Essential Business Skills Checklist For Every Entrepreneur
What is the number one reason for most small business failures? The number one reason why most small businesses fail is low business IQ!
A common trend among small business owners is thinking that all it takes to successfully run a business is technical skill plus some common sense. After all, business is all about selling your stuff to customers, so what’s the big deal? With their technical skills, entrepreneurs create products/services that they sell to customers using their common sense. Before long, they start wondering why things are not as rosy as they had imagined.
It’s not because your product/service is bad; it’s because you lack fundamental business skills. The best product/service mindset is how many entrepreneurs get into business. It’s not just about the quality of your idea; it’s more about the quality of your execution.
Execution is how you intend to turn your idea into reality. It’s the measure of your capability to make your idea happen. It’s far more important than your idea and here’s why.
Business Is NOT Common Sense!
Being an entrepreneur is not a job that you only require a specific skill and some common sense to do. Being an entrepreneur is a burden that goes beyond specific job functions or descriptions. So a good way to fail in business very gallantly is to rely on your technical skills and common sense alone.
As an entrepreneur your task is to build a business and not to do business. It is a task that demands more than one skill. Because you are building it, and not doing it like a job would imply, you are never going to succeed relying on one skill alone!
That you are a great accountant doesn’t mean you will build a great accounting firm. The technical skill of accounting is only one aspect of building a business known as product development or product knowledge. In other words, it means you are good at doing accounting, no more, no less.
It doesn’t mean you are a good marketer. It doesn’t mean you are a good manager. It doesn’t mean you are a good entrepreneur. It doesn’t mean you are good with people –leadership. It doesn’t mean you are good at selling. It doesn’t mean you good at strategy.
All of these and many more are what building a business entails. And your success is determined by how skillful you are in more than one area of business. How skillful you are in the fundamental principles of business. Without them, everything about your great product/service is trash.
The first fundamental business skill you need as an entrepreneur to build a successful business is entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship Is Your Number ONE Business Skill
How good are you at thinking up ideas and turning them into viable business opportunities?
Entrepreneurship is the first business skill you need to develop. It is not starting your own business as many often misinterpret. It is about taking an idea and turning it into a product/service and successfully building a business around that idea. The skill of entrepreneurship is the skill of making an idea a reality profitably.
So one good way to know whether you are a good entrepreneur is to ask yourself how many ideas have you turned into a product/service that people paid for?
A good entrepreneur is not judged by how many ideas they have, but by how many they have successfully launched into the market and profited from. Your ideas are not what people pay for, they pay for solutions to problems they have. You need to take your idea and turn it into something people want to pay for. That’s what it means to be an entrepreneur.
To Develop Your Entrepreneurship Skill, Master The Following:
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Creativity:
Entrepreneurs are the ideas people and the ability to think up ideas is creativity. To be creative, you must be able to see something new from something old. Creativity is the use of your imagination to make things that didn’t exist before happen.
It’s more of a habit than a skill; the habit of thinking up something new and making new things. It becomes a skill through constant practice. Your creativity is expressed through creation. If you are not thinking up stuffs and making stuffs, then you are not creative!
The best place to start is to cultivate the habit of inventing play. What does this mean? Look at your immediate surrounding and think up different ways of doing things and giving it a shot. The objective is to train your mind’s eye to always seek out an alternative approach to solving existing problems.
Creativity is simply thinking about “what could be” rather than focusing on “what is”. It is the search for a better alternative other than what is available. As an entrepreneur you should always be looking for new ways to do old things.
A quick word of caution here, creativity does not absolutely mean originality. Meaning, it doesn’t have to be your idea, it can be a borrowed idea from others. The creativity is in your ability to successfully integrate the idea into what you are doing.
The source of your idea doesn’t matter, what matters is the unique changes it brings into the prevailing situation. So keep your eyes open for ideas worth borrowing around you and don’t be afraid of making mistakes trying your hands on these new ideas!
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Strategic Planning:
This is the ability to see the end from the beginning or begin with the end in mind. Strategic planning is how you define your goals, clarify the required process, estimate the needed resources and integrate all the different aspects into one overall blueprint. It is about defining and taking meaningful actions.
In other words, strategic planning is about putting your best foot forward. It’s knowing that there are two possible outcomes from every action; success or failure, then taking only calculated actions that minimize failure and maximize success. This is the difference between movement and progress. One is action [movement] and the other is meaningful action [progress].
As an entrepreneur, you have unlimited ideas but have limited resources to execute them. So you cannot afford to lash out frantically pursuing all your ideas all at once. You need to be strategic with the use of your limited resources to ensure they are being expended on your most viable ideas per time.
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Market Research:
The patience to understand the audience you are trying to reach. Many entrepreneurs can’t clearly identify who their market is and what their needs are. Market research is about getting intimate with the target market you want to sell to. It involves understanding who they are, where they are, what they like and don’t like, how they think, why they buy, what they do, how much they earn, and every fact about them.
These facts are broadly classified into two:
Demography: all physical attributes of your target customers (age, sex, income, location, religion, marital status, education, association, etc).
