Category Archives: My DN Travel News

Career Development, My DN Travel News, Self-Development

The Story of an Employee Whose Cup was “FULL” (How Thinking You Know It All, Can Cost You/Your Employer!)

April 10, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

As a keen student of human nature, I’ve noticed that once (we think) we’re doing well, many of us have a tendency to conclude no one can tell us anything new.

Last week, I encountered a young lady afflicted with this problem while visiting my bank. I’d overheard her giving marketing tips to a new (female) recruit, regarding how to relate with prospective clients (towards selling personal insurance policies offered by the bank’s subsidiary).

At a point she said “Look. If you want these people to sign up for a policy, you have to chase them. Get their phone numbers, and call them all the time. Follow up with them by visiting them at work. Even try to go out to lunch with them. By the time you persistently follow up with them like this, they will have no choice but to buy from you. That’s how I started. It was not easy, but I made my sales target. Look where I am today? You can also do the same…”

After listening to their conversation for a little while longer, I could not help asking if I could make a few comments. She readily agreed.

I began by expressing the view that “chasing” prospects down in the manner she’d described is used by many conventional sales people to win buyers. I then noted that it however has a tendency to result in resentful buyers, who end up feeling they were harassed into making a purchase.

Basically, such persons would have made the purchase out of frustration, to put an end to the relentless chasing by the sales person.

This is why many such buyers rarely do repeat purchases with the sales person. Instead, they would have made the purchase to say “I hope now that I’ve bought it, s/he will leave me in peace!”

Next, I told her I believed the company needed to consider providing members of the marketing/sales team, a platform for building relationships with prospects, towards converting them to clients over time.

Specifically, I referred to the fact that their flyer indicated they had a Facebook page, and website. Adding a blog linked – via RSS feeds – to the website and social media outlets, AND would be a low cost, but potentially high impact platform to attract potential clients.

That plaform would be used to provide information and education to make such prospects willingly take action to sign up for (or make enquiries about) insurance policies on offer.

At this point, she got up impatiently shaking her head saying:

“Thanks for your suggestion. But you see, our company is not a small company. If you visit our website, you will see that we have offices all over the world. We only teamed up with the bank here in Nigeria, to access its customer network and save expenses on overheads. But we’re not begging for customers. Look if you listen to radio and TV we have adverts running daily…”

I gently countered saying:

“If I go by what you’re saying, I may be tempted to conclude you don’t even need a marketing team. Indeed, we might assume that customers are banging down your doors daily. Which makes me wonder why your talk with your new recruit involved asking her to do so much chasing…I would have expected it to be the other way round. Potential customers should be chasing you guys so hard that you won’t even have time, or need to chase ANY clients!”

She replied that she was not saying they had excess customers, but that he company had no need to go cap-in-hand (figuratively speaking) to potential customers.

To her, what I proposed in terms of the more subtle, stealth based, less direct marketing to attract customers, amounted to “begging”.

In her view, her company was too big for that.

Listening to her, I got the impression that she believed the marketers only needed to go with their “offers” to “viable prospects” they identified. Then they would tell the latter their company is the biggest player in the market, and that s/he should feel grateful they are chasing him/her!

We eventually agreed to disagree, and she left.

I could not help feeling sorry for her though. She’d let her ego deny her an opportunity to possibly harvest useful insights.

Insights that could be channeled back to her company, or even put to use by her, to achieve improved client recruitment results. If nothing else, removing the labour intensive process from winning new buyers would be worthwhile.

I say this as one who sells products and services to buyers, who over 90% of the time come to me, by themselves.

Very rarely do I have to reach out to potential buyers.

The same strategy I tried to describe to her is what I’ve used for years and continue to use today. And many individuals and businesses of all sizes, which have smart thinking decision makers at the helm of affairs use this same approach.

NB: My 3 part article series titled “Why You Need A Web Marketing System” provides useful insights into how this marketing strategy works.

Even right here in the Nigerian marketplace, companies of various sizes do it. But she was just too blinded to see!

Sometimes, all we have to do is listen. I do it a lot.

It has not always been my nature to listen, but the pain and suffering I reaped from NOT slowing down and listening, especially in my startup years, forced me to LEARN to do so!

This is why every now and then I gain new insights, even from persons younger than me, that I put to use, with great results to show.

Ego tripping rarely does anyone ANY GOOD!

My Encounter With the Above Mentioned Insurance Lady, Reminded Me of A Story I Once Read Many Years Ago

It’s about a young man who traveled a very long distance to see a wise old man in order to learn the secrets of success.

Upon arriving at the old man’s house the young man expressed his desire to learn what he needed to do in order to become successful.

The old man proceeded to share his wisdom and knowledge about the secrets of success with the young man by giving step-by-step guidelines for the latter to follow.

However each time he mentioned a step, the young man would say he had tried that and it did not work!

This went on for some time, till the old man paused and asked, “Would you like to drink some tea?”

The young man replied in the affirmative.

The old man then brought out a teacup on a saucer, placed it in front of the young man and began pouring hot tea into it.

When the cup got full, the old man kept on pouring the tea so that it began to overflow into the saucer.

The young man screamed, “Stop! Can’t you see the cup is full?”

To which the old man replied: “Yes, I know. You see, the cup is just like you – you are too full of yourself for me to add anything to you.

So I’m sorry, but I cannot help you. You need to first of all empty yourself of yourself, before I can then put any knowledge into you”.

I believe the story is self-explanatory and the message very clear.

You must never let yourself get to the point where you think no one can teach you anything new.

Even those not as successful as you can teach you plenty that you do not know!

You only need to “open your eyes and ears” to learn from them.

Never let your cup be full…or you might wind up with EMPTY POCKETS!

Entrepreneurship, Farm Biz, My DN Travel News

How my Automated Invoice Generator Was Built to Solve a Real Life Client Problem

April 9, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

Last Tuesday, during a meeting with a Web Marketing client, a Jos based business owner called asking for the price for my mini Poultry Farm Manager software. 6 hours later – around 8p.m at night – he’d done a bank transfer to me.The next day he called and asked “Do you have software to generate invoices?”

I replied that I did, but that I’d prefer to fulfil the order he’d already placed for the Poultry Manager, before taking that on.

He agreed. 24 hours later, he’d downloaded the customized version of my app that I’d prepared for use by his company.

Yesterday, he confirmed receiving the CDROM containing the video tutorial files, (as well as the app) that I sent to him via FedEx courier.

Today, I shifted my attention to the invoice generator…

[NB: That is, after returning from the hospital with my wife and our new baby boy, born at 2.05a.m yesterday. The family is now officially a complete handball team ]

How my Automated Invoice Generator™ Was Built to Solve a Real Life Client Problem in One Week!

I built this app in 2004, for a small business owner specialized in Computer Installations, Maintenance, Repairs and Supplies.

He had a team of engineers who served a growing client base of companies across the country.

One day, I was working on their premises, developing a Web Marketing System for them, when I witnessed a costly error happen.

One of the engineers was to transport certain items to a client company located in a northern state, from the Lagos office.

He’d done his calculations, and simply needed to type in the names of the items to be supplied, with their unit prices and number purchased etc.

With that done, he posted VAT, derived the subtotal and final total – writing the latter in words as well.

Knowing he was running late, he hurriedly printed it out on letter headed paper, signed it off, and left.

The next day, he called the office to announce that he’d made a major omission in the invoice he’d printed!

He’d left out one of the major items supplied, in the final computation on the invoice.

In addition, the accounts officer at the client company had also discovered a missing zero in the total he’d posted on the invoice.

Instead of N260, 000.00 he’d typed N26, 000.00 as the total amount due.

And that was what he’d written in words as well!

His state of mind at the time had no doubt made him miss what was otherwise a glaring error.

Efforts to Salvage the Situation Failed

For one thing, the MS Word invoice template was on the PC back in Lagos. To get around that problem, his colleague proposed sending him the file via email.

That seemed like a good solution to the dilemma, so he agreed.

Then he remembered that he did not have a copy of the company’s letter headed paper on which he could print the corrected invoice!

Long story short, it was eventually decided, that he would have to come back.

That implied considerable loss of time, effort and money. But without the correctly prepared invoice, processing of payment could not be made on the LPO.

After witnessing the entire episode, I could not help thinking a better way could be found.

It occurred to me that the template they used in MS Word would serve them better if hosted in a MS Excel format, and enhanced using intelligent formula, and Excel-VB automation.

So I told the CEO what I believed could be done. The benefits of having a spreadsheet based Automated Invoice Generation interface that dynamically adapted to the user’s needs were obvious.

He gave me the go ahead to prepare it – for the fee I proposed.

Over the next week, in between progressing work on the Web Marketing System for the company, I liaised with him and his engineers, to build the invoice generator.

By the time it was ready, we had posted names, specifications, and prices for various items like computers, accessories, consumables, replacement parts, services etc.

How the Excel-VB Driven Automated Invoice Generator™ Works

The app has in cell drop down menus that make typing of item names or quantities virtually unnecessary.

You simply choose what you want from the drop menu.

Subtotals, totals, VAT etc are auto-computed as you select invoice items from the drop menus. The final amount due gets written in words by the app – but an option exists for you to write it yourself.

The software is customizable for different uses.

For instance, a client database can be added where you post names, addresses and other information for as many clients as you have.

Then on the invoice generation interface, you would simply choose the client name and the corresponding details appear on the invoice – saving you time and effort!

I can, for instance, incorporate a floating data entry form (like that used in my Payslip Generator, and Ration Formulator) to make posting of entries easier and faster.

