by Sharon | Jan 11, 2024 | Uncategorized
Social media has certainly changed the marketing landscape. Social media helps you identify; target and communicate to your audience quite quickly and for some products and services it is a necessity. However, your business can still survive without social media if your business is pre-existing or you create a footprint using other forms of marketing. Here’s what you can do using other forms of marketing if you do not want to use social media:
Put up flyers and Posters.
Put up flyers and posters. This was one of the traditional modes of marketing right before social media took over. In this instance, you design flyers and posters and ensure they match your brand and the interests of your audience and when distributed, they are sent to strategic places where your potential customer can see them. This way, you create awareness of your product and brand among your target people.
Offer a Referral bonus to your current customers.
A referral program is the best way your business can stay relevant and has the potential to add credibility to your business. You can offer a bonus for any referral. You can also conduct surveys to determine the level of satisfaction your customers derive from patronizing your business and use the references in those surveys on future marketing material.
However, you must work on your product or service and your service delivery to customers. If you offer quality services or products that satisfy customers, you are likely to retain customers; and receive referrals and positive surveys from that customer.
Talk to people – Power of networking.
You cannot rule out the power of communication when you seek to promote your business. Talk to people you meet. Advertise and promote yourself. Networking is key to growing your business. This is likened to paying a radio station to advertise your product. But in this case, you are traditionally doing the advertisement yourself.
Use Email marketing.
Did you tell yourself social media includes Email marketing? Email marketing is an opportunity to connect and provide valuable information to customers. Having your customers subscribe to your newsletters can help you market your business to them with ease.
References
by Sharon | Dec 20, 2023 | ENTREPRENEURSHIP, Success
Entrepreneurs are critical to economic development. They create jobs and opportunities for the teeming
populace. Where a service is lacking, they identify the gap and put measures in place to fill the gap. And
they bring new products to the market through their various innovative mindset. Being an entrepreneur
demands a lot of brain work. Especially for those who want to be very successful entrepreneurs. It is not
enough to just come up with an idea. It requires more than that. Successful business thinkers have
characteristics that have helped them along the way in their business, and if you want to tow the path of
being an excellent business thinker, the following are the 5 characteristics:
1. Positive mindset
Mindset, they say, is everything. And having a positive mindset is the first thing you will need as an
entrepreneur. Yes, some risks do bother the mind, especially when it seems you are giving your all to it.
However, you need to think about the positive side. What if it goes right and that is the deal that
changes your life forever?
You require a positive mindset to inspire the rest of your team. You do not want to be the leader who
does not motivate his subordinates to expect the best outcome. If you do that, you affect the team spirit
and the sacrifice needed to see that all goals are followed through.
Know as an entrepreneur there will always be issues that you need to resolve. Having a positive mindset
means being solution-orientated and resourceful, knowing you can resolve problems as they are
presented to you.
2. Problem Solving
Eighty to ninety percent of entrepreneurs are in business because they identified a problem they
wanted to solve. Problem-solving is one of the key traits of an entrepreneur, and on your quest to climb
the ladder of success, you have to always solve problems as they arise in your business. Problems are
not desirable to anyone but you have to be prepared for their occurrence.
3. Creative mindset
Have you ever met any successful entrepreneur who has not been creative since he/she came into
business? To have a business that will succeed demands a creative mindset. You have to always think
outside of the usual ways people of doing things; think of a way to solve that problem or of a better way
to provide your services or innovation in the product you sell. “Creativity,” is said to be “the mother of
invention” and Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, The Wright Brothers, etc. would not have been known
around the world today if they had not had a creative mindset.
4. Flexibility
One way fits all does not work if you want to be an excellent business thinker. You have to have an open
and dynamic mindset, be open to changes, and do things differently.
References
- https://aofund.org/resource/entrepreneurial-mindset-5-characteristics-to-cultivate/
- https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/truly-independent-thinkers-have-these-5-traits/400737
- https://www.insightassessment.com/article/characteristics-of-strong-critical-thinkers
- https://www.masterclass.com/articles/strategic-thinking-guide
- https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-five-attributes-of-strategic-thinkers.html
by Sharon | Nov 29, 2023 | ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Risk is paramount in every business venture. The business decisions you make are a major risk that may
pan out well or go south. However, knowing how to analyze risk as an entrepreneur may help your
business avoid the unworthy risk that could hurt your business. Before we delve into the risk analysis
mechanism, we will give a brief background into what a business risk or risk is.
According to Patriot, risk comes with a benefit or loss that you may derive from making a business
decision. When such risk is a result of bad risk analysis, it may cause your business to be financially
sick, and in some cases could lead to the winding-up of your business. Thus, you must take
risk assessment seriously in your business.
There are two types of risk in entrepreneurship – Internal risk which is easier to control as it is within the
grasp of your internal control, and external risk, which given they are not easily within your reach you
may not have a direct influence over them.
