in a conference, meeting or even just a get-together, use the opportunity to promote your skills and knowledge – and your business. Speak on any subject relevant to your line of business where you have knowledge. This will not only increase your confidence in public speaking, but will also advance your popularity and help you begin to develop a good reputation.
3. Find a way to publish: You can start by writing articles related to your line of business in newsletters or periodicals. You can also write a column where readers can post their questions and problems and you can provide solutions to those problems. Eventually, you could also write a book on the subject. Once that book is a success, your reputation will be solid.
For the complete list of ways in which you can promote yourself, visit morebusiness.

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How to Promote Yourself

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April 21, 2008
16:30
How to stay motivated as an entrepreneur?
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People

Are you currently finding it hard to stay motivated? Do you feel everything is all over you and thinking of quitting? Hold on for some time. One key factor in getting and staying motivated in the face of challenges and trials is find and stay around other business owners. You need to stay connected with those who have the same passion like you.

Networking helps you to offset the solitary working statuses you may be facing. In fact, working alone can be one of most difficult component parts of being an entrepreneur. You may never truly deliver the goods or services without the aid of others but remember that you will have to make yourself available to others as well. Mutual support is not only motivating but rewarding.

Easy way of connecting with fellow entrepreneurs is to look within your local community or online communities. Your focus should not be on what you will get from such relationship but rather on what you will give. Even when the motive is not business-motivated, it will always be a great platform for you to share ideas with other people.

Many successful entrepreneurs will admit that belonging to the right networking group was a turn point in the growing of their business. When you work together with other business men in a networking group, it can lead to more qualified sales guides. Sharing thoughts, expertise, and experience is also an invaluable facet of need and self-improvement. Your own personal network of business owners will help to re-energize you when you are over-weighed by the burden of running your own business. So, don’t wait till you lack motivation…Seek and stay connected to fellow business owners today.

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How to stay motivated as an entrepreneur?

Technorati Tags: entrepreneurs, self-improvement, business owners

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April 17, 2008
16:56
Are You Still Missing Out on Opportunities?
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People

Do you wish you can set your own hours, with enough money and time to do what you want? There have never been so many opportunities to start and build a successful business than there are today. Many businesses spring forth everyday. You do not have to look too far. Someone in your street is starting something even though it may be on a small scale. What are you waiting? The opportunities for finding or developing a new business idea are all around you, and with proper preparation, the possibilities for your success are enormous.

You may be wondering why you should start a business when the chance that it will succeed is very low. You may even have just experienced a business failure. But is this enough reason for you to suspend your dreams? 80 or 90 percent of new businesses may fail in the first three years but this does not necessary mean that yours will fail. Businesses fail due to a number of factors.

One of these being managerial incompetence. Most businesses have a great product or service but what happens if the owner is unable to sell the product or can’t control its costs or both. The result is definitely failure. One way of avoiding this is to go for knowledge. Buy and read the books on business management. You may also need to attend seminars organised by successful business men. By doing this, you are learning from their experience and saving yourself a lot of future headache.

Some other businesses fail because a wrong product or service is being offered at the wrong price to the wrong market at the wrong time. It may also be a combination all of these. Imagine starting a business selling house heaters in the West Africa? You definitely know the result. In this case, even the best marketing efforts and cost controls won’t help you. So, you need to have a clear understanding of your market and its needs. It is only after this that you will be able deliver service or product that will be highly sought after.

When thinking of starting a business, you need to determine that your service or product will be filling a genuine and existing need and that it will solve a problem of some kind for the customer. Your focus might just be to make the life or work of the customer better in some way. You have to be very clear about this. For instance, Amazon.com created a niche market for itself by helping its customers to get the books they want at an affordable price any time. Ebay.com tries to connect buyers with sellers online.

