Employee Engagement Is More Important Than the Customer

Problems don’t begin with customers. They start with you and your employees. When customers expect a fantastic experience but receive a third-rate one, you can lose them forever.

Brand harmony can fulfill customers’ expectations and stop uninspired in-store experiences. The best way to understand what consumers want is to play both sides: You need to be your own customer.

For the past few years, our company’s team members have used and perfected our product in our retail locations. We learned that being your own customer -- having your leaders and your employees interact with each other as customers and associates -- helps you experience the customer journey and validate your product’s quality and capabilities. You’ll get more value from using your product frequently than you will from digging through data to find empirical answers to engagement problems.

It’s an open-ended cycle: Have leadership engage your employees, and your employees will engage your customers. Although 90 percent of leaders think an employee engagement strategy impacts the bottom line, a mere25 percent develop one. Customer experience starts the minute people come in contact with your brand -- and employees. First-impression failure is the first step down the bad-service rabbit hole.

While online retailers have disrupted the traditional model for in-store sales, they can’t replicate the in-person brand experience. When your employees know all aspects of your product and process, they’re much better positioned to over deliver during this first interaction.

When we began frequently using our product, we stumbled upon things that didn’t completely satisfy us -- as customers or brand representatives. Companies generate twice the amount of revenue when they have engaged employees who are on the same page. And if everybody is a product expert, you don’t have to worry when your designated product guy has the day off.

Here are five ways you can more effectively engage your internal customers:

1. Give and receive feedback on a regular basis.

Some companies only give employees feedback every six months. How can you expect employees to remember what they did well or poorly half a year ago -- or remain engaged with the leaders who didn’t give the feedback earlier? Shorten feedback loops to increase employee engagement. Forty-three percent of highly engaged employees get feedback at least once a week, compared to 18 percent of employees with low engagement.

2. Communicate your goals.

Your company culture needs transparency and communication. How can your employees help you achieve your aims if they don’t know them?

I once attended what I thought would be a follow-up meeting with a potential client’s decision makers to introduce our company’s technology. The company actually wanted me to install the product and have the system up and running by the end of my visit. Meanwhile, my support team didn’t realize I’d need downloads and licenses. If my employees had been briefed on my goals with the potential client, they would’ve been standing by to help. I failed to give my external customers a first-rate experience because I hadn’t given my internal customers one.

3. Listen to your employees.

Employees are on the front line of customer interaction, so they’ll likely see things you don’t. Your workers are valuable sources of information for retail success. Ask for their thoughts and ideas. Make sure you hear, discuss and consider what they have to say.

4. Celebrate achievements.

Few things will engage employees more than a handwritten note from a leader to commemorate even small or personal achievements. If your employees matter to you (and they should), make sure they know.

5. Turn the statistics around.

Studies show that more than one in 10 employees are completely disengaged at work. You have an opportunity to use the statistics to your advantage. Take control of the customer-facing side of your business with brand coordinators, giving them the tools they need to manage the engagement of all company employees.

Retailers frequently lack branding and operational harmony. Combat this by investing in employee engagement from the leadership side. When you learn from your business, you’ll improve your customers’ experience -- and your bottom line.  

Employee Engagement Is More Important Than the Customer

Adewale Saturday, 31 October 2015

How Successful People Stay Productive and In Control by Travis Bradberry

TalentSmart has tested more than a million people and found that the upper echelons of top performance are filled with people who are high in emotional intelligence (90% of top performers, to be exact). The hallmark of emotional intelligence is self-control—a skill that unleashes massive productivity by keeping you focused and on track.

Unfortunately, self-control is a difficult skill to rely on. Self-control is so fleeting for most people that when Martin Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania surveyed two million people and asked them to rank order their strengths in 24 different skills, self-control ended up in the very bottom slot.

And when your self-control leaves something to be desired, so does your productivity.

When it comes to self-control, it is so easy to focus on your failures that your successes tend to pale in comparison. And why shouldn’t they? Self-control is an effort that’s intended to help achieve a goal. Failing to control yourself is just that—a failure. If you’re trying to avoid digging into that bag of chips after dinner because you want to lose a few pounds and you succeed Monday and Tuesday nights only to succumb to temptation on Wednesday by eating four servings’ worth of the empty calories, your failure outweighs your success. You’ve taken two steps forward and four steps bac
Since self-control is something we could all use a little help with, I went back to the data to uncover the kinds of things that emotionally intelligent people do to keep themselves productive and in control. They consciously apply these twelve behaviors because they know they work. Some are obvious, others counter-intuitive, but all will help you minimize those pesky failures to boost your productivity.

They Forgive Themselves

A vicious cycle of failing to control oneself followed by feeling intense self-hatred and disgust is common in attempts at self-control. These emotions typically lead to over-indulging in the offending behavior. When you slip up, it is critical that you forgive yourself and move on. Don’t ignore how the mistake makes you feel; just don’t wallow in it. Instead, shift your attention to what you’re going to do to improve yourself in the future.

