In the past week I have had meeting with clients and one thing I have come to realize is the fact that even though they are all members of one social site or the other for whatever reason; mainly to keep in touch with friends or because their friends are doing same, a lot of Nigerian (especially business owners) really do not have an idea about how social media works in the area of marketing of businesses and company products or services.
You go to a company’s fan page and you find out that they basically create the page and leave it to take care of itself. I have friends who have twitter accounts but in over a year and sometimes 3 years have not tweeted for more than 18 times. In fact I went to a prospective client’s twitter page for their business and I find out that in over 6 months they have just 18 tweets!
This has brought me to the conclusion that a lot of Nigerians even though they make use of social site and are members on a few, have very little knowledge of the values and how well they can leverage the social site as a medium to generating a liking for what they sell.
A lot of companies in the developed world are looking out for various ways to cut down on the cost of advertising or research. they make use of the social media sites to get client / customer opinion about products and ides; some even ask for ideas from their customers. They have also been able to create an online customer service where they attend to customer complaint and concerns from posts on their social site pages.
Nigerian and Nigerian businesses should also shift focus away in amassing millions or hundreds of thousands to pay for traditional adverts that would not be able to reach out to a lot of people. How many Nigerians read newspaper? I don’t even have radio in my house and I never ever listen to the news this days. I am too busy online working or going out to meet with clients. The most I do is follow news channels or newspaper sites on twitter and if I see anything of interest I click on the link to either watch or read.
This is gradually becoming the in-thing for a lot of business owners and students who are too busy to sit down and watch adverts of read the papers. Social media is the new medium for advertising that small businesses especially can use it to cut the overhead cost of promoting or getting their products or services across to their clients or prospects. Facebook alone has over 4 million Nigerian users scattered all over the world.
This is a market that is wider and greater than any traditional marketing medium. But this new media needs all the understanding and savvy that one can ever have. You need to be hands-on and on the money. One needs to understand the mind of the members on the social sites and be ready to respond to them as fast as possible.
Social media marketing is the way out for small businesses in Nigeria. The only thing is are they ready to make use of it?
THE LAW OF SAVING
It teaches that financial freedom comes to people who save 10% or more of their income throughout their lifetime.
One of the smartest things that you can do for yourself is to develop the habit of saving part of your salary. Individuals, families, and even societies are stable and prosperous to the degree to which they have high saving rates. Savings today are what guarantee the security and the possibilities of tomorrow.
Why many people don’t save:
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*Get it clear from the onset, no amount is too small for saving. Because you earn peanut today is no excuse for you not to have a saving. Get started somewhere, anyhow.
*Be prudent with your earnings: try to cut your coat according to your cloth, and not your size.
Don’t spend lavishly and wastefully. Acquire ONLY ASSETS and not liabilities.
*Be disciplined: Begin today to save 10% of your income and never touch it. You should never use it for any reason except to assure your financial future.
Don’t be like a character in the proverbial story of a one single chicken owner that always ‘hungry’ to kill the chicken for food. What does he has left after the killing? NOTHING.
Truly, if you start to save for a rainy day, you can be sure it is going to start rainy very soon. If you’re with the intention of spending the money as soon as you need it, you’re going to need it sooner than you realize.
How to inculcate the habits of saving culture:
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*Begin today to put away 10% of your income. Set up a special account for this purpose and treat your contributions to this account with the same respect that you do your rent or mortgage payments each month.
*The remarkable thing is that when you pay yourself first and force yourself to live on the other 90%, you will soon become accustomed to it. You are a creature of habit.
*Search for knowledge on money matter: Become a lifelong student of money. Read the best books, take courses, and subscribe to the most helpful magazines. Know what you are doing so you can always make intelligent decisions on how to further invest your money.
Conclusions
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All the above stated facts seek only ONE thing for you: your financial breakthrough. Financial success is no magic at all, but by dint of hard work and lots purposely calculated attempts.
Most of the times nature are neutral to our individual struggle in life, but it expects you to initiate the journey to financial independence before it comes in and walk with through the journey to a successful safe destination of financial attainment and sustenance.
Another good thing about saving is that once you start, it brings hope and dream. It gives the chance to gauge and see your future and how to go about it.
Don’t forget, drops of water make a great ocean.
