Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

Get the Excel-VB driven Cash Inflow and Outflow Tracker app(Featuring Screenshot Images & Video Demonstration)

September 9, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

In yesterday’s issue of my newsletter, I mentioned that I would publish a blog featuring my Excel-VB driven Cash Inflow and Outflow Tracker (BCCT) app:

THIS is IT.

I built the BCCT app within 48 hours, in late 2007 during a dark period following a major setback. From late September through November that year, I sold it for just N2,500 via serious pavement pounding/door to door cold calling.

That experience earned me street smart marketing wisdom, and improved negotiationg skills. And I later used them to win high profile/profit client projects from January 2008.

Below: A one page printable flyer I used back in 2008 to market my nifty Excel-VB Cash Inflow & Outflow Tracker app, to clients/buyers.

The app was originally built for small business centres, so I started out calling it “Business Centre Cashflow Tracker(BCCT)”.

Then I noticed independent consultants were purchasing it for personal use, so I began calling it Income & Expense Manager. In 2008, I began using it to track MY OWN inflow and outflow of cash, to demonstrate to potential buyers. how it works.

From 2007 TO 2009, I actively sold this app via door to door pavement pounding on CDROM for N2,500 (approx. $15 USD). Between 21st Sept. ‘07 to 28th Nov. ’07 (approx. 42 working days, I sold N41,000 worth of this app. That effort eventually led me to meet clients who hired me to build other apps for fees ranging from N45k to N200k!

See JPEG image versions of reports generated from my 2008 data (with charts) – below…

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UPDATE SETTINGS

Below: This is the settings update table in the app.

The user will post his/her preferred income and expense labels and descriptions, which will become available in the in-cell drop menu on the Raw Data Entry Table. These income and expense labels also become available in the drop menus on the floating data entry form used to post entries into the Raw Data Entry Table.

TIPS FOR USE: Clicking “Update Settings Table” on the Main Navigation Menu form (see inset above) brings you to this interface. Under “Income Source” you will type the short label for the income generating activity you wish to track. Under Detail, you will add a name/label that further describes it – especially when it occurs in variants. For instance the above screenshot shows that Phone call and Photocopy are income sources for the business center featured.

Under “Detail” the type of phone call and photocopy is specified, so that what appears in the drop menu for data entry in the Raw Data Entry Table is a combination of the specified “Income Source” and the “Detail” – see the column labeled “Category” above. The program uses these income category descriptions to assign income data entered for preparation of analysis, charts and reports.

For expenses, simply specify a name for the expense item you wish to track. It will be picked up in the Expense listing drop menu in the Raw Data Entry form.

This app was originally built for small business centres, so I started out calling it “Business Centre Cashflow Tracker(BCCT)”.

This JPEG image is an example showing real life income and expense heads I used back in 2008 in the Update Settings Table

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DATA ENTRY

Below: This is the Raw Data Entry Table.

These income and expense labels also become available in the drop menus on this floating data entry form (see inset above) used to post entries into the Raw Data Entry Table.

Clicking the “Make Entries” button at the top left of the worksheet will load the above “Make New Entry” floating form – which will auto-insert the current date into the next empty cell after the most recent posted entry on the worksheet.

If you choose a different date using the “Date” drop menu to the right of the “Entry Type” drop menu, the form will insert that date instead (e.g when you want to post for an earlier date period).

The Year and Month are extracted from the date posted and entered into the last 2 columns to the right of the table. All the fields in this data entry table have their data filter buttons enabled, allowing the user to quickly and easily query the table for previously posted data(a painless way to find information). You can drill down using 2 or more criteria till you narrow down to the information you want.

Clicking the check box next to “Entry Type” on the form will cause the app to cursor select the “Expense Type” column on the row for which it posted the date. The user will then select either “Sales Income” or “Operating Expense” from the “Entry Type” drop menu(see inset image on top right). See video demonstration at www.tinyurl.com/bcct-demo to watch a demonstration of how this interface is used to post data and generate reports.

Monthly Automated Summaries Report

Below a JPEG image version of reports generated from my 2008 data (with charts). It is autogenerated as data is posted into the Raw Data Entry Table interface.

Daily and Monthly Automated Summaries Query Interface

This is a JPEG image version of the automated query interface, which allows the user to generate dynamic, ready-to-print income and expense reports and charts using data posted in the “Raw Data Entry Table”.

The user can generate summaries for a date or month chosen from a drop menu.

Today, I no longer sell the app that way (obviously!), but I still offer it for sale as an unlimited use EXE version for N5,000 (approx. $30 USD).

Apart from cash to bank payment, you can pay by:

(1) Sending me MTN airtime credit or

(2) Ordering 3 physical copies of my latest paperback book ”Kukuru Danger” from www.lulu.com/sdaproducts for delivery as a gift, to an address I will supply.

Click here to contact me for details.

Watch the 3 part video demonstration below. (Note: Due to connectivity problems, only part 1 of 3 has been uploaded to my Youtube channel for now

UPDATE (13th Sept. 2014 @ 11.53a.m Lagos time. About a day ago, I succeeded in uploading parts 2 and 3 – which are now embedded below).

Click here to watch it on Youtube.

Entrepreneurship, General, My DN Travel News, Public Speaking

No. 158: To Achieve Sustainable Selling Success, NEVER Stop Marketing!

September 8, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

In late 2007, I had a setback when I broke a fundamental rule which I’ve summed up as:

“Never stop marketing. Not even when business is so good that you’re over booked!”

Ignoring this is often what causes the feast-famine cycle many people pass through! In this issue of my newsletter, I use a true personal story to explain why this is so, and what you can do.

SCROLL DOWN TO READ FULL ISSUE

Click now to view the latest issue of Tayo Solagbade's Public Speaking IDEAS page

Publication: Weekly Public Speaking IDEAS Newsletter

Date: Monday 8th September 2014

No:158

Title: To Achieve Sustainable Selling Success, NEVER Stop Marketing!

Author & Publisher: Tayo K. Solagbade [Tel: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic) ]

Blog URL: http://www.tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets

Archive (E-mail version started 14th May 2012): Click here to view

Archive (Blog version started 24th September 2011): Click here

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NB: This newsletter is published every Monday. Point your browser to www.tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets to read at least ONE new post added to my SD Nuggets blog on a different category from Tuesday till Saturday (sometimes even Sundays) in line with this publishing schedule

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IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS newsletter is published online on the “reincarnated” version of my Self-Development (SD) Nuggets blog. I continue to put finishing touches to the content. If you encounter ANY bad/dead links, and you can spare the time, email them to me via tayo at tksola dot com. Thanks in advance

No. 158: To Achieve Sustainable Selling Success, NEVER Stop Marketing!

In late 2007, I had a setback when I broke a fundamental rule which I’ve summed up as:

“Never stop marketing. Not even when business is so good that you’re over booked!”

Ignoring this is often what causes the feast-famine cycle many people pass through! In this issue of my newsletter, I use a true personal story to explain why this is so, and what you can do.

When I made that mistake in late 2007, things got so bad I could not fuel my car…

For up to 3 weeks, I left my car parked in front of a public secondary school (where it had run out of fuel) off the major road leading to the popular Berger roundabout in Lagos.

Each day I walked past it at 5.00a.m to 5.30a.m, on my way to Ikeja – which was 1 hour away on foot (I did not have money to pay for local transportation either).

To help you put the above in perspective, I should mention that I’d started the year doing fairly well, and with no reason to imagine that things would not get better.

I mention this to warn you that “good times” have to be “nurtured” by you, to ensure they last.

In my case, I completed various custom Excel-VB software development projects during the year. And things had been looking really good.

But I had not learnt enough to NOT make the mistake of NOT marketing while working.

So, when I went through a prolonged period without winning new work, I got into trouble with my cash flow.

I was sorely tested during this period. But I dug deep and forced myself to re-read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.

It’s amazing how suffering brings great clarity to the human mind, The things you read and feel, and SEE, offer much deeper meanings and insights.

This is why “fasting”, and meditating can be very beneficial when done right.

One day, I visited a business centre in the Opebi area of Ikeja to make photocopies.

I noticed they were having problems accurately computing total sales and expenses for the past week, using detailed records kept in notebooks used by the employees.

They had no formal book keeping system in place, so they were using a large calculator. The problem was it got very confusing and they kept mixing things up as customers came and went.

After a while I got involved and studied the records while trying to help them decide on the best way to go about it.

However, in my mind an idea was already forming. I saw the PC on their table, and knew it had a copy of MS Excel on it.

But I knew from interacting with the owner, that asking them to use MS Excel to solve the problem themselves was unlikely to work, and possibly lead to major errors.

So, I quietly resolved to build a little app for them to use.

48 hours later, I’d finished the first version of what I called Excel-VB driven”Business Centre Cash Inflow & Outflow Tracker” (click here to request details of it, including screenshots and Youtube video demonstrations).

Ironically, when I went back and showed the app to the business centre owner, she indicated no interest. This was despite the low price I offered her i.e. N1, 500.

It is instructive to note here, that earlier in the year, before the setback, I’d completed a N100K project earlier to build a “Hotel Records Management System (HRMS)”.

It worked via the hotel’s intranet (internal network) allowing different departments to access the modules relevant to them.