Failure can erode your self-confidence and make it hard to believe you’ll achieve a better outcome in the future. Most of the time, failure results from taking risks and trying to achieve something that isn’t easy. Emotionally intelligent people know that success lies in their ability to rise in the face of failure, and they can’t do this when they’re living in the past. Anything worth achieving is going to require you to take some risks, and you can’t allow failure to stop you from believing in your ability to succeed. When you live in the past, that is exactly what happens, and your past becomes your present, preventing you from moving forward.

They Don’t Say Yes Unless They Really Want To

Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression, all of which erode self-control. Saying no is indeed a major self-control challenge for many people. “No” is a powerful word that you should not be afraid to wield. When it’s time to say no, emotionally intelligent people avoid phrases like “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill them. Just remind yourself that saying no is an act of self-control now that will increase your future self-control by preventing the negative effects of over commitment.

They Don’t Seek Perfection

Emotionally intelligent people won’t set perfection as their target because they know it doesn’t exist. Human beings, by our very nature, are fallible. When perfection is your goal, you’re always left with a nagging sense of failure that makes you want to give up or reduce your effort. You end up spending your time lamenting what you failed to accomplish and what you should have done differently instead of moving forward excited about what you've achieved and what you will accomplish in the future.

They Focus On Solutions

Where you focus your attention determines your emotional state. When you fixate on the problems that you’re facing, you create and prolong negative emotions which hinder self-control. When you focus on the actions you'll take to better yourself and your circumstances, you create a sense of personal efficacy that produces positive emotions and improves performance. Emotionally intelligent people won’t dwell on problems because they know they’re most effective when they focus on solutions.

They Avoid Asking “What If?”

“What if?” statements throw fuel on the fire of stress and worry, which are detrimental to self-control. Things can go in a million different directions, and the more time you spend worrying about the possibilities, the less time you’ll spend taking action and staying productive (staying productive also happens to calm you down and keep you focused). Productive people know that asking “what if? will only take them to a place they don’t want—or need—to go. Of course, scenario planning is a necessary and effective strategic planning technique. The key distinction here is to recognize the difference between worry and strategic thinking.

They Stay Positive

Positive thoughts help you exercise self-control by focusing your brain’s attention onto the rewards you will receive for your effort. You have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your attention. When things are going well, and your mood is good, self-control is relatively easy. When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, self-control is a challenge. In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, or will happen, no matter how small. If you can't think of something from the current day, reflect on the past and look to the future. The point here is that you must have something positive that you're ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative, so that you don't lose focus.

They Eat

File this one in the counter-intuitive category, especially if you’re having trouble controlling your eating. Your brain burns heavily into your stores of glucose when attempting to exert self-control. If your blood sugar is low, you are far more likely to succumb to destructive impulses. Sugary foods spike your sugar levels quickly and leave you drained and vulnerable to impulsive behavior shortly thereafter. Eating something that provides a slow burn for your body, such as whole grain rice or meat, will give you a longer window of self-control. So, if you’re having trouble keeping yourself out of the company candy bin when you’re hungry, make sure you eat something else if you want to have a fighting chance.

They Sleep

I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and maintaining your focus and self-control. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough—or the right kind—of sleep. Sleep deprivation raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present, which are a major productivity killer. Being busy often makes you feel as if you must sacrifice sleep to stay productive, but sleep deprivation diminishes your productivity so much throughout the day that you're better off sleeping.

When you're tired, your brain's ability to absorb glucose is greatly diminished. This makes it difficult to control the impulses that derail your focus. What’s more, without enough sleep you are more likely to crave sugary snacks to compensate for low glucose levels. So, if you’re trying to exert self-control over your eating, getting a good night’s sleep—every night—is one of the best moves you can make.

They Exercise

Getting your body moving for as little as 10 minutes releases GABA, a neurotransmitter that makes your brain feel soothed and keeps you in control of your impulses. If you’re having trouble resisting the impulse to walk over to the office next door to let somebody have it, just keep on walking. You should have the impulse under control by the time you get back.

They Meditate

Meditation actually trains your brain to become a self-control machine. Even simple techniques like mindfulness, which involves taking as little as five minutes a day to focus on nothing more than your breathing and your senses, improves your self-awareness and your brain’s ability to resist destructive impulses. Buddhist monks appear calm and in control for a reason. Give it a try.

They Ride the Wave

Desire and distraction have the tendency to ebb and flow like the tide. When the impulse you need to control is strong, waiting out this wave of desire is usually enough to keep yourself in control. When you feel as if you must give in, the rule of thumb here is to wait at least 10 minutes before succumbing to temptation. You’ll often find that the great wave of desire is now little more than a ripple that you have the power to step right over.

