No be curse o, na true!

Ok so this is a mini rant. To who it may concern (including me!)

If you failed in the pure water business, you see your neighbour selling Coke and proceed to empty your storehouse and fill it up with Coke. You haven’t asked the most important question. Why did the pure water business fail into the first place? One would argue that everyone drinks Coke, Coke sells, Coke is a strong brand. Well what about water? We all need to drink it don’t we? In that case you cannot tell me that the product was the problem. So what went wrong? You most definitely will not succeed in this business either, except by some divine intervention you decide to look at your process one step at a time and objectively pick out what your weaknesses were. If not, prepare to close shop! No be curse o, na true!

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=721  

You can call your frozen fish company Alleluia! Fisheries, or your garri mill, Success Is Mine Mills. If your fish are below par, rotten or of questionable quality in any way and your garri is half dried and full of stones, you are going down! The only people that will buy stuff from you are those who feel one thing –pity! Please I beg of you, don’t hinge the success of your product on your name alone. Look at the names that currently rock the world, Apple, Virgin, Trump! Does that give you a clue? The brand makes the name what it is, not the other way round. No be curse o, na true! (Let me state that I have nothing against these names and they are entirely fictional and were not intended to vilify any company or business in any way. These were purely for illustration purposes)

If you complain that your thighs are fat, your tummy is round, your feet smell, your arms are flabby and you haven’t done anything consistently over time to change it. Please save us the drama. You don’t really want slimmer thighs, a flat tummy, sweet smelling feet or toned arms. If you did, you would have got it by now. Forget the evil genes we all blame before we've done 10 reps of sit ups. You don't have it because you don't want it. If you don’t believe me picture how you methodically planned to buy those red stilettos even though you knew there was no kobo in your pocket. You didn’t have all it took to get it but that didn’t stop you did it? But because you didn’t have Nike trainers, joggers that matched and a pretty headband, you can’t be caught dead in scraggy gym wear and you therefore couldn’t go to the gym. Exactly! No be curse o, na true!

Get Up!!!

Just a l'il something to get you revved up and stay fighting. It's hard but it's worth it!!

About to give up.....Sigh...

I'm tired....
Nothing seems to be working....
It's like trying to squeeze water out of a rock....
I can't, I just cant.....
There's no point.....
I'll never get it done....
I just don't have what it takes....
Who would hire me anyway?...
Why won't anyone help me?....
Am I cursed?....
It's no good....
I'll probably be horrible at it....

Please feel free to add as many downers as you can to grow the chain of pity party favourites. The worst thing you can do to yourself is to walk around thinking the world owes you something at every turn. 

Home Businesses on a Tight Budget - Part 2

I tried hard to encompass as many sectors as possible in my research. Many people only envision vocational services when they think of working from home or earning additional income. There is also the 'knowledge-based' market which is growing in popularity everyday. Developed countries got a hang of it many moons ago but in some part of the world, it's just catching on.

So option number two for aspiring home biz owners....................

Africans Are Lazy!!! ......No?.....Prove it!

Taking a little break from our Home Businesses Series to share this eye-opening article. I know many of us have thought about this once or twice but were never able to fully articulate an answer to the question........What is wrong with Africans? With all the resources, natural and human, all the options, the good of the land in many respects and nothing to show for it.

No one has articulated this as well as this writer who boldly called all of us, yes, ALL of us, lazy! Just read it and you'll see why we need to start thinking differently to get different results!!

http://mindofmalaka.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/you-lazy-intellectual-african-scum/

It can be easy trying unthink decades of thoughts, stories and perceptions that have been passed down to us either knowingly or unknowingly by those who went before us. But think about it, if we were so smart and all knowing, why do we always feel like we always end up with the short end of the stick. We rely way too much on what was said, or done and we don't want to find out things for ourselves. I can't explain anymore than Will Smith's character in the 'Pursuit of Happyness'.



So don't just sit there sulking.....If you want it, go ahead and get it!!!

Home Businesses on a Tight Budget - Part 1

So now comes the fun part! Most of my readers, friends and business partners in complain about the same things. Generally - Money! High start-up costs, high costs of labour, expensive rentals, insolvency, high cost of power, debtors, creditors, keeping track of recurrent expenditure.....and the list goes on.

