Today's Entrepreneurs

Life is not about finding the right person, but creating the right relationship. It's not how we care in the beginning, but how much we care till the very end.

Follow the process to becoming who you aim at becoming. It won't happen over the night, it is built struggle with persistence and of course, hardworking. Stay focused...every little step is progress, walk gently you would get there

We all know there can't be a successful business if God is not part it yes? That's the reason for this episode of the blog. When you are filled with the love of God and you hug another individual (not with one of those annoying and impersonal half hugs that are really more like a pat on the back, but a REAL hug), they are a recipient of that love. The love of Jesus Christ that someone encounters from you can change and even heal their heart. You cannot underestimate what supernaturally takes place through what seems to be ordinary natural contact.  The Holy Spirit will help you to discern when it may be inappropriate to do so, but as a general rule you should open yourself up to physical forms of love expression with those you encounter through your business. That physical expression may be a hug, but it could also be as simple as a touch on the shoulder, arm, or hand.  Don’t misinterpret this to mean that you need to go around hugging everyone. This is about willingn...

Can you imagine the impact you can have in the lives of others by simply creating a culture of radical appreciation in your business -- appreciation to prospective clients for the mere consideration of your services, appreciation to current customers, appreciation to your employees (or contractors), and appreciation to your business partners? There are many ways to do this.  For example, you can allocate 2-4 hours each month towards phone calls or personal handwritten letters to express appreciation to them and (optionally) bless them with an additional surprise gift. This doesn’t have to cost much, and rest assured that when you involve the Lord in this, all provision for what He leads will be made available to you.  Truly listen when you’re having conversations with people you encounter in business. Discover what they like, what they dislike, what they need, what they desire. When you listen and observe, you’ll find that conversations will leave clues. Th...

I read through the blog ( theunashamedgirl.wordpress.com ) of a friend I've actually never met, she wrote on the topic "keep chasing, He'll catch you" (beatitudes). Now, she explained using three (3) men who were wealthy and famous in the society and still wasn't just happy enough, they had to sort for happiness money can't buy. In their search you would notice they forgot about their status or fame or wealthyness when they found this true joy. It got me thinking, and this is what dropped in my heart. "God wants to be first in our lives, if he is not, he won't be in that life at all" "When you sort after the whole world and get it, then you return to God, you will have to loose all you've gathered to start first with God all over again" If that is the case, I think it is wise to first find God so you get every other thing as a bonus. Of course, God would not force anyone, He gave the gift of choice to everyone, decide your fa...

Remind yourself that you are here to learn lessons Be present which your process. Pay attention to what you're experiencing. Be deligent with actions which enable you to get the lessons presented to you. Ask for answers and you shall receive them. Listen with an open heart. Explore all options See your judgement as a mirror View each crisis as an opportunity Trust yourself Believe in yourself Look within yourself, to your higher self, for guidiance on all your choices Extend compassion to yourself Remember, there are no mistakes, only lessons Love yourself, trust your choices and everything is possible

When I sit down with new startup founders, most ask me about one thing: raising money. This is smart of them, because, as I've stated previously, fundraising needs to be one of the core competencies of any young company. Yet for the many high-level conversations I've enjoyed on the subject with young entrepreneurs, rarely do we delve into the kinds of DIY steps they can take to legitimately improve their chances of actually landing an investment. I want to spend some time doing just that on a subject worthy of much more discussion than it generally receives: the pitch deck. If you're a budding entrepreneur who gobbles up broader pontifications on the art of fundraising but find yourself constantly in want of "next steps" advice, this is the column you're going to want to print out and put in your pocket. The reason I want to talk about pitch decks is simple: I see too many that are simply not good. What should be a short, powerful presentation to pique ...

Customers don't like a frustrating transaction no matter how well the situation might be explained. How available are you? Availability deals with a lot of things joined in one. It handles how easily you can be found, how often you are.open for business, how accessable you are. How often can they rely on you for delivery without a doubt. How often is your website online and updated, phone numbers working, emails are responded to as soon as possible at most within a 48 hour window... personally these attributes makes me want to do business with you or not. One cool thing is i mostly call friends or friends of friends for business as I tend to trust them more, well, not really, I just believe they would give the best service in return for recommendations.

Most startups struggle with capital. It is a general issue when starting a business. Going about this is rather tasking but first thing on most founders' minds is to get a loan. As cool as that sounds, I'll advice against it. I prefer if you could get a grant to startup would be better because at this point in your business, your success is not certain for the next 5 years. The best thing to do would be to work on a 9 - 5 job to raise some money to startup, keep running the job to gain some backup mo ey and business running money and watch the rate the business grows, if it is promising and needs more of your time, then you would have to make your business attractive to investors by improving all your marketing strategies and business models and rate yourself with the competition. If you get it right, investors would come knocking at your door, instead of you searching for them. To do all this, it would take a lot of funds which you can only get when working a 9 - 5 job so...

