Entrepreneurial Success - A Marketing Function.

Many at times entrepreneurship seems a perfect choice when we consider its long term gains. However, my recent discovery suggests that success in any entrepreneurial venture is more of marketing than any other aspect of business. Little wonder, both large and small organisations give more to the marketing department and do not take lightly their marketing personnel requirements.

According to a report I read in an article some years back, it claimed the US Bureau of Labor revealed that Marketing and Sales had the highest number of employees in US organisations. This further buttresses my discovery of the entrepreneurship and marketing function.

You may ask, "What really is this fuss about marketing?" Before I go on to define marketing, I would like to point to the fact that for most people, their understanding of the discipline stem from theories being taught at schools; and usually not really understood. A typical misunderstanding of this concept is when people (even 'experts') equate marketing to sales!

So what then is marketing? Simply put, marketing is analysing and understanding your customer/client requirements and placing value (quality and unique products/services) in their hands at an affordable price and appropriate time.

From the foregoing, we can safely conclude that marketing is to an entrepreneur (or business) what air is to man! Therefore, a successful entrepreneurial venture is largely a function of marketing and not accounting nor administration (though equally important).

One obvious reason many young entrepreneurs still find it difficult to 'sell' their products, services, ideas, or cause, is because they do not fully understand what marketing entails; or probably, they share a misconception of the discipline.

You have a brilliant idea for a product or service - fine! How do you translate this idea into a profitable business venture? How do you locate your core customers/clients? What strategies will help you stay afloat of competition? What are the buyer persona profiles of your target audience? Why should your customers/clients make a repeat purchase? All of these questions and more is what a true understanding of marketing will help you proffer answers to.

You don’t just sit there doing nothing and expect your idea to blossom. As a small business owner, your formative years are when you [the entrepreneur] should even work harder and smarter to gain more customers/clients for your business. In the words of Ken Inverson, “Entrepreneurs should be able to spend 80% of their time getting customers.”

Even if you have never had an academic or professional background in marketing, that’s not an excuse! According to Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, “Entrepreneurship will become a core skill which all our young people will need to exploit the opportunities emerging from science and technology, culture and communications.”

Try to engage yourself in a self-study on marketing, Business Communications, General Management, Entrepreneurship, Advertising, Public Relations, and Selling. Also, attend some short professional training programmes, with an emphasis on marketing and selling.

The truth is that every organization is aimed at selling. Their offerings, however, could be in the form of tangible products or intangible services, ideas or a social cause. Whichever the case is, marketing plays a vital role in reaching out to those target audience whose support, attitude, interest and patronage matters to the wellbeing of the organization.

While marketing is not sales, marketing supports sales activities. Marketing and sales are interdependent on one another.

As a young entrepreneur, you need to understand that for your business idea to grow wings and fly high into the sky, you must have a good understanding of marketing, and have a plan. Such plan should consist of simple but vital information as:
1. Your intentions [statements of purpose, mission or objectives]
2. Your offerings [products/services]
3. Your target audience [customers/clients]
4. Your marketing strategies [packaging, price, distribution, promotion, etc]
5. Your rivals [competitors]
6. Your budgetary allocation [finance]
7. Your evaluation [control]

A fuller understanding of these seven basic points will help in your quest to grow your small business to become a giant in the next few years.

See you at the top!
Ayokunle Bankole
www.facebook.com/ayokunle.bankole

AS AN ASPIRING ENTREPRENEUR, YOU NEED THE RIGHT MIND-SET AND SKILL-SET. DON’T TRY IT UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND THESE TWO!

When they set out to write their new book, “Even Here Even Now”, hardly did it occur to them that the stories of the twelve indigenous entrepreneurs featured in the book would make as much impact in the lives of its readers. In this exclusive interview of Thursday 6th August, 2009, Olakunle Kasumu spoke about the book and the present level of entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. This he shared with Ayokunle Bankole.
Excerpts:

AB: Can we meet you, sir?
OK: My name is Kunle Kasumu. I run a company called People and People. People and People is a consulting and research firm that zeros in on HR and communications. We do a lot of trainings, recruiting, employee surveys, HR audits, human capital development needs for organizations, corporations and individuals. But I am also a partner with Awake Africa, which is entirely into entrepreneurship development; particularly youth entrepreneurship development.
The organization called Awake Africa basically produces a book series on successful indigenous entrepreneurs – people who have started businesses in Nigeria themselves and have built those businesses from the ground… up.
We try to promote entrepreneurship because there are a lot of people in this country who think that the only way they can go up is by getting a job and keeping a job; and relying on the pension or gratuity at the end of the day.
Entrepreneurship is very critical to emerging economies, and Nigeria has to take entrepreneurship very seriously – particularly, youth entrepreneurship – if we want to grow our economy as fast as we wish. So, Awake Africa is all about that. I am involved in Awake Africa.

