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4 Simple Ways to Build your Personal Brand Online

CFAgbata — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:59:17 +0000

The internet give you a unique opportunity to Build your Personal Brand Online, which for me is one of the most interesting activities you can engage in.

I have been building my Personal Brand Online (the Conditioned for Accomplishments brand) for over 2 years now and it’s begining to yield some good results.

But results or no results, I intend to do this for another 2-3 years because I realize that good things don’t come easy, likewise building a solid Personal Brand Online – it’ll surely take some time and efforts.

Many aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs looking to start or take their businesses online are worried how they would build their brand on the Internet. Well, an Internet Business Consultant can help you get started but the truth is that you can also start off the process on your own.

4 Simple Strategies I have used to Build my Personal Brand Online

1. Answer Questions online

There are so many ways to get started with answering questions but my most recommended way is to start your own blog. I once wrote a post titled 4 Reasons why you should learn how to blog.

A blog is basically a platform used to express your opinion on certain issues, so with a blog you can write on just about any topic. For instance, with your blog, you can position yourself to be an online business coach providing online business solutions or start a blog to protest fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria or any other Government policy you don’t like. It is also advisable to buy some SEO Services after you set up the blog.

Don’t get discouraged if you are not ready to start a blog now, the Internet is dotted with several forums and social media sites i.e. Linkedin which provide an interesting way to share knowledge and expertise while gradually building your personal brand online.

Anytime you professionally answer a question in the area of your expertise, other users would be interested to find out more about you and what you represent, so they will start by looking at your profile and most likely visit your website depending on how interesting your profile content is, that is why you should always hire professionals to deliver content development.

Answering questions is a simple and effective way to let others know that you are an expert in the field and grow your brand online.

2. Add a Signature to your Emails and PMs

Can you remember this old saying;

The best things in life are free

I kind of like agree, think about the air you breathe or even the Facebook almost a billion people enjoy today!

In the same vien, you can actually build a Personal Brand Online with some of the completely free, no-brainer strategies such as using Signatures effectively.

I always use a signature whether I am sending an email or SMS and as a Small Business Coach, I encourage you to always add a Signature to every email and even post that you submit on a social networking websites, since most allow you to insert a signature, why not make sure you always insert one.

Your signature is simply another medium for brand expansion and each time someone sees your signature you achieve one of your branding objectives. But I suggest you Keep it Simple and Short (KISS) though.

Here is a sample of my email signature;

I have kept it simple so as to avoid issues with spam filters, that have become very sensitive today.

3. Make Use of Newsletters

A simple way to build your personal brand online is to start your own newsletter. Newsletters are an excellent way to connect with your user base and a medium to pass on information which can used or simply forwarded to others.

For example, if you are running a vacation business and want to inform the public of the discounts you are giving away for all Christmas bookings, a newsletter will be an effective way of getting the word out.

Note that without quality content development, you newsletter might not achieve its purpose, depending on your writing skills though.

4. Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media is a powerful channel to build your personal brand online. Social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are one of the most compelling ways to connect and share information with your network.

Modern businesses are slowly learning the full potential of this powerful channel and acknowledging the fact that they can use these sites to positively impact their brand, thereby improving bottomline.

A properly executed Social Media Marketing Strategy implementation will play an important role in building a good personal brand online, just as I have been able to accomplish over the years.

I have used Social Media Marketing to achieve so much and in the nearest future I will publish a post titled “Some of my Accomplishments using Social Media”

Conclusion

The importance and benefits of building a personal brand online cannot be overemphasized. I suggest you get started right away and if you need professional Business Improvement services then feel free to hit the contact button.

Have you started building your Personal Brand Online? Do you agree there is any benefit to this?

Published by CFA using WordPress for Android

Chukwuemeka Fred Jnr. Agbata

I am CFA [Conditioned for Accomplishments], read more here. My passion is to Help People become Conditioned for Accomplishments! Use the search button above to search our post archives for loads of valuable articles.

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Success Insights Straight from Young Millionaire Entrepreneurs to All Business Owners

Joe Oye — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:22:42 +0000

Have you ever heard or read the story of a young boy who “borrowed” his father’s CDs, supplied them to his teachers and eventually, as a result of this student-teacher deal, became a millionaire entrepreneur?

