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Tag: Business

  • Other areas of business and effective e-mail communication (2)

    Other areas of business and effective e-mail communication (2)

    Last week, we said another area worthy of  note in effective email communication is e-mail and job application. We said before you even conceive the idea of sending an email cover letter, you need to first make sure that you understand all the rules and guidelines for writing a dynamic cover letter. Also, we examined the concept of replying e-mail from your angry customers and discussed some of the guidelines. This week, we will discuss more.

    Personalising your response

    You need to personalise your response. Research has confirmed thatnothing infuriates an angry customer more than the feeling that no one is listening. Instead of “Dear customer, thank you for your e-mail. We take our customers’ problems seriously and are glad to hear from you”, personalise your e-mail to an angry customer to reassure him or her that he or she is being heard loud and clear by using the customer’s name and title, e.g. Mr…, Mrs…, Ms… in place of the word “customer”.

    Review the customer’s account information and incorporate it into your response. “We appreciate that you have chosen us as your … for the last … years, and we would like the opportunity to keep you as a satisfied customer.” Sign your e-mail because an angry customer needs to know a real human is trying to solve his problem.

    Specification and good news

    Another tip is to tell the customer how you will respond to the problem. Angry people want action, so you must specifically explain how you will resolve the problem. If the resolution is complicated, outline the steps you will take. If possible, tell the customer when actions will commence.

    Experts say another strategy is that if you have good news, put it first. If you can make the customer happy, put the good news first and the empathy second:

    Good news: “We are happy to refund your money, as you requested.”

    Empathy: “We understand the frustration of receiving the goods in bad condition.”

    But if you cannot make the customer happy—if you have to tell the customer No—put the empathy first and the “bad news” second:

    Empathy: “We understand the frustration of receiving the goods in bad condition.”

    Bad news: “We cannot refund your money because you ordered the goods after our guaranteed shipping date.”

    Politeness

    Avoid scolding the customers. According to Marilynne Rudick and Leslie O’Flahavan, partners in E-WRITE , a training and consulting company in the Washington, D.C. area and co-authors of Clear, Correct, Concise E-Mail: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents, it is better toemphasise the pronouns Iand Werather than You. That is, try as much as possible to sound courteous and impersonal. That is, do not write: “Your order was not filled because you did not include your mailing address on the order form.” Instead write: “We did not fill your order because we did not have your mailing address.”

    Hard work

    Answering angry e-mails is hard work. And unlike when you resolve a problem for a customer on the phone, e-mail does not give you the chance to hear the relief in the customer’s voice or experience, in real time, the gratification of turning the customer’s anger into appreciation. Your satisfaction may come from keeping problems from escalating out of control.

    In the words of H.L. Mencken, an acclaimed social commentator, “Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” You have done your job well if you have defused your customer’s anger while he is still spitting upon his hands.

    Customer service e-mail

    Excellent customer service e-mail does more than answer the customer’s question; it solves the customer’s problem, and makes the customer feel valued. What differentiates “adequate” customer service e-mail from “excellent” customer service e-mail?

    Rudick and Leslie say, “We’ve analysed hundreds of customer service e-mails and we’ve found that many companies do an adequate job of responding promptly, within 24 – 48 hours. And some companies do a good job of answering the customer’s question. So, what more could customers want?”

    To answer the question, customers want and deserve excellent e-mail responses. And excellent customer service e-mail exhibits two qualities that sets it above adequate. First, it does not merely answer the customer’s question — it solves the customer’s problem. Second, it makes the customer feel valued.

    Extension

    The companies that provide these excellent responses recognise that customer service e-mail should be used for more than answering customer questions. Customer service e-mail is a powerful marketing tool, an effective form of permission-based marketing. Excellent customer service e-mail solves the customer’s problem. To illustrate the difference between answering the customer’s question and solving the problem, we will use an example. A customer e-mailed a catalogue store about whether she could exchange the size eight pants she had bought for a size six.

    The customer wrote: “I purchased a pair of pants, size eight, at your outlet store…. I’d like to exchange them for a smaller size. I’ve been told that no size six pants are available. I’m wondering whether the pants come in petite sizes, and if so, whether a size six petite is available… Thanks!”A merely adequate response would have been something like this: “Thanks for your e-mail. Unfortunately we are sold out of size six in the pants you inquired about. If you have any further questions, please call or e-mail us again.”

    Anticipation

    Excellent e-mail anticipates what else the customer needs to know. The adequate response, above, has certainly answered the customer’s question. But it has not solved the problem of how to get the pants in a size that fits. Solving a customer’s problem in a phone call can be easier than in e-mail. In a phone conversation, the customer asks follow-up and ‘what if’ questions to get more information that will solve the problem. However, in answering an e-mail query, the customer service representative has to anticipate the follow-up questions that the customer would ask and supply the answers.

    PS: For those making inquiries about our Public Speaking, Business Presentation and Professional Writing Skills programme, please visit the website indicated on this page for details.

  • How to start your own business

    How to start your own business

    From my interactions with a lot of the people I have met and discussed entrepreneurship with in the past few months, mostly employees of blue chip companies, I have realized that almost 9 of every 10 of them believed that they needed to start their own businesses immediately.