Disciplined should be your watch word. Your savings is a ticket to your financial independence. I told you in the write up and I quote, “You should never use it (your savings) for any reason except to assure your financial future.
Reference
Bode Lawal FACTS OF LIFE:THE LAW OF SAVING: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freebornijebusofyorubaland/362617843792967/?notif_t=group_comment_reply 24 May, 2012
THE LAW OF EXPECTATION:
Says whatever you expect,with confidence,becomes your own self-fulfilling prophecy.
How Expectations are dashed
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You are always acting as a fortune-teller in your own life by the way you think and talk about how situations are going to turn out.When you confidently expect good things to happen,good things usually happen to you.If you expect negative things to happen,you are usually not disappointed.
Also,expectations work with the principle of give and take.What you expect from people and situations determines your attitude toward them more than any other factor.and people reflect your attitude right back at you,like a mirror,whether positive or negative.
In a nutshell,what you sow is what you reap.
How do you cultivate the principle of expectations:
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*Expect the best!Assume the best of intentions in all your endeavours.Assume from the start that you’re on right path,make good decisions,for good results.
When things go wrong,as they do occasionally,instead of over-reacting,sit down with people that share your dreams and feelings in a spirit of friendliness and ask questions to determine exactly what happened.There is usually a good reasons for everything.
*Start at home and catch them young; Tell your spouse and children on a regular basis that you believe in them,that you think they are wonderful,that you love them,and that you are proud of them.
Build into them what i call “POSITIVE EXPECTATIONS” traits.No matter what happened in the short term,the children always knew that their parents were behind them 100%.
*Have self confidence: Imagine that you have unlimited potential and that you can accomplish anything that you put your mind to.Imagine that your future is limited only by your own imagination and that whatever you have accomplished up to now is only a small part of what you are truly capable of achieving.
Conclusion:
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This is another great opportunity for you to mirror your life journey so far.Where are you coming from? Where are you today? What and who are the stumbling blocks? And where do you want to be in the next five years?
Regards to everyone.
Reference
Bode Lawal FACTS OF LIFE : THE LAW OF EXPECTATION; https://www.facebook.com/groups/freebornijebusofyorubaland/ May 24, 2012
THE LAW OF OBSOLESCENCE:
It says whatever exists is already becoming obsolete.
Why is like that:
The law says that everything–human(growing old) products,services,skills,personal belongings(cars,houses)offices tenure(2011-2015) is becoming outdated with the passing of time.Latest TREND of your yesterday acquired properties are springing up today.
What causes it:
The most frustrated people in life today are those who are trying to hold back the tide of change by failing to adapt,or by adapting too slowly to the competitive onslaught that is taking place all around them
Modern day innovation and technologies are there for you to contend.Don’t be left behind.
Where is the Almighty NITEL of yesteryears,they were history now.
How do you survive:
To survive and thrive in these times of turbulence,you must be fast on your feet and prepared to deal with the following:
*Embrace continual change as an unavoidable fact of life.
*Be original,prudent,innovative and resourceful.
*Be open to everyone’s idea:stop that arrogance,
* Avoid the Mr.know-all tendency know that you’re not an Island to yourself.knowledge abounds everywhere.
Conclusions:
I believe if we ponder on this very well and imbibe the principles taught,it holds keys to some of our problems. The main thing about this is to move with the times while we maintain our standards in whatsoever we do. It is true that society would influence change and this change will affect how we see life and deal with people and situations. Irrespective of this fact we must be able to not that to not been a story in past tense and be relevant to the now and future we must learn, unlearn, relearn! This is the key to staying at the right pace with time. Be conversant with the trends within your immediate network either while doing business or simply carrying out your daily activities.
Time they say waits for no one and if this is so we must learn to walk, run, jump or race at the pace by which time is moving. Otherwise we would become like yesterday’s record breaker who has been forgotten today because a new record has been set. Don’t let that happen. if you have to keep breaking your own record, do so.
Regards to everyone.
Reference:
Mr Bode Lawal FACT OF LIFE:THE LAW OF OBSOLESCENCE; https://www.facebook.com/groups/freebornijebusofyorubaland/ May 23, 2012
Why have you applied for that job?!
Okay its like this, we all go to school or get educated because we want to make a living? Or is it because we want to enjoy the good things of life? Get rich?
What is a job to you? Its a pity that a lot of us end up not enjoying our jobs or place of employment and we leave the position for another one without any value been added to our career or life in any form.
