If you always  find yourself jumping from one business to the other without anything to show for it, I have a piece of advice that might be of help. Someone is making millions from affiliate marketing. Someone is making millions from e-commerce. Someone is making millions from selling online courses. Someone is making millions from blogging. Someone is making millions from network marketing. Someone is making millions from Amazon kindle publishing. Someone is making millions from direct response copywriting. Someone is making millions from web design and development. Someone is making millions from fashion design. The list is long but I’ll stop here for now. The lesson I want you to learn is that there is money in every business. That business you are doing right now has the potential of making you millions. Stop jumping from one business to the other looking for the next bright shiny object. The grass is not green anywhere, water your own. Know this and know peace. Above all, know...

  “Experience is the best teacher.” It’s not necessary that you have to know everything before you start a business, so many new things will come along the way and eventually, you will learn anyhow. Consider Apple , Tesla , SpaceX , Google , Microsoft and Amazon , these are the companies that went huge, after many years and every young entrepreneur should know these famous business lessons; 1) Look outside the box when sourcing Talent Your first 10 people will determine how far your company can go, so hire slowly and fire rapidly.  2) Encourage your Employees to think big, even to quit, if it’s for the best Make your employees your asset so that they will work long way for you and you don’t need to train people every now and then. 3) Be clear with your expectations Whatever targets you make for the day, month and year, be specific and achieve them anyhow and show it to your team, make it a habit and you will never miss your goals. 4) Be intentional with how you...

Angel investors invest in early-stage startup companies in exchange for a stake in the company. Angel investors hope to replicate the high-profile successful investments made in companies like Airbnb, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Uber, and more. Angel investors typically make small bets ($25,000 to $100,000) with the hopes of getting “home run” returns. Angel investors understand that startups have a high risk of failure. So ultimately an angel investor needs to feel confident that the potential upside/rewards from investing are worth the downside risks. Angel investors review a variety of key issues and undertake due diligence before they invest in a startup. In this article I discuss the key items angel investors analyze in deciding whether or not to invest in a startup. Is There A Great Founder/Management Team? Many investors consider the team behind a startup more important than the idea or the product. The investors will want to know that the team has the right set of skills, dr...

“Experience is the best teacher.” It’s not necessary that you have to know everything before you start a business, so many new things will come along the way and eventually, you will learn anyhow. Consider Apple , Tesla , SpaceX , Google , Microsoft and Amazon . These are the companies that went huge, after many years, and every young entrepreneur should know these famous business lessons; Look outside the box when sourcing Talent : Your first 10 people will determine how far your company can go, so hire slowly and fire rapidly. Encourage your Employees to think big, even to quit, if it’s for the best : Make your employees your asset so that they will work long way for you and you don’t need to train people every now and then. Be clear with your expectations : Whatever targets you make for the day, month and year, be specific and achieve them anyhow and show it to your team, make it a habit and you will never miss your goals. Be intentional with how you build your work culture :...

When you’re looking at the future of your business, it can pay to take a moment to look backwards. Specifically, focusing on the customers who used to do business with you can improve your relationships with current customers — and give you a surprisingly affordable way to grow your business. Customers leave for any number of reasons. Those who were dissatisfied or angry with your business probably won’t come back. But the rest — those who simply may have been tempted to do business with one of your competitors or those you just didn’t work hard enough to keep — may be willing to return and do business with you again. Going after those ex-customers is well worth the effort. After all, they thought well of you enough to do business with you in the first place. Just as important, they already know who you are and what you can do, so you don’t have to invest a lot of money to introduce yourself and explain the basics. You do have to be careful that you don’t fall into the mindset that aff...

When you look out on your workers, what do you see? Is it a team of hard-workers who love what they do or a group of professionals just trying to get through their day? Either way, it could have a lot more to do with you than you might think. You may have hired the perfect team with extensive experience and a proven track record, but if their enthusiasm is waning, it may be time to re-evaluate your management style. To help you rethink your leadership strategy, we’ve created a helpful list of 10 easy ways to inspire your staff, keeping them motivated and ready to take on any challenge. 1. Stop micromanaging Nobody likes to be micromanaged. If your employees feel like they constantly have someone looking over their shoulder, they’ll be too nervous to try new things, which limits their potential. By taking a step back and giving your team more autonomy, you’re showing that you have faith in their ability to get the job done, which can inspire them to give it their all. 2. Make it safe to...

  The Federal Government has released new details on the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) support scheme being rolled out under the National Economic Sustainability Programme. According to estimates provided, the sum of N50 billion will be used to provide payroll support, N200 billion for loans to artisans, and N10 billion support to private transport companies and workers. The government disclosed in a tweet on the official handle of the government, the support scheme will include a Guaranteed Off-take Scheme for priority products, and an MSMEs Survival Fund. Modalities for the take-off scheme The first track is a Guaranteed Off-take Scheme which will ensure continued local production and safeguard 100,000 existing small businesses to save 300,000 jobs. Priority products include processed foods, personal protective equipment, hand sanitizers, face-masks, face-shield, shoe-covers and pharmaceuticals. The implementation committee chaired by Ambassador Mariam Katagum, Minis...

