Executing Your Newly Incubated Business Idea

Founders soon learn that customers only spend real money for solutions rather than ideas. Investors have also learned not to invest in ideas but only in entrepreneurs and teams who can deliver solutions. Success requires moving your passion quickly from the idea to the business implementation.

A good execution requires a plan and the right people, combined to create operational excellence and exceptional customer value. Companies that do this best become market leaders. Google, for example, was not the first Internet search provider (think Yahoo!, AltaVista, InfoSeek and others), but according toInvestopedia, Google was the first to really monetize search.

As a result, Google has become a verb, and the company is a tech giant with record growth rates and a revenue of $74.5 billion in 2015. But Google is not unique. Many other companies have followed a similar set of execution principles which I believe are required for business success, no matter how great the idea:

1. Tune the business model to optimize value for all constituents.

Smart entrepreneurs architect a value chain that includes customers, partners and vendors, based on market dynamics. They then drive innovations and solutions to feed that value chain. A growth model without monetization for key players is not a long-term success strategy.

2. Plan for pivots as improvements based on results.

If every plan adjustment is a reaction to a crisis, you won’t take corrective action quickly enough and will never find new opportunities. Continuous improvement applies to the business model as well as the product. Set business goals and milestones, and use metrics to track performance.

3. Enable team members to run the business as their own.

Every team member needs the motivation, training and authority to make day-to-day decisions without review and approval. That means milestones have to be documented, measured and desired results rewarded. The whole team is required to deliver a winning customer experience.


4. Two-way communication at all levels is always top priority.

People who don’t know what is expected of them can’t do the job. Customers won’t be happy if you and your team don't listen to feedback and expectations. Strong leaders realize that effective communication becomes exponentially more difficult as the number of players increases.

5. It’s hard to improve results that you don’t measure.

In operationally excellent businesses, productivity and results are measured at every step in the value chain, not just at the end. Targets are benchmarked against competitors, customer reviews and industry expert expectations. Merely keeping up with previous results is falling behind.

6. Define at least one worst-case scenario and recovery plan.

Proactively engaging the team in building a plan-B is the only way to assure a timely response to key challenges. A passionate commitment to an idea alone will not carry the business over downturns in the economy, market evolution or customer trend changes. A great business must be agile.

7. Optimize team efforts with the latest technology and tools.

In this era of rapid technology advancement, an open mind must be the norm in leveraging the latest tools and process architectures. This means regular team training and update sessions, bringing in outside experts, and working with partners and vendors on win-win deals.

Business excellence is a convergence of technology and business elements to maximize customer value as well as company and partner returns. This convergence is not a one-time effort, but an iterative review and improvement mentality that has to be drilled into the team and built into every process and measurement. It has to start with the entrepreneurs at the top.

Google, with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin leading the charge, demonstrated a technical leadership combined with the foresight to bring in business help, including Eric Schmidt and others, to optimize the business execution focus. Are you sure your startup is moving beyond the idea stage, with the execution principles outline here, to assure long-term business success?

Ways Of Creating Positive Energy In Team Meeting

Almost every single aspect of modern civilization can be traced back to collaboration and some division of labor on a grand scale. This fractal of synergy is what makes us the most innovative species by far on the planet. In the 21st century, we count on things like team meetings to clarify everyone’s individual tasks and coordinate large projects. But you can’t count on meetings alone to boost the productivity of your organization. If you want to remain competitive, the meetings have to lead to something. If you’re hosting the meeting, you need to lead the discussion into something highly-productive and positive.

You need to know how to have a proper team meeting on Zoom! The road to a great meeting can be summed up in four basic principles that you must adhere to whenever possible in hosting your meetings. Let’s have a look at those, shall we?

Make the conversation about data.

After the chit-chat has finished, it’s time to make it clear that we’re getting down to business. One of the best ways to do that is to get the numbers flowing as soon as you can. All the data related to the conversation should be discussed here. Emotional and opinionated talk should be discouraged and put aside in favor of empirical discussion. This pushes everyone towards a data-driven mentality. It makes people use the numbers discussed to justify their points of view later in the conversation.

If you can, present some visual cues of the importance of data by using Zoom’s screen sharing feature and displaying charts and graphs that are relevant to the discussion.

Steer towards inclusivity.

Now you have started to see embers. It’s time to breathe life into them so that they may transform into flames. At this point, make sure that the conversation is as inclusive as possible. Do not allow people to dismiss each other’s ideas, and make sure that you are as attentive to all of them as possible. In short, make everyone feel that their voice has been heard. Even if an idea sounds objectively weak, try to expand on it for a moment. If all else fails, just acknowledge the idea and move onto the next one. The idea is to make people feel as much a part of the conversation as possible.

Build consensus through win-win thinking.

