7 Ways Of Claiming Your Success

May 28, 2010 by 5 Comments

Claim your successYou will agree with me that this is one of the hardest blocks to pass – just lifting your leg off the ground and getting it done. Most People spend much time mark-timing in the quagmire of excuses. “I will do it tomorrow” or “today I don’t feel like doing it,” becomes the order of the day and before you realize it, a day is gone…a week…month and then years!

One of my friends has been idle for months now after the completion of her Journalism course at the Kenya polytechnic and when I asked her why she’s sleeping on her talent, she was quick to reply, “But I don’t have a camera!” “Then why don’t you start off by giving these media houses news tip-offs or perhaps pitch news ideas to them?” I asked and all she could give was a blank stare though her lips twitched as though she was about to say something. Below are few tips that can help you take off the ground.

1.Discover yourself
Discover the love of your heart. What you enjoy doing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s writing, acting or whatever that could be. You will only go far by doing what you enjoy the most.

2. Become an Expert
Someone once said that to become an expert, You only have to know slightly above the average person. You don’t need to spend years of your life searching for all those degrees, they are not the ones that will make you an expert – after all you won’t face life with all those crowns on your head when your head is empty. There are so many ways of getting enough information about your interest. Say for example you’re interested in fashion, subscribe to all those newsletters, blogs and magazine that talk about fashion. Watch or listen to informative interviews on the same. Talk to people already in the industry, get to know how they come up with different designs and the like.

3. Find Your own way of doing it
Creating “blind competition” won’t land you any where far from disappointments. Rob once said, “there is enough wealth for each and every one in this world all you need to do is to find your own unique way of tapping into your share.” Forcing yourself in another person’s shoe and blaming him if it all fails won’t give you success. Simply because the Mama Sukuma in your hood commands a huge base of customers does not mean you too will do the same automatically if you plant your own kiosk. If sukumawiki is not your thing then don’t even dream of doing it. Similarly if your interest is dancing and every one is doing it, then don’t create that “blind competition” by doing it exactly the same way. Find your own way of doing it that will make you stand out.

4. Make a plan
Words such as “I will one day do this or that” only kill your subconscious. Sit down and get it done. Make your feature plans, where you want to be in five or so years then break it down to what you will be doing daily that will contribute to achievement of your long term goals and make sure you do exactly that. For instance, say you are a writer; using words like I will one day write a novel before I die is not the right track to go. Saying “I want to complete a 60,000-word novel in two months” is a good long term goal but it’s not enough. You have to break it down further in bits that will help you reach your main goal and that could be writing 1000-words a day that will give you 60,000-words in sixty days. Still this is not enough. Make sure you discipline yourself to be writing the 1000-words daily – Hope you’re getting the point.

5. Go against the current
If you are really convinced that your idea is good, don’t listen to people. Most of them are afraid of change. They want to maintain the statusquo and will shoot down anything they think might make you better than them. This is not to say that you should not seek for advice but learn to sample good ideas with the ill-intended ideas.

6. Drop all the Pretenders
I’m sure if you look around you will find yourself surrounded by a bunch of friends – and let me assure you not all are really your friends. Most of them are out to frustrate you from achieving your success and they are determined. They will try all means possible to show you how what you want to try is impossible and if you go a head and prove them wrong, they will still find excuses to prove you faked your way to success; If you did not buy your way to success, then you rolled your pants for the boss! you know such kind of things? These are not the right people to move around with, ditch them and move on. The won’t help you. Find the right people to work with. People who will give you honest opinion.

7. Be ahead of the game
As the time goes, technology grows and so are your clients. Sticking to your old ways of doing things will only leave you behind the game. You clients, however loyal they could be, will not stick to you with your old ways, they will move on; so learn to move along with them. If you are for example in the fashion industry, study the new designs and how you can use the ever growing technology to improve your business. It’s only by this that you will keep your customers hooked to you.

I hope the above tips will help you claim you success. They are not exhausted and would add some if I come across, So good luck.

Photo courtesy of laverrue.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With: ,

Overnight Success

May 27, 2010 by 2 Comments

The idea of overnight success is very very seductive. At any one time, it seems there’s always a story of overnight success somewhere. But was it really an overnight success? We want to believe the myth that success is easy to come by. But success in business (and anything else) takes time, energy and hard work—lots of all three.

“Personally, I’ve never met an overnight success. I’ve met people who’ve done something well for a long time and were suddenly discovered. Then everyone assumed they came out of nowhere, that their fame happened overnight.” – Barrie Bergman

But the real truth is that it takes a long time to be an overnight success.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With:

9 Steps to Start Your Own Business

May 24, 2010 by 6 Comments

A lot of people have dreams of making it big with their own business and they think they have some great ideas that they want to act on but they don’t know what to do, so they don’t do anything. And that’s their biggest mistake – they don’t do anything. The first step to starting a small business is to take the first step. Take some action.

