8 MARKETING MISTAKES YOU MUST AVOID

1.    Rambling:  How long does it take you to say what you do? If you don’t get your message across quickly, you won’t get it across at all. There’s just too much competition for attention. Use power verbs to describe how people profit from your purpose. Try to be on point at all time.

2.    Waiting for the phone to ring:  Can you tell if someone you gave your business card to will call you? No. You have no control if they will follow-up. Make it a priority to get the other person’s contact information, walk away with a smile, and then you are confident of a follow up.

3.    Not telling Enough: A lot of people assume that their customer knows how much they care about them, so they won’t go elsewhere. People don’t know how much you care until you can show them or tell them and keep doing that repeatedly.

4.    Assuming: Many people are culprit of this, when they want to know something about their customers they just assume they know what they wanted instead of asking, next time you feel like bringing a product to the market ask the customers what their needs are instead of assuming.

5.    Not Reading the Client: Recall the last time you were engaged in conversation with someone and they looked over your head for someone or something more interesting. Did you feel slighted? Gypped? Nothing kills a marketing moment more than simple rudeness. The remedy? Be receptive to the encounter with good eye contact. If you drift from the conversation, ask a question. You’ll be rewarded with interest, rather than a rude reputation.

6.    Shying away from speaking: “Marketing is talking to a passing parade.” Parades come to you in the form of committee colleagues and project partners. You briefly bond, and then move on. How do you keep that relationship without straining your current commitments? Here’s how: show what you know. Right now, write down one concept you enjoy in your work. For me, it’s “marketing is easy and you can do it too.” Now write down the rewards people miss when this concept is absent from their lives.

7.    Putting up an Attitude: Do you feel you’ve earned it all? Do you feel it’s time for your clients to come to you? Unless you provide the only talent for a particular need, think again. Options are everywhere. Feeling entitled will trap you. You won’t act. Instead, put attitude aside and share yourself. Share through your actions, messages and outreach. You’ll be memorable. You’ll be marketing.

8.    Over focusing on Facts: Facts can distract from your message. Stories, on the other hand, impact. With a story, your listener is nudged to consider his or her own personal life. The next time a fact leaps to your tongue, switch to a simple sentence with “I was thrilled when a reader called to say he or she was able to….” This simple approach invites them to think “that reminds me of when I…” or “that reminds me of John. I’ll tell him about this.

What do you think about this article please? +Remi Dairo +Linda Ikeji 

Why Many Women Run Small Business But Few Grow It Into A large Successful Companies

Every time I run my business programs, I’m often asked why there are so many women in small business but few running large successful companies in Nigeria and Africa as a whole? You may be surprised that this problem is common and affecting most women it scares most away from starting their own business.

The answer is not far fetch. It is because many women just go into business to make money or earn a few extra naira and kobo each month to survive or possibly brag. They are usually scared or just have not thought about business growth and what they really want to accomplish. But that’s not the way to success in business. This account largely for reasons why they keep doing it but never getting it right.

Running a Business is more than money. It’s about solving problems

Many successful business people you see around today are people who used their creativity and passion to find much-needed solutions to major problems. With this in mind, think about something that really piss you off. Something that can bring laughter and joy to most people, don’t just do it for the money do it for the love of solving problems.

How can you solve the problem you just noticed?

Often times, the problem is right in front of you, and you don’t see it. I know this because each time I finish my programs, I would be surrounded by women after my presentations. They asked the same questions, about the same issues and problems, over and over again.

Then, it dawned on me that there was a strong need for an entirely new business helping women learn about business and handling financial crisis. That is why I am writing this article just for you. Sometimes a great business idea is right in front of your eyes and you don’t even see it because you’re so close to what you are doing.

Be a Problem Solver for Life.

There are many women who start businesses with big aspirations, but everything just fizzles out. That’s because when you grow your business, you just have bigger and bigger problems. You've got to know how to handle that pressure and adversity if you’re going to move forward. And as you move forward, you need to continue to solve problems.

This means your purpose or mission for your business needs to be about more than making money.

Another reason most women in business are frustrated is simple. Most of them are not entrepreneurs, but are actually workers in their business. They are what I call “professionals suffering from Be Your Own Boss Syndrome (BYOBS).” Most women in business work for a living in their own Business!

So here’s the point.

They do all this work not because they should, or because they need to, but because they think they should. Because they think they need to. That’s what they believe. They also believe it’s the only model in which to operate their business. That would be fine, except for the fact that all of the frustrations most women experiences are caused by this erroneous belief that the small business owner’s job is to do whatever has to be done. They believe that to be successful in a business of their own, they have to learn how to do everything, whether they like it or not. They believe that if they didn't do it themselves, the work would never get done.

Does this sound familiar to you? +Adesoji Adegbulu 

Of course it does. You can justify that conclusion by these facts: There isn’t enough money. You can’t find and keep good employees. Since you’re the owner, you’re responsible for everything. Since you’re the owner, your financial life is at stake. You can’t trust anyone to do the things that need to get done. Because every time you do, you’re disappointed. And so forth and so on.+Linda Ekeji 

This is the mindset of most women. This is the mindset that cripples most businesses, and keeps them where they are . . . very, very small. Too small because the potential of your business is so much greater than you imagine it to be. Failing to fulfill the potential of your business is failing to fulfill your life’s potential. And failing to fulfill your life’s potential is trouble and a lot of stress.

So why is it that what started out as an exciting, joyful endeavor becomes an overwhelming, chaotic, frustrating grind? Find out more