They Squash Negative Self-Talk

A big final step in exercising self-control involves stopping negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that—thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it's time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you're doing and write down what you're thinking. Once you've taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.
You can bet that your statements aren’t true any time you use words like “never,” “worst,” “ever,” etc. If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you trust and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts as thoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.

Putting These Strategies to Work

The important thing to remember is you have to give these strategies the opportunity to work. This means recognizing the moments where you are struggling with self-control and, rather than giving in to impulse, taking a look at these strategies and giving them a go before you give in.

How Successful People Stay Productive and In Control by Travis Bradberry

Adewale Wednesday, 28 October 2015

9 Easy Career Hacks That Very Few People Actually Do by David Teten

I gave a presentation to Womensphere a few months ago on the most valuable lessons I learned early in my career.  Back when I was an entry-level investment banking analyst at Bear Stearns (R.I.P.), our trainers gave us some basic advice on how to be a good analyst.  At the time these sounded obvious but now with hindsight, I think that most of your success in your career is just executing on these basic points.

If you follow the steps below, you’re well on your way to being a top quartile performer.

1. Listen and write down what you hear.  

I was told to always carry a notebook (now a smartphone), because clients and your seniors will ask you to do tasks. If you write down those tasks and actually execute them, you become known as someone worth asking to carry out these undertaking.

In my role as a venture capitalist, when I meet a founder, I often will make suggestions of people for them to meet, competitors to analyze and ideas to pursue. I don’t necessarily expect them to follow on any particular suggestion, however, I do note if they are writing down my suggestions.  If not, that indicates that they may not be the sort of person who’s diligent about listening to the market. Not good. Why take that risk?  

2. Get your data organized.  

Successful people are careful to retain and organize all of their notes: on meetings, people they meet and assignments for which they have responsibility, to name a few. Being extremely detail-oriented is generally a good professional characteristic.  

For instance, one of my standard interview questions for salespeople is, “What CRM system do you use, and how many people are in it?”  A bad answer is, “Excel and a few hundred.” A good answer is “Salesforce.com [or another real CRM system] and [a much larger number proportionate to your number of years of experience]”

3. Follow the instructions.  

Before you do any task, look for the instructions. For example, I’m amazed at how many funding pitches lack the basic information which investors require before funding -- even though Google provides that information in seconds. If a founder doesn’t do some basic research before approaching investors, it’s a sign she can't operate autonomously.

4. Look for prior art.

Lilin Wang, a graduate student at Cornell Tech, observes that others have already tackled 80 percent of technical problems she tries to solve. If you look for solutions on forums such as Stack Overflow before you do a task, you typically will save a lot of time. Similarly, Authorea (ffVC portfolio company) is working on being Github for academics, making the research process more efficient. Also, Quora is a particularly good resource for founders.

5. Over-communicate.  

If you don’t understand the objective of a task at hand or believe someone else has already accomplished it, it is important to keep an open line of communication with your colleagues. On the flip side, if you envision a way to produce a better result or product, communicate that to your colleagues and ensure it is aligned with their intended goal. Either way, you are making sure you are not wasting your time and reinforcing a relationship with others.

6. Double check.  

The smartest person doesn’t necessarily get promoted.  Rather, it’s the person who catches the inevitable mistakes and fixes them. It’s critical to double- and triple-check your work.  

For instance, whether it’s a text for a tweet or a fundraising deck, Raffi Sapire, an analyst at Acumen, prints out and re-reads every piece of content before sending to her team. One of the marks of a good financial modeler is building checksums throughout her model; the analogous principle holds true for other tasks as well.

Lisa Shalett, formerly a partner at Goldman Sachs, observes that there are two buckets of things: those you can control and those you can't control. For the things you can control, you should nail them.

7. Follow up.  

If you ask someone to do something, set up a reminder to make sure they actually executed it.  When I meet people, I often ask them to email me a business plan, a competitive analysis, resume or other document. I have noticed only 20 percent of people whom I meet actually do that.  Not good.

Alberto Pepe, CEO of Authorea, observed that many entrepreneurs, especially those coming straight from academia, don't follow up, because they don't want to be perceived as annoying or too pushy.

One way to think about this is to learn to be "professionally pushy."  In Getting Things Done, David Allen talks about the “Waiting For” list to keep track of follow ups you are waiting for from others. I track a lot of my “waiting fors" by starring certain emails in my sent messages.The people I work with know that I’ll follow up on my requests to them, which encourages them to revert to me sooner rather than later.  

8. Play nice and be nice.  

Early in your career, you typically advance based on a certain learned skillset. But very rapidly, your ability to work cooperatively with people inside and outside the firm becomes a big driver of your advance.   

9. Think differently.

Bring one idea to the table each month that would help your company or team achieve its goals and objectives for the year. Thoroughly think through the steps you will take to execute on that goal, and who needs to be involved at certain points. Even if only two ideas receive positive feedback and a go-ahead, highlighting your ability and history of disrupting the status quo is helpful when promotion discussions come around. 