So whether you’re thinking of selling a product or providing a service, these are the 9 Steps to Starting a Small Business

  1. Take Action – Don’t just talk and think about your idea. Do something. I guarantee that if you’re successful, it will not look anything like you originally imagined. It is IMPOSSIBLE to think of all the different possibilities so just do something to start and worry about making changes as you go.
  2. Get Money – Most people are going to hate this one but I think it’s necessary. I think the question I get asked the most is what to do if the person has no money. It’s hard enough building a business with plenty of money and it’s nearly impossible with no money.
    Even if it’s just money that you have saved, set an amount aside so you have something to start with. Trust me, trading time for money is a VERY hard way to go and I don’t recommend it at all.
  3. Register the Business – This one scares everyone because they think it’s a ton of work filling out complicated government and tax forms. The reality is that it is almost too easy. Just register your business and get it done with. It makes everything else so much easier down the road when you have a registered business. Here’s how to do it.
  4. Set up a Bank Account – I was going to include this with the previous step because it’s so small but I realized that it’s too important to skip. If you’re working from a bank account, it’s much easier to manage your money, receivables, and taxes. Again, it’s a one time thing that makes everything else easier down the road.
  5. Create a Two Page Business Plan – I’m not a big fan of business plans. I once created a 40 page document and realized that I went into so much detail that I was better off just doing what I was talking about. I also think that their main purpose is in the formation of capital (i.e: getting money from other people) and most small businesses aren’t trying to get that type of money. However, I do think it’s good to get your ideas on paper and if you just go off and write 2 pages of your ideas, it’ll help make your thoughts much clearer. Don’t worry about getting it perfect – just get your ideas on paper.
  6. Create a Scorecard – I know it sounds minor, but along with getting money before I started, the lack of a scorecard was the biggest hindrance to our early success. A scorecard is a spreadsheet to track how your business is doing in different areas of your business. It allows you to focus on specific areas of your business and measure how well your business is doing. For example, I know how much it costs me to generate a new customer, so I use that information when I determine whether a new campaign is effective or not.
  7. Create a Manual – In my mind, this replaces the long business plan. Until you start creating a manual for your business, you will not be successful. By putting on paper the exact steps to run each part of your business, you are creating a recipe for success. Without it, you cannot create a consistent experience for your customers and you waste your time reinventing the wheel each time you need to complete a task.
  8. Create the First Draft of Your Product – If your plan is to create a new product or service, build it for the first time. Determine what needs to be done to manufacture the product or complete the service. If you’re just distributing a product or service for a supplier, go through that process to determine what needs to be done to go from sale to successful delivery of your product. Oh yeah, and make sure every detail is recorded in the manual.
  9. Test the Market for the Product – Go out and try to sell your product or service. This is where some of that money that you set aside comes in. You don’t want a full-blown campaign but you want to see what type of response you will get on your service. You’re almost definitely going to lose some money here but you’ll start getting some data points (which will show up in your Scorecard) that you can start making decisions off of.

The most important step in starting a small business it the first one – take action. You can come up with a ton of different scenarios in your mind but until you take some action to begin testing out your idea, you will never know. Some ideas you think will be great will be horrible and ones that you think will be a waste, are your best ideas. Don’t just go at it halfway. Create some sort of structure with the steps above and you have something to start testing and growing.

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: ,

Business 302: Weathering the storm

May 15, 2010 by 2 Comments

Running your own business is a lot like being stuck in Nairobi in 2010. El Niño, La niña, miracle babies, global warming, and several unnamed cults have urged the gods to kill our weather patterns, so no one really knows when it should rain anymore. It’s mid-May, and our showers of blessings are yet to slow down. This unpredictable weather comes with both blessings and less-than-blessings.

Rain means filled up dams, which logically equal lower electricity bills. It also means more greens, less dust, less hunger, and more umbrella sales.

But the rain has some downsides too. Tomato and onion gardens are being flooded, so they’re not maturing well and are getting pricey. In my neighbourhood, I buy one [fairly large] tomato at ten bob, which is ridiculous really.

The roads are getting eroded, and so is our good sense; have you tried moving in the CBD when it’s raining? Don’t even get me started on the burst sewers. Nairobi is a lot cleaner and greener than she used to be, but we still clearly has a massive drainage problem.