Psychography: all emotional attributes of your target customers (interests, fears, dreams, values, desires, wants, etc).
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Competitive Analysis:
This is the patience to understand your competition. Market research is about target customers, competitive analysis is about your industry, niche or competition. These are other businesses targeting the same market as you and selling them similar things as you.
You need to get intimate with them from far. You need to understand their strengths and their weaknesses and come up with ideas on how to differentiate yourself from them. No one is going to buy from a copycat, so competitive analysis is how you stand out in the market.
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Value Creation/Product Development:
The very essence of entrepreneurship is the creation of solutions in the form of products and services to the problems plaguing humanity. So your skill set as an entrepreneur will be incomplete without an ability to create value –products/services. The ultimate test of your entrepreneurial skills is your ability to identify people’s needs and create products/services that meet those needs.
Your success is largely dependent on how well you can meet these needs better than others. To sharpen this skill, focus on the customer. Make the customer the centre of all you do as an entrepreneur. Your business exist to serve the customer, the moment you lose sight of this fact, the less capable you will be in creating value –products/services.
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Effective Communication –Written and Oral:
Since entrepreneurs are the ideas people, most of what will make you or break you is the quality of your ideas and how well you communicate them to the world. Your ability to effectively communicate your ideas will determine whether the world will accept or reject you.
Why is this skill so important? Because being an entrepreneur begins with your idea for a product/service and in most cases, you will require the help of others to make your idea a reality.
The survival of your idea is dependent on whether you get the support of these people or not. At every time in your entrepreneurial journey, you will be asked over and over again to explain your idea. Whether it is to a panel of investors, a strategic partner, a possible buyer or even your employees.
If you can’t win them over with your words, then you’ve lost out before you even began. Effective communication skills include listening, copywriting, public speaking, presentation skills etc.
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Strategic Alliance —Networking/Collaboration:
You must be able to enlist the help of others much smarter than you. Most of these people you might not be able to pay as full time workers, but this doesn’t hinder your working with them. This is where your networking skills come in handy. Collaborating with these smart people will enable you get more done with less.
As an entrepreneur, you cannot accomplish much alone. So it’s very important you seek out early in your journey those who will complement your skill set. These are people I refer to as vision partners –you are passionate about the same cause. Collaborating with them will greatly impact your wealth of information and experience.
Your Turn
How has your business been affected as a result of low business IQ?
Which of the above entrepreneurial skill set are you currently struggling with?
From experience, what other areas should entrepreneurs focus on to develop their entrepreneurship skill?
Kindly share your thoughts in the comment section below. Remember to be as specific as possible to add to the collective learning. Thanks!
- Published in Entrepreneurship, Thought Bank
Unusual Entrepreneur Interview With Bernadette Jiwa Of TheStoryOfTelling.com
Welcome to another edition of the Unusual Entrepreneur Interviews and today we have here with us unusual entrepreneur Bernadette Jiwa. She is the founder of the story of telling, a brand consulting business that helps entrepreneurs make their ideas matter. I’m so excited to have her on the unusual entrepreneur interview series as she is going to be the third femalepreneur interviewed!
If you are just joining us for the first time, this is the unusual entrepreneur interview series. It is a parade of unusual entrepreneurs who are changing the world and profiting from purpose. Profiting from purpose by changing the world isn’t an impossible dream as many tend to think of it, but a realistic one as many unusual entrepreneurs have extraordinarily proven. Click here to read more unusual entrepreneur interviews.
How Unusual Is Bernadette Jiwa?
She’s a business writer, idea catalyst and brand storyteller. She helps the entrepreneurs behind emerging brands to stand out and show them how to communicate their difference to customers in today’s noisy, crowded marketplace.
She does this by crafting strategies and stories for passionate companies and visionary brands who want to make meaning and money, by building legacies alongside businesses. She also creates brand names, product names and book titles, with words that paint a thousand pictures.
She is the author of You Are The Map Maker and the co-creator of striking truths. She’s been named as one of The Top 100 Branding Experts To Follow On Twitter . Her writing has been featured in guest posts about Brand Naming on Women 2.0, the female founders website and Building Your Business on the popular branding blog; Logo Design Love.
She collaborated with author Seth Godin as the project manager of the What Matters Now print edition and has written articles included in several of Seth’s Triiibes eBooks. She was an expert panelist at TEDxPerth Pitch School and her blog was voted Best Australian Business Blog 2012.
Take it away Bernadette!
Interview Questions Part One
ENTREPRENEURSHIP – Awakening the Spirit of business
1. Can you please tell us a little about yourself and your business? What do you do? How do you do it? Why do you do it and who do you do it for?
I craft strategies and stories for passionate entrepreneurs and visionary brands who want to make meaning and money, by building legacies alongside businesses.
2. How would you describe your entrepreneurial journey into the world of business? Where there any key incidents or life changing events that inspired your decision to become an entrepreneur?
I don’t think it was a conscious decision, just a series of small choices that layered themselves upon each other over time.
3. When you started out in business, what specific idea, purpose or vision was your key driving force?
To help people communicate the best of themselves, and inspire them to build the bridge from where they are to where they want to be.
