THRIVING IN BUSINESS DURING HARD TIMES

I was on a short trip out of the country sometimes last year when the news of the global economic melt-down began to make sense to me. I saw as businesses there moved slowly that what they used to be (especially in my previous visits).

One question came to my mind: what would happen if this crisis eventually hit us directly here? Many businesses in Nigeria have been having it rough in good times. What would turn out if the situation becomes unfavourable? Try to imagine that.

Hard times are bound come, whether in life or in business. I have useful proves from history. The good news is that it’s seasonal, and not the end of the road. However, who you are and what you’ve got to face such times is very critical; it would determine what would become of you. ‘The problem’, someone said ‘is not the problem itself but the size of the mind confronting the problem’.

I’m not just talking about your surviving hard times but thriving and making a remarkable and sustainable growth as if nothing is happening. The question now is: what do you do to survive and thrive in the midst of economic crunch? Informed preparation before it bites harder would preserve your business and prevent it from going down.
Here is my advice which could possibly be helpful to you:

Maintain the Right attitude: Your attitude in difficult times is more important than any other thing. It sets the pace for what would happen while the period lasts. Things are not always as bad as they seems. And it can’t get so bad that there won’t be a way out. Most of the panic or fever we have is not real; they are speculation induced.

Hard times are times of fresh business opportunities. In this period, new businesses would emerge, but you must possess a positive attitude in order to see them. Closed eyes are closed opportunities. Remember, opportunity is in the eye of the beholder. People with right attitude would swim where as those with negative attitude would sink. In other words, if your attitude is negative, you see things negatively and if you attitude is positive, you see things positively.
Whenever things look bleak, always learn to display a sunny outlook towards the situation and watch what would happen; you’d be amazed. Charles Swindoll advised, ‘The most significant decision I make each day is my choice of an attitude. When my attitudes are right there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.’ I have personally gone through rough times in my business. One of the things that kept me going was my attitude.

Interestingly, your attitude is your choice – you choose how the situation would affect you, or not affect you. See the recession as a time that would usher in great things for your business, and then follow through your convictions. ‘The success and failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities.’ So, taught Walter Scott.

Reposition and Restructure Your System: Like I said earlier, another world of business opportunities is knocking on the door. Remaining where you are, and doing things the way you’ve always done them may be very costly. Joel Barker, the author of the book Future Edge remarked, ‘When a paradigm shifts, everyone goes back to zero. Your past success means nothing.’ There is a paradigm shift in the business arena, and it’s still shifting. Without proper alignment you trail behind.

One of the primary keys to remaining in business is flexibility. Flexibility is a good business virtue. You have to be flexible enough to respond appropriately to whatsoever change that may come your way. The business world after all, is a dynamic world. To enable you make the most of the emerging trend, you have to make necessary adjustments. This might demand your learning, unlearning, and relearning certain business skills. Do them so as to secure the future of your business.

Focusing on what really matter makes you produce the result that really counts. This time calls for your concentrating only on what you are very good at, and then pour yourself and resources into it. Give up whatsoever you struggle at before now, and focus on your core competencies. Eliminate the unnecessary to maximise resources.

This might require your doing an inventory analysis to know your true strength and weakness, and capitalise on where you have competitive advantage. Identify priorities and refocus your resources where they are going to give you gainful returns. ‘The most successful business man,’ Robert P. Vanderpool said, ‘is the man who holds the old just as long as it is good, and grabs the new just as soon as it is better’.

If a business is not reinventing itself and adapting to the times, it would die. In business, a permanent state of reinvention is good for you future growth. That something worked today does not guarantee the same tomorrow. In addition, you’d have to set up a creative atmosphere that would give room for development. This has been very helpful to me in my outfit.

Engage in People-Oriented Service: The basic aim of any business is to meet a need and make profit in the process. I don’t know of any other thing. Hard times don’t eliminate businesses completely (although some businesses may be suspended or even go into extinction in the process). But human needs are rather compounded than eliminated during economic depression. At a time like this, those who are not called into business might not survive it; things that would discourage you would abound but don’t give up.

You’ve got to redouble your effort to give your clients seamless services that truly meet their needs like no other. People will be too conscious of how and where they spend their money. If it’s not worth it they would hold back or go elsewhere. Everybody has a ‘product-service’; it’s what you do beyond the ‘product-service’ that makes all the difference in business.
There would certainly be need s for what you are offering but you have to improve in your approach to generate enough patronage. It might also necessitate your establishing a stronger relationship with your key buyers to retain their loyalty. Much out there are seeking for the attention of few buyers. Why not be the one they would love to do business with all the time, no matter the market situation?