Go on to read the candid business advice that the millionaire boy and his colleagues have for budding and current entrepreneurs:

Jamie Dunn: Entrepreneur Extraordinaire

Jamie Dunn is the entrepreneurial brain behind Made-By-Young-People business imprints with the client-base now growing over 35, 000 a year. He offers these people diverse profitable businesses and helps them in enhancing their personal potentials and business profitability. Though already a young successful entrepreneur before age 19, by extending his business with professional public speaking and consulting practice, Jamie made it to the top in the list of young millionaire entrepreneurs.

At age15, he was already making £2,000 a month. This result came by upon the inspiration of becoming an entrepreneur which he got from his first business at age 12. The first business he carried out was by “borrowing” some of the CDs of his father and selling them in the school to his teachers.

Entrepreneur Jamie’s Advice:

The advice I would give to anybody looking to start a business is get your mindset right. A lot of entrepreneurs talk about “burn-out” and I never considered it when starting out. Make sure you have your mindset right and are prepared for the late nights, the early mornings, the ups, the downs, the setbacks and everything else that business entails. It’s a lifetime job, not a full-time one.

Read on to have the business advice given by Jamie’s millionaire colleagues.

Emil Motycka: Mow-and-Move to Million$ Young Entrepreneur

At age 9, he started his lawn mowing business making up to $135,000 while being an high school student. At the age of 21, he made more than $2.5 million. Though he eventually lost more than this figure, he had survived the loss with the determination to stick to being a top entrepreneur and now he is incredibly back to limelight as a successful millionaire entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur Emil’s Advice:

No. Entrepreneurship is not all unicorns, lollipops and solid-gold tubs. Well – it is but that part doesn’t come until later. In the meanwhile, don’t count on finding overnight success unless you’re ready to stay up overnight.

Keith J. Davis: Young Entrepreneurial Jack of All Trades

Like father, like son. This cliché goes well with Keith.

While in the middle school, Keith followed the entrepreneurial track of his father who would always profit buying and selling low-cost and medium-cost goods. Keith, in his own case, would sell anything from greeting cards, writing accessories, books, earrings, bubble gums and everything in-between and beyond.

At age 19 in the University, he became a popular all-trades entrepreneur guy with the added ventures in public speaking, acting, publishing and book authoring. All these have made his name to appear atop the list of international young millionaires.

Entrepreneur Keith’s Advice:

My father taught me at a young age that it’s not what you know, but who you know. I get a lot of support because of my age – especially as a young African American. People see that I’m trying to do something positive and help a generation. So professionals are willing to lend a hand and lend their advice. If I was 20 or 30 years old, they would be trying to charge me for that advice.

One may easily construe their insights as messages from the young to the young, a deeper look into their words of business wisdom will show to you that they are all relevant to every entrepreneur and that they are very significant for learning useful lessons that will keep your entrepreneurial journey smooth.

After Jamie excitedly told the story of how he made $100 profit from his first CD deal, his father collected the money. The action of his father taught Jamie the lesson about how risky borrowing things or money to do business could be.

I hope you will tap something out from here as an entrepreneur.

The entrepreneurial knowledge nuggets are from recent interviews with the listed young successful entrepreneurs.

To your entrepreneurial success.

Please join the knowledge expansion motive of this website by contributing the business-advice nuggets you’ve discovered in the comment box.

Joe Oye

Joe Oye is a non-fiction author and a ghostwriter. Being adherent to minimalism, he helps people focus on and implement their career, business and personal aspirations in simple and quick ways by guiding them to workable ideas, fresh possibilities and emergent opportunities.

He is the brain behind Written by Nigerians for Nigerians, a website dedicated to helping Nigerian graduates to fast-track their ways to the top in the areas of career, business and personal improvement

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Africa’s Entrepreneurial Hot-Spot by Randall Kempner

A Guest Writer — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:00:10 +0000

CFA’s Note: Randall Kempner was the keynote speaker at the last SME Toolkit Nigeria Conference held during the Global Entrepreneurship Week and below are his thoughts, observation and experience while in Nigeria. I am hoping that well meaning Nigerians will work hard and prove that Nigeria is not the world centre for Internet Fraud. Read the great lesson from the conference.

: ED, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneur

Africa’s Entrepreneurial Hot-Spot by Randall Kempner

I’m writing from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria. I’ve just spent the last two days participating in events related to Global Entrepreneurship Week hosted by Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) members Pan-African University-Enterprise Development Centre (EDC), Alitheia Capital, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Now, the first thing many Westerners think of when they think of Nigeria is the spam email that offers an inheritance from deposed Nigerian royalty. Indeed, Nigeria is a world center for Internet fraud. It’s gotten to the point where many credit card processing firms will not accept cards issued in the country, and airline reservation sites will not allow you to ticket flights initiating in Lagos. The chaos extends to its major streets where vendors risk life and limb to offer all sorts of edible products, kitchen appliances, and even small furniture to motorists that are stuck in colossal traffic jams.