4. What is your take on the general notion that entrepreneurs should build a business around what they naturally love to do?
I believe that you should do things you care about. If you’re lucky enough to be able to make that choice why wouldn’t you?
5. What is your personal life mission as an entrepreneur? That is; what contributions do you want to make with your life or what would you like to be remembered for as an entrepreneur through the businesses you create when you die?
I want to help as many people as I can to do things that they thought were impossible.
6. What would you describe as the purpose of entrepreneurship? That is; what role do entrepreneurs play in the world?
The world needs people who are not only capable of imagining the future, but those who know how to go out and create it. Dreamers that ‘do’.
Interview Questions Part Two
STRATEGY – The unusual execution of business best practices
7. How do you identify business opportunities and what metrics do you use to measure their viability?
Mostly by using gut instinct. Learning from past experiences, trying, failing or succeeding. If it’s a project I’m jumping out of my skin to work on then I know it’s a good fit.
8. Do you have mentors, business coach or external consultants that you work closely with to grow yourself and your business? If yes, to what extent would you describe their impact on your business? If no, are there any particular reasons?
I have heroes. People I watch closely and I work hard to make even a fraction of the difference they have made. If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today.
9. How do you strategically use your time as an entrepreneur? What key activities would you recommend entrepreneurs use their time for?
Spend most time on the things you care most about.
10. How do you generate profitable customers for your business? What unusual approaches do you adopt for marketing your products/services?
I like to use a pull rather than push method and out-teach the competition. I work hard to create what others might find valuable.
11. Many entrepreneurs complain about not succeeding in business due to lack of adequate funding, what is your take on this matter and how do you cope with funding issues in your business?
Funding might have been an issue a couple of decades ago, I don’t believe it is any longer. Most ideas can be tested on a tiny scale for next to nothing. Think big, start small. Plan for big, if it works, scale.
12. When starting out a new business, who are the likely possible partners or professional service providers you would recommend every entrepreneur work with?
People who can help you communicate the best of your idea to the world. Designers, copywriters.
13. The pricing of products/services is always an issue for entrepreneurs, what unusual approach do you take when it comes to pricing?
Don’t compete on price. Compete on value.
Interview Questions Part Three
MISCELLANEOUS – Resourceful Recommendations, tools, books, and ideas for unusual entrepreneurs.
14. Since you became an entrepreneur – someone who solves problems for people profitably; what has been your most outstanding accomplishments in the context of business?
I’m most proud of working out how to speak and write to people in a way that resonates. Helping people to tell stories about their business ideas is something I’m really grateful to be able to do. Having the opportunity to work with Seth Godin, who is my hero.
15. What would you describe as your major setbacks and what lessons did you pick from them?
Choosing the wrong things to focus on at times, failing to understand the problem I wanted to solve. The importance of understanding the problem to solve!
16. Where there any particular questions you expected me to ask that is beneficial to entrepreneurs and I didn’t? Kindly share with us such questions and their relevant answers here.
No. You did a great job!
Your Turn
What more would you like to know about the Unusual Bernadette Jiwa? You can ask her further questions below in the comment section and I will be sure that you will get an answer directly from her.
Also, what did you learn from this unusual entrepreneur? What lessons, what philosophy of his strike you the most?
Bernadette has shared her unusual story with you, now is time to hear from you. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
- Published in Interviews, Thought Bank
The Integrated Selling System: Who Says Your Gateman Can’t Sell?
Selling is not a departmental function [for a select few].
Selling is an organizational function [for everybody].
It is a core function of every business that shouldn’t be relegated to one particular department or set of people in a company. Selling is a company-wide responsibility.
How Do I Mean?
The first purpose of a business is the creation of a customer through the provision of innovative products/services that meet people’s needs and solves their problems. A business exists to solve people’s problems through the products/services they create and by doing this; they make customers out of people.
Without customers, a company is out of business. And without selling, a company can’t create customers. So if a company must continue to exist, it must never fail in her core responsibility of creating customers.
Such a fundamental responsibility is beyond the scope of only a few sales superstars. It is the collective responsibility of everyone working in the company. It should be everyone’s responsibility to inform the right people [target market] of the company’s capacity to meet their needs and solve their problems. Creating a customer [selling] is not the duty of some people, it is everyone’s responsibility!
Strategic Selling VS Personal Selling
A couple of months ago, I was invited by a client who started business with 7 million naira 8 months prior to when he contacted me. At the time of our meeting, the start up capital had deflected to 2 million naira, that’s 5 million naira gone in just 8 months!
What happened?
According to him, his sales people were the problem. They simply weren’t performing up to expectations despite his initial investment of a car to facilitate their work. So rather than make sales, they simply were losing money faster than they could ever imagine.
When we got talking, like I always begin every consulting/coaching project, I diagnose the problem by asking several questions. It turned out that these sales people had simply been hired, given a product to sell backed with some product knowledge and left to perform magic.
“What was the underlying idea behind this?” I asked him.
“Simple.” He answered. “During the interview I asked them to sell me anything they could see around them and the two candidates that succeeded in convincing me to buy got the job.”