Compared to that hotel app, however, I had already done the work to build the BCCT app, and I knew MANY others would find the app useful. That was what informed my low pricing.

As a result, when the business centre owner declined, I simply went out to market it to others.

Sales did not happen immediately…but eventually they did!

It took me time to perfect my sales (elevator) speech. And I also had to learn how to profile those most likely to buy, and how to win their confidence.

I copied the app on to multiple branded auto run CDROMs I created. Then I walked from office to office from morning till evening, taking breaks when I could.

In the evenings, getting back home often involved walking for 1.5 hours from Ikeja to my place in the Ojodu area. However, since I was cash strapped, I decided to visit business centres in the Ogba area, closer home, so I could walk for about 45 minutes to get home.

This led me to discover shortcuts and side streets, which if I’d been driving I would never have noticed.

Later on, when my car was back on the road, I made good use of my new knowledge of those side streets to avoid major holds up and get to my destinations with minimal delays.

In Lagos, that can be a valuable ability!

To cut the long story short, the struggle I went through in late November 2007 helped me develop my street smart marketing aptitude.

I emerged better equipped to get people to buy from me – within minutes of our meeting.

One Example: I vividly recall the lady owner of a Travel and Tours company in a plaza at Ogba-Ikeja, saying (as she signed my receipt):

“Mr. Tayo. You are really a good salesman. I can’t believe I’ve agreed to pay for this software now, and then let you come back to install it tomorrow!”

In truth, I never imagined she would agree either!

You see, TRUST is one thing very hard to find between people transacting business in Nigeria – it’s “pay and get the product or service instantly”. Few will accept to let you come back the next day to give them what they pay for. Especially when you are an individual they do not know!

The lady CEO had watched my demonstration on the CD, and said she was interested in the app. But because she had an appointment at the airport, she suggested I come back the next day so she could pay, and I could install the app and teach her to use it.

However, my – now – keenly honed selling instincts made me counter-propose that she pay and have me come in first thing the next day to do the installation and training:

“That way, you will be sure that you’ve tied it down at this special price I’m giving you” I said.

And what was the price?

It was a mere N2, 500 – for a 650KB workbook app!

(NB: Today, the latest version sells for N5, 000, and is about 6MB in size, with superior enhancements – like my trademark automated modeless floating data entry form – to make it Excel-novice proof. It’s come a LONG way. Tomorrow, I’ll publish a blog offering it for sale to interested persons. Click here to request details!).

Using my painful 2007 experience, I hit the ground running with my marketing in 2008…and it paid off!

Starting in January 2008, an old client hospital called me in to build a Cash Office Payments Manager, for use in tracking indebtedness of patients.

My much improved negotiation skills and gut level instincts helped me win a profitable payment for the project, which I wrapped up in 48 hours!

2 months later, I won a new client, who paid me to build a Hotel Restaurants and Bar Manager application for her popular neighbourhood hotel.

3 weeks after finishing that project, I used my pavement pounding skills to sell the app to a much larger hotel (well known for events by musical celebrities) in the Ikeja area.

By the middle of the year, the MD of a cookies manufacturing company called me based on a referral by his cousin (the manager of a professional photography studio) who had purchased my “cheap” N2, 500 BCCT app.

I would go on to execute multiple highly profitable projects for that company i.e. marketing my “cheap” app opened doors to high paying projects with large clients companies!

Final Words: Spending is unavoidable. If you do not keep getting money in, you will most definitely continue spending. That means you WILL eventually run out of cash!

That’s what happened to me – more than once. I’m wiser now.

But I first had to learn the hard lesson, to NEVER stop marketing while I had a job in hand.

Today, those who follow my work know that I continue using multiple channels, to promote my products and services to my target audiences.

Even when I had multiple projects in hand about a month ago, in Cotonou, I NEVER stopped my various marketing activities. And this has continued to generate multiple quality sales leads, some of which have resulted in sales of my products, and profitable clients for my services.

As I type this, I’m in Lagos-Nigeria, approaching the end of a Web Marketing Systems development project for an Ota-Ogun state based NGO.

Few months back, in June (2014) they’d invited me to give a paid Web Marketing Coaching talk to members of their media unit. Then last month, they’d paid to have me develop the WMS.

Apart from a referral by a relative who is a member of the board, and requested I meet with the CEO in Lagos. their decision to hire me was based mainly on marketing resources I supplied: before we met, and which I left AFTER giving my talk.

Even after I leave, my marketing resources continue to “speak” to them on my behalf.

A good example was an auto run CDOM based slideshow version of the talk I gave them, along with 3 MP3 audio versions of a 3 part article on Web Marketing published on my website.

And since I practice what I preach online, ANYTIME they visit my website or blog, those I market my work to will encounter new and often useful content.

Here’s what Burt Dubin said in one of his business marketing articles for experts-who-speak, that he mentors across the world:

“You are a marketer first, and an expert second.” – Burt Dubin

That’s powerful wisdom that has helped countless experts find more consistent marketing success. If you remember and act on it, you will achieve similar results!

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Have a great week :-))

Get Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring
for Africa Based Experts(PDF…Click!)

Tayo K. Solagbade*

Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist

*Sole Agent For Burt Dubin’s Speaker Mentoring Service In Africa

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 organisations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web 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 organisations, 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 as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer, to Training & Technical Development Manager, and then later acted in senior management roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.

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 Limited.

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 his Weekly Public Speaking IDEAS

newsletter(which he uses to promote Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring service to experts working across the African continent).

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.

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[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

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Useful Resources for Speakers

Burt Dubin works with people who want to be speakers, and with speakers who want to be masters. Click here to visit his website NOW and submit a contact form message telling him what challenges you’re facing, and how you’d like him to help you. Tell him I sent you, and you’ll get a pleasant surprise offer from him.

Burt Dubin’s monthly Speaking Biz Strategies Letter [Signup & get a 7-Part Email Course on “How To Succeed And Get Paid As A Professional Speaker“]

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Publications

Burt Dubin’s latest book: “On Being a Master”

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No copy of this 2 CD program and 50 page Learning Guide has ever been returned.

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NEW:Click here to download your FREE 20 Page PDF Chapter preview of my latest Book” titled “KUKURU DANGER™: 5 True Stories About the Adventures – & Misadventures! – of a School Age Child Trying to Find Purpose in Life

Download above PDF

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—

NEW: Your Practical Feed Formulation (& Compounding) Home Study Video Series Is Now Available

Click here to learn more

FREE TALK: How a Best Operating Process Management Sysem (BOPMS)™Will Earn Your Farm MORE Profits!

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FREE TALK: 3 Zero Cost Strategies to Attract Profitable Buyers for Your Farm Products!

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NEW: Coaching Program for Farm Products Marketing Success

THEY WROTE…

“(Tayo Solagbade) is amazing and I think he is going to produce some impressive results online…” – click here to read full comment by Patrick Meninga (US based 6 figure income blogger who gained fame for building a $2,000 per month adsense website and selling it for $200,000).

—————————–

“Tayo, I honestly believe you are one of those who will succeed at anything he does. Your commitment and effort has been outstanding….Thanks for all your hard work since I’ve been here – you will be sorely missed. I don’t need to wish you good luck, you have the ability to make your own luck. – Andy”(R. Jones)*

*Operations Manager, Guinness Nigeria Plc Benin Brewery, December 2001 (Handwritten comments in farewell/xmas cards sent to Tayo Solagbade following his resignation to start his own business).

———————–

Click here to contact Tayo…




SD Nuggets Blog™	New posts from last week that may interest you! *
Public Speaking[Monday]:	No. 157: Deciding What You Need to Write – or Speak – About (3 Strategies You Can Use)
Entrepreneurship[Tuesday]:	To Succeed, You Need to Avoid Advice from Wrong People!
Self-Development/Parenting [Wednesday]:	Top Twelve Ways to Achieve Results Focused Self-Development
Entrepreneurship[Thursday]:	Is That Nice Person “Nice” To Everyone – Or Just YOU?
General [Friday]:	Introduce Your Kids to the Philosophy of Personal Success Achievement (A Real Life Example) – Part 1 of 2
Writing/Blogging/Entrepreneurship [Saturday]:	Introduce Your Kids to the Philosophy of Personal Success Achievement (A Real Life Example) – Part 2 of 2
Want me to write for you? Click here to send me a message

Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring

for Africa Based Experts(PDF…Click!)

Career Development, Entrepreneurship, My DN Travel News, Self-Development

Top Twelve Ways to Achieve Results Focused Self-Development

September 3, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

Too many people claim to do Self-Development, when what they do is mostly wishful thinking, with little or NO ACTION TAKING! The ideas I offer will help you practice results-focused Self-Development that yields tangible benefits!

1. BREAK the bad habit of idolising paper qualifications

Don’t rush like others to acquire the latest certification unless you’re sure it can really help you improve. Don’t feel inferior to another person for any reason – especially not because he has an MBA when you only have an M.sc.

Ask yourself: Do I really need this qualification to get ahead in my job/life – now or in the future?

2. Find a role model – Within your company or outside it

There are people who have done similar things to what you wish to achieve in their time, and who have chosen to write about how they did it. Make them your role models – use their methods or modify to suit your self/purpose.

