Author: Ola

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Why You Need To Get Your Business Name Registered

Many people have built successful businesses on social media platforms such as Instagram. Why this looks great, majority of these businesses are not registered. While the government will not come after you for not registering your business, except you’re running a regulated business, it remains to be said that you don’t really have a business. What you have is a trade. The government agency responsible for business registrations in Nigeria is the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). Without having your business registered with the CAC, you’re simply carrying out a trade. Below are some of the reasons why you need to get your business registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. 1. It protects your business Because your business has one million followers on Instagram does not make the brand yours. Someone else could still go ahead and register a business with a name identical to your supposed brand. To protect your business from being snatched away, the starting point is to get it registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). While there are other ways to protect your brand such as having a trademark, the first step is to get the business registered. Once your business is registered, no one else will be able to register the same identical name as the CAC will not approve it. 2. It allows you to open a business bank account Having a business bank is important, not just for accounting and financing purposes, but it also allows customers to trust your business. To open a business bank account in Nigeria, you need to have your business registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission. As regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria, only a registered business in Nigeria can have a business bank account. 3. It gives legitimacy to your business The most important factor in business dealings is trust, be it between businesses or between a business and its customers. For people to trust your business, it has to be legitimate. The first step in giving legitimacy to your business is to get it registered. When your business is registered, it gives rest of mind to people dealing with you, knowing that they are dealing with a government recognized business. 4. It allows your business to enter into contracts As you build your business, you will time to time need to enter contracts with business partners. You need a registered business to enter into contracts. After all, you don’t really have a business until you have it registered. Some suppliers will not even agree to deal with you unless you have a registered business. No one will charge you for not registering your business but you will be missing the benefits that comes with having a registered business. It doesn’t cost much to get your business registered. You can proceed to the Corporate Affairs Commission to get started. You can also get in touch with us and we will help you get it done within three days. Call/WhatsApp 09053334874

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When Everything Seems To Be Against You

“When everything seems to be against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” Henry Ford   Often we come across challenges in life and we feel the world is against us. Why can’t it just be easy? We ask ourselves. What we fail to understand is that we all need challenges to push us ahead in life. Like our quote of the day says, when everything seems to be against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. If you decided to go with the wind, you will be blown anywhere. But if you decided to go against the wind, the journey will be tough but you will get to your chosen destination with discipline and commitment. Find motivation in your challenges. Remember that when you have a target, there will be a target against you. When you exert a force, a force of an exact magnitude will be exerted against you. That is what life is. Challenges are meant to make you stronger, not to weaken you. Face your oppositions, face your critics, run the race, lift the weight, work on your goals and bring your dreams to life.

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How To Appeal To People’s Self Interest