And so off they went into the market to convince as many people as possible to buy the company’s product. After all, they could sell anything, right? Before long, these same sales superstars that could sell anything failed at selling something. And my dear client became worried!
In the course of my work with entrepreneurs helping them to grow their small businesses, such an experience is very common. They have a product, they hire some sales superstars and the rest as they say is history. When as an entrepreneur, you see selling as the task of a few individuals, rather than an organizational function, then there is problem.
Most entrepreneurs build fragmented organizations, this doesn’t cease to amaze me. Why on earth would you treat your business as a fragmented piece rather than the integrated whole it is? In a recent article, I talked about the need for strategic marketing. I pointed out why it is important for entrepreneurs to go about their marketing from an holistic approach, emphasizing that marketing is not a one off activity but one that requires a great deal of integration.
Selling is a marketing function and like all marketing functions, it needs to be strategically integrated. It is not something you lash out on with a few key people in your organization; it is a thing that must cut across the entire company. Your sales people are only a fraction of your entire marketing function. They are a tiny piece of a much larger whole.
So leaving sales in the hands of the salespeople is like expecting the whole to function with only one part, how possible is that? The fact that your business comprises several individuals performing certain specific functions doesn’t make it any less of an integrated system it is. Just as your body is an integrated system made up of several unique parts, so is a business.
Every department is a part of an integrated system. Every function is a part of a much bigger function. Every individual is a part of a team. In a company, nothing is by itself; everything and anything is attached to something and everything. Whatever affects the whole affects the part and whatever affects the part affects the whole. Nothing is independent, everything is inter-dependent!
So each part must be consciously aligned to serve the primary purpose of a business –creating and satisfying customers. And this is what I refer to as the integrated selling system.
What Is The Integrated Selling System?
The integrated selling system is about creating a customer–centred strategic marketing organization. It is about bringing the whole resources of a business together to create a company where everyone is focused on meeting the needs of the customer and solving their problems.
The integrated selling system is about creating a strategic sales process for your company. It is about putting the customer first; making the customer the boss. It is about placing the customer at the centre of everything everyone does in the organization. It is about collectively working together regardless of individual specialization to define, create, communicate, and deliver value to the customer.
The best way to understand this concept of integrated selling system is to see your business as a play, your workplace as the stage, your workers as actors, yourself as the director and your customers as the audience watching the play. The moment you understand this, you suddenly realize how everyone and everything fits together.
The audience [customer] doesn’t judge the play [business] by the performance of one singular actor [worker] or by the creativity of the director [owner]. To the audience, the outcome of the play is measured by the totality of the experience delivered by the entire crew. To the audience, the whole play is the sum of all its parts. To the audience, what matters most is the satisfaction derived from watching the play. If that satisfaction is hindered by one singular actor, to the audience, the entire play is a failure.
Customers don’t buy in parts; they buy finished products/services as a whole. So they don’t care any less about the individual parts that make up the whole they pay for, they only care about the impact the whole makes in their life. Customers judge the performance of a business and the satisfaction derived from consuming their products/services as a whole and not in parts. To the customer, everything and everyone involved in your company makes an impression.
Your task as an entrepreneur is to decide what that impression will be; negative or positive?
How To Create An Integrated Selling System
[The Strategic Sales Process]
The integrated selling system is how you strategically structure your business to make a positive impression on the customer. And here is how to do that.
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Begin With “WHY?”
Why are you in this business?
Why are you doing what you are doing?
Why are you producing or selling what you are selling?
Why should your employees care about what your business does?
Why should the customers care about what your business does?
Why should anyone other than yourself care about the existence of your company?
Beginning with “why” is a question of purpose. To enlist the support and commitment of your people in creating a positive impression on the customer will require much more than their salary. If your people are simply motivated to work because of their pay, then you don’t have a “why” or your “why” is not BIG enough for them to invest their heart into your business.
If there is no other reason why they should be working for you beyond just making the sale, then you’ve only succeeded in employing their body but not their heart nor their soul. And when people work for you with only their body, don’t expect the best from them. Why? Because they are only working for survival. And when survival is the object, business is as usual.
The “why” is the unseen part of the products/services you sell that gives both your people and your target customers a reason to associate with your brand. The “why” is the totality of the experience you are creating for the customer. The “why” is the emotion attached to your business both from your customers and your workers. The “why” is the meaning of your business. The “why” is the foundation on which all other functions derive their meaning. The “why” is what you want your business to be in the eyes of the customer, your workers, your competition and the world in general. The “why” is the essence of your business!
Your people needs to know, why are we here?
The customer needs to know, why are you here?
The world needs to know, why should we care that your business exists?
The integrated selling system is all about finding the “why”, creating it, communicating it and consistently delivering it. The why is that positive impression you must make on the customer. When the “why” is known, everyone and everything begins to make sense. Your people are free to creatively come up with their own ideas to ensure the why is achieved.
Why?
Because they see themselves as part of something bigger than you. They see themselves as co-creators of something that isn’t beneficial to only you. They see that the work they are being asked to do MATTERS, not to only to you, but to so many other people out there. They see themselves in the making of greatness. If you are going to raise an army of extraordinary workers, then you’ve got to give them a vision worth dying for!