3. Stop begin afraid to stoop to learn

Ask yourself who you work with that you have no idea what he does. Begin to show interest in understanding what your co-workers or subordinates do and how they do it. You WILL learn a lot and MIGHT have some useful ideas on improvement to pass on to them. And of course the personal interest you show in their work will do a lot to boost their morale.

4. Start knowing a little about everything

Show interest in other parts of the business for instance. Be interested in knowing how the production department did last week, what their problems were and how they resolved them. Before long you’ll begin to sound like you actually know a bit about what goes on there.

Better still; the department’s members may begin to see you in a more positive light.
At a point, managers not as close to Production as you are, may begin to regard you as a reliable source of information about that department.

Don’t be fooled – all these will be noticed/eventually filter to the decision-makers at the top and they will take note of it for the future.

5. Read, Read, Read and Read!

Build a personal library. Buy books that teach you what you want to know. Apply what you learn from the books.

6. Develop the right attitude toward problem-solving: Be a change agent!

Always seek ways to improve the way things are done. Never avoid problems. Problems are challenges that present us with an opportunity to learn “a little more” (in addition to what we already know) by trying to solve them.

7. Become a deep thinker

Be reflective. I do not mean that you should “worry”. Start doing the little things that others never seem to think matter. You must have depth. People who come to you should come away feeling that you have a lot to offer them.

They should feel that you have revealed something new about what they thought they knew to them. Others will enjoy working with you because they will get nourishment from you.

Never be superficial. Never lose interest in detail. It might appear fashionable, but it can be quite costly too.

8. Always finish what you start

To put it another way, never leave ANY job unfinished. You can delay or put off a job you started, but ensure you go back and finish it. It does not pay to have someone else come around to discover you did not do a complete job, when you had NO reason not to!

Your integrity automatically gets called to question…not good!

9. Learn from EVERY experience – be it failure or success

There are two sides to a coin – what you see depends on which side of the coin (the situation) you choose to look at. Do not fear failure – use it as a stepping stone instead.

10. Stay in the line of action

Always try to be in the thick of the action. Be ready to take risks.

Some people will tell you to avoid being too out in the open, but you will gain absolutely nothing by doing nothing. Confidence only comes from doing. Only when you have been a member of a problem-solving or project team, do you begin to understand how such a team works, what they do etc.

This immediately takes away whatever fears you had about being in such team when next the issue comes up. The knowledge/skill you pick up in the process will eventually serve you well if you get re-deployed or seconded in the future to an area where it becomes useful.

11. Believe in yourself & Think Positive ALWAYS

Free yourself from the discouraging limitations that naysayers may try to impose on you. That it has never been done before – or that they tried it and it did not work – does not mean you cannot do it.

What’s the point of saying “it’s been tried before and it did not work” anyway? We learn nothing by giving up! Conversely, we learn a lot by persevering through determination till we succeed.

12. Avoid re-inventing the wheel

Ask those who have been there and done it before, then modify what you learn to suit the present situation.

Use the Internet to see what is available that might be of use. The Internet is filled with various tools and resources put online by generous minded individuals and groups with a view to ensuring they make it easier for others across the world to do solve their problems quicker and more efficiently.

If you use it intelligently, you will find that you save yourself many hours of work and become more efficient and effective in the process.

Final Words

If you practice “Deliberate, Performance Enhancing” Self-Development, those around you WILL notice a major difference.

And they will eventually acknowledge you for it.

If that does NOT happen, there’s a good chance you are NOT doing it right – in which case, re-reading and diligently acting on – the 12 tips offered in this article may be what you need!

PS: Subscribe & get one month of confidential Self-Development/Performance Enhancing Coaching

Read this to learn how I can help you achieve the goals you set for yourself more consistently (click for details)

Let me know you want to signup for my coaching, usingthis contact form – click!

Entrepreneurship, General, My DN Travel News, My Ideas for Making Nigeria Better, Self-Development

To Succeed, You Need to Avoid Advice from Wrong People!

September 2, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

Who are you taking advice from in your business or personal life? Every day in Nigeria, and I am sure all over the world as well, people find themselves on the receiving end of advice from speakers, writers, presenters etc. On radio, TV, newspapers, the web, tons of advices are offered by (mostly) well meaning "experts".

But I cannot help periodically wondering about where some of those I hear dish out advice – especially about how to succeed IN NIGERIA – get their ideas from!

I have said it in past writings, and I am saying it again: The rules for success in developed societies, do NOT work as well out here.

Why? Simple: We are a nation of MANIPULATORS . We do not believe in following laid down guidelines to achieving a set goal. We are not prepared to nurture ourselves to develop needed competencies to achieve success. We always want to have an unfair advantage – to win, no matter how.

That’s why for instance, we got found out to be AGE cheats in the FIFA age group competitions. For instance, towards the 2009 U-17 world cup, the country had to endure the embarrassment of being told the tests conducted on our selected team members revealed about 18 of them were over aged!

And that was NOT a one-off occurrence. It goes way back.

If you doubt me, I’ll let you in one a little secret of mine: Nigeria has been age-cheating for a long time – at least as far back as 1983.

I say this because I played active competitive handball from school to state level for over 10 years (1983 to 1993), and during that time, I found myself in age group teams playing alongside individuals MUCH older than the maximum allowed age limits.

One example. Following my performance in the 1985 Kwara secondary schools state Handball competition finals, I was invited to join the Kwara state team in camp for the 1985 National Sports Festival. Towards the start of the competition, the coach asked each player for his age.

When I told him I was 15, he retorted "No, I mean what is your REAL age?".

Before I could respond, some of my team mates told him, "Coach, that’s his real age". The man looked me over in surprise, apparently because he thought my 5ft 11inches height suggested I would be older than that.

The intention, as I would later learn, was to find out how far above the 18 year maximum age limit I was, so he could tell me what under-18 "official" age he would put on the team list to be submitted .

I will also NOT forget how (in 1983, I think) I got dropped from the state team that went to the World Youth Championships in Sweden and Denmark. This was because the coach saw me in the line up for pictures to be taken for use in preparing our international passports, and pulled me out, saying "Ah, you are too tall".

I got replaced by a colleague who was smaller in stature, even though older than I was!

I look back now, and realise that THAT was (probably) why 3 Nigerian state teams kept winning those World Youth Handball competitions (sweeping first, second and third positions annually!) back then. We were fielding over aged players, who naturally over ran their much younger counterparts from other countries!

So, you see, we’ve been doing this age-cheating in sports thing for a long time.

It is against the back drop of all this that I wonder where all our wonderful "advice-givers" get their ideas from.

For heaven’s sake, how can anyone tell young Nigerians to DARE TO DREAM, when almost EVERYTHING in this society TELLS them VERY often, it’s not how good you are, that determines if you get what you want in life HERE in
Nigeria.

Instead, it is – among others things:

(a) where you are from in the country

(b) who you know in a position of influence

(c) how much money you have

(d) how much of what you
have you are willing to give up, no matter how unfair that may be to YOU.

Consider this: Five Nigerian bank MDs got hammered few years back, following the crisis in the banking industry, when it was found that they had given out UNSECURED loans to the tune of billions of naira, to friends, associates, and in certain cases, themselves.

All this happened in an economy where struggling business owners repeatedly have their bank loan applications turned down! Isn’t it just amazing?!

Yet, these same MDs before their exposure had been variously invited as guest speakers to "advise" the rest of us at different times on our finances – and even on the subject of "success".

If only we had known what they were doing behind closed doors, we would have been wiser. Some of us would probably not have lost so much money trading their "manipulated" stocks in the stock exchange for instance!

I can already hear those phony patriots screaming that I am bad mouthing Nigeria by writing all the above negatives about the country.

I respond by asking: what good has sweeping our bad habits under the carpet done us so far? What good has our unwillingness to bring unpleasant issues that retard our progress on the table for discussion brought us? Today, things are even WORSE than ever!

My patriotism requires me to QUESTION bad practices I notice, in a manner that influences CORRECTION to be effected.

I do NOT believe turning a blind eye to wrong doing will yield any positive long term benefits for anyone – EXCEPT of course the perpetrators.

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Gana Fawehimni (both now late) and Wole Soyinka are the PRACTICAL role models I can relate with. It is their example I will gladly follow.

Look at the Americans.

They do not even spare their presidents, when the need for corrective feedback is identified.

Ask Bill Clinton – who had to endure having the minutest details of his affairs x-rayed on TV, the web, radio and all other media for many months as his case with Monica Lewinsky progressed. Why can’t we copy America in this area – the way we ape them in their fashion, music etc?

You see, I believe we have other more useful lessons we can learn from the Americans, but we choose NOT to see them, because we are INSINCERE. That is also why we do not progress. American speakers, authors, radio/TV presenters etc can rightly tell their citizens in America to DARE TO DREAM.

This is because their society has in it, people (and systems) that will ALLOW those who are BEST qualified, those with proven competence, to WIN.

When we invite them to Nigeria, to speak to our people about achieving similar results, we must be prepared to CREATE an environment similar to that which the Americans have created for success to become a WAY OF LIFE.

Final Words: You owe yourself a duty to INVESTIGATE the credentials, and so called "achievements" of the numerous advisers that parade themselves today, in this society.

Take it from me, there are among us for instance, "success coaches" who speak and write about being able to weather hard times or adversity, but who will cave in, and compromise on all fronts, at the slightest sign that tough times are headed their way.

