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No. 187: When You Experience a Setback, You Need a Viable Alternative (Hint: Attend a FREE Talk About Ideas to Cushion Income Loss!)
Doing business can be risky. As an expert in your field, in the process of delivering your products/services to clients, you may suffer losses.
Achieving sustainable success depends on having support systems backed by a reliable Action Plan, to cushion such losses any time they occur.
Otherwise, it could mean failure for you. This article offers ideas you can use.
Early last week, even as the Presidential Elections loomed, I continued my routine of calling on farm CEO clients/contacts in my network to ask how they were doing, and how I could help.
I’ve done this for YEARS, with no ulterior motives. Only once in a while do I reach out with something to sell.
That’s why I enjoy great friendships with many. Most times I aim to identify their points of need, to guide me in creating new or improved solutions (software, information products, concepts, ideas etc) to help them.
When I called Bitrus E. in Jos, something about his tone struck me as different. And I did not have to ask, because he told me within a few seconds. It was the Bird Flu epidemic (aka The Ebola for Poultry) that had him in a bad mood.
It turned out he’d also lost a good number of birds in his flock to the disease. He said: “Look Tayo, I don’t want to talk about Poultry for now. You can talk about anything else, but not poultry.”
Coming from a client who had 6 months earlier enthusiastically purchased my Poultry Farm Manager software, that statement really touched me.
I knew he had to be hurting.
We talked a bit more, and I ended the call, promising to get back to him. Then I called Alhaji Usman S. in Kano and asked if he’d seen or heard at his end about the Bird Flu outbreak, he promptly said:
“Of course Tayo. Look we’ve lost over 300,000 birds in Kano since it began. Everybody is aware of it. This is something that’s been on for a while now!”
Then I recalled that early in January, there had been reports of some isolated cases discovered by the authorities. However, the impression I got from the report was that they had been contained.
From speaking with my farm CEO clients, it’s become apparent, to me, that the authorities do NOT really know how to STOP the flu when it breaks out.
As a result, farmers are basically left to fend for themselves, at the mercy of this epidemic.
I tried calling Henry I. another Farm CEO in Jos. He did not pick up. So I sent an SMS asking if he had any news. He replied that what Bitrus had said was true.
Another farm owner I called was an elderly farm CEO in Ikorodu-Lagos (also an Alhaji, but not a client), who told me he’d taken the precaution of slaughtering (according to him now) what amounted to over fifty thousand (50, 000) layers, to avoid losing them to the epidemic.
That way, he got to sell them for meat. But anyone who knows anything about poultry business will understand what a huge sacrifice he had to make by doing so.
Birds in lay are not a short term investment. So, in the long run, he’s incurred a hefty loss on several fronts!
All of this was a big surpise to me, especially because ALL the links I saw on Google despite repeat searches were dated for January 2015 and earlier. Nothing recent or updated to reflect the realities facing the farmers.
Still not satisfied I called yet another farm CEO, this time in Egbeda on the outskirts of Lagos.
This one was also not a client, and had only made enquiries about my Poultry Farm Manager, some months earlier. He told me his farm was not affected, but that he was aware that several farms on Lagos Island/Lekki area were.
A call to Nene J. a farm CEO and a member of the academia revealed she also had not been affected, but she also confirmed that she knew of others who had suffered losses.
Once I was done with her, I googled around a bit for contact details of stakeholders I could speak with.
First I found the contact details for a Nigeria based consultant whose profile showed he’d done lots of work in agribusiness development for International Organizations and the government.
When I called him up, however, he was VERY quick to tell me the “government” was giving compensations to the affected farmers. When I asked some of my farmers, they told me they never heard any such thing.
I explained that I believed the negative events could discourage others from venturing into Agriculture, and raised the issue about the need to inform and educate farm CEOs on how to:
(a) adopt best practice bio-security measures against disease outbreaks and
(b) generate complementary/additional income streams to boost their earnings/cushion the income loss from crises.
My interest was – and is – solely to OPEN the eyes of farm CEOs to glaring opportunities they have to do MUCH better than they do now.
Their core businesses can be complemented by side businesses based mainly on their knowledge and expertise as farm business owners.
The truth is we need to make farm businesses succeed on a sustainable basis, if we hope to get MORE people to believe agriculture is worth investing in.