9 Easy Career Hacks That Very Few People Actually Do by David Teten

Adewale

5 Ways to Make Enough Side Money to Eventually Quit Your Job

Nearly everyone dreams of quitting his or her day job, whether it's tomorrow, next year or in the next decade. However, there is a wide chasm between "dreams" and "action" that many people never seem to cross -- and it's usually due to finances.

Obviously, if you want to quit, you need to find another way to make enough income to pay your bills, save for the future and enjoy life. But what's the best way to do this? How can you make enough "side income" now so you can quit your job in the near future?

Here are five great ways to make side income while still working your day job:

1. Invest in real estate.

My eyes were first open to the idea of "passive income" after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Although not a real-estate book, it taught me the value of owning assets that produce income, which led me to real estate. Real-estate investing is not always passive, and not always easy, but it can be highly profitable. In addition, there are hundreds of ways to invest in real estate. For example, you could:

Flip housesOwn rental housesBecome a "house hacker"Own vacation rentals (AirBnB)Rent out duplexes, triplexes and fourplexesBuy and rent out apartment complexes

Real-estate investing is my favorite way to create side income because it runs like a locomotive. It might take a little time to build up, but once it's running, it goes a long way with less effort and is hard to stop.

2. Write a book.

Many people have dreams of writing a book, but very few ever do. They think it's too hard, that they don't know enough, don't have enough time, aren't smart enough or whatever other excuse they can come up with. But the truth is: you can write a book, and that book can help you make additional monthly income.

There are several avenues you can take when writing a book, and there is no "best route." For example:

You could write a series of shorter topic-specific books and publish them on Kindle.You could self-publish through your own website and sell to your existing customers.You could partner with a larger platform and sell to its audience (as I did).You could work to get published through a major publishing company (probably the most difficult path).You could record an audiobook and publish it on Audible.

Writing a book today is not as tough as it once was, as there are so many avenues with which you could publish. The keys are no longer held by elite publishing companies in New York City. The keys are now in your hands.

3. Sell a product on Amazon.

I'm slightly addicted to Amazon Prime, as my local UPS driver can attest to. It seems every day I have a package or two waiting at my doorstep -- and it's usually from people just like you. Most of them probably never touch the product that I'm buying.

That's right: you no longer need to have a warehouse, inventory or employees to buy wholesale products and sell them at retail. Amazon has leveled the playing field and now anyone can sell products.

A friend of mine, Chris from UpFuel.com, decided to sell products on Amazon. He researched best-selling ideas, contacted a manufacturer in China and had the perfect model designed, had the product shipped to Amazon's fulfillment center in the United States and sells his product on the site, making thousands of dollars a month in profit.

The best part? Chris doesn't ever touch the product, and it largely runs on autopilot at this point.

4. Sell your skills.

Chances are you are good at something in the business world. Perhaps it's accounting, data entry, video production or writing.

Whatever you are good at, there are likely people out there willing to pay you good money to run that part of their business for them. Smart business owners know that they should focus on what they are good at, and hire out the rest. This is where you can come in and make side income doing what you love.

In addition to freelancing, you could also become a consultant. For example, my friend Joshua Long turned his knowledge of Infusionsoft, ClickFunnels and other marketing systems into a full-fledged consulting business, where he helps CEOs identify existing opportunities in their businesses.

So what are you good at? What will other people pay you for?

5. Start a blog.

Finally, a good way to make side income can be with a blog. Although it takes time to build up a following, once you have that following there are numerous ways to monetize the blog.

Jeff Rose, from GoodFinancialCents.com, uses his blog to built up his authority as a certified financial planner, driving traffic and income to his business. At the same time, his blog allows him to monetize in other more passive methods, such as affiliate marketing, online products and consulting.

To succeed at blogging, it's important that you:

Focus on writing quality contentWork hard at getting that content out there to the worldBuild your email list from day one, so you can market to those people later.

Blogging is definitely not a "sit at home in your underwear and make easy money" kind of activity. It requires diligence, quality and time. However, blogging can be incredibly rewarding.

There is one common theme with all of the above methods for making side income. Do you know what it is? They all take work. That's right, you'll never achieve the kind of lifestyle you want if you don't work for it. So get out there today and start hustling. You'll be able to quit that job faster than you ever imagined.