    However, going deeper into the conversations, I also realized that 7 out of the 9 didn’t know what to do or how to do it. I frequently get questions such as: “can you give me an idea of a business I can go into and how to start it?” “which business do you think is very profitable and can be started with little capital?” but unfortunately, often time, my responses don’t go down well with the inquirers.

    As an entrepreneur and a small business consultant, I have been able to identify the following basic tips required for you to start your own business. These tips are borne out of personal experiences as a business owner, operating in a challenging operating environment.

    1. Know yourself, what motivate you? It is a fallacy to assume that everyone will start a business. Not at all. If everyone starts a business, where will the workforce come from? The fact remains that some people will become business owners while a lot of others will remain as employees.

    You need to understand yourself perfectly well. If you are a true career person with penchant for more academic qualifications, regular promotions at work, following work rules, preference for job security etc., you may just not be cut out for business; you can still be successful as an employee.

    However if you are the type that is ever ready to challenge the status quo, innovate or create new ideas that solve existing problems, ready to take up new challenges etc. then you may thrive in business.

    2. Choose the right business for you. The key to business success is finding a need that you can fill and which a consumer will be ready to pay for. While it is generally advised that you should choose a business that meets your passion, it must also be well emphasized that doing a business that meets your passion may not necessarily bring food on your table. Only businesses that consistently meet people’s needs will bring sustainable returns to a businessman.

    The beauty of the operating environment in Nigeria is that we have lots of problems that aspiring entrepreneurs can proffer solutions to. Our huge population and poor infrastructural development are some of the begging reasons why a smart person should consider doing business in Nigeria. It is no surprise that we became the largest economy in Nigeria after the rebasing exercise.

    In one of my posts on the social media, I stated “when you look at the situation in Nigeria what do you see? Problems or Opportunities? Smart people see the opportunities in the problems”.

    3. Be sure there really is a market for what you want to sell. One of the biggest mistakes startups make is to assume a lot of people will want to buy a particular product or service, because the business owner likes the ideas or knows one or two people who want the product or service. To minimize your risk for loss, never assume there is a market. Research the idea. Talk to real potential prospects (who aren’t family and friends) to find out if what you want to sell is something they’d be interested in buying, and if so, what they will be willing to pay for the product or service.

    4. Plan your transition. Having a business idea is one thing, planning its implementation is a greater task. An individual will need to make countless key decisions along his journey to entrepreneurship, and all these decisions must be supported by careful planning.

    The person planning to start his business must plan for some of the following concerns:
    – How do I run the business? Do I need to resign from my current employment to squarely manage the business or not?
    – Is it possible to combine running a business with my daily work schedule without either suffering?
    – How workable is it to get someone to run the new business for me?
    – What is my current savings? If I decide to resign, can my current savings sustain my life style for the following 1 or 2 years?
    – If the answer to the above is NO, how do I cut my expenses in such a way that I will still survive with my savings particularly during the early stages of my business life cycle?
    – How many dependants do I presently have? If I decide to resign to face my business, how many of them am I indispensable to?
    These and many other concerns need to be well planned for. From my experience, many entrepreneurs start planning for some of these concerns after they have started their businesses, a situation that puts them under pressures from work and family. They often end up going back to paid employments.

    5. Business Plan: A business plan is an essential pre requisite for every business. It should be noted that doing a business plan is not a guaranty for success in business, but it helps coordinate the ideas of the entrepreneur. There is nothing as revealing as having your idea properly documented. It helps you understand the workability of your idea as well as makes selling your ideas to potential investors much easier. A business plan is not a story that reflects optimism. It is a report that must reflect reality.

    Your business plan should capture the following:
    – What type of business formation is suitable for your business idea? Sole Proprietorship, Partnership or Company.
    – Overview of the planned company: e.g shareholding structure, functional departments, staffing requirements, core values, Mission and vision statements and other organizational details.
    – Industry Analysis: What presently obtains in the industry you are planning to play in? who are the key players? Who are the stakeholders along the value chain? How profitable is this industry? What are the key success factors? Porter’s 5 Forces of Industry Analysis will be very helpful here.
    – Market Entry Strategy: How do you want to play? How do want to gain market share? This is one of the most important parts of your business plan.
    – Financial Analysis: This will include a forecasted financial statement for the first few years of your operation, Investment appraisal to identify expected breakeven points, Pay Back Periods (PBP), and Internal rate of Return (IRR).
    – Set up cost: How much do you really need to start the business? Many people make horrible mistakes here. The fact is that an individual must be very thrifty with his spending during business formation. Spending should be made ONLY on exigent items. Overspending on things like office space, furniture, cars etc. during start up could be regrettable.

    Individuals planning to start their businesses should endeavour to do their business plans themselves. Even where they need the help of a professional e.g in financial analysis, they must ensure they understand the meanings and implications of the figures. Doing the business plan yourself makes you understand the nitty-gritty of the business.

