Tips for Startup Success

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 Everyone has to start somewhere. Whether he or she works for the largest corporation or the hottest start-up, every entrepreneur starts at square one. Though many paths lead to success, some are more direct and have fewer bumps along the way. No one, of course, finds success without encountering a few obstacles.

Below are three tips to help your startup process and find success.

Dream big and map it out.

When you are contemplating making the entrepreneurial leap, remember this: It doesn’t take any more effort to dream big than it does to dream small.

Perhaps you doubt your ability to make great things happen. Maybe you don’t want to appear greedy or materialistic. Or, you may feel that you don’t deserve all that being an entrepreneur has to offer. Regardless of the reason, you can’t listen to that voice in your head telling you to play it safe and not dream big.

With a big dream motivating you, it is easy to want to go all-in right now. However, before you quit your job, develop a detailed plan for your business. Most entrepreneurs are visionaries with the drive to get things started. But they are easily bored and quick to move on to their next project. By creating a detailed plan for your dream, you learn to hold yourself accountable to yourself and that accountability brings progress. Without a plan, your big dream is just a day dream. With it, it becomes a reality.

Identify your priorities, but be flexible.

As you put your plan together, you'll find it obvious what tasks contribute the most to your business’s success. These are the tasks that must be pursued relentlessly.

One reason entrepreneurs fail is that they fail to properly prioritize their work. By separating the good from the best, you create the focus that would not exist if you pursued everything asking for your time and attention.

As you begin building your business, take time to identify the essential pieces of your business that will sustain your venture and provide the necessary cash flow.

Also, be aware that if you do not prioritize correctly, you run the risk of taking on too much and doing nothing well. Every venture has critical pieces that create the successful outcome. It is when you focus more on the support tasks than the critical ones that you begin watering down your best work.

Designing eye-catching packaging for your product, for example, that will help you stand out from the competition, but if you have neglected the necessary legwork to get your product on the shelves in the first place, your efforts will all be for naught.

Fail fast and fail often.

Most entrepreneurs are not risk adverse. If they were, they would still be playing it “safe” in their 9-to-5 jobs. However, in order to be successful, you need to experiment and take chances that may frighten you at first.

If you are reading this in the hopes of not making any mistakes, then you’ve already made your first one. Do not look at mistakes as something to be avoided at all costs, but as unique learning opportunities custom-tailored to you, your circumstances and your business. The more lessons you can learn from in the quickest amount of time, the more you can shorten your learning curve and place yourself in a position to grow your business.

By adopting the mindset of “fail fast and fail often,” you'll begin to leverage the power of iteration -- the process of repeating and refining a process in order to meet a goal.

The ultimate goal for your business is to stay alive and ultimately to thrive. In order to accomplish this goal, you must iterate until you find the “breakthrough” that makes your business a self-sustaining entity.

When you are starting a business, speed is critical for success. The more tightly you can run experiments and the faster you can iterate the more chances you will provide yourself to find that winning combination. It is that winning combination that helps you become scalable. And scalability is what allows you to realize your big dream.

So, do not be afraid of making mistakes. You have to try, make mistakes, learn and try again. If you try, make a mistake and give up, you will never be the success you could have been.

Original Article Written by Michael Noice

Culled From Entrepreneur.com

Marketing in a Recession

image:marketing mix

With Nigeria being a highly import dependent country especially on consumable items, the hike in dollar rate has prompted a lot of clamour for “buy Naija” with many households adjusting their taste buds to fit with current reality, in order to manage household expenses. Even at that, a lot of people are feeling the hit as the dispensable income is buying less than what it previously could buy.

The current scenario offers local brands an opportunity to recruit new users and grow their franchise. However, beyond consumers just deciding between imported and local brands, there are many competing brands locally to choose from; as such it is important that brands devise strategies to win in the competitive landscape.

Some valuable Marketing Survival Tactics during Recession:

1.     Maintain brand visibility:

The most likely reaction of most organizations is to cut the marketing budget. This will not be a wise decision given that every brand will be currying the favour of consumers and it is important not to be lost in the crowd. There are many innovative ways of maintaining brand presence without going above the top – the mix of the marketing plan can be altered or skewed towards certain demographics, channels or locations. For example, buying a 15sec radio spot rather than a 30sec slot would reduce spend and still sustain brand visibility.

2.     Understanding the changing consumer behavior:

In a time of recession, consumer behaviors and habits change. This is not the time to rely on old consumer data, the behavior of consumers will be altered in many ways that could affect their buying decisions, consumption habits and even their media choices. It is quite important for organisations and brands to understand how these patterns evolves and tailor their campaigns along those lines.

3.     Communicate value for money:

Consumer expectation will increase and they will demand product performance from brands in exchange for their money. They will be more discerning and price conscious and would likely trade down on volume and quantity purchased. This is the time to let consumers know the value they are deriving from your brand as the competitive landscape will be quite intense. Value communication will be relevant at points of sale and at critical decision points.

4.     Be careful of price cuts & promotions:

Price war may be the order of the day during a recession, while it is okay for brands to execute occasional price discount to identify with consumers, there is an extent to which pricing can be used as leverage before it starts impacting the bottom line (especially with respect to low margin brands) and ultimately the brand value.

Critical times call for critical actions! As much as buyers are looking at options to stretch their available funds, they still need to be assured that they are getting the right brand experience; while marketers need to ensure that they are deploying their funds in areas that will generate the most returns.