Since building the app in 2004, I have adapted it for use by a medical clinic client in Akoka-Lagos in 2009, and a Petrol and Diesel marketing/supply Client Company in Magodo-Lagos in 2012.

And so it was that a client situation created an opportunity for me to develop a new product that would add to my passive income stream!

Final Words: Request the EXE Trial Version of the Invoice Generator™

I now offer a limited time trial but fully functional EXE version of my Automated Invoice Generator™ at ZERO COST.

[Update (9th Aug. 2015): This EXE trial version is currently NOT available due to issues with the compiler I use to create limited use demos of my Excel-VB app. ]

Simply email me your name, occupation, phone number and address/country, via tayo at tksola dot com, with “Request for Invoice Generator Trial” in the subject line, and I’ll send it to you.

What follows below is a description of key features and functions of the app

1. The materials/services list and prices update interface:

In the above interface, you can specify the names and other details for EACH product and/or service you offer.

This is also where you will specify your base or cost price and then add a MARGIN profit per product or service item you want to make, such that the Invoice Generator will pick up the DERIVED price or fee when you are generating an invoice.

The video tutorials, as well as guide notes provided in the application will help you get a better understanding.

Also, the interface is quite friendly, so you should have no problem learning to use it by trying to make some dummy entries.

The entries you make in the fields with red colored headers will automatically appear in the drop menus that are provided in the Invoice Generator interface.

2. The invoice generation interface:

Here (note red colored back ground) you will make ALL needed entries for generating your invoice – same as you would do when preparing a paper version.

The required output will be produced on a ready-to-print A4 sized template (black and white) showing all your specified entries.

The menu options provided actually allow you – AFTER you enter data for an invoice to be generated – to also use the same info, with appropriate modifications to prepare for printing, a Delivery Note and a Pro Forma Invoice.

Client payment options (with corresponding charges) of LPO, versus Customised, versus Cash can also be specified based on you agreement with a client using a drop menu button.

See screenshot of the resultant invoice below.

Note that a special function that converts numbers to letters(e.g. re-writes 11,000 as Eleven Thousand Naira) is set by default to print out the total monetary value of the invoice payment.

You can simply type into the entry field provided for TOTAL IN WORDS in the invoice preparation template, to make the program ignore the function and use your own specifically worded total amount.

3. Screenshot of the generated invoice – ready to print:

Entrepreneurship, Farm Biz, My DN Travel News

Why You CAN Succeed In Your Livestock Farm Business [Feed Formulation Video Series]

April 8, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

Quick Take-Away : This is a verbatim transcript of Video No. 2 (out of 33) in my New Practical Feed Formulation (& Compounding) Home Study Video Series. I explain background details about my popular feed formulation handbook, which the video series is based on. Watch the full video below. Email tayo at tksola dot com, for a download link to the MP3 audio version.

===Starts===

So I’ll start by talking a little bit about how I got to learn about Feed Formulation.

And I think it’s important that I do that because today I use that knowledge and my expertise in that area to help farmers…

Some have facilities that run into millions of naira.

I (once) had a farm (client) that had over 12,000 layers in production.

And so these are adults.

Most of them are graduates. Some of them have been in business for years. But the knowledge I use to help them in ration formulation is actually something I gained when I was an undergraduate in the university.

And that’s why I feel it is important to mention the time I spent with the Students’ Farm Research Foundation (SFRF) in the University of Ibadan.

I was (a member) from my 3rd year in 1989 till my final year (1992). And that was for 3 years.

I was able to learn by participating in the daily activities of the foundation, which involved the rearing of animals like rabbits, poultry…when I say poultry I mean cockerels, layers, broilers…

We raised all sort of animals. We had eggs we were selling virtually every day.

We would sell of our layers and broilers in the right season.

And we were self funding.

In other words the money we made was what we ploughed back into the business, to keep the farm going.

We never had to borrow. We didn’t need patrons to donate money to us.

Like people would do today. They say they’re students and they want money.

We actually raised our own money.

We used to have an end of year party every year.

And we actually used to give ourselves lots of farm products e.g. eggs, chickens, and we would even give to our patrons, who didn’t have to give out their own money to us.

Instead… many of them were lecturers in Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture.

They were much older than we were, and more experienced.

So whenever we had issues we could go them for help.

But most of the time we ran the organisation ourselves.

We kept out own purse. I was the supplies coordinator in my final year, and we never ran out of money, because we always channelled the money and used it for what we meant.

I did some basic book keeping which I learnt from my uncle.

And so we kept track of what was coming in and was being spent. I would take the ration formulated by the Project Coordinator, who was like the President to the club.

And I would take that and go to the feed mill, and get the ration compounded along the lines of the formula he had prepared.

And every time we had a problem with the supply of a particular ingredient, we could quickly make changes because of our knowledge of feed formulation.

He was extremely good at it, and he later taught the rest of us.

And we could equally come up with a different ration using some other ingredients.

Sometimes we would run out of Palm Kernel Cake, or Groundnut Cake or Maize. And we could use something else like Sorghum to replace maize.

And we always had very good performances.

Sometimes we would have disease outbreaks like Gumboro, and we would have to manage it to still make the most of our production season.

The point I’m trying to make here is we didn’t sit in our classrooms expecting miracles to happen.

We got out and got our hands dirty.

So anybody who runs a farm business will have to have the same attitude, and understand that if we as students could have done it, and had a profitable enterprise that we handed over from group to group.

I mean some people would graduate and the next set would take off…

I don’t know if the club is still there today, but as of then it would run year in year out like that.

And the business was profitable!

If students could have done it in a university, I believe that any adult who is running a real life business can succeed at it as well.

The core focus you should have is on lowering your cost of production, and the area where you have the greatest expenses is in the area of feeding.

That’s why you need to understand the science of ration formulation.

And you should understand how to do the computation. Understand the principles behind it.

Understand the issues relating to anti-nutritional factors. Understand how you need to explore the use of alternative feed ingredients that are lower cost.

And also understand how to use my Ration Formulator, the software which you have bought.

Because there’s no way you’re going to get this video series/package without that.

It all comes as one package. That’s the plan I have.

So if you can do that, then you can succeed in farm business.

And like I said…again, I’m repeating it, if students could have done it, as undergraduates in the university, there’s no reason you as an adult, already a graduate running a real life business, cannot succeed.

So in the next clip, I start talking about the ration formulation process, and what it entails.

===Ends===

Get your copy of my new Feed Formulation Home Study Package. You can see photos of the Home Study Pack ready for dispatch to a buyer via courier in this article – click HERE.

It comes with 33 videos (totalling 4 hours of instruction) on DVD.

Also included are a FREE print (i.e. physical spiral bound) and digital copies of my popular Feed Formulation Handbook, its accompanying Ration Formulator software, video demonstrations for use of the software etc.

NEW: Practical Livestock Feed Formulation (& Compounding) Home Study Pack

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

No. 136: Stop Taking Failure Personally!

April 7, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

People who take failure personally, often fail to succeed. Some who succeed fail to continue succeeding, for the same reason!

Most people want things to work the way we want all the time. And when that doesn’t happen, they give up on themselves.

But people who succeed often do so, because they NEVER take failure personally!

SCROLL DOWN TO READ FULL ISSUE

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Publication: Weekly Public Speaking IDEAS Newsletter

Date: Monday7th April 2014

No:136

Title: Stop Taking Failure Personally!

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

Blog URL: http://www.spontaneousdevelopment.com/blog

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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Click here to view the download page:

Can’t find it? No problem. E-mail me via tayo at tksola dot com and I’ll send you another. Not yet a subscriber? Click here to signup.

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

NB: This newsletter is published every Monday. Point your browser to www.spontaneousdevelopment.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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No. 136: Stop Taking Failure Personally!

People who take failure personally, often fail to succeed. Some who succeed fail to continue succeeding, for the same reason!

Most people want things to work the way they want all the time. And when that doesn’t happen, they give up on themselves.

But people who succeed often do so, because they NEVER take failure personally!

Your mental attitude towards things that go wrong with your plans determines how each venture you embark upon in your life ends.

If you enrol for a professional exam and fail, it’s natural that you feel bad about it. However, it does you no good to use that experience, or any that may follow it, no matter how many times they occur, to imply that you are a failure.

Now, one of the things that tend to happen is that others could do things to make you feel like one.

I mean people around you who witness or hear/read about your unsuccessful attempt…or multiple unsuccessful attempts.

They could say things to your face or behind your back that suggest they consider you a failure.

Like any other human being, you are likely to find such feedback painful.

In some cases, such individuals may even go as far as putting you down, and even publicly mocking you. Indeed, those who do such things can often be loved ones e.g. relatives, close friends etc who have access to the details of your efforts and failures.

Typically, they are the ones who would have seen you fail more often than they have seen you succeed.

Many times such individuals will get to a point where they even consider themselves experts of some sort on you, and what you’re capable of achieving.

The irony is that virtually every one of us has a potential tendency to be guilty of doing the above. For instance, imagine you have a brother/sister, or son/daughter or friend who you know to be clumsy. Maybe s/he even stammers a lot as well.

Then one day s/he announces a plan to become a professional singer and dancer. How would you react? Especially when most of your memories of time with him/her are about his/her intermittent stammering, and also falling, or tipping things over?

The automatic response most of us would give is that we would never make fun of, or put anyone down.

But it’s our body language that gives us away to the person most times. The involuntary rolling of the eyes or raising of eyebrows, indulging smiles etc.

Those given such treatment will often not miss it, and it can do major negative damage to their sense of self-worth.