How to appeal to people’s self interst At some point in our lives, we all want something from someone. Maybe you need a colleague’s help or you come up with a beautiful idea and you tried to sell it to people only for them to turn it down. You wonder why they are not interested in such a great idea. After all, this idea will lead to the creation of thousands of jobs. It will bring in lots of money. It will elevate the society. Who cares? Let’s take away the fact that your idea might not even be great in the first place which could be a possible reason why they don’t show interest. I don’t care what you need from people or what kind of idea you’re trying to sell. Maybe to start a business, to form a drama group, to establish a charity foundation or you want to run for a political office and you need someone’s support. When you go to meet someone and try to convince them to buy into your idea. The first question on their mind is ‘what’s in it for me?’ Why should I buy into your idea? Why should I give you my money? Why should I give you my time? Why should I abandon my own project and support yours. Why should I risk my life for your cause? These are some of the questions anyone will ask when you try to sell your ideas to them. Mind you, most of the time, people will not ask you these questions directly. This is when you see someone turn you down without giving you a reason. This is because you failed to answer the obvious questions that they did not ask you. They don’t have to ask you. But you must give them the answers anyway. That is where you must make your research before you approach anyone. Find out what motivates each person so you don’t approach the wrong target. Below are some of the things to consider before approaching anyone. 1. Money Money is one of the biggest motivations in the world. Everyone wants to make money. At the same time, you should understand that we want it more than each other. While everyone wants money, some people get fired up the moment they hear there’s lot of money to be made. Money is what drives them. When you know this kind of people, then you understand you should not go and sell your charity idea to them. They’re most certainly not interested. If your idea has to do with business and there is high probability that money will be made, this kind of people will have your ears more than anyone else. 2. Publicity/Praise Some people just want people to talk about them or praise them for what they’ve done. They do not care how much they’re giving away to your cause as far as their name will be attached to the success of the idea. These kinds of people are best sold the idea of a social project. Something a community will benefit from. Something that will bring praises to the benefactor. Just remember, people must know the man who made it happen. 3. Power & Title Some people are motivated by power. Often money is not their problem. They most certainly already possess money. Now they want their money to bring them power, well, which can still bring them more money in the future, just on another level. These are the kinds of people you want to approach with a political ambition. But you should understand that there is one thing people like this don’t take for granted; loyalty. After all, how can your success bring them power if you’re not loyal to them. 4. Love Love is definitely one of the top motivations for doing things. Can you remember how many times you’ve done something for someone out of love? Take away money, take away power, take away humans’ greed, take away ambition. What else could make someone do something for someone if not love. This applies to everyone, partners, siblings, children, parents, even leaders. Why love is so strong as a motivation for doing something is because love itself is self-interest. After all, the subject is the one feeling the love. They want to help you because they love you, not because you love them. Can you possibly go and meet someone to do something for you because you love them. No. It’s the other way round. They do it because they love you. Learn to appeal to people’s love for you and you will be surprised at how willing they are to be of help. 5. The Need To be Successful You should know that some people just want to be successful and they will jump onto any project you brought before them, if only you’re convincing enough. Go beyond the big picture. Show them the pictures but break down the figures. These kinds of people are result oriented and you must convince them that you know what you are doing. 6. Passion Passion, just like love, is natural and it is a big motivation for doing something. When people do something they have passion for, they feel happy. This is what you’re appealing to. Look for people who have passion for what you want to do and there is high probability they will come on board. The more you appeal to people’s self-interest, the more you will convince them to buy into your idea or to do something for you. You should understand that everyone has something they want for themselves. Nobody does anything for free. It could be money, fame, need for success, happiness or power. You will only be deceiving yourself to think that some people do not want anything. After all, there are several religious people who will render help to you and not make it public. They don’t want to publicize it, saying they did it for

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If A Man Is Called A Street Sweeper

“If a man is called a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” Martin Luther King Jr.   Many of us are currently doing a job we didn’t choose to do. Most obvious reason is the lack of alternative. Well, learning from this quote from one of the greatest leaders to have ever walked on this planet, we should put efforts in whatever we do, regardless of the position we find ourselves. Are you a sweeper, gardener, driver, nanny or security guard? Maybe it’s not what you want for yourself, but the most important thing at the moment is that you do it with all your heart. That job could be an opportunity for you to develop yourself, to work on your character, to get you ready for something bigger. Imagine a would-be actor who has never taken a role in any movie before. Yet he turns down small movie roles, waiting for the day he would land a big role. A day that may never come. What if he accepted the smaller roles and gave exceptional performances as if he is the lead actor. Who knows who might be watching the movie. Maybe someone who will be impressed by his performance and will decide to give him a big role. In any position you find yourself, make the best out of it and it might just be the stepping stone you need to get to greater heights.

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Success Is Something That You Attract By The Person You Become

  “Success is something that you attract by the person you become. Success is not something you pursue. What you pursue usually elude you like a butterfly. Success is something that you attract like a magnet by the person you become.” Jim Rohn Everyone wants to be successful. And everyday we all get into the race of attaining success. What we do not realize is that whatever we pursue eludes us. When you pursue something, it runs away from you, to the opposite direction. You might be thinking, if I run faster than what I’m pursuing, I will catch up with it. Maybe you will, but the truth is, you will get exhausted. Whatever you want, do not pursue. Simply work on attracting it. Get up and start working on yourself. It’s all about who you become. In Jim Rohn’s own words, to attract people, you have to be attractive. To attract powerful people, you have to become powerful. To attract committed people, you must be committed. You attract whatever you become. The key is to make yourself valuable.

