HEPHZIT Technology appoints Business Skills Africa Limited as its Managing Consultants

HEPHZIT Technology, a leading IT and website developmentcompany based in Katsina has appointed Business Skills Africa Limited as her Managing Consultants. This was announced today the 17th day ofMay 2009 after a management meeting between HEPHZIT Technology and Business Skills Africa Limited. This deal will cover Branding, Corporate Marketing, Strategy and Business Development. Speaking at the meeting, The Chief Technical Oficcer of Hepzit Technology, Mr Akinyele Oluwatosin was confident that this synergy will lead them to greater heights.

Basola A. Victor
CEO BUsiness Skills Africa LImited.

FREE MARKETING

FREE MARKETING: How To Attract All The Customers You Need For Free!
Basola A. Victor
In business and industry, you are paid based on your ability to sell the superiority or quality of your work to the people whose opinion is most important in determining your success (customers). Entrepreneurs who market themselves the most effectively move ahead far more rapidly in the business than others who do not, even though they may not be more talented and they may not be producing more or better product or services. It’s all about marketing. How much of your business are you selling even in your sleep! If you have not gotten the idea I want to put across to you today then look at the topic again;
FREE MARKETING: Most entrepreneurs spend a fortune on expensive advertising that could cripple them even from the onset. Such expensive advertising may feed your Ego but it necessarily is not going to feed Your Bank Account. There are inexpensive ways to attract customers. There are free ways to create visibility and you can even be paid for marketing yourself.
Here are three (3) specific strategies:
[A] SELL WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT AND ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR
Let’s assume you’re starting a new business or you have a great idea for a new product or service. It’s terrific, it’s creative, and it’s wonderful. It’s unique. It is probably the greatest idea you’ve ever had! Therefore it will sell right? Guess again. The problem with this kind of thinking is that you are assuming your customers have the same wants, needs and taste and view of the world as you do. While that may or may not be true, to assume it’s true is taking a blind and dangerous risk. “You don’t get rich selling what you love alone; you get rich selling customers what they want”.
A small town radio station in rural Mississippi was undergoing a financial down turn. The owner has spent a fortune on the station but could never make a profit. Why? He insisted on his station playing on the music he loved, Lawrence Wolk, Guy Lombard’s and soft instrumentals. The playing of rock, country and gospel music was forbidden because he didn’t like it. Well you can just imagine what size of audience that drew in a small mission town in the mid sixties. Few people turned in and because the audience was small, few people paid to advertize on the station. On the other hand, a nearby competing station owned the market because the owner had a totally different mindset. He said “I hate listening to my station because I can’t stand the music, I just tell the manager to play what the people want and we keep making money.

[B] CREATE VISIBILITY!
In addition to selling what customers want, you need to get their attention and convince them that you are the best person to buy it from. To do that, you have to become visible. People can’t buy from you until they know you exist. Here are some strategies I use to create visibility for free of course.
i. WRITING :
Write an article or several articles and get it published in journals, magazines and news papers where your potential customers will read it. The article should be related to what you do and give readers some information that will help them solve a problem. Finally be sure to let them know how they can contact you. Remember, writers are always viewed with high esteem and your customers will think you are the best or at least among the best. Well established papers might give you trouble but it can try your hands on upcoming ones and remember do it for free

ii. SPEAKING :
Volunteer to present a free seminar for a School, Organization Churches or Company that stands to benefit from your offering the information to their students or members. If participants include potential future customers, it’s another way to create visibility at no cost.
When you speak, leave a trail of tangibles. Pass out at least one piece of printed information that the members of the audience can take with them and that includes the name of your business and how to contact you.
It could be a wallet sized card, a pamphlet, a reprint of an article you have written or even your customer prospectus. Whatever you leave, make it something valuable enough to potential customers that they will take with them for future purpose and you know what that means don’t you?