The truth is however that YOU alone can determine how you let others make you feel. And if you learn to believe in yourself, no matter what people say, or what happens to you, or what you do wrong, you’ll will ALWAYS end up better off.

When your plans go wrong in any areas of your life, understand that it NEVER means you’re bad or something is wrong with you.

Instead, know that it’s a sign that you need to go back and check what you need to do better or differently, and then try again.

I did not come up with the above piece of insight. It came from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. From the first day I read it and began to apply it in my life, I learnt to EXTERNALIZE failure.

By this I mean that I came to understand that nothing I failed at defined me. That it did not matter how others saw it.

What matters is, and will always be how I see it. And if I do not see what happens to me as the end of the world, then it will not be.

This mental attitude helped me successfully pass through years of prolonged hardship and suffering, as an entrepreneur, till I began to find success.

It equipped me to confidently pick myself back up each time I fell flat on my face in my efforts as an entrepreneur. It gave me to courage to start all over again, time after time, after I’d failed to succeed in taking my business to the next level.

When I found myself unable to fulfil my responsibilities to my wife and kids, to the point that I had to swallow my pride and ask for help from relatives, it helped me stay confident in my ability to bounce back.

Today, all who stood by me, and those who watched from a distance, while I struggled, acknowledge that I AM a success, and not a failure.

But I first had to FIRST think of myself as NOT being one, before they could see me that way, through the results I achieved.

You can succeed the same way too. Just stop taking your failures personally. They will happen, but they can never determine what you will become. They can never keep you from success.

Remember that always, and you’ll eventually have great success stories to tell…like I do on this website!

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

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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.spontaneousdevelopment.com

Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist – Tayo Solagbade – works as a multipreneurial freelance writer providing zero risk article and report writing support for website owners, while travelling slowly across West Africa as a Location Independent Multipreneur.

He’s presently based in Benin Republic, where he’s preparing an English-French Language Guide, City Travel Guides, and a Commercial Rabbit Farming Guide.

He earns multiple streams of income providing clients with performance improvement training/coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).

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, then later acted in senior management roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.

When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Self-Development Nuggets™ blog, and Public Speaking IDEAS newsletter (which he publishes to promote Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring service to experts working across the African continent).

For a limited time, Tayo is available to speak to your group or organization for a moderate fee. Send e-mail to tayo at tksola dot com. You can also visit www.tksola.com to learn more.

Connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook.

==================

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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[Tuesday]:	No. 135: Succeed by Speaking Part-time With a Full Time Job!
Entrepreneurship[Tuesday]:	Earning Income Working From Anywhere (True Story)
Self-Development [Wednesday]:	Why Marketing to Strangers Yields More Success
Career Development [Thursday]:	Sometimes You’ll Need to Keep It Within Your Family
Parenting/Travel [Friday]:	Pre-Marital Sex Amongst Teenagers – A PROPOSED SOLUTION
Writing/Bloggin [Saturday]:	To Sell with Your Writing, Touch on Different Areas of Your Target Audience’s Life
Writing/Bloggin [Saturday]:	Fulfilling Farm Business Best Practice Product Orders, Amidst Chaos (True Story)
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Entrepreneurship, Farm Biz, My DN Travel News, My Ideas for Making Nigeria Better, Parenting, Self-Development, Writing/Blogging

Fulfilling Farm Business Best Practice Product Orders, Amidst Chaos (True Story)

April 6, 2014 Tayo Solagbade 1 Comment

[Lagos, 6:49a.m, 6th April 2014] Each time I visit Lagos, I see more reasons to justify not doing any aspect of my work from here.

I spent all of Friday 4th February 2014 – under stressful conditions – battling to prepare and send courier packs to 3 Farm CEOs who paid for my products.

One is based in Kano (Feed formulation Handbook and software), a second, in Jos (Poultry Farm Manager) and the third in Warri (Feed Formulation Home Study Pack).

Holding a Ready-to-Dispatch Print Copy of My Popular Practical Feed Formulation Handbook

I sent 2 of the packs off at 5.15p.m, from the Fedex branch along Ikeja’s Toyin street.

The 3rd goes out Monday a.m once I get additional handbook copies made.

My new Practical Feed Formulation (& Compounding) Home Study Video Series DVD

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Hint: My new Practical Feed Formulation & Compounding Home Study Video Series, comes on a DVD.

It is bundled with a copy of my Ration Formulation Software, video tutorials, pdf user guide, a physical copy of my Feed Formulation Handbook, and other products.

Delivery is via courier.

The link below leads to a detailed description:

http://tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets/your-practical-feed-formulation-compounding-home-study-video-series-is-now-available/
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Massive traffic jams all over the area made moving around to get that done soooo hard.

Near zero power supply has meant my having to force myself to do needed work with noise from multiple generators making my head ring – my work rate suffering badly as a result.

Honestly!!

Only the knowledge that my new product offers are bringing in much more sales make it easier to bear.

My new Poultry Farm Manager app CD

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Hint: See the preview PDF at:

http://tayosolagbade.com/uploads/screenshots_MonthlyPoultryFarmManager.pdf

Learn more at:

http://tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets/a-pocket-friendly-poultry-farm-manager-software-for-profit-conscious-farm-business-owners

Click the link below to watch the demonstration video for the ExcelVB driven Poultry Farm Operations Management software.

You can see the demo video at:

http://www.tayosolagbade.com/pfmgr.html

Alternatively, the Youtube version can be viewed at:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=u2OEhGPmd5E#watch_actions

I still have a past buyer from Tanzania asking for payment details too (for my home study video), while a Kenyan CEO is working to repeat the bank transfer (for my Poultry Manager app), using the corrected domicillary account details I got by visiting my bank on Tuesday.

This rapid increase in orders for physical versions of my products is something I’ll have to handle more from Cotonou.

Not only will it cost about 40% less to produce copies, there’s also a lot less stress involved in fulfilling orders from that end.

My Feed Formulation Handbook hard copy & Ration Formulator software DVD

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Hint: The page that has details of my Excel-VB driven Ration formulator software and handbook etc is at:

http://iff.tayosolagbade.com/wp/feed-formulation/

The handbook offers 60 pages of practical information, guidance and tips on feed formulation AND compounding.
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Would you believe, I had to walk 2.5 hours from Ikeja to my home, when after waiting 4 hours from 4p.m till after 8p.m, the traffic jam along the routes failed to ease up?!

But in a way it was fun. I decided to make it fun, rather than let it affect my mood. And I’m always ready to push my fitness level higher

However, the chaos, and extremes out here remind me of why I moved to Cotonou, and why once I find a willing property owner, I’ll move my family to join me.

As I began walking from the bus stop, 2 young chaps in their mid 20s to early thirties joined me. I’d told them while we waited that I would walk home if the traffic jam did not improve.

The traffic situation already bad for weeks before, due to elaborate road repairs being carried out, really peaked that day.

I would later learn it was due to the monthly exodus of thousands of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG)’s members to their “camp” along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

I and my new young friends chatted about Nigeria, about corruption and eventually about our work.

This made our progress faster, as we walked. About 400m past the Grammar school bus stop, my friends found a bike rider willing to take them to Akute, their final destination.

We exchanged contacts, they left, and I continued walking another 15 minutes to my home.

The top of my Cotonou sewn native outfit was drenched in sweat.

My thick soled army regulation type leather shoes were completely covered in brown dirt from the long trek, making me shake my head in self pity.

I slept at 11.45p.m that Friday, after taking my meal and posting the blog article for the day.

Waking up Saturday morning at 7.30a.m, I watched movies with my kids all day (Jamie Foxx’s “The Whitehouse is down” is GREAT!).

At last I felt as relaxed as I’d wanted to be since coming down to see them!

A few days back they’d surprised me by baking and selling cakes without an oven like I taught them late last year.

I’d challenged them to do it as part of “celebrations” of the anniversary of my 1st year in Benin Republic.

I’ve been bragging to everyone about the zero oven charcoal stove cakes being made, and sold by them…and even wrote a blog article about it on Thursday:

http://tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets/sometimes-youll-need-to-keep-it-within-your-family/

Despite all that’s happened, I cannot deny that Nigeria’s peculiarly harsh atmosphere drives people to function at their best.

Apart from pushing me to explore smarter and more creative ways to get my work done, it’s helped me start my kids on the entrepreneurial path, towards achieving financial independence.

That’s a dream I’ve had since the first child was born, in 1999.

Having said that, I know it’s better to expose them to other societies, like Cotonou, Douala, Accra, so they can see that life does not have to be so hard, harsh and tough.

That 20 hour hustling need not be a way of life.

That corruption is not a pandemic there, like it is here.

That in those societies laws often work, social order exists, making it inevitable that wrong doers, small or big, get duly punished.

I realize I need to let them see all that, lest they conclude that the many negatives they see growing up in Nigeria, are “normal” and unavoidable.

And that’s why I’m eventually going to make them travel with me.

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

Pre-Marital Sex Amongst Teenagers – A PROPOSED SOLUTION

April 4, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

[NB: I first e-published this article on 31st July 2003 i.e a decade ago.] I greatly enjoyed watching the maiden edition of a network television show Today’s Woman hosted by Adesuwa on Wednesday 30th July 2003 from 8.30pm. She came across as one who truly desired to make a positive, meaningful and lasting impact in the lives of Nigerian women.

I shared this vision, and that’s why I wrote this proposal that same day (circulating it via e-mail the next morning), to suggest one way by which we can manage (it is not possible to eliminate it) the problem of Teenage/Pre-Marital Sex to the ultimate benefit of our society/nation.