Economically, Nigeria is blessed with major oil reserves, and a petrochemical industry drives the economy. However, the overall business environment is considered highly inhospitable to private sector business: the World Bank ranks Nigeria 133rd out of 183 economies. Successive military governments have been unable to turn the wealth generated by natural resources into a diverse or equitable economy. Even with all that oil, more than 50 percent of Nigerians live below the international poverty line of $2 a day. In rural areas, it’s closer to 70 or 80 percent.

Despite this environment (and indeed, in part because of it), Lagos is an entrepreneurial hotspot. For years, it’s been reported by Gallup that Nigerians have a proclivity to be business owners: nearly 70 percent expressed a desire to start a business. And this group came out in full force for Global Entrepreneurship Week. On Tuesday at the EDC, nearly 500 students participated in an event designed to explore entrepreneurial career opportunities. On Wednesday, I was fortunate to participate in an IFC-sponsored conference on leveraging technology to support small and medium enterprise development. The event was so overbooked that 270-plus attendees were playing musical chairs to find seats. The interplay between business people and technologists was exactly the kind of discussion one would expect (and want) to have, with savvy business people pushing IT consultants about the true value of social networking tools to bottom-line business results.

I enjoyed the conference, but for me, the best part of the day was visiting the offices of two local entrepreneurs who have built successful firms in this difficult ecosystem.

One entrepreneur I met is Patricia Ojora, who runs PromoPrint Ventures Limited, a company that specializes in designing and manufacturing corporate and personal gifts. After practicing as a Nigerian lawyer, Patricia realized her true calling to be an entrepreneur and opened PromoPrint. I had a chance to visit her printing facility in the neighborhood of Ebute Metta. Operating out of an old house, Ojora has built the premier shirt printing business in Lagos. Starting with small orders from friends and old business contacts, she now focuses on serving major corporate clients. (If you see anyone wearing a Guinness® Beer T-shirt in Nigeria, Patricia’s team likely printed it.)

Despite the fact that Promoprint, like most firms in Lagos, has to generate its own electricity and supply its own water, Patricia has been able to build a thriving firm. In the past year, Ojora’s firm has experienced nearly 100 percent revenue growth, and she is now considering another location to support future expansion.

Patricia says she had little business experience when she started. She credits her participation in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative, an effort to provide 10,000 women around the world with a business and management education (EDC is the local partner), as a major factor in her success.

(Click here to see a brief interview about the program with Centre Director Nneka Okekearu.)

After visiting Patricia, I went to the dry cleaners. Not because I needed my clothes laundered, but to meet Adebayo Eniibukun, who runs a successful professional clothes care business in Lagos. IBK, as he is known, is passionate about clean clothes. Even as a child, he actively sought the opportunity to iron his father’s shirts, and because his finishing was so fine, he got to the point where all of his father’s friends were asking him to launder their shirts as well. IBK shared, with a chuckle, that ultimately his father sent him to boarding school so he would focus his time on education instead of his lucrative side career.

After launching a dry cleaning business with his cousin, IBK decided to build his own firm, CleanAce, based on a vision of growing both the size and quality of the dry cleaning industry. As his business has expanded to nine locations in greater Lagos, IBK has increasingly focused on upgrading the professionalism of his staff and even that of his competitors. He’s in the process of developing a new training institute for the profession and has helped dozens of other firms launch dry cleaning operations in Nigeria and beyond.

Lagos is an incredibly tough place to grow a business. The power goes out all the time, the government regulations stifle start-ups, the educational infrastructure is highly insufficient, and the traffic insane. But the entrepreneurial streak runs strong in the Nigerian people–and barriers that would paralyze a typical Western entrepreneur are not enough to stop Nigerians. Sometimes their entrepreneurial instinct and perseverance lead them to send annoying email — but sometimes, as in the case of Patricia and IBK, it’s downright inspirational.

Follow Randall Kempner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rkempner

Originally published on Huff Post Small Business America

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What is the difference between an Entrepreneur and a business owner?

Paul — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:25:58 +0000

As an entrepreneur what are the main functions or duties to be performed on behalf of one self and the society in general? Interesting question to me because it isn’t easy to differentiate between an entrepreneur and a business owner. They seem to mean the same and at the same time not necessarily so.