Business is sometimes like that. We all itch and ache to go entrepreneur and do our own thing, but when we get there, it’s not quite what we expect. When we are starving in drought, we beg for rain, but when it gets here, we have to deal with wet feet, muddy shoes, and malaria.

When you work for ‘the man’, you may have a crazy boss, but you can always transfer or quit. When you’re working for yourself, you often have annoying customers, but they’re paying the bill. And no, you cannot bash your clients on twitter.

But just as you enjoy rain while cringing at the potholes, you can harvest your business as you hide from giant mosquitoes.

Yesterday, I got stuck in the rain, and learnt a few lessons that can help you build your business. So here are my survival tips for rain – and business – in 2010.

  1. Always  trust your instincts: When I looked at the sky at 4.30 yesterday, I considered staying in the office and waiting it out, then decided to try to beat the clouds instead. Had I stayed at work, I’d have been stuck until 8.00. But then I’d also have been warm and dry, and got a lot more work done.
  2. Always have a backup plan: I carry a big blue knapsack everywhere I go. It’s loaded with endless junk, cables, a bottle of bubbles, a yoyo, three novels, purple lipbalm, spare bullets, ten teabags and three handsets. But nooooo, it doesn’t have an umbrella. ‘Nuff said.
  3. Wear sensible shoes: You never know when you’ll need to have an emergency meeting in a high class restaurant with a new client. Or when you’ll need to run in the rain.
  4. Learn from others, but don’t envy them: I have always admired girls that can walk in high heels, and I’ve even toyed the idea of ‘upping my business image’ by getting some skirt suits and Louis Vuitton. But yesterday, I saw good-looking ladies in litty-bitty power-skirts surviving the cold and rain while I breezed it in my Northstars and jeans. Score one for the tomboy!
  5. Always have an emergency fund: You never know when you’ll need to kill some rain-time by having a hot pizza instead.
  6. Timing is everything: When I finally got to my bus stop, the rain was pretty bad and there was a shortage of matatus, so I hung out in the semi-shelter for a couple of hours. I saw some people rushing off to Bomb Blast to get transport, but they had to get soaked through and use some serious rugby skills to get there. I waited until the rain was a drizzle before I calmly headed that way, and I found a matatu ready and waiting. Yay!
  7. Stay positive: If you have to be stuck in the rain, it helps to have a big red jumper, heavy blue denim, canvas shoes, and a waterprof hairstyle. But even without the protection, try to keep smiling. The bad times, like the rain, will turn to rainbows eventually. Just ask Donald Trump and Noah.

Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: ,

If You Can’t Sell Something, Double the Price?

May 7, 2010 by 3 Comments

Here’s an interesting idea: if you are having problems selling a good product, don’t slash your prices, double them. People are more likely to respond to the perceived high value than a decrease value of the product.

I was just reading a great book, Influence – the Power of Persuasion. It is a great book with some good insights into the psychology of persuasions. I love books that explain human behavior, especially when it’s counter to what most people would expect.

Double The Price To Clear the Inventory

There was a story in the book that the author recounted about a friend who owned a jewellery store. The author had some turquoise pieces that she could not get rid of no matter what she did. She eventually got so frustrated with having the jewelery taking up space that she left a note for one of her employees before she left for vacation, asking her to sell everything for 1/2 price. Unfortunately, the employee misread the note and thought that the owner wanted to double the prices of the jewelery. But a strange thing happened – when the owner returned, all the inventory was gone.

The jewelery stored catered to tourists on vacation who didn’t know much about turquoise. They saw a high price on the jewelery and jumped to the conclusion that it must be high quality. They based their decision on the quality of the product by the price of it.

This is not an uncommon occurrence – it’s a shortcut that we humans take. Instead of learning all about turquoise jewelery – what is a normal price, what determines good quality, etc., people trust that an expensive price equals high value.

This Does Not Always Work

This doesn’t mean that you can go out and double the price of anything that you sell. For example, if you sell website hosting service and you tried to double your prices, you would lose a lot more revenue than you would gain. There are a few conditions that have to be in place for this to work:

  1. Your product is not a well-known commodity. If you sell bread or milk or TVs, you won’t be able to increase your prices. Your product is almost identical to your competitors and your customers will know enough about the prices to realize that your prices are too expensive.
  2. Your product is of good quality. Remember, the key is that consumers expect high quality for high prices. If you sell an obviously shoddy product (e.g. – obviously fake or bad turquoise), you will end up with an angry customer base. You might be able to make a few sales but this is not a business model that will last.

There are other benefits to doubling your price: You have less customers to deal with, which means less headaches and less overhead to deal with.

The real benefit, though, is that you can differentiate your product. The very fact that people will pay high prices, means that they stop seeing it as an everyday commodity – bingo! If you can differentiate it, you set the price level.