What I Propose As A "Solution" Is Not Really New

First of all, let me say that I have a 14 year old teenage boy, who has a soon to be13 year old brother. So as a parent, I relate with teenage kids.

What I propose is being done in one form or the other by individuals and groups working with females groups. However, I advocate a different strategy in the implementation of this solution that will result in more sustainable returns and wider spread use of the solution, so that more of the intended target audience will receive the benefits in a shorter time.

I worked in a large corporate multinational for over 6 years in Benin City Edo state before voluntarily resigning to go into entrepreneuring. During that time, I had the opportunity to “witness” this problem at close quarters. It is of course also rampant in other parts of Nigeria. I believe that solving this problem requires first that we find practical/realistic answers to the following questions:

a. Do the teenagers have any adequately compelling reason to abstain from pre-marital sex?

(I have witnessed mothers encouraging their – teenage -daughters to date young male managers in blue-chip companies so as to get some extra money with which to supplement the family’s income). So there is a problem of economic hardships, and the need to survive.

b. Does the social environment in any way discourage teenagers from engaging in pre-marital sex?

When adults who preach Christian/biblical tenets to their daughters engage in illicit affairs with the opposite sex, “thinking” their kids do not see them, what signals do they send to the kids?. Here, the habits of "lip-service" and hypocrisy – endemic in the Nigerian society – rear their heads. Ironically, our kids acquire these habits very quickly – by Osmosis(?) – too!

c. What alternative (diversionary?) activities can realistically be provided to engage the attention of teenagers in a way that minimizes their chances of engaging in pre-marital sex?

These must be activities that will be of sufficient interest to the girls(and boys) to make them willingly become so absorbed, as to have little time or patience to for "playing around" with male counterparts. Here I refer to vocations that will not only occupy, but also empower teenage girls – as happens in other societies.

Our Adopted Solution Must Defy The “Nigerian Factor”

In trying to resolve this problem, the solution we settle for must of necessity be one that will complement – not invalidate – the educational and counselling efforts already being applied to address it.

Many female (not necessarily teenage) Nigerians who engage in high-risk behavior for instance, have repeatedly revealed they were forced into it, out of a need to survive. It is often men who go into it just for “fun”.

Fewer women/girls initially see it as such.

Now, before anyone says such girls could get jobs or start a business, let me make something clear.

As an entrepreneur, I have found, over the years, that many other considerations aside from merit/competence (especially for service providers) determine who gets patronage in Nigeria. Your willingness to give something in cash or kind, frequently determines whether or not you get that which you may ordinarily be qualified for.

Many females who seek jobs, roles in films, funding for their ventures etc, are often confronted with male overtures they are pressured to accommodate as a pre-condition for getting what should have come to them by merit. It’s either they give themselves or give something else – money etc. Some soon realize they can actually get almost anything using this means, so it becomes a habit!

This is one of the fallouts of the so-called Nigerian factor.

I had a conversation with an entrepreneur who attended a certain lecture on Entrepreneuring organized by an NGO. He recalled that one of the speakers, in response to a question about how to deal with the Nigerian factor said “It’s there, but we can’t bring it on the table for discussion”!

No wonder many young Nigerians who venture into business fail. No one tells them they need to do more than package/market their services excellently to get corporate patronage for instance.

Now that’s exactly the cause of all our woes in this country. We refuse to accept, and sometimes deny out rightly, the existence of practices we are aware of, and even partake in on a daily basis! We want to wish it (Nigerian factor) away, yet we know it won’t go unless we do something about it.

Simply put, Nigerians love to deceive themselves!

We Need To Be Honest With Ourselves

If we truly want to solve (or reduce) the problem of teenage/pre-marital sex in our society, we must be ready to put all the factors relevant to the problem on the table and discuss them openly. For teenagers, especially those from poor families, it won’t be just about peer pressure.

A promise of cash/gifts she would otherwise not be able to afford will frequently rapidly "erase" any memories of Christian teaching about abstinence.

This may sound ludicrous to some people, but it is a well known FACT!(Even Wale Adenuga’s Super Story on TV acknowledges it).

I have seen adults as startup entrepreneurs who have consented to giving kick-backs, “cuts”, over-invoicing etc to officers in the companies they offer their services/products, so as to get contracts they badly need.

If those adults could not "endure" the challenge of a lack of legitimate patronage, how do you think a frail minded teenager will fare against a worldly teenage (or older) boyfriend or suitor dangling all sorts of carrots?

Let’s tune in to the real world, and not make our efforts to solve this problem an academic exercise. So many factors come in to play here. It’s not as simple as just telling them “God says don’t do it”! Virtually everyone gets told what God does not want, and yet everyday we read, see and hear about adults who should know better falling flat on their faces by doing things they knew were wrong/bad.

Vocational Empowerment – The Solution

Vocational Empowerment of teenage girls needs to become OUR priority. It remains for parents and successful professional/career women to come together and think of the easiest and most realistic ways to help young girls achieve this empowerment.

“So in what way will Vocational Empowerment help?” you may ask.

It will make teenagers believe more in themselves, since they will acquire knowledge/skills that make them immediately relevant to the real world’s needs and interests. A woman who enjoys recognition/rewards for her skills and abilities in a specific vocation will have greater self-esteem, and therefore be, for instance, less easily pressured to give in by peers or cash/gift promises.

The earlier a young girl gets this kind of empowerment, the better she will be able to deal with the challenge of saying no to male peers and others.

It cannot be too early to start this. Think about it – many (teenage) girls already hawk wares on the streets anyway(and Vocational Empowerment will provide them an alternative that works)!

Of course, if after all the efforts have been made, a teenage girl still wants to do it, she will. But, she is likely to be better prepared to deal with the outcome.

Discussions could be held to determine the most appropriate vocations that would readily interest them/equally give them a purpose to pursue in their lives aside from academics. You would need to ask them to visualise what they wish to achieve in life – and I DO NOT mean "Doctor", “Lawyer”, “Engineer” etc.

At this early stage, one would want to help them discover where their true passions lie on an individual basis.

And this may not even require a career counsellor. Their natural talents/geniuses are likely to be better identified by themselves, with help from parents, friends/relatives.

From there, the relevant vocation could be suggested and the teenagers introduced to it.

The next paragraph contains the MAIN idea that makes what I propose different from most of what I already being done in this area.

The vocation a teenager settles for MUST be one that can be easily combined with normal academic studies etc. If it is done right, there will be little need to chase the girl around to show interest -she will simply get naturally engrossed in it.

The above point CANNOT be over-emphasised.

Please note, that in trying to implement a solutions for teenagers, we must remember they are different from other female groups. Especially by virtue of the fact that they will have to adopt these vocations and STILL continue the pursuit of their education.

They would also be likely still be responsible to their parents and guardians, so income-generation would not be the main objective for having them adopt a particular vocation(though it would be a good incentive/outcome).

Once that passion and intensity are ignited, only periodic guidance from older persons – with support and exposure through efforts of parents etc will help them grow into (psychological) maturity.

The successes of the first set of girls this is done with, will automatically stir up interest amongst their peers. Soon, other teenage Nigerian girls will believe they have a chance as well as a choice(s)!

Do you need an example? Well, think about the Williams sisters, and the number of trophies/cash prizes they’ve won through their teenage years, till today!

Much of their youthful energies, which could have been predominantly expended with male peers/others, were channeled into perfecting their skills in tennis. Today it has paid off.

In addition, the self-discipline they learned from engaging in a physically/mentally demanding sport, enabled them successfully venture into other lucrative vocations like fashion design (Venus) and acting (Serena).

There are many other examples. And please let no one say it won’t work here.

One of Adesuwa’s guests said each of us could provide support in form of funding, networking opportunities, and – I add – exposure. That’s what happens in developed societies. People there don’t fold their arms and call on “The Government”. They take action as individuals, and groups, to make the desired change happen – and commit to sustaining it!

In developed societies, people do not wait for the wives of governors/presidents, or rich persons, to start something.

Everyone who truly cares about these teenagers, and really wants to help them live better lives, will commit by giving his/her time, efforts, resources/expertise and (if possible) money to make that change/difference.We need to follow the dictum: “Start Where You Are With What You Have”.

Out here, everyone talks about how bad it is, but few are prepared to commit on a long-term (“no rewards expected”) basis to solving it.

The problem here in Nigeria, is that we have very few adults with long-term vision and commitment to anything. Not many people are ready to work with (young) others for 5/10-year periods to build anything lasting/self-sustaining.

I come from a working background that has prepared me to do that. I have worked with people with that kind of training – mostly expatriates. I am honestly convinced that anyone who can just do that will achieve breakthroughs never before witnessed in this country – repeatedly!

What I have said above is not theory. It is based on the work I am now engaged in. I am a Self-Development /Performance Enhancement Specialist, and my work is aimed at helping people learn how to empower themselves to achieve their fullest potentials in life.

My organisation is a startup mobile creative training outfit, but not an NGO.

The above suggestions are part of the approach I have settled for as a basis for achieving my vision. In my case, the major vocations I have chosen is low startup capital Catfish farming, Custom IT Solutions Development and Internet Entrepreneuring(Netpreneuring). My background in (Agric.) Extension Services also equips me to function as a Social Change Agent – which is what this is all about: effecting positive Social Change.