For that to happen, we MUST TEACH farmers to be MORE ENTREPRENEURIAL in their dispositions!
QUESTION: What happens when farmers experience inevitable setbacks like the bird flu incident?
The scenario I’ve painted above shows that farmers are left to sort themselves out when crises of this kind befall them.Maybe it’s not deliberate on the part of farmer support providers, but that IS what’s happening.
Some stakeholder have made the valid point that many farmers bring this problem upon themselves when they fail to take recommended biosecurity precautions.
I agree that this happens. However, I believe that even if farmers are at fault, we cannot leave them to deal with the consequences alone.
If we do, those considering starting farms of their own will be discouraged!
In my considered opinion, it is better to TEACH farmers how to operate their businesses in a manner that minimizes chances of crises happening. And when crises Do occur, they must be told how to keep afloat by engaging in related activies that earn them tangible income – to cushion the losses!
As a way forward, I propose that industry stakeholders/policy makers organize learning events to “TEACH farmers:
(a) Best Practice Farm Management for Profits”…and also how to…(b) “Earn Extra Income from Your Farm at ZERO COST”.
The above two titles actually make up the theme of the FREE learning event I NOW offer (title below) to any interested groups of business owners:
TITLE = Tested & Proven Ideas to Cushion Income Loss In ANY Business by Generating Multiple Complementary Streams of Income
I offer this talk to business owners in ANY field, vocation or industry: Note that I do NOT need to be an expert in your field to make my ideas work for you!
Indeed, some of the ideas I share in this talk will NOT be found in any one book or website.
Where similarities exist, attendees will discover in most cases, that I have made drastic modifications to suit the peculiar needs of the markets I’ve used them.
I can also confirm to you that some are MY OWN original conceptions and innovations based on years of personal experience.
As I said I do NOT seek any payment for THIS talk – but those inviting me have to meet certain terms and conditions (click here to request details)…
I want to see MORE business owners succeed SMARTER like I do (i.e. with less effort, in less time, using less money/resources).
By way of interest, I earn over 80% of my income via passively generated sales of my information products and custom Excel-VB software e.g. my Poultry Farm Manager (http://tinyurl.com/15pfmVideos) and my Ration Formulator (http://tinyurl.com/RealRationDemo).
The PDF speaker sheet linked below gives details of a talk that touches on aspects of what I will discuss in the above mentioned event…
http://tayosolagbade.com/uploads/5ways-make-money.pdf
Final Words: As an expert-who-speaks, what if, contrary to last year’ raving success, you find you’re not getting anything close to enough PAID speaking invitations, to meet your needs?
In other words, have you considered how you would make money if you did NOT get hired by clients for a protracted period?
Do you earn income in any other way aside from getting paid for your speaking service by your clients?
Do you have ANY other solutions you’ve prepared, that are ready to deploy, or that you already deploy to generate useful additional income to complement what client projects bring in for you?
If not, I ask you why NOT?
Do you think it (i.e. sudden income loss due to an unexpected setback) cannot happen to YOU?
Do you think some unexpected change in the economy, or priorities, of those you serve cannot force them to (regretfully) change their plans about hiring you to speak?
I urge you to be wise, and proactive. Anything can go wrong at anytime. This is why it’s always best to be prepared (as the boys’ scouts would say).
Even when all goes well, having a complementary income source will boost your earnings – not a bad thing. and that CAN keep you from going under, if/when your main income source suffers any setback.
You have NOTHING to lose, and everything to gain by taking steps to put this “protective income generation cushion” in place for yourself.
Indeed, depending on what part of the world you’re in, the LIFE of your business might just depend on doiing just that!
Take it from me.
I have had to GROW my brand from literally nothing (enduring YEARS in Nigeria’s VERY harsh socio-economic environment) to attain the increasing recognition and relevance I enjoy today, in/out of Africa, by DOING exactly what propose here.
Think about it, and you’ll see it’s better to be safe than sorry on this matter.
Good luck!
If you need help putting the ideas shared above to use, let me know HERE.
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Learn about Burt Dubin’s speaker mentoring products (books, audios etc) below…
If you need help purchasing ANY of Burt’s products (like “Presentation Magic”), call me on +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic, my base) or +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or email tayo@tksola.com
Have a great week :-))
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The best part is: every cent of your fee to purchase this product counts toward your membership in Burt’s Inner Circle.
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