[RECOMMENDED] This Google spreadsheets guru makes $4,000 a month on online courses

Many accountants and finance professionals (especially in this part of the world) fail to realize that they massively shortchange themselves by failing to develop spreadsheet programming skills, which can boost their ability to serve clients – and make a LOT more money!

This true story is what I consider a “Wake Up Call” for such people…

Here’s an excerpt/preview – ending with a link to the full report:

This Google spreadsheets guru makes $4,000 a month on online courses

“The clients would have huge amounts of data,” he said. “We would be sitting between the clients and the lawyers to try to interpret their data and understand what was happening with the transactions and the finances. So all my time was working with data sets in Excel, and as the datasets started getting larger and larger we started using SQL,” a programming language used to manage data. Slowly but surely, Collins began expanding his programming skills as he learned to write SQL queries in order to manipulate the data. He also started dabbling in VBA, another programming language that allows you to build applications within Excel.”

xlvb-guru

Click here to continue reading…

The FARM CEO (Issue 91): Funding available for innovative business ideas | THE NEXT GENERATION IN AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

This week’s issue of The Farm CEO features a funding opportunity for African business owners and a report about how TechnoServe’s STRYDE program is helping more young Africans connect with agriculture.

1. Funding available for innovative business ideas

African entrepreneurs have the opportunity to receive funding for their business ideas by entering one of the AECF’s competitions.

What is the AECF?

The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) is a US$100m private sector fund, backed by some of the biggest names in development finance and hosted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Our aim is to encourage private sector companies to compete for investment support for their new and innovative business ideas.

The AECF is a competition, open only to for-profit private companies which are starting, or intend to start, new ventures in specific fields. Companies are invited to submit proposals outlining their business idea or concept for funding.

Which ideas does the AECF support?

Continue reading…

2. THE NEXT GENERATION IN AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

A young Kenyan farming entrepreneur demonstrates why youth are critical to transforming agriculture and ensuring food security in Africa.

Nickson Muthuri, 24, is having a banner year.

Today, he is graduating from Egerton University in Njoro, Kenya, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and sociology.

Last week, Nickson traveled to the United States for the first time, speaking about youth in African agriculture at events with Harvard University’s PAPSAC Food Policy Group, the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In September, Nickson beat out more than 800 young entrepreneurs from 18 countries to win first prize in the 2014 Agribiz4Africa competition. Sponsored by Syngenta and Enactus Kenya, Agribiz4Africa aims to raise awareness about careers in agriculture among Africa’s youth while promoting new business opportunities in crop value chains. Nickson’s business idea for cassava value addition won $10,000 in startup capital.

 

Continue reading…tfc091

[RECOMMENDED] The rise of self-education and individual investment

The message contained in the article previewed/linked below, WILL resonate strongly with ANY person who has reflected deeply on the inadequacies of our conventional education systems – in meeting rapidly changing, technology driven educational needs of today’s “learners”.

If the society refuses to make the required changes to education that can be had, I argue that every INDIVIDUAL can – and should! – make the changes necessary for him/herself…and EVERY parent should do same for his/her kids!

The rise of self-education and individual investment

With university tuition costs rising and a programming skill shortage, should students consider investing their time to help bridge the skill set gap?

Formal education certainly does not come cheap — with student fees rising and fewer university places available, but less traditional methods and a sharper focus on skill sets rather than formal qualifications could benefit job hunters more than a degree and a point score on their resume.

self-education-close

Continue reading…

PII 079: Farmers’ Attitude Towards Involvement of Farmers’ Organizations In Provision of Extension Services [RESEARCH PROJECT]*

The challenge of what has been described in some circles as a “near comatose: extension services delivery system, make the ideas proposed for adoption in this paper worthy of serious consideration by policy makers and stakeholders in Nigeria’s agriculture industry.

This is why I’ve chosen to publish it here as a downloadable FREE PDF paper, for interested persons to study.

SCROLL DOWN TO READ FULL ISSUE

Tayo Solagbade's Performance Improvement IDEAS(PI Squared) Newsletter

Tayo Solagbade’s
Performance Improvement 
IDEAS
(PI Squared) Newsletter

Monday 14th August 2017

Logo - Tayo Solagbade's Self-Development Academy


NB: This PI Squared newsletter will be published weekly, on Mondays, in place of the Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, starting from today – 15th February 2016.
 I’m reinventing my Monday newsletter content and theme, to accommodate my vision of serving the growing audience of serious minded individuals and organizations reaching out to me, with information, education. news and research findings designed to help them do what they do better.