iii. GET INTERVIEWEED ON RADIO AND T.V
It’s not as difficult as you might think. Talk shows are on the increase and always looking for new guests who have something to say that will attract and hold an audience. The key to making it effective is to target the shows whose listeners and watchers are your potential customers.

iv. WRITE A BOOK TO DEMONSTRATE YOUR EXPERTISE
If your book addresses a problem or subject that interests a large number of people and it is well written, a publisher could buy it from you and publish it, promote it and distribute it for you. Your visibility and credibility as an expert in your business will sky- rocket. You will be interviewed on radio and television shows. And instead of volunteering to speak, you’ll be paid handsomely which increases your visibility and sells more books. If you are an effective speaker, giving a good speech usually results in additional paid speeches. In short you will find yourself being paid to market yourself.


v. ALWAYS GIVE YOUR CUSTOMER SOMETHING FREE EACH TIME THEY BUY FROM YOU :
Customers are always attracted to FREEBIES especially when it is given to them by the business they like buying from. Create free products which contains your information; it could be a product packaging material like;
i. Branded Nylon
ii. Branded Hand kerchiefs
iii. Free service for their kids if you run a home service related business
iv. A free health club or information club where they can get helpful tips monthly for free just
by buying from you.
v. Key holders e.t.c

vi. CREATE YOUR PROMOTIONAL MATEIRALS AND ALWAYS HAVE IT HANDY!
Your promotional materials are your mobile salesmen and you never can tell how far they can reach because people migrate. The materials e.g. your complimentary cards, ID cards, Stickers, Customer prospectus, handbills, flyers etc. could be your advocate someday, somewhere.
A prolific author and sales man Joe Girard once said “I shake hands with everybody, meet daily and every body gets a copy of my Business Cards. Think of all the thousands upon thousands of people that Joe has shaken hands with down the years. Each one of this people have a material of Joe Girard. No wonder he is well known.

[C] GIVE YOUR CUSTOMER QUALITY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Quality, prompt delivery of service and customer satisfaction creates a lot of referrals to you. A satisfied customer will not only come back but will bring other friends and partners to enjoy what he/she enjoyed from buying from you. Never give out low quality products or treat your customers without care. When you lose them, you’ve not only lost them but all the money they would have brought. A happy customer becomes your unpaid advertiser. Likewise, an unhappy customer spreads the news like wildfire.

These are three ways you can create visibility and promote your business with little or no out of pocket cost for you. Of course, they really aren’t totally free. You are paying for the exposure with your time and with the hope that the visibility will translate into sales. From experience, that is worthwhile investment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Basola A. Victor is the Director of Business Skills Academy, a knowledge-centered capacity building and business Training firm based in Katsina, Nigeria.
Phone: 234 (0) 703 5121 346, 234 (0) 705 6169 383

YOU ARE FIRED!

YOU ARE FIRED!
Basola Victor

Jude Okoye got to his office on Monday morning beaming with smiles, he has just acquired a new car which put a hole in his savings but not to worry, his salary for the next 6 months will replace the money since he does not pay house rent; he lives in the management quarters of his company. He checked with his secretary for regular internal mails only to get a letter from his boss.

“Dear, Jude Okoye,
Due to the economic challenges we are facing right now, we would no longer be needing your services, pls see the accountant for your pay off advice and endeavour to make available company assets in your possession.”Thanks for your efforts so far.

Mr. ABC
HR Manager,
Xyz Company

The letter sent shocking waves down his spine, he hadn’t prepared for this, he has just been FIRED!

3 things will eventually happen in along the corporate ladder, you would either be Fired, Retire or Resign. The million dollar question is Are you prepared for that moment or are you putting all your eggs in Pension or Retirement benefit.
Today’s issue is focusing on preparing for that one moment; we would be learning different means of securing your financial future.