I have met them in large numbers out here.

And they are the ones usually most visible and available to offer advice to the rest of us in society.

Beware, therefore, who you take advice from – whether in your business or personal life!

Entrepreneurship, Public Speaking, Self-Development, Writing/Blogging

No. 157: Deciding What You Need to Write – or Speak – About (3 Strategies You Can Use)

September 1, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

As an expert-who-speaks (or writes), the topic, subject, or theme you choose to focus on can be a crucial determinant of your success.

If your audience loves it, you’ll become a “hero” who demystifies it for them. Otherwise, you may get largely ignored…until you can do better.

Today’s issue was inspired by a question sent in by a friend “D”, after she’d read my writing/blogging category article published last Saturday (30/08/2014) titled “To Succeed, You Need a Reason for Writing“.

SCROLL DOWN TO READ FULL ISSUE

Publication: Weekly Public Speaking IDEAS Newsletter

Date: Monday 1st September 2014

No:157

Title: Deciding What You Need to Write – or Speak – About (3 Strategies You Can Use)

Author & Publisher: Tayo K. Solagbade [Tel: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic) ]

Blog URL: http://www.tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets

Archive (E-mail version started 14th May 2012): Click here to view

Archive (Blog version started 24th September 2011): Click here

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IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS newsletter is published online on the “reincarnated” version of my Self-Development (SD) Nuggets blog. I continue to put finishing touches to the content. If you encounter ANY bad/dead links, and you can spare the time, email it to me via tayo at tksola dot com. Thanks in advance

No. 157: Deciding What You Need to Write – or Speak – About (3 Strategies You Can Use)

As an expert-who-speaks (or writes), the topic, subject, or theme you choose to focus on can be a crucial determinant of your success.

If your audience loves it, you’ll become a “hero” who demystifies it for them. Otherwise, you may get largely ignored…until you can do better.

Today’s issue was inspired by a question sent in by a friend “D”, after she’d read my writing/blogging category article published last Saturday (30/08/2014) titled “To Succeed, You Need a Reason for Writing“.

“D” explained that she had always loved writing – and that it had been a passion of sorts since she was a kid. However, in order to take her writing to a more formal level, she wanted to know how to “figure out” WHAT to write about(?)

An Excellent Question: It Got Me Thinking Back to When I Started Writing…

I deliberately took my time to think about her question – reflecting on how I began my own writing on a formal basis back when I was a 27 year old brewer in Guinness Nigeria.

Then I thought about the stories of many other experts and how they had started out writing – in some cases they’d also explained WHY they had begun writing.

That mental journey has pointed me to the most critical consideration that I believe one needs to keep in mind in order to accurately decide what to write about.

Now, rather than simply send her my reply, it occurred to me that there might be others looking to also choose a subject to write about.

Indeed, I have written several articles (like this one) about my belief that MORE people need to write.

What I however failed to realize is that my readers may actually be keen to do as I suggest, but may be struggling to decide what to focus their own writing on.

Thankfully, D’s question has helped me to put that into consideration. So, I’ve used her enquiry to prepare this article, and at the end, I announce a special paid coaching service offer. (See further down).

I’ve Tried to Come Up With a Practical Answer: So I Suggest 3 Strategies…

To decide what to write about, you may find it useful to…

1. Think About What Drives You (i.e. Your Magnificent Obsession)

[Hint: I consider this the most important way to decide what to write about. You simply cannot go wrong. And it often determines what you do in using the 2 other strategies I discuss later. Click HERE to read an article I wrote few years back, which reveals insights offered by a billionnaire about the importance of having a Magnificent Obsession.]

Most of us have dreams and aspirations that drive us. When they are positive, and worthwhile, very often, that’s what it means to have a Magnificent Obsession (MO).

In my Self-Development Bible™, I outlined 10 key strategies that I have successfully used – over 2 decades – to DEVELOP needed competencies to excel in ANY vocation I ventured in life.

From my time in school, right through paid employment, and over the past decade as an entrepreneur, I have repeatedly and successfully applied those strategies with great success, such that people kept (and keep!) saying: “Tayo, you are amazing, how do you do it?!”

In that book, the first strategy I recommend for the intending achiever (in writing or any other vocation) is:

Develop a MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (MO).

Below, is a screenshot of useful excerpts that explain what a Magnificent Obsession is:

I strongly recommend writing about anything and everything related to YOUR MO. But do it creatively, ALWAYS in a way that will make it interesting for your target audience.

**EXAMPLE: My Magnificent Obsession is Using Self-Development to Achieve Performance Improvement (i.e. Finding Newer & Better Ways to Do What I Do, and Helping Others Do Same)**

I am obsessed with learning new and better ways to do things I have an interest in or passion for. And my obsession drives me to share solutions I discover (and/or develop) with others, to help them improve in their personal and work lives.

This explains why I never get tired of creating new problem solving products/services needed by my target audiences, and writing about how to make the most of them.

I am able to do it all seemingly effortlessly, because it leads directly to the fulfilment of my Magnificent Obessiona.

To find YOUR OWN Magnificent Obsession, do some deep soul searching.

Make out quality quiet time to be alone to do this if needed.

What you learn will point you towards what you’re likely to be able to – tirelessly – write about so passionately and compellingly, that readers who need it will be unable to resist!

My Self-Development Bible™ has a full chapter that describes how to develop a Magnificent Obsession that can help you.

If you subscribe at www.tayosolagbade.com, a download link to it (and over 10 others) will be delivered to the email address you supply via an auto-response message.

Useful Note: Burt Dubin, in advising experts-who-speak on choosing their topic recommends in one of his articles, that you should “listen to your feelings”, and focus on that which will not remain unsaid i.e. your message for the world.

Those who signup for Burt’s Speaking Success System, get taught – and helped – to do this.

Indeed, Burt helps each client identify a flagsship subject to offer defined target audeiences. And then he helps you prepare, package, promote and present your message to them.

Many tutored by Burt have gone on to great success as speakers. And most acknowledge that helping them identify WHAT to speak about was how Burt helped them succeed.

Click here to learn more about Burt’s Speaking Success System. He offers an elaborate range of products and services for experts-who-speak, and those aspiring. NB: I represent Burt as Sole Agent for marketing his products and services.

2. Read – and Think – Frequently About What Drives You

This strategy should be guided by what you identify your MO to be.

Good writers are often great – even voracious – readers.

Judging from my experiences, to make knowing what to write about easy, you MUST invest major time and effort in reading.

“One must spend time in gathering knowledge to give it out richly…” – Samuel Johnson

What you read provides you raw material from which to creatively come up with new ideas to discuss based on the theme of your MO.

Now, if you correctly identify your MO from no. 1 above, I can tell you that knowing what to read, and actually reading it will NOT take you much effort. Indeed, you will find that you derive immense please from doing so.

Your experience doing this can only be different if you fail to correctly narrow down to your MO. So, be sure you get that right first!

My Example: I readily develop interest in reading and talking about anything related to performance improvement or finding better ways to do what my target audiences do.

For instance, any bits of information or news relevant to helping farm businesses spend less to make produce and/or sell more, always gets my interest.

But I don’t just read and tell others. Instead I immediately think about possible implications of what I read, for my Farm CEO clients I know. Sometimes I pick up the phone and call them to discuss possibilities.

This attitude was what led me to write my popular article on Poultry Farm Performance Calculations. And it eventually led me to develop my Poultry Farm Manager software (in which the 3 Key Performance Indicator calculations described in my article) are auto-computed based on daily entries of farm data.

Today, I get enquiries from Farm CEOs within and outside Africa for that app, and more are going ahead to make sales (see 16 video tutorials created for a recent buyer here).

3. Tap Into Your Personal Experiences & Where Possible, Those of Others

This is probably the easiest way to decide what to write about. Anytime I have interaction with prospects or clients, be it offline or on the web, it’s often a potential writing opportunity. This is why many of my articles tend to be based on such situations.

But sometimes I actually write to share specific experiences based on reflection on lessons learned or insights gained. There are times when I use my experiences, and others times when I use my observation of experiences some other persons had.

What matters is ensuring that useful VALUE is distilled for the reader to benefit from. There should be something worthwhile to take away from reading it. This implies you must be able to analyze experiences and distil useful knowledge or insights from them.

I must add here that writing based on your (or other people’s) experiences can often help you connect most effectively with your readers.

Many times I’ve noticed that such experience based (story telling) pieces are the ones that have made readers contact me about solutions I offer.

After Deciding What to Write About, Many Will Need A System To Keep Them Accountable!

For those looking to settle on WHAT to write about, FINDING it will just be the first step.

Getting the needed writing done, again and again, and AGAIN can however often turn out to be difficult for most people.

That’s where they struggle i.e. keeping at it!

What I’ve found is that it can get easier to continue writing (and less easy to stop!) if you have a formal audience (e.g. fans/followers) – and at some point even income – accruing from doing it!

They are likely to make it more difficult for a new writer to skip writing as and when due.

For instance, s/he will know those who “follow” his/her writing will come asking “WHY”, if no new write-ups are published for prolonged periods.

Also, if some income (no matter how small) is coming in, s/he is unlikely to give in to the temptation to stop or skip writing (NB: I will be offering – and researching – ideas on ways to earn income, after the startup phase, to each learner).