************

View Tayo Solagbade's video tutorials and demonstrations on Facebook Productivity Tips, Web Marketing, and for his Custom MS Excel-VB driven software applicationsJoin the SD Nuggets community on Facebook.comConnect with Tayo on Twitter.comConnect with Tayo on Google PlusConnect with Tayo on LinkedIn.com

PII 079: Farmers’ Attitude Towards Involvement of Farmers’ Organizations In Provision of Extension Services [RESEARCH PROJECT]*

ABSTRACT

Inadequate provision of reliable and qualitative extensionservices to peasant and other farmers in Nigeria has remained a chronic problem (working against) the nation’s agricultural development drive. Using a simple random sample of 70 farmers, this study dealt with the attitude of farmers towards their organization’s involvement in the provision of extension services and the factors influencing such attitude. It was found that majority of the respondents were favorably disposed towards the idea of involving farmers’ organization

Type of farmers’ organization, the gender of the farmers and geographical location of the farmers are highly but negatively correlated with the farmers’ attitude towards their organization’s involvement in extension. The regression analysis showed that the type of farmers’ organization (beta = -0.74) is the single most important factor that determines the nature of attitudes towards farmers’ organizations’ involvement in extension among small scale farmers in Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State.

FARMERS ATTITUDE TOWARDS INVOLVEMENT OF FARMERS’ ORGANIZATIONS IN PROVISION OF EXTENSION SERVICES [RESEARCH PROJECT]*

Investigating A Different – Participatory – Approach to Improving Extension Services Delivery

fo-extension-tks

NB: *This PDF paper is based on a 1992 undergraduate final year research project study I carried out in fulfillment of the requirements for a B.Sc. in Agricultural Extension Services from University of Ibadan’s Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry.

I put in great effort to prepare for and execute the project. Coming up with the topic was something my Project Supervisor (then “Dr.” and later “Prof.”) Terry Olowu did not let me fool around with. He drilled me extensively, and challenged me to do everything right from start till end.

I however believe what is most noteworthy today, is that reading through the paper, one readily sees that its contents remain relevant to development in Nigeria’s agriculture sector even today!

The challenge of what has been described in some circles as a “near comatose: extension services delivery system, make the ideas proposed for adoption in this paper worthy of serious consideration by policy makers and stakeholders in Nigeria’s agriculture industry.

This is why I’ve chosen to publish it here as a downloadable FREE PDF paper, for interested persons to study.

NB; It goes without saying that some concepts and bodies referred to in the paper are now obsolete. However, the overall strategy investigated remains undeniably relevant to our current situation!

I’m willing to discuss with interested stakeholders about possible applications of this paper’s findings ore even conducting an updated version that takes into account changes that may have taken place since this original study was done.

Click here to download and read the PDF now…

Excel-VB Driven Ration Formulator

Click to view larger screenshot

1. Click here to learn more about this app – watch demo videos etc

2. Click here to watch a 4 part video in which I demonstrate how to use this app to formulate rations using real life data sent to me by an Algerian PhD student.

Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.

EXCEL-VB DRIVEN POULTRY LAYER FARM MANAGER SOFTWARE

Click here to download a detailed PDF user guide and watch 15 screen shot user guide tutorials of the Monthly Poultry Farm Manager that I now offer Farm CEOs.

Click here to watch a screenshot demonstration of the Excel-VB Driven Poultry Farm Manager I built for a client farm business in Ekiti state, South West Nigeria.

Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.

SDN Blog™

New posts from last week*

Monday:

[Wednesday]:

[Thursday]:

Web Marketing Guide Notes to a Real Estate Web Marketing Client [Hint: What You Know Matters – But Not As Much As What You Need to Learn]

[Friday]: 

Be A Prudent Buyer – Use This Simple Return On Investment Analysis

[Saturday]:

N/A

[Sunday]:

The FARM CEO (Issue 90): Agricultural Prosperity In Dry Africa – by Prof. Dov Pasternak [PDF Download]

Tayo K. Solagbade*

Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist

*Best Practice Farm Business Support Specialist & Founder of the MS Excel Heaven Visual Basic Automation Club and Competition

Mobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic)

http://www.tayosolagbade.com

Tayo K. Solagbade is a Location Independent Performance Improvement

Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others.

Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutionsweb marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).

Tayo is the author of the Self-Development (SD) Bible™ and the popular Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook. He is also the developer of its accompanying Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator™ and the Poultry Farm Manager™ software.

He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others.

In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.

On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region.

His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details).

In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.

In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting.

Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc).

When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter.

You can connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook.

Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity.

====
[IMPORTANT NOTE:====

On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), which hosted his website, was taken over by Aplus.net.

Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build a SUPERIOR “reincarnation” of it the website http://www.tayosolagbade.com.

But updates are still ongoing to URLs bearing the old domain name in most of the over 1,000 web pages, and blog posts he’s published.

If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.

Click “Tayo, What Happened to SpontaneousDevelopmentDotCom ?” to read a detailed narrative about how the above event occurred :-))

Here’s an article Tayo wrote, to inspire others to defy adversity, and bounce back to even greater reckoning at what they do EVERY time:

Succeed by Emerging from Adversity Like a Phoenix

(TayoSolagbade.com launches extra Hosting plan with FREE Web Marketing!)

And he wrote the one below, to explain why losing a domain name, no matter how old, NO LONGER determines your online success or otherwise:

A Proven Strategy to Find Profitable Buyers Regardless of Your Domain Name
==================

View Tayo Solagbade's video tutorials and demonstrations on Facebook Productivity Tips, Web Marketing, and for his Custom MS Excel-VB driven software applicationsJoin the SD Nuggets community on Facebook.comConnect with Tayo on Twitter.comConnect with Tayo on Google PlusConnect with Tayo on LinkedIn.com

Home |About | Contact | SD Nuggets™ | Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS | Web Marketing Systems | Freelance Writing | MS Excel® Heaven™ | Cost-Saving Farm Biz Ideas

[EXCEL HEAVEN VIDEO] Part 5 – How I Built My Automated Cash Book/Bank Reconciliation Software” [Inserting AMOUNT TOTAL Formulas to Add Cost Center Entries In EXPENSE SECTION of the Imprest Cash Book]

I couldn’t broadcast this tutorial last week to Excel Heaven club members due to the crazy connectivity crisis I had to battle with…Even now, I am proceeding with caution in using the “alternative” platform I’ve adopted for doing my online work lol!

Below are excerpts from the email I just sent to club members. Click here to request a copy of the step-by-step video and example workbook I used…

The following files are to be used for your review of this week’s tutorial:
[1[ Step by Step screenshot video tutorial – this was emailed to you via pCloud Transfer BEFORE this broadcast. See your email inbox.
Here’s a brief transcript excerpt from the video.

Let me know if you need any help replicating or putting the demonstrated concepts into use,

So, this is the expense section of the cash book. Remember 2 weeks ago, we insert the columnn (cost center) headings from the settings table into the expense table header row using the TRANSPOSE function – you can see it in the formula bar, in an array formula of sorts.

Now we’re going to put in formulas into the (cells in then) AMOUNT column, then freeze it in a way that enables us post values under ANY of the expense heads, along the row to the right, while being able to view the totals adding up for that Payment (Or Petty Cash) Voucher entry for that row/date.

This will make it easy for the user to quickly compare the total on the source/raw paper document (e.g. ledger) being used to that generated by the app’s table, in the AMOUNT column, so that any differences can be instantly detected and/or reconciled.

 Watch the video to see how it’s done.
[2] Example workbook used in the video demonstration, complete with the new features/functions added – attached to THIS email (See screenshot below)
tut13thaugust2017

The FARM CEO (Issue 90): Agricultural Prosperity In Dry Africa – by Prof. Dov Pasternak [PDF Download]

This issue of The Farm CEO should have gone out last week, but the connectivity crisis I experienced over the weekend made it impossible. No need for details. What matters is that I’ve now found a solution that (seems to) work(s).