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Get The RIGHT People On Board And The WRONG People Off (The Who?)
When the “why” is clearly defined, the next step to creating an integrated selling system is getting the right people in and the wrong people out. The right people are those passionate about the “why”. How do you identify them?
Simply list out certain character traits you are looking for and select those who naturally exhibit those character traits. The key word here is —naturally exhibit. Meaning it is not something you remind them to do, but what they naturally do.
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Assign ROLES And Clarify EXPECTATIONS (The What?)
Let each person function in their core areas of strength. Don’t put round pegs in a square hole. People function best in their areas of natural abilities. Remember, that’s what qualifies them as the right people. This is the assignment of roles, just like an actor is auditioned for a role that best suits their personality.
The second part is clarifying certain expectations demanded from each role assigned. Without clarifying expectations, it will be difficult to evaluate results. Remember, what you are trying to create is an integrated selling system comprising different functional parts collectively producing a definite outcome.
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Establish Key PROCESSES For Each Role (The How?)
A system is a system because of its ability to create and recreate definite outcomes with little or no error. In order for your people to repeatedly create the desired outcomes from each role assigned, setup structures and processes through which they are to function.
An established process is a laid out step by step way of carrying out a particular function. Going back to our acting analogy, the script is the process actors must follow to make the play a success. In the world of business, this script is created into processes that your people follow. This is how they do what needs to be done to deliver the “why”.
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Equip With NECESSARY Tools
Don’t send your people out into the market to bring in customers when they don’t have the required tools for the task. For every positive impression you want to make on the customer, make available the necessary tools for it. Tools help to facilitate the task of winning the customer. Stop telling your people to improvise, make available the tools for the kind of results you expect them to deliver.
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Get OUT Of The Way
This is a very important step in creating an integrated selling system –freedom. People are not machines that you control, they are to be inspired and set free to do the work. Don’t box your people in with unnecessary supervisions, this is why you must assign roles and clarify expectations early enough. People need sufficient freedom to do their best work, so please let them be!
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Evaluate, RE–ALIGN And Move On
Freedom doesn’t mean the absence of accountability; it only means the absence of unnecessary supervision. So you need to know how your people are doing. This is where evaluation comes in. Define specific timelines for each role assigned to assess outcomes against set expectations. If there be any mistake or short comings, point them out and re-align your people back on track so they can move on.
No system is without error, so this stage is very crucial. See it as the grease you apply on the engine to keep it working at its best. Never assume nothing will go wrong, something always go wrong. When it does happen, evaluate, re-align and move on.
Conclusion: Who Says Your Gate-man Can’t Sell?
The gate-man is the first person the customer meets at the point of entering into your business premises. The manner of reception is either going to reinforce what your salespeople claim your company is or will further create barriers to making the sale. In a previous unusual article, customer buying process, I mentioned one very important point —sales is never made in an instant!
Before a sale is made, several other factors must be considered by the prospect or target customer. All these factors are not only logical or rational, some are emotional or psychological. All these factors are considered by the customer every time they come in contact with your business. So what does this tell you?
That your salespeople are good at selling doesn’t guarantee that your gate-man won’t ruin the sales. The point is this, everyone must project a uniform image [the why] about the company that cuts across every cadre of the organization. The brand must be consistent whether the customer meets with your gate-man or salesman. Everyone is either eliminating the barriers to making the sale or they are adding more barriers. Period!
Your Turn
How do you approach selling in your business? Is it a fragmented responsibility of a few or the integrated responsibility of all?
From the above steps for creating an integrated selling system, which are you struggling with and why? Also, which have you successfully implemented and what were the outcomes?
Share your views in the comment section below. Can’t wait to hear from you!
- Published in Marketing, Thought Bank
Unusual Entrepreneur Interview With Olufemi Omotayo Of EntrepreNEWS.com.ng
Welcome to another edition of the Unusual Entrepreneur Interviews and today I am very honoured to have gotten this Unusual Entrepreneur in question. He recently became one of my friends online and I dare say meeting him has been very worthwhile.
Besides the obvious fact [as you will soon see] that we both share the same passion for the entrepreneurial development in Nigeria, he’s someone who puts in the work required for what he desires. He’s just been chosen to be a part of 500 Lagos start-up entrepreneurs in the Lagos State Ignite Enterprise and Employability project. As my newly discovered unusual entrepreneur, Bernadette Jiwa of thestoryoftelling.com would say; he’s a dreamer that ‘do’!
If you are just joining us for the first time, this is the unusual entrepreneur interview series. It is a parade of unusual entrepreneurs who are changing the world and profiting from purpose. Profiting from purpose by changing the world isn’t an impossible dream as many tend to think of it, but a realistic one as many unusual entrepreneurs have extraordinarily proven. Click here to read more unusual entrepreneur interviews.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
Interview Questions Part One
ENTREPRENEURSHIP – Awakening the Spirit of business
1. Can you please tell us a little about yourself and your business? What do you do? How do you do it? Why do you do it and who do you do it for?