I put this question to you. What has been your contribution to the company that you have worked for or working for? It’s very easy for us to claim that there are no jobs or that businesses are employing enough. Okay maybe its that there are not enough vacancies to accommodate the teaming and ever increasing population of graduates that our institutions of higher learning churn out every year!
Today I was talking to a good friend about applying for a job and the first thing I asked her was the website of the company, if they belonged or have an account with any social media. luckily she was prepared and said yes! Next was what do they do and what does their site say about them? This questions most of us can’t answer about the companies we apply to. We don’t bother to find out about the company we want to work for. We refuse to take time out to be familiar with the running of the company and therefore know where we can fit in and what we would be able to bring into the said company. Why is this?
Well I do understand that it is true that for most job offers we will have to write a test but what about the interview stage? Knowing everything you can about the company will go a long way in giving you confidence and also give you the edge you need in becoming a part of the company.
When you are in an interview and you reply a question with, “my research about the company i discovered that…………it makes the interviewer(s) take a pause and the gear changes in the interview.
Remember that “knowledge is power” and the more knowledge you have about the job the better for you because then you have the power to set the pace.
Also it is important that we are able to identify our skills before we apply for any job or vacant post and understand the value of our skills as regards the responsibilities. This way you can determine whether you would get value for the job you are been paid to do.
What is the point of dreading going to work? Just because you don’t get value at work that job becomes an albatross around your neck ready and willing to pull you down the trail of mediocrity. Life is more than a position but its all about what you can contribute to the general good of the community and employ.
Enjoy you job!!!
Why Parents should start developing leadership and entrepreneurial skills early in their children
Over the years as a business development service provider and a facilitator of entrepreneurship, there is one thing I have come to understand and to learn. It is easier to teach leadership and entrepreneurship to children just growing and who do not have set ideas of what to expect out of life than it to teach it to adults who have become set in their ways.
I have learnt that adults are like diamond set in metal with prongs sold in stores, they have already been set and so have a determined shape. They will fight you every step of the way and kick against change. It is so difficult to make them see the reason why they have to do things in a different way from the one they are used to. In a community where the majority are below the average in their standard of living telling them to take up leadership roles when they can benefit more as followers.
But recently I was privileged to teach some children entrepreneurial skills and some vocational skills they were so receptive and ready to make use of what they have learnt. For this reason I do understand why many of the developed countries have more entrepreneurs than we have in Africa.
At tender ages they learn in school how to be productive and problem solvers, they learn how to turn problems to opportunities and how to keep going until they get results. Here in Africa culture and superstition about life and money makes it difficult for adults to learn entrepreneurial skills. To most adults it is their destiny to be employees and to serve; to them it is their lot to work 45 days a earn 4 weeks’ pay for it. Most employees will leave home as early as 4.30am and will not return home until 12midnight. Ask them why is it that they have not started a business of their own or what are their plans for the future and you would be surprised at the answers you get.
It is now in the “court” of the parents to make sure that their children learn from an early age that they are more than what the society thinks they can be. In the past in Africa entrepreneurship was the other of the day. Children learnt from an early age how to be their own person. They would go to the farm with their parents; they were given their own piece of land to cultivate and learnt at an early age how to get market for their crops at the village market. It was a community were laziness was frowned on and it was imperative that you become your own boss even if you had to learn a trade. Now our children find it hard to even think of anything aside from been told what to do and when to do it by their employers and that is even if they can get the job.
One thing I know and certain of is the fact that once the ideas of entrepreneurship and leadership are instilled in children it will be difficult to change their minds. The kids I taught were so involved in what they were learning and took all I taught them to heart so much so that their parents became involved in their activities. They even began thinking of how to make sales from their new skills and save the money in their piggy bank.
Imagine if these children had good mentors and parents that will continue to encourage them to continue growing as entrepreneur and leaders in their own little way. Imagine parents encouraging their children to develop skills that they are good at instead of forcing them to become doctors, lawyers or engineers as most parents want for their children. Every passion and talent is an opportunity waiting to become an enterprise. This passion is properly channelled in children at an early age will reduce the rate of unemployment and help build the economy of the community that our children find themselves in.