This pandemic provides a good opportunity for businesses to do some re-evaluation; ask questions about how to improve efficiency after this blows away. Notwithstanding the losses incurred as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic worldwide, I daresay that this is a rare opportunity for businesses. This may be the best time to dot the I’s and cross the T’s, making necessary adjustments to strengthen operations, service delivery, and other major aspects that are vital to the growth and stability of any organization.  In this piece, I will share 5 things that businesses across the board can do to bring their operations up to par. (1) Update Database and Codify Processes:  This pandemic provides a good opportunity for businesses to do some re-evaluation; ask questions about how to improve efficiency after this blows away. One way to achieve that is by codifying processes and updating database. It is popular knowledge that information is vital for any business to survive. ...

While the health crisis is far from over, the business world and consumers alike have mostly overcome the “survival” phase and are starting to adapt to what it will mean to live and operate, post-pandemic. Now faced with a “new normal,” budding entrepreneurs are reassessing business ideas that had been on the backburner and exploring their potential in the current circumstances. But while many businesses have successfully launched during times of economic downturn — Mailchimp, Airbnb, and Whatsapp, to name a few — that doesn’t mean it’s the right time for everyone. When it comes to post-crisis strategic thinking, aspiring business founders must consider how the needs, wishes, and budgets of consumers have changed for the long term. So if you think your business idea has potential, ask yourself these four questions to determine its strength in today’s landscape: Do you fit into the new normal? Business as usual is off the table, at least for a while. If you envisioned your bu...

Keystone Bank Limited has launched an online platform to empower Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) with knowledge to manage and grow their businesses in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lender in a statement disclosed that the programme tagged: “Keystone Bank Online MSME Academy” is aimed at helping SMEs cope with the operational stress of the current pandemic and will serve as an enabler for business owners to create an active online presence, digitalize their product, services and find new ways to connect with their customers. “One way to identify an SME-centric bank is the length it is willing to go in finding new ways to help SMEs to survive and thrive in the current harsh business environment. “Keystone Bank has demonstrated this passion during the Covid-19 crisis by initiating an online platform to empower SMEs with knowledge in managing and growing their businesses,” the bank said. Participants at the first edition of the initiative held on the 24th of ...

The traditional stay at home mum is one who takes care of the children, does the house chores, puts the house in order and attends to every family need. If you by any means think this is an easy job you need to try it for a week and see how tasking it can be. The most dreaded statement for stay at home moms can be ‘so what do you do?’ While I am strongly of the opinion that being a stay at home mum is tedious enough I also know extra money never hurt anybody. Most women tend to downplay the possibilities of still doing something financially profitable from home. I need you to first understand that a lot of people quit their jobs to establish businesses and have to work from home. Yes, your hands are full but I can assure you that one or two of the below-listed business ideas is worth trying out. 1. EVENT PLANNING The big names in event planning in Nigeria such as Zapphire events and Elizabeth R did not always have an office. This is a business you can easily start by...

There are more than 13 savings and investment apps in Nigeria. These apps make it easy to save and invest money with higher interests than banks. In a recent article, Techpoint published a roundup of  leading savings apps in Nigeria . After reading that article I decided to automate my savings. But, before making my final selection, I checked out the platform and studied their growth strategy.  After my analysis, I started using three of the apps. In this article, my goal is to share with you eight growth strategies used by some of the apps and how you can adapt those growth strategies to your business. Design Your Product To Solve Major Issues Facing Your Users. Before you launch, your first goal is to find out the core problem users want you to solve with the product.  In the case of these apps, the problem is helping people develop savings habit. As a result, the main product feature created helped users to automate monthly savings and discourage imp...

Tech firm, Eyowo Integrated Payment Limited , has launched an initiative to ease retailers and business owners’ mode of operations in Nigeria. The series is reportedly aimed at creating an avenue where retailers and business owners can learn how to improve business performance using modern tools and strategies. The initiative, which is tagged the Boost Your Business with Eyowo retail/business workshop series, is themed “Driving Business growth with data.” According to the Chief Executive Officer of Eyowo, Tomi Amao, the workshop series was launched in line with the company’s vision of solving financial inclusion problems and making daily transactions seamless for businesses in Nigeria. “The boost your business retail seminar is one of many steps we are taking to achieve our vision, which is to promote and drive financial inclusion throughout Africa. We believe this is very possible,” he said. The workshop had Chief Customer Enterprise Architect of Oracle Ecemea [CTO], Ol...