The most productive meetings have some form of consensus between their attendees. Working towards a consensus involves trying to engage everyone in a similar mindset. Yes, humans are humans, and because they’re humans, they’ll have a confrontational and competitive nature. There’s nothing wrong with healthy competition as long as the end goal of collaboration and compromise comes first. In a team effort, everyone has to be on the same wavelength. It might actually take you a few meetings, but you can accomplish this as long as you try as much as you can to create environments in which people can come up with win-win situations in every possible occasion.

Find common ground.

It’s inevitable that you will reach a point of entropy, where conflict will overtake the discussion. It is at this point that you should actually avoid going into “damage control” mode as much as possible. If you want to solve the conflict, backing down is only going to make things worse. Instead of trying to quell things, focus on trying to find common ground. Elevate yourself above the rest of the voices and be assertive. Then, once you have everyone’s attention, attempt to find where the dissent comes from. After that, discover every point where everyone is in agreement and pick it up from there.

Once you’ve finished quelling the conflict, you should then try to work with the naysayers to see whether they are spotting a potential issue with what’s being discussed. Sometimes, they’ll spot something that could cause deep problems with the goals you’re trying to accomplish. Listening to negative input doesn’t hurt!


Contributor: Pricilla  B.

Ways Of Making Enough Side Income For Financial Independence

Last Updated: January 2021

Nearly everyone dreams of quitting his or her day job, whether it's tomorrow, next year or in the next decade. However, there is a wide chasm between "dreams" and "action" that many people never seem to cross -- and it's usually due to finances.

Obviously, if you want to quit, you need to find another way to make enough income to pay your bills, save for the future and enjoy life. But what's the best way to do this? How can you make enough "side income" now so you can quit your job in the near future?

Here are great ways to make side income while still working your day job:


1. INVEST IN OIL AND GAS MARKETING

Oil and gas business is wide and diverse. You can actually go into oil and gas products trading, supplies, big and small deals and facility management, the oil industry is where everybody can benefit. The trading opportunity is massive, in fact, in one deal alone, you can make over N200,000. Product trading is where the wealth is and, it has a wide scope, from the Automotive gas oil(AGO- Diesel) to PMS(petrol) and DPK(kerosene).


You will find opportunities from homes, banks, factories, workshops, eateries and business centres, cyber cafes, companies, government offices, filling stations, construction sites/companies, tank farms, etc. All these places are where you can supply petroleum products for millions even on your first delivery. This business was made simple and open to all by the partial removal of the fuel subsidy and complete removal of Dpk subsidy by the federal government.


The good news is, you do not need to be a millionaire to start this business. With what is called Local Purchase Order(LPO) you can start without any capital(money) and still make huge amount of money. LPO is a contract agreement between you and the company you want to deliver the product to, and usually, it contains the quality, quantity, date the product will be delivered, terms of payment, etc. When you deliver the product to the company, you will be paid instantly and then you can in turn, pay your supplier. You may not even see the product( the supplier will take the product straight to your customer) and you will be paid.

That is, you will be acting like an agent to the petroleum companies your are getting your products from. That means, you don't need to quit your day job, you don't need any certificate or paper work of any type, because the company will take care of all these. You can promote your business with your smartphone online through twitter, facebook, blogs, forums or through handbills, telling your friends and meeting the managers in some of the organisations mentioned above at your free time.
Your jobs is mainly to convince people to buy through you.
For more about this business and to learn how to start, click here to know more



2. INVEST IN REAL ESTATE

My eyes were first open to the idea of "passive income" after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Although not a real-estate book, it taught me the value of owning assets that produce income, which led me to real estate. Real-estate investing is not always passive, and not always easy, but it can be highly profitable. In addition, there are hundreds of ways to invest in real estate. For example, you could:

Flip houses
Own rental houses
Become a "house hacker"(independent agent)
Own vacation rentals (AirBnB)
Rent out duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes
Buy and rent out apartment complexes


Real-estate investing is a good way to create side income because it runs like a locomotive. It might take a little time to build up, but once it's running, it goes a long way with less effort and is hard to stop.


3. WRITE A BOOK

Many people have dreams of writing a book, but very few ever do. They think it's too hard, that they don't know enough, don't have enough time, aren't smart enough or whatever other excuse they can come up with. But the truth is: you can write a book, and that book can help you make additional monthly income.

There are several avenues you can take when writing a book, and there is no "best route." For example:

You could write a series of shorter topic-specific books and publish them on Kindle.com. You could self-publish through your own website and sell to your existing customers. You could partner with a larger platform and sell to its audience (as I did).You could work to get published through a major publishing company (probably the most difficult path).You could record an audiobook and publish it on Audible.

Writing a book today is not as tough as it once was, as there are so many avenues with which you could publish. The keys are no longer held by elite publishing companies. The keys are now in your hands.


4. SELL A PRODUCT ON AMAZON.

I'm slightly addicted to Amazon Prime, as my local UPS driver can attest to. It seems every day I have a package or two waiting at my doorstep -- and it's usually from people just like you. Most of them probably never touch the product that I'm buying.