I've got quite a few requests from people shopping for profitable home business ideas. Especially those that can run on a shoe-string budget alongside a full time job without leading to high blood pressure. So I set about thinking a little deeper and doing some more research to come up with a few options which also double as very 'mompreneur' friendly too!

The first on our list........ drum roll please.................................

Stop!!! Listen....

This is a really, really insightful clip of the legendary Steve Job's sharing some secrets of success. I know it sounds corny and everyone seems to want to be doling out secrets to making big bucks. The only reason I will share this is because it's Steve Jobs. He was obviously saying exactly what he did that got him where he was at the time. The only difference between gist and useful information is that one is given without much thought, the other is backed with valuable experience.

You've probably heard the same words before......but they weren't from Steve Jobs. Listen and learn. I did.

Make Money, Not Excuses.

Hi people!!!

Just a little extra for budding business owners everywhere. It's great to know there are many people going through a lot more stuff than we can imagine and still find a way to make it work.

This is a story of a woman who moved from being on welfare to a jewelry designer and business mogul in her own right. I think what attracted me most to this story was the fact that she made a fortune off a creative venture and she worked from the bottom up. We also get 6 tips for entrepreneurs from lessons she learnt. Good stuff!

This post is from http://theoneofakindpreneur.com/2011/11/17/6-lessons-in-entrepreneurship-from-a-welfare-mom-turned-business-czarina.html

What do you REALLY want?

Decide what you want early and save yourself the heartache.

Do you want a quick hit, truckloads of money right now!? Or do you want to make enough to keep you in the game long enough to know how to make, maintain and grow the big bucks? What you decide will govern how you do everything in your business, I mean every single thing.

Image courtesy:http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2026

I have seen it happen time and time again, business owners, who go in search of the Golden Fleece, hit it big and became overnight superstars. That’s great but is that really what you want? Do you want to come into so much money all at once and drive yourself crazy with all the things you can buy, ride the wave while it lasts and run into a hole when the gig is up? Seriously, is that really what you want? You increase the lifestyle tastes of your family and then when the money wave dies down you are running from pillar to post, getting into deals you ordinarily wouldn’t dream of in your right mind.

Tech Solutions for Home Businesses

Why bother? Well, every smart person knows that to make any money, you have to go where the people are. You aren’t going to sell any product or market your service mooning over your table in your home office. And unless you have been living under a rock for the past twenty years, you would know that two hands on the keyboard could open more doors than your two feet pounding the streets ever could. A few options that are simple to implement (and more importantly free!) are:

What does business success mean to you?

Was just doing some reading and wondered aloud....What does business success mean to you? What would you have in place and what would you be able to do to consider yourself successful in business? 


I'll start with two of mine. 

1. I would want to have systems that work on their own and progressively generate income with or without my presence. 
2. I would consider a business successful if it is able to not only stand as a product in itself but that mentoring is an integral part of the business.

In short, no stress, plenty money, and happy people...lol!


Lots of business owners are looking for ways to stay motivated and one suggestion is a vision board. Its basically where you put together your dreams and aspirations for the business using words, pictures, and whatever else has a clear ability to translate your vision visibly. Really considering making one. I have always been a proponent of writing your goals down but have never really thought of doing a vision board. Will let you know how it goes. 


So what do you consider a successful business enterprise? Be as open and large minded as possible. The bigger the picture the better!

What?

So some of you are asking, why are you so interested in helping me and sharing all this time and information? Well, to be honest, it’s just the way I am wired. Life has brought me to a point where I decided not to do anything just for the sake of business and looking proactive. It has to mean something. Building people is what I live for and to be able to reach you right here, right now, is fantastic!

You might not be sure what this is about. You might not even be interested in this, but I assure you that the only way the wealthy and productive portion of the world’s population have stayed that way is because they grabbed opportunities at first glance. You know how it is when you don’t have a car, and then you finally buy a Toyota, and suddenly you notice there are many more Toyota’s plying your route. It’s the same thing with opportunities; you only get to really see them when you hold them in your hand.

If it’s one thing I have learnt from years of stumbling, starting and stopping and almost pulling my hair out in business is that there is no such thing as a sure thing.