My name is Olufemi Omotayo, a communicator and the publisher of EntrepreNEWS, a unique medium poised to be the reference point for all entrepreneurs in Nigeria. I am a seasoned writer and researcher with initial and advanced degrees in mass communication. I have an extensive experience as a media practitioner, especially in advert copywriting, reportorial and editorial capacities. My skills cover different genres of writing, especially in poetry and prose narratives. I have authored a few books and won recognition for my writing.
I founded EntrepreNEWS, which is a blend of ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘news’ due to my perceived gaping need for it in Nigeria. As a journalist with about a decade of experience (many of those in the print media), I had seen enough to want to contribute to building the capacity of Nigerians. Starting as a reporter, I have worked in various capacities culminating as an editor of special publications in a foremost West African pharmaceutical journal. But I see many things in the industry that I think could be improved upon. I feel the media do not have many developmental contents.
So, essentially, EntrepreNEWS hopes to make positive impact, especially for the enterprise-minded Nigerians. The initial focus is on start-ups. The idea is to make more Nigerians embrace entrepreneurship and get resources to enable them operate profitably. That explains why our tagline is: information for empowerment.
2. How would you describe your entrepreneurial journey into the world of business? Where there any key incidents or life changing events that inspired your decision to become an entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurs have few common traits which include:
- Identification of a need,
- Dissatisfaction of the status quo, and
- A burning desire to make a difference.
For a long time I did not consider myself as an entrepreneur. Although I aspired for lucrative jobs in the bank and oil and gas industries, I always ended up with media-related jobs. Indeed, I often got them quite easily. But a time comes when a man either considers his happiness or the desire to make an impact.
That moment came for me when out of curiosity I attended a job fair for the second time in 2011. Frankly, I was I was sickened by the sight of the mammoth crowd. I wondered why people continued to pursue the non-available jobs when they could create jobs for others. It became obvious to me that there is little entrepreneurial interest among Nigerian graduates. I wanted to fill that need immediately. I wanted to generate enthusiasm for entrepreneurship among Nigerians. That vision could neither allow me to rest nor concentrate on my job! Eventually I had to resign my employment to face the risk of being an entrepreneur myself. I wanted to be the voice for every start-up.
3. When you started out in business, what specific idea, purpose or vision was your key driving force?
Our key vision is captured in both our name and appendage. We want to be the number one platform where entrepreneurs get news, tips, information, resources; share opinions and network with fellow entrepreneurs. We will be the guide for the start-up owner trying to negotiate through the maze of building profitable businesses in Nigeria.
4. What is your take on the general notion that entrepreneurs should build a business around what they naturally love to do?
Life is already complicated; we should not make it more difficult. I like Albert Einstein’s quote that “everyone is a genius; but if you judged a fish by its inability to fly you make it believe it is stupid.” You have to operate in an area of your strength. It could either be that you have natural flair for the business idea, or you have undergone necessary training. You cannot just jump into an area totally unknown, except you have divine direction.
5. What is your personal life mission as an entrepreneur? That is; what contributions do you want to make with your life or what would you like to be remembered for as an entrepreneur through the businesses you create when you die?
I will be fulfilled if I have been able to help many people realise and pursue their entrepreneurial goals in life. I want to help my country create more jobs by informing and educating the people. I want to be the link between the greenhorn entrepreneur and the myriads of available opportunities he/she may be unaware of.
6. What would you describe as the purpose of entrepreneurship? That is; what role do entrepreneurs play in the world?
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. The world is full of problems, but identifying problems is the lowest level of intelligence. You should be able to go beyond that to actually proffering solution. Entrepreneurs see needs around them and meet those needs profitably. In the end, everybody benefits.
Interview Questions Part Two
STRATEGY – The unusual execution of business best practices
7. How do you identify business opportunities and what metrics do you use to measure their viability?
I am not a serial entrepreneur even though I have tried my hands on a few ideas. However, to talk about EntrepreNEWS: it is an idea born out of the challenge of lack of entrepreneurship drive and the problem of starting a business in Nigeria. The population of our focus is large but reachable.
8. Do you have mentors, business coach or external consultants that you work closely with to grow yourself and your business? If yes, to what extent would you describe their impact on your business? If no, are there any particular reasons?
Absolutely every business owner should have a mentor. It is very important. I have three top publishers – Pharm Ifeanyi Atueyi, Dr Sunny Obazu-Ojeagbase and Mr Dipo Davies – as mentors and they have been very helpful with their free suggestions and advice. I have spiritual mentors, with the Bible as ultimate. I also believe in personal development and have many guides many of whom are non-Nigerians. I owe my current life situation to their influence. Really, if I have any failure or frustration it is my fault. I either do not obey instruction or I am plain lazy.
9. How do you strategically use your time as an entrepreneur? What key activities would you recommend entrepreneurs use their time for?
It’s an oft-repeated fact that TIME is the most important resource in the world. I have run afoul of this several times before and have paid the price. Now, however, I understand the real meaning of that expression. And even though my time usage is still not perfect, I have learnt to prioritise my activities. I know how to get the most important things done first before other less important ones. Everyone should have a sense of responsibility to how they utilise their time. Life is short: do what you have to do quick.