Some Specific Vocations To Consider

I must acknowledge here that there are individuals/groups already doing something along these lines, and recording excellent successes. We however need more of it to happen – and more importantly we NEED them to be sustainable!! In going through the suggested vocations, keep in mind that teenagers will normally still have to pursue an education, so we need to engage them in vocations(as I said at the start of this proposal) that can be easily combined with normal academic studies etc

1. Fashion Design/Tailoring

Why can’t a 12 year-old girl start apprenticeship in tailoring/fashion design under a reasonably successful (preferably female) volunteer who is a fashion designer/tailor? The teenager’s apprenticeship would be FREE and she would be useful to her “trainer” by providing an extra pair of willing hands. Her schooling would not suffer in any way.

Before any objections are raised, remember that many young Nigerian girls of this age already have to do more demanding work than what is being proposed, due to the economic circumstances of the families they belong to.

Even if a girl’s family is comfortable, she has everything to gain, and virtually nothing to lose by spending a few hours every week learning a skill that will make her useful to herself/other much earlier on in life.

Those who have fashion designers/tailors as mothers, sisters, aunties, wives (or male versions) will testify to how comforting it is to know that attires for your next social outing will get the best attention etc – at good prices too!

2. Sports – Lawn Tennis/Squash, Athletics etc.

Here I point out the irony of the chocolate beverage adverts that show an Aje-butter(rich) kid breasting the tape at the finish line in a race after having a Cocoa drink. This is to be contrasted with the real-life situation of Aje Paki(poor) kids who daily represent Nigeria in all major sporting competitions worldwide!

If you haven’t noticed, go out and do a survey. 99% of the people who represent Nigeria in serious sporting activities are from poor/humble backgrounds. Very few comfortable/rich Nigerian parents allow their kids spend time engaged in serious sports.

Instead they give them allowances to visit clubs, recreation centers, attend parties etc. That’s where(for those not under financial pressure) the pre-marital sex problems crop up. They are less driven to strive for personal successes/achievements than their poorer peers, with more time/energy to engage in such activities.

Lawn Tennis/Squash, Golf and Chess are fairly high-profile sports that some parents might want to get their kids interested in.

I say this because certain people worry that their kids may suffer injuries etc when engaged in rugged sports like Football, Handball etc.

Incidentally Tennis/Golf etc seem to attract sponsorships fairly readily, and since they are individual events, offer, more tangible rewards to the child who takes part and wins.

It is an added irony that despite the foregoing facts, many of the organized competitions in these events suffer due to low interest/participation. It’s almost never too early for kids to start playing these sports – from 3 years up!

3. Arts/Entertainment

I will not bother to say much here. Just look at what has happened to that industry in Nigeria today, especially since the entry of the Bruce family’s Silverbird International. Comedians, Singers, and Actors if willing to work hard, can enjoy successful and rewarding careers.

Teenagers, under good guidance, can also spend time learning the ropes of these naturally interesting and exciting vocations, with positive, lasting benefits.

4. Internet Entrepreneuring

Careers in custom software development, freelance writing, web design/copywriting and web marketing service provision – for an international credit card paying clientele – are not unachievable for Nigerian teenagers.

With good commitment, and vision, the negative impact of the activities of 419 email scam artists hampering the harvesting of limitless opportunities available on the net can be overcome.

I am heavily focussed towards making this happen through my work currently, and would welcome enquiries from persons genuinely interested in making it happen too.

Start by taking your kids to the Stadium near you – today!

Final Words

I’ll end by saying that just like one of the guests on Today’s Woman said, the changes are not going to happen overnight. They are Social Changes. Anything relating to making human beings effect changes in the way they do things, hardly ever happens quickly.

The prospective Change Agent therefore needs to wear the "toga" of patience – and be persistent – if he/she is to achieve any lasting change.

To be able to do this and remain sane in a place like Nigeria, one MUST – of necessity -believe in, and truly LOVE the people he/she wishes to help. That’s why I could not help but get to my PC and begin typing this proposal immediately after watching that interesting TV show this evening.

There is so much I have to say about this issue, and related ones. I am extremely passionate about the challenge of helping Nigerians make the best of their lives as individuals, in a way that will benefit themselves, and the country.

We must start with the individual, and help him/her learn how to perform optimally in any area of endeavour she chooses if this country is to fully develop.

The government has enough problems to grapple with as it is. Let each of us begin to do something to bring about the change. I have chosen my path, so (it appears) has Adesuwa. I’m hoping others who watch will realise – as she has said – that they need to do likewise.

Here’s wishing Adesuwa continued success in her show, and even greater successes in future!

—End of original article—

Update Added on 4th April 2014: I Practise What I Preach – My Kids Are Living Proof!

I first e-published this article on 31st July 2003 i.e a decade ago.

Today, I have many parenting articles on this blog, in which I share the progress I’m making in applying the above solution in my own home, with my own kids. The results I’m getting PROVE that it works. Click here to read one such article published just yesterday, in which I share the story (with photos) of how my kids make cakes (without using an oven) that they sell in their school.

And that’s just one of a number of vocational skills they possess. If my kids can do it, then so can yours – with YOUR help and support!

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

Sometimes You’ll Need to Keep It Within Your Family

April 3, 2014 Tayo Solagbade 2 Comments

“Tayo, let your wife and kids work with you to run the place. Do not employ people who will have easy access to the inner workings of your business. Out here, people can rarely be found who are that trustworthy. Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile!”

That kind of advice came from some of my Beninese friends and associates, regarding recruiting hands for the brew pub I want to open here in Cotonou..

To be honest, it’s about the same kind of advice I would give a foreginer if I was in Nigeria.

No offense intended, but I’m saying it as I’ve seen it over the course of many yearss!

To Succeed, One Needs a Good Team

Having said the above, individuals of exceptional character, who will deliver great performances as employees, do exist (in all societies).

I was that kind of employee, and have worked with like minded others, in paid employment.

I’ve also periodically come across them in client companies, over the years.

Such employees are however hard to find, and often need to be given worthwhile rewards (not necessarily money) for their fidelity to make them stay long.

When starting up however, that can be a bit hard to achieve, since many start-ups tend to have limited resources and means.

And that’s why the idea of bringing one’s immediate “family” members into a business project can be useful.

At least to get it off the ground. And if done right, a fully fledged family business may emerge, that will be passed down through multiple generations.

I’ve Decided to Build a Family Based Brew Pub Business for the Long Term

I’ve explained in past articles that my brew pub will offer my pineapple peels based drinks and cakes as the main products. But it will also offer creative practical language learning opportunities based on use of my Quick and Dirty Guide to French and English.

Basically, I will facilitate speech and conversation making sessions in the pub for ANY interest patrons, as a group. Contests will be held among participants, and prizes will be awarded based on voting by the audience.

This latter activity will serve to attract MORE of my target audience to the pub, since it will be free, and yet of useful interest to them.

That’s why I’ve been carefully coaching my kids to develop a variety of potentially useful competencies.

Whenever I’m home I continue from where I stopped last time I visited.

And when I’m away, I deliberately make calls to follow up with them on tasks I give them, which are often meant to help them develop a new knowledge or skill.

From writing assignments, to physical exercise regimens, cooking, drinks making, baking (without an oven), among others, the kids are being gradually trained to be creatively versatile i.e. multipreneurial…like I AM!

But I do not bother telling them, or their mother, that THAT (i.e. multidisciplinary training) is my purpose.

Doing so would only have created a psychological resistance, since I get told ever so often that not everyone can be like me. Whatever that means …since history attests to the fact that ANYONE can become whatever s/he believes!

Today, each of my three oldest kids is comfortable doing domestic chores, including cooking in the kitchen. Their peers are mostly not allowed by the parents to do such things.

In the case of my wife and I, what we’ve done makes it possible for us to ask one of them to prepare meal for everyone to eat.

Apart From Doing Chores, They Are Also Learning to Think and Act Entrepreneurially

Being told what to do around the house is one thing. Knowing how to come up with creative solutions to get things done is another. The latter is an ability that can be cultivated from an early age. Just encourage your kids to try THINKING more for themselves, and depend LESS on you for answers.

You’ll be amazed by how far – and fast – they’ll quickly make progress!

In past articles, I’ve shared stories about how they collect metals from around the neighborhood, and sell to itinerant waste collectors who salvage such items. I just challenged them to stop asking me for “sweets money” and think of what they can do to earn money.

And I pointed to examples of their peers who daily hawk items for sale, to add to income earned by their parents. Next thing I knew, they’d found out that some mallams would pay them to find certain metal types. And they were soon making money from doing that.

More relevant to my plans for the brew pub, is the need for them to develop smart sales and marketing skills.

Since they already know how to find and/or create products, being able to find buyers is imperative, otherwise no rewards will accrue to them for their efforts.

And I’ve been teaching them to do most of the things I do. Especially those they can do to make money. For instance, they make and sell my pineapple peel drinks and cakes in the school. But it’s the latter they seem to have really taken a major interest in.

I say this because each time I come home, they show me a new modification they’ve made to the process I taught them. The process involves using a charcoal stove and heavy metal pot to bake cakes. No oven needed.

Another thing: They looked at a recipe I got from a You tube video, and concluded the “1 cup” of groundnut oil added, if replaced with butter, would give a better finish.

The pictures of the resulting cakes below(though without pineapple peels added), prove they were right.

Click here to see what the cakes from MY past efforts looked like in comparison(NB: Mine had pineapple peel added)…...

This week, I wanted us to celebrate the anniversary of my one year stay in Benin Republic by making cakes for sale. So I gave them a thousand naira, to buy the needed ingredients and left for town.

When I returned, they met me with a very pleasant sight. Well baked and neatly packed cakes they’d made while I was away (see photos below).

No supervision from any adult whatsoever. That was yesterday evening.