Women and Money

Ok. So the aim is to add value this year especially to women who I think take their strengths and gifts way too lightly.

I must point out that I am not a feminist or and activist in that regard. I do think it’s time to take responsibility for our lives; of our thoughts, our words and deeds. As much as grace and favour are available in abundance, it’s up to you to make the best of it. The world will not give you what you deserve; only what you negotiate. Too many of us are sitting around staring into space and someone somewhere is counting on your success to move to their next level.

The first principle I am trying and testing this year is to actively study how the wealthy live and operate I am not talking about those who SEEM to be wealthy and successful. I am talking about people who have purposefully thought out ways of sowing seeds for the future; generational thinkers. Any fool can make money. It takes more than a little wisdom to keep and grow it.

I came across a table that outlined the way men and women deal with money from the book, ‘Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich’. It was a revelation. A few points I picked out:

Somebody Lied....

It's a new year! Welcome to 2012!!! 

Ok so I spent the best part of last year on research, fact finding and searching out solutions. This year is going to be great! Trust me....Welcome, Welcome, Welcome!!!!

I was listening to Ice Prince's track 'Somebody Lied' and I was struck with the bug to put this down. Enjoy!

Somebody lied.

They said all we needed to do was study hard, get a good job, get married, have a family, make tons of money, retire and die.

Somebody lied. They said all you needed to succeed was hard work and a tenacious spirit. No one said anything about sitting down to think of what you are good at and doing it, even if it didn’t fall under Engineering, Medicine or Law.

Image source:<p><a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2741">Image: 89studio / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>

Somebody lied. They said that making a 1^st class would open all doors and solve all problems. No one said anything about actually having to be good at the job and remaining relevant, 1^st class or not.

Somebody lied. They said you were more likely to have a successful marriage if you loved to cook, clean and wear an apron all day. No one said anything about making the most of your own gifts; even if they weren’t all and about onions and egusi.

Somebody lied. They said all you needed to become a millionaire was to start up a small business. No one said anything about the Mallam at the gate who has been a CEO for 30 years and still lives in the wooden hut.

Somebody lied. They said graduates from Nigeria were among the best in the world. No one said anything about the fact that what we pat our backs for at 25, our counterparts elsewhere already knew at 16.

Somebody lied. They said advertising was the key to making a killing in business. No one said anything about thinking up an exceptional product that people would want in the first place.

Somebody lied. They said if you pretended to be rich long enough, you eventually would. No one said anything about making sure you were actually doing something to make the money in between. Wearing Brazilian hair and Jimmy Choo heels doesn’t make you rich. It makes you a broke chic in Brazilian hair and designer shoes. That’s even worse.

Somebody lied. They said the only way to show you had made it was to build a humongous mansion and drive the biggest cars. No one said anything about keeping up appearances. That costs twice as much and many never survive it.

Somebody lied. They said the hardest working, most intelligent people made the most out of life. No one said anything about actually having a plan.

Somebody lied. They said all you needed to do was be nice and pretty and scout around for Mr Right. No one said anything about getting about the reason you were put on earth in the first place

Image source <p><a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2280">Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>

Somebody lied. They said all you needed to do was find a rich husband, cross your legs and enjoy the ride. No one said anything about no one wanting a liability, not even the oil rich sheikhs.

Somebody lied. They said a bird in hand was worth two in the bush. No one said anything about making sure the bird was free of the flu and was worth holding in the first place. If it wasn’t, then you would have lost both the bird in hand and the ones in the bush.

Somebody lied. They said if you fail, try, try, and try again. No one said anything about that being a sign that you are trying hard in the wrong thing. If results aren’t coming by working one way, try another.

Somebody lied. They said half a loaf of bread is better than none. No one said anything about actually working hard to get the other half of the loaf rather than settling for the half you managed to get and be bitter the rest of your life. Its either you get the full loaf, or go hungry; some handouts are better left alone.

Image source: <p><a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1152">Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>

Somebody lied.

They said all you had to do was do what your predecessors did, like what they liked and believe what they believed. No one said anything about finding out the truth for yourself. What do YOU value? What do YOU consider important? That’s a clue to what you are really about. Don’t wake up 20 years from now shaking your head saying....somebody lied.