Online Business At a Glance

Online business which is also known as e-business/internet business is any kind of business that is done over the internet. 

A person who has a part time or full time carrier online, i.e. using the internet to generate money is said to be running online business. Running an online business though may be difficult especially as a beginner but when properly done can put millions of naira into your bank account, and the good thing about online business is that it can be done from the comfort of your home and at your spare time. A lot of businesses can be done online and this may include affiliate marketing, bulk SMS, web building and development, stock trading, blogging etc,

Online business only requires you having little knowledge about the computer, and it startup requirement is not too expensive because it can be done in a cafe. All you need do is think of a passion you can sell or any type of online business you desire try to know all about the business, start doing the business, grow in the business and  making money.

Types of online business

Below are types on business you can do online

Website building and development

Affiliate marketing

Blogging

Online investments

Stock trading/forex

Information marketing

E-commerce business

Freelance writing

Survey

Online advertising

Sales of various forms/ scratch cards e.g. waec, neco, jamb etc

Recharge card business etc

Steps in doing online business

1. Find a niche and get enough information on the niche.
2. Build a mini website and write good post or ebook
3. Use search engines to drive traffic to your site.
4. Advertise your site using social media.
5. Follow up with your customers and subscribers with e-mail.
6. Monetize your site.

Step 1: Find a niche and get enough information on the niche.

Online business requires you doing what you are good at, for instance, if you love fashion, beauty, cooking, dieting, sport etc then you are advice to start with it. Also you have to know what people love about your desired niche. Know that if you are going into buying and selling, you don’t just pick a product you love but a product that is hot in the market. You also need to get also of information about your niche by:

• Joining online forum.
• Doing key word research.
• Visiting other websites that is into your type of business.
• Buying eBooks or any materials that discusses your line of business.etc

Step 2: Build a mini website and write good post or eBook.

A website is seen as your online store and you can get free site from BlogSpot, wordpess etc. Try as much as possible to make your site very attractive and user friendly. Create good and quality post about your business. Use compelling headline that is very catchy and mind blowing. Try to tell you potential customers about the uniqueness of your product and how it can profit them.

Step 3: Use search engines to drive traffic to your site.

Introduce pay-per-click advertising which helps you to get immediate traffic to your site. Also update your site on a regular basis.

Step 4: Advertise your site using social media.

Social media technologies take different forms which including blogs, business networks, enterprise social networks, forums, micro-blogs, photo sharing, products/services review, social bookmarking, social gaming, social networks, video sharing and virtual worlds. Some of the viable social media that can do the magic include facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Ello, YouTube, nairaland etc.

Social media allows a business to promote and market its own brand, with 46% of customers using social media as a primary source in their purchase decisions. It is therefore clear to that using social media sites to promote a business proves successful in expanding the overall growth and helps to consolidate the businesses concept and meaning. Thus social media presents a viable prospect across several ruts to establish strong and enigmatic business, services, and business concept.

Step 5: Follow up with your customers and subscribers with e-mail

You can turn visitors into buyers when you create an opt-in list in your site; by so doing you’ve created one of the most valuable assets of your online business. Then your visitors have no choice than turn subscribers wherefore they have given you the boulevard to send them e-mail. Thus they have asked you; for your services, to create a lasting relationship with them and always give them updates on products and services. This can only be achieved by the power of e-marketing through following up with your customers and subscribers with e-mail

Step 6: Monitize your blog

Website monetization is the process of converting existing traffic sent to a particular website into income. The ways of monetizing a website are by employing Pay per click (PPC) and Cost per impression (CPI/CPM) advertising. Various ad networks aid a webmaster in placing advertisements on pages of the website so as to gain from the traffic the site is experiencing.

There are several monetization options, and your website niche, target audience, traffic volume, and visitor behavior are what to consider determining the options that are most essential for you. Here are some of the monetization options that are popularly used; Google AdSense, Infolinks, Sponsored Posts & Reviews, Gate Premium Content, Generate & Sell Leads, Related Posts, Paid Private Forum, Affiliate Offers, Create & Sell Your Own Digital Product etc.

