Year: 2010

Entrepreneurship is much more than making money. It is a calling. And like every other calling, it’s people-centered. It’s never about you, it’s all about others. It’s a calling to serve; it’s not about what you can accumulate (money/profit), it’s about what you can contribute (service/value). Why do I say this?

what is a business model?

In the words of Seth Godin;

“This classic MBA phrase describes how you set up a business so you can get money out of it. A business model is a machine, a method, a plan for extracting money from a system. Without a business model, a company can get publicity, hire employees and spend money, but it won’t make a profit.”

Credibility is a great leverage for building profitability in business if you can only learn to put it first before profitability. It can take you to places you have never anticipated and it can bring you closer to your entrepreneurial goals faster than any other business strategy. Learn to master the four steps I will be sharing in this unusual article and see credibility do wonders for your business.

As an entrepreneur, if your idea of a great company is to own a business that makes you loads of money, then I suggest you find another career path for yourself, because being an entrepreneur might not be your thing. Why? Because true entrepreneurs seek to make a difference by creating something new and exciting; money is never their primary objective. Their sole objective for going into business is to build a significant company. That is; a company that is different (uniqueness) and making a difference (usefulness). To bring this significant company into existence and nurture it into greatness is the passion of a true entrepreneur. Money is never their main reason for existing, to them, money is only a reward or the result of their commitment and passion to building a great company. As a result, true entrepreneurs don’t do business as usual – they go about business in an unusual manner. In other words, true entrepreneurs are not motivated by money rather they are motivated by a cause. They go into business to make a vision, idea or dream a reality both for themselves and for others. Their passion is building a significant company and nurturing it into greatness.

A niche is a specialized market in which a business operates in. For example, every automobile company produces cars; therefore we have the automobile industry. In that same industry, we have certain niches, such as; the luxurious car niche, the high speed niche, the safety niche and the affordable niche. These niches represent different smaller percentages of the automobile industry. They are different from the general automobile industry, because their market is highly specialized.

Preparation which involves the cultivation of 3 highly effective habits of learning, thinking and planning helps you begin the process of achieving business success, but without execution, which involves putting into action all that you’ve learnt, thought about and laid out in a logical plan, all you’d ever accomplish is remaining in the process but never actually achieving success. Preparation is getting ready for the game, while execution is getting into the field and playing the game. You see, you can prepare all day long, but if you never make it to the field and actually start putting to use all the skills you’ve acquired from practice (preparation), your chances of succeeding are not only slim, but absolutely non-existent.

Success they say is when opportunity meets with preparation. To succeed, you must train yourself first to identify opportunities, then look for ways to seize those opportunities. In other words, success is developing the ability to recognize opportunities and developing the capacity to seize those opportunities recognized. Most times, when you see great achievements, don’t just marvel at the results, find out what specific actions was taken before they got the kind of results you now admire. It’s those set of specific actions that gave birth to the results you now admire. You cannot hope to achieve the same kind of results they achieved by simply studying or copying the results, never. To get the same results, you’ve got to identify, learn, master and take the same set of specific actions.

What is eagle eye leadership?

Eagle eye leadership is a kind of leadership practiced mostly by successful leaders in any work of life. It is a kind of leadership based on focus and priority. Eagle eye leadership is not a reactive kind of leadership that is based on just doing (movement or motion), but a proactive leadership based on improving (progress or contribution). Eagle eye leadership weighs every decision, situation and action against its original vision, destination and intention. It asks “how does this decision, situation or action play out and affect my initial vision, destination or intention?” it asks, “what is the place or role of this decision, situation or action in my overall intention, destination or vision?” it doesn’t just do, but does only when it finds a purpose, a place or reason for what needs to be done in the overall scheme of things. Every move, decision and action is tied to a predetermined end, purpose or vision. It is interested in doing only what matters; such things that would significantly affect the bottom-line.

The entrepreneurial life is very overwhelming, more like joggling too many balls in the air. In a rather funny way, the odds always seem to stack up against we entrepreneurs. What then shall we do; give up our entrepreneurial quest and settle for less? Or march on courageously despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles? I’m sure you would most likely agree with me that the second option is our surest bet as entrepreneurs and the very essence of the entrepreneurial spirit. You did not choose to become an entrepreneur because the journey is easy, NO. You chose to become an entrepreneur because the journey is worth it.