For instance, Mark Zuckerberg of facebook is touted as an internet entrepreneur one who owns an internet business but so too is Steve Pavlina famous personal development blogger but what about the endless multitude of bloggers we have all over the world can they truly be called entrepreneurs? That brings me to another question: who is an entrepreneur and what is or are his main duties?

An entrepreneur is an innovative business leader who identifies a business opportunity, pulls resources to exploit that opportunity and who stays abreast with market trends in order to provide the best possible product or service for the market. That is my perspective anyway and not everyone would share that view. So going by that definition I don’t expect a shop owner who sells provisions to be called an entrepreneur but a blogger who blogs about water sports can rightly be called an entrepreneur because he is providing a service that serves a particular market, a solution to their problem. I choose to state things this way for the following reasons;

An entrepreneur sees problems first then finds a solution that will serve a particular group of people (niche) which is how they identify opportunities unlike the ordinary business man who wants to own a business in order to make profit (money). So by what they are motivated by we could say entrepreneurs are problem solvers although they may also make money by the side whereas business owners most likely are after the money.

Entrepreneurs usually have an active stake in the business they form.

For instance Steve Jobs, co-founder of apple wasn’t just a shareholder or investor in the business he was the business’ main manager, overseeing the day to day affairs of the business. He worked tirelessly to overcome the challenges that faced the business and also create opportunities wherever they existed.

I heard some people say Jobs wasn’t really a genius as much as the world was led to believe maybe in terms of technical prowess but certainly as a sales man and an effective market analyst Jobs is probably one of the finest marketers the world has ever known and bottom line whatever business he founded, he was an active force in it, whereas your typical business owner may only be after who gets employed and where but may not be totally committed to running the business as long as the profit keeps coming, I liken them to investors but Jobs proved to be an entrepreneur at heart.

To the entrepreneur their business legacy is their life.

When Steve Jobs was fired from apple he wasn’t depressed because he had lost his job but rather that something he had worked for tirelessly would be taken over by other people he felt knew less about it than himself. He wanted his lifelong dream to be realized even if he had to lose his job for it but certainly not when you lose both ways (the dream is taken over and dies, the dreamer loses control over his dream) that explains why jobs agreed to return to apple even after he had successfully created two other multi-million dollar companies that also made him wealthy and world famous.

I wonder how Bill gates would feel like if Microsoft went belly up but with all his billions still with him. He wouldn’t complain of losing his control of the market, rather that his lifelong dream has disappeared. For a business owner as long as the profits remain even if the business is sold or taken over all is fine. Entrepreneurs are simply insane people.

Do business owners feel obliged to evolve better ways of doing things or getting things done?

I’m not so sure they are if costs and their bottom line are also factored in but most entrepreneurs would be willing to risk something to make a product truly special and useful to a market. Bill gates once said make your product the best off its kind and aim to be number one in your market, am not quite certain that is the mindset of people who only own businesses.

So in conclusion I would say every man knows best what his stand is and why he should take it on this issue, for me it is not being able to identify an opportunity and being innovative as well in how to exploit it, anyone can copy a successful business model but only entrepreneurs can and will find innovation to exploit an opportunity.

Are Famous Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

What do you think?

Image Credit: Eschipul

Paul Onwueme

Paul Onwueme goes by the alias Business Ideas Expert and has a blog about business ideas at http://lagosbusinesses.blogspot.com He is interested also in Entrepreneurship and internet marketing.

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How to identify a Potential Entrepreneur

Paul — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:07:27 +0000

This is a guest post by Paul Onwueme. To write an article for this site, please see our write for us guidelines.

Do you want to start a business but aren’t sure if you are actually heading down the right road? Before anything else, it is wise to ask yourself if you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur and to stay on even when you have to face so many obstacles and put up with numerous challenges. What are the qualities of entrepreneurs?

What makes them tick, who are they judging by the qualities, traits and attributes they have that others lack or have in small measures?

Here are 13 characteristics of Entrepreneurs;

1. They are hard working

All entrepreneurs will own up to one thing, they are not lazy. They work hard at what they do, they might appear to be decision makers only approving or granting permission to staff who work for them but that is the case with highly successful and well established entrepreneurs but they are a very small percentage and even they had to work very hard to get to where they are today. Hard work is a must for every aspiring entrepreneur.

2. Innovative

Being able to do something in a new and different way is what being innovative is about. Most entrepreneurs are innovative usually being among the trail blazers, setting and surpassing standards with their offbeat approach to problem solving.