So as to start generating revenue, however you don’t have to try and do all of these at once but give sufficient time to make sure it strive. There is no magic to success; you need to see what will work for your website and the target audience. 

Read furtheron how to monetize your site

Info on Family Budgeting

Family budget helps to control and manage money and helps to provide a more prudent way spending. Thus, providing a more realistic way to save and to meet up with tangible financial goals and demands. The following tips will help you achieve an outstanding family budget.

Estimate your family's income

Estimate your weekly, fortnightly, or monthly wages (after tax) plus any other income that you regularly receive. Also include money such as bonuses, income from investments, shares or interest.

Redirect your expenses towards priority

The main objective is to spend within your needs and to redirect your money toward priorities – or, better yet, dreams or what you consider germane.

Redirect your expenses towards priority

You can make it simple by harnessing the power of Excel spreadsheets, Quicken and other software programs that is if you know how to work with or knowledgeable using software notwithstanding there is nothing wrong with using a pencil and piece of paper.

Categorise your family expenses

Living expenses could be divided into two categories – Essential and discretionary.  The essential costs to list in the budget will include housing, utilities, transport, food, education, and medical expenses.

The discretionary may include goods and services that may not be necessarily essential or required but can be ignored or regulated such as takeaway food, a coffee at work, Pay TV bills, gifts and etc. then you can now create subcategory based on essential and discretionary.

Track discretionary expenses

Track discretionary expenses in specific ways, then establish realistic monthly allotments for each of them. Lots of people can not ascertain how much they spend on dining out, travel, gifts, clothing, shoes, personal care and etc. getting a track of these expenses will help create a realistic budget.

 Budget for a time Frame

Decide on a time frame for your budget - it could be weekly, monthly or yearly plan depending on the goals ahead.

Work within your income

This means you have to work out your daily or monthly income and also work out your expense on the bases of daily, monthly and otherwise. This will help you spend within and not above but having extra to save. Make sure you have justification for spending.

Plan your expense by anticipating them, and avoid impromptu buying.

Pay off your debt and avoid buying on credit

Make sure you don’t owe. And beware of the person giving you loan to buy a car when it not a necessity. When you owe pay off, debt will always bring you back into more debt and penury.

Cut down on your expenses

Try to spend less and increase savings. If your budgeting process reveals that you’re getting hit with one bill right after another, you can work out modalities down.

You can start by try predicting all your expenses for the next 30 days. Then you can make real-time adjustments as needed by shifting money from one category to another and saving more money.

Always spot out the weakness of your budget and upgrade

You can achieve by doing constant evaluation, adjustment and update.

Leadership Base Of Character

Any economical collapsed or melt down is owed to  character bankruptcy.

No great man falls or fails without first failing in character. Charecter is cardinal to any type of leadership. You can't say one thing and your character says another. Successful leadership is an offspring of formadable, tested and proven character.

The character question – lose everything but character – character is the most important asset – it is the worst lost a man can suffer- once there is character then destiny is preserved – character is the greatest liability a person can possess – you can only go up on the wings of character

Crisis of character – lecturer striving to sleep with students etc; character bankruptcy is responsible for the rot and dearth in leadership today; calculated bank frauds; behind every divorce is character lost; massive character collapse in the country has destroyed the entire system

What Is Character – it is your distinctive identity (what you are known for); it is your attitude and action in secret (who you are when no one is watching); it is your behavior under pressure (real character is defined under pressure. Everybody behaves normally when things are normal but under pressure what happens)

Importance of character

Character determines destiny - the strength of your character determines the strength of your destiny, it is impossible to have a weak character and a strong destiny, you cannot have a destiny that is bigger than your character; you are doing nothing about your destiny until you are doing something about your character.