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With:

Nice-guy Politics

May 6, 2010 by 4 Comments

One of the services I provide at 3CB is project management, which mainly involves logistics. For one client in particular, I handle correspondence, i.e. making phone calls and emails to get delegates to the venue in one piece, preferably with their wardrobe intact. It’s a tedious, essential, but unglamorous task.

This particular client has a very firm corporate image. It’s a no-nonsense environment where everyone takes themselves quite seriously. Protocol is followed in debilitating detail. As a result, any communication with customers is stoic, almost cold.

Enter me, with my warm, uber-friendly approach to strangers. Results were mixed at best, and disastrous at worst. My client’s associates began to ask for me by name, and my personality interfered with my client’s detached approach.

Because I was seen as more malleable, I ended up being sought on my own time for this client’s business, which was ineffective for all involved. On the plus side, people I had interacted with on behalf of my client remembered my name and persona. It’s quite possible that the relationships formed could lead to business tangents unrelated to this client. However, the primary client remains dissatisfied with my system, because that’s not who they are.

As a consultant and a businessperson, I’ve had to weigh the pros and cons of cases like this. Being myself may work well with some clients, and it certainly makes my job more enjoyable. But, cliché or not, the customer is still king, and it may mean compromising my attitude, dress code, or ethos to keep them happy. After all, they’re paying for my services, so they should get what they want.

There is a line to be drawn of course. If the client requires you to bend over so far that you end up on your back, you may need to pass up the money and work for someone else. But when you want to be paid, it’s not you that matters, it’s your client. Running your own business has very many perks, but it doesn’t necessarily make you the boss.

One way to overcome this is to pick your specialty carefully. You can’t always choose your clients, but you can choose your field. If you’re into computers and you want to start your own business, you should pick a niche that suits your nature. If you enjoy nitpicking details, you are better suited to programming, where every extra comma changes a swathe of site specs. If you’re a creative, graphic design is better, since it lets you use your imagination. The tinker-types would probably work well in hardware, so they can take things apart and stick them back together. Extroverts may prefer networking, so they can deal with flesh-type people as they explain how the systems work, and so they can be invited to the product launch.

As a writer and editor, I play with words, and I mostly work alone. My nature lets me deal individually with clients, so I sometimes do administration. Other writers prefer to outsource a marketter, publicist, or resident sanguine to deal with the more social aspects of their business. You could hire a personable assistant to act as your ‘social interphase’ so that you can hide in the basement and write. This assistant can be the ‘face’ of your business while you stay rich, anonymous, and less susceptible to kidnapping. Plus, you’re creating employment, which is always a good thing.

You may think you’re too shy, too quiet, or too nice to be in business, but with a little out-of-box thinking and some smart recruiting, you could surprise yourself. Try it, you just might like it.

Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.

Filed Under: Small Business, Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With: ,

Are We Missing Something?

May 3, 2010 by 6 Comments

I have a story for you: a few years ago, one of my best friends quit his job. He used to work at one of the best performing companies in the Nairobi stock exchange. He quit so that he could set up his own advertising agency.

Guess what? His parents and his whole family, really, were up in arms over his decision. They could not believe why anyone would leave such a high paying job. His uncles even took time visiting him to ‘advise’ him to go back to his old job. To this day, one of his uncles always calls him with contacts of managers at large companies – he asks my friend to send his CV to the managers so that he can ‘make something out of his life’.

What you probably won’t believe is that my friend’s business is doing quite well. He has about twelve employees now, and has been profitable since his first month. Yet his family still refers to his work as ‘jua kali nonsense’. He should go get a ‘real’ job like everyone else, they say.

Really?

Recently in Thika, I heard of a bizarre incident. My friend’s dad was interviewing job applicants. The quality of the applicants was impressive – almost everyone had an impressive CV full of various qualifications and accomplishments. Some of the applicants were university graduates with degrees and everyone seemed like they really wanted the job. Surprisingly, as it turns out, the job in question was that of digging trenches. Can you believe it?

On one hand we have impressively qualified people looking for a job, any job. On the other hand we have the brave few who have enough courage to try and start their own businesses. Who would you rather be?

Let’s face it, we do not have an entrepreneurial culture in this country. How can people who try and start their own businesses be looked down upon by their families and societies while what they are doing is precisely what is needed to address our high unemployment rates? We need more people starting businesses yet these people’s mothers and fathers won’t let them. They’d much rather have their loved one’s join the over saturated job hunting market.

We need change! We need people like you and me to start businesses today. We need society to stop stopping us. We need to embrace the entrepreneurial culture in this country!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: ,