GINGER IT UP

The day is bright, the thoughts are right and my face is filled with smile as I welcome you back to another great edition of GINGER IT UP after a long time of being away. Before going into the issue of the day, I can feel some one really frowning at the screen of the system with an expression of something like ‘what sort of rubbish is this? Why on earth could you have gone for so long without considering what the implication would be.’ Here on my knees I really want to apologize to you my wonderful readers for being away for so long. Really sorry for that mess. And I am assuring you that we are fully back with great packages for your enjoyment. Thanks for your understanding. I love you all.

 In this new edition, I will be going steps further on what we have been talking about in the last edition.

For the sake of those who are just visiting and those of us who are regular with us, lets run through some of the things mentioned in the last edition.

It would be recalled that in that in the last edition, we mentioned the fact that for you to enjoy a great success, you must have a DREAM which must be specific and timely as you cannot feature in a future you cannot picture. We went further to mention that having had a dream you must pursue it with a great passion by having what you stand to achieve at the back of your mind. Then ensure you maximize every opportunity that comes for you to actualize tour dream.

 In this edition, we are moving steps forward from where we stopped in the last edition.

We will be talking on how to maximize the various opportunities that comes your way. And if on the other hand, opportunities seem not forth coming, how to create them for yourself.

The following ways are sure to help you locate and create opportunities for those discovered potentials.

·                Define your aims, objectives and strategies; to maximize your potential, it is necessary to be able to define what you aim to achieve at the end of the day. Are you out to make profit or just want an avenue to just practice. How do you intend to actualize your plans. Are your aims and objectives achievable? Is it going to be single handedly managed or you need the help of others to be able to achieve?

It is necessary to put to heart the fact that when drawing your aims and objective, it must be feasible and practicable. You have to put every other thing to be mentioned in this write-up into consideration. 

·                Locate the right environment; For every potential we posses there is always a set of people who are in need of it as a solution to their problems. For instance, Yours might be in the business line. You have to locate where those who are in need of your products are. For instance, if you are a producer of chocolates, you know your market is among kids and the young ones. You should direct your products to a location where you have primary and secondary schools. if you have a potential to sing well, it is best for you to seek locations where you know the people there love to party or a place where ceremonies are common. You have to also be sure of the fact that the people in that environment have interest in the type of music you sing. That’s only an instance. Whatever your potential is, locate a problem and provide a solution to it with your ability. For example, a few years ago, I was opportune to be in a new church in a local area. Although they had a very beautiful structure, with all the facilities for a great service, they had no one to handle the musical instruments. Despite the large membership of the church, they held services just clapping hands with no one to play the drums, piano and other instruments. Fortunately, I and my friend who could play the piano were invited by a friend to the church on that fateful Sunday. Seeing the problem that needed solution on ground, my friend immediately made a phone call to his other friends who he knew had the ability to play the instruments that were just there. In no time everyone was around. The service was so great that instead of the usual boring praise and worship known with the church, the church had three sessions of praise and worship which made the service longer than usual. Rather than complaining of a time wasted, everyone wished the service never came to an end. At the end of the service, the church pastor offered my friends money and demanded that they came around to train  interested members how to play the instruments at an agreed price.

Your type of business or potential might not have been mentioned among the examples given. But the principle is the same for all.

In getting the right location, remember the fact that the people around you know others better than you do. Therefore help yourself by informing people about the dream/ potentials you’ve got so they can also help you in getting the right location for what you’ve got to offer by referring people to you. In doing this, you have to be very careful with the people you are sharing your visions with. You have to be sure they are not dream stealers and killers.

·                            You have to be distinctly creative; whether you accept this fact or not, it is true that you are not the only one who posses the potential you’ve got. Just as you have some people who are not as good you are, there are others who are better than you are. What makes the difference between you and the others is the way you package your product and potentials. For example, there is a general way bread is usually produced and packaged over the years in Nigeria. But recently, Yale a company known in Nigeria for producing food products such as snacks produced their own bread in a way which is different from the conventional way of doing it. The bread has a taste which is similar to that of a cake. The bread is so different that you can choose to eat it without margarine. I think the bread is the first of its kind. Apart from this fact, the packaging is so different that viewing it from afar, it catches your attention. It is ruling in the bread market for now as other bread makers are yet to meet up to its standard.

The only thing that distinguished Yale bread from the other breads in the market is the fact that they saw beyond what others could see. And they brought what they saw into light. That’s creativity.