Adapted  from Bolajako Bayo-Ajayi’s Article. Originally Published in Business Day Nigeria Newspaper Tuesday 06 September 2016

How to Make a Great First Impression

Amy Cuddy says people answer one question when they first meet you -- and that answer lays the foundation for a business relationship.

Say you meet a new potential customer, a potential employer, or anyone with whom you want to establish a business relationship.

Which matters more:

• Showing that you're skilled, experienced, and capable, or
• Showing that you're trustworthy and likable?

Many people assume that skill, expertise, experience, and competence matter most. After all, if you're going to hire me or do business with me, you need to know I have the talent to come through, right? It's natural to assume you should establish your credentials as quickly as possible.

Natural, but wrong.

According to Amy Cuddy, how people initially judge you has little to do with whether you seem skilled or competent. Instead, people subconsciously ask themselves one question when they first meet you:

"Can I trust you?"

According to Cuddy, trustworthiness (meaning warmth and likability) is everything. "From an evolutionary perspective," she writes in her book Presence, "it is more crucial to our survival to know whether a person deserves our trust." Her research shows that.

Of course natural likability can also quickly lose its impact, especially when there's no substance beneath the surface glow. That's where talent comes in: Once you've shown you're trustworthy, then you can prove you're talented.

In short, whip out your CV too soon and you may be wasting your time -- first you need to show that you're someone who can build and maintain great relationships, consistently influence (in a good way) the people around you, and make people feel better about themselves.

Those are the kind of people we all like to be around, and want to be more like.

So how do you do that? How do you come across as more likable and trustworthy -- in a genuine and authentic way?

1. Listen a lot more than you talk.

Ask questions. Maintain eye contact. Smile. Frown. Nod. Respond -- not so much verbally, but nonverbally. That's all it takes to show the other person he or she is important.

Then when you do speak, don't offer advice unless you're asked. Listening shows you care a lot more than offering advice does, because when you offer advice, in most cases, you make the conversation about you.

Don't believe me? Who is "Here's what I would do ..." about: you or the other person?

Only speak when you have something important to say -- and always define important as what matters to the other person, not to you.

2. Shift the spotlight to others.

No one receives enough praise. No one. So start by telling people what they did well.

Wait, you say you don't know what they did well? Shame on you -- it's your job to know. It's your job to find out ahead of time. Not only will people appreciate your praise, they'll appreciate the fact you care enough to pay attention to what they do.

And then they'll feel a little more accomplished and a lot more important, and they'll love you for making them feel that way.

3. Never practice selective hearing.

Some people -- I guarantee you know people like this -- are incapable of hearing anything said by someone they feel is somehow beneath them.

Sure, you speak to them, but that particular falling tree doesn't make a sound in the forest, because there's no one actually listening.

People who make a great first impression listen closely to everyone, and they make all of us, regardless of our position or social status or "level," feel like we have something in common with them.

Because we do. We're all human.

4. Put your stuff away.

Don't check your phone. Don't glance at your monitor. Don't focus on anything else, even for a moment.

You can never connect with others if you're busy connecting with your stuff, too.

Give the gift of your full attention. That's a gift few people give. That gift alone will make others want to be around you and remember you.

5. Give before you receive -- and assume you will never receive.

Never think about what you can get. Focus on what you can provide. Giving is the only way to establish a real connection and relationship.

Focus, even in part and even for a moment, on what you can get out of the other person, and you show that the only person who really matters is you.

6. Don't act self-important ...

The only people who are impressed by your stuffy, pretentious, self-important self are other stuffy, pretentious, self-important people.

The rest of us aren't impressed. We're irritated, put off, and uncomfortable.

And we hate when you walk in the room.

7. ... Because you realize other people are more important.

You already know what you know. You know your opinions. You know your perspectives and points of view.

All that isn't important because it's already yours. You can't learn anything from yourself.

But you don't know what other people know, and everyone, no matter who he or she is, knows things you don't know.

That makes other people a lot more important than you -- because you can learn from them.

8. Choose your words.

The words you use impact the attitude of others.

For example, you don't have to go to a meeting; you get to go meet with other people. You don't have to create a presentation for a new client; you get to share cool stuff with other people. You don't have to go to the gym; you get to work out and improve your health and fitness.

You don't have to interview job candidates; you get to select a great person to join your team.

We all want to associate with happy, enthusiastic, fulfilled people. The words you choose can help other people feel better about themselves -- and make you feel better about yourself, too.

9. Don't discuss the failings of others ...

Granted, we all like hearing a little gossip. We all like hearing a little dirt.

The problem is, we don't necessarily like -- and we definitely don't respect -- the people who dish that dirt.

Don't laugh at other people. When you do, the people around you wonder if you sometimes laugh at them.

10. ... But readily admit your own failings.

Incredibly successful people are often assumed to have charisma simply because they're successful. Their success seems to create a halo effect, almost like a glow.

The key word is seem.

You don't have to be incredibly successful to make a great first impression. Scratch the shiny surface, and many successful people have all the charisma of a rock.

But you do have to be incredibly genuine to be remarkably charismatic.

Be humble. Share your screwups. Admit your mistakes. Be the cautionary tale. And laugh at yourself.

While you should never laugh at other people, you should always laugh at yourself.

People won't laugh at you. People will laugh with you.

They'll like you better for it -- and they'll want to be around you a lot more.

Original Article Posted By Jeff Haden on Inc.com