5 Ways to Make Enough Side Money to Eventually Quit Your Job

Adewale

Save your Marriage

MARRIAGE
When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and  Said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly.  Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.
Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth.  But I had to let her know What I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, Why?
I avoided her question. This made her angry. She  threw away the Chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn't Talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what Had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory     Answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn't love her anymore. I just  Pitied her! With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated That she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.
She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent   Ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for Her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I Had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front Of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually A kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several  Weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.
The next day, I came back home very late and  found her writing something At the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to sleep and fell  Asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane.
When I woke up, she was still there at the table  writing. I just did not Care so I turned over and was asleep again.
In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want Anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She  Requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a  Life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month's time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken Marriage
This was agreeable to me. But she had something  more, she asked me to Recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.
She requested that every day for the month's duration I carry her out of Our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going  Crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd  Request.
I told Jane about my wife's divorce  conditions.She laughed loudly and Thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to Face the divorce, she said scornfully.
My wife and I hadn't had any body contact since  my divorce intention was Explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we  Both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy  In his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to The sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in  My arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don't tell our son about The divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside  The door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the Office.
On the second day, both of us acted much more  easily. She leaned on my Chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I  Hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she  Was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair Was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I  Wondered what I had done to her.
On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a  sense of intimacy Returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.
On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our  sense of intimacy was Growing again. I didn't tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry Her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me  Stronger.
She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few  Dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my Dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.
Suddenly it hit me... she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.
Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it's time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer  and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I  might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her     hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly;     it was just like our wedding day.
But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I  held her tightly and said, I hadn't noticed that our life lacked intimacy.
I drove to office.... jumped out of the car swiftly  without locking the  door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind...I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.
She looked at me, astonished, and then touched  my forehead. Do you have  a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won't divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I  didn't value the details of our lives, not because we didn't love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.
Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a  loud slap and then  slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away.
At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my  wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and  wrote, I'll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.
That evening I arrived home, flowers in my  hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed - dead.
My wife had been fighting CANCER for months  and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save  me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push  through with the divorce.-- At least, in the eyes of our son--- I'm a loving husband....
The small details of your lives are what really  matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse's friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!
If you don't share this, nothing will happen to  you.
If you do, you just might save a marriage.
Many of life's failures are people who did not  realize how close they     were to success when they gave up.

Save your Marriage

Adewale Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Sure ways to make money Online

Let’s say you’re a newbie to the world of online sales and are looking to make money online, but you’re starting with a small startup budget. With the blinding wealth of information available for new business owners, knowing how to spend your limited funds can be a bit intimidating. 

Here is a five-step checklist to help get you started and guide you toward success. 

1. Spend time getting feedback on what you’re selling before launching.

Don’t rely on affirmation from friends and family to validate that you have a unique and salable product or service. Chances are, these people are emotionally attached to you, and they’re more likely to think every idea you share is the greatest thing since Nutella. Getting feedback from people who are emotionally attached to you is a “disaster from the start,” says Adam Callinan, founder of BottleKeeper.

Get market validation from potential customers who aren’t in your social circle. Some entrepreneurs use the “will they pull out their wallet” test before investing money in a business. Callinan, who’d come up with a prototype for an individual beer bottle cooler, ran a crowdfunding campaign on Fundable to gauge pre-orders for his product. His campaign raised nearly $14,000, 280 percent of his $5,000 goal.

Besides Fundable, there are a number of crowdfunding platforms to choose from including Kickstarter, Indiegogoand Rockethub.

Other ways to get people’s feedback, says Sujan Patel, vice-president of Marketing at When I Work, is using customer insight survey tools, such asQualaroo and Client Heartbeat. If you’re just starting out, surveys are a chance to find out what the customer is hoping the product/service will solve or do for him or her. If you’re already in business, surveys can ask how the customer found out about the product or service, whether the customer is willing to be a return customer and why.  

Or if you’re in a job in the industry you plan on starting a business in, get feedback from the people at your job -- your manager and clients -- says Steve Tobak, founder of Invisor Consulting. 

2. Have a website.

You must have a website, says Joel Widmer, founder of Fluxe Digital Marketing. Not only for the obvious -- to have something to refer customers back to -- but having a website builds your brand’s digital footprint. Keep your site simple and copy-driven with opportunities for email captures on every page.

Anyway you can contact Adewale on 08038378196 for cheaRelatb design for your business or training on how to design a web yourself.

But if you are expert
Three easy steps to having your own website to sell products without spending a lot of cash are:

Select a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, which is popular for its user friendliness and is free.Register a domain name and subscribe to a hosting service, such as GoDaddy or Bluehost.Customize your CMS with ecommerce-enabling plugins and themes. WooCommerce offers free ecommerce themes for WordPress, such as Storefront. Also, WP eCommerce andMarketPress are additional free ecommerce plugin options.

Or for anyone setting up an e-commerce site, both Shopify andSquarespace are easy e-commerce platforms that allow you to build an e-commerce site yourself.  

3. Know your competition and customers.

Study up on both competitor and complementary brands (i.e. if you are selling a fire alarm, then look for “house safety” websites). Widmer says your customers will be hanging out on websites for both competitor and complementary brands. He recommends using search tools such asSimilarWeb and Google’s related-search results (located at the bottom of every Google search) to see what sites your prospective customer may be visiting.

Other free research tools to get to know your market, suggests Brandon Schaefer, CEO of MyVirtualSalesForce, are LinkedIn (to see who competitor brands are connecting with and what types of updates they're posting),Google Alerts (for brand mentions and keywords) and Google Trends.

