by Johnson Temiloluwa | Jun 3, 2021 | Business & Finance
Every entrepreneur has a list of failures before their success stories as mistakes are inherent in life. It’s a normal phenomenon. However, common mistakes entrepreneurs are bound to happen and there are some that are avoidable if carefully thought about. Firstly, who is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is generally defined as an individual who organizes or operates a business or business. In my own opinion, an entrepreneur is a person who starts a business or many firms, discovers and solves problems, and is creative, imaginative, opportunist, risk-taker, self-starter, and open-minded with the hopes of profiting from the venture.
Now that we know this, let’s take a run down through common mistakes entrepreneurs make in Nigeria.
Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs Make
1. Inadequate Capital
There’s something called “starters financial pit”. It is when an entrepreneur or startup desperately stays to search for funding 2 to 3 months after the launching of the startup.
It is highly advisable to get an extra stream of income or a stable one – it can include friends, investors, or even family members. Making sure the financial assistance coming from the source(s) is indeed stable and reliable is an important step that every entrepreneur should do. A minimum of 6 months financial buoyancy plan should be drawn and managed.
Starters’ financial pit is one that every entrepreneur wishes to never be in, but somehow end up in. You can avoid it by making adequate financial preparations.
2. A No-Plan Game
The popular phrase, “failure to plan is planning to fail” is indeed true. It is not only a common mistake every entrepreneur makes in Nigeria, but it is an impractical and unrealistic way to start a business or startup as an entrepreneur.
Plan is a detailed formulation of a program of action OR an orderly arrangement of parts of an overall design or objective.
Without a detailed formulation of a set of actions as an entrepreneur, it’s a failed start-up already before it even started.
This mistake of the no-plan game can be avoided by just having a plan. A well-thought plan. A plan includes Market research, content strategy, running ads, and many others.
3. Putting Together the Wrong Team
A team thrives and grows on teamwork. An ineffective and unproductive team fails at teamwork and fails at the business entirely. For the growth of any business, knowledgeable personnel that handle specific roles are highly needed.
Having a great team in place is equal to having an indispensable asset in your business. Find the right team and set business to sail.
4. Monetizing an Invaluable Business
I defined an entrepreneur as a person who discovers and solves problems. If you are not solving a problem, you are not an entrepreneur. A business is set to fail if it doesn’t have a target audience and targeted problems.
People put their money and trust in places that give value, something of relative importance to them. As an entrepreneur, if you do not have that, it’s a failed one right at the beginning, even more so monetizing an invaluable business. Value is offering a better solution to a problem than the existing products, providing a cost-effective product, and standing out, by bringing a unique approach to a business.
This is one common mistake every entrepreneur makes in Nigeria. It is bad enough that businesses are ventured into without the aim of providing value. It is worse because you just want to make a name and money by running a business on vibes and zero value. Think of business as a give-and-take situation. You give value and take their money.
5. Wrong Partnership
A business partner is meant to make the whole bulk of running a business simpler, and fun sometimes.
The problem will be if the partnership is one that doesn’t share the same views, visions, and plan for the business.
There will be disparity and in the long run, failure.
Getting a partner that shares the same views in any partnering entrepreneurship is key.
6. Not Improving Entrepreneurial Skills
An entrepreneur’s personal improvement is the improvement of the business. Don’t stay stagnant, make an effort to increase your standard and skills. You have most likely dodged a bullet if you take this step.
7. Poor Marketing
A business thrives on marketing. People become aware of what you do as an entrepreneur when you market it to them.
Sadly, this is one common mistake every entrepreneur makes. They focus on just one type of marketing strategy instead of being dynamic with it. Draw a marketing plan that targets every kind of customer.
8. Extravagant Office Set-Up
It’s no longer news that the world business is largely remote in this century and time. An extravagant office setup might be needless or not of topmost priority. If a workplace should be set up, it should be invested wisely.
9. Ignoring Customers’ Feedbacks
Feedbacks help to spot mistake and flaws in businesses. It also helps in understanding what the customers need and expect from you. In addition, it builds improvement and ignoring it will definitely wreck the business.