    If you’re not seeking investors or putting a huge sum of money into your business, you may not need an elaborate business plan, but you still do need a plan, at least something that specifies your goal, your destination and then lays out a skeletal roadmap for how you’ll get to where you want to go.

    Your business plan may change as you progress and learn more about your customers and competition, but it will still help you stay focused and headed in the right directions.
    6. Seek Advice. Seek Information: It may be necessary you get a mentor in the same business field you are planning to go into. The fact is that someone has done it before and survived, so you should be able to leverage on his wealth of experience to jump start your business. You need not make the mistakes he made while starting.

    You should also be eager to learn more about the field you want to go into: market dynamics, industry regulators, government policies relating to industry etc. Attend industry conferences. Take training courses when they are available. Buy courses offered by experts. Browse the internet for information. Follow entrepreneurs in similar business on social media. You’ll save a tremendous amount of trial and error by learning from people who have been there before.

    7. Don’t procrastinate. Take actions: While it is important to plan very well before starting your business, it is also important to note that all plans must have a definite timeline. Very many people spend years planning and eventually they never take actions. Only a sizeable percentage of people with business plans take the next step to actualize their plans.
    Some people advise aspiring entrepreneurs not to move ahead with their businesses until they have investigated every last detail of the business they want to start, and are absolutely sure it’s all going to work and be profitable. The problem with that approach is that it leads to procrastination. No one ever really has all the pieces in place, even after starting their businesses.

    8. Start small. Grow with time: I may not know the intricacies of all businesses, but what I know is that entrepreneurs should try to start their businesses small and grow organically. Starting a business small gives you the opportunity to manage your business risk more effectively.
    I have heard many unfortunate stories of how entrepreneurs started their businesses with so much capital and end up folding up few years after they commenced. The human factor of wanting to be the biggest and richest must be disposed of by entrepreneurs, particularly at start up.

    Entrepreneurs should only start growing their businesses after surviving the storming stages of their business life cycle. If you survive the storming stage, then you must have been an expert in that business and decision making will be more strategic and effective. Any investment at this stage will likely yield the expected returns.

    Some of the basic advices on starting small include:
    – Don’t spend unnecessarily on an office. Ask yourself, do I need an office to run this business immediately? If Yes, do I need to rent a separate apartment for my business or can I simply start by using my residential apartment or by sharing an office with someone else? A lot of money can be saved if you get this decision right.
    – How many staff members do you really need? A good principle here is “don’t hire a staff to do what you can do by yourself”. Hiring a new staff must be borne out of dire necessity and the business must be able to pay the salary of the additional staff. If not, don’t hire.
    – Do you necessarily need to buy an operating asset immediately? The principle is “what you can hire, you don’t rush to buy”
    – Minimise your loan exposure. Huge interest cost may be a burden to a small start up business. If you need to borrow, consult family or friends for interest free loans, if possible.
    – Don’t pursue the big project immediately. If you fail on the big project due to inexperience, you have created a bad image for your company in the industry. You fail in business, when you fail your client.
    – Don’t start a new line of business until you stabilize on the first business line. If you have two businesses running currently and both having teething challenges, it will be counter-productive as both will eventually run sub-optimally
    – Minimise spending on “luxuries”. At start up, all luxurious spending should be turned down except where it is unavoidable.

    Sola Adeyiga is the faculty director of Soar & Heritage, an entrepreneurship development organization. He is an entrepreneur as well as a business consultant. He speaks, trains and writes on entrepreneurship.

    You can connect via: Twitter: @soladeyiga, email: sola.adeyiga@soarandheritage.org

  • ‘You can be in business in two hours’

    ‘You can be in business in two hours’

    Over 70 percent of businesses in Nigeria are informally run. But an interactive forum tagged ‘Running a business in Nigeria’ aimed to get more businesses formalised. Joe Agbro Jr. reports

    Popularly acknowledged as being the drivers of economies, small businesses across the world have attracted attention. However, in Nigeria, confronted with a myriad of developmental as well as infrastructural deficiencies, the odds against the survival of smaller businesses was very high.

    However, it is not a totally gloomy picture as a Public Private Dialogue/Market Traders Meeting organised by Growth and Employment in States 3 (GEMS3) in Lagos last week sought to sensitise business owners on how they can reap from their efforts.

    Towards this end, an intervention, ‘Running a business in Nigeria’ campaign was rolled out.

    “Your ability to survive in business today will depend on some form of formalisation,” said Obinali Egele, team leader of GEMS3.

    Though the highlight of the event pivoted around registration of businesses by Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), on hand were members from NACCIMA and Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the Bank of Industry (BOI).

    Representing the CAC Registrar General, Bello Mahmud, Alhaji Garuba Abubakar said the CAC is working to ensure registration of businesses is faster, cheaper and less cumbersome.

    Reacting to the claim that it was expensive and frustrating registering businesses, Abubakar said that what jacked up the costs of registering were the professional costs charged by consultants, a scenario which he said the CAC now frowns against.

    “Since January 2012,” Abubakar said, “any individual that wants to register a company or business name can approach any of our offices, obtain the forms, declare his memorandum of association and article of association and make the application directly. The only requirement that we will not dispense with is the provision in CAC 1 that requires that a legal practitioner must review the documents.”

