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Entrepreneurs advantage
 What’s the one thing that gives an entrepreneur the unfair advantage over others?
Time freedom.
The fact that you own 100% of your time is your greatest advantage as an entrepreneur.
While others have to give up their time in exchange for salary, entrepreneurs make use of their time to create products/services that makes them money. I’ve previously written about this; how entrepreneurs create wealth in their spare time.
For an employee, there’s a limit to their income potential because there’s a limit on their working hours. For an entrepreneur, you own and determine your working hours and also get to choose the activities to devote your time to.
However, knowing that you have this advantage is not going to automatically make you a successful entrepreneur. Having 100% ownership of your time is only the beginning, a greater part of success depends on how well you make use of this time and on what activities you engage in with this time freedom.
So what are those critical areas you absolutely need to be focusing the bulk of your time freedom on as an entrepreneur?

The Key To Unlocking The Entrepreneurial Advantage

I partially answered this question in a previous post about how entrepreneurs should be spending their time. I identified 5 highly effective activities that you can focus on as an entrepreneur; I referred to them as the 5Cs of time management for entrepreneurs.
So in a way, this is a follow up post to that article as I will be sharing 9 key drivers of business according to Jay Abraham that you need to devote your time on regularly.
But before we dive into these 9 key drivers of business, I want to quickly talk about the key to unlocking the entrepreneurial advantage in your business.
The key to unlocking the entrepreneurial advantage of time freedom is to focus it on building your business rather than doing business.
This distinction is very crucial and needs to be clarified, if you spend all of your time freedom doing business, you will eventually end up as a worn out self employee. Your business will further entrap you instead of freeing you. The bigger it grows, the tighter its grip on your time and eventually your life if you failed to focus on building rather than doing.
Here’s a previous post that sheds more light on the need to build rather than do business; the paradox of business. You should read it!

 

Jay Abraham’s 9 Drivers of Business for Unlocking The Entrepreneurial Advantage

There are obviously a million things you should be focusing on as an entrepreneur, but not all of them will give you high return on time invested. But the following 9 areas have been tested and have been found to generate the highest possible leverage for your business by one of the greatest business minds alive; Jay Abraham.
While these 9 drivers of business may not be foreign concepts to you, the underlying mindset here is to spend your time freedom on continually improving and fine tuning them. The keyword is improvement. This is essentially the crucial difference between building a business and just doing business.

1). Marketing

This is your number one priority as an entrepreneur because until you can consistently find, attract, convert and retain a profitable customer, you are not yet in business. You knew that already right?
But here’s the winning difference according to Jay Abraham;
“…if you can get people who were selling 1 out of 7 prospects to sell 1 out of 3. The sales leverage available to you is profound. If you can get sales letters that were pulling 0.5% to pull 4%…if you can people who were buying $250 to now buy $400…if you can get people who were buying once a year to buy once a quarter or once a month…if you can get people who weren’t referring anyone to you to start referring five new customers each a year…the combined effect of that kind of marketing leverage is exponential growth.
That’s exactly how you increase your business, your revenue, your sales, your profits, your wealth, and your net worth by factors of ten times or more. That really is.”
But how do you improve on your marketing to unlock this unfair advantage in your business?
Again, according to Jay Abraham, the answer is pretty simple;
“First thing you do is you do an internal marketing audit and inventory. You identify all the marketing activities, processes, and elements going on and then you start looking at the best performing ways to improve upon it. How do you find them?
There are three approaches:
  • Look within your organization and see who else does what you want to do better. Model, codify and replicate the highest performing people in your company doing various selling or marketing processes. And get everyone else in the organization to start applying it or adding its best elements to their previous method.
  • Go outside your company. Look at other enterprises in the same field outside your market (or even in your market) that have better ways of marketing, of selling, of lead generating, of conversion, of re-selling and of up-selling¾and borrow their success processes.
  • Go outside your industry, to related industries, and look at their best practices. Look at the spectrum of opportunities out there that other people have found, uncovered, discovered, refined and are using each and every day with massive success¾to either identify prospects, sell direct, run ads that pull great response, make better sales presentations, get appointments, or attract people to trade shows.
Then borrow, adapt, adopt, and directly funnel and apply those processes and approaches to your business and start doing this exercise as a regular on-going process in which you measure, monitor, analyze, quantify and figure out how many different things you can add to your current success approach by either adding new additional elements or replacing the underperforming ones that are not justifying their time, their effort, their opportunity cost or their existence.”