In other words, we can say creativity is the ability to create something in a way different from the general way of doing it.

The bottom line is that you should think outside the box and come up with something that would leave people saying whao.

To achieve this, you have to take a closer look at what others in your line of production have done and think of what you can add to yours to make it better than what they’ve got. Remember that life is a field of competition. Smartness and fast movement is the key for surviving.

·                            Gauge your financial capability; starting any venture or business requires money. It Is just that the level of financial requirement is different depending on the size and equipments required for each. Although you might have had all it takes, there is a need for you to determine the financial needs. This will comprise of;

1.                      Facilities and equipments; This has to do with the various materials you will need to make your dreams realities. How expensive they are will help you to know how much you are investing into them. Be sure to ensure that whatever equipments you are planning to get are not inferior but original ones. Therefore when trying to get the price for these equipments, go with someone who you are sure as professional ideas on the equipments.

2.                      Working capital; This has to do with all the money required in starting the enterprise. This includes both the fixed capital and others which also covers the salaries of the staff you intend employing. 

You have to also define how you intend to get the finance required for the enterprise you are venturing into. These includes;

a.                       capital contributions

b.                      Capitals and loans

c.                        Grants and contributions

This aspect must be properly addressed as it is an aspect that determines how long the enterprise you are venturing into will last is highly determined by how well you plan the financial aspect.

By planning your finances well, you stand to achieve a smooth business operation, cash generated will be available rather than using such to settle bank loans and interest, cost input will be relatively cheaper since cash availability helps in negotiating cheaper supplies and a higher profit will be the result in view of improved effective management of operations.

Not having a good financial plan, on the other hand results in undercapitalization. This could lead to a stunted growth of an enterprise.

·             Have a promising branding; It is necessary to know that people cant patronize you until they are aware of the fact that you exist somewhere. This has to do with naming your enterprise with a name that mentions what you do and what it promises to offer to your client. Your brand name should create visibility into what you do. To do this, you have to look at what you do from the view point of those who will patronize what you produce or the service you render. The brand name must be one that would catch the attention of your clients. To achieve this, you should be able to answer the following questions; what motives will be behind the people who would patronize you? What value are they getting for patronizing you? What do you stand to be known for; is it reliability or high quality, a fast service, a lower price or unparalleled expertise in you field, customized solution to customers problems? And so many more. In addition to the brand name, you should in a sentence summarize the aim and objective of your enterprise which should serve as the motto for your enterprise.

Further more, you should design a logo which is a symbol that represents your enterprise. Ensure that your logo is catchy and really attractive enough to portray the services you render. It is a symbol that speaks about you such that the moment anyone sees the logo, he does not have to see the name of your enterprise before he or she knows you are the one on board. Keep the fact that your logo must be simple to heart.  And your logo must picture what you have to offer to your clients. The logo must not be too complex to be understood and the colour combination must not be dull that it would turn people away from looking in your direction.

·                Get advertised; It is now time for the world to know what you have to offer after being busy doing your home work all the while just to ensure that you have the best to offer.

This is an aspect that has made so many bankrupt as a result of the high expenses associated with it. This is because so many people spend their fortunes trying to get an advert on the television and radio as well as on the pages of news papers and magazines. Don’t get me wrong. I am not trying to condemn this act. Although it is capital extensive, if it is financially convenient for you, you can do it as it would make people outside your locality get to know what you do.

There are so many other ways you can get advertised without spending anything. If at all you will spend any money, it is not going to be much. Some of the ways to get people to know you include;

1.                                                                 Write an article on what you do and get it published where your potential clients will get to read it. The article must be based on what you do or what you produce. Give them tips on how to get their problems solved. Make the article interesting and enticing. At a point you must have got their attention and got them to a climax. When you get to this point, refer them to where you are by dropping how they can get to you in order to get the lasting to the problems you have treated in your article. By doing this, you are winning them to yourself as they will come to you for the solution to their problems. Ensure you let them know how to contact you. By this I mean you should drop your contact address including your active phone numbers and mail addresses.

