All posts by Tayo Solagbade

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 organisations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners). Tayo is the author of the Self-Development (SD) Bible™, the popular Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook, and developer of its accompanying Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator - as well as the increasingly popular Monthly Poultry Farm Manager app. On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, writes and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, in the French Speaking Benin Republic on the first lap of his slow travels 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). 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 previews of paid issues of The Farm CEO™ Newspaper (www.thefarmceo.net), in addition to his FREE Weekly Public Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter - which he uses to promote Burt Dubin's Public Speaking Mentoring service to experts across the African continent. Visit Tayo's Flagship Performance Improvement website to download over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity. Join Tayo's international community of fans on his Flagship MS Excel Heaven Facebook page (click here). You can also connect with him via Twitter (@tksola).

[RECOMMENDED] How Startups Can Attract Angel Investment in Nigeria | Get Funded! 50 Organisations That Can Give You Capital To Start and Grow Your Business in Africa

Below are 2 articles featuring what I consider to be potentially useful information for African/Nigerian business owners in search of funding for their businesses.

1. 7 funds available for Nigerian entrepreneurs in 2017

Even though experts generally agree that finance is not the biggest problem facing Nigerian entrepreneurs, many of them still believe that it still ranks among the first five.

Understanding the critical importance of funding to Nigerian business owners and entrepreneurs, Start-Up Digest, in its characteristic manner, has dug up some of the easy-to-get funds available in the country this year.

Criteria

The general criterion for accessing these funds is the capacity to present a bankable and viable business plan. The entrepreneur should be clear on where he wants to be in the near future, and must also be able to describe the market for his or her products.

Continue reading…

https://www.businessdayonline.com/7-funds-available-nigerian-entrepreneurs-2017-2/

 

2. Get Funded! 50 Organisations That Can Give You Capital To Start and Grow Your Business in Africa

Want to know how to get funding for your business in Africa? Are you looking for capital to start a new business or grow an already established company in Africa? Have you tried other alternatives and sources of funding but failed? Is capital your biggest headache and obstacle right now? Smile, we’ve got good news for you.

As part of the research for our new book, 101 Ways To Make Money in Africa, Dr. Harnet Bokrezion and I have put together the largest and most detailed information on 50 Organisations that focus on and provide millions of dollars of funding to entrepreneurs and businesses in Africa every year. The problem is, not many people know about this.

Continue reading…

http://www.smallstarter.com/know-the-basics/how-to-get-funding-for-your-business-in-africa/

[RECOMMENDED] How this Nigerian started a food processing business with little capital

I LOVE this report because the true story it showcases provides insights into how smart thinking in use of the Internet (to get decision making information) coupled with a passion for excellence (and the right partner) can help an entrepreneur with no connections and a limited budget, overcome potentially crippling limitations to launch a food processing startup with export potential from Nigeria.

How this Nigerian started a food processing business with little capital

Ladipo-Ajai got the idea for starting the company while working for four years at Virgin Nigeria (a now defunct airline). During this time she often travelled to developed markets and would visit retailers that stocked Nigerian foods and flavours. She was surprised to discover, however, that many of these Nigerian spices and mixes were actually produced in Ghana.

“The population of Ghana is less than a fifth of Nigeria’s and I was taken aback, wondering why Nigerian food was being made or packaged in Ghana,” Ladipo-Ajai recalls.

“The reason is Nigeria doesn’t have the best reputation – it is known for cutting corners. So it is difficult to export our food because it usually fails the tests of developed countries. In fact, some Nigerians take food to Ghana and export from there, just to get it out.”

Continue reading…

https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/nigerian-started-food-processing-business-little-capital/

[RECOMMENDED] Big Dreams, but No Money to Fund Your Business?

To succeed faster/smarter you need to adopt the right mental attitude to get what you want. This article offers useful advice towards deciding how to go about finding the money you need to fund your business.

Big Dreams, but No Money to Fund Your Business?

There are many would-be entrepreneurs out there with great ideas but no money to invest in their venture.

In the last 14 years I have had so many people say there are grants out there to help finance a business. And I have so many more ask me where that grant-financing money is at. In all that time I have never found a grant that finances the start-up of a business.

Continue reading…

http://articles.bplans.com/big-dreams-but-no-money-to-fund-your-business/

 

VIDEO TRAILER: [Micro-Business Opportunity] Make Money Using Peels of Pineapples and Nine 9 Other Fruits

Invite me to facilitate my FREE ONE Hour Talk titled “How to Make Drinks You Can Sell from Peels of Pineapples and Nine (9) Other Fruits”

I developed this technique in July 2013, while on the campus of Benin Republic’s National University in Calavi – a town outside Cotonou.

The video trailer linked below announces the availability of my learning event to audience groups ANYWHERE on the continent.

pine-flyer-youtube-shot

Date?

It’s On-Demand. Any day…Even Sundays. Just invite me…IT’s FREE.

Target Audience?

Students, Unemployed, Retirees, Housewives, Restaurant/Bar Owners, Farm CEOs etc

Submit the form at www.tayosolagbade.com/boisson-tayo.html to request my FREE audio podcast [You also get my FREE PDF report: “10 Fruits You Eat That Leave Useful Peels Behind”

In the audio podcast, I narrate how it all began i.e. How I was challenged by an old lady selling Pineapples on the campus, to prove my claim that the peels she had to (sometimes pay kids 100 FCFA to) throw away daily AFTER sales, could be used to make money.

I also share the exciting details of how my drinks and cakes got me commendations and new friendships with the Administrator of the Burkina Faso Chamber of Commerce (who spoke ZERO English) as well as top officers at the Nigerian embassy (one later hired me to build a website for his farm providing driver/car from Cotonou, to the farm location in South West Nigeria and back.

He also bought my Excel-VB Poultry Farm Manager), PLUS a Professor/Department Head in Benin Republic’s National Language Centre – CEBELAE – who saw my products at the embassy, and waited to drive me about 1 hour to his home in Kasato (past Calavi!), where I was treated to a sumptuous meal!

If nothing else, you’ll learn from the audio how to use intelligence and infectious enthusiasm, to push your ideas successfully through to busy persons who are often hard to pin down!

[RECOMMENDED] What happens to a person’s mentality when they become an instant millionaire e.g. winning the lotto?

I’m publishing the link to the Quora.com page where very interesting responses (including true stories) were posted in response to this question, on this blog…just in case any of you wins the lottery. Hopefully, what you learn will help you make more intelligent use of the windfall, than most of the winners mentioned on that page did :-)

Click here to start reading…and learning!

[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