2). Strategy

Marketing without strategy, according to small business guru, John Jantsch of Duct Tape marketing, is the noise before failure.
Here’s how Jay Abraham defined it;
“Strategy is the master purpose your business is all about. It’s different than your business model. Strategy is literally the explanation of the entire operating approach your business is following and why and how every element of it integrates, advances and deploys the big picture outcome that you’re after.”

But how do you improve on your strategy to unlock this unfair advantage in your business?
Jay Abraham identified 3 key steps you need to take;
“1.) The first thing is by understanding that you do have strategy you are currently following even if it’s a reactive one. You’ve got to adopt, first and foremost, a proactive long-term strategy.
2.) You’ve got to figure out what it is you’re trying to do, accomplish, build and sustain with your business.
3.) You’ve got to figure what big operating approach will get you the greatest outcome you want in the fastest period of time on the most sustaining and enduring basis. Once you figure that out then you’ve got to think through your tactics.
These are the actions or vehicles that help deliver the strategic result you’re after. What actions, what activities, what concepts, what approaches will deploy your “big picture” strategy best. Meaning what are the best moves and maneuvers to achieve the big outcome you are after.”
For more tips on strategic marketing, read this unusual article; The Idiot’s Guide To Strategic Marketing.

3). Capital

I’m sure the first thing that came into your mind as soon as you saw capital was money, right? Well you are half right, but that’s not the only capital we are referring to here.
According to Jay Abraham; capital also includes your human capital, your intellectual capital, and yes, your financial capital.
  • Human Capital:
These are basically the people working for you. If you can get everybody performing higher you’ve got incredible leverage. How do you do it?
Training.
Every dollar you spend in training will produce 20-200 times return annually in yield. So, do you train your people? If so how often or frequently?
  • Intellectual Capital:
This is one of the hardest things for any competition to copy in business. It refers to the sum of all the knowledge, skill, talent and experiences of all the people in your company. So what do you all have between your ears?
  • Financial Capital:
Are you questioning the yield you’re getting on the money you’re spending¾on the people you’re paying (both staff or contract services), on your marketing expenditures, inventory and technical services? It all ties in.
It’s your responsibility to question the capital expenditures you’re making and the ROI (Return on Investment), the ROE (Return on Effort), the ROP (Return on People), the ROA (Return on Activity), and the ROO (Return on Opportunity).

4). Business model

The business model is different from strategy. It’s basically the means you’re using to affect or achieve your strategy. It’s different than tactics. The model is the whole integrated approach.
The business model you follow can make all the difference in your profitability and there’s enormous leverage here because you can change one element and it could change everything.
Here’s an example by Jay Abraham;
“Let’s say that your business, basically, is a one-shot business. And your business model is you advertise or direct mail market to get leads. You convert them to a one-time sale. You do nothing else with them after they buy or even if they didn’t buy and that’s your business model.
Well, if you added one more dimension to it, after the people that didn’t buy from you and you figured out how to do something else with them for other products and services that are complementary to the need they came to you originally to help them solve or fill. And for the people that do buy, you figure out how to sell them other people’s products or services afterwards. You’ve just added two new dimensions, elements, or layers to your business model and that simple shift in thinking could triple or quadruple your profit.”