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Why You Fail To Act On Your Ideas

Why you fail to act on your ideas Ideas are great. Ideas made the world what it is today. Think about all the great inventions in history. They are all products of ideas. While ideas are so great, one would expect ideas to be something rare and difficult to get, like a gem. Fortunately, ideas are some of the cheapest things in life. We all get them every day. They are nothing until we bring them to life. As surplus as ideas are, many of us fail to act on them for various reasons. Maybe your idea will solve a problem facing people or it will add value to mankind. Remember it is nothing until you bring it to life. Here are the reasons why you fail to act on your ideas. 1. Doubts With every idea comes a doubt. Maybe it’s not a good idea. Maybe it won’t work. But how will you know if it will work or not. How will you know if it is a great idea or not if you refuse to act on it? The only way to confirm if your idea is good or not is to get up and work on it. 2. Procrastination Procrastination is one of the reasons why many of us fail to act on our ideas. While there is a difference between procrastination and being lazy, the two lead to the same result which is a lack of result. There are different reasons why people procrastinate. On top of the list is lack of motivation. If you lack motivation to act on your idea, maybe you should revisit why you came up with that idea in the first place. Did you intend to start a sea food restaurant because your community lacks one? That may be a reason but at the same time, it might not be motivating enough for you to act on the idea. Maybe you can’t do without eating sea food in a day. You spend a lot of money transporting to another community every day so that you can get your beloved sea food. At the same time, you noticed there are lots of people like you who enjoy sea food in your community. From this, there is more than one motivation. If there is a sea food restaurant in your community, you won’t have to waste money transporting to another community every day. You will save more money. Meanwhile, it is obvious there is a market for sea food in your community and there is zero competition. This is a great business opportunity. Revisit your idea. Ask yourself why you came up with the idea. Look for motivation. Even if there was no motivation when you first came up with the idea, begin to look at every possibility. Find motivation in it. The motivation will be the fuel you need to start acting on your idea. 3. Fear of failure A lot of time we refuse to take action because we are afraid of failing. Nobody enjoys failure. We all want to win. But if everyone should be afraid of failure, then none of the amazing inventions in history would have been possible. Look at the invention of electricity, aircraft and every other great invention. They all are products of many try and failures. Without failing, there can’t be winning. Looking at our sea food restaurant idea? Maybe you’re asking yourself, what if people don’t patronize me. What if I lose my money? Well, you won’t know till you try. Start small and validate your idea. You can decide to make a list of ten persons you know who travel to the next community to buy sea food. Tell them you can deliver them their beloved sea food at a very small fee. You go and get the food and deliver it to them. From ten persons, you can increase the number to fifteen, twenty and above. You can do this for a while before you decide to open your own restaurant in the community. Take away your fear of failure. Begin to work on your idea. If you fail, you will learn and improve on it. The more you fail, the more you get better and the more your idea comes to life. One of my most admired role models Elon Musk said, if you’re failing, you’re not trying at all. 4. Lack of knowledge Every idea requires some degree of knowledge to enable us execute on them. Without the necessary knowledge, you might not be able to bring them to life, or at best, you might end up with a mediocre product. But this shouldn’t stop you from working on it. Before you get started, find out what kind of knowledge is required to execute your idea. Is it a knowledge you already have. Do you need to acquire new knowledge? Or maybe your idea is bigger than you. In that case, you might want to consider looking for people with the right knowledge or skills to help you bring your ideas to life. The internet today has also made learning extremely easy. You can find several courses on different learning websites. You can watch unlimited educational videos on YouTube. For our sea food restaurant idea, you might enjoy the food but don’t know how to prepare it. What if you volunteer to work for free at your favourite sea food restaurant to gain some idea? I promise you they will be glad to take you in. From there you will gain the experience you require. You can also get potential partners who will be interested in joining your proposed restaurant. The most important thing is that you get started. Mark Zuckerberg said, if I had to know everything about connecting people, I wouldn’t have started Facebook. Most of the time, the little we know is sufficient for us to get started. As you work on your ideas, you will figure things out. 5. Listening to others While it is

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If You’re Not Failing, You’re Not Even Trying At All

  “If you’re not failing, you’re not even trying at all.” – Elon Musk   Many of us are afraid of failure. We’ve all experienced failure at least once in our lives. It is not an experience we wish to repeat. While some of us got up and ignite the engine again, many of us decided to call it a quit. We succumb to failure. What you need to understand is that if you want to be successful, failure is inevitable. A child doesn’t walk without falling several times. She tries to walk and she falls again. What do you think would happen to a child who falls down and refuses to get up again? Your guess is right; she would never be able to walk. Instead of remaining on the floor, she gets up again, tries to move her legs. She falls again and again. But every time she falls, she learns to control her legs and her legs get stronger till when she no longer falls while walking. That is what life is. We fail in what we do but with every failure comes a lesson. The lesson is the fuel we require to move ahead. Do you know how many failures preceded the discovery of electricity? Do you know how many failed rocket launches Elon Musk had before the successful one came. Failure is an ingredient of success. So, do not let the fear of failure hold you back. Get up and work on that project today.