You too can do the same. You don’t necessary have to be the amazon or ebay of today but you can start meeting the needs of those people around your local community. Be willing to start small and then grow your business with time. If you are thinking of businesses to start with little or no capital, you may have to look at my previous post on this. I am sure you will be able to identify one or two that you may be able to start today. Are Remain committed to your dreams and follow through with actions.

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Are You Still Missing Out on Opportunities?

Technorati Tags: business, business idea

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April 12, 2008
12:04
Are You Holding on to Your Peanut Ideas?
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People

I read a story early today and decided to share it on this blog. You may have heard it or read about it before but I am sure the message will sink again. When some native people want to catch monkeys, they hollow out a coconut shell by cutting small hole at one end. The hole is small enough to barely allow a monkey’s hand. Some peanuts would be placed inside this hollowed shell and the connect the coconut shell to a thin, strong cord and wait in hiding for the monkeys.

When a monkey discovers the nuts inside the shell, he reaches in and grasps them in his fist. Remember that the hole is small and it will not allow any tightly clenched fist to escape. At this precise moment, the native pulls on the cord and the monkey is caught. Do you know why? The monkey will not let of those peanuts to save his life and he is caught.

What is more important? The peanuts or the monkey’s life? This is exactly how most people behave. Too often, people hold tightly to their peanut ideas for fear that they may loose them. But the truth is that these very ideas are the ones that hold people captive and prevent them from achieving their dreams. So, if you want to achieve your dreams, you have got to let go of your peanut ideas.

What are these peanut ideas? They are false assumptions that have been preventing you from taking the necessary steps. If I may ask you, why is it that you have not achieved your dreams? What is keeping you from living the kind of live you want to live? Your employer? Government? As long as you keep believing that someone else is responsible for your success, you will not take the necessary steps and accept responsibility for your life. Today, most people expect government to do everything for them. Government is not the answer. The answer lies in you. You alone is responsible for your ultimate welfare. The sooner you realise this, the quicker you can start on the road to success.

Are you afraid of failing? I have since learnt that most successful people have more failures than failures do. But they keep going. You don’t drown by falling in water, you only drown by staying there. Failure in itself is not bad. On good failure might teach more about success that 4 or 5 years at the university. It can be the best thing that happened to you if learn from it and apply the lessons thereafter. Choose this day to let go and you will see your dreams come true before your eyes.

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Are You Holding on to Your Peanut Ideas?

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April 10, 2008
9:03
Are You Ready For Your Opportunity?
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People

Consider this scenario… You and some of your friends are at a bus station and there seems to be no trace of bus. Yet, there a lot of people waiting. The number of people at the station keeps increasing and few buses are available. What comes to your mind? What do you do? Do you just stay there and complain? Or you see an opportunity to meet a need. The person that started the “Sachet Water” business saw an opportunity that many neglected and was not only ready but bold enough to take his opportunity.

These are just examples of opportunities that abound. You only need to look across your street and you would see a lot of opportunities begging for your attention. The understanding of the great opportunities that abound in Nigeria and Africa at large always hit me strongly. And yet many people find it hard to enjoy the kind of life they so desire. However, some still live their lives to the fullest? What is the difference between these two set of people?

Those who the world term ˜lucky“ - people that enjoy the kind of lifestyle they desire - are those that are always ready for their opportunity when it comes. They have a clear picture of what they want in life, count the cost and decide to pursue their dreams and goals. So, if you are going to take your opportunity when it comes, you have to equip oneself. You need to read that book, attend that seminar and even go for that training. There is no substitute for this except hard life.

The demographics and economic trends are in favour of a blooming market in Nigeria 5 to 10 years down the line. In 2001, 4 new GSM licenses were issued to interested companies. The result is so alarming. In just 5 years, the service delivery process is already been transformed. A typical example of this is the emergency of mobile payment solution. This is the time to act and equip yourself. The truth is that if you fail to act now, you will still be where you are in 10 years and you will have yourself to blame for that ACT.