This week, I offer download access to a wonderfully loaded 98 page PDF publication titled “Agricultural Prosperity In Dry Africa” written by a seasoned expert – Prof. Dov Pasternak one of the pioneers of drip irrigation – who, over a 40 year period – played leading roles in (what he’s described as) “the agricultural development of dry Africa on new approaches and strategies that will lead to more successful development.”

agriculturalprosperityindryafrica

Below are excerpts from the book’s introduction and Table Of Contents. Click here to download the full PDF…

Even though I am a scientist, by no means have I written this book in the style of a scientific publication. I present here a summary of my more than 40 years of experience in agricultural research and development in Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Argentina and sub-Saharan Africa. It is written in a style that can be understood by a layman but still appreciated by a scientist. The book deals specifically with agriculture in the Sudano Sahel, a region delineated by 300–800 mm/y rain isohyets stretching from Senegal to Eritrea, but it is relevant to other regions of dry Africa that are in the process of transitioning from traditional to more sophisticated forms of agriculture through a process that we call “development.”

From 1971 until 2001, I was an agricultural researcher at the Institute for Agriculture and Applied Biology (IAAB) of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel. My specialty was research on saline water irrigation. Over a period of 30 years, I tested 36 crop species for salt tolerance acquiring a unique knowledge of a great variety of crops (field crops, forage crops, vegetables, fruit trees and ornamentals). This experience helped me immensely when I became the head of Crops and Systems Diversification at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Sahelian Center in Niger.

I headed the IAAB from 1975 until 2001. This relatively small institute with a staff of 100 people has had a very significant impact on the development of the Negev Desert in what is referred to by many as the “Miracle of the Desert.” I believe the primary reason for this success was the absolute academic freedom given to scientists leading to and encouraging innovation.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations ………………………………………………………. 4
Foreword ….………………………………………………………………. 5
Introduction .………………………………………………………………. 8
Chapter 1: What is Hindering Agricultural Development in Africa ? ………10
Chapter 2: Drivers for Development ……………………………………… 13
Chapter 3: Strategies for Agricultural Development ……………………31
Chapter 4: Technologies and Crops for Rainfed Agricultural Development
in Dry Africa …………………………………………………….35
Chapter 5: Irrigation is the Solution …………………………………….…. 61
Chapter 6: Realizing the Potential ………………………………………… 79
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………… 92
Bibliography ……………………………………………………………….. 93
Appendix 1: List of vegetable varieties for the three growing seasons of the
Sudano Sahel …………………………………………………. 97
Appendix 2: List of successful fruit tree varieties at the Sadore Research
Station of ICRISAT ……………………………………………98

Click here to download the PDF

 

Be A Prudent Buyer – Use This Simple Return On Investment Analysis

Below are excerpts – and a screen shot image – from a document I often employed pre-2012 (when I still did lots of pavement pounding, working face to face with clients) to show a prospective client measurable benefits s/he stood to gain by investing in solutions I offered – especially Web Marketing Systems development.

Even though I no longer use it today (since my name/brand recognition and other results speak) I still sometimes use it in discussing with prospects and clients in my online interactions.

I share it here in the hope that the reader may find use for it – be you solution provider or potential buyer (click here to send me a message if you need to learn more about how to use this form):

Dear (client/prospect name here)

Evaluating the “Return On Investment” (ROI) will make it easier for you to…

[A] if you’re considering investing…

…justify spending money on my Web Marketing System (WMS), and helps you visualize the value the investment will create

[B] If you’ve invested already…

…justify money you’ve spent on my WMS and helps you visualize the value the investment is creating (or has created) over a period of time, post-delivery

In other words, this ROI Analysis can used both BEFORE and AFTER purchase by the “buyer”

My ROI Analysis Objective is to provide quantitative information to demonstrate the hard value you will receive by making an investment in my service.

When you see the analysis (I will need your help to obtain required figures/estimates), you are more likely to conclude that you do in fact NEED it,

[Note: Return On Investment – the amount of money one can expect to receive as the result of making an investment. An investment is anything that is purchased for the purpose of generating income (or decreasing expenses) or an item that is expected to increase in value over time.

roi

[Credits: The “formula” and reasoning used in creating the above document is based on content shared by Jeffery Meyer (of Succeedinginbusiness.com) in an edition of his email newsletter that I subscribed to around 2006 or so.]