This afternoon, I returned home to find them back from school, and they showed me the N400 they’d made from sales of 7 of the cakes, to their classmates. But they’d eaten up the remaining 12!

So I gave them yet another lecture on the need to turn around money they spend, to ensure they make a profit.

I think the message will sink in this time around, because I’ve made it clear they’ll need to present a report showing expenses and sales recorded. And they’ll have to use whatever money they make to buy a new round of materials to continue baking cakes for sale. No new funds will come from me.

As I type these words, the eldest of them is doing his turn of baking the cakes – without using an oven – outside in the open, next to where I’m seated.

His brothers are in the house, assembling the pieces of a new fan we just bought.

And that’s the other thing.

The kids – the boys especially – do virtually all the coupling and fixing in the house.

I rarely have to get involved.

And so when I bring a device home, I know I can depend on them to read the manual, and get it up and running in no time.

That’s why even when I’m away, their mother rarely has problems in that department!

All of the above convince me we are well on our way, as a family, to having a well rounded team to run the family business.

(NB: In the case of the fan, we’ll still call in the electrian to fix it to the wall, and connect to power – for safety considerations).

Final Words

You may find the above ideas useful, if you’re concerned about ensuring the survival of a business you start, and/or are struggling to find good employees you can depend on.

In that case, building your team from within your immediate family, could be a useful strategy to adopt, for the medium or indeed long term!

Entrepreneurship, My DN Travel News, Self-Development

Why Marketing to Strangers Yields More Success

April 2, 2014 Tayo Solagbade 1 Comment

Rekiya, a chartered accountant had a great career, for 15 years, in a leading financial services firm. Since launching her own consulting outfit 6 months ago however, finding client business has been tough.

She’s been offered advice by well meaning friends, relatives, former colleagues and associates. Many recommended calling old school mates, past acquaintances, with whom she’d lost touch etc.

However, as always happens, people may know and like you, but if they do not have a “felt-need” for what you offer, they are unlikely to buy from you!

But they’ll often be polite when you call, and even promise to get back to you. People are like that. Especially when they know you. They wish you well and so will try to be nice.

But rarely will they respond with the urgency – and interest – that a total stranger in need of your solution will!

And that’s what happened to Rekiya, 6 months after starting up…

Many who’d promised to link her up, or invite her to deliver services/products to them, had not called.

Yet they’d made her send them thickly bound hard copy proposals, explaining her offer. Putting that together had not been cheap!

A few who had called back, and asked her to carry out projects for them, were yet to honour invoices she’d sent in, weeks after she’d handed over.

If Rekiya was a friend, and she asked my advice on what to do, the following is what I would tell her:

The situation was already telling on her cash flow, which still came mainly from her savings.

And her morale was dropping at approximately the same rate as her bank balance. Plus, she wondered what alternatives she could pursue.

I would waste not time in saying…

1. Forget About Marketing to Those You Know…!

Why?

That’s because I believe every start-up needs to spend less time trying to win over established contacts as clients.

Don’t get me wrong. I do not mean don’t go there.

Instead, I suggest spending less time looking that way, and invest more time, effort and energy setting up systems to attract NEW people with potential interest in what you offer.

People who never knew you before, but who are looking for your product or service.

How do you do this? Here’s an example of a simple zero cost strategy you can use:

When one is on a tight budget, creativity in getting things done without spending becomes a priority. I learnt that the hard way during 10 hard years of struggling as an entrepreneur in Nigeria.

So I began to call people’s bluff.

If someone demanded a proposal, I asked him/her for an email address I could send a PDF document to, that I called a “Generic Proposal”.

Basically, it was a document I’d prepared with my desired target audience in mind, based on many past conversations with prospects.

It often contained the information and details that addressed most of the key questions and issues a serious prospect would raise.

If the person demanding the proposal insists I sent it on paper, I often take it as a good sign that s/he is not really interested or ready.

Why?

Because the kinds of solutions I offer mostly require use of PC and Internet technology.

Any prospect averse to reviewing my offer using that platform is not likely to make a good client. 10 years out here have shown me the foregoing is often right.

2. Aim for Those Who Do NOT Know You…!

If you belong to the old school, you’d probably imagine the above stunt got me in trouble.

But guess what?

All serious prospects I’ve related with NEVER raised any issues!

They readily supplied their email addresses, and I sent them my PDF “Generic Proposal”. A few then went on to hire me (to develop a Web Marketing System for them or build a custom Excel-VB app).

In this way, I virtually eliminated the expense I used to incur on printing paper based flyers and other promotional material for my work.

That left me with more money in my pockets to fuel my car, pay for my Internet connections etc.

Using my Internet connection, I diligently churned out educational articles targeted at potential buyers, which got republished to various platforms e.g. Facebook and Twitter.

Most times, those write ups are discovered by people who have NEVER heard of, or read about me before. Total strangers. Quite often they’re searching via Google or other engine.

Then I turn up, and they read my piece, and decide to make contact, to ask me questions about what I wrote, and how I can help them.

Typically, they would have clicked a promotional link or two that I subtly inserted to one or more of my products or services sales page. And that would have gotten them hooked.

Next thing I know, the person calls my mobile, and asks “How much for…?” After I reply, s/he says “Please send me your account details so I can make the payment.”

Then I do that via email or phone text message. Suddenly, the email alert arrives on my Blackberry. Sometimes ALL of this can – and does – happen in a space of 4 to 6 hours from first contact, to payment.

Actually, as I write THIS article, it just happened AGAIN, this time with a Farm CEO from Jos, in Nigeria’s Plateau State.

He just paid for the Mini Monthly version of my Poultry Farm Manager software, less than 4 hours AFTER first contacting me on phone.

A total stranger!

Question: How come he was so quickly convinced to buy?

Answer: The mass of useful educational information I’d made available online, alongside my sales information made all the difference. I’ll explain more about this in a future article.

For now, it’s worthy of note that selling to friends/relatives can often take MORE effort and time…and will usually be LESS profitable!

The above approach works quite well, and will save you lots of stress, while putting PHYSICAL cash, with fat profit margins from happy buyers, in YOUR pockets!

Final Words: Even if your solutions are not IT related like mine, you CAN still employ this approach successfully.

Why?

Because in today’s world, most of your likely clients will be people who use email and have Internet connections, computers and smart phones with powerful features and functions.

If they really want your solution, and you offer to send them a link to a relevant page on your site, they will NOT insist you print out and sent them a paper based version.

If they do, it could signify a potential waste of time.

You have been warned!

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

Earning Income Working From Anywhere (True Story)

April 1, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

Yesterday, I was in a Cotonou taxi headed for the Benin Republic-Nigeria border, when Alhaji Usman S., CEO of a pelleted livestock feed manufacturing company in Nigeria’s Kano State, called, and we spoke like old friends…even though we have NEVER met.

I’ve been having such conversations weekly, with increasing frequency since last year…

If truth be told however, I could not have taken my work to the level it is today, if I’d stayed in Nigeria.

Erratic power supply, and other annoyances would have drastically held me back.

So, the insight that led me to relocate to Benin Republic, from Nigeria, now looks great (on hindsight). I’ve been able to work often uninterrupted for 20 hours daily for most of the past year.

And that’s now yielding fruits that I describe in the rest of this article.

NB: Interestingly, some misinformed persons who write me, assume I either buy articles – or have a team of writers working for me. Nothing could be further from the truth. I ALONE create ALL the content on this site. I’ll address this fully in my next article.

But back to Alhaji…

He first called my MTN Nigeria mobile, last September (2013) after coming across my Ration Formulator video on Youtube. Only 6 months ago.

That day, I was in Lagos, conducting questionnaire surveys for my agribusiness case study research paper. He spoke with me for almost 30 minutes, expressing his appreciation for, and interest in my work. We ended that conversation, with him insisting I send him payment details so he could send funds for the handbook and software.

A day later, I did that, but never heard from him.

But a Farm CEO based in Uyo, who recently purchased my Ration Formulator and Feed Formulation Handbook, told me he needed information about manufacturers of feed packaging bags. It occurred to me that Alhaji might have useful contacts that could help my client. So, I reached out to him.

He confirmed that he had such contacts, and readily offered to help my client.

But before we ended the call, he brought up the issue of the products he wanted to buy, explaining that he’d traveled right after asking me to send payment details.

By the time I hung up, he’d reconfirmed the payment details. This afternoon the payment came through. Tomorrow, I’ll send his pack, containing the Ration Formulator CD and Handbook, via ABC Transport courier service.

Once again, another total stranger has taken a leap of faith to buy from me – even though I have no office, and shuttle between 2 countries!

Exactly ONE year ago today, I left my family in Lagos-Nigeria and relocated to Cotonou in Benin Republic, to work as a Location Independent Multipreneur.

It was the first lap of a journey I’d resolved would take me across the entire West African region. Indeed, I’m now preparing to MOVE ON to another Francophone African nation, though Cotonou may remain my base.

I’d planned to celebrate this maiden anniversary by opening my small brew pub in a larger rented Cotonou property, which my wife and kids would eventually join me to run.

So far however, it’s been hard to find a property owner willing to let me use the rented residence the way I plan. At least that’s what those I’ve met have said. I’m thinking they have some fears as well. So I’m thinking I’ll just get a larger place, bring my family down, and simply start by offering home delivery and pick up service.

I’m writing this from my home in Lagos, today 1st April 2014.

Apart from coming down for a meeting with a new Web Marketing client (who used to be the accountant of a company that has been using my Payslip Generator since 2007 – but has now launched his own consultancy since January), TODAY – like I said earlier – makes it EXACTLY ONE YEAR since I relocated to live and work from Cotonou, Benin Republic.