    The cost of registering a business name is N10, 850 and it costs N27, 500 to register a limited liability company while applicants must come along with two passport-sized photographs and a valid means of identification such the national ID, drivers licence, international passport and voters card. He also said that all business registration could be started and finished in CAC offices in Lagos.

    Saying these reforms were targeted at small businesses, Abubakar said the CAC can register businesses in less than 24 hours and at most in 48 hours. He said, “our target is to register businesses in two hours.”

    Giving the opening address on behalf of Mrs. Olusola Owuru, the Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, a director in the ministry, Jafar Sanuth, commented the initiative and said it is in line with the Lagos State government’s programme to reform the informal sector which started in 2012.

    Giving reasons why reforming the informal sector will be beneficial to all concerned, Sanuth said, “You have expanded market operation whereby you don’t need to move from your place and you’re still trading with somebody elsewhere in the world. Equally, by the time you start trading formally, you have an identity by yourself. And when you have an identity, people can know you and how credible you are.”

    He also said the state government was putting in place policies to ensure a more business-friendly environment. One is these, he said, is the compilation and harmonisation of all state levies, taxes, and charges so that “you will know without leaving your office what you are supposed to pay and how you are going to pay it.”

    He also highlighted that the state government was also working on land reforms for approvals of property within the state.

    According to the Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Dr. John Isemede, “before you talk of business registration, you have to talk about business formation.”

    Highlighting the need for formalisation at every stage of production, Isemede said it is not just enough to have a piece of land. “That land must have C of O (Certificate of Occupancy),” he said. “The man who is running a business on a land where he does not have C of O, how do you expect a bank to support him?”

    He also said, whether one decides to run a local or international business, one has to register it with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). Highlighting that CAC has offices across the country, a situation which was not the case in times past, Isemede said, “now, people have no excuses whatsoever that they cannot register their businesses.”

    Speaking on why a business needs to be registered, Isemede offered some examples.

    “In Nigeria today, people write letters using a plain sheet in the hope that they will get a feedback,” he said. “They will not get. If you have, put a post office box. Even if you have a mobile line, some people still insist that you put a land line. People want to know that you have land line. So that when I call you and you say you’re in Yaba, I can now say go, because if you call me on my mobile line, I can tell you I’m in Kano whereas I’m in Lagos. So, when you talk of business registration, it is not just going to CAC, other things have to follow.”

    He continued: “You must have a letter-headed and the names of directors must be there.” He decried the practice whereby some people just enter business centres to print documents arbitrarily. “That is not how to run a business,” he said.

    Today, most private and public organisations ask for proof of registration with the CAC from businesses before conducting any business with them.

    Isemede also urged business owners to register with appropriate bodies so as to derive incentives and advantages inherent from such registrations. He said those interested in international trade “must register with the Nigeria Export Promotion Council” and attributed the long delays in clearing goods at Nigerian Ports to a “lack of documentation.”

    It is on record that Nigeria has signed various treaties, some which include that with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which should facilitate foreign trade in different aspects, but not many Nigerians seem to benefitting from these agreements. Isemede attributed these to lack of ignorance and improper documentation.

    “A lot of people would now tell you ‘after all, we’re in ECOWAS,’” he said. “They end up going to Ghana, going to Benin Republic without papers. There is no law that says you must load your goods and cross the border without papers. You must have all the things required in line with the protocol of movement of goods and services. Why do we have trailers? Why do we have goods abandoned at the borders? It is just because Nigerians don’t know what to do.”

    He said, “the incentives are there but people don’t know how to enjoy it.”

    He also decried the way of doing business in the informal sector of “not having records, of not paying taxes, of not filing returns, at the end of the day, you go to the bank, what are you going to present before your bankers to enable them process your loan and support you. People are crying about, looking for brothers and sisters when there are billions of naira in NEXIM, BOI and commercial banks.”

    Growth and Employment in States (GEMS) is a partnership with the federal government, the Department of Foreign International Development (DFID) and the World Bank.

    GEMS 3 aims to promote the benefits of formalisation to increase business registrations, create awareness of regulatory reforms that make it easier, faster, and cheaper to register a business, and increasing new company registration by at least 6% by June. To achieve this, GEMS is working with CAC on a software to further reduce the time, cost, and number of procedures required to register a business in Nigeria.

    The programme which was held in support with the Federal ministry of industry trade and investment, also had members of audience which consisted stakeholders, business owners and intending entrepreneurs interact together.

  • NBA holds Business Law conference May 25

    NBA holds Business Law conference May 25

    The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Section on Business Law (SBL) will hold the eighth edition of the Business Law Conference from May 25-27. It will hold at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island. It has the theme: “Exemplary Governance – Enhancing Economic Development in Nigeria.” Chairman of the Conference Planning Committee Mr. Seni Adio said the event promises to be the best.

    On why the theme was chosen, he said: “As you all know, when the country is economically viable, it will be able to produce jobs at an appreciable level for those who are looking for jobs, provide the correct security and that kind of very important requirements that the citizenry requires. Then you will be able to encourage and attract economic traffic inwards.”