If parents start from home, it becomes easy for the society to make good leaders out of them and the children would focus more at creating wealth instead of becoming a burden on the society. Let parents understand that if they must have peace of mind in their old age they must instil in their children early the importance of wealth creation and job creation; the disadvantages of been dependent on government and the community for their survival and been at the risk of been at the mercy of an employer.
Build A JAMB Result Checking Website To Win 150,000 Naira ( The new Nairaland IT Contest)
This is the latest from Nigeria’s own Oluwaseun Osewa the owner of nairaland forum. In the past he has contributed to the trend in software and application programming initiatives that encourages the youths in IT in Nigeria to challenge themselves towards been creative. This Competition is open to unemployed application / software programmer. If you are a Nigerian and can write a program in python, cherrypy, MySQL or HD in google code PLEASE ATTEMPT THIS!!!
To get the full gist and read the comments of those interested in the contest please visit http://www.nairaland.com/904050/build-jamb-result-checking-website
From Nairaland………………………………..
Hello Guys & Girls,
The JAMB website goes down every year when results are released. It’s a national embarrassment, and it needs to be fixed right away. I bet the JAMB website is going to crash again after the next UTME exam if we don’t show them how it’s done! I hereby announce a programming contest to create an open source JAMB result checking script just to show the JAMB Tech guys how it’s done.
You’re to create a simple JAMB result checking website that works just like the official version and can handle millions of candidate records and heavy traffic from all of them trying to check their results on the same day. I’m also offering a prize of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira only (N150,000) to the person who writes the best JAMB result checking script, but in order to win the prize, you must satisfy certain conditions:
- You must be unemployed or employed/self-employed and currently earning less than ₦251k per month.
- You must develop your JAMB result checker with Python 3.2, CherryPy , MySQL 5+, & hg on Google Code.
- You must indicate your interest before 12 noon on Sunday 1st April by posting a link to your repo here.
- You must complete the result checker before 6pm on Friday 6th April and link to it on this thread.
The writer of the best result checking script as assessed by me and other judges will win One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira only (N150,000), provided you qualify and follow all the rules. The money will be deposited into your account about 3 days after the submission deadline. Ask me any question about this contest and I’ll try to answer you promptly. May you win the One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira only (N150,000).
Good luck!
Oluwaseun Osewa
Founder Nairaland
Training and Learning
I have found out as a trainer in business and entrepreneurial development that everybody wants to learn. For some it is more difficult than it is for other but to them learning would go smoothly of the trainer were to understand who they were and give them what they want using their lives and experiences as a basis for the training. Life itself is a training ground where we all learn and re-learn things every day and year. Therefore people need to be affected in their minds if you want them to learn. The most reason why people who not learn is because the trainer is too proud to meet them at a point where they (the student) can understand what you are trying to say and in essence be able to apply it to their everyday life of business.
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It takes a person with a passion to see change and a will to become who the student needs to be able to have an impact on a mindset that needs to be changed from what it was to something different. To him the norm is that he is okay from where he is standing, but the trainer sees a better life and if the trainer cannot come down to make him understand the impact of what he is teaching can have on the students future then their is no point standing if front of the class and expending that hard earned energy. Yes I mean it! Training is serious hard business. The fact that you stand up in front of a group of people no matter their age, sex, nationality, believe or mindset to paint the picture of a new better way of doing things and also getting them to understand and change to that which you are preaching is not a small feat.
Student want to have a sense of belonging especially in a situation where you are teaching adults who have never had formal education and you mix them up with those who know the basics; the level of insecurity becomes high and gets higher when the haves begin to dominate the class and the have nots continue to struggle. It is a great honour to that trainer who is able to focus on the have nots where education is concerned and treat them as the priority in the classroom.
The training room becomes your own ministry to preach to those willing and unwilling to learn the principles that you believe they should have; whether its about life or business, it is the same. Training can be as much fun as learning should be if we focus not on what we are training or should be training and the benefits but focus on the students and their needs.
2012 – Differentiating between time spent and time invested
Happy New Year! This is 2012 a wonderful year with great potentials and opportunities for the discerning entrepreneur.
Tell me dear reader, what are the plans that you have for yourself this year? What did you not do well in 2011 that you have promised yourself that you would achieve this year? What did you start in 2011 that you expect to finish this year?