So, I wanted to spend the day and the rest of the week with my loved ones. I wrote THIS article for my blog as part of the “celebration”.

The benefit of hindsight shows clearly that my decision to relocate was a good one.

For instance….

1. Yesterday, a Farm CEO from Tanzania, who bought my Ration Formulator software last year, wrote me an email that he wanted to buy my new Feed Formulation (and Compounding) Home Study Video Package.

This is my latest product, and it includes the popular feed formulation handbook and a 4 hour video tutorial in which I explain the theory and practice of feed formulation using my handbook’s pages as a reference on the screen.

I’ve since replied him to confirm that the price of the Home Study Package is N25, 000. And it includes the software, a physical copy of the handbook, and the DVD containing the 4 hour video series, PLUS the PDF user guide for the software etc

As a member of my Farm Biz Ideas club, however, he will only pay N15k, since each member get a 40% lifetime discount on ALL my other products and services .

See the link below for details:

http://www.tinyurl.com/ffHomeStudy

2. Last Friday, a consultant in Kenya (who had been corresponding with me for over 3 weeks), emailed me confirmatory details of payment sent by his Farm CEO client, to purchase the lower priced, monthly/mini version of the more pricey full fledged Poultry Farm Manager software.

See the preview PDF of the monthly/mini version here:

However, my online account failed to reflect the payment, right up till today, even though they’d sent me the automatic transcript generated from the bank transfer process in Kenya.

Luckily, I was in Lagos, when he wrote in this morning to say the bank in Kenya had told his client that the account information I’d supplied was not complete/accurate.

So I replied that I would visit the bank in the morning, and have them sort it out for me.

By 4p.m today, I was able to send him detailed feedback supplied by the bank. Basically, they found out that I’d sent the wrong account details to Kenya. All things being equal, the Farm CEO will be able to make payment when he tries again.

Having said above, it’s the fact that they stuck with this effort to send payment that I want to highlight…

Neither the consultant, nor his client has ever met me in person.

We only spoke for the first time last Friday.

I called the consultant to discuss specifications of features for a hatchery module they are looking to have me develop, and integrate with the existing app, if they are satisfied with the latter, post usage.

Final Words: A Great Way to Celebrate!

In other words, I’m saying all these farm owners and stakeholders reaching out to me only have my Web Marketing System to work with.

But when they make contact, I show up as represented, and that convinces them to go ahead and send payment – and some return again!

There’s no better way, than THAT, to celebrate one’s first anniversary as a Location Independent Multipreneur!

Career Development, Entrepreneurship, Farm Biz, My DN Travel News, Public Speaking, Self-Development, Writing/Blogging

No. 135: Succeed by Speaking Part-time With a Full Time Job!

March 31, 2014 Tayo Solagbade Leave a comment

Some experts in paid employment are doing great things others can learn from. You may be one of them. Do you know you can earn extra income by sharing what you know with others as a part-time speaker? I offer ideas you can use in this issue of my Speaking Ideas newsletter.

Some Self-Employed Experts Are (Technically Speaking) Holding Full- Time Jobs

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Publication: Weekly Public Speaking IDEAS Newsletter

Date: Monday 31st March 2014

No:135

Title: Succeed by Speaking Part-time With a Full Time Job!

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

Blog URL: http://www.spontaneousdevelopment.com/blog

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

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

Have You Downloaded Your Gifts?

As a subscriber to my mailing list, you get to access over 10 potentially useful books and reports.

Click here to view the download page:

Can’t find it? No problem. E-mail me via tayo at tksola dot com and I’ll send you another. Not yet a subscriber? Click here to signup.

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No. 135: Succeed by Speaking Part-time With a Full Time Job!

Some Self-Employed Experts Are (Technically Speaking) Holding Full- Time Jobs

I refer especially to those self-employed persons who do not yet offer speaking services. If you’re one, you’ll want to read this through as well.

You see, I have all sort of conversations with self-employed experts, as well as career persons in paid employment. By phone, email, Skype, Facebook etc.

Most don’t have much time to spare. Even those who work for themselves, are NOT as free as they CAN be. Look, the only reason most people at work for themselves, or in the employ of some company say “I don’t have time” for something they have interest in, is often that they can’t see enough benefits.

What I propose in this article can help such persons earn added income – an attractive benefit.

Example 1: A Catfish Farm CEO based in Ibadan

I’ve known this gentleman since mid 2013. But we’ve never met. We discuss the amazing results he’s getting by using cheaper alternative ingredients, in formulating rations for his fish.

When we spoke late last year, he was getting great output from using Gari (Cassava flour) at up to 40% inclusion levels. About a week ago, when we spoke, he revealed that he now uses Palm Kernel Cake at much higher inclusion levels than normal, and that it’s yielded about 15% increase in growth rates.

Now, I had called him on behalf of a CEO in Uyo, who’d purchased my Ration Formulator and wanted ideas of low cost alternative ingredients he could use. I knew this could help my client.

When I told this Ibadan based CEO that he needed to talk to other farmers about results he was getting, he agreed saying “You know, I’m actually thinking I need to do a video and put on Youtube….”

At that point I saw the problem he was having.

He knew his own business well. But he did not know how to go about putting what he had to offer together in a manner that would attract the right attention and interest…with benefits that would make doing so worthwhile for him!

Truth is, he needs the help of a competent guide or a coach…or mentor!

But not just any guide, coach or mentor. He needs one who can help him “prepare, package, promote, and present” what he knows to others, VERY often for profitable financial gain.

Further down, I suggest one powerful example of such a mentor…

Example 2: My Accidental Foray Into Expert-Speaking While In Paid Employment

It happened in 1999. Between 1995 and 1999, I’d really broken boundaries as an employee in Guinness.

Among other achievements, I’d used my spreadsheet programming skills, to completely replace manual data entry and reporting systems in the brewing department.

Word had quickly spread about what I’d done. And I’d gotten career boosting secondments.

I still recall a visiting manager from the Lagos Harp brewery told me I was called “Super Brewer” in Lagos. Also, one day I was in the HQ block in Lagos. A Nigerian senior manager heard someone call out my name, as he climbed up the stairs.

He stopped and looking at me, saying: “Are you the Solagbade in Benin Brewery?” I replied that I was. He then said “Keep up the good work!” and continued up the stairs.

I was 29 years old. You can imagine what that did to my morale. It made me feel like doing more!

Not long after, while on annual leave, I came across an advert in the papers regarding the Annual Young Managers Competition (now defunct).

It was organized by the Nigerian Institute of Management’s Young Management Competition.

Zonal competitions would hold across the country, from which winners would be selected for the National Finals to be held in Lagos.

When I read through the requirements, it immediately struck me that a lot of what I’d done in Guinness qualified for entry into the competition. They basically wanted experience based management papers.

I thought about the Malta Guinness bottling beer waste investigation project I’d carried out, which led me to derive a formula I called Total Waste Unaccounted For (TWUF)™.

The Packaging Manager (Alex Okorodudu) had assigned me to the project over a year before.

After spending many days collating past records and recording new ones, I’d used a spreadsheet to trend beer volumes sent from the bottling tanks to the filler machine.

The TWUF™ values were then plotted in bar chart form. We eventually discovered the high wastes being recorded were caused by faulty operator cut-off of “chase water” used to clear the beer line.

The TWUF charts and values led us to this solution, because they showed we were losing MORE beer than we had in the bottling tanks at start. And that of course was not possible!

I felt a surge of excitement as I thought about sharing that story.

Then I also wanted to talk about how (using my apps) we automatically generated Process Control charts in the brewing department, that were printed out and pasted on notice boards.

Once we noticed a brew with KPIs going outside the normal upper or lower control limits, we quickly tracked down the operator who handled it. Sometimes we also liaised with the brewer s/he worked with, to find out what went wrong.

This enabled us proactively manage the process to minimize out of control performances. As a result, we had much more consistent output.

So, I began writing my management research paper titled “Statistical Process Control and Target Setting in Manufacturing Companies”.

I ended up using my entire annual leave period – and asking for time off to attend the National Finals after resuming work). I also used a huge chunk of my leave allowance, to print and send about 7 copies of my thick spiral bound paper, to the NIM headquarters.

As I explained in an article written years back, I won 2nd place at the zonal finals, and placed 5th (out of 8th contestants) at the National Finals…despite flopping my presentation very badly at the latter event!

When I was called out to get my prize (and later interviewed by a journalist…about my goof-up!), I knew it had been worthwhile.

Today, I work as a Best Practice Farm Business Support Specialist, developing customizable Excel-VB driven apps, that are paid for by Farm and other business CEOs, within and outside Africa.

Many of my apps (like the Poultry Farm Manager, the Ration Formulator, and the Payslip Generator) auto generate KPIs that help the business owner make intelligent decisions on a daily basis. And I offer talks and training programs for my clients on Best Practices, Feed Formulation etc.

Looking back, I Realize I Could Have Launched My Career As a Part-Time Expert-Speaker Back Then!

The competition had given me an excellent start-up opportunity…

Brandishing a “National Finalist” tag from an event sponsored by Nestle, and organized by the country’s Institute of Management, in addition to holding a job with a large multinational manufacturer, would have gotten me the serious attention and interest of many!

But it did not occur to me then. However, YOU have an opportunity to reap the benefit of MY hindsight!

You can use your full time job as a spring board to become an expert-who-speaks.

Many who get paid handsolmely as expert-speakers started out doing it part time. They chose a subject that was close to their hearts, and began offeriogn speaking programs to meeting planners.