An adage says,

“don’t bite more than you can chew.“

I would rather suggest that you bite more than you can chew. It will not kill you, it will only stretch you. Believe me, you can still hold on to that JOB and still get involved in other things (businesses, NGO etc). So, don’t turn down that opportunity to make that impact our society so-desired. Many Nigerians are waiting for you to start that business. They need those services you want to render. Harness the opportunities that the society currently present and we all would be better for this.

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Are You Ready For Your Opportunity?

Technorati Tags: Nigeria, businesses

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April 07, 2008
15:53
Are you in charge?
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People

I was looking through some of my past notes this evening and I saw a story that I wrote down some years back because of the lesson which I do not intend to forget in a hurry. There was a little Red Hen who found a grain of wheat (opportunity) and decided to make bread (success). She planned and prepared so as to achieve her desired result. She planted the grain, tended, watered, and harvested it.

This is nothing but action on display. She took the wheat to the mill to be grounded into flour. She made the dough, let it rise, and, finally, put it in the oven to bake. At each step in the process, she asked her neighbours for help but none was willing to offer a helping hand. Within some hours, the break was ready for consumption. She set it on the window sill to cool and its sweet scent floated up and down the street. At this point, some of her neighbours came to ask her for some loaves of bread. The hen refused and ate the bread alone.

We may think the hen was rather harsh in not sharing the bread with her friends. But, in reality, no one can give you success. So many a times, we depend on some other people (our parents, the uncle who is the Managing Director of a company, our aunties who have been in overseas since we were in Primary School, friends among other) to be successful. Most people have conditioned their mind to always be at the mercy of others. They want people to decide on a destination, design the map to the destination and probably set the ladder for them to the destination. These people only want to join others at the destination. They do not want to do anything but want to enjoy the good things of life.

No one can do the preparation, planning, and the work for you. If you are to achieve true excellence or success, you must take responsibility for your life and do the work to your most-desired future. You must dream your dreams, believe in the dream, make the plans, and act the plans. Nobody can and will do this for you. It is your call.

If you are serious about your life, you have got to create the kind of future you desire. Your parents, pastor, relatives or even friends can only help you on the way. They can not do everything for you. So, decide today to take responsibility for your action. Stop blaming people for what happens to you. Remember, “You are not a failure until you start blaming people for what happens to you”. DREAM, PLAN, PREPARE, PERFORM, PERSIST… then, the sky will be just the beginning.

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Are you in charge?

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April 03, 2008
12:48
Heard of Pareto Principles?
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People

“There are two things that business people find very challenging: thinking ahead and doing things in order of importance.” Brad Sugars

What you do with these two determines whether you will succeed in business or you will just be surviving. And the same is true for every area of your live. John Maxwell says, “thinking ahead and prioritizing responsibilities marks the major differences between a leader and a follower.”

I am sure you have heard about Pareto Principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 Principle. Applying this to your business shows that 80% of your business comes from 20 % of your customers (20 percent of the products bring in 80 percent of the profits). And if you are in a paid employment, 20 percent of your work gives you 80 percent of yur satisfaction.

So… when it comes to your priorities, 20 percent of your priorities will give you 80 percent of your production. This is only IF you spend your time, energy, money and personnel on the top 20 percent of your priorities. As a business person, you need to understand this principle as it applies to every aspect of your life and business.You will do yourself a lot of good if you are able to identify 20% of your customers who account for 80 percent of your business. These are your “raving fans” and you need to focus your strategies on them. For your team ( and / or workforce), you must identify the top 20 percent and constantly seek to spend 80 percent of your people time with these people in order to develop them to their full potential.

Commit to doing this and watch your productivity and personal satisfaction rise to new heights!

Post from: PACE with Emmanuel Oluwatosin

Heard of Pareto Principles?