3. Determined

With determination comes the quality of believing in nothing more than your passion and aspirations. The desire to overcome frustrations, disappointment, rejection, mockery and unfriendliness by standing your ground and pursuing your dreams makes one truly determined. Entrepreneurs are a determined lot, willing to prove their point despite the obstacles they may face.

4. Independent

A true entrepreneur is independent, having a mind of his own, not following the crowd for the sake of belonging to a group but rather doing so because they deem it worthwhile. They have their own causes and they live their lives accordingly without minding if it fits into another person’s picture.

5. Productive

All entrepreneurs are productive. They always want to create or deliver something valuable to people, something that improves the quality of life and solves a problem nagging a particular group of people (niche if you may). Their lives seem devoted to finding a solution in form of a product or service that delivers that much needed value.

6. Self-reliant

Most entrepreneurs are self-reliant, empowered and skilled. They have one or more skills and competencies that make them able to earn a stable income and are always trying to improve upon those skills or to acquire new ones.

7. Focused

Entrepreneurs are usually focused or single-minded in that they pursue one major project at a time. More often than not, that project is the love of their life, their business idea.

8. Expert sales people

It is rare to meet an entrepreneur who isn’t a good sales person. Most entrepreneurs are good at convincing people to buy a certain product often times this is due to their thorough knowledge and believe in the product rather than their distinct persuasive abilities.

9. Uniqueness

Follow your rainbow, that seems to be a common theme with entrepreneurs, they know that being yourself is the sure way to success, they are not copy cats (well may be when it comes to business ideas).

10. Self-motivated

Most entrepreneurs have initiative and drive because they can motivate themselves to act. They always seem to know what needs to be done and don’t wait for anyone to tell them.

11. Risk takers

They are also incurable risk takers. They don’t take foolish risks rather what they do is take calculated risks based on intelligent assumptions.

12. Frugal

Entrepreneurs value money. They see money as a means of acquiring assets and for that reason only buy what they need. Whatever extra income they have must be invested wisely and they do this consistently as long as they earn an income.

13. Passionate about what they do

All entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do. They love what they do and will be happy to do it anyway even without being paid for it, but that is not to say they are not profit motivated because they usually are.

Paul Onwueme goes by the alias Business Ideas Expert and has a blog about business ideas at http://lagosbusinesses.blogspot.com He is interested also in Entrepreneurship and internet marketing.

Paul Onwueme

Paul Onwueme goes by the alias Business Ideas Expert and has a blog about business ideas at http://lagosbusinesses.blogspot.com He is interested also in Entrepreneurship and internet marketing.

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Entrepreneurship: Starting Up Well and Going Ahead Strong in 10 Commandments

Joe Oye — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:30:38 +0000

Having a dream of becoming an entrepreneur is always exciting, but taking the entrepreneurial journey can be intimidating if not mapped well with required groundwork. One of the best ways to remain moving on strong in the journey is to learn and apply the wits of those who have had successful business expeditions; entrepreneurs who have really been there.

Sumaya Kazi, one of the young entrepreneurs of today, has provided a body of powerful and concise tips. I call the tips commandments here because of how suitable they are as guiding light for both upcoming entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurs already on course.

“Don’t seat on great ideas”, she firstly advises all entrepreneurs.

As you go on to learn the commandments as listed below in Sumaya’s words, don’t forget to apply them in your own journey as an entrepreneur.

The Commandments for Entrepreneurs:

More often than not, people sit on great ideas. Don’t be one of them. The hardest part is getting started.

Focus on what you have and not what you don’t have. Reach out to your network and leverage the resources of your extended communities.

Try to maintain enough ambition and energy to achieve your goals, but also enough humility to accept the challenges and rejection that comes with being an entrepreneur.

Be passionate about what you do and work with others who can share the same passion. Being an entrepreneur can be exhausting, so it’s incredibly important to surround yourself with people who can keep you motivated and who you can motivate as well.

Don’t be afraid to do something wrong, to ask for help, to be rejected or to fail. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but one of the most important.

Build a support network. Whether it’s family, friends, other entrepreneurs or mentors, it’s important to have people you can turn to give you that extra vote of confidence or a shoulder to lean on when you need it most.

Persistence is key. A great idea doesn’t get executed (usually) overnight. It takes a lot of iterations, feedback, and rebuilding to get close to something that may sorta maybe work, not really. The point is to keep at it until it does.