AB: What can you say about the present state of entrepreneurship and mass unemployment in Nigeria?
OK: We are in a very critical state right now. It starts from our educational system that tries to prepare people only to get jobs. But even in doing that (that being the objective), it is even a system that fails in doing that successfully. That objective itself is faulty. But even let’s say it’s okay to do that, the system is not even doing that successfully. We need to critically look at our education so that people in the 21st century. And that means entrepreneurship has to be locked into our educational system. We have to churn out young people from our schools who are prepared to face life today; who understand entrepreneurship; who understand how to identify opportunities; how to explore opportunities; how to build organizations around opportunities; how to understand market forces; how to develop products and services to people to create wealth. So, our educational system has a major problem.
In my line of work, I meet people everyday who call and say they are looking for jobs. Number one, they don’t have the skill-set to get those jobs. Number two, they need to think about creating jobs. It’s a big problem. The president (Yar’adua) at one time was talking about declaring power emergency. I think he should declare entrepreneurship emergency among our young people. We need to train people on how to create jobs, how to develop their talents and skills, and turn them into commercial vehicles to generate income for themselves. That way, the economy would grow. And, we need to look at it holistically. The government has to create an enabling environment. There has to be easy access to cash. There has to be infrastructures that make businesses work. There has to be all these things.
We also have to look at it from the angle of the homes. Parents should stop forcing their children to toll only the lines of white-collar jobs. There are so many angles to look at it.

AB: So, you mean we are all to blame in this problem?
OK: There are a whole lot of factors to look at. We have to look at it holistically. But it starts from the individual. The individual has to realize that he has what it takes and he can develop the skills to succeed entrepreneurially. Even when you are an employee, you’ve got to think entrepreneurially. So, entrepreneurship is not a subject for people who want to go and start businesses; it is also a subject for people who are employees.

AB: You co-authored a book, “Even Here Even Now,” which is believed to be one of Nigeria’s most insightful books on entrepreneurship today. What brought about the idea of such a book?
OK: My partner, Niyi Adekunle, and I were young guys who met somewhere after leaving school. When we met, we found out that we had a lot of things in common. One, both of us grew up and schooled in Ibadan. Two, we both share the same year of birth. Three, we both believe in Nigeria. And four, we also both believe in entrepreneurship. We believe that as young people, we need to sit down and create jobs. I have my own small business and he has his own small business. We began to compare notes – the struggles and challenges of starting and running a small business in Nigeria long ago. We saw a lot of challenges.
Then, we observed we needed a lot of inspiration. The only place we could find inspiration were in the stories of successful foreign entrepreneurs. We could find books on Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Robert Kiyosaki, and so on. We asked ourselves, ‘Where are the Nigerian success stories that people could identify themselves with?’ We couldn’t really see anything. So we said, ‘Let’s go and make a research. Let’s look for Nigerians who are successful entrepreneurs, who are not in the banking or oil and gas sectors.’ These are the traditional sectors where people believe it is easy to make money. ‘Let’s look for people like that who are doing basic services and so on, and who have built successful businesses from the scratch in Nigeria. Approach them, interview them and put all their findings in a book.’ So we said, ‘Oh! Fantastic idea,’ and set out to do that.
Later, we thought if we go and meet these guys and just introduce ourselves as two individuals, they might not listen to us. So, we formed a company and approached them with that company. We started knocking heads together and came up with a name – Awake Africa. I went to my computer and designed a letter-head. We wrote them letters. By the time we got the first and second response, it was easier getting the others.
Over a two year period we met the twelve entrepreneurs. Tow years because it was difficult tracking them. We researched; short listed twelve Nigerian entrepreneurs, and ran after all of them. It was interesting because we insisted on meeting each of them one after the other, face-to-face.
We wrote the book together. After a while, we saw positive responses within and outside Nigeria from people who read the book. When we took the book to Sierria Leone, the people there said we should come and do a similar book for Sierria Leonean entrepreneurs. We saw responses from Sierria Leone, Ghana, the UK and USA. So, we decided to turn it into a series.