    “We have committees such as the banking and finance, capital market, intellectual property, insurance, sports and entertainment, tourism, consumer protection and products liability, aviation and each committee typically has a very robust presentations populated by experienced practitioners and experts in their different fields.

    “So this years conference promises to be the very best we have ever had so far because we have a lot of eminent legal practitioners, business leaders and government dignitaries who will be attending the conference both indigenous practitioners and those who will be attending from different parts of the globe,” Adio said.

  • Business success and potency of personality

    Business success and potency of personality

    Personality is one thing that is very critical to success. Personality refers one’s character or behaviour. Research confirms that people who engage in a business that aligns with their true personality tend to achieve tremendous success and fulfilment. In short, every personality type has the potential to grow a successful business. What you just need is to determine the right opportunity. Self-awareness makes us easily bridge the gap between the type of person we are and the right business for us.

     

    Risk-taking

    Peter Drucker, an international business-management expert says entrepreneurship is about taking risk and the behaviour of an entrepreneur reflects a kind of person willing to put his career and financial security on the line and take risks in the name of an idea, spending much time as well as capital on an uncertain venture. There is definitely an entrepreneurial personality. That is why some people can struggle through to entrepreneurial success, while others cannot. Entrepreneurial personality type explains why some entrepreneurs fail in one venture only to succeed in another venture which tallies with their character.

     

    Coincidence

    For the simple fact that founding and running a successful company is a long-term process, an entrepreneur needs to be careful in the course of choosing a venture by choosing one which tallies with his or her natural personality. “Rather than swimming upstream with the currents running against your potential success, why not focus on the types of situations and businesses in which you can thrive?” says Bill Wagner, co-founder of Accord Management Systems, a California-based behavioural consultancy. The essence of identifying a business that matches your own personality is that you can leverage your strengths and improve your weaknesses.

     

    Entrepreneurial categories

    As regards personality and entrepreneurship, different types of entrepreneurs have been identified by business management experts. These are personal achievers, super salespeople, real managers and expert idea generators, etc. Let us examine these different categories.

     

    Individual achievers

    Personal achievers, according to Professor John Miner, a business management expert and author of “The 4 Routes to Entrepreneurial Success”, are classic entrepreneurs, bringing tremendous energy to their performance. They like to plan, including setting goals for future achievements. They have a lot of initiative and a strong commitment to their organisations. Personal achievers believe that they control their lives through their own actions rather than being controlled by circumstances and are most likely to succeed if they pursue the achieving route by constantly putting out fires and dealing with crises.

     

    Great salespeople

    Super salespeople constitute another class. These people possess a great deal of feeling for other people and want to help in any way possible. They use a soft-sell approach, and receive sales from their customers’ desire to give something back. Relationships are very important to them. Therefore, they like social situations and groups. According to Miner, these people consider selling to be essential to their companies and to succeed as entrepreneurs, super salespeople need to use the selling route by spending as much time as possible selling and getting someone else to manage the business.

     

    Effective managers

    Real managers are another group of entrepreneurs. They like to take charge, and they do well in corporate leadership positions. They are competitive, decisive and positively disposed to those with authority. They enjoy power and acting a part. Miner educates that as entrepreneurs, they frequently become effective marketers, partly by managing the marketing process but often by being good salespeople. The ideal path to success for real managers is the managing route, which is by finding or starting a business large enough to need their managerial talents.

     

    Idea masters

    The expert idea generators invent new products, find new niches, develop new processes, and generally find a way to out-think the competition. These are innovators in the true entrepreneurial sense, and are strongly drawn to the world of ideas. Miner says yet, these people can get carried away by their enthusiasm and fail to take sufficiently-calculated risks; and to mitigate the risks of unwarranted enthusiasm, a degree of cautiousness helps here.

     

    Additional classification

    Another research work classifies entrepreneurs into two. That is, generalists and specialists. Generalists are strategic thinkers. They are big-picture-oriented, prefer environments where they can use their results-driven nature, enjoy autonomy and independence, and are stronger risk-takers. This is the source of their need to win and their belief that they are always right. They are therefore self-confident.

    However, specialists are tactically oriented, prefer operating within their areas of expertise, are more detail-oriented, and prefer environments that provide both security and stability. Specialists are typically more risk-averse, unless they are working within their areas of expertise. Therefore, doing things by the book by following rules, policies and procedures is more important to the specialists.

     

    Parting shot

    The most important factor that distinguishes entrepreneurs who barely make it from those who are super-rich is personality and the ability to harness it, use it and learn from it. Successful entrepreneurs know that the greatest knowledge is self-knowledge. Therefore, pursue business engagements that match your personality today because your personality is critical to business or career success.

    Till we meet on Wednesday.

  • Turning counselling into successful business

    Turning counselling into successful business

    Well spoken and groomed in her chosen career, Chioma Isiadinso, a former member of the Admissions Board of Harvard Business  School, United States, is a trained counsellor, with a deep understanding of students’ behavioural traits. She has converted her years of experience on the job to an entrepreneurial venture. Daniel Essiet  tells the story of this amazing Nigerian. 