1. CREATE MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME
Wealth was once defined by an old wise man as “another source of money”. I read the Bible book of Genesis and I discovered that God provided the Garden of Eden with four (4) rivers to supply it water. This tells us that depending on only one source of income can never give you financial freedom. You can decide today to stat making your money work for you. A little percentage of your income can be placed into instruments that yield dividends monthly or annually as the case may be or better still, you could Start Your Own Business. I like that word and I have been teaching and living it for the past 4 years. I am not saying you should resign out rightly if you do not have the wherewithal to do so, what I recommend is to start small and grow it until it pays your bills; then, you can Resign and concentrate on your Brain child fully.

2. CAPITALIZE ON YOUR SKILLS & SRENGHTS
I once read about the late psychologist and father of behaviour modification, B. F. Skinner who defines Happiness as “doing what you are good at”
Some years ago, the Gallup organization studied over 250,000 high achievers from all works of life and concluded that the greatest levels of achievement occurs when people are matched with work that builds on their unique skills and strengths. Unfortunately, it’s easy to overlook your strengths. They seem so natural to you that you probably take them for granted and don’t think they are anything special. Have you noticed how gifted performers and athletes make their work look easy? It’s because they work very hard at something that comes easily and naturally to you.

HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR SKILLS AND STRENGTHS?
Begin by writing as many answers as you can to this question: What do I do better than most people and I love and enjoy doing? Your answers will suggest a good business that will allow you to express your unique talents. Now pause and write down your list before you continue reading. Check your list, have you come up with any new ideas for a business you would enjoy that had not occurred to you earlier? If so, add them to your list. Now look at each business on the list in the light of your personal strengths. If you feel you don’t have the skills, the aptitudes, the knowledge or the desire to learn what it takes to be excellent in the business, scratch it off your list.
Listen to Martha Sinetar, “Do what you love, the money will follow”


3. ASSESS MARKETABILITY
Passion and talent are great, but you will become a millionaire only by applying them to produce something that people want and are willing to pay handsomely for. Money flows in the direction of value; that is why it is called currency. The question is what value can you create with your skills and talents, what problems can you solve or better put what human need can you meet with your skills?
Customers exchange money for something they believe will satisfy them more than the money they have to pay for it. How much people are willing to pay you for your services depends on Three (3) considerations:

What you do
How well you do it
How difficult it would be to replace you

The more people strongly want what you offer, the more money you would make. The bigger the problems you solve, the greater the Money. It’s that simple.

4. START NOW!

The best way to start is to start now and secure your financial future. The excuses in your head right now are nothing compared to the frustrations and disappointments years from now if you don’t do something now, I mean today.

About The Author
Basola A. Victor is an Author, speaker and Business coach. He is the CEO of Business Skills Academy, a knowledge-centered capacity building and business Training firm based in Katsina, Nigeria.
Phone: 234 (0) 703 5121 346, 234 (0) 705 6169 383
Email: info@basolavictor.com
Website: www.basolavictor.com

Welcome To Business Skills Africa Limited

Welcome to the official Blog of Business Skills Africa Limited.


Business Skills Africa limited is registered in Nigeria as a knowledge-centered Training and capacity building firm that provides Business learning and overall knowledge development for business professionals and individuals by providing deep content, relevant up to date training programmes and certification to international standards.

Our passion is to evolve a cadre of individuals and organizations, who have an unusual affinity for excellence, and over the years, we have been helping individuals and organizations achieve lasting success and development through our workshops, lectures, simulations and hands-on sessions which provide the learning environment to maximize the candidate’s potential. Our training programs incorporate flexible delivery methods to provide creative, intuitive, interactive and fun learning experiences.

Our team and Faculty consist of highly professional and experienced people who have excelled in their professions and who bring their wealth of experience and professionalism to bear on our programmes.

We offer a wide and innovative selection of courses coupled with other important life-skills that transcend the work environment into many aspects of living.

Stay hooked as we bring to you a daily dose of relevant and life hanging business articles and information free of charge.

Till we meet again.
Keep learning!
Basola Victor
CEO, Business Skills Africa Limited.