10. How do you generate profitable customers for your business? What unusual approaches do you adopt for marketing your products/services?
EntrepreNEWS is unique in what it does. It meets the needs of budding and established entrepreneurs. That way, it attracts readers among start-ups and seasoned entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurial institutions. As expected of a print medium, advertisements are our mainstay. Our advertisers cut across the different spectrum of the business world. You can do business with us so far you have a product that entrepreneurs use. Most of our advertisers contacted us after getting copies of the paper from newsstands, events or through subscription.
11. Many entrepreneurs complain about not succeeding in business due to lack of adequate funding, what is your take on this matter and how do you cope with funding issues in your business?
Finance is crucial to the life of any business. As much as possible, every businessperson should get adequate funding. However, tenacity will push a business idea far even when there is money challenge. You just have to keep marketing yourself in the most cost-effective way possible. Frugality is key. And you have to work hard, hope and pray for lucky breaks too.
12. When starting out a new business, who are the likely possible partners or professional service providers you would recommend every entrepreneur work with?
Almost every new entrepreneur thinks money is their major challenge. This mindset is wrong. There are several things that could be achieved without necessarily having or using money. Many times, connections are all that is necessary. Depending on the type of business you do, find people who have been successful in it and make them your mentors. Attend events and trainings for the purpose of networking. Use the social media effectively. Explore all options.
13. The pricing of products/services is always an issue for entrepreneurs, what unusual approach do you take when it comes to pricing?
Pricing is a tricky issue in business. Many businesses use this as an avenue to gain market share. They reduce the price of their commodity but may find it difficult to maintain eventually. So, the best thing to do is to make sure the price sufficiently covers the cost of production and makes provision for profit, even if small. You may either serve the upper or lower segment of society and this affect the pricing. The former has fewer consumers with high purchasing power while the latter has a large base although with lower capacity to buy. It is therefore essential for the business owner to do lots of research to determine which method suits the business.
Interview Questions Part Three
MISCELLANEOUS – Resourceful Recommendations, tools, books, and ideas for unusual entrepreneurs
14. Since you became an entrepreneur – someone who solves problems for people profitably; what has been your most outstanding accomplishments in the context of business?
EntrepreNEWS is still in its fledgling stage. Nevertheless, it is making a big impact already. We have commendations and recommendations from members of the entrepreneurial community. Many individuals and institutions have shown strong support for what we do. It is very heart-warming to note the rapid spread of EntrepreNEWS to seven (7) Nigerian states within 5 months. It is beyond our expectation.
15. What would you describe as your major setbacks and what lessons did you pick from them?
EntrepreNEWS has endured several challenges since its inception. Many of these have been highlighted earlier. However, distribution is noteworthy. Although we registered with the Newspaper Distribution Association of Nigeria (NDAN), many unsold copies of few early editions were returned under the guise that people are not aware of the paper’s existence. The sight of the pile of unsold EntrepreNEWS was a torture. But this was overcome by aligning with Mr Dipo Davies’ story of Castles Magazine. Like the famed publisher, we have devised other means of distributing our publication which has proven to be more beneficial.
16. Where there any particular questions you expected me to ask that is beneficial to entrepreneurs and I didn’t? Kindly share with us such questions and their relevant answers here.
Not really. This interview is long enough! I just want to commend you for what you are doing and looking forward to featuring you in EntrepreNEWS soonest. You seem to be someone that will add value to our esteemed audience. We have to collaborate. I thank you for this opportunity.
Your Turn
What more would you like to know about the Unusual Olufemi Omotayo? You can ask him further questions below in the comment section and I will be sure that you will get an answer directly from him.
Also, what did you learn from this unusual entrepreneur? What lessons, what philosophy of his strike you the most?
Olufemi has shared his unusual story with you, now is time to hear from you. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
- Published in Interviews, Thought Bank
The Idiot’s Guide To Strategic Marketing
Every smart entrepreneur knows without marketing his/her business is going to die!
But that’s just one side of the story. The other side of the story, which unfortunately is the most important side is often confusing to most entrepreneurs. The other side of the story is that most entrepreneurs find marketing difficult.
Marketing is not a one off activity and it requires a great deal of integration. The ability to successfully put together this integrated marketing strategy is what most entrepreneurs are lacking. To put an end to this, I present to you the idiot’s guide to strategic marketing.
The Idiot’s Definition to Marketing
Marketing in the simplest way means being everywhere your ideal target customers are. Meaning, go where they go; read what they read; watch what they watch; play where they play. In other words, use all available means to creatively be in their front. What do you do when you get in their front? Start and build a long term win-win relationship with them.
How?
Here’s how – develop a marketing strategy!
Most entrepreneurs don’t consider a marketing strategy and the few who do at all; here is what they call a marketing strategy:
- Develop a core message [your story, USP],
- Develop identity elements [logo, branding] and
- Perhaps a sales proposition [offer]
This is like scratching the surface!
So What’s a Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy is how you plan to use the scarce resources AVAILABLE to you to build an ONGOING case that your business, products and services are the OBVIOUS CHOICE for a narrowly defined ideal target customer.