Technorati Tags: business, leader, Pareto Principle

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April 02, 2008
8:00
10 Secrets of Successful Start-ups
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People
Do you currently run your business or you are the verge of starting a new one? I have some tips for you that will ensure that achieve success in your business. These are some of the things I have learnt and I am currently applying in my quest to build a successful business.
1. Be Narrow
  Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. You can much more easily position and market yourself when more focused. Just remember: If you get to be number 1 in your category, but your category is too small, then you can broaden your scope—and you can do so with leverage.
2. Be Different
  Ideas are in the air. There are lots of people thinking about—and probably working on—the same thing you are. And one of them is Google. Deal with it. How? First of all, realize that no sufficiently interesting space will be limited to one player. In a sense, competition actually is good—especially to legitimize new markets.
3. Be Casual
  We are moving into the era of the “Casual Web” (casual content creation). This is much bigger than the hobbyist web or the professional web. Why? Because people have lives. And now, people with lives also have broadband. If you want to hit the really big home runs, create services that fit in with—and, indeed, help—people’s everyday lives without requiring lots of commitment or identity change. Flickr enables personal publishing among millions of folks who would never consider themselves personal publishers—they’re just sharing pictures with friends and family, a casual activity. Casual games are huge. Skype enables casual conversations.
4. Be Picky
  Another perennial business rule, and it applies to everything you do: features, employees, investors, partners, press opportunities. Startups are often too eager to accept people or ideas into their world. You can almost always afford to wait if something doesn’t feel just right, and false negatives are usually better than false positives. One of Google’s biggest strengths—and sources of frustration for outsiders—was their willingness to say no to opportunities, easy money, potential employees, and deals.
5. Be User-Centric
  User experience is everything. It always has been, but it’s still undervalued and under-invested in. If you don’t know user-centered design, study it. Hire people who know it. Obsess over it. Live and breathe it. Get your whole company on board. Better to iterate a hundred times to get the right feature right than to add a hundred more. Always focus on the user and all will be well.
6. Be Self-Centered
  Great products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch. Create something you want to exist in the world. Be a user of your own product. Hire people who are users of your product. Make it better based on your own desires. (But don’t trick yourself into thinking you are your user, when it comes to usability.)
7. Be Greedy
  It is always good to have options. One of the best ways to do that is to have income. Design something to charge for into your product and start taking money within 6 month. Done right, charging money can actually accelerate growth, not impede it, because then you have something to fuel marketing costs with. More importantly, having money coming in the door puts you in a much more powerful position when it comes to your next round of funding or acquisition talks.
8. Be Tiny
  It is standard web startup wisdom by now that with the substantially lower costs to starting something on the web, the difficulty of IPOs, and the willingness of the big guys to shell out for small teams doing innovative stuff, the most likely end game if you’re successful is acquisition. Acquisitions are much easier if they’re small. And small acquisitions are possible if valuations are kept low from the get go. And keeping valuations low is possible because it doesn’t cost much to start something anymore (especially if you keep the scope narrow).
9. Be Agile
  Many dot-com bubble companies that died could have eventually been successful had they been able to adjust and change their plans instead of running as fast as they could until they burned out, based on their initial assumptions. Pyra was started to build a project-management app, not Blogger. Flickr’s company was building a game. Ebay was going to sell auction software. Initial assumptions are almost always wrong. That’s why the waterfall approach to building software is obsolete in favor agile techniques. The same philosophy should be applied to building a company.
10. Be Balanced
  What is a startup without bleary-eyed, junk-food-fueled, balls-to-the-wall days and sleepless, caffeine-fueled, relationship-stressing nights? Answer?: A lot more enjoyable place to work. Yes, high levels of commitment are crucial. And yes, crunch times come and sometimes require an inordinate, painful, apologies-to-the-SO amount of work. But it can’t be all the time. Nature requires balance for health—as do the bodies and minds who work for you and, without which, your company will be worthless.
Source: http://evhead.com/2005/11/ten-rules-for-web-startups.asp

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10 Secrets of Successful Start-ups