The eagle’s example (the eagle is the king of the birds, 10,000 feet above sea level, wing to wing 9 feet, it can carry weights 3 times above its size, flying at 120 miles per hour and can see its prey which is 100 kilometers away); apart from vision, eagle has the power of vision and it does not eat corruption; compare the eagle with the vulture (they are from the same family); those who feast on corruption settle for limitation

The Lion – the lion is the king of the wild - it does not eat corruption 

Gold is also the king of metals – the value of gold is enhanced by the elimination of impurities; impurity reduces the quality of gold just as iniquity reduces quality of a destiny.

Charisma without character equals disaster; authority without integrity equals calamity.

Character makes for consistency – only a fool fires a man of character; how strong you are in character determines how long you last. Perpetuity would never occur where character is unstable.

What you loose when you lose character

·         You lose the trust and respect of others.

·         You lose the right to transfer legacies to the next generation. 

·         You lose divine direction and help.

Character boosters

·         Fear of God

·         Faithfulness

·         Contentment

·         Consistence

·         Truthfulness

Integrity

·         Honesty

Understanding Leadership

The Biblical root of leadership

Authority for leadership here is the Bible, it is a reliable authority for leadership; every sound leadership principle are buried in it; it is a manual for profitable living (2Timothy 3; 13 and 16); it is a manual for maximizing destiny (Deuteronomy 28; 1-3) and a practical book to be applied (Matthew 7; 24-25). 

Leadership started in Genesis when God brought the entire animals to Adam to name and whatsoever name he called them then it was so.

Keynotes on leadership

Ø  Leadership is taking the lead and finding the path. It is not taking title or an appointment.

Ø  Setting the pace; not occupying a place or Position.

Ø  Blazing the trail; not telling the tales.

Ø  It is not occupying a seat; it is accomplishing a feat.

Ø  It is not an appointment; it is a product of one’s attainment.

Ø  It is not an endowment; it is an accomplishment.

Ø  To bear a leadership does not make you a leader.

Ø  That you are a founder does not mean you are a leader.

Ø  That you are bishop or archbishop or chief and even king does not mean you are a leader.

Ø  There is no entitlement in titles; the entitlement is in the price paid. It is in the accomplishment.

Ø  It is not occupying a position; it is making outstanding contributions.

Ø  More than 80 percent of men who changed the world aren’t politicians.

Ø  More than 80 percent of men who changed the cause of history in the world are not presidents of any country.

Ø  The subject of leadership is simply the subject of outstanding success in ones field.

Ø  The leadership era is now; an era where only leaders have the answers.

8 – Fundamental steps of leadership

Direction – locating your field; indications of direction

Vision – set target create a clear picture of what you want in the pursuits of life and enterprise.

Wisdom – how to get there; it is the capital price; acquisition and intelligible application of relevant knowledge; 1 million without knowing how is equal to failure; Wisdom is not common sense; schooling is not education, it only empowers your literacy; you are either building a library or building a mortuary

Discipline – efficient management of time, energy and resources; investing your energy appropriately; discipline determines your distinguishing; operating as demanded and not as convenient

Diligence – hard work; doing your best; only hard workers become high flyers; work your field because it will never work itself; hard work does not wear people out it is wrong work that does; if you are not a hard worker you are a life waster; hard work does not kill but laziness does

Sacrifice – going beyond your best; going the extra mile; paying the extra price; investing the extra time, energy and resources; there is nothing extra ordinary on its own but it is man’s extra ordinary input that makes it so; there is no star without a scar. The scar of every star is his sacrifice

Dedication – commitment to your course and pursuit in you endeavor is a strong step to becoming a champion in that field.

Passion/Compassion – the level of passion you have towards your call is the extent of impart you make. Most great men in history are men of great passion. If you want to heal the sick always have compassion when you see them. Men of renown impart are people of nonstop compassion.