AB: Lastly, do you have any advice for aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs?
OK:

There are two things you need. As an aspiring entrepreneur, you need the right mind-set and skill-set. Don’t try it unless you understand these two. Entrepreneurship is a risky business – career risk. Entrepreneurship is a big word. We have the social entrepreneur, but I assume you are talking about the business entrepreneur.
When you say you don’t want the eight-to-five job, but want to start a business, it’s risky. You need the right mind-set, positive mind-set. You need to have a bulldog tenacity and focus, particularly in our own jungle marketplace here in Nigeria. You need that mind-set. Do you have it? Have you developed it? To develop it, you need the right kind of information. Read good books. Listen to good tapes or audios. Find yourself a mentor. Find yourself the right circle of friends – people who are like-minded, people who are thinking entrepreneurship. You need all that to develop your mind-set.
You need the skill-set or the know-how. How do you start a business? What do you do to start a business? You need all aspect of it. There is the accounting aspect of it; there is the HR aspect of it; there is the marketing aspect of it; there is the selling aspect of it. Go for a short-term course. Find a mentor you can talk to. Read books along that line.
The problem with a lot of small businesses in Nigeria is structure. Because you are just determined, you get in there. I had the same experience. When I started, just the determination was there. I jumped in, started and then it was learning as time went on. But, you can save yourself a lot of hassles. A lot of things I know now, if I had known then, development would have been quicker. Just imagine someone who knows a whole lot of stuff I know now – starting out – won’t make a lot of mistakes.
Develop your skill-set and mind-set. Go for entrepreneurship. I recommend it. If you have a tug for it in your heart, go for it. Don’t just go for it blindly. People tell me they want to quit their job and start. Long time ago I would say, “Yes, go for it!” Now I say, “No, slow down.” Give yourself time. Set yourself a target. ‘I will quit my job in the next one year, six months,’ and so on. Within that one year, you should develop your mind-set. You should ask questions. It’s not that you can be totally prepared for it, but preparation can help you minimize pains. That is my advice for somebody who is aspiring. Develop your mind-set and skill-set.

HOW TO MANAGE A SERVICE BUSINESS IN AN AREA YOU HAVE LITTLE OR NO EXPERIENCE. (Part 1)

In one of my previous write-ups, I had written on how aspiring entrepreneurs can take the bull by the horns and start a service business irrespective of whether they have hands-on experience – in that area of interest – or not.

Now that you have decided on a service business, it’s high time you knew what it takes to manage your start-up and command the attention of clients.

I have asserted countless times that starting a business does not guarantee that customers or clients will troop in as expected (see Has Your Small Business Adopted Integrated Marketing Communications?). There is always the place of hard-work, strategizing, courage, accountability, direct marketing, networking, etc – and sometimes, law suits! All of these aspects of business – and more – well managed, determine how successful a business would be.

In managing a service business in an area you don’t have considerable hands-on experience in, you need to understand the basics.

Your Service Uniqueness Depends on How you Combine TPIS
T – Talent: A natural ability for being good at a particular activity.
P – Passion: A strong enthusiasm for a particular activity.
I – Interest: An insatiable appetite to know about or take part in activities, events, trends, or issues in an area of passion.
S – Skill: The ability to do something well, usually as a result of experience and training.

Talent + Passion + Interest + Skill = Uniqueness

It is a known fact that the little extra in a person makes him extra-ordinary. If you must move your start-up from being perceived as “ordinary”, then you need to bring your “little extra” to the fore. Everyone needs the right combination of talent, enthusiasm, interest and skill in order to attain greatness. Therein lies the power to become what you desire.

You may have a passion for sports but that alone does not make you a soccer star. The Messi and Kaka of this world are men with remarkable natural ability for soccer. They rose to stardom as a result of their ability to blend talent with unreserved passion and insatiable appetite for success in the round leather game. And by regular exercise, these guys have over the years grown to become soccer gods, possessing unmatched quality and uniqueness.

You have an obligation to discover your area of natural competence, passion, interest, and skill; and build a business around it. The risk of failure is reduced when you embark on a business that you naturally fit into and have a flair for. It is possible to do well without the benefit of prior experience or expertise, especially if you have the passion to succeed.

How to Identify Your Uniqueness/Peculiarity using the TPIS Model*
The TPIS Model examines an individual’s peculiarity based on four parameters: Talent, Passion, Interest, and Skill. This model advances that rapid growth in any career or entrepreneurial venture hinges on these four parameters. It asserts further that a combination of these parameters makes an individual or business stand out among its contemporaries.