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April 01, 2008
11:38
7 Reasons Why Businesses Do Not Succeed
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People
I have really been busy these past few weeks that I could not write any post. Anyway, I am back now and I hope to resume posting regularly again on this blog. Meanwhile, I will like to share with you some reasons that I feel inhibit some businesses from succeeding. If you are already running your business or about to start, then you need to read.
1. Not conducting adequate research: Before starting any new business, ensure that you have a clear understanding of the product demand, supply, profit margin, investment and expenses related to your line of business. Just jumping into a business because “it seems right” could prove to be a very costly mistake.
2. No passion: If you do not love what you are doing, then there is little or no chance that you will be able to continue in that business for any length of time. Get into a business because you see a need want to meet and not because you need to. You should be physically and mentally prepared to run your business.
3. Lack of funding and no management plan: If you have entered into a business without a concrete plan as to how much capital will be required to start, build, and sustain your business, then you might find yourself without enough money to perform basic business activities.You should also hire the right employees, who not only have the motivation to work hard, but will also help you achieve your dreams. Many new businesses fail because not enough thought was put into financial preparations or because management concerns were not addressed in a timely manner.
4. No marketing plan: You can have a great product line, but your customers will never know it unless you reach out to them. Keep part of your budget reserved for advertising and marketing, so that you can reach your target audience. Your budget should allow you to advertise in newspapers, industry magazines and over the Internet. You can also distribute brochures or flyers of the products you sell and the services you offer in your neighborhood.
5. Not choosing a good location: You should always conduct a survey of your proposed business location so that you can be sure that your store will be viable in that area. If your business sells industrial products, then your business should be easily accessible to your customers, suppliers, couriers and transporters. If you are planning to sell consumer items, then ample parking, lighting and security is essential.
6. Not being honest: If you are dishonest with your customers, or stock and sell questionable products, that reputation will spread quickly. Once customers find out the truth, they will not purchase your products and spread the word about your dishonest ways. You should also be honest with whomever you do business with - whether they are suppliers, customers, or employees. Pay your bills in a timely fashion and be upfront about your expectations, so as to avoid any misunderstandings.
7. Poorly planned expansion plans: You should expand your business only when you are successful enough to do so. Plan carefully. Expanding at the wrong time will only put a strain on your finances and could leave you in financial ruin. It is important that you understand the market conditions and your financial status before moving forward.
Being well prepared before you launch your new business will give you the best chances for success. Being aware of the information above will start you on your way. So, before you start, look at the reasons again and see that you are really prepared for what lies ahead.

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7 Reasons Why Businesses Do Not Succeed

Technorati Tags: business, capital, marketing plan, success

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March 03, 2008
2:14
How to increase your sales
» ‎ Read entry @ Daily Motivations and Tips for Entrepreneurs and Career People
The past few days were really demanding that I didn’t get time to write my usual daily post on this blog. I am back now and I will try to make up for the past. Is your business going through a period that you wish you could close more sales? Do you feel you are not closing the sales as you used to? Then, read. I had this same experience before and I will want to share something that helped me.

The easiest way to instantly increase your current client base is to regain your inactive clients. You must identify how many of your old clients are no longer actively purchasing from your company and why they do. Here are three reasons why people stop buying from you:
1. Something totally unrelated to you happened in their life that has caused them to stop dealing with you. They probably have every intention to start dealing with you again but just haven’t gotten around it yet.
2. They experienced a problem during their last purchase.
3. They can no longer benefit from your product or service.
The best way to reinstate your lost clients is to simply contact them. Make an appointment to visit them or call them if a visit is not possible. You can also choose to send them a letter. Tell your lost clients that you noticed that they have not been buying from your company and that you sense that something is wrong. Make sure that you communicate both humility and concern. Remember to focus on them and their well-being.

If your client falls under category number one, your call will awaken them into buying again. If your client falls into category number two, you must take the opportunity to tell them how much you value their business and apologize for the problem they encountered. Do something special to make up for the inconvenience they experienced.

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How to increase your sales

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