Also, poor customer’s service is a turn-off and a bad look for entrepreneurs
10. Obsessed With Competition
Focus on building the best possible business. If you are great, people will notice and opportunities will appear.
Mark Cuban
There is no win in an obsessive competition. It only leaves you worrying and never evaluating your growth. Furthermore, having a competitive spirit has its perks but only when it is healthy. Focus your energy on building your startup and being good at the values you give.
Conclusion
Trial and error might be a failure but, don’t stay there. Try and try again. Make sure you are avoiding common mistakes entrepreneurs make too while at it.
by Happiness Hassan | Jun 2, 2021 | Family & Parenting
Research has proven that to improve your child’s academic performance, parental support is greatly needed. It tends to augment what they are being taught at school. However, most parents have neglected their responsibility and assume the teachers must ensure their children are stable academically.
This mindset has caused a lot of havoc to the academic life of most children. In essence, a child with little or no parental support struggles to keep up academically.
1. Build a Winning Mindset in Your Kids
Are you the type of parents who regularly criticize their kids and address them with harsh words? If yes, you need to have a second thought about that. That kind of behaviour affects their self-esteem. The moment you give your kids reasons to dislike themselves, they become destabilized.
Similarly, their concentration at school will diminish drastically. Therefore, as a parent, your primary responsibility must be centred on building a confident mindset in your kids. Constantly remind them that they are brilliant and are destined for greatness.
2. Minimize the Level of Distractions Your Kids are Exposed To
As a parent don’t hesitate to cut off all unnecessary activities that don’t add quality value to your kids. Oftentimes when kids come back from school, having done their assignment the next agenda is spending the rest of the day in front of the screen, others on social media platforms.
Too much of these activities weaken the alertness of the brain. Therefore, as a parent keep all unnecessary activities under check to improve your child’s academic performance.
3. Assist in Doing Their Homework
To improve your child’s academic performance you need to assist them in solving their homework. It isn’t enough to tell them what to do—instead, join them.
However, beyond assisting step further in revising what they had been taught at school. This approach keeps their memory refreshed and improves their memory retention abilities.
4. Get a tutor for Your Kids if Necessary
The rate of assimilation differs from one individual to another. Hence, not every child understands what’s been taught immediately. If your kids happen to be in one of these categories, you would need to hire a tutor who would simplify the topics taught for easy understanding for your child.
In addition, unanswered classroom questions are solved during extra classes with their tutor.
5. Provide the Necessary Learning Tools
Expecting your child to perform excellently will be impossible without the right learning tools. Studying with the appropriate tool facilitates the learning process. This includes updated textbooks, a dictionary, mathematical sets, a conducive study environment, a comfortable reading table, and a chair among others.
You should create a mini home library for your kids where they can go to read and research.
6. Read, Read and Read
As a parent, inculcate reading habits into your kids by reading with them because you’re their main and first role model. This gives them the assurance that you value their academics. However, this period must be free from every form of distraction. In addition, you can create a book club or join one with your kids.
Book clubs are an effective medium to improve your child’s academic performance because educational and informative books are reviewed at book clubs.
7. Healthy Routine Boost Academic Performances
A healthy lifestyle boosts a child’s immune system. Just as a sick child wouldn’t be able to learn. This is because the whole body system is shut down. That child becomes committed to taking all kinds of treatments to feel better.
Therefore, it’s better prevented than cured. The necessary healthy routine includes:
Physical Exercise
Engaging in exercise pumps up endorphin hormones (feel-good hormones) in the brain and also disengages the mind from daily worries. Ensure you go with your kids for exercises that are suitable for them either running, walking, swimming, dancing, or climbing. In other words, once their brain is thinking right they can perform well academically.
Healthy Diet
The types of meals you feed your kids influence their reasoning ability. Most especially their breakfast before going to school in the morning.
As a parent, your kids shouldn’t go to school hungry or overfeed. Instead, give them a meal containing proteins, fibre, whole grain, and has low sugar content. These kinds of meals are a good starter before they go to school.
Adequate Rest
Kids need at least 8-10 hours of sleep to refresh their bodies and brains before going to school the following day. Don’t allow your kids to stay up late at night, busy with unnecessary things.
