Growing A Business Without Money

June 13, 2010 by 1 Comment

Thinking up a business idea and launching it is pretty easy, if you ask me. Running the business and growing it is a whole different story. It is where almost all businesses fail at.

I’m very much in favour of bootstrapping and I discourage everyone who wants to start a business by borrowing. However, we must realise that growing a business with no money is very hard and nearly impossible. When you do not have money to spend on your business, you end up being the chief employee – you do all the work. This leaves you little to no time for doing the more important stuff like thinking up (and implementing) new strategies, marketing, etc.

Businesses that are trying to grow with little or no money face a very steep challenge and, if not careful, may end up always being on the chase for a big break (a well paying client/deal) that will enable the business to normalise its activities. I consider such businesses to be operating more on luck than anything else. However, I think every entrepreneur worth his salt has passed through something similar.

Unless you just want to learn how to operate under extreme pressure, find a way to get some money to get your business up and running. Debt is bad, but it may be a necessary evil.

Filed Under: Small Business

2 Things to Think About When Making Your Website

June 10, 2010 by 1 Comment

I was look at the visitor stats for this website (www.likechapaa.com) and it surprised me that a good 20% of the people who come here do it on their mobile phones. I always knew that the mobile web was big in Kenya, but I did not think it was big enough to affect my own website so much.

IN a country like ours, making a website universally usable is an important issue and ignoring it may lead to groups of users suffering isolation, rather than enjoying the use of your website. What if Like Chapaa was not available in a mobile-friendly version? Perhaps our visitor numbers would be down 20%. That’s a big and painful loss.

Do you want your own site to be successful? Then you have to think about making it as universally accessible as possible. In Kenya, the easiest way to do this is by:

  1. Publishing a mobile version of your website – Did you know that only about 15% of the world speaks English? I am not sure how many people in Kenya do not understand English but I do know that it is not the first language of nearly everyone in this country. I think it would be a mistake to publish your website and ignore English completely, but it is equally important not to ignore other languages that your target audience may ‘identify’ with better than English. I’d love to see a Sheng or Swa version of Pewa hewa, you?
  2. Publishing your website in more than one language – The number of internet users in Kenya is growing very very fast. The vast majority of people use their mobile phones to access the internet. If you ignore mobile, you may be ignoring at least 20% of the ‘market’. I am sure this is not something that anyone wants to do willingly.

How hard is it to do this?
Fortunately, web design and development technology just keeps growing. The first step would be to find yourself a competent person or organisation to do your website. There are lots of sufficiently qualified people all around you.

The next step would be to ensure that your web developer makes your website using a robust and stable content management system (CMS). Most CMSes have a very simple way to implement a mobile version and additional languages. I recommend WordPress as my CMS of choice.

For web design and development, of course, I recommend Nickel Pro.

What do you think of mobilizing your website and publishing in more than one language?

PS
Like Chapaa is available only in English. We hope to get it translated soon.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: , ,

The Four Letter Word That Can Make You and Your Work Irresistible

June 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Love is a four letter word in the business world. It makes us uncomfortable. It is inappropriate and even taboo.

It can also make you and your work irresistible.

Download the ebook: [download id=”32″]

How do you like it?

Filed Under: Miscellaneous 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:

Simple Plan For Everyone

May 26, 2010 by Leave a Comment

I just read an amazing article by Seth Godin. It is a simple pan that anyone and anything can follow on the road to success. Here it is:

The number of people you need to ask for permission keeps going down:
1. Go, make something happen.

2. Do work you’re proud of.

3. Treat people with respect.

4. Make big promises and keep them.

5. Ship it out the door.
When in doubt, see #1.

Well, you heard it…

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Generating Business With Social Media Marketing

May 19, 2010 by 1 Comment

I bet you’ve noticed how “social media” has become such a huge and ubiquitous buzzword.

Every business owner who heard of the Makmende story probably started to think: how can I use social media to improve my business? The great thing about social media is that it is usually free to use. Unfortunately, it takes time and commitment. More often than not, people go into social media without any idea of how to do…anything.

Hubspot have just released a nice little mini book on how small businesses can use social media.

The book answers these questions:

  1. How does social media drive business revenue?
  2. How do small business owners resource the time needed for social media?
  3. How can blogs drive small business leads?
  4. How does the B2B application of social media for small businesses work?
  5. How can social media support offline marketing activities?
  6. How do small businesses get started using social media and keep generating content?
  7. How is the cost of customer acquisition lower when using social media compared to outbound methods like direct mail and print advertisements?

Click here to Download the book (PDF)

The book is an interview done on four small businesses to understand how they were using social media to have a direct impact on business growth. The eBook includes detailed information to explain how small business owners can get started in social media as well as strategies that have been proven in the “real world.” This eBook isn’t about a company preaching the wonders of social media; instead, it tells the story of how four different businesses found their own successful social media strategies.

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With:

The Problem With Web Design

May 17, 2010 by 2 Comments

Ever wondered why perfectly good web designers sometimes produce *finished* (with the client happy and all) web designs that are total abominations?

It is true that some web designers are just not that good but I am convinced that most web designers know what they are doing. Well, I have some experience with web design and you may be surprised to find out the real reason for crappy and downright shameful websites is not the designer. It is the client.

When a client gets his/her hands dirty and starts directing one change after another on the ‘draft’ design, things almost always go from okay, to bad, to worse, and straight into web design hell.

The Oatmeal has a nice article on how this happens: How A Web Design Goes Straight To Hell.

Dear clients, I know you think you are doing the right thing, protecting your interests, etc etc but you have to realise that you are not a web designer! You hired the guy to do a job now let him do it – he/she probably knows what he/she is doing.

Every web design must have a certain “flow” to it so that, well, so that it looks good. Every time you suggest a change, you ruin this flow and the designer has to somehow try to bring it ‘back’.

If the designer was an engineer designing the turbine of a plane, would you have so many suggestions and “fixes”?

If you decide to hire someone, let that person do his job.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: