business

July 19, 2018

6 Reasons To Take A Break

Leadership, Productivity, Spiritual business, development, entrepreneur, growth, health, healthy, inspiration, lifestyle, personal growth, plans 0

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither” -Alan Cohen

In life, I have noticed how easy it is to get sucked into the rat race and find yourself in a vicious cycle of work and more work. Especially in this time and age where everyone has a side gig or a side hustle, finding the right balance has been a challenge for a lot of people. I hear a lot of people say I do not have time to take a break or go on holiday or take a sabbatical. Yet I believe that it is very important for you to take time away from your normal daily routine. When you take a break, it doesn’t mean a complete shutdown, it means finding a rhythm in doing other things that will compliment your usual routine. I have outlined some of the reasons that may help you realise why it is important to take a break once in a while.

1 – TO REFRESH BODY, SOUL & SPIRIT

To take time out of the regular life commitments and responsibilities in itself creates space. It changes the day in and day out nature of work and life. To invest in intentional refreshing, learning, debriefing and dreaming in a way that nurtures your soul is a key to this period.

To be able to “unplug” from the routines and responsibilities so when you plug back in it is with renewed clarity and enthusiasm. Ensuring you make time to read, listen, reflect, write, whatever creates the health and momentum for you. Be deliberate about stopping unresourceful habits and creating new ones with the additional time. Dig deeper into books, podcasts, programs, classes, conferences, and mentoring sessions. Do the things that refresh you but do not overindulge, do not party or get yourself exhausted.

2- TO REFLECT ON THE PAST

Taking some time to reflect on what has been is essential in this period. How have you experienced the last year? The last three years? The last five years? What are you proud of? What do you wish didn’t happen? What would you have done differently with your time again? Are there things that you have celebrated? Challenges that have not gone away? Relationships established? Broken? Mended? Write down what has been the top five highlights of the last season. Aim to be clear about WHAT they were and do some reflection as to WHY.

Look for patterns, consistencies, and themes. Personally, I usually reflect on these simple questions. What am I proud of? How far have we come? What am I NOT proud of? What evidence is there of the positive impact of my leadership? What, if anything, is continuing to impact me and my leadership negatively? Based on the above, what can I REALLY influence? How? For those of you in Christian leadership, it’s worth adding some reflection around being true to what God has called you to do.

Reflecting on what degree of peace you have with the recent past and how you sense the leading of God to be into the future. Where there is peace and the absence of peace? They will all serve to give you a sense of where you’ve been and in many ways shape step three.

3- TO DREAM ABOUT THE FUTURE. AND PLAN FOR IT TOO (SEE POINT 6)

What would you create if you could? Really? When you close your eyes and see the job, the team, the marketplace, your marriage, your family, what do you see as possible? This goes well past the hyped “if you can see it you can have it” and deep dives into the truest reflection of who you are and what really is in your heart. What do you believe is possible? What dreams are in your heart that need a voice? What needs to be given language so others who read it can attach themselves to it and run. It’s a time to challenge yourself to be bold, audacious, courageous and faith-filled during this time.

4- TO CREATE SPACE IN YOUR HEART, MIND AND DEVELOPMENT

For me, it’s early in the morning. When I am freshest. When I haven’t been distracted by the day. To sit, read, reflect, and write. To spend time reviewing and previewing. To learn as best as I can, to digest as much as I can, to be sharpened as well as I can. Who can challenge your thinking, invest in your potential and call out the best that resides in you? Even more, what lies in your heart that you have a conviction about making happen? What do you sense God calling you to? How can that begin to take shape? This kind of self-leadership, with a spirit of humility and service, is the kind of leadership that can be a significant benefit to others. Grow you, and you grow what’s in your hand.

5- LEARN, GROW & BE SHARPENED

I have been learning this regularly in leadership mentoring, learn in themes. Just like movies, films and books have themes, your life does too. My themes are based around my spiritual gifts, my responsibilities and my passions. So for me, I concentrate on growing in the following ways. As a husband As a father. As a leader. As a communicator. As a mentor (disciple maker) Attend conferences, speak, be mentored, buy lunch. Do whatever it takes to get in the way of activities that sharpen and grow you. Then do more of those activities.

6- TO PLAN THE FUTURE

Begin to write down how the future might look upon your return from this time away. What must be focused on in the next 90 days to serve the team and the organisation you are part of? Be clear. Be specific. Be intentional and be prepared for your arrival back into your working world. I suggest the following staged approach to your return.

Immediate – get done in the next 90 days

Mid Range – Include the team if any, in the next 3-6 months

Longer Term – What can you and your team shape for the next 3-5 years

One word of warning. Avoid the “overload trap” here. The overload trap is when you return, all refreshed and ready for the next big thing that you’ve spent all this time dreaming up and your team has been carrying additional responsibilities and activities in your absence. Then on your return, they have even more to accomplish because YOU have had time and space to think about all the things that are in your heart to accomplish.

That will most likely overload your team. Be able to distinguish between immediate “runs on the board” and the strategic things that need to be co-created with your team. Better you return with clarity and humility than clarity and overload. As you take this time may it be rich in reflection, deep in growth, profound in transformation and powerful in progress. May you BE a more effective leader as a result. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section, how you have managed your time away from your busy routine.

June 28, 2018

10 Reasons Why Your Brand Should Be On Social Media

Buisness brand, brand management, business, facebook, instagram, linkedin, online, social, social media, startup, startups, twitter 0

“Today, entrepreneurs need to take their business where the conversation is happening… Social media is the perfect venue.

– Sir Richard Branson

One of the first things businesses nowadays need to do is acquiring social handles. Sometimes it even makes sense for owners to choose one brand name over another based on the social handles available. Once that’s done, it time to slowly distribute content. Everyone knows you should, but they don’t always know why. Hopefully, this post will help you understand why you’re doing it so you can create more effective content. Social media is an increasingly important piece of your brand story and identity, so identifying WHY you use these platforms will be an important factor in growing your brand’s social community. So here are our top 10 reasons why you should embrace it and love it:

10. Consistently maintaining a social media presence is cheaper than traditional advertising.

First things first, social media is not free; and costs can range from almost nothing to tens of thousands of dollars a month. For example, one of the largest expenditures may include hiring a person or company that specifically handles your business’ social media accounts and communities. However, the cost which is often still less than traditional advertising campaigns is certainly worth it when done right. The reason is that good social media marketing efforts produce qualified leads that later become your biggest advocate.

9. Provides an alternative way for potential customers to find you.

With almost everyone on social media these days, it has become one of the best places to place your brand. If you’re not high enough in search engines when potential customers try to find you, they can still find you through social media. So, even if you’re not on the front page of Google, it doesn’t mean you can’t receive traffic. Social media has the potential to send you TONS of traffic when done properly.

8. Build genuine personal relationships.

Using social media helps you build personal relationships with current and potential customers. Trust comes through honesty and sincerity in communications. Today, people use social media as a way to connect with a brand in the same way they would with traditional customer service. They look to a brand’s social media platforms as a way to answer all the questions they might have about a particular product or the brand in general.

7. Social media gives businesses an opportunity to promote their brand without being pushy.

Social offers businesses a safe and open outlet where they can be “themselves” and introduce their products and solutions without being “salesy”.

6. Word of mouth

Customers look for products they can trust through the people they trust. If I hear about your product from someone I trust and respect, I’m far more likely to purchase that product than if I’m going on my own volution. Social media makes it easier than ever to find out what the rest of the world thinks about a certain product or service.

5. Opens the doors for engagement and 2-way conversations with potential clients.

Starting and having conversations on social media is nearly effortless. Although some people feel uncomfortable having conversations with businesses in person or over the phone, social media allows them a chance for having those conversations without the pressure.

4. Enables your audience to find you more easily.

If your business is active on social media, your online audience can find and follow you. This makes everything easier when they are trying to buy your product or service online.

3. Allows a business to know where their target audience is.

Sure, there are a lot of celebrities and teenagers using social media. However, there are also plenty of “regular” people – your potential clients included – using it as well. Establishing your business on social media helps you find your target audience, and allows them to find you as well.

2. Brand Recognition

Create a consistent, recognisable identity for your product or service. There’s no better way to control the brand content that you want the world to see than what you post on social media. You have total control over what your target audience sees or hears pertaining to your brand.

1. Allows a business to establish trust and relationships with its audience.

Establishing a successful social media presence and finding a target audience is only the beginning of using social media as a business. The next steps involve interacting with that audience by replying, responding, and sharing information. This builds trust and brand loyalty.

If you have not started already, you need to get your brand on social media. Research which platforms are best for your type of brand and how other influencers in your niche are doing and build your brand. If you are already on there, share with us in the comments section how your brand is doing and what other tips and tricks you have managed to work out to help your brand visibility online.

June 21, 2018

Build A Team To Build The Dream

Buisness apple, build, business, dynamic, dynamics, employee, grow, leader, leaders, leadership, microsoft, servanthood, skill, team, teambuilding 0

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

– Henry Ford

The success of any system lies in the efficiency of the components working together to achieve a common goal. Such is true as well for any business or organisation that provides product or service. Its success lies in the efficiency of the people working to create or to give the service. If you look at two of the most influential business personalities of our time, Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates, you will find that they had similar traits in growing their respective businesses.

Both highly driven and undoubtedly talented, they had a unique gift to attract top talent and gain employee loyalty. The ability to attract and motivate great people is critical to the success of a company because a company is just a group of people that are assembled to create a product or service. As simple as this concept may seem, it’s still challenging to find and hire top talent, which is why more companies are employing various tactics beyond standard compensation to attract new employees. Over the years, these incentives have become more and more extravagant, with perks like pet-friendly offices and catered lunches becoming more common, particularly in the tech sector where there’s already a shortage of talent.

At their Redmond, Washington campus, Microsoft employees have access to an organic spa and receive benefits like pet insurance and a free shuttle to and from work. Apple employees receive discounts on company products and have access to an onsite wellness centre at their Cupertino, California headquarters. As indulgent as these benefits may seem, the results speak for themselves. Both Microsoft and Apple consistently top the lists of companies where job seekers want to work. However, companies must provide more than free perks in order to engage and retain top performers, which is where motivation comes into play.

According to organisational experts, employees who feel like they’re contributing toward a shared vision for the company are much more productive and driven than their counterparts. During Microsoft’s early years, for example, all employees were awarded stock options. This incentive pushed employees to be innovative thinkers and created “Microsoft millionaires” when the company went public on the stock exchange.The company has since eliminated this program.

At Apple, Jobs included his employees in the decision-making process, says Willie Pietersen, a management professor at Columbia Business School and author of “Strategic Learning: How to Be Smarter Than Your Competition and Turn Key Insights into Competitive Advantage.” The late founder would create different teams to work on projects that had breakthrough potential. When they reported their findings, he listened to all of their ideas before picking the strongest ones and shelving the others. Although Jobs could be a harsh leader at times, his management strategy was based on creating the most innovative products, which galvanised his employees and won their support.

By carefully studying these approaches you will realise that successful leaders lead by being selfless. Leaders should find ways of motivating and inspiring their teams, reduce the noise and hassle in their work and help remove obstacles. If you are a manager or leading at any level at any organisation, the nugget is understanding that your team is not there to serve you. You are there to serve your team and help them do the best possible job for the company. Let us know in the comments section how you motivate your team or how your company or organisation motivates and inspires you to perform at your best.

June 14, 2018

From Passion to Profit

Buisness, Productivity, Success business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, true 3

“If you create and market a product or service through a business that is in alignment with your personality, capitalizes on your history, incorporates your experiences, harnesses your talents, optimizes your strengths, complements your weaknesses, honors your life’s purpose, and moves you towards the conquest of your own fears, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that anyone in this or any other universe can offer the same value that you do!”
― Walt F.J. Goodridge

Maybe you’re an expert in your field or have a hobby that you really enjoy and are very good at, the likelihood of your being able to make some money or even a full-time living from your passion is pretty high, as long as you’re willing to learn some skills and put in the work. The internet has brought the world closer and allows people to interact with each other across the globe.

This has also brought in the best business platform for both formal and informal service providers. If you have been struggling with the question: “how do I make money from my hobby?” We have taken a look at some of the ways you can tap into and get your piece of the internet pie. Here are five ways you can turn your passions into profits online:

1. Start a YouTube channel.

The amount of money that some people make from this channel is mind-boggling. The top YouTube earner, Daniel Middleton, made $16.5 million in one year from posting Minecraft videos. Now that’s a lot of dough! Creating a successful YouTube channel requires creating a following. This isn’t something that happens instantly but instead develops over time. And you have to work at it. But if you have a passion that displays well on video, then YouTube is a great way to monetize it. Remember you don’t have to make millions to do well on YouTube. A great example of this is the YouTube channel “Woodworking for Mere Mortals.” This isn’t one of the top 10 earners, but this guy does earn his full-time living from his passion and has built up a very respectable following of over 900,000 followers. The cost of setting this up is very minimal, but you might need to invest in good audio/video recording equipment. The idea is as much as you may have relevant content, you need to have a reasonably good quality video to get people subscribing and following your channel. Another thing is being consistent, you need to continually give people value so setting a posting structure such as once a week could work.

2. Become an Instagram influencer.

Instagram is an extremely visual platform, so if you have a passion for something like fashion, food, pets or workouts that work well in pictures or video, you can make pretty good money from Instagram when you develop a big enough following. The way many people make money from Instagram is by selling space on their Instagram accounts. These are often called “shout outs.” These can range from $30 a post for a smaller account to the whopping $550,000 a post that top earner Selena Gomez gets for a sponsored post. Instagram is also great for selling your own items, as long as you do it sparingly and with great visuals. Just like a YouTube channel, an Instagram page requires great creativity, quality photos and constant relevant content.

3. Create online courses.

Many people turn their passions into profits by creating courses that teach other people how to do what they’re experts in. This is part of the model that Woodworkers for Mere Mortals use. There are several ways to market these courses. You can do it yourself through platforms like WordPress and Thrivecart, or you can market on a platform with built-in customers like Thinkific or Udemy. Keeping your courses short and precise will also help in getting more people interested in purchasing your product. In a fast-paced world, people want information that will get them going as soon as possible so this can be helpful if you build your courses with that in mind.

4. Make money blogging.

Blogging sometimes gets a bad rap, but it can be quite lucrative if you set it up correctly. Engadget is one of my favourite blogs, and it’s estimated to make 5.5 million dollars a month, primarily from advertising revenue. If you love to write and can produce high-quality content about your passion on a regular basis then this could be a good option for you to make money from the thing you’re passionate about. You can monetize your blog with Google Adsense ads, promoting products as an affiliate, or selling your own products, such as an online course mentioned above.

5. Sell your services online.

The fastest way to make money from your passion or your expertise is to sell services. Things like writing, web design or helping people clean out their closets all work. You can do this online or off-line, but the big advantage to selling services is that it takes far less traffic to a website to get people to buy a service than it does to get people to buy a product. And since traffic is usually the hardest part of the equation in getting “eyeballs on your offer,” this is a huge advantage. You can set up a simple two-page website, create a small ad in Google Adwords and start getting clients within a week. And if you don’t want to build a website, then bidding for work on sites like FreeeUp.com or Upwork.com can be a great way to earn some cash for writing, technical work or graphic design. There are also sites and apps like TaskRabbit, Care, Fiverr or Rover where you can list real-world services for sale. Selling services is rather labour-intensive, but it’s a great way to create cash flow and earn money right away with your passion.

The biggest key to all of these ways to turn your passions into profits is traffic. Traffic is the hardest piece of any monetization method. You must get eyeballs on your content in order to make money. So, if you decide on one of these methodologies for turning your passions into profits, make sure that you focus at least 50 per cent of your time learning the traffic methodologies that go along with it. It’s entirely possible to make a good living from nearly anything that you’re passionate about. You just have to put in the time and effort to get there. Creating great content and being consistent is key. Let us know in the comments section how you have monetized your passion and how that is going for you.

January 4, 2018

Evolve Or Die, It’s Simple

Technology, Work business, development, goal, goals, growth, inspiration, motivation, personal growth, self acceptance 1

Raise your hand if you are tired of being stagnant or seeing very little growth. As an aspiring entrepreneur i have come to the realisation that there are two realities of corporate strategies that ring true in any and all industries when it comes to creating successful companies. Those realities are: few things work and nothing works for long. So you either evolve or die, the decision is yours.

What works today didn’t work ten years ago and definitely won’t work ten years from now.

Promotional strategies, inter industry alliances, legal loopholes and board member’s battering chips are forever spinning and mutating and like Zen seem to change shape just as the issues that make a strategy’s template seem to be defined and duplicatable.

So what does that mean for you? You will need to constantly update your technologies. Always get the opinion of different peer groups who represent polar opposites in the market place before you roll out a new product or service. Before you make a decision have a backup plan and a backup plan to that plan. have your CFO’s work audited by outside sources. Run credit checks on executives before they are promoted and find out if they are trying to live above their means, if so, they have the ‘grass is greener’ disease and will never be satisfied and will always be looking for a better deal.Employees like this can’t be trusted to help carry the company.

If you are a business owner, the key is to find and hire someone that is more qualified than you to run and grow your company. Also always have multiple revenue streams, do not put all your eggs into one basket. If you are in the service industry, diversify by offering some products. If you are in the product industry (retail type) partner with some service oriented companies to earn commissions off their efforts and your customer base.

Always be on the lookout for strategic partners and never be afraid to network.Keep updating your business plan. When raising capital stay out of debt and offer equity instead and when you offer equity in return for investment, pick inter industry alliances to raise capital from. Use a publicist and publicise everything. If you can’t afford a publicist put out press releases keeping your industry and potential clients informed of what you are doing.

If you want your venture or business to succeed you have to be willing to adapt, you can’t look to friends or family it is all about adjusting the vision, if you fail this your business will not survive. For success in the twenty first century, you will need to adopt professional business methods and seek others who believe the same way. You need to invest in your own education, books, memberships, and mentorship. Ally yourself with likeminded people and immerse yourself in the subject of internet marketing.

Take action on this growing knowledge, implement the business methods that you master and that you can fit into your business today, that will help you to build traffic, build a list of prospects, and build a relationship with and therefore allow you to market to your prospects.

Share with us your strategies and plans for the new year in the comments section.