    The dream of all parents is to get the best education for their children.

    However, for some inexplicable reasons, some students cannot figure out what to do to get admitted to the school of their dream. This problem could stand between them and the education their parents desperately desire to get for them.

    This is the knotty problem Mrs. Chioma Isiadinso, former assistant director of admissions and a member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School has taken upon herself to resolve for the teeming number of students from various countries.

    This resulted in the establishment of Expartus® a global admissions consulting and personal branding company that helps applicants gain admission to elite colleges, graduate schools and executive programmes all over the world. with the growing number of Nigerians going abroad for tertiary eductaion, alot of them fall prey to sacmmers posing as agents capable of facilitatingb their admission into elite schools abroad. While some are outrightly swindled, yet some few lucky ones get admitted into mushroom schools abroad, far below their expectations. This is where Isiadinso’s experience comes in handy.

    Her company brings together a unique team of admissions experts to provide clients with insight ful and knowledge of the entire admissions process. Asked why she chose to be an entrepreneur, she said she wanted to be in control of her time.

    “I had just left my post in Harvard Business School’s admissions office to move to New York with my family, and I took a few months off to think about what I wanted to do. I realised that I loved the admissions work, but that I wanted to work for myself, control my time and be the one driving my future.”

    Mrs Isiadinso started the company in 2002, and by the following year, there was a need for expnsion having reached her maximum capacity; this necessitated an expansion.

    “I had reached capacity, and did not want to compromise the quality of service that my clients would receive,” she told The Nation. In 2003, she added a first consultant, who is still with the company to date, followed by two additional people later in the year- there are seven consultants and advisors in the firm.

    “We were very careful and selective in our hiring, to ensure that we brought on people who fit well into our values and were committed to our clients’ success,” Isiadinso explained.

    How was it at the beginning?, Mrs Isiadinso said she started it as a virtual business from day one, so that there were no geographical limitations.

    “We work face to face with clients in Nigeria and mostly over phone and Skype for clients around the world, so it did not require significant upfront investment in the early days,”she said.

    She did not have outside funding. She had been approached a few times by angel investors but turned down funding because it was considered that the time was not right to do so. For her, the consulting process is definitely her biggest revenue stream. Many clients come to us for two or three years, to receive our comprehensive and transformational service.

    The business is thriving but should we decide to expand more aggressively we would consider outside funding from investors.

    When she decided to quit she faced some challenges. “The biggest challenge was putting everything in place to start the business and making sure that I established the right brand in the marketplace and was clear about which part of the market that I was targeting. This business does not require a lot of startup capital- it is more about intellectual capital and experience capital. My work experience with Harvard was helpful in entering the marketplace, as that school has one of the most powerful brands in the industry. So, our biggest challenge was getting the infrastructure in place and creating the exact brand that we wanted., she said.

    She continued: “With any business, she said it was important to make sure she tapped into the right network. We were fortunate to have a very strong network and we became very busy right away. It was a good problem to have, but I was the only one doing the consulting at the time, so there was a capacity issue. Once I reached a certain number of clients, I could not take any more and I realised that I needed to expand, find like-minded people and train them to represent my firm at the same level, if not better, than myself.”

    On where she draws her inspiration from, she said: “My husband gives me the inspiration. He is an entrepreneur and has started three businesses on his own. He is always looking for new ideas and provided me with a lot of support. I was also inspired by stories of my late grandparents, who were serial entrepreneurs in northern Nigeria, and used their businesses to impact a lot of lives. Both of my parents were academics, but hearing the legendary stories of my grandmother, who pioneered wholesale clothing in her area, and spending time with her as a child, was always something that inspired me.”

  • A Business School for farmers

    A Business School for farmers

    Ever heard of a Farmers Business School? Daniel Essiet reports that the institution holds the key to bridging the knowledge gap among small-scale farmers to make them productive.

    At last, succour has come to small-scale farmers. Many of them who are grappling with challenges, such as low yields, natural resources degradation, and lack of access to resources, can attend the Farmers Business School to hone their skills.

    Essentially, the intervention is aimed at training the small-scale farmers to enable them adapt to the dynamics of farming.

    States, such as Ondo, Abia, Edo, Ekiti, Osun and Cross River, have about 70 per cent of rural farmers.

    In these states, vast lands are set aside to produce major crops on the farm.Regrettably, many of them lack the financial muscle, technical knowledge and skills to use the opportunities offered by expanding markets to boost their income and increase the diversity of crops cultivated.

    The implication is that many farm owners earn very little, as there are many obstacles hindering a shift towards better or more efficient food systems.

    Some of the major constraints to increased production, according to the farmers and experts, include diseases and inadequate supplies of feed resources. However, the Technical Advisor, Sustainable Cocoa Business, German International Cooperation (GIZ), Ayo Akinola, notes that while this may be true in some circumstances, most farmers are cut off from access to training and so, lack knowledge of the techniques that would help them maximise their incomes.

    He believes that if small farmers are made to improve their practices, given access to better-quality seeds, training and fertilisers, they could significantly increase their yields.