Have a PhD mentality. That is, of course, to think as if you’re poor, hungry and driven.

I follow Sumaya online always and so, as tapped from her posts, I put the following two tips to make a complete list of Sumaya’s commandments for the entrepreneur who want to start up well or go ahead strong:

Never forget that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Connect, intelligently, to the people you don’t know but you should, people that can potentially change your world.

For your information:

“Sumaya Kazi is an internationally recognized innovator, leader, speaker and award-winning entrepreneur. For her passion and success around her endeavors, Sumaya has been recognized by BusinessWeek as one of America’s “Best Young entrepreneurs,” CNN as a “Young Person Who Rocks,” Silicon Valley Business Journal as a “Woman of Influence,” and most recently by UTNE Reader Magazine as one of “50 Visionaries Changing Your World.

She has been featured in over 150 newspapers, magazines, radio interviews, and television spotlights in top-tier outlets such as Newsweek, BusinessWeek Magazine, CNN, ABC News and Washington Post. Sumaya frequently speaks at professional conferences and educational institutions inspiring audiences on topics such as entrepreneurship, non-profit work, intrapreneurship, young professional issues, social media, diversity and technology”.

Prior to Sumaya’s Entrepreneurial Expeditions…

“Sumaya spent the last five years at Fortune 500 Sun Microsystems, a company that developed the technologies that power the global marketplace. Sumaya was recruited by Sun at age 22 and quickly moved up in her positions in the Executive Communications, Worldwide Operations and New & Social Media teams. As a Senior Social Media Manager in its Global Communications group Sumaya was charged with developing new and innovative programs to capture, expand and socialize new and evolving media, analyst and influencer communities.”

CLICK HERE to learn more from Sumaya’s pure and social entrepreneurial journeys.

Wishing you all Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Joe Oye

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5 Entrepreneur Skills You Need to Succeed in the Business World

CFAgbata — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:10:51 +0000

Top 5 Entrepreneur Skills You Need to Succeed in the Business World

By Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata

So you have decided to leave the rat race and work for yourself, and in your own sweet time. The possibilities are endless thanks to the years of experience you have had working odds and sometimes thankless jobs. All of them nevertheless increased your contacts and skills. But do you have Entrepreneur Skills that will help you succeed in your new arena?

The business world has become very competitive so you will need specific skills even if you decide to venture into a home business. As an entrepreneur, you need to have organizing and management skills that will take your business plan to the next level. But more than that, you need to have that thirst for accomplishment which could only be satiated once you have established your business.

Here are some of the Entrepreneur Skills you would need to run your business successfully:

1. Jack of all trades

This figure of speech may leave a bitter taste in the mouth nowadays but this is exactly one of the skills you would need to start your own business and to see it grow from scratch, minus of course the “master of none” part. The original meaning of the phrase referred to being a generalist, not a Renaissance man like Leonardo da Vinci who was exceptional in a variety of disciplines, but someone who is flexible enough to know the business fundamentals and how each independent aspect works. Among all the other entrepreneur skills, this one gives you the capacity to see how things are interconnected and allows you to run the show.

2. Managerial and administrative skills

Most of the multinational corporate ventures employ hundreds of people with their own specializations. Forget about that if you are starting small like most entrepreneurs. Even hiring an assistant is a luxury you would not be able to afford, so basic Entrepreneur Skills in the administrative department would come in handy for posting in your daily income and expenses, making your receipts and even for making sure you pay your bills on time. On top of that, you need your managerial skills to be at the top of the situation when you business starts to operate. It means making a sound decision about approving a certain account while answering the phone as part of your customer service.

3. Planning skills

Planning is one of the entrepreneur skills you should arm yourself with especially if you are starting a home business. Better yet, hone your time management skills so that you do not waste your time puttering in the house when you have loads of unchecked emails in your mailbox. Your planning skills would make sure you have, not only an idea of what you have to accomplish for the day, but you are bent on sticking to your plan. The hardest thing for a one-person business, much more a home-based one, is the overwhelming task ahead of you everyday. Multitasking is clearly the name of the game and you have to be really good at it to accomplish things

4. Financial skills

Since you are in business not only to render service or to fulfil a dream but also to make money, you need to brush up on your financial skills to make ends meet. and more than that. One of the most essential entrepreneur skills you need to have even for small business ventures is the ability to manage your finances so that at the end of the day, you have money to pay for your business and incidental expenses and have some left for your profit box.