You can do the same.

Even if you don’t want to go full-time, you can continue doing it part-time, earning extra income!

If the above appeals to you, I recommend you do what those who succeeded did….

Let Burt Dubin Be Your Guide…and Mentor!

At the least, purchase one or more of his useful home study guides (like this one).

Burt has helped VERY many experts who specialize in different fields, successfully put their offers together for profitable PAYING markets.

He’s done it for over 2 decades, and is recognized as a world authority by expert-speakers across Canada, U.K, USA, Australia and Africa.

Burt’s products and services require a decent investment, not just of money, but also of time, and effort.

In other words, apart from having the financial means, you must put in the needed HARD work.

Burt will tell you what to do, and give you ideas/guidance about how to proceed.

But he cannot do it for you. And he won’t offer to either.

Those who made it under Burt’s tutelage understood all of the above. They therefore applied themselves diligently to putting what they learnt to work. That’s what made them succeed.

Are you willing to do the work needed to succeed as a part-time speaker with a full time job?

If yes, your dream of becoming a high paid speaker, while employed full time will come true!

Need details of how to get started with Burt?

Email me your name, country, phone number, with details of what you do, via tayo at tksola dot com

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In this offer, Burt Dubin promises to show you how to generate PASSIVE incomes streams WHETHER YOU SPEAK OR NOT.

Plus, you learn a proven shortcut to top level speaking business success across corporate markets.

So, with with diligent persistent application of what you learn you’ll start (as Burt says)…”bringing home high speaking fees”…whether you speak or not…in a matter of weeks….

Sooner than later you’ll find you’re ready to go for Burt’s mentoring at Diamond or higher Inner Circle membership level.

The best part is: every cent of your fee to purchase this product counts toward your membership in Burt’s Inner Circle.

In other words, you effectively get to eat your cake and still have it!

CLICK HERE to get full details of what it takes to make yourself a true speaking business champion in Burt’s Boot Camp V: Inside Speaking Business Success Secrets

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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.spontaneousdevelopment.com

He’s presently based in Benin Republic, where he’s preparing an English-French Language Guide, City Travel Guides, and a Commercial Rabbit Farming Guide.

For a limited time, Tayo is available to speak to your group or organization for a moderate fee. Send e-mail to tayo at tksola dot com. You can also visit www.tksola.com to learn more.

Connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook.

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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]

2. Mid Range [Click here]

3. Budget Delight [Click here]

Publications

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

Download Chapter 1 Preview as PDF

Visit the “On Being a Master” website

177 Wow! Wow!

Showmanship Stratagems

Discover these secrets of making your programs more interesting and valuable to your clients and audiences now.

more information

Burt’s Flagship Album

This is the product to own if you can own only one. Why? Because in it you discover principles of platform mastership available to you nowhere else at any price.

With its Money back if not delighted Guarantee hardly any are returned.

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Presentation Magic

Presentation Magic Manual with new pages added plus 3 audio CDs.

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

Download above PDF

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[Tuesday]:	No. 134: Don’t Be a “Feel-Good” Speaker!
Entrepreneurship[Tuesday]:	How Many Farm Records Do You Need to Succeed?
Self-Development [Wednesday]:	Conversation with a Nigerian in Diaspora, About Nigeria
Career Development [Thursday]:	To Succeed More at Work, LEAVE the “Herd”! (True Story)
Parenting/Travel [Friday]:	Teach Your Child How to Recognize Authentic Success
Writing/Bloggin [Saturday]:	Achieve Increased Marketing Success Using This System
Want me to write for you? Click here…

Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring

for Africa Based Experts(PDF…Click!)

After listening to their conversation for a little while longer, I could not help asking if I could make a few comments. She readily agreed.

Next, I told her I believed the company needed to consider providing members of the marketing/sales team, a platform for building relationships with prospects, towards converting them to clients over time.

At this point, she got up impatiently shaking her head saying:

I gently countered saying:

To her, what I proposed in terms of the more subtle, stealth based, less direct marketing to attract customers, amounted to “begging”.

I could not help feeling sorry for her though. She’d let her ego deny her an opportunity to possibly harvest useful insights.

Even right here in the Nigerian marketplace, companies of various sizes do it. But she was just too blinded to see!

My Encounter With the Above Mentioned Insurance Lady, Reminded Me of A Story I Once Read Many Years Ago

I believe the story is self-explanatory and the message very clear.

How my Automated Invoice Generator™ Was Built to Solve a Real Life Client Problem in One Week!

The next day, he called the office to announce that he’d made a major omission in the invoice he’d printed!

How the Excel-VB Driven Automated Invoice Generator™ Works

Final Words: Request the EXE Trial Version of the Invoice Generator™

Simply email me your name, occupation, phone number and address/country, via tayo at tksola dot com, with “Request for Invoice Generator Trial” in the subject line, and I’ll send it to you.

1. The materials/services list and prices update interface:

2. The invoice generation interface:

3. Screenshot of the generated invoice – ready to print:

And that’s why I feel it is important to mention the time I spent with the Students’ Farm Research Foundation (SFRF) in the University of Ibadan.

And we were self funding.

We used to have an end of year party every year.

But most of the time we ran the organisation ourselves.

And I would take that and go to the feed mill, and get the ration compounded along the lines of the formula he had prepared.

Sometimes we would run out of Palm Kernel Cake, or Groundnut Cake or Maize. And we could use something else like Sorghum to replace maize.

The point I’m trying to make here is we didn’t sit in our classrooms expecting miracles to happen.

If students could have done it in a university, I believe that any adult who is running a real life business can succeed at it as well.

And like I said…again, I’m repeating it, if students could have done it, as undergraduates in the university, there’s no reason you as an adult, already a graduate running a real life business, cannot succeed.

Get your copy of my new Feed Formulation Home Study Package. You can see photos of the Home Study Pack ready for dispatch to a buyer via courier in this article – click HERE.

NEW: Practical Livestock Feed Formulation (& Compounding) Home Study Pack

Have You Downloaded Your Gifts?

No. 136: Stop Taking Failure Personally!

Your mental attitude towards things that go wrong with your plans determines how each venture you embark upon in your life ends.

Like any other human being, you are likely to find such feedback painful.

The automatic response most of us would give is that we would never make fun of, or put anyone down.

When your plans go wrong in any areas of your life, understand that it NEVER means you’re bad or something is wrong with you.

What matters is, and will always be how I see it. And if I do not see what happens to me as the end of the world, then it will not be.

Today, all who stood by me, and those who watched from a distance, while I struggled, acknowledge that I AM a success, and not a failure.

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“Inside Speaking Business Success Secrets”

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Useful Resources for Speakers

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

Publications

THEY WROTE…

Holding a Ready-to-Dispatch Print Copy of My Popular Practical Feed Formulation Handbook

My new Practical Feed Formulation (& Compounding) Home Study Video Series DVD

My new Poultry Farm Manager app CD

My Feed Formulation Handbook hard copy & Ration Formulator software DVD

Would you believe, I had to walk 2.5 hours from Ikeja to my home, when after waiting 4 hours from 4p.m till after 8p.m, the traffic jam along the routes failed to ease up?!

I and my new young friends chatted about Nigeria, about corruption and eventually about our work.

Waking up Saturday morning at 7.30a.m, I watched movies with my kids all day (Jamie Foxx’s “The Whitehouse is down” is GREAT!).

Despite all that’s happened, I cannot deny that Nigeria’s peculiarly harsh atmosphere drives people to function at their best.

Having said that, I know it’s better to expose them to other societies, like Cotonou, Douala, Accra, so they can see that life does not have to be so hard, harsh and tough.

What I Propose As A "Solution" Is Not Really New

a. Do the teenagers have any adequately compelling reason to abstain from pre-marital sex?

b. Does the social environment in any way discourage teenagers from engaging in pre-marital sex?

c. What alternative (diversionary?) activities can realistically be provided to engage the attention of teenagers in a way that minimizes their chances of engaging in pre-marital sex?

Our Adopted Solution Must Defy The “Nigerian Factor”

Now, before anyone says such girls could get jobs or start a business, let me make something clear.

This is one of the fallouts of the so-called Nigerian factor.

We Need To Be Honest With Ourselves

I have seen adults as startup entrepreneurs who have consented to giving kick-backs, “cuts”, over-invoicing etc to officers in the companies they offer their services/products, so as to get contracts they badly need.

Vocational Empowerment – The Solution

The earlier a young girl gets this kind of empowerment, the better she will be able to deal with the challenge of saying no to male peers and others.

At this early stage, one would want to help them discover where their true passions lie on an individual basis.

The next paragraph contains the MAIN idea that makes what I propose different from most of what I already being done in this area.

The successes of the first set of girls this is done with, will automatically stir up interest amongst their peers. Soon, other teenage Nigerian girls will believe they have a chance as well as a choice(s)!

There are many other examples. And please let no one say it won’t work here.

Out here, everyone talks about how bad it is, but few are prepared to commit on a long-term (“no rewards expected”) basis to solving it.

My organisation is a startup mobile creative training outfit, but not an NGO.

Some Specific Vocations To Consider

1. Fashion Design/Tailoring

2. Sports – Lawn Tennis/Squash, Athletics etc.

3. Arts/Entertainment

4. Internet Entrepreneuring

Final Words

Update Added on 4th April 2014: I Practise What I Preach – My Kids Are Living Proof!

To Succeed, One Needs a Good Team

I’ve Decided to Build a Family Based Brew Pub Business for the Long Term

Get Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring
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