4. Create an action plan for sales and marketing.

To earn your first million in sales, says Patel, work backwards and put a number on what it takes in monthly revenue to get to a million your first year -- meaning how many units, subscriptions or services must be sold. Create benchmarks to reach. Even if you don’t reach them, you have a blueprint.

One way to reach your goal is to figure out which marketing avenues to leverage. Given the wealth of social-media possibilities, start with one or two social-media outlets where you know your audience is. In general, for new products the best channels are Facebook and Pinterest, says Widmer. For expertise and services, try LinkedIn.

Also, two effective and free marketing strategies are blogging on your own site and guest blogging on complementary sites. This strategy helps build content and a digital footprint for your brand, says Widmer. For guidance on what hot topics to blog about, Buzzsumo, a free web service, allows you to input any domain or topic and get a list of the 10 most popular related posts at the moment. It can also inform you of what popular sites to hit up for guest blogging.

Should you guest blog, use the opportunity to lead users back to your site and capture emails, says Widmer. One way to do so is to use a “call to action” -- where you offer the reader something of value, such as a free how-to eBook or a must-have checklist -- that the user can get or download by going back to your website and providing an email address.  

Some other marketing tools? The freeKingSumo app allows you to capture email subscribers through giveaways;Facebook Ads start at $1; and the e-newsletter tool MailChimp has a free option and is drag-and-drop easy.

5. Do as much yourself as you can.

The DIY mentality will usually save you money if your budget is limited. Also, it allows you to control the process and brand, explains Callinan, who built his ecommerce site from scratch by talking to others who’d already done ecommerce sites successfully. Don't farm out jobs you can do yourself, especially in the beginning. 

If you need on-demand expertise from entrepreneurs with a track record, tryClarity, says Widmer. The service allows the user to get specific, consultant-level advice for a fee.

All startups are a gamble -- but as Patel advises, whose company will hit $10 million in revenue this year, “Hone in on where your strengths are and double down.”

Sure ways to make money Online

Adewale

20 Inspiring and Valuable Quotes

Every day I pick out a quote that I carry around with me and really spend a lot of time thinking about it. I think about the meaning of that quote and all of the possible ways on how I can adopt that into my way of living.

Below are 20 leadership quotes that I have been paying close attention to as of late. I hope these quotes add value to your life and inspire you to become a better leader.

1. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -- John Quincy Adams

2. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” -- Jack Welch

3. “Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people. Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers.” -- Simon Sinek

4. “Think about all the great leaders. Think about Obama. Think about Clinton. Think about all the people that we know who are very successful in business, in politics and religion. What are they? They tell purposeful stories. They move people to action by aiming at the heart.” -- Peter Guber

5. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” -- Colin Powell

6. “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” -- Ronald Reagan

7. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” -- Jim Rohn

8. “You manage things. You lead people.” -- U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Grave Murray Hopper

9. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” -- John Maxwell

10 “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” -- Warren Bennis

11. “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” -- Sam Walton

12. “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” -- Theodore Roosevelt

13. “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” -- Nelson Mandela

14. “Don’t find fault, find a remedy.” -- Henry Ford

15. “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office.” -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

16. “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

17. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” -- Napoleon Bonaparte

18. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.” -- Andrew Carnegie

19. “I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.” -- Colin Powell

20. “ As a leader … your principal job is to create an operating environment where others can do great things.” -- Richard Teerlink

20 Inspiring and Valuable Quotes

Adewale

Information marketing THE ADVANTAGES

Let's talk about why you'd want to build an information marketing business. Here are six advantages of such a business:

1. It replaces manual labor by "multiplying yourself" and leveraging what you know. Whether you're working for someone else or you're a professional selling your services by the hour or by the job, you're being paid for what you produce. The moment you stop producing, you stop getting paid.

Trying to multiply yourself by hiring employees to increase the amount of product you can sell is also full of hassles. Employees leave and take clients with them. You have liability issues even if the employee does a good job. There are hundreds of ways an employee can get a business owner into trouble. The work and the aggravation never end.

With an information marketing business, you create a product once, and you're done. It takes a lot of work to create the product, but you can sell it many times, often over a period of several years, without having to do any additional work. Creating an information marketing business is a terrific way to multiply yourself in a way that few other businesses allow.

With an information marketing business, everything you need to create a new product is already inside you. You don't need dozens of experts or newfangled distribution methods. An information marketing business allows you to take the information, the secrets, the techniques, the things you already know, and leverage them. That's the easy way to multiply yourself.

2. Buyers of your information products will buy more. The people who buy your information product will buy other information products from you, whether they're products you create yourself or products you license from others. You can also partner with other information marketers to sell your products or pay them to create products for you. Once you find a customer who wants information about a particular subject, that customer will continue to buy information from you on that subject.