5). Relationships

As an entrepreneur, time spent developing your professional network is a huge opportunity for potential growth.
According to Jay Abraham, these are the different sources of relationships available to entrepreneurs;
  • Business Relationships: people you met during the course of doing business; clients, suppliers, employees, partners, etc.
  • Professional Relationships: people in the same field as yourself; colleagues,
  • Collegial Relationships: people you attended school with; course mates, school mates, etc.
  • Mastermind Relationships: brilliant minds, mentors, business coaches, fellow entrepreneurs, you brainstorm together.
So what do you do with these relationships?
Jay Abraham says;
“If I were you and I had relationships in any kind of other business in any field of endeavor, I’d tap into it regularly. Anybody who, knowingly or otherwise, could be a vessel for you to gain greater expanded understanding or hone in on better performing approaches, strategies, etc., I would first and foremost start picking their minds.
I’d ask them questions. I’d tell them your problems. I’d tell them your goals. I’d ask them questions of whatever their area of skill was, what the highest performing thing they did to accept or solve the issue or objective you’re intent in learning about, what was the secret to be successful at it, what they saw, find out what their company or their employer or their industry did best that you don’t do well and learn how to improve from the discussion.
I’d ask them a myriad of questions that would expand my knowledge base proficiency and perspective. I’d write them down. I would record them. I’d add it all to my current operating system. I would keep borrowing the success processes I learned from these activities, from all kinds of different people I know, and apply them to my business opportunities or challenges.”

 

6). Distribution channels

These are the various means through which your products/services get into the hands of your target customers.
According to Jay Abraham;
“You have a number of unrecognized distribution channels you don’t fully maximize and there’s enormous leverage in them. For example, let’s say that you distribute your product through five hundred retailers. Well, that is a distribution outlet for all kinds of other products.”
By spending more time to maximize the value of your distribution channels, you open up your business for more growth. For example, if you are a retailer with a physical outlet and you decide to take your business online through eCommerce, your capacity to sell to more customers will be significantly maximized.
There are basically two ways of leveraging your distribution channels;
  • Increase your distribution channels: this is quite obvious, just like the example above. If you have only one distribution channel, adding more will increase your company’s capacity to grow.
  • Offer more products through your existing distribution channels: this is less obvious, and if well executed can increase your company’s growth potential with less investment on your part. Here’s a fantastic case study from Jay Abraham;
“We had a company that had two products in the athletic clothing field. They were doing about $2 million and making half a million in profit. They came to me because their products were starting to slow down. They wanted me to give them a breakthrough idea. I looked at their business and I saw that their real assets weren’t their two products. They had accounts with 5,000 retailers. Amongst them all were Nordstrom’s, K-Mart, Target, JC Penney and Parkway and Hosiery.
I showed them that all they had to do was secure the rights to other people’s athletic products then give those people a royalty for their clothes design, start having those products manufactured for my client, put their licensed products through the same distribution pipeline and they’d make ten times as much selling these other products through their distribution channel as they did from their main products. They did it and I was right. They made a fortune.”

7). Products and services

How many other places could you take your existing product, service or combinations or variations of them and apply it to other fields or other regions or buying groups. Or could you license other people to use it?
Could you package it in different ways sizes or combinations? Could you package other people’s things with it? Could you package your products or processes and make that a product or service? How many new products or services could you come out with that are your natural extensions, embellishments, top of the line premium versions, higher performing versions, or stripped down white label versions? Just by adding one or two or five different components you can create an entire new product and penetrate new market niches.

8). System

Every business mechanism can be broken down into its driving processes and sub processes. Once you figure out what the processes driving an activity are, they can be measured, they can be quantified, and they can be vastly improved.
When you figure out how your given processes currently perform, (which is nothing more than a function of analysis, monitoring and measurement), you can then find other people in your organization or other people in your industry or other people doing the same function outside the industry who are doing it much better, faster, easier, safer, more productive, more effective, more profitably. Then simply adopt it to your business.

9). Ideology

If you’re very introspective and you’re anti-social, you’re not going to be able to go and build mastermind groups and pick people’s minds and borrow success processes. If your ideology is: You only like what you like; you’re not going to be able to travel outside your comfort zone and study other people, other business philosophies, other mindsets, other ideologies.
You’ve got to figure out what your ideology is, what your belief system is, what your whole value system is and how it either helps or hampers your current business activities. Then it needs to either be strengthened and fortified and connected to and or replaced, based on your current business model and your strategy.
You also need to study other people’s ideology to compare how yours is better, different or worse and what elements of other’s you can borrow and add and what elements of yours you could teach to others. When you do that, you’re going to expand your capability and your sense of what’s possible.