There is no one-way approach how to analyze risk as an entrepreneur, however, the following risk
management strategies may assist:
1. Identify and document the risk
The first step in analyzing risk as an entrepreneur is to know the risks your business faces. These risks
might be internal based on staff experience or know-how (or lack thereof). Risks might be external,
and relate to competitors; ease of barriers to entry into the niche that you operate within; or
technology or government factors for example. Risk will be anything that has the potential to limit your
business operations, product or service delivery, or success.
You will also need to consider the extent of that risk. What are the chances that the risk will materialize?
How serious is the risk? Note down the gravity of the different risks that your business faces. Define the
risk and note the possible outcome, benefit, and/or danger of taking such a risk and the amount of
effect it will have on your business.
2. Monitor the risk and set up risk control
Monitor the risk. Assign staff to each risk so they can monitor and report it to you. A good risk-reporting
system is the right step in risk management.
After each risk is presented to you and the necessary steps have been taken to know how much risk
affects your business, put in place measures to control or mitigate those risks.
3. Review periodically
Just because you have successfully analyzed and controlled risks in the past does not mean such risks
may not occur again. Further, new risks might eventuate after the review of the previous risk
assessment. Therefore, it is pertinent that you schedule a periodic assessment of risks.
Risk analysis presents an entrepreneur with the avenue to know what threats face their business and to
develop possible ways to avoid those risks. If you aspire to be a successful entrepreneur, you should
always take risk analysis and mitigation seriously in your business.
References
- https://www.patriotsoftware.com/blog/accounting/small-business-risk-analysis-assessment-purpose/
- https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-theory/09/risk-management-business.asp#toc-
making-a-risk-assessment - https://www.mindtools.com/abhkwcn/risk-analysis-and-risk-management
- https://genesacpa.com/startup-101-how-entrepreneurs-can-assess-risk/
- https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/5-ways-entrepreneurs-learn-to-manage-
risk/242977
by Sharon | Nov 27, 2023 | Success
Success is good. It is the victory after each business battle. The sigh of relief you breathe when each of your goals or your product sells, and you are making the income you never thought you would make.
But in some cases, people get overwhelmed with success to the point that they let it get into their heads. This can lead to pride and thinking their way and strategy is the only way there is.
There could be a risk that you are closed to opportunities and other people’s advice. These opportunities that may pave a new avenue for your business to enjoy more success.
This thinking can soon be disastrous, and when it backfires, your business could end up taking a hit. Thus, it is expedient to know when success has gotten into your head and the ways to address and avoid it.
Here are the signs that success has gone to your head:
- You take all the credit when other team members would have helped you actualize a goal or strike a deal.
- You stop learning.
- You ignore feedback, especially from customers who are concerned about your product or service.
Understand that success can be temporary.
Just because your business might be enjoying fame and success at the moment does not mean it will remain forever. Success can be fleeting. There is a lot of competition out there. There might be low barriers to entry into your niche which might increase competition, or there may be duplicate products and services. Always look for opportunities to maintain your competitive advantage and be ready to pivot. Continuing education; and reviewing the market, your positioning, and your competitors will enable you to glean opportunities that you might not have discovered otherwise.
Accept Negative and Positive feedback.
Any entrepreneur who wants to succeed must be open to accepting both positive and negative feedback. Negative feedback provides the opportunity to listen to your customers and improve the products or services you are delivering. If you continually do the same thing the same way and avoid negative feedback you will never improve on what was not working.
References
by Sharon | Nov 25, 2023 | ENTREPRENEURSHIP
At what time you should invoke a business continuity plan is one of the most important stages in the
the business life of any entrepreneur.
A Business Continuity Plan is defined by Investopedia as an arrangement put in place to prevent and
recover from potential risk to your business.
There are various risks that a business might be prone to. Risks might include cyber-attacks, floods, client
retention, fire, or other natural disasters. It might as well include what and where you invest profit. As
soon as you can identify those risks, the next step is:
- Determine the effect of those risks on your business.
- Come up with a strategy to mitigate the risks.
- Determine how effective is the strategy.
- Keep the process up to date.
Distinguishing a Disaster Recovery Plan from a Business Continuity Plan, the former might involve, for
example, the recovery of the organization’s IT framework after a crisis. The latter involves how to
keep a business going when a disaster happens.
Many businesses do not know when to invoke a Business Continuity Plan. Each business will have
different requirements for and when to put into place a BCP, based on their level of risk. A risk that
will affect profitability and revenue must be surveyed in advance so the business is not affected
suddenly. It is needed because Insurance has a limit to the losses it can cover.
Thus, business owners and investors must consider and develop a strategy around business threats and invoke a continuity
plan.
You must plan and analyze risk properly to know whether such is of the magnitude
that requires invoking your Business Continuity plan.
References