5. People’s skills

Establishing a business will require you to deal with people from all walks of life and this is one of those entrepreneur skills that will take your business far. Every successful entrepreneur has people’s skills and those who do not have it hire someone else who does. You will always deal with people at any phase of your business so make sure you are inherently interested in people and how they work.

Entrepreneur skills are the abilities, inherent or learned, that will make or break your business. Having these skills from the start will reduce the challenges of starting a business but being able to use them strategically will ensure that your business stays on even when competitors come in.

Please visit http://www.cfagbata.com for more life rewarding articles.

CFA is committed to helping people become Conditioned for Accomplishments. A blogger, speaker, coach, business and online media consultant who focuses on helping individuals and small businesses leverage technology (internet) for increased profit and brand perception.

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Chukwuemeka Fred Jnr. Agbata

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Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW)

CFAgbata — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 08:13:47 +0000

Today marks the beginning of the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW)!

It is indeed a time to roll out the drums and celebrate those;

that have chosen to make others happier
who have dared to dream
who have put food on the table of millions, both directly and indirectly
who have endured great difficulties in pursuit of their dreams
who ensure that their businesses continually keep others engaged and busy through out their lifetime
who have created wealth where/when others saw poverty
who have developed solutions that solved a problem
who have passionately pursed a cause that turned out to be a life safer
that have made a fortune, yet pledge to give it out….

Dozens of U.S. billionaires pledged on Wednesday to give at least half their fortunes to charity as part of a philanthropic campaign by two of the world’s richest men — Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Reuters – 4th August, 2011.

Go ask Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga how they succeeded?

They will all probably say the same thing;

it was not easy at first but I pushed on and today, the rest is history…

The Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) helps map the entrepreneurial ecosystem in various countries and enjoys the participation and support of leaders on every continent. This initiative should be encouraged in Nigeria.

To all established entrepreneurs – I say Kudos!

To all emerging entrepreneurs – I say stay focused and keep pressing on!!

To all aspiring entrepreneurs – I say the time to launch forth is now!!!

Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW)

Chukwuemeka Fred Jnr. Agbata

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What Ambitious Small Business Owners Should Learn from Accidental Entrepreneurs

Joe Oye — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:41:34 +0000

One trouble, two small notes, LinkedIn website and then the emergence of a top entrepreneur…

The above line is not just a phrase but the phases of the problem faced, the actions taken and the entrepreneurial service organization that eventually surfaced for Henk van Ess.

Henk needed to find a way of extending the life of his new iPhone battery and he sent an enquiry note to some LinkedIn groups. The best answer to his enquiry came from a Chinese manufacturer representative. Subsequently, he bought a new iPhone battery based on the information provided by the company representative.

Having been satisfied with the use of the battery, Henk posted a message, again, on LinkedIn saying:

“You hate the battery life of your iPhone? Perhaps I have the cure.”

The outcome of this message made Henk an accidental entrepreneur serving the Chinese company as a distributor of iPhone batteries.

Elizabeth G. Saunders was more than once in and out of the corporate world. She never realized that on her ‘last’ job quitting, the emails sent to her colleagues asking them to help join her in another job search would only be drawing opportunities of contract businesses to her. Taking the unintended business route, Elizabeth became an accidental entrepreneur.

Rebecca Matthias was fed up with old-school maternity outfits when she was pregnant of her first child. Her quest for chic outfits for pregnant women accidentally led her to become the CCO (Chief Creative Officer) of her own retail empire.

In other to enjoy how one can hit a business through fanciful ideas for enterprises, it may be good to cite more cases of people who have unconventionally or unintentionally become Entrepreneurs. However, more interesting than that is to draw out the inspiring attributes found across the above cases and many more which aspiring Small Business owners must find very beneficial.

The cases of Henk, Rebecca and Elizabeth as narrated above and so many other instances of accidental entrepreneurs I studied are instructive that:

Turning to entrepreneurs by them happened accidentally by fun or by force.

While a high number of cases came about by being forced (those laid off their jobs, those having neither a job nor a business, those not making ends meet even while employed and mostly those who identified or personally faced one problem or the other), many other cases showed how new Entrepreneurs are born by fun (those tossing with their hobby and those trying – or are encouraged to try – to turn their ideas, interests, knowledge and skills to business). The people in the latter category is apart from those who had their businesses in unplanned ways based on what many of us will call ‘luck’.

Rather than subjecting themselves to the pressure of their situations, those ‘forced’ into businesses, like Elizabeth G. Saunders and Rebecca Matthias, made their utmost by moving on and those who made their business discoveries like fun, such as Henk van Ess, were not slack in heating their way up and in making a huge success in their ventures.