This definition was given by John Jantsch author of ‘Duct Tape Marketing’. I like it because it is very complete.
How do I mean?
1. Plan to Use AVAILABLE Scarce Resources
The first reason why this definition is so on point is because of where it started from — how you plan to use scarce resources.
The first thing you want to bear in mind about a marketing strategy is a clear and unbiased understanding of what you own or have at the MOMENT. You can only use what you have to get what you want.
I am often amazed when I meet entrepreneurs who keep complaining about not having money to do marketing. I just laugh. It is true marketing requires money, but the greatest truth of all is that marketing requires CREATIVITY more than it requires money. I have always believed in one simple saying that has helped me so much in my entrepreneurial journey; when you don’t have resources, become resourceful.
I am from a very humble background, paid my way through the university doing a part time program alongside business. I started the program in 2007, 6 years after my high school. My first attempt at business was after my computer engineering and networking program in 2003. I had no money, no office and no clients (resources). But I had ideas (resourcefulness).
The first computer I helped to buy for my first client ever, I made friends with the sellers and used their office in the centre of the biggest computer market in Nigeria (computer village) as my contact point. It was a simple win-win collaboration. Using their office ensured I brought them more customers to buy computer. For me it gave my new business the needed credibility for a start up.
I went further to team up with a friend who had leads to sell to but lacked the technical skills to deliver. Together we created a business card, invoice and way bill all carrying the address of the seller at computer village but with our own business name and contacts. When clients go to our office and we weren’t there, the real owners simply attended to them on our behalf making the sale and keeping our own share (commission on sale).
I chose computer village because that’s where our ideal target customers are and go to seek for what we provide as a business. By being resourceful even without sufficient resources, we were in business.
Again, when you don’t have resources, become resourceful.
Meaning, get creative with your marketing. If you are not using your available scarce resources creatively enough to start getting the kind of results you want, however little; then you don’t deserve MORE resources. To him who is faithful with little, to him more shall be given. And to him who is wasteful with what he has been given, that which was given to him shall be taken from him!
2. Build an ONGOING case for your Business, Product or Services
This is the implementation phase; strategic marketing is a continuous process. It’s not what you start today and stop tomorrow. It must be consistent, continuous, ongoing and never ending. Remember, the day it ends, the death of your business begins!
Many entrepreneurs don’t get this part, they approach marketing from a short term view. I will just do a little ad this month and see what that brings me. Guess what? NOTHING!
You have to be ready to keep being in the front of your ideal target customers for as long as your business exists. It is not something you rest on, or get tired of, or think is no longer necessary. You are finished if you do. Remember our idiot’s definition to marketing? Being everywhere your ideal target customers are. Here’s the missing part; ALL OF THE TIME!
Without this consistency in your marketing, you are not going to get any results. You have to be in their front always. And there is a clause to this; you are not in their front to sell. No, never sell, sell, sell, and sell every time you are in front of your ideal target customers. Why?
They will HATE you for it and they will AVOID you like plague. Instead, being in the front is about nurturing a win-win relationship with them. It’s about them first and you second. It is about showing them how much you care about them by focusing on their needs before yours. When you show up in their front, don’t SELL, HELP!
In the cyber cafe business I co-started with two other partners, this was our winning strategy. I have written about it in an unusual article business growth 101: how attract, keep and grow profitable customers. Make sure you read it. The basic idea is this; keep showing up in their front to remind them you still exist by being helpful.
Being helpful is not selling; being helpful is creatively coming up with values you can add to their lives for FREE!
3. Become the OBVIOUS CHOICE to a Narrowly Defined Ideal Target Customer
This is the reward stage of the idiot’s guide to strategic marketing. This is why you did all you did above, to become the default choice of the ideal target customer. This is why being helpful is the best way to sell; you are the first on people’s mind when they need what you offer. Because you haven’t been forcing the sale on them, the day they need what you sell or the day you eventually make an offer, they naturally buy.
Why?
Because all along, you have been eliminating all the barriers to the sale by being helpful. You have helped them to make the buying decision easily. They know, they like you and they trust you because you have been there when no one else cared about them.
You have given so much, it’s time they reciprocated. At this stage, they would refer you to their friends, talk about you to anyone who cares to listen. They would celebrate you.
But there’s a BIG clause!
Marketing without strategy is the noise before failure. For any marketing strategy and corresponding set of tactics to work, you must first narrowly define your ideal client and then apply the strategy towards attracting more happy customers. — John Jantsch
This can only happen if you have been in the front of the right customers. Without this single element in place, all your strategic marketing is a big failure. None of the two points discussed above would work if you’ve been in front of the wrong audience.
You can only become the obvious choice to the right audience whose needs you can meet. Identifying them is clearly how you become their obvious choice. It doesn’t matter how long you stay in front of the wrong audience or how frequent you make your appearances, you can never become their obvious choice.
Your turn
How strategic is your marketing? What challenges are you facing when trying to create a winning marketing strategy?
Share your comments below and please remember to share this unusual article with others.
- Published in Marketing, Thought Bank