2.                                                                 Make opportunity to speak at meetings and other programs where you are sure that your potential clients are. You can ask for opportunity to speak at local association meetings, business conferences or other functions where you know your potential clients are present. One interesting thing about meetings like this is that you don’t need to pay anything to get this opportunity. All you need to do is just to walk up to the organizers of such programs asking them to give you the chance to speak on the topic you want. Ensure you are able to convince such organizers by hinting them on some of the thing they stand to benefit from your speech. But you are not likely going to be given all the time. You might be given just 15 minutes to speak. Therefore you have to be as precise and straight forward as you can. Because you have a very limited time to speak, you have to organize your speech enough to meet up the time you are given. Try to be as convincing as you can in that little period. It might interest you to know that at the end of such a speech, you might get paid. But this fact is not a compulsion for those who gave you the opportunity to speak. And don’t forget to leave information on how you can be contacted at such meetings. Be careful to ensure that you don’t use more than the time you are allotted. In addition, while you speak, ensure that you leave the audience with printed materials on how to get across to you. Such printed materials might include the details of what you are speaking on. The reason for doing this is to keep you in the mind of your audience even after you might have left.

3.                                                                 Get interviewed in the media; I know you are wondering how to get this done. How expensive it seems and how to get the chance to do so. Well, so many programs on air need to have on air interviews with prominent and society problem solvers to get their programs going on. You can save them the stress of having to go in search of prominent people and various protocols they have to be subjected to in order to get through to such people. To achieve this, all you need is to give a call to anchors of such programs as they always leave their contacts during their programs. Or book an appointment with them where you will explain your enterprise and what the people stand to achieve from what you have to offer to them. If you are able to convince such a presenter, be sure he will invite you to be his guest in one of the programs. During such interviews, ensure that you give details about your enterprise to the people. At the end of the program, ensure that you make your address known. If you are able to make a great impact at such an interview, you may become a regular guest on that program. You may even be fortunate that some one might just choose to sponsor you to ensure that you also become an anchor of a program in line with the solutions you have offered. See interviews as opportunities to make the world know what you do.

4.                                                                 Organize free seminar; in many cases, things we will do to fetch us money must first be done free. To start what ever venture we are getting into, organize programs where you will speak so that others can come around to learn. In doing this, you can invite other well known speakers who will speak on the topic you have chosen to speak on. At this seminar, you can hand out as many packages to tell people more about you and direct them to your enterprise. Ensure that such program or seminar is packaged in such a way that at the end, they will wish to have more of it. The essence of this is that by the time they are eager to have another, you can decide it’s not going to be free. And knowing the value of the information they got the last one they attended for free. They will not hesitate to pay for something more qualitative. At this programs, materials such as customized wears and other potable  with the name of the enterprise as well as its aims and objectives can be distributed for free to those who participated. This will keep reminding them of you and your enterprise long after the seminar.

5.                                                                 Write a book to showcase your expertise in the field; Having been well informed on well informed on your field, it is necessary you impart the knowledge you have to others by writing a well packaged book. The book should be very informative in the sense that it gives details non everything you do. In fact, by writing a book, you are seen as an expert who knows so much about his field. Ever wonder why some authors are invited to speak in occasions and paid he amount of money at the end of their speeches., it s only because they have written books that experts in that field regard as being scholarly and of great impact. Therefore they feel such knowledge should be shared with others at whatever cost it will take.

6.                                                                 Advertise yourself; let everything that surrounds you speak more about your enterprise. Whenever you dress, let it be seen in your dressing that you are a business man, a comedian, an actor, etc. when you speak, let what you do be seen in the way you speak. In short, let your lifestyle voice your profession.

·                                  Get into the right relationship; at some time, nit is necessary that you work in conjunction with others who are in the same field with you but have been in the system long before you got there.

The essence of this is for you to use the influence of the other party to get known in the community of your anticipated client. In other words, it is like the one you are affiliating with is announcing to the world that you are trust worthy as they will not go in partnership with an enterprise that is not worthy.

In choosing who to affiliate with, it is necessary for you to be sure they have integrity and are well recognized by your intending clients. This is because when you get into relationship with those whose integrity has been faulted, you will be regarded as not having integrity as birds of a feather flock together.

Now that you have known what it takes to begin an enterprise, it is necessary that we move ahead into what the internal requirements of managing an enterprise are. What do you consider when you want to employ labor? After employing them, what are your expectations from them? How do you manage the boss-staff relationship with your staff. And many more managerial and behavioral approaches needed in the administration of your firm. And the loopholes responsible for the failure of many firms and how they can be avoided. And how to make the best out of your enterprise in this world of competition. These and many more issues will be addressed in the next edition of GINGER IT UP. Until the next time we will be meeting, keep GINGERING IT UP.

TO BE CONTINUED…