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  1. If you are running a business or starting a new tech start-up, Your sales skill is very important. Are sales people born or can you learn to be a good sales person?

    I read an article this morning from Harvard business review's blog. I was able to reach the following conclusions after reading it.
     

    To excel in sales, you must be able to motivate yourself. I have noticed that most tech startups are motivated by passion for what they do. That is good to get them started. However, the sad truth is that, passion can only get you started, it will not take you to the promised land. You need to know how to motivate yourself even in hard times and during rejection. Ask those who started twitter, they were mocked when they started. Top sales people are not easily discouraged.

    Another point that is often ignored by many. Excellent sales people are Modest. It isn't about you or your product. No matter how excited you are about the service you have designed, you won't be the one using it. Get out from the center stage and allow your customers take the center stage and shine. Only then can you be able to enchant them.

    Get the details of the post here 




  2. Okay! I am currently attending a workshop on writing. Why?

    source

    Communication in business is key. Business is basically about communicating your solution effectively to investors and customers. There are other technical aspects of business that should not be taken lightly too, like accounting, Legal management and some others. If you get the other parts of business well and you can not communicate effectively, there is a problem. Except you want to outsource the whole writing aspect of your business to an Agency (in that case this post is not for you)

    Many startups and small businesses cannot afford to outsource this aspect of their business. Hence, it is vital to get some basic training in communication; written and verbal.

    Recently, there was a Tech Startup event is East Africa, Pivot25. Some ideas were demoed and presented. What was particularly key besides the uniqueness of the product is the ability of the designer (team) to COMMUNICATE the product. The Judges will then go on to decide who the winner is. Since the judges do not have the full details of what the products demoed will do and how well it will fill a need, it is left for the presentation of the designers to make that clear. This is where the presentation skill is key.

  3.  

    “The fear of making mistakes is what stagnates growth.” – Unknown



    Photo credit: penywise from morguefile.com

    Looking back to my first attempt at blogging I remember I use to read about blogging and internet business from a Local Journal. I hoped that one day, I will start blogging too. But I was afraid to start, because I do not want to fail. I gave lots of excuses. I did not know anything about blogging (though I knew how to spell blog), plus my spellings and English was very poor. I was also AFRAID that I would not get an audience to read my stuff.

    I had lots of reasons why I would not start, but I took the bold step and started. If you want to see my first attempt, it’s here (link).

    “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

    I am not here to tell you about how to play it safe and not fail. I want to share with you how expecting failure and failing smartly and failing fast can help your business GROW.


  4. The mbgeeks community is young, just a month old. Friday’s chat was the second we are having in the series of mbgeeks monthly tweet chat. This time we looked into the use of social media by African businesses and tech startups.

    The conversation was a revelation of the needs and concerns of most users of social media tools for marketing their idea and business. We had Mark Kaigwa as guest during this edition, although he could not participate fully as he was in an urgent meeting. However the tweet chat went on fine.

    Many businesses use social media to create awareness, gather opinions and insights, manage relationships with their existing customers, generate lead and lunch new products. what were some of the main highlights of the tweet chat?

    We Started by asking What can businesses in Africa use Social Media for? Our guest was on hand to answer, his response;

     

     mark

    “African businesses can use social media for 3 things: branding & awareness, customer communication and lead generation.”

    We also had Mobile West Africa in the audience, who shared with us, what they use social media for, here is their take;

    mweb

    “We track exciting developments via Twitter & get in touch with people behind them; some will speak at future events.”

    There were also more people in the audience with awesome contributions, that are basic highlights of the chat;

    For social media to be successful in business, you must clearly define your target. And build up the network with the media! #mbgeeks ~ @nnenna

    #mbgeeks SM [social media] is useful if you have it WITHIN. It is cheaper and efficient. ~ @waithash

    Those are a brief insight into what we discussed. For more you can check out the hashtag (#mbgeeks) or the tweetcloud

    From the conversation, I observed a few facts;

    * Many businesses are still not sure how to leverage social media.

    * There are those who already know how to leverage Social media, and they have decided to keep it in-house instead of hiring any Agency to Manage it for them.

    * Most of those really using Social media may not be using any specific metric system or Apps, but they have some real life Measurable Goals they look at, like Retweets and engagement.

    SUMMARY.

    There is need for a conference that would bring together those who have been using social for a while and producing results with it. This would save businesses a lot of time they burn trying to figure it out all by themselves, or falling prey to the named SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERTS, who may only know how the tool works, but cannot scale it properly to deliver business success.

    The conference should include those who have the understanding of Marketing fundamentals and business management, as social media is only a TOOL. The tool doesn’t get the job done, it is the person wielding the TOOL that get’s the job done.

    Till such conference is held. You are better of with an in house monitoring of your social media ventures, read tips online, experiment and adapt what would suit your business. The fact that someone can use Facebook or twitter very well, does not mean they can do your social media marketing for you.

    It is indeed a very wide subject, that is still undergoing study and experimentation.

    How have you been using social media for your own business or startup? What has been your success and how do you measure it?

    please feel feel to share with us in the comment section. We will be announcing the Theme for next month’s Twitter chat which would take place JULY 1, 2011, 12noon GMT [1pm Nigeria time]


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