That’s why my coaching support service involves making learners carry out their exercises on a PUBLIC platform. They’ll they know a lapse will be easy to spot = No hiding place.

And it will all begin with YOU agreeing to make a public announcement that you are STARTING!

Final Words: I Know It Won’t Be Easy, So I Offer a Coaching for Early Writing Take-Off™ Service

Having outlined the 3 strategies above, for deciding what to write about, I realize not everyone can be like me, and find it easy to get started on their own. So, I offer a support service to help you overcome the “inertia”!

This is however not a writing course of any sort. And neither is it a certification program.

Instead it’s a special support service that uses real-world writing tasks/exercises based on YOUR MO, which I will work with the learner to identify.

Each learner will commit to delivering formally agreed “practice” write-ups weekly, which (following review) I will convert on his/her behalf into various formats, into online channels personalised/branded for him/her – by me.

My purpose is to guide interested persons from choosing WHAT to write about, to actually starting up and continuing for the 1st 3 months.

The discipline needed to write useful content consistently is not easy for most people to come by.

Even professional writers periodically battle with it!

And that’s where I aim to add value to people with this confidential coaching service. (To get details, fill/submit this form).

Those who enroll would be required to do a minimum of one 500 word piece per week (for example), under my guidance, using a special platform I will setup for each person.

In essence, I will work closely with you, to help get you started writing SOMETHING you care about, with purpose, on a reasonably consistent basis. Once we agree that you’re able to continue on your own, the formal coaching relationship will end…

Except you choose to keep it going.

Either way, by the time we get to this stage, you will ALREADY have a respectiable body of writign that you will be PROUD to show off to anyone as proof that YOU ARE A WRITER!

If the above benefit interests you, fill/submit this form to request futher details.

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Have a great week :-))

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Tayo K. Solagbade*

Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist

*Sole Agent For Burt Dubin’s Speaker Mentoring Service In Africa

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

http://www.tayosolagbade.com

Farm Businesses and others.

freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).

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).

newsletter(which he uses to promote Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring service to experts working across the African continent).

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

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Useful Resources for Speakers

Burt Dubin’s monthly Speaking Biz Strategies Letter [Signup & get a 7-Part Email Course on “How To Succeed And Get Paid As A Professional Speaker“]

Get Burt’s mentoring at any of the 3 levels below:

1. Top Shelf [Click here]

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Publications

Burt Dubin’s latest book: “On Being a Master”

Download Chapter 1 Preview as PDF

Visit the “On Being a Master” website

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Showmanship Stratagems

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more information

How To Create a Great Program Manual

This is a reprise of the historic presentation that launched the Speaking Success System.

No copy of this 2 CD program and 50 page Learning Guide has ever been returned.

more information

Download above PDF

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NEW: Your Practical Feed Formulation (& Compounding) Home Study Video Series Is Now Available

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FREE TALK: How a Best Operating Process Management Sysem (BOPMS)™Will Earn Your Farm MORE Profits!

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THEY WROTE…

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*Operations Manager, Guinness Nigeria Plc Benin Brewery, December 2001 (Handwritten comments in farewell/xmas cards sent to Tayo Solagbade following his resignation to start his own business).

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Click here to contact Tayo…




SD Nuggets Blog™	New posts from last week that may interest you! *
Public Speaking[Monday]:	No. 156: To Succeed, Always Count Your Blessings During Adversity (Hint: Would You Work At Your Best If Power Supply Was Erratic?)
Entrepreneurship[Tuesday]:	Real Life Ration Formulation Demonstration Using Tayo’s Solagbade’s Excel-VB Ration Formulator (Based on data supplied by an Algerian PhD Student Enquirer)
Self-Development/Parenting [Wednesday]:	Selling Skills Development in Tayo Solagbade’s Personal Achievement Coaching for Kids (PACK)™ Project [Hint: Finding Buyers for Cakes Made Without Oven]
Entrepreneurship[Thursday]:	Why I Convert Video/Audio Interviews & “Informal Narratives” by Other Experts Into Downloadable PDF/Slideshow Versions for EVERYONE – Tayo K. Solagbade
General [Friday]:	Protect Your Debit Card from Online Fraudsters…or This Could Happen to You (True Story) [Lost & Re-Published Post] To Ensure Others Easily View Your Pictures, Optimise Them BEFORE You E-mail Them (Here’s How!
Writing/Blogging/Entrepreneurship [Saturday]:	To Succeed, You Need a Reason for Writing
Want me to write for you? Click here to send me a message

Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring

for Africa Based Experts(PDF…Click!)

Entrepreneurship, Parenting, Self-Development

Prepare Your Child to Succeed by Learning to Overcome Rejection Using Persistence & PMA (Lessons from Tayo Solagbade’s Maiden “Selling Skills Development” Project for Kids)

August 29, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

On Wednesday 27th August 2014, my 3 sons (11, 13, and 15 respectively), as part of my Personal Achievement Coaching for Kids (PACK)™ project, went on their first ever “sales calls”: Finding Buyers for their Pineapple Flavored Cakes Baked Without Oven.
[Note: (a). PMA = Positive Mental Attitude (b). Click here to download PDF preview of the kids project).

This project aims to develop their selling skills, and help them learn to deal with rejection, by learning persistence and developing mental stamina.

I believe, from over a decade as an entrepreneur, that a crucial ingredient for achieving success in life, in spite of adversity is a mental attitude that can deal with failure and rejection.

That mental attitude is rarely something most people are born with. Majority will have to develop it.

People who do work that involves or requires “selling” will often develop a mental attitude to deal effectively with rejection.

History confirms that this is true. I won’t bother to give you instances. Go read about some of the greatest achievers known even today, who achieved entrepreneurial success. You’ll see that many had stints (or even major careers) in Sales.

3 well known examples are Robert Kiyosaki, Brian Tracy, the late, great Zig Ziglar. I’m sure you can think of a few yourself!

The above as well as my experiences convince me young people will do better in adulthood, if they are deliberately made to develop their “selling skills”, in real life situations.

My kids have been making and selling my Pineapple peel based drinks and cakes: But they’ve been selling to what I call a Captive Audience i.e. their schoolmates!

I taught them the production methods, and “pushed them” to try selling them to friends, back in September 2013 (click here to see photos of their past efforts). So, it’s not like I’m blaming them

But like I told them, it’s much easier to sell to people who know you. Their friends in school readily trusted their product and bought the cakes, without being too critical.

Unfortunately, you cannot know enough people so well, to not have to sell to those you do not know. In other words, you will still need to sell to strangers, if you want to make enough money.

I knew my kids had to learn that selling outside the school was much different.

During the 2 sales visits they made, they got a good taste of what it felt like to do cold calls i.e. to try selling to total strangers.

Now they know that they need to have ready answers to questions and objections prospects would raise, which could lead to rejections.

One example:

When they returned from the first visit, I doubled over in laughter from listening to their account of the GRILLING they got from the gentleman owner of a DVD movies sales shop.

[Pssst…here’s a little secret: What they did not know was that I’d visited the chap yesterday, after taking a walk around, and introduced myself, asking if he would be willing to help me with a “Social Experiment”.

Then I explained about the project my kids are engaged in, and how I needed them to experience having to answer questions from prospective buyers NOT as trusting, and ready to “buy” (no matter how cheap) as their school mates.

He agreed, saying he felt it was a great experience I was giving the kids and that he’d recently told a friend more people needed to think of starting micro businesses, rather than look for jobs. We then exchanged phone numbers, and I returned home.

From what the kids have told me, the chap really played his role well. Read on to see what I mean…]

He asked them why they used Charcoal Stoves and a pot (instead of an oven powered by Gas or electricity).

They replied that it was because they preferred it (Which was a wrong answer…not what I told them. But the “pressure” made them forget).

He then asked if they did not think it would take less effort and time (and be more hygienic) if they used a Gas Oven.

The 15 year old, who was the “lead salesperson” and who had been answering up till that point, said he had no answer to that question.

At this point they gave him the flyers they brought with them, and he then told them it was good they had created a product concept of their own. The he explained about the business he did to them, and how he was trying to grow it.

Now, let me explain why I’ve deliberately stuck with the no-oven-charcoal-powered production of cakes and drinks model.

It goes without saying that I KNOW Gas and Electric ovens can be used to bake cakes!

Incidentally, the kids today Friday 29th August 2014, baked a new set of cakes using the gas oven in their Grandparent’s home where they are on holiday.

So, I’m not stopping them from using that method (I should mention that failed to thoroughly mix the butter and sugar, leading to out of shape cakes. But their Grandparents kindly bought some of the funny shaped cakes off them…another lesson!)

However, my vision is to address the issue of “I have no capital” as practically as possible – to the point of eliminating ANY excuses ANYONE may have, about starting a micro business.

Too many people in my part of the world – even adults, and especially young people/teenagers – will readily tell you MONEY (as little as N1,000!) is keeping them from starting something they can use to earn a living.

I have NOW told my kids the answer they need to give to the question that stumped them when they visited the video shop owner.

It’s an answer that smart thinking, profit-focused business owners will readily give to such a question!

One of the ways I learnt that answer was from watching Top Management in Guinness Nigeria Plc. They got all of us – the employees – to break brewing and bottling records by TASKING us to use (what we thought were spent) machines/plant s in the breweries.