Here is a table of an individual’s make-up using the TPIS Model:

Parameters and Values/Variables.

(a) Talent (natural ability): Quick reasoning, imagination, organization, perfection, writing, innovation.
(b) Passion (love/hate): Creativity, aesthetic design, money, motivation, looking good, public speaking, excellence, innovation, copywriting.
(c) Interest (insatiable appetite): Entrepreneurship, graphic design, publishing, advertising, business communication, branding, public speaking, making money.
(d) Skill (training and experience): Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Computer Application, Entrepreneurship, Administration.

How to Identify an Individual’s Make-Up Using the TPIS Model
1. Draw a table and list the different variables/values for each parameter as it applies to you. Be objective in each case. You may consult an outsider to give you an unbiased assessment of yourself.
2. Identify the areas of common values from each parameter.
3. Merge the common variables/values together in order to get an idea of your core strengths and perhaps, weaknesses.
4. Focus on your strengths and work harder on your weaknesses.
5. Build a business and make money around your core strengths.

The world is tilting to the service industry. Almost all new small businesses springing up are in the service business category. Service business is a potential money-making platform that can be used by almost every person. Branding yourself as a professional in some of these services and contacting clients who may need them will amaze you with results.

See you at the top!

*The TPIS Model has been propounded by Ayokunle Bankole.

How to Start a Service Business in an Area You Have Little or No Experience.

Going by the increasing toll of unemployment in Nigeria and in most countries of the world, one option that readily comes to mind is churning out business ideas and making a living from such ventures.

However, good as entrepreneurship may seem, certain challenges are likely to be faced by the aspiring/budding entrepreneur who, due to lack of experience in his chosen career path, finds it difficult to get notice in the marketplace.

Amongst other qualities, experience, is obviously the most vital requirement needed for a successful service business. But this is not to say that some service business can’t be ventured into with little or no experience.

If you are thinking of starting an interior decorations business, for example, you are most likely to do well if you have worked in an organization or with someone having similar interest. Consider someone who starts a business and offers human relations management services, but never worked in an HR firm or as an HR administrator for a company!

Experience readily brings the judgment you would need to manage your business. This is the single most important skill needed in the service industry (and perhaps, in all types of businesses).

All hope is not lost if you are just a fresher. You can start a particular service business, and do well even if you have not worked professionally in a similar field. “How?” you ask. I will tell you now.

Let me identify two types of experience. These are: 1. Hands-on Experience; and 2. Self-Acquiring Experience.

Hands-on experience is the type of training you get as a result of your involvement in a particular activity. Here, you learn the skill first-hand; you make mistakes/errors and get corrected. Over the years, hands-on experience has proven to be the most accepted method of staff training, and many companies are aware of this fact. An accountant just starting off cannot, in any way, be compared with one with many years of hands-on experience. Likewise, a veteran sales person will, in most cases, outsell a beginner.

It is, however, worthy of note that acquiring corporate experience is not limited to the hands-on level. In the self-acquiring experience level, you engage in a conscious, self-acquiring exercise in order to be ahead of the game in your chosen career path.

The following are methods you can quickly use to become an experienced business person:

1. Read books authored by people who have several years of hands-on experience in the field that interest you. For instance, one of the professional books that have shaped my career is The Corporate Communications Bible by Robert Dilenschneider. In just one book, I was able to acquire public relations “wisdom” which had took the author several decades to learn!
2. Attend professional training/short courses. Attending programmes of this nature gives you unique opportunity to listen to experts as they teach. In most cases, you get opportunity to ask questions and practice what you have learnt.
3. Subscribe to and read newsletters regularly (whether paper or electronic-based). Newsletters offer unique information that may not be found elsewhere. Your self-acquiring effort may just pay of by reading one more newsletter.
4. Associate with ‘senior’ friends. You have no business spending your time with people who don’t know as much as you do. Pitch your tent with people who have gone ahead of you (and are successful) in similar business. Have them mentor you. By doing this, their experience rubs on you.
5. Apply what you have acquired. It is important to note that acquiring does not equal applying. You need to apply the wisdom acquired. Start small. Offer a kind of service that you can proffer immediate solutions to. The more you use what you know, the more you get skilled in the art, and the more you become experienced in that area! In the words of Dr. David Oyedepo, “Every fact you locate and apply puts you in control of life’s circumstances.”