There is one thing that is common to all mankind. One universal gift from God or nature whatever you believe in. Whether you are male or female, old or young, married or single, a public servant or a privately employed worker, a professional or a labour worker, an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur, a student or a graduate we all have been given 24hours in every day for all the days of our lives. We go to bed at night and wake up the morning of the next day, go to work or school come back home or go out clubbing or relaxing. In whatever way our routine is we have 24 hours in which we have to execute them.
When it comes to time there are 3 categories of people;
- The people who spend time
- The people who invest time
- The people who are able to balance both spending of time and investing
Whichever category of people you are, remember that time is money and time once spent or invested can never be revisited or returned except maybe in your dreams.
That is why in 2012 I want us all to look at our time from these two different perspectives; do you spend time? If so what do you get in return and what value does the spending give to you? Do you invest your time? What do you hope to get in return for the investment and how have you invested that time? Or do you balance both?
While I was growing up I used to think that the best thing was to spend time then I thought that investing my time would be better. But today as I write I realize these two things about time;
- When you spend time it is about your present and you are not thinking or the future then. It the time you spend in making things happen now. Think about it my friends. When you spend you get the immediate satisfaction for the spending at that given time.
- When you invest your time you are thinking of the future and planning towards it. This means that the time you put into planning for the future does not have an immediate satisfaction like when you spend it and so you have to wait for it to yield fruit. Remember that if the investment is not properly done the fruit might not be worth the wait.
- Therefore we need to know when to spend and when to invest. For it is not all the time we must invest neither is it all the time we must spend. It must however be balanced.
Let us look at it from this point of view. Say you have a project that you are working on in your spare time and this project is something you have been investing in hoping that it would bring you future rewards (whatever the reward might be), what amount of time do you think you can invest in it? Seeing that you must also spend time on the things you do each day like go to work, family, time with friends, etc. do you invest 2hours each day? That is 730 hours of one year which is 8.33% of the 8760 hours you have in a year and since 2012 is a leap year its 8784hours and that makes it 8.31% of a leap year.
If you invest 8.31% of 2012 or 730 hours on a project what do you plan to get out of it? What value will it give to you in the short, medium and long term? It is important to set dates and time and think of the future benefits that is inherent in all of them.
If you spend time for now what satisfaction do you get from it? As a salary earner working as an employee you do more of spending time than in investing time because you are at work from 8am to 5pm everyday Monday to Friday every week of the year. That means you have spent a minimum of 9hours (37.5%) in a day at your paid job. In 5 working days of the week there are 120hours and you spend 45 hours working at a paid job. In actual fact you spend more than that since you leave your home early to get to work on time and you don’t get home until later. Therefore in earning a salary at the end of the month you would have spent about 15hours of your 24hours. I hope you have set aside some of that time in learning skills that would be of great benefit to you in the future either in getting a better paid job or in starting your own business otherwise if you just spend and not invest you are in for a bleak future!
Please do the math of how much of your year you have spent in 2011 and how much you invested. If you are the kind of person who goes to work and you do not do anything to better yourself, you don’t acquire new skills that makes you stand out, you don’t invest time in anything for the future then you have to do better in 2012 because remember the saying “time waits for no man”, “time once spent can never be recouped”, “time is money”, “time flies”, and again “time waits for no man” spend and invest it wisely.
As a business owner or as an entrepreneur how do you manage your time? Mostly business owners do more of investing than spending because we strive to improve our skills and businesses so that we are always relevant irrespective of where and when. But for some of us we find it hard to balance the time we spend and the time we invest. This is very important for every entrepreneur who wants to still be in business 50yrs from now and wants the business to remain even after he is dead. Therefore even though we are thinking of the immediate gratification that we would get now in the time we spend on the business so we can take care of ourselves and the family we must also ensure that we invest the right amount of time to balance it up.
If you have your own business you must have a clear cut timetable of what you must spend for each day and what you must invest and the how of both. Have a daily to-do list and check at the end of each day to know if you have been able to meet all you have set out to do and at the time allocated to them. You will realize that having a to-do helps you to achieve more than you would if you had started the day with no plan for how you would be spending or investing your time. Invest time at the start of each day in planning so that you know when to spend and when to invest.
Let how you spend time, and the knowledge of what to invest time in, be the New Year resolution for 2012. This way we would make the year a worthwhile one for us and everyone around us.
Time is money, spend and invest it wisely!!!! Use your time well and for the right things!!!!
2011 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,100 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 35 trips to carry that many people.