That's right: you no longer need to have a warehouse, inventory or employees to buy wholesale products and sell them at retail. Amazon has leveled the playing field and now anyone can sell products.

A friend of mine, Chris from UpFuel.com, decided to sell products on Amazon. He researched best-selling ideas, contacted a manufacturer in China and had the perfect model designed, had the product shipped to Amazon's fulfillment center in the United States and sells his product on the site, making thousands of dollars a month in profit. No matter the country you reside, you can sell on Amazon. Infact, Amazon can make you to be earning upto $10,000 weekly from your sales.

The best part? Chris doesn't ever touch the product, and it largely runs on autopilot at this point.

Personally, I have been selling on Amazon for over a year now and I generate upto $2,000 to $5,000 weekly on sales of phones accessories(iphones and androids). The process is very easy and you can configure it to run on autopilot. You can get manufacturers to customise your products and after that, they will ship it to Amazon fulfilment centre in USA for you. You can as well, chose to promote other peoples products and earn high commissions.
All you need is just your smartphone to start this business.

To learn more and to know how to fully start this business, get the full explanation here "Amazon secret business model "



5. SELL YOUR SKILLS

Chances are you are good at something in the business world. Perhaps it's accounting, data entry, video production or writing.

Whatever you are good at, there are likely people out there willing to pay you good money to run that part of their business for them. Smart business owners know that they should focus on what they are good at, and hire out the rest. This is where you can come in and make side income doing what you love.

In addition to freelancing, you could also become a consultant. For example, my friend Joshua  turned his knowledge of Infusionsoft, ClickFunnels and other marketing systems into a full-fledged consulting business, where he helps CEOs identify existing opportunities in their businesses. Personally, I am an International Business Consultant. Have consulted in food industries, oil and gas companies, Blogging, web designing and SME startups, etc.

So what are you good at? What will other people pay you for?



6. START A BLOG.

Finally, a good way to make side income can be with a blog. Although it takes time to build up a following, once you have that following there are numerous ways to monetize the blog.

Jeff Rose, from GoodFinancialCents.com, uses his blog to build up his authority as a certified financial planner, driving traffic and income to his business. At the same time, his blog allows him to monetize in other more passive methods, such as affiliate marketing, online products and consulting.

To succeed at blogging, it's important that you:

Focus on writing quality contentWork hard at getting that content out there to the worldBuild your email list from day one, so you can market to those people later.

Blogging is definitely not a "sit at home in your underwear and make easy money" kind of activity. It requires diligence, quality and time. However, blogging can be incredibly rewarding.

There is one common theme with all of the above methods for making side income. Do you know what it is? They all take work. That's right, you'll never achieve the kind of lifestyle you want if you don't work for it. So get out there today and start hustling. You'll be able to quit that job faster than you ever imagined.

Check out the various blogging tips here.

How to be a good blogger


How to make money through blogging


Affiliate marketing guide for bloggers



Contributor: Brandon Turner (Entrepreneur.com)

More Trouble For Nigeria As Ghana Bans Importation Of Goods From Nigeria

More woes for Nigeria as its largest trading partner in West Africa, Ghana has banned the importation of Nigerian goods to fix economic issues.

Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and John Mahama of Ghana

  

Ghana has prohibited some items from entry into its domain, following Nigeria’s foot steps that restricted 41 items from access to foreign exchange.

 

Ghana however has placed a ban on some goods from being imported into the country, Vanguard reports.

Ghanaian Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah stated yesterday that Ghana and Nigeria trad are said to account for some 68 per cent of the ECOWAS region’s Gross Domestic Product.

Nigeria accounts for almost 10 per cent of Ghana’s foreign trade volume, whereas Ghana is listed as the 9th largest trade partner to Nigeria.

In spite of the difficulties, Ghana remains Nigeria’s largest trade partner and favourite investment hub in the West Africa sub-region, as Ghana imports the largest share of all Nigerian oil exports in the West African sub-region. While ‘bagged cement’ is on Nigeria’s prohibition list, Dangote Cement brings in and bags some 750,000 tonnes of cement a year for the Ghanaian market, and is expected to increase this to 1.5 million tonnes by end of this quarter.

The Chief Executive Officer of Ghanaian Association of Ghana Industries stated that there should be a clear letter written to the Nigerians complaining about this, and then also try and use some diplomatic means to quickly resolve it. “If it does not work then we must also look at countervailing measures…it could be product targeting,” he said.

“If we also make it difficult for them to export, then we would have to find common ground,” Kate Quartey-Papafio, CEO of Reroy Cables argued. Even for those who are able to export to Nigeria, you have to get different certificates for different customers and it takes a whole lot of time to get it. It makes the whole thing so cumbersome. You are exporting the same thing but you have to go and get certificates for each of the customers,” she said.

Nigeria has used an “Import Prohibition List” to refuse certain goods entry into the country, including a host of pharmaceutical products.