Note that at the onset, all the three people mentioned here and even in the cases not mentioned, never wasted any of the momentary opportunities that came across their ways.

The entrepreneurs really focused on filling people’s desperate needs.

The accidental Entrepreneurs took action and fit their products and services to the dire needs of people.

They shut out distractions.

The chance-based entrepreneurial venture owners did not have divided attention. They shut out all types of distraction as much as they could to attain success.

Fun, force, luck, any of these you can envisage along your business aspirations. Now that you are informed better, don’t fail to develop the readiness and the ability for catching the moments of your own transition to the entrepreneurial world. Don’t fail, too, to stay sturdy in order to get to the top along with your own business, whether small or big.

Do you agree that the hints here are not what you can neglect in materializing your entrepreneurial aspirations?

Do you realize that there are so many ways being alert enough of opportunities coming your way can help you to become an entrepreneur earlier than you expect?

Like Henk, Elizabeth and Rebecca, you can also be an accidental entrepreneur.

Joe Oye

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4 Successful Entrepreneur Tips from Fola Adeola, Guaranty Trust Bank, Founder

CFAgbata — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:26:36 +0000

At the last FATE Foundation Annual General Assembly event, the guest speaker, Fola Adeola shared these 4 Successful Entrepreneur tips with attendees;

1. Build and maintain relationships

Building and maintaining relationships is a sure way of becoming a Successful Entrepreneur and one tool you can use effectively is the personalized bulk SMS

SMS is a cheap and effective way of

Staying in touch with your customers and suppliers
Asking them for a re-order
Getting feedback about your products or services
Asking for referrals
Finding out how your clients and staff are doing on a weekend etc.
It is limitless what you can do with it, I use it as an effective soul winning and follow-up tool for my Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International chapter.

What makes this service different is that it makes your SMS personal by calling the names of your recipients each time you send them SMS whether they are 10,000 or 10.

Some quotes of that stress the importance of calling people’s name;

Words have meaning and names have power. – Author Unknown

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. – John F. Kennedy

The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers. – Marshall McLuhan

Always call people by their names!

This service costs only N1,000 monthly and it’ll help you build brand ambassadors. Read my article titled 3 ways to make Money with Personalized Bulk SMS Service

2. Master leadership

Fola says one of his secrets of how he became a Successful Entrepreneur is this, in the last 30 years he has spent at least 10 days in class, improving and honing his leadership skills in the areas he has chosen to play.

3. Create joint ventures

Another successful entrepreneur tip is to look out for effective partnerships i.e. he says nothing stops FATE Foundation Alumni members from coming together, putting up structures and sharing resources for the mutual benefit of all. A good example is silicon valley.

4. Develop your people (staff)

According to him a number of entrepreneurs care less about their people. They don’t bother to find out how they or their families are doing.

He said, you should care for your people, ask them questions, find out about their families and if you ask me, I’ll say send them personalized SMS on a monthly basis thanking them for all they are doing to grow your business – you’ll be shocked!

If you want to become a successful entrepreneur then you must care for your people.

About Fola Adeola

A Successful Entrepreneur

Born in January 1954, Fola is married to Hajara, and has four children.

Fola obtained a Diploma in Accounting from Yaba College of Technology in1975 and became a Chartered Accountant in 1980 following his training with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells and D.O. Dafinone & Company (Chartered Accountants). He has received professional development training at notable institutions worldwide including, Harvard Business School, INSEAD. And the International Institute for Management Development.

Fola Adeola and Late Tayo Aderinokun founded Guaranty Trust Bank Plc in 1990 and today it has grown to become one of Nigerian’s biggest banks. He is the Chairman of the following organisations amongst many;

FATE Foundation – a not for profit organisation
Main 1 cable
Eterna Oil & Gas
ARM Investments

Conclusion on successful entrepreneur tips

If you are looking forward to starting a business in the nearest future then I suggest that you attend a FATE Foundation entrepreneurial program, this will help you avoid some of the costly mistakes small businesses owners make – I have made lots of mistakes but with FATE you can avoid some.

What do you think about Fola Adeola’s tips? Please leave a comment below….. Click here to view some photos of the event on Facebook!

I pray you become a highly successful entrepreneur so that you can touch lives, create jobs and make an impact, in Jesus name, Amen!

Chukwuemeka Fred Jnr. Agbata

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