NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Once again, Happy New Year folks. If you have'nt done so already, it’s the time to start thinking about setting resolutions that we’ll work on in 2016. Entrepreneurs must also set New Year Resolutions for their businesses. It helps you to stay focused and to keep things in perspective. It can also be a valuable tool for breaking down your long term goals into annual, monthly and weekly goals for your business, thus helping you to keep track of your success. 

Here are 8 New Year’s Resolutions that every entrepreneur should consider as they begin this new year.

 

1. Be More Social

If in 2015, you underrated the impact of Social media, you need a change of heart.. Social media is one of the best ways to engage and interact with customers, spread brand awareness and connect with influencers and investors in your industry. If you have been inactive or minimally active on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blog or LinkedIn account, spend the next year being active and making the best use of your social media channels.

2. Be More Healthy

You need to be mentally, physically and emotionally healthy to run and grow a successful business. How do you expect to run a productive business if you’re constantly sick and exhausted. Eat more healthy, exercise more, boost your immune system and take out time to rest. When you are more healthy, you are more productive and happier.

3. Revisit your Business Plan 

Whether you just drafted it last month or it's been two years, go back to your business plan and see where you've succeeded, where you haven't, and re-draft it to reflect your current situation. If you don't have a business plan yet, the first quarter of 2016 is the time to get on it. If you need help, get professional help.

4. Mind your cash flow

If in 2015, you operated your business as a typical one man business with no proper record and monitoring of your cash flow, you need to have a re-think in 2016. You need to manage cash flow like water from the Sahara. This is important to entrepreneurs because cash flow management is a vital aspect for the growth of every business. Cash is king in business and positive cash flow management will speak volumes when presented to investors, customers, and partners.

5. Make New Friends

Every Successful entrepreneur understand the importance of networking. It is often said that “you are four people away from meeting who you really want to meet”. Network with smart and accomplished people in your industry. Identify who you need to help grow your business and strategise on how you can get closer to them. Send them an email, offer to buy them breakfast or dinner. In all you, make sure you are networking with the right person.

6. Know Whats'up in the news

Paying attention to the news keeps you well informed and current about happenings in your environment and industry. It helps entrepreneurs to gain insight about what is going on in their so that they can make more informed decisions. Keep in mind that we live in a small and connected world now. What’s going on around the world impacts your business. Being well informed is also a great conversation starter for when you are networking with other professionals in your industry.

7. Identify a Business Book and Read it..

Entrepreneurs are typically very busy people, dealing with a whole lot of different issues and challenges. However, the New Year offers the perfect opportunity to broaden your knowledge base by reading relevant business books. Set aside time to read business books as they will help you to consider the bigger picture and be harmed with more knowledge as you manage more challenges that impacts your business. There are huge numbers of business books available at any bookstore and some will naturally be more relevant to you than others.

8. Always remember why you became an entrepreneur.

To wrap this up, as an Entrepreneur, you will be faced with myriads of challenges and also beautiful and profitable moments. Regardless of whatever situation you find yourself at any point, good or bad, never forget why you became an entrepreneur in the first place. For most of us, we had an idea to make the world a better a place through our products and services. Take the time this year to remember why you embarked on this entrepreneurial journey. Let that be your propelling force. 
 
Cheers to an amazing 2016!!!

Stop Telling Your Big Dreams to Small Minded People .....

Too many of us share our dreams and aspirations with the wrong people. DO NOT share your big dreams with small minded people. No matter how hard you try to sell your dreams to them, they just will never get it. Their small minds cannot just comprehend the materialization of your big dream. It’s beyond their imagination. No matter how hard they try, they simply can’t see past their little imaginations.

When Suzan was in her final year in the university, she developed a strong love for makeup artistry. While she took normal college classes on weekdays, she will travel on weekends to Lagos for makeup class.  Although the makeup industry in Nigeria back then was still at its very early stage, she saw a career for herself in makeup artistry. She excitedly shared her dream with some small minded folks. Oh no! She wasn’t expecting their negative reactions. Like my Naija people would say – “She never Hespererit”. Supposed friends made comments such as “You can never build a career as a makeup artist, not here in Nigeria”. “How many people would be willing to pay a makeup artist for their

 wedding” “What is so difficult in applying makeup by yourself” “You are wasting your time and money”. . .  These people just didn’t get it. Suzan went for her dreams and currently runs her makeup studio - FaceCraft by Suzie.