Encouraging repeat business helps you further leverage yourself. You spend a certain amount upfront to identify potential customers and sell them your information product. That first product can then be used to sell them other information products. Once you've gotten a customer, you're going to be able to sell that customer many things as long as you continue to provide high-quality information at a good price.

3. A small amount of interaction with buyers is possible. One of the best things about the information marketing business is that very few customers insist on coming to your business location to buy your products. This means you can work at home and you don't have to worry about customers showing up at your door to buy your new book. You can create products and sell them online from your beach home or as you vacation around the world. As long as you've got a way to create a product, you don't have to be in any particular location for people to buy it. Not only is this exceptionally convenient, but it helps you get into this business with very little overhead expense.

4. Few staff members are necessary.The information marketing business is a terrific business because you don't need a lot of people to run it. Many info-marketers have no employees and instead pay an independent contractor to help maintain the customer database, ship products, and handle customers' questions. This is known as "outsourcing." You can literally operate a business that makes well over $1 million a year with very little staff and very little operating overhead.

5. It takes just a small investment to get started. The information marketing business doesn't require a lot of equipment, fancy offices, furniture or multiple computers. It doesn't require special licenses (in most cases) or special education or degrees. You just need to leverage the information you already know. How? By identifying a market of people who are excited about the information you have, creating a product those people want, and offering it to them in a persuasive way. That's why you can get into this business with a low startup budget. Of course, you must be willing to put some money on the table to find potential customers and market your product to them. If you try to do this business without any investment at all, you're certain to fail.

6. There's a large profit potential. Many info-marketers are making million-dollar incomes through their information marketing businesses. They researched potential customers, found out what those customers wanted the most, offered it to them in a compelling way, and then continued to sell their products until they were making a lot of money. This is a business that's completely scalable; you can make it as small or as large as you want.

But don't think an information business doesn't require work. It does. You'll have to work hard, just the same as any other entrepreneur does. The good news is, if you put in the necessary work, you can eventually replace your manual labor by multiplying yourself and leveraging what you know to create new products. Your customers are going to buy more from you in the future. You can run your business with little interaction with your customers. You can be successful using a very small staff. It takes a small investment, and the payoff can be huge--if you stick with it and continue to develop your business.

Information marketing THE ADVANTAGES

Adewale

Common habits among the successful people

There are those successful people out there who have it made. They catch break after break and se..
There are those successful people out there who have it made. They catch break after break and seem to just have all the four leaf clovers of the world in their pockets. But we know that it’s more than just luck on their side. We’ve found six consistent traits of phenomenally successful people and know that if you strive to match yourself to these that you too can become successful.

1. They Are Passionate

This might be a no-brainer trait but it might also be the foundation to a successful individual. Those who succeed love deeply what they do. Take a look at almost any athlete out there, they are passionate about what they do and almost always do it for the love of the gam. People like Tiger Woods knew at a young age what they loved and then made a life out of it. If you don’t know if you’re truly passionate about something just ask yourself if you would do it for free. If you would, then you’ve found your passion.

2. They Are Resilient

To be resilient is to face challenges, learn from them, and push through to success. Some of the most successful people in the world have faced the uncanniest struggles and have managed to come out on top. J.K. Rowling was rejected by 12 different publishers before selling the first Harry Potter novel. Successful people recognize each failure in life as a chance to learn something and to grow from it.

3. They Push Themselves Out of Their Comfort Zones

Phenomenally successful people know that they can’t just sit on their hands and hope that the ideas in their heads will some day become a real thing. They have to get up out of their house and begin to get their ideas out there. It’s a matter of getting out of your comfort zone, setting challenges, deadlines, and goals all to push yourself to continue to strive harder, work better, and succeed.

4. They Continually Create

Entrepreneurs like Time Ferris and Evan Williams are successful because they are continually creating. Rather than finish a project and end their careers there, successful people continue to study and create and form new ideas. Evan Williams didn’t just finish when he founded one company. If he had, we wouldn’t have Twitter, Blogger, or Medium. The daily routines of CEOs will show you how dedicated entrepreneurs and successful people are and how even CEOs continue to create and work hard to succeed until the end.

5. They Are Focused

A huge trait for successful people is focus. Not just that they can sit in a room and get the work done, but that they have a specific goal in mind. Successful people can narrow down and focus on the one thing that they know is important. Just look at someone like Walt Disney. His focus was on quality and innovation. For him it wasn’t about making money, it was about lifting the hearts of children and not with chintzy products. Disney even said that “quality will out.” He focused on qualityand what did that result in? A phenomenal empire that spans the globe with him being a household name throughout the world.

6. They Continue to Learn and Better Themselves

Current president of Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Ed Catmull wrote in his book Creativity, Inc. that the best thing to do “when faced with a challenge [is to] get smarter.” Successful people don’t assume that they know everything or that they are the smartest people out there. They continue to learn and better themselves and their craft. Some of the most successful people pick up new hobbies consistently throughout their lives and careers to keep their brains active and to help with creativity.