In other words, it will often not be about how new or sophisticated your tools and equipment are.

Instead, what matters will be how effectively you are able to use whatever resources you have, to produce products that meet the desired standards!!!!

I’ve told my kids that if they can develop the discipline to profitably make and sell their cakes using low cost tools (like the Charcoal stove), they can be sure of greater productivity and profits when they use standard equipment.

It’s simple common sense.

And this approach ensures that they kids get a sound understanding of the basic principles involved in the process.

Now that I’ve explained it to my kids, I know they’ll be able to respond competently/convincingly to future buyers who ask them why they use the Charcoal Stove method.

[NB: By way of interest, after they told me how the first sales visit went, I sent them back out to do the next visit. This time it was to the shop of the woman from whom they had often purchased the flour, sugar and other materials for cake baking.
They had all GROANED loudly…but trooped out to do it. They made no sale from that outing either, but they came back with details of how they answered the questions they were asked. ]

Final Words: The kids did make one non-school sale – but it was the night before – at an informal outing!

I’d told them they could walk around the neighborhood to explore possible places where buyers could be found for their cakes. So, they’d done that and eventually decided to sit with the mallam selling provisions in the estate, who happens to be their friend (they buy biscuits, sweets, Indomie noodles and other goodies from him).

They displayed their box wrapped cakes on the mallam’s stand, and began chatting away. At a point, a lady resident in the estate made a purchase from the mallam, and he had was lacking change to give her.

She suddenly pointed at their cakes and asked how much they were. The boys promptly replied that each box of 2 was N100.

The lady picked up a box, asking the mallam to use her N100 change to pay the boys. Before she left she asked them questions about how they made the cakes etc. And she also wanted to know what the name of the company was.

Now, that last question they had no answer to – as we have yet to decide what “business name” to register for this family business.

But that question from the lady indicated that our efforts to pack the cakes attractively had created the right kind of impression!

From the above, you can see that the kids already made a sale before the went out on the formal sales visit I setup. The only thing was it was an accidental one.

However, that accidental sale also proves that one intelligent way to make sales will be to have fixed location where people can find you/your products e.g. a shop.

We will be opening one when the time is right, in Cotonou. For now, I want them to experience cold calling, and pavement pounding, so as to be able to compare and contrast, while building the character needed for lasting success: persistence!

I’m excited to be able to finally start this Personal Achievement Coaching for Kids™ project with my kids.

This is the first leg in the journey.It is a program I know will benefit any young person who is willing to learn. And I intend to use it to empower my kids to do a better job of succeeding in the real world than I did at their age.

I offer to help other kids do the same. Including YOURS, if you let me!

Plus, I offer special coaching support for parents who want to learn how to do the same for their kids. Including you, if you’re willing!

If you believe you (or your child) can benefit from my program, fill and submit this form, for details of how to get started.

Career Development, Entrepreneurship, My DN Travel News, Self-Development

To Ensure Others Easily View Your Pictures, Optimise Them BEFORE You E-mail Them (Here’s How!)

August 28, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

Before you excitedly email those pictures to your contacts, do them the favour of reducing the image file sizes (via web optimisation) in a graphics software. Owners or employees in fields like real estate and entertainment, often have to send digital camera, or scanned images (e.g of contracts) to contacts via email.

But doing so without first "pruning" the file sizes by optimising them for viewing on the web, can sometimes create problems for the recipient.

For instance:

(1). His/her email inbox gets clogged because pixs attached to your email are huge.

(2). Even where s/he has access to unlimited email storage, time required to view EACH image may still turn off the recepient..

Web users are not patient people plus, and NOT everyone uses broadband! If you’re in business in my part of the world, you will be wise to take this into consideration when reaching out to clients and prospects with your images.

I wrote this article-tutorial back on 3rd September 2007, to offer some ideas.

However, I encourage you to explore additional options that are now available- including web based services that make it possible to reduce your file sizes online within a matter of seconds.

Three Web-Relevant Graphics File Format Acronyms And Their Meanings

In case you are unfamiliar with the subject of graphic file formats, I provide brief descriptions of the three main graphic file formats used on the web, and which I have mentioned at least once in the body of this article:

a). JPEG means "Joint Photographic Experts Group" : useful for displaying "photographic or continuous tone" images.

b). GIF means "Graphic Interchange Format" : useful for displaying images with large areas of flat colours(e.g logos, icons, and navigation buttons).

c). PNG means "Portable Network Group": An improved replacement format for GIF.

One Example of How Optimise An Image for Viewing On The Web

1. Load the graphics editing software on your PC (If you have none, ask around for advice from people who know, about which one to buy – and where . It won’t take you long to find someone who can help).

Note: in this example, I use Adobe Photoshop 7.0.

2. Click "File-Open" in Adobe Photoshop, then use the "Open" dialog box that appears, to navigate to the folder/location of the image(s) you wish to optimise.

Note: In my case I’ve done this with all sorts of images. One time it was a JPEG graphic of the front cover of my ten ways manual (the Self-Development Bible™) that I had designed for screen printing onto T-shirts I intended to print for sale locally. The initial file size was 1.8MB approx.

I call it up into Photoshop using steps 1 and 2 above.

3. Once it opens, I click "File-Save For Web…" on the main menu and a "Save For Web" dialog interface appears.

4. Looking at the "Settings" panel to the top right, I notice that the JPEG setting (which can be any one of four possible settings for "desired image quality" namely: Low, Medium, High & maximum) is currently set to "Maximum".

A display on the bottom left of the image reads "JPEG (indicating the image’s file format), 1.653M (indicating the displayed image’s size), 603 sec @ 28.8Kbps (indicating estimated image download/view time at 28.8 kilobyte per sec internet connection speed).

Remember : Your purpose is to bring the image size(& by implication the download/online display time) as low as possible without significantly losing image quality.

You need to understand graphic file formats to do this right.

To learn the difference between the different graphic file formats and when it is best to use each one, press F1 in photoshop and click "search" on the browser based help interface that appears, then type "About file formats", and click "Search".

The results page that appears to the right offers – among other things – links to explanations about different file formats. Also there is a link that leads to information about "choosing a Web optimization format".

Explore the links and you should soon be familiar with why JPEG is often the preferred format for web optimisation of photographic images etc.

NB: Another way to learn about the different graphic file formats (such as JPEG, GIF, and PNG) and when best to use EACH is to do a search on the web.

5. Next I click the graphic file formats selection drop menu and choose "Medium". The interface soon changes, and the resulting image display quality still looks acceptable. So I check the bottom left display which now reads: "JPEG (for image format), 339.9KB (for the optimised image’s size), 133 sec @ 28.8Kbps (for the optimised image’s download time at 28.8 kilobyte per sec internet connection speed).

Doing a quick calculation, I am pleased to discover that I have achieved a MASSIVE 81.7% file size reduction (from 1,800KB to 339KB!) using this quick and easy process, without impairing displayed image quality.

Now imagine if I had six(6) such files to email to my friends. Rather than slam their mail boxes with 10.8 MB worth of picture attachments, they will only have to contend with approximately six files totalling 2 MB altogether(!) – each of which would take about 122 secs to download at 28.8kbps. But it’s actually likely to be BETTER than that because in reality, the simplest/most basic net connections today run at 56kbps and higher, so that it would actually take 60 seconds or less to view the optimised images!

6. Next I click the "Save" button to accept the optimised image. Then I navigate to the desktop using the "Save Optimised As" dialog box drop menu, and add "_optimised" to the default filename of the image.

Next, I click "Save" to store the new image to the desktop, where I will later find it and send it as an email attachment to an acquaintance for his comments.

Note that not only does the optimised image look almost (if not just as) clear as the original, it also has the exact same dimensions, so nothing really is lost – at least to the human eye, which is the benefit of the lossy compression format called "JPEG".

Summary: Web Users Are a "Click-Happy" (i.e. Impatient) Lot, So, to Keep Their Attention, Employ Methods and Formats That Ensure Speedy Delivery of Quality Content!

Many people come online in a bid to quickly check their mails or find some information or upload some data etc. Quite often, this causes them to have little time or patience to "WAIT" for top- heavy web pages or "fat" images to download.

As a result they tend to be "click-happy" – and if your pictures take too long to appear – could "click away " to do other more pressing things (possibly promising themselves they will come back another time to view the lovely pictures – but often "forgetting" to do so).

If you really want people to take time to look at the pictures you send to their email boxes, make the extra effort to optimise those pictures(using any good graphics application) for quick/easy display on the web.

Most good graphics editing software will offer something similar to Adobe Photoshop’s "Save for Web" tool.

Play around with with your program a bit, read up the instructions provided in the Help section, and you should soon be up to speed with making your pictures/images web optimised AND viewer-friendly

Career Development, Entrepreneurship, Farm Biz, General, My DN Travel News, My Ideas for Making Nigeria Better, Parenting, Public Speaking, Self-Development, Short Stories, Writing/Blogging

Protect Your Debit Card from Online Fraudsters…or This Could Happen to You (True Story) [Lost & Re-Published Post]

August 27, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

This article was first published on this blog 3 months ago, on Friday 23rd May 2014 (see browser history screenshot below). Today, when I tried linking to it, to post a comment on Facebook, I got a “Page Not Found” error on my blog. A MySQL database check soon revealed it was GONE: “Yepa!”!