Adopt New Strategies: The period of recession calls for re-strategising. Strategies have to accept new fundamentals. No business would ignore the realities of its environment and still win. Take another look at your business. Will the strategies you have now carry you through the rough road? If yes, congratulations but if no, you have to adopt fresh measures.

A lot in business depends on strategy. Each business day is a class room opportunity to relearn and rework. Business situations always create new realities that demands more from us. Victory here hinges on your ability to convert what’s on ground to your advantage. Develop a new strategic framework to understand you true position and the possible impact of the challenging times on your business, and then make critical changes. I called this the scoreboard-strategic approach. It doesn’t take just a strategy to win; it takes the scoreboard strategy – the strategy you adopt based on current truth. You can’t win without a strategy but you can lose with one except the scoreboard strategy. I see you winning, and winning big with it!

Integrate the G-Factor: Integrate the G-factor. G is for God. Yes God. The Almighty God is the God of business and He is interested in your running a thriving business, whether in good times, and in presumably hard times. In the domain of God, there is no recession. You can introduce the same in you enterprise and live in that domain. I am surely there.
If reputable business scholars and business schools cannot find an immediate answer to the tumbling global economy, I know God can. Check the history, any time there’s a problem beyond man, there’s usually a need for one that’s divine. Some call it divine intervention. And He never fails. God is the surest security your business needs now. I am saying this experientially. I won’t be truthful to myself if I don’t tell you my secret.

There’s always this still voice that whispers to our hearts whenever we are in a kind of business cross-road. (And that’s one aspect of it). The problem is that we are usually too busy to hear or listen. That voice has a message that you can’t find in any business book. Would you listen? It’s up to you to decide.

There is so much to talk about but with these you can restart your business on a better note. So go and take action. Don’t panic and be courageous even when what you expect is not what you are seeing, and a new world of business would open up to you. Feel free to get my attention if you need further assistance. It’s up to you to make your business happen.

Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist, and the Principal Strategist, TA Strategic Solutions, a Lagos-based firm that is into business growth and development. www.ta-strategies.com tony@ta-strategies.com ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk 08051403056

Making Marketing Fun

There could be more volume of books and articles written on marketing or market related topics than on any other business issue that I know. Research has it that more money is ‘wasted’ in marketing than in any other human activity (outside government). Yet, it appears that the number one business challenge is in the market, or rather marketing.

Like I mentioned in my work on The Business of Marketing, businesses all over the world struggle because they simply haven’t found ways to generate constant streams of customers and keep them buying time after time. The success and failure of any business is entirely down to how the business is marketed; the sure business maker and breaker.

To many people, marketing is becoming harder as the competition is becoming fiercer each passing day. Not too many of us see marketing as glitzy; the rest see it as either complicated, a burden, a necessary evil, stressful, and sometimes mysterious. As a result, they feel shy or scared, and often time lack the confidence to market their ‘product-service’ to the targeted market. They are probably afraid of failure or rejection. But if you must remain in business, you must be in control of what goes on in the market, whether you feel like it or not. To succeed in business, you must attain some level of marketing mastery, either as an individual or as an organization.

Marketing is a natural aspect of your business, or rather what it should be. I have done a lot of work for enterprises and most of their worries tilt towards the market and marketing uncertainties. How can we demystify this marketing thing, and make this all important part of our business life fun?

Obviously, you don’t need a degree in marketing to be a skillful marketer. No. I have seen people with several marketing qualifications who are still in a big marketing mess. For this piece of writing to be very beneficial to you, you’ve got to discard every misconception and ill-feeling you previously harbour regarding marketing.

The marketing environment is dynamic. It’s good that we understand what works in today’s marketplace, and how best to tap into it. Many business executives may have employed almost all the marketing mix – They may have a good price for their wonderful ‘product-service’, known the right places to market it, done their promotion very well, and even played the politics but still miss the profit. I think that something must be wrong with the whole mix.

Marketing is everything you do to attract and keep customers in your business. And it is a combination of logic (and sometimes intuition), and connecting them to synchronize with emotion of the buyer. If the old marketing techniques don’t provide the desired result, it’s very imperative we try something new. We would be looking at two fundamental marketing ingredients that dozens tend to neglect during marketing exercise.