Small minded people see impossibility in everything. They are too scared to dream big for fear of failure. They would rather stick to the status quo – their comfort zone. Unfortunately, they need company, so they try to convince others to come sit with them.  There is a reason your dream is yours and yours alone. God gave it to you and not to them. No matter how hard you try to convince the small minded folks, it’s a task in futility. They just won’t get it.

Omolabake Bode-Matthew, CEO, Fontaine De Vie shared a very inspiring story at the “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Boss” Conference. She told of how she shared her business idea and dream with her father, who immediately caught the dream and then started envisioning how much she could grow the business to compete with the big players already in the market.

 He was already seeing the growth of the business years ahead, including structures, infrastructures and resources that will be needed. I tell you, it takes a great mind to think like this.

When you share your dreams with great minds, they will enlarge it for you. They will help magnify the possibility of success. Even when fear and uncertainty sets in, they will lend you their wings to fly. They will help you see through their own eyes the certainty of success.

Be careful who you share your dreams. Identify the naysayers and blacklist them in your “no-sharing” list. Identify your dream builders and keep them very close.

 Never share your big dreams with small minded people!

#StayMoretivated

WHILE YOU WAIT, PREPARE!!

You may eventually get that opportunity that you have been craving for, but what happens when you are not prepared to take on the responsibility that comes with the opportunity. The only thing worse than missing an opportunity is not being prepared for an opportunity.

In my early years in the university, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar. While I do not remember the name of the speaker, nor the venue, and neither the title of the speech, a quote by the speaker struck a chord in me and has been playing in my head ever since. The quote says “When preparation meets with opportunity success is inevitable”. 

So often I have heard people say “If only I can get this” “If only I can have that”. While it is good to dream and have something you are aspiring towards. The question is what are you doing to ensure that when you get that thing- Money, job, audition, contract . . . you will be able to make effective use of that opportunity to transform your life. That opportunity may be your only chance for a radical transformation. You lose it, you lose all.

As a Life Coach, I have had the opportunity to coach clients with lofty dreams that they want to achieve. I never tell them to shrink their dreams to a perceived reality. I am never for less, you know I am all about being MORE. All things are possible with the right belief system and the right steps of actions. However, what I often find perplexing is when clients with these dreams have absolutely no idea on what steps to take to achieve these dreams. My job as a coach then is to direct them to start thinking towards that direction. One of the questions I would ask is - What do you need to do to get from where you are now to where you want to be?

In my first year of graduate school, I knew my summer was going to be boring and eventless. I had spent the previous summer eating, sleeping and watching movies and ended up adding so much weight within three months. I was determined not to spend another summer wasting away, so I fervently started seeking for summer internships. I eventually never got any internship but then I heard of a 2 weeks entrepreneurship boot camp in a remote location. Since I was looking to go into entrepreneurship anyway, I applied and was accepted. After returning from the boot-camp, my Program director who was aware that I attended the boot-camp heard of an entrepreneurship facilitator position for a 2 weeks summer boot-camp for high school students. She nominated me and sent my name to the recruiting personnel and without any interview I was selected. The boot-camp I attended, prepared me for this opportunity which I never could have gotten if I was just sleeping and eating my summer away. Of course, I made some cool cash that summer!


The role of preparation can never be under or over estimated. What are you doing each day to prepare for your day of opportunity. Take a class, read a book, volunteer, mentor someone, learn new skills, make new friends, attend workshops and events, ......do anything as long as it is preparing you for the day your dream will get actualized. Wake up each day with the question: What can I do today to prepare me to become (state your dream, goal, vision or the opportunity you seek).


I know someone may be thinking but “I have been doing all these things but it seems the opportunity never comes”. Hang in there, opportunities come when we least expect, we don’t know when but it will surely come. Remember the story of the ten virgins in the Bible. The last thing you want to be is unprepared when that much anticipated opportunity comes.

SUCCESS is what happens when PREPARATION meets with OPPORTUNITY.