10 Keys On How To Fulfill Dreams/Destiny In Life

Dreams are desire created in the mind of an individual; a long or short term mental picture of the future. It comprises what the person wants to become or achieve at a particular time in life. It could also be viewed as goals and ambition that are purposeful. Then when we dream sometimes it seems like mere wishes of a beggar.  There is a saying that goes thus “if wishes were hoses beggars would ride on them.” But on the contrary, it is only the wishes of beggars that can not be ridden on; the wishes of a prudent man may just be that wing he needs to fly to the place of greatness. I think one can actually ride on wishes if you make them realities. If there were no wishes how then can there be reaches? Dream is all it takes. How then can we bring these dreams into reality?

Key1- Get a dream

Dream and make sure you dream big. Create a mental picture of the future, if it is real in you heart it will one day be real in your hands. Dream one, dream yet another and while still trying to put it down dream again. It cost nothing to dream, those who fear to dream fear the possibility of actualizing it, so they think is better not thinking of any future goals, ambitions or dream. The story of Joseph makes it clear on how to dream several dreams (Gen 37:1-9).

Key2- Harmonize the dreams

When we say dream one dream yet another, we do not mean you should be zigzag; let your dreams have a confluence. Let them be complementary, geared towards achieving a unique purpose. All Joseph’s Dreams were so harmonious they were pointing towards certain purpose of Joseph’s life; becoming the set man that they all will depend on in the nearest future (Gen 37). You want to be a pilot and at the same time you want to be a politician. That may not be harmonizing enough.

Key3-Eliminate distractions

Joseph was sold into Egypt his master was found of him, he handed everything into his hands. That would have been breakthrough enough to say he has arrived but on the contrary, he was still focused; the throne was his target. Not for long his master’s wife set her eyes on him, he chose to go to prison rather than to be imprisoned by errors and lusts and pleasure of life that will attract curse and reproach. If he had yielded, he would have ended up his journey to greatness as a slave and a sex toy. Let it be clear to you on what you want and where you want to be. No man that wars entangled himself with the affairs of this world. To eliminate distraction; focus, determination and personal conviction of purpose are just the keys.

Key4- Spell it out

Make your goals clear; write them out in other of priority. Don’t begin to live life to chance and opportunity. Get a clear cut of what you want and stop living in obscurity of uncertainty. The opportunity to manifest your dream can only come if you have a clear cut of what you want.

Key5- Let your behavior shows it

The story of Rueben is still very fresh in my mind (Gen 49). He missed his destiny and that of all his generation because of his inability to overcome sexual urge or drive. He made it worse by sleeping with his father’s wife. He has all the credentials (Gen 49:3 …..Excellency of dignity and the Excellency of power) but he had no credibility. If you want to be great then you must act like one. Everyone has weaknesses there is no super human, but hay, in the midst of all that you must work it out and let your dream reflect on your character. Imagine a pastor, Deacon, Church member who sleeps around and commit immorality with church girls or guys and yet wants to get results, it is not possible.

Key6- Locate people of like mind or people that will help lift you up

Jonathan was a friend of David in 1Sam23:16; Jonathan helped David to find strength in God. Your friends should be vision helper and not killers. Moses has his father-in-law to help him handle the Israelites. His advice helped at a time he needed it most.

Key7- Locate wise men, successful men, and great men in the field of your endeavor

It is good to emulate men of outstanding character and quality, learn their success story. That will help a long way. In any facet of life or path you are threading or want to thread, there are people who have gone through it before. It is better you learn from their experiences. Sometimes they may have written their experiences down in books or/and tapes. If you can get close to them or make them your mentor even If it is going to be from a distance it is going to help live the desire dream. Joshua was servant of Mosses whose follower are you or you just want to be made on your own?

Key8- Work towards it and work it out

Plan on how you can achieve it and make sure you achieve it. It may take time and attention; give it all it takes to make it come through. In doing this you have to pray, plan, strategize, endure, work hard and work smart.  Be willing to start small. People want to get rich over night and most time they die over night. Dream is not a get rich affair it is perseverance, persistence and all it takes (that which we have discussed) to get your desire to come to light. You may be rich yet unfulfilled. But you can not be fulfilled yet not be rich.