    This is where Farmers Business Schools comes in to give farmers practical knowledge. For Akinola, there is no better way to strengthen agriculture and farmers in the rural areas than by investing in human capacity that sustains it.

    He said it was because of this that GIZ began the Farmers Business Schools (FBSs) to empower farmers. According to him, the main objective of the FBS is to develop farmers’ skills in record keeping. This, he explained, would have an impact on productivity and livelihoods of farmers.

    Using the FBS approach, farmers would adapt technologies and try out new ideas. Each FBS needs a facilitator to lead the exercises. Akinola said farmers learn how they can plan the production of cocoa and foods, what costs and income increases are associated with improved cultivation techniques, and how they can increase their harvest yields and incomes by means of targeted investment.

    GIZ, he said, envisages that 200,000 small-scale cocoa farmers in Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d‘Ivoire, Liberia and Cameroon would double their income within 10 years using FBS. In cooperation with local partners, the project has developed the FBS’ training programme to strengthen skills. More than 440 trainers and supervisors have been trained to organise the FBS programme. Many Agriculture Development Programme (ADP) officers have become trainers after the programme. Trainers organise regular training according to the felt demand.

    Since March 2010, they have trained over 110,000 farmers, a quarter of who are women. They work with national and local partners, such as agricultural extension departments, civil society organisations and farming communities.

    Akinola said worldwide, the promotion of farmers business schools is a step towards food sovereignty. At the heart of the programme is a global knowledge and experience community of organisations working at various levels with millions of farmers worldwide.

    He said the agency is ready to work with state governments, communities and donors to propagate FBS approaches to help increase production, reduce poverty and strengthen farming communities.

    Working with local and national institutions is one way of scaling up the project and ensuring that more farmers are involved and also benefit from it. GIZ has trained local extension workers –mostly from the government.

    Some farmers, who have completed the programme, confirmed that their production have improved. Depending on the country, between 38 and 62 per cent of the farmers have opened bank accounts to save for loans. They are planning their production and monitoring their income and expenditures, as well as using farm input, staff and revenues.

    Altogether about 99 per cent of the farmers are investing on improved cultivation technology for fruit or cocoa and have increased their yields and income, a result confirmed by World Cocoa Federation (WCF) studies.

    Also, between 31 and 76 per cent of farmers, who have completed training, have joined a farmers’ organisation. According to the WCF, the average income of FBS farms from non-cocoa products is $230 higher in 2012 than at the beginning of the project in 2010. The increase in income in the five countries is about $22million.

    Akinola said extension of farming practices through FBS have been effective. According to him, it has ensured that farmers have access to information, techniques, institutions and the means to experiment with new techniques.

    At the same time, gender-mainstreaming have enhanced their position and emancipation.

    FBS gives farmers opportunity to interact with practical skills, resulting in increase in their knowledge. Farmers also understand that there are some agro-ecological relationships within an environment and what they practise can have an effect on such relationships.

    With enhanced knowledge garnered through FBS, farmers are managing their farms. The success is spreading. Farmers, who did not participate in the FBS, too, are learning from those who are more knowledgeable.

    The Chief Executive, Cocoa Initiative, Mr. Robo Adhuze, confirmed to The Nation that FBS have shown many results. For instance, it has helped to rebuild farmers’capacities to select seeds and breed new varieties, resulting in farmers valuing and enhancing the (agro)biodiversity of their areas.

    It is also envisaged that the empowerment of farmers through FBS would help to develop the agricultural sector. The aim of the programme is to improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers.

    During the training, farmers share their perspectives on the varieties that they use, those that have been lost, and those that they want to plant. As part of the curriculum, farmers get to experience the whole planting cycle using the basic planting methods. Also, farmers learn to choose good seeds to restore a variety of seeds whose purity and quality has deteriorated.

     

  • Man petitions Embassy over failed business

    A Lagos-based businessman, Mr Amobi Patrick Emekwuo

    has petitioned the Commercial Attachee of the Turkish Embassy, Abuja, over a soured business relationship between him and his Turkish partner, which runs into thousands of dollars

    In a petition through his Nnewi, Anambra State based  lawyers, Okeke, Okeke &Co.  Mr Emekwuo requested the Embassy to intervene in the failed contract for  supply of Bubble Baby Diaper or complete  refund of $38, 870.00 allegedly paid to the partner, Mr Taylan Alaca for the supply of the  goods since May 2013, as  the goods  are no  where  to be found after several failed promises to supply the goods.

    Emekwuo said the business, which showed no signs of disappointment earlier, having successfully done one or two previous businesses with Mr Alaca, turned sour when after the payment of $38, 870.00, the supplier allegedly bolted away, stopped  taking  calls and not replying any of his mails.

    “Emekwuo informed his lawyers  that  Mr Taylan has, up till date, defaulted in shipping the said container of Bubble Baby Diaper purchased and has not refunded the amount paid to him. It is more worrisome  that Mr Taylan Alaca has not given tangible reasons for his default and he has been evading telephone calls and e-mails meant for him,“ Emekwuo’s lawyer said.