Understanding the Prospective Buyer
You shortchange yourself if you don’t know who you are marketing to. It’s usually difficult to relate to a person you barely understand in any way. A good understanding of who is buying helps you to build the exact platform to achieving your objective effortlessly. This comes naturally when you first establish rapport with him or her. Rapport is the link that connects you, your prospective buyer and your ‘product-service’. Whenever it’s in place, reaching on agreement becomes easier.

Marketing is not a blind game. And neither what you realize at the end of a long talk or demonstration, but the point you reach while you are busy connecting with the prospective buyer, bearing in mind his or her unique nature. Excellent marketers don’t have their eyes closed on the prospect; they focus on them, and how to get their product-service across effectively. Knowing who you are marketing to set the tone for the rest of the transaction. If you don’t know who is buying and why he is buying, and how you ‘product-service’ would benefit him, how would you sell? You would ultimately loose him and there would be no sell.

You would primarily need to determine your customers ‘make-up’. For instance, his personality and communication style, and then channel what you’ve got to meeting his true make-up. Resolving this earlier would give you access into his comfort zone- the zone where he opens his wallet for you happily. He now sees you as a friend who understands what he really wants. Your ability to move into your buyers ‘comfort zone’
sets a stage for a very positive working relationship even after the first sale. (Relationship is the anchor that holds every business, including marketing). When you fail to put up a relationship you miss bigger opportunities afterwards.

As people differ, so are the strategies for reaching them. As we are different, so are our needs, expectation and drive. To help you understand your buyer better, here is my advice: listen, observe and follow through. But it all begins in listening.

We fail to spot chances when we fail to listen. Closed ears are closed opportunities, and you end up making presentation to the wrong audience. And when you have the right buyer, you spend time talking about your ‘product-service’ features and not the benefit; I mean the ‘buyer’s benefit’. This is like majoring on the minor. Benefits strike a chord in the mind all the time. Always remember that, benefit, value and quality are all relative. You only sell customized benefit, that is, what benefit means to the buyer. So, listen, listen, listen. Listening makes marketing easier.

Position Your ‘Product-Service’
Your position is the place you occupy in the mind of your prospective buyer; it is how you are perceived by him or her. And it is perception driven. One significant thing that counts in marketing is the customer’s perception of your ‘product-service’. Your duty as a good marketer is to create the right perception. Marketing is a game of mental warfare; a battle of perception, and not of product or service. The rule of this game is manipulating those perceptions so as to appear as the best and also the most preferred. There are no best products, not even one. All that exist in the world are perceptions in the mind of the customer or prospect.

It’s very important to know the person you are marketing to, and more importantly how to position your ‘product-service’ to reaching him. It is your primary duty to construct a bridge that would make your marketing messages (spoken and unspoken) to get to, the receiver’s mind precisely. This is the whole idea of positioning. Precision is the key. If you miss it here, you may hardly regain it.

People have several reasons for buying. This is where you employ the knowledge you previously had about the buyer and then sell his benefit to him to her. While doing this, you should have one question in mind: how would I position this ‘product-service’ to meet the immediate needs of this prospective customer more then those of my competition? Answering this question earlier makes the rest of the work easier. Of course you are not the only one seeking the attention of the buyer.

To get your position right, you must have first defined it. I mean you must have take up a position that best suit you - your passion, uniqueness, specialty, and then drive that position to a conclusive end. If you fail to determine your position, you end up confusing yourself and your buyer, and what you get is rejection.

The bottom-line of marketing is to make a profitable sale. The sale is the ultimate marketing event – you are marketing to sell. It’s one long journey that transits at certain ends. (Let’s leave it for another day). So, understand the buyer, position your ‘product-service’, and enjoy the experience. But remain confident, be consistent, professional, and patient and maintain your excitement. And when you get your ‘product-service’ in the mind of your buyer, remain there.

There is much to say than the paper can contain. For a comprehensive marketing training programme for your team, feel free to get my attention. Marketing has just begun to be fun, and it’s up to you to make it happen!

Tony Ajah is a highly consulted Business Growth Strategist. He is the Principal Strategist, TA Strategic Solutions, a Lagos-based firm that is into business growth and development.
www.ta-strategies.com tony@ta-strategies.com ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk 0805 140 3056

Before You Start a Business

Without any doubt, it’s the entrepreneur’s world. Statistics has it that 74% self made millionaires in America are entrepreneurs – people who started and built their own businesses. The awareness is gradually getting to this place very rapidly. The question I keep asking myself is this: do we have enough businesses yet? And the answer is no; entrepreneuring’ has just begun.