Key9- Be flexible, correctable, approachable and reliable

Some people are unnecessarily rigid, it is good to be firm but be flexible. Learn to take correction because that is one of the ways you can improve in what you do. Always be available to carry out your assignment and responsibility. Although David was not recognized by his siblings, he was always about his assignment no doubt that attests for his recommendations by God himself (1Samuel 16:1-13).   

Key10- Be ready to interpret the dreams of others

Joseph could interpret his dreams; he knew what was up for him in the future so it was no news he was willing to follow it. But he came to stardom only when he interprets the dream of his fellows in his prison house. Invest in the life of people around you. Help them stand to their feet, their rising may be you chance to living your dream

.

Go ahead live your dream it is your destiny you can make it happen. Cheers!

Essential Money Skills

It has been established by lots of speakers that poverty is not the lack of money but the squat of ideas; money making ideas. Even the best ideas in the world are worthless if they are not put into use. Wealth creating ideas when properly invested and put to use will certainly put money in your purse. So, perpetual lack of money is a big signpost of poverty.

Handling money

There are three perspectives of handling money; making money, multiply money and managing money.

Making money

If you are not getting then is your problem; maybe you lack implementation of ideas or you lack personal motivation, it does not necessarily take money to make money all you need it to do the right thing. To make money:

You must eliminate I can’t – the only thing you can not do is that one you think you can not do. See that you accomplish great task and becoming a front liner in life.

You must work – even God said we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. There is always a field that is meant for you to cultivate if you don’t, then it will waste and if it is wasted then you will certainly fizzle out in poverty.

You must develop skills and apply it productively to solving problem.

You must take necessary risk.

Managing money

The problem of many is managing money, they make money but managing it is very difficult, you can be making money all your life yet die a poor man. For instance, if you are a bad manager, the more you make, the more you spend. It takes more to manage than to make.

Managing is about the controlling the use of money to serve your purpose and in other eliminate waste. Now the money managing skills:

You must have a budget – budget is to control you spending and to place limit. In the budget you must make sure you spend below earnings.

You must spend less and save more – that is using the proper money control formula: SL + SM = PMC.

Where:  SL = Spending Less

                SM = Saving More

                PMC = Proper Money Control

For low spending and high savings; buy lower prized goods – Nigerian ladies fixing human hair of about 250 thousand Naira and they don’t have any savings. Students using a cell phone of hundreds and thousands of dollars. Cut down your spending attitude and save the surplus, you must try to balance savings and spending, rent instead of buying something you will not use for long, minimize fun and entertainment, don’t dine out eat in, do it yourself – hiring the services of a dry cleaner and car wash can be a waste of resources sometimes, don’t spend your pay rise save it, buy in bulk, avoid gambling and betting etc.

You must shun destructive appetite – a young man at the age of 21 became a world renowned pugilist, at 35 he has made 350 million dollars but at 40 he became completely broke, today he is 70 poor broken and sick. He has a destructive attitude – for every color of suit he had, he bought a Ross Royce and a Ross Royce worth millions of dollars.  

You must seal several sources of money leakage – sources of money leakage are; shelter and apartment, transportation, house bills and expenses, luxury, sharing money around, impromptu buying, giving etc.

Multiplying

Multiplying money is the ability to increasingly amass money. The capacity you develop to build up and increase your income rate. You can multiply money by following the following steps:

Analyze market trend and invest wisely – don’t just do a thing because others are doing it, you have to be analytical before venturing into any commerce.

 Diversify when necessary – pursue one business idea at a time. When you have grown one idea, you can now take another, and then another continuously but within your mental capability. The future is volatile than ever so you need more than one stream of income.

Take greater but necessary risk and venture into it – greater necessary risk is what taking so as

Have a good sense of the future – know what to do at each point in time. Know when to change a course and redirect the course.

You must have to increase the income capacity of your business – read our article on how to increase income capacity on this blog. Do all it takes to improve on your money making capacity.