Similarly, you should not overburden your kids with house chores that result in extreme stress. Excess stress causes mental breakdown.
8. Use Incentives to Motivate Your Kids
Everyone is motivated to give their best when rewarded. Likewise, your kids will do better academically if there is a reward attached to their performance. Rewarding your kids inspires them to give their 100% attention to what is being taught at school. They begin to go the extra mile to beat the best and become the best just to obtain more rewards.
In addition, always praise your kids when they perform excellently well. Similarly, show and tell them how proud you’re of them.
9. Engage Your Kids In Brain Teasing Activities
Brain Teasing activities are sets of training that are mentally challenging and involve critical reasoning. Brainteasers improve your kid’s intelligence quotient and make them think through life challenges including their academic works. As a parent, keep your kids occupied with such activities. That includes puzzles, quantitative reasoning, quizzes, watching educational TV programs, and more.
10. Build A Healthy Relationship with Your Kids
The way you relate with the members of your family most especially with your kids is pivotal to their academic performance. Is the home hostile or peaceful? Do you employ violence means to discipline your child? All the above-mentioned activities inflict fear into the hearts of children and disorganize them emotionally and mentally.
They lose their concentration when this occurs. Therefore, your home should be welcoming and conducive. Every form of violence should be eradicated from the home. Instead, activities that increase the love bond should be craved after.
11. Master Effective Communication and Listening Skils
Furthermore, effective communication bridges the gap between you and your child. However, listening to them will improve your child’s academic performance. This approach makes it easier for them to relate their academic challenges with you. Subsequently, they become free to ask questions they are unsure about.
Therefore, avoid needless interruptions during those times.
Conclusion
Parents, do take out time to evaluate your kid’s academic performance and study pattern. This will guide you on what method to apply to improve your child’s academic performance. In addition, other aspects of their life mustn’t be abandoned such as their emotional quotient. Having a high emotional quotient augments other aspects of life including academic performances.
Also, endeavor to share your views in the comment section below.
by Fatima Sheikh | Jun 1, 2021 | Personal Growth
Meditation is gradually gaining popularity around the world. What started as a spiritual practice amongst Hindu religious practitioners is now included as a daily habit in the lives of modern-day successful people as a must for a healthy lifestyle. There are tons and tons of videos on YouTube teaching and recommending meditation.
Although the modern-day meditation exercise varies from the traditional religious meditation practice, meditation exercise is researched to be healthy for both mind and body is included in your daily routine.
Today, meditation is practised by both religious persons and atheists without giving too much attention to its spiritual origin because of the numerous body and mind benefits of meditation. The techniques have been modified and modernized to accommodate all cultures and lifestyles.
Are you stressed, feeling emotionally down, tensed, worried, or battling one or two medical conditions? Then I advise you consider giving meditation a try.
Benefits of Meditation That Will Convince You to Start Bow!
1. Mediation Benefits Your Emotional Well-being
Meditation benefits and practices have been developed and categorized into different types to fit different circumstances. Consistent practice of mindful meditation like mantra meditation will help you curb issues such as anger, anxiety, and moods. It will increase your self-awareness, reduce stress, give you a greater sense of calm, increase your self-compassion and give you a more positive outlook towards life.
In summary, all sorts of emotional baggage that might hinder your productivity and positive outlooks will be easier for you to manage.
2. It is Good for Your Physical Well-being
Meditation might be categorized as a mindful and concentration exercise, but this series of exercises have a tremendous benefit on the physical body health of the individual. A 2020 study of more than 6,400 participants across 60 trials showed that meditation could reduce pain in those who suffered from post-surgical, acute, or chronic pain.
Because meditation can alter the brain receptors, studies have shown that mindfulness training through meditation can benefit people battling different sorts of addictions such as substance abuse.
Research has shown that consistent meditation will improve your physical health positively by reducing fatigue, your susceptibility to colds fights premature ageing, reduce harmful inflammation, etc.
Everything that affects your emotional state positively will have an impact on your physical outlook.