Timelines are set times for certain milestone in a business. It is either set for a delivery time or a progress analysis audit. Businesses grow at different pace and cannot be compared with already successful or similar growing business. Comparison between your business and others would not be productive to your business as your growth and break times are different. That's just how life is. Instead of comparing, learn from their mistakes and adapt to yours, build a good relationship between your workers to increase their productivity, make sure working conditions are suitable for all. Your success rate is never going to be the dlsame with another person, even if you are both doing the same business, do that compare, grow your uniqueness and follow your own growth with patience. Remember to celebrate each milestone, it's gives a sense of belonging to employees and makes them do more.

Customers love when they are being heard. They enjoy the fact they are part of the company by being able to change issues experienced by bringing it to the notice of the company. There should be an easy way to get feedback from your customers, always. They would feel important and push your business forward by inviting friends and family to patronize you as well. Collecting their feedback should come along with a appreciation for business, it keeps them coming back. The fastest way to grow your business is by word of mouth, by the customers...it would grow faster than internet ads. Remember to act on the feedback gotten and act on it wisely. Not every complain gotten is worth taking action on, rate all the complains, take actions on the ones pushing your company forward, act as soon as possible but not too quick to make a mistake.

It is widely said that entrepreneurs never sleep. It might seem true but I'll dispute this fact. Successful entrepreneurs do sleep, they just schedule their day to work only when they are productive. You can't work all hours of the day and expect to beat your competition working when productive. You have to work smart by resting when due, eating well, exercising, sleeping well and doing your business well. When you schedule your day, you would sleep well, not as long but just well enough to be productive during the day and increase your business' productivity as well. Don't work all night and day, you would just be killing yourself. Take care of your body, know when to rest or take a break or take a walk, eat well, eat fruits have time to relax, you would succeed but not overnight.

Most startups are singly owned. Isn't bad, but the startups that have partners have a higher percentage of success bacause of course, two people's effort in one day cannot be done by one person in the same day. Having a co-founder enables easier capital raise and business running as the two partners pull resources together this make it work. Their customer range is also wider because the two people have their cycles which they would pull in when the business starts running. There is nothing wrong with starting a business as a single founder, you just have a lot of work cut out for you to succeed. Having a partner doesn't mean business would be easy, business never gets easier as it seems, it gets more difficult as it grows. A partner reduces the load on one person by half therefore increasing productivity for both people. If your business is the type that doesn't necessarily require a partner like a grocery store, or mechanic shop, or fashion designing, then a sing...

You were not sent to everybody. Your business would not sell to everybody, know your market and maximise income from them. Most startups strive to make everyone buy from them, it's not bad but then, not everyone would be interested in what you have to offer, you have to research the need for your service or goods, plan on how to reach the interested people and have high turnouts annually. Nothing good comes easy, no matter your business type, you have to focus on getting your market know about your presence. Customers are always ready to drop any business that fails them on a one time basis, they are never patient, learn to create a standing good reputation about your business over time to the extent that when you fail a customer, the customer would have to revisit because of the trust to make sure he was not wrong in the first place. Customers are always right! Yeah, not really, instead, be patient with all customers at everytime, always listen as they never want to argue, wh...

Marketing is valuable, it is as important as what you do. Your marketing strategy should be better than your competition. You'll have to know their weak points, research on how to make it better and then push through with it. For sure nothing good is easy, but then, you have to always be watching and listening to feedback from customers so you can push what they want and not what you think they want.

Have you ever imagined if when you buy something from Jumia, they deliver it with an attached free gift? Wouldn't that be just great and make you want to buy more from them? Same applies to your business, customers are always happy if you can meet their demands and beat it. You can't beat their demands if what you tell they you offer is at premium. Learn to under-promise and over-deliver. When under-promising don't go below the normal or it becomes a reason for them to leave, if possible, riase a little above the competition knowing fully well you can go even higher. When they place an order or patronize you, surpass the initial promise made and watch them return in few hours or days with friends and family. This is a very tricky strategy. If you don't manage it well, you may be forced to run at loss. You have to place calculations well before doing this, some business types might not be able to handle this strategy all through business running times, so make it a...

A brand is not just the name and color or design of your business or company, it is a promise to be kept by you to your customers. Let's take for example Jumia has all the beautiful designs and logos and all, everyone is admiring it but on their first service day or at some point during the running of the company, all customers pay for goods that never got to them or didn't receive what they paid for and so on, Jumia would definitely in no time loose every customer they have struggled to aquire through the beautiful designs. They will no longer be known as the beautifully designed company but as a rip off company. That's negative branding. When branding your company, you have mission and vision statements which are to be kept at all times to customers as that is what they would remember your company as. Remember, customers advertise your company better than all you can do through ads. They would only suggest your company to a friend when they have been treated a...

The type of people around you would determine the type of person you'll be or atleast the type of things you'll be thinking about most times. You need to have friends of similar thinking and business field and make sure you keep them close for there are times you would need advice on moving forward of which they might have experienced to share. You circle of friends help grow you faster because of the things you will always be talking about. As insignificant as it might feel, your friends have a great role in either growing or killing your business. Network with people having same ideas as you do.