Conclusion

The entrepreneurial advantage is time freedom and the key to unlocking it is focusing on building rather than doing business. We’ve identified 9 key drivers of business according to Jay Abraham that can help you fully maximize the entrepreneurial advantage of time freedom at your disposal.
- See more at: http://www.naijapreneur.com/entrepreneurial-advantage/#sthash.W92w9M5w.dpuf

Share. 


I am very concerned with major political trends and of the view that politics is dynamic; its element and strategy are in constant change driving by the everyday trends in the community. I once occupied a post in the university and was amazed at the way common student feel they automatically become blown POLITICIANS after winning an election. After emerging as the Social Director of my faculty, I was caught in the dilemma of whether i was occupying a Political position or a Managerial position; But i honestly felt i was occupy a management post and not a politician.
It is important to know that the strategy employed in contesting and winning elections will qualify you to be a politician. But after winning election, you automatically become a manager in the affairs of the people you lead. i.e a manager constantly employing political strategies. The question is; Is it good to employ politics in managing the affairs of the people or is it proper play politics in management position?

Why do politicians feel a need to listen to ordinary people only when elections are coming?

As politicians, managers are called upon to bring together parties with different (and often competing) agendas, and to demonstrate the experience, capabilities, and qualities necessary to solve problems and make decisions in a timely fashion. As politicians, managers must be keenly aware of the human and organizational aspects of conflict – along with techniques to resolve it – while successfully balancing individual, group, and organization-wide goals and priorities.

the term “good politician” is not necessarily an oxymoron. Through hard work, good managers can be good politicians and good politicians can be good managers. Politicians wishing to be seen as good managers of their country’s affairs should take a few pointers from good chief executives or from what it takes to be a good chief or other senior executive in a thriving corporation.

First, to get elected, political leaders must articulate a clear and compelling platform. Who can argue that a credible vision conveyed in a convincing manner would not be good for any party and its leaders?

Second, the political candidate and party must spend an inordinate amount of time getting the message across. The most effective managers communicate to ensure commitment throughout the organisation.

Third, once elected, politicians and their parties must display the ability to negotiate with other politicians who have their own interests. Only through effective alliances, diligent persuasion, and strategic compromise can one be a successful politician.

These attributes can be seen as aspects of a single, essential characteristic: the ability to see things from another’s point of view and take varying viewpoints into account. People who can’t visualise legitimate outlooks different from theirs will have little success in changing those outlooks.

By studying the varying motives and interests in their communities, working diligently to accommodate those interests, and campaigning convincingly for a just cause when compromise is impossible, politicians can engage in constructive management behaviour. Thus good politicians can be good managers.

We must tell our politicians campaigning for our votes that we need managers more than we need politicians these days. Like good company managers, good politicians provide the injection of new ideas and prevent stagnation, while public servants ensure a sober second thought before new ideas are implemented. A working political system needs both of these seemingly contradictory characteristics: enough change to prevent entropy and enough stability to prevent system overload.

Politicians must take a clear leadership role in policy setting and stay out of administration and management; administrators must comply with the directions of politicians and not stray into the political process. Politicians and staff members must respect one another and understand their differing roles.

Like company managers and chief executives, today’s politicians are vastly different from those who reigned 20 years ago. Politicians now need a host of new skills to deal with a world ruled by empowerment, increasingly stringent corporate governance rules, globalisation, and fast-paced technological innovation.

Our politicians must possess leadership and team-building qualities; must have a performance-driven personality; have good judgment anchored by prudent risk-taking; financial acumen; an international and global perspective; an external focus; credibility; have communication skills, values, and the ability to deal with change; an eye on tomorrow, a strong bottom-line orientation and a successful track record of results.

Politicians who possess these qualities act boldly, with courage, tenacity, and persistence, but are objective enough to realise when a cause is lost. Today’s political leaders must have a global perspective combined with significant international market experience and must be sensitive to social, political, and environmental factors. They must have credibility inside and outside, along with the stature and personality to deal effectively with key constituencies.