    In a separate petition to the Head of Senate Committee on Trade through Honourable Christian Azubogu, representing Nnewi North, Nnewi South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituemcy, the petitioner said it had become necessary as his banks were already on the verge of instituting actions for recovery of the said sum sent to Mr Alaca.

  • Nsukka business community laments poor power supply

    The Allied Business Community, Nsukka, has expressed deep concern over the worsening power situation in Nsukka, Enugu State.

    In a position paper presented by its President, Comrade Okagu Augustine in Enugu, the group said poor power supply had crippled their businesses, adding that most of their members had already closed shops.

    The business community lamented that the power project at Nru Junction, which would have solved the acute power problem in the area, had long been abandoned.

    “We want to state with deep pain in our hearts that the power supply in Nsukka zone has gone from bad to worst. Epileptic power has killed our businesses, yet we are still paying relevant rates to the government.

    “In addition to this, we are being over-laboured with exorbitant estimated bill from the Electricity Distribution Company. It would have been a different scenario if we do enjoy the power supply to a reasonable extent, but the reverse is the case as we have continued to pay for power we never used.

    “As we talk to you today, over 50 percent of our members have either quit their businesses or retired to their villages owing to untold hardship occasioned by lack of power.

    “We are all aware of the high cost of diesel and the implication of using it constantly to run our businesses”.

    The group called on the Federal Government to all assistance to the contractor handling the Nru Junction Power project.

    “Government should ensure that the contractor returns to site and complete that project. Similar projects started in other parts of the country at the same time have since been completed and commissioned.

    “Our own case should not be different; government should be alive to its responsibility”, they added

  • ‘Mentoring vital to business success’

    ‘Mentoring vital to business success’

    Charles Heyward is an American business mogul who has gone through ups and downs. He speaks on his success and why people either succeed or fail.  He shares his grass-to-grace story with DANIEL ESSIET.

    Charles Heyward, a United States-based business coach and entrepreneur.

    After graduating from Howard University, in Washington DC, with a B.A. in Finance, he worked at the prestigious Wall Street firm, Goldman Sachs.

    Surprisingly, at 24, while making a near six-digit income, he resigned and joined the real estate industry.

    He owned several investment properties.But the unexpected happened.

    “My real estate business was booming and had even purchased my ‘dream car’, a Cadillac Escalade ESV, which I fully paid for in cash. I purchased a house worth close to $500,000 and thought I was living the good life. I thought that I had achieved what I had dreamed. And then the real estate market and economy collapsed and I lost it all.

    “My marriage disintegrated, business was minimal, the investment properties had to be sold; my personal house was on the verge of foreclosure and I was emotionally and financially bankrupt.”

    That’s when he met one of his mentors, Mr. Demond Crump, who has only a high school education, and had gone from washing cars for seven years to earning hundreds of thousands of dollars (USD) a year. This accomplishment took him less than five months to accomplish!

    He met another mentor, Mr. David Imonitie. He is a college drop out, who by 27, was among the top five income earners in a fast-growing network marketing company.

    Imonitie, who taught him business success skills, had gone from living on his father’s couch to making thousands of dollars monthly in just two and half years.

    He also took his father’s advice: ”If you want to be successful, then find someone who is successful and do what they have done.”

    He said his biggest asset was belief in himself.

    Heyward said he had only $800 and his four sons in the house.

    He took $600 of the money and went into business with his mentors. It was a n unique idea. He didn’t have an impressive financial statement. He launched into the sale of a coffee drink. Since then, his life has not been the same. The change didn’t mean that all of a sudden he became a millionaire.

    With his business savvy and perseverance, he has grown his business from a one-man business operating out of his bedroom into a small business with its own office and employees.

    “What most people don’t understand is that you don’t become a successful person before you begin to think like a successful person. No. You must first began to think like someone who is successful, then you will begin make the decisions that successful people make and doing what successful people do … only then will your success become a reality. Unfortunately, most people don’t have a successful person that can teach them how to be successful.

    “I wanted to become a millionaire, but I didn’t know any millionaires until I partnered with Mr. Imonitie and Mr. Crump. They have been able to educate and guide me on this path,” Heyward recalled.

    He said he was very skeptical of network marketing, and thought it was a joke. His mentors were able to teach him how to use it to create a level of financial success to provide a means of livelihood for his family.

    According to him, the key to achieving business success is a mentor to guide one. “Someone who is where you want to be and will help you navigate the many pitfalls on your journey to success. There are many obstacles both real and imagined, that stop 95 per cent of people from achieving what they really want. A principle that my father, and my mentors, taught me was that the only way to obtain your dreams and goals, is to show others how to obtain their dreams and goals.”

    His firm does over $400 million every year. “We have a goal of doubling in size over the next 18 month and Nigeria will play a very large part in that. Those who take part will have an opportunity to create and extraordinary level of financial benefit for themselves and their families,” he said.

    His life’s mission is to teach others what his mentors have taught him.

    Heyward is excited about bringing Mr. Imonitie to Nigeria.

    He said the coffee drinks business has taken off and is one of the most exciting, booming industries.