Some tips on essential money Skills

o   Pay less for purchase and save the surplus

o   When you reduce your spending increase you savings

o   Build a long term security by living less than your earn

o   Rich mentality sees money as a seed but poverty mentality sees money as a fruit to be eaten

o   Have money generating plan

o   Don’t live or hope on other people’s wealth to become somebody in life

o   Get direction, get goals, and follow the right course to wealth generation

o   Don’t cheat your way up, work your way up. 

Developing A Business Idea 1- How To Get A Business Running

You got some ideas and you want to bring them into reality? people jump into business without considering the right business and the business that will bring satisfaction and meet up with demands of the possible customers.

In the days past in our former area there was a petty trader who had some kinds of competition; she changed her business line from Provisions and custmetics to food stuff and the other people on the same line changed with her, when she found out that it is another competition she changed into running a restaurant and the others followed. Some people don't think at all. they just do what others do and get the average result. You don't want to live your life like that.

Now let is consider this model to develop a business idea

1. Create a formidable business idea  

Before development, your business idea should be very striking and oustanding, to get at this point you have to take time to reason out and come out with a perfect business idea. to get this done you may need to follow this precepts.

Think and thinkthrough: do brainstorming, look at the environment consider what fits the area or what you can offer the masses. At any point in time business is to render services to the populace and not just to make profit although it includes that but see it as an avenue to lead and to provide oustanding services.

Know your limits: put a bandry to the extent you can go. Get it right, going into business is not just to open a shop and start selling tomatoes or recaharge cards or some sorts of provission stores but it is to come out with some unique even if it is a popular idea but not that your motivation is because of it popularity rather is based on what you can offer and get fulfillment. 

Put down the flowing ideas: as you run through the world of ideas, get a pen and note book or some sort of recording tools. Write the vision and make it plane... one of the reasons you have to put it down is because you may have several ideas that you may need to sieve and come out with a unique one idea to develope.

Take the environment into cosideration: the place where you will situate the business also will certainly determine the type of business and the types or catigories of cusomers that will patronize you. Thus you idea should be guided by that. Don't run a business that will lack patronage.

Think to solve a problem: almost all those that plait hair arround the campus in eboyin state university abakaliki Nigeria buy weavon from some distance market place. My little friend took this advantage and was supplying all of them and in no distance time he runs a very big shop that sells at about the same price with that of the market price. Not before long my friend was travelling almost twice every week to fill his shop. As a student he made a lots of returns. If you business is out to solve some problems then is out to florish.

   2. Make research and assesment

Run a market survey and  find out certain risk involve. Do core feasibility studies; whatever you find out will certainly help you improve on the business idea you are developing or wanting to develope. (see my article on Feasibility studies on this blog). Know the possible competition and competitors arround.

  

 3. Plan

Plan with what you have. Work with the cash flow (have a proper inflow and outflow schedule). You plans should includes you goal and vision, stretegies, marketing and some target. Poor performance is inevitable if there is poor plainning. Plan every aspect of the business so you don't run out. Most businesses that crashed is as a result of poor planing.

 

  4. Dvelopment

After taking into consideration all that you need to actualize your idea and put it into implementations. At this stage of development you make the idea very visible by runing a trial product or develop a phototype so as to assess the market. If it is maul or super market or shop of any size; make enough structural implementation and manpower, develop all it takes to run it.

5. Testing
This stage the result from the development stage is used to determine if you can progress with the business. Move out to put in place you business location, structures, manpower, security, energy, commodities and other vital things that will get the business cracking. One can do a test marketing, possibly to see if the product will be acceptable or is able to stand competetion. Then the next stage is start up properly.

6. Business star up
This is the stage of launching the business. All factors have been assesed and is save or adiquate enough to run.

Some business may run through all the stages for a small scale business with little start capital one may just from the development do all the detailed assesment and put the business into a start up stage. But in that case, it very visible that it will be able to stand competetion and succeed.

Remmember you are running a business as a leader not just one trader somewhere so your mentality have to change and get it right.