Young men who want to start making millions today have a wide variety business fields to choose from when selecting their careers. The one an individual selects will, of course, depend largely on his particular talents, interest, background, training and experience. No one can possibly achieve any real or lasting success or ‘get rich’ in business by being a conformist (conventional). The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing almost anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertip!

Why on earth should anyone buy into your idea?

Providing answer to this question is where your greatest nightmare as an entrepreneur begins. Your idea is great; it has the potential to change the world, but how come no one except you is willing to stick their neck out for it? How come all people ever do when you pitch your idea is listen, nod their heads and do nothing else? Because you are not convincing. Let me be very quick to draw a line here; there is big difference between sounding convincing and actually being convincing. Sounding convincing is a matter of presentation, being convincing is a matter of credibility.

After the gates are closed on Black Friday, how many hours will you spend stuck at your cash wrap reconciling…

No one business can appeal to everybody. So your best response is to define your brand and consistently communicate your own Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The emergence of competitions clearly separates the men from the boys. It is the businesses that don’t clearly stand for something that often get eaten up by competitions. If your business doesn’t stand for something, it will fall for anything. To remain competitive, you’ve got to be distinctive. There’s got to be something about your business that will make the customers have a second thought about going to the new competitions. What would they miss if they stopped coming to patronize you?

Take it or leave it, the entrance of new competitions will either make you or break you; these are the only two options available to you. Panicking will break you as it almost did to us but focusing will make you as we later found out. You see when competitions show up in your line of business it’s more like a raging storm that can sweep you off your feet if you are not standing firm. It is not the time for you to panic and start making frantic moves born out of fear rather than strategic planning.

Whether you like it or not, the world of business is a very highly competitive one. Business is a game and it takes a lot to eventually emerge as a winner. Winning however does require you find a way to remain in business irrespective of competition. Perhaps one of the most critical factor in determining who wins or lose in the game of business is knowing what not to do in the face of intense competition.

Vision; an idea to die for is the ONE thing that separates leaders from all other people. Your effectiveness as a leader is determined by how well you are able to lead others towards the fulfillment of a vision. Without a vision you cannot unify the collective efforts of the right people. People like to know what they are working towards. The right people don’t just gather around or follow leaders who are only ‘good people’ (character); they want to gather around and follow leaders who are passionate about ‘doing good’ (vision).

Although character is related to personality, it is not the same thing. Personality is primarily inborn traits, while character consists of learned behaviour. Personality is what comes with you from birth; character is what you build all through your life. Therefore, as a CEO in playing your leadership role, character development must be an ongoing process and this lifetime journey revolves around two key things that you must constantly focus on and always strive to improve. What are they?

Why is character required for effective leadership?

Because every organization takes on the personality of its leaders. Your people are fractional bits and pieces of who you are as their leader. Who you are as a person reflects on the entire organization. So if you happen to be a wrong person as a result of a flawed character, then the whole organization is in jeopardy. You cannot expect to lead the right kind of people that an organization needs to be effective when you are not the right person yourself. It takes only the RIGHT kind of leader to lead the RIGHT kind of people necessary to achieve the RIGHT kind of results an effective organization desires.

The leadership role of every CEO. Making an organization effective –capable of doing the RIGHT things – is the work of a CEO as a leader. But for an organization to be truly effective, everyone within the organization, including you the CEO as the leader must be effective –capable of doing the RIGHT things. You are not exempted from the equation just because you are occupying the highest position. In fact, and this is the most critical factor about your leadership role as a CEO, until you the leader is effective, don’t expect anyone else to be effective. In other words, you must first become the right kind of leader (effective) before gathering the right kind of people (team) and putting each in the right seat (position) all working collectively in the right direction (vision, goal or objective) for the benefit of the entire organization. You are the missing piece of the puzzle. Without an effective leader, no organization can be effective.

The 3 Essential Roles Of Successful CEOs. The role of a CEO is a 3-dimensional one involving three major responsibilities. So just as everybody else in your company, you as the boss also have certain key roles in which you have to function. Below is an overview of your work description as a CEO. The whole idea of being your own boss is about to go sour if you are not prepared to do the work that comes with the title.