But I suspect no foul play. It’s quite likely it “got lost” during the back and forth cross-database updates from my old to new hosts following the loss of Spontaneousdevelopment.com (my former, 9 year old domain name).

Whatever the case, here’s the FULL article republished.

But just before you read it, here’s my comment on recent newspaper reports on this theme, which made me want to link THIS article from Facebook in the first place:

Punch Newspaper Headline (27th Aug. 2014): Fraudsters shop abroad with cloned Nigerian ATM cards

This is not the first such headline I have seen. When I saw one for the first time few days after arriving Lagos, from Cotonou (2 weeks ago), I found report headlines like the above hard to comprehend.

But now it’s all starting to make sense.

For fraudsters to successfully clone ATM cards, they will need insider help. And my recent personal experience equips me to piece together key parts of the puzzle…

This is why despite picking up my new ATM/debit card on arriving Nigeria about 2 weeks ago, I’ve been VERY reluctant to put it to use for my international web hosting and other payments online.

You see, just few months ago, the previous (now expired) card from the same bank, which I’d actively used without issues for 3+ years mysteriously got hacked and an attempt was made to use it for shopping by one “Rabbi” in “New York”.

Luckily, the card was not directly linked to an account that had enough funds to cover the transaction. That was a due diligence precaution I’d proactively taken earlier in the year.

But these guys were persistent (and wretched!) as they kept reducing the amount charged to the card, till they took out the less than $13 USD balance left over in the linked account from the last domain name registration and web hosting payments I’d funded it for.

I never understood how my card got compromised, and my bank also had no answer. So I waited for my card to expire – and it did on 31st July 2014. Since then, I’ve been too wary to start using the new one!

Then I came back here (Lagos) and began reading newspaper reports claiming some bank staff have been implicated in using customer cards online…and I told myself: EUREKA!

See article I wrote to warn/alert others to the potential danger:

===Now go on and read below===

Protect Your Debit Card from Online Fraudsters…or This Could Happen to You (True Story)

If you use a debit/credit cards, you may want to read about this experience I had within the last 24 hours. Why? Because doing so could just help you avoid leaving yourself open to having someone drain out your bank account!

I spent yesterday morning corresponding via phone and email with my bank in Nigeria…

It had to do with 3 International Transactions on my debit mastercard by fraudsters.

They began by applying a charge of $218 fee to my GTB MasterCard.

Since I use a Blackberry, I saw the alert announcing “Transaction Declined due to Insufficient funding” as soon as it came in.

Luckily for me, the account linked to the card (which is the one I also use to make payment for hosting renewal etc) is one that I keep almost at NIL balance.

I chose to do this based on past experience when I inadvertently let my Skype subscription autorenew when I did not need it.

Otherwise, that attempt would have gone through – and these crooks would have gotten away with it.

A bank account officer called me yesterday evening to discuss what steps I could take, after I emailed a complaint to them,

We agreed that I would continue what I’d doing, by keeping funds NIL until I need to use it, then once loaded I make payment to return it to NIL status.

That way, the fraudster would stand no chance of getting funds out if they try again.

As explained above the first attempt (for $218 USD) did not got through.

What I did not know was that my last transaction had resulted in about N1,500 being left as balance!

After discussing with the account officer who called me from Nigeria yesterday, the crafty guys charged $9.51 and then $5 USD overnight (between 2 a.m and 5a.m) successfully!

You see, I did not know my last online payment had left a balance that much, otherwise I woudl have spent it.

Normally I try hard to use up any balance to the barest minimum by loading funds to a reseller account I run for my web hosting service. But my exchange rate calculation for $50 USD equivalent was off, and I ended up leaving some funds behind, that the guys took out.

They must have kept lowering the applied charge all night or soemthing, until it went through.

Each alert I got, I sent an email to the bank, requesting that they do a reversal.

My account manager replied my email this morning saying I should authorize the bank to block the card.

The problem is that I have 2 web hosting clients I need to do renewals for in July.

A new debit card may not be ready for me to use before then.

So after thinking about it, I’ve decided I’ll pursue one of 2 options:

a. Continue with my strategy of keeping my balance close to NIL, until I need to make payment, then fund it and use up at once.

b. From discussions I had with a banker friend, I can purchase a virtual Mastercard I can make use of on a one-off basis.

The second option appeals to me more.

Interestingly, I used to do that about 8 years ago. And it was always a much safer way to spend online. I guess I should thank the fraudsters for pushing me to THINK of a better way!

In case you wonder, I still have no idea how they got my card details.

I’ve always tried to be very careful these past 4 years of using it.

I’m not sure if this was done by Nigerian fraudsters or not. But the location on the transaction notices has been in the USA.

Lesson you can take away: Beware of linking your debit card to an account that has a FAT balance!

It would be better to be safe than sorry. I never imagined this could happen to me, and it has. Plus, I found out nothing could really be done short of disabling my card. In other words, even your Nigerian bank cannot help you.

Compare the case of my brother in law who lives in the UK. He simply told his credit card company to back charge or reverse the charge when it recently happened to him.

But that did not mean he would not be able to use his card anymore. Or that he would have to pay to get a new one!

Which is what my bank in Nigeria has told me. Not very helpful is it…!

So, if you’re in Nigeria, or using a Nigerian bank’s card for online payments, it would be safter to AVOID this kind of problem altogether, by not letting it happen in the first place.

Onee again the message is: Beware of linking your debit card to an account that has a FAT balance!

Please pass this on!

Career Development, Entrepreneurship, Farm Biz, General, My DN Travel News, My Ideas for Making Nigeria Better, Parenting, Public Speaking, Self-Development, Short Stories, Writing/Blogging

Why I Convert Video/Audio Interviews & “Informal Narratives” by Other Experts Into Downloadable PDF/Slideshow Versions for EVERYONE – Tayo K. Solagbade

August 27, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

This new personal philosophy paper offers download access to four (4) useful PDF documents I recently created using videos, audios or informal “writing” originated by competent experts I reckon with. They are Efe Ohwofasa (UK), Patrick Meninga (USA), Richie Parker (USA) and Charles Ayo Dada (Nigeria).

The first 3 can be downloaded from www.tayosolagbade.com.

A. Breakthrough to Purpose – Andy Brine Interviews Efe Ohwofasa – Video

B. Ten (10) Valuable Lessons I Learnt About Blogging for Passive Income, from Yaro Starak’s 60 Minute Podcast Interview with Patrick Meninga

C. NEVER Let Anyone Tell You What YOU Cannot Do! (Transcript Slideshow Version of ESPN’s July 21 “SportsCenter” Profile video about Richie Parker – the engineer born without arms, who designs championship winning NASCAR race car parts/components)

D. HOW I MADE MY FIRST MILLION AS A WRITER SELLING BOOKS…(A True Story About Potentially Traumatizing Sales & Marketing Dilemmas Book Authors Face in Nigeria) – narrated in a post by award winning writer – Charles Ayo Dadaon his Facebook wall on 18th August 2014.

Here’s a download link I setup on a 3rd party file sharing service for Charles’ great story: http://www.tinyurl.com/Charles1stMillionOK.

If the link fails, you can contact Charles via Facebook (www.facebook.com/charles.a.dada) for a copy.

Alternatively, you can email tayo at tksola dot com and I’ll email it to you as a PDF attachment.

“But why do I do it?” – many people are likely to wonder…

Why do I go out of my way to create these kinds of elaborate resources without being asked, and without seeking ANY kind of remuneration?

Is it to get publicity, or to get those I feature to notice me and give me jobs? What is my real motive?

My main reason is that I want to help people discover proven techniques and strategies they can use to IMPROVE themselves in whatever area of endeavour they are engaged.

That’s why I call myself a Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist & Multipreneur.

I have a passion that has endured for over 20 years (right from my days as a student in the University, through my time as a high flying employee in Guinness Nigeria).

My passsion is to help serious minded and results focused individuals develop and implement practical strategies to do what they do better.

Due to my versatility, and quick learning ability, I have over the years proven myself to be a valuable addition to the arsenal of any group or organisation.

So many people find me to be a useful resource because my active search for practical information about what works enables me add value to them.

Anywhere I go, whatever I see or read, my natural instinct is always to find ways to share it with others to help them improve their performance.

I’m the kind of person who cannot help HELPING others. I am naturally driven to be a catalyst. No matter who I interact with, I create the impression of increase.

People generally find that they leave me better off than when they meet me.

Most of my clients often get much more measurable value from interacting with me, than they pay for.

I work this way not because I want to be Pope, or because I’m a priest. I do so because I LOVE to see people make the best use of their God-given abilities to achieve their fullest potential.

NO MATTER what challenges they have to confront and overcome in life. And that is why I pick on videos and presentations of authentic achievers, whose messages convince me they are who they say they are.

Due to the challenges of poor connectivity in my part of the world, I realise many who desire to benefit from the wonderful video and audio presentations available online may not get ready access to them – except via text transcripts like those I create.