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How To Start A Business In Nigeria

How to start a business in Nigeria If you are the kind who likes to be your own boss, or you have a unique business idea which you want to bring to life, then starting your own business is the right way to go. As exciting as this might seem, you have to take the necessary steps to ensure success at the end of the day. This article talks about how to start a business in Nigeria in general, assuming you have all it takes to start and run a business, including adequate capital. Some of my future articles will discuss how to start and run small businesses with little money. Starting a business in Nigeria has become easier in recent times, thankful to the advent of technology and government’s efforts in making it easy to start business. Below are how to start a business in Nigeria 1. Write A Business Plan Like anywhere else in the world, the first thing to consider while starting a business is a business plan. The importance of a business plan can’t be over emphasized. Your business plan should not be a fancy document with only big pictures of your dream but a detailed plan of what your proposed business is and how you intend to run it. A future article will discuss in detail all you need to know about writing a business plan. While writing your business plan, you must decide on the following 2. Choose A Business Location Your business requires a location, regardless of what type of business you are doing. Every business has target customers and they are based in a location. Choose your location based on the kind of business you are starting and the customers you are targeting. Make your location closer to your customers as much as possible. If your business deals with production, you might want to consider other factors such as closeness to raw materials. 3. Decide If You Require a partner A lot of people started their businesses without partners. But with today’s business environment, there is a big advantage to having a partner while starting a business. The number one reason you might want to consider having a partner is that a partner can complement your skills. This is often the case with businesses that require different skill sets. For instance one partner could be a technical person while the other is well grounded in business management. By bringing on a partner who has a skill which you don’t have, you would eliminate the need to hire someone. Though there are downsides to having a business partner, the advantages outweighs the disadvantages. You can always deal with the downsides by being professional in everything you do. 4. Raise Startup Capital Your business requires capital, regardless of its size. You must decide on where it will come from before you start your business. Business capital can come from several places but you should know that as a new business, some sources of capital will not be easily accessible to you, such as loans from commercial banks. The number one source of your startup capital is your personal savings. As an entrepreneur, you should be able to have some savings, no matter how small it is. If you can’t invest your own money in your business, why should anyone give you their money? Your second source of capital is friends and family. If you can’t convince your friends and family to invest in your business, or if they can’t believe in your plan, why should anyone else do so? Then you can consider other sources of capital. These include angel investors, grants and small loans. 5. Decide On A Business Legal Structure Before taking the step to register your business, you should decide on the legal structure you want for your business. There are three legal forms your business can take. These are sole proprietorship, partnership and corporation. The easiest of these is the sole proprietorship, with which you are the only owner of your business. In Nigeria, you can either register your business as a business name or as a limited liability company. You can read our article on the difference between a business name and a limited liability company. 6. Register With The Government If you’ve decided on your business legal structure, you can proceed to register with the government. The agency responsible for business registration in Nigeria is the Corporate Affairs Commission of the federal government. If you’re ready to take this step, we will help you get it done at the lowest price possible. Remember, it is very important to get your business registered. 7. Register With Tax Office Once your business is registered, do not waste time before you head to the Federal Inland Revenue Service office closest to your place of business. In Nigeria, you are required to pay tax if your business is making profit. You need to obtain a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). 8. Get A Business Account You should visit one of the commercial banks and get a current account with your business name. You do not want to be carrying out business transactions with your personal account. Before you proceed to open a business bank account, you should know that your business must have been registered and you need a Tax Identification Number (TIN). 9. Purchase Insurance Policy While this might seem unnecessary, it will protect your business in case of an incident such as theft or accident. 10. Build Your “A Team” Now it’s time to build your team. You will not just build a team, you will build an A Team. Every great business requires a great team. To build a great team, you must begin by selecting the right individuals. Decide on who is required. Start by making a plan. In the plan, you should identify what skill is needed, which position you need to fill, then you can look for the right person for the job. Remember that there