However, we still have one major challenge. It is on record that 80% of businesses go out of business the first year. And of those that remain, 80% of them will not be in business five years from now. This statistics is very alarming. Why do many people start businesses and fail to complete them? They had great spirit at first, which gradually began to wane when realities hit them. The answer is not far fetched.

Businesses are built on fact. Most blunders made by many start-ups are those of assumptions rather than facts. I have come to realize that the difference between a successful entrepreneur and an unsuccessful one is in what they know and do, and in how much value they place on the two.

It’s laughable that a lot of people venture into businesses armed with nothing but their raw ideas and they still expect to make it big. Ideas are not enough, after all everybody has an idea.

Don’t stop at idea – everything is execution under the right knowledge. Nothing could be so frustrating like having an idea that you don’t know how to express. That was why Thomas Edison taught that, ‘The value of a good idea is in using it.’ No idea is worth more than the structure that supports it. ‘It isn’t the quality of the ideas you have that will determine whether you make a success of them; it’s the qualities you bring into those ideas.’ So, advised Harvey Mackay. Those ‘qualities’ could chiefly be accessed via authentic fact that is based on current business realities.

Businesses mature in the same way that human beings do. And if you don’t have what supports their growth and development, they die, (all the ideas in this world not withstanding). Any business idea without a thought-out structure dies a natural death. A lot of Nigerians victims of this bitter experience; they have put millions of naira into their ideas and came out with nothing. If they had known better, the story would have been different.

An entrepreneur increases his chances of surviving and thriving if he puts a strong system behind his ideas. Usually, we suffer for what we do not know. Robert Kiyosaki was right when he quipped that, ‘It’s not the system that you know about that are the problem – it’s the system you are not aware of that cause you to crash.’



Knowledge is very critical for every business development. Every business is a system of inter-locking and inter-operating systems. The most important part of any enterprise is the system behind the business idea. If the system is weak, the business collapses but if the system is strong, the business flourishes.

Here’s Kiyosaki’s additional statement on this: ‘Many people have ideas that could make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. The problem is, most people have never been taught how to put a business structure inside their ideas and so many of their ideas never take shape or stand on their own.’ Isn’t that revealing? I can say with all authority that it does not take just a great idea build an enviable business as it would take a great person (mind) behind the idea. More businesses fail from inside-out. It’s not the idea that’s to blame but the pilot of the idea. To be successful in any endeavor, your business will require all of you – your time, energy, resources, and commitment.

We are blessed with so much business ideas. The irony is that many of these ideas lack substance. Yet, only a few people care to know or seek for professional help. Scores of those who have succeeded in business today were at one time struggling until they learnt the secret, some times from the experts. As they began to do what ought to be done, their story changed.

Growing a strong enterprise is not a function of quality of your ‘product-service’, or your ideas, or even the number of years you have spent in the pursuit. But largely at what rate you are moving, doing the right things. ‘The best proof,’ Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher remarked, ‘that something can be done is that someone else has done it.’ If you do what is required your business will grow. Any one who wants to enjoy the juicy fruit of business must give it his all.

Your business foundation must be very strong. And one of such foundational areas is in your business plan. A well worked out business plan is a requisite for thriving enterprise. If your business ideas are not convincing on paper, you could be driving at a terrible speed with your eyes closed. If you can’t commit to writing them down, you perhaps won’t commit yourself to following it through – if you won’t connect to paper, you won’t connect to reality. ‘The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it to happen.’ So said Lee Iacocca.

Wouldn’t you prefer to make your business blunders on paper? And save time, gain speed and direction. According to H. Stanley Judd, ‘A good plan is like a roadmap. It shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.’ For instance, you could assess your market opportunities on paper by doing what I called ‘business intelligent gathering’. It’s no longer the question of ideas but the marketability of those ideas. (The success and failure of any business is almost down to how well it’s marketed. Yours cannot be an exception).

When you do poorly on paper, the tendency of reproducing the same practically is there. If the need be, engage the services of experts as you start your business. Don’t rely on assumptions, rather consult. It cost you some money but you would gain it at the long run. Barry J. Gibbons once observed, ‘There are two groups of people confused by business today: those who are in it and those who aren’t.’ To avoid confusion of any sort, prepare for your business. Preparation is winning.

You are the only one playing your own game, and have yourself to bless or blame. You could be the next to start a business, why not get the necessary assistance on how to build a system before taking your chance. You can start you business and start very strong. It’s up to you to make your business happen.

Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist. He is the Principal Strategist, TA Strategic Solutions, a Lagos-based firm that is into business development.
http://www.ta-strategies.com/ tony@ta-strategies.com 08051403056