Common habits among the successful people

Adewale

Internet marketing

The importance of marketing to any business cannot be over emphasised. To succeed in a market, companies are spending billions of dollars every year on marketing. Since the invention of the internet and more recently the social media, marketing, as we know it, has dramatically changed and more and more companies are understanding that to succeed in this cutthroat environment, they do need to invest more in digital market.

As Africa experiences explosive internet penetration (Africa contributes at least 15 per cent of worldwide Internet user populations with Nigeria contributing more than 28 per cent of this population), more disruptions in the tech based companies and more youths are embracing entrepreneurship in the continent analysts predicted that digital marketing, especially in Nigeria, is ripe for mind-blowing growth.

A 2013 post on Financial Intelligence reported that an expected faster growth in Nigeria’s digital marketing due to the huge marketing potential ingrained in digital media as a part of the overall marketing mix, coupled with the increasing use of the Internet by Nigerians. There was no time frame on this prediction, however.

But on the eve of 2014, trend watchers predicted that budget of digital marketing will increase by eight per cent this year, just as Google was rumoured to have said that Nigeria’s digital market will reach $1 billion in 2015.

From affordability to easier accessibility and much more importantly, number of consumers, factors that make digital marketing more and more attractive have permanently ensured that digital marketing is here to stay.

Towards the end of 2014, Wall Street Journal reported that Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest advertiser is investing heavily on online marketing, reporting that the company will, before the end of this year, spend 35 per cent of total marketing budget online.

What, therefore, is responsible for this shift, so much that an iconic advertiser like Procter & Gamble, a company that pioneered some of the traditional practices used by companies the world over, to be shifting its marketing dollars online?

A few reasons come to mind. Results! With digital marketing, it is easier for the campaigner to track results than it is for traditional marketing. In the words of Maria Velasco, Social Media Coordinator at FindEmployment, the wide range of analytics and data allows digital marketers to be “able to analyse our own marketing campaigns and find out how the campaign performed and how it can be improved.  Of course you can get this data for traditional marketing campaigns but a digital campaign will allow you to measure the success in real time, giving you the advantage of planning more effectively and making changes almost instantly.”

Leveraging on the affordability of digital marketing, especially for small business owner, comes affordability. Taye Oluyomi for instance, realises that the same contents on the newspaper advertisement, radio and TV are cheaper more expensive than those posted on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, for instance. Not only that, campaigns on the social media campaigns infinitely reach more audience in any part of the world, unlike the traditional media.

To succeed, business wise, in today’s world, having a very digital footprint within the internet is absolutely important, Kemi Ajao, Digital Marketing expert in Lagos explained. According to a post on Forbes, “without a digital marketing strategy in place, new client acquisitions, brand visibility, and impactful revenue generating opportunities will likely be damaged.”

Therefore, Forbes highlighted “five most important digital marketing elements to consider” as mobile considerations, organic search, social media marketing, content marketing and lead nurturing. “All of these elements combined make up a cohesive digital marketing strategy. How you define these elements have a direct correlation on a successful campaign,” Forbes said.

Internet marketing

Adewale Monday, 26 October 2015

Oyo Governorship Updates

Oyo governor versus Ladoja: Tribunal delivers judgment Tuesday
October 21, 2015
   
The Justice Mohammed Mayaki-led Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal for Oyo State has fixed Tuesday, October 27 for judgment in a petition filed by Senator Rashidi Ladoja of Accord Party against the validity of the victory of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ladoja is asking that the tribunal declare him winner of the April 11 election, claiming that he polled the highest number of lawful votes and with 25 per cent in 22 out of 33 local government areas, or alternatively order a rerun of the election.
In his petition number EPT/IB/GOV/22/2015, the former governor, through his lawyer, Richard Ogunwole (SAN), averred that out of the 33 councils in the state, election only took place in 23 as well as in some units in the remaining 10 councils.
He argued further that the election was marred by non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2010, over-voting, non-accreditation of voters, deliberate refusal to use the smart card readers, ballot stuffing, ballot paper and boxes snatching, multiple thumb-printing of ballot papers, among others.
Ladoja had tendered about 100 exhibits and called many witnesses to buttress the claims in his petition during the hearing of the petition.
But Governor Ajimobi, through his counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), had wondered why Ladoja did not join former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of the Labour Party as respondent in the petition since it was Alao-Akala that won in the five councils in Ogbomoso which results Ladoja also challenged.
In his written address, Olanipekun told the tribunal to dismiss the petition for being grossly incompetent, with no substantial evidence and argued that Ladoja was not qualified to stand for the election because he did not emerge through party primaries.
Ogunwole, in his own address, challenged Olanipekun to provide proof that Accord Party did not conduct governorship primary before producing Ladoja as its candidate.
After adoption of the addresses on September 30, chairman of the tribunal, Justice Mayaki, informed counsel that the date of judgment would be communicated to them

Oyo Governorship Updates

Adewale Wednesday, 21 October 2015