It is vital for a chief executive to possess a solid record of ethical behaviour, integrity, candour, and sensitivity to people. This must combine with a positive, but aggressive, attitude that will not tolerate corruption. This is true too of politicians.

Lastly, like company executives, politicians must be able to deal with change, and cope with adversity as his or her party undergoes structural change. It is virtually impossible for our political leaders to possess all these qualities in perfect proportion. After all, they are only human. Nonetheless, political leaders who have a satisfactory balance of these diverse traits will be the ones to best manage our country in this century and beyond.a
source: Liza van Wyk

Now think politics in Lagos, Nigeria between the two candidates AGBAJE AND AMBODE; decide who you want to vote for.

NB: SENTIMENTS AND PARTY APART
finofund crowdfunding

This is one outstanding initiative I discovered of recent. The First Nigerian Crowdfunding Platform... "FINOFUND". If you are Nigerian and you have a project you want to carry out; there is nothing wrong in  trying this out.


According to Massolution's 2013 report on the phenomenon, titled "2013 CF the Crowdfunding Industry Report (http://research.crowdsourcing.org/2013cf-crowdfunding-industry-report)", approximately 2.7 billion USD has been raised worldwide via crowdfunding platforms: 1.6 billion USD in North America; 945 million USD in Europe and 110 million throughout the rest of the world. Europe and the US have recorded the biggest growth in crowdfunding since 2009.


finofund crowdfunding, nigeria

FINOFUND Project Competitions For Nigerians

Deadline: March 28, 2015 

Finofund has launched a project competition for Nigerians. Finofund is a crowdfunding platform making an entry into the Nigerian market to solve problems that deal with funding of the thousands of innovative projects. With relative success recorded by other crowdfunding platforms especially in Europe and America, Finofund has brought a similar model of crowdfunding but with new strategies, that makes it relevant in the local market.
Finofund will solve two major problems: which are to solve the problem of finding backers for projects initiated by innovative and creative hands or entrepreneurs and to create a culture of investment amongst the average Nigerian. In addition, it will be a platform for idea validation, proof of concept and customer preorder as ideas would go through multitude of scrutiny to get backers. It also seeks to create jobs with every successful project accepted and backed.
Competitors will be required to come up with innovative projects that they have been working on. Individuals and teams can also participate.
Eligibility
Competitors must be Nigerian.
 Competitors must be over 18 years of age Competitors must have a valid form of identification such as School I.D card, Voters Card, National ID Card, Driver’s License or International Passport. Competitors must be resident in Nigeria


Prizes
The best 20 projects will be invited to a launch ceremony to pitch their projects to investors.  Afterwards, these projects will be launched on the website to open it up for public funding   The best five successfully funded projects will then be provided project support to get their projects off the ground.

Acceptable Projects
Technological Projects - which include free software development, games, free apps, hardware development e.t.c entertainment projects  –  These include film, photography, art, comics and design e.t.c Academic and Educational research  -  FINOFUND will accept original research projects Publishing project s - FINOFUND will assist you in funding the publication of your books. However, they must be finished manuscripts by the time you launch your project on Finofund.   A g ric ult u r al P r oje c t s - which may include developing machines for the agricultural sector as well as projects on bio-chemical research to boost our agricultural sector.

Project Guidelines
Projects must be finite, that is, they must have a clear completion date. Work must have begun on the project.(A concrete plan may suffice) Projects must fall into the following categories- technology[software and hardware], entertainment [film, photography, arts and design], agriculture and publishing.  E-commerce projects, social networking projects, charity causes, immoral projects such as pornographic films and books will not be accepted.  Loans are not included.

How to Participate
Applicants will be required to log on to finofund and REGISTER· After e-mail confirmation, they will be required to CREATE NEW PROJECT and upload details about their project. These details will includes
(i)                  Short description: which will be a short description of the project
(ii)                (ii) Long description: which will give details of the project such as; The amount needed for the project   A clean breakdown of what the funds will be used for   Timeline for the completion of the project   What purpose your project intends to serve
(iii)               A video describing the project (iv) A prototype or model of the innovation, an excerpt from the book project etc. or any other proof to show that work has indeed begun on the project.


Note: Check out the tips for building a project
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