Click here to continue reading this PDF personal philosophy paper…

Entrepreneurship, General, My DN Travel News, Parenting, Self-Development

Selling Skills Development in Tayo Solagbade’s Personal Achievement Coaching for Kids (PACK)™ Project [Hint: Finding Buyers for Cakes Made Without Oven]

August 26, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

Tomorrow – Wednesday 27th August 2014 will be a BIG day for my 3 boys (9, 13, and 15 respectively). As part of my Personal Achievement Coaching for Kids (PACK)™ project, during their holidays, they now embark on “sales calls” to develop their selling skills, and learn to deal with rejection.

My kids have been making and selling these Pineapple peel based drinks and cakes since I taught them the production methods, and “pushed them” to try selling them to friends, in September 2013.

It soon occurred to me that this is a good formula for a micro business that anyone can start with very little money: Waste fruit peels as a zero cost key ingredient for easily reproducible low cost drinks and cake making! They sell these products to school mates, during break time.

Below are JPEG image versions of “flyers” they will take – in a presentation folder – with them.

In it, those they approach are requested to engage them by asking questions about the product and making them defend it, justify their price etc.

This is so they can LEARN that getting money takes diligence, perseverance, integrity and commitment.

Flyer for the Selling Skills Development Project

I am sharing this in the hope that others may feel encouraged to organize a similar project to EMPOWER THEIR OWN kids. – Tayo K. Solagbade, Lagos-Nigeria | 26^th August 2014.

“There’s a world outside school that your child must be ready for, if she is to succeed. Because you arrived in it, before her, YOU are an expert in it, compared to her. If you truly love your child therefore, you can – and should – share YOUR EXPERTISE about succeeding in the world, to help her learn how to EXCEL in it. This book uses narratives of true life childhood experiences of a brilliant but wayward child, who later reformed himself, as a basis for offering practical tips and insights you can use. Don’t. I repeat: DO NOT…leave that role for her teachers to play, because they will seldom be able to do enough, compared to YOU!” – Tayo K. Solagbade | Best Practice Parenting Advocate™ & Location Independent Performance Improvement – Author of “KUKURU DANGER™ – 5 True Stories About the Adventures – & Misadventures! – of a School Age Child Trying to Find Purpose in Life”. Download a FREE 20 page PDF preview of the book fromwww.tayosolagbade.com/buy-kukuru.htm

Below: A one page printable flyer I used back in 2008 to market my nifty Excel-VB Cash Inflow & Outflow Tracker app, to clients/buyers.

== UPDATE SETTINGS

This app was originally built for small business centres, so I started out calling it “Business Centre Cashflow Tracker(BCCT)”.

DATA ENTRY

Monthly Automated Summaries Report

Daily and Monthly Automated Summaries Query Interface

Today, I no longer sell the app that way (obviously!), but I still offer it for sale as an unlimited use EXE version for N5,000 (approx. $30 USD).

Watch the 3 part video demonstration below. (Note: Due to connectivity problems, only part 1 of 3 has been uploaded to my Youtube channel for now

UPDATE (13th Sept. 2014 @ 11.53a.m Lagos time. About a day ago, I succeeded in uploading parts 2 and 3 – which are now embedded below).

No. 158: To Achieve Sustainable Selling Success, NEVER Stop Marketing!

When I made that mistake in late 2007, things got so bad I could not fuel my car…

I was sorely tested during this period. But I dug deep and forced myself to re-read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.

I noticed they were having problems accurately computing total sales and expenses for the past week, using detailed records kept in notebooks used by the employees.

But I knew from interacting with the owner, that asking them to use MS Excel to solve the problem themselves was unlikely to work, and possibly lead to major errors.

Sales did not happen immediately…but eventually they did!

This led me to discover shortcuts and side streets, which if I’d been driving I would never have noticed.

One Example: I vividly recall the lady owner of a Travel and Tours company in a plaza at Ogba-Ikeja, saying (as she signed my receipt):

However, my – now – keenly honed selling instincts made me counter-propose that she pay and have me come in first thing the next day to do the installation and training:

Using my painful 2007 experience, I hit the ground running with my marketing in 2008…and it paid off!

Final Words: Spending is unavoidable. If you do not keep getting money in, you will most definitely continue spending. That means you WILL eventually run out of cash!

Even after I leave, my marketing resources continue to “speak” to them on my behalf.

Here’s what Burt Dubin said in one of his business marketing articles for experts-who-speak, that he mentors across the world:

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

SPECIAL PRODUCT FEATURE

“Inside Speaking Business Success Secrets”

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

Get Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring for Africa Based Experts(PDF…Click!)

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

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:

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:

Useful Resources for Speakers

Get Burt’s mentoring at any of the 3 levels below:

Publications

THEY WROTE…

1. BREAK the bad habit of idolising paper qualifications

2. Find a role model – Within your company or outside it

3. Stop begin afraid to stoop to learn

4. Start knowing a little about everything

5. Read, Read, Read and Read!

6. Develop the right attitude toward problem-solving: Be a change agent!

7. Become a deep thinker

8. Always finish what you start

9. Learn from EVERY experience – be it failure or success

10. Stay in the line of action

11. Believe in yourself & Think Positive ALWAYS

12. Avoid re-inventing the wheel

Final Words

PS: Subscribe & get one month of confidential Self-Development/Performance Enhancing Coaching

I have said it in past writings, and I am saying it again: The rules for success in developed societies, do NOT work as well out here.

If you doubt me, I’ll let you in one a little secret of mine: Nigeria has been age-cheating for a long time – at least as far back as 1983.

So, you see, we’ve been doing this age-cheating in sports thing for a long time.

Consider this: Five Nigerian bank MDs got hammered few years back, following the crisis in the banking industry, when it was found that they had given out UNSECURED loans to the tune of billions of naira, to friends, associates, and in certain cases, themselves.

I can already hear those phony patriots screaming that I am bad mouthing Nigeria by writing all the above negatives about the country.

My patriotism requires me to QUESTION bad practices I notice, in a manner that influences CORRECTION to be effected.

Look at the Americans. They do not even spare their presidents, when the need for corrective feedback is identified.

Final Words: You owe yourself a duty to INVESTIGATE the credentials, and so called "achievements" of the numerous advisers that parade themselves today, in this society.

Beware, therefore, who you take advice from – whether in your business or personal life!

Today’s issue was inspired by a question sent in by a friend “D”, after she’d read my writing/blogging category article published last Saturday (30/08/2014) titled “To Succeed, You Need a Reason for Writing“.

No. 157: Deciding What You Need to Write – or Speak – About (3 Strategies You Can Use)

Today’s issue was inspired by a question sent in by a friend “D”, after she’d read my writing/blogging category article published last Saturday (30/08/2014) titled “To Succeed, You Need a Reason for Writing“.

An Excellent Question: It Got Me Thinking Back to When I Started Writing…

That mental journey has pointed me to the most critical consideration that I believe one needs to keep in mind in order to accurately decide what to write about.

I’ve Tried to Come Up With a Practical Answer: So I Suggest 3 Strategies…

1. Think About What Drives You (i.e. Your Magnificent Obsession)

In my Self-Development Bible™, I outlined 10 key strategies that I have successfully used – over 2 decades – to DEVELOP needed competencies to excel in ANY vocation I ventured in life.

Below, is a screenshot of useful excerpts that explain what a Magnificent Obsession is:

EXAMPLE: My Magnificent Obsession is Using Self-Development to Achieve Performance Improvement (i.e. Finding Newer & Better Ways to Do What I Do, and Helping Others Do Same)

To find YOUR OWN Magnificent Obsession, do some deep soul searching.

What you learn will point you towards what you’re likely to be able to – tirelessly – write about so passionately and compellingly, that readers who need it will be unable to resist!

Useful Note: Burt Dubin, in advising experts-who-speak on choosing their topic recommends in one of his articles, that you should “listen to your feelings”, and focus on that which will not remain unsaid i.e. your message for the world.

2. Read – and Think – Frequently About What Drives You

My Example: I readily develop interest in reading and talking about anything related to performance improvement or finding better ways to do what my target audiences do.

But I don’t just read and tell others. Instead I immediately think about possible implications of what I read, for my Farm CEO clients I know. Sometimes I pick up the phone and call them to discuss possibilities.

3. Tap Into Your Personal Experiences & Where Possible, Those of Others

After Deciding What to Write About, Many Will Need A System To Keep Them Accountable!

What I’ve found is that it can get easier to continue writing (and less easy to stop!) if you have a formal audience (e.g. fans/followers) – and at some point even income – accruing from doing it!

Final Words: I Know It Won’t Be Easy, So I Offer a Coaching for Early Writing Take-Off™ Service

This is however not a writing course of any sort. And neither is it a certification program.

My purpose is to guide interested persons from choosing WHAT to write about, to actually starting up and continuing for the 1st 3 months.

In essence, I will work closely with you, to help get you started writing SOMETHING you care about, with purpose, on a reasonably consistent basis. Once we agree that you’re able to continue on your own, the formal coaching relationship will end…

==
UPDATE SETTINGS

Get Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring
for Africa Based Experts(PDF…Click!)

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[IMPORTANT NOTE:====

Look at the Americans.

They do not even spare their presidents, when the need for corrective feedback is identified.

**EXAMPLE: My Magnificent Obsession is Using Self-Development to Achieve Performance Improvement (i.e. Finding Newer & Better Ways to Do What I Do, and Helping Others Do Same)**

Get Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring
for Africa Based Experts(PDF…Click!)

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[IMPORTANT NOTE:====