3. Meditation Improves Self-esteem and Self-awareness
Another benefit of meditation has been researched to help improve self-esteem and self-confidence. Mindfulness associated with meditation boost self-awareness helping you better understand yourself, have a deep analysis of yourself and your life journey, your strength and weakness thereby helping you grow.
These deep thoughts and conversations with yourself will help you further analyze yourself through your own eyes. The result will help you accept your strength and flow, know what to improve in yourself in so doing giving you the confidence boost you need.
Meditation exercise like tai chi is popular for improving your awareness and self-esteem. If you are experiencing social anxiety or battling self-confidence, give meditation a try as a step to your journey to becoming better.
Conclusion
Subjects around mindfulness are topics I love dwelling on. Humans are always looking for emotional support and solutions to emotional instability. Life is full of challenges and we must conquer these challenges to grow. The need for these exercises is and will continue to be on the rise. Mindful exercises like meditation might have started as a simple religious practice, but today, it has become popular and has been included as an everyday routine.
There are more benefits to meditation that a single article might not contain. Further research will guide you on various meditation styles, strategies that will fit your lifestyle and objectives. Today meditation has advanced and can be found on modern apps and platforms for ease and convenience. Try meditation today for a healthy productive life. Learn how to meditate as a beginner.
Also, how has meditation improve your well-being?
by Johnson Temiloluwa | Jun 1, 2021 | Business & Finance
There are different online businesses that pay in Nigeria. The phrase “killing two birds with one stone” means achieving, accomplishing, or solving two things with one action. In my own opinion, there is no popular competing idiom in English for this expression. It is literal as it is literary. You might start to wonder, how is that even possible? What does it even mean? What is the stone and the birds, even? And also, what makes a habit a hobby is the pleasure that is gotten from doing it, that you keep wanting to do it. How about you make money from that hobby? Do you see the stone and birds now? Stay with me and I’ll show you 10 hobbies that pay in Nigeria.
Hobbies that Pay in Nigeria
1. Writing
This is one of the online businesses that pay in Nigeria. You love to write and you have your way with words, you weave them so perfectly and compellingly. Great job! You can make money from it also. Creating and monetizing a blog or freelance writing is a sure bet to making money.
This is one rewarding 10 hobbies that pay in Nigeria. Know your niche and develop in it.
2. Dancing
There are numerous opportunities in dancing and most are money involved. If you dance so well that it has become a hobby, you can monetize it by performing at events, applying for competitions, and putting your dance videos on social media pages increases your chance of getting paid while dancing.
3. Photography
Another online business that pays in Nigeria is photography. This is a hobby that most Gen Z take pleasure in. It can be made a career too. Pictures can be taken with smartphones now as technology has made provisions for clear crispy megapixels of smartphones.
If you are passionate about photography and know your juice so well, you can take courses on sites like Shaw academy and Coursera to add some professionalism to your hobby. Images can be sold on sites like Shutterstock or other stock image sites.
This is one hobby that can never get old in Nigeria.
4. Cooking and Baking
Home cooking and baking; especially cakes and pastries are quite fashionable and trendy now. So long as you make good quality food and pastries, people always pay for quality consumptions.
This is surely one of the online businesses that pay in Nigeria. To do this, you first need to learn how to be a better cook and own all the kitchen essentials needed for baking.
5. Social Media
You really should stop your aimless late-night scrolling if you are not making cool cash from it.
Do you make good use of Instagram, Twitter, and other social media and you have good followers hops and engagement? Them social media usage will be a good hobby that pays in Nigeria. Be dedicated, play it right and put in efforts to make money by promoting brands and creating content for them, be an influencer and get paid.
6. Drawing/Painting
In addition, this is also one of the online businesses that pay in Nigeria. Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surfaces. If you are one that draws or paints visual-appealing arts, you can sell them on Etsy or apply for grants and art competitions.
7. Traveling
Becoming a travel agent is a good way to travel, have fun and still make money. If you like travelling, then really this hobby that pays good money is for you.
Learn how to become a certified travel agent here.
8. Make-Up Artistry
Standing in the front of the mirror for hours and admiring the make-up you did on your face, friend’s or even a family member is cute. While most people prefer putting on light makeup, you can have fun while making several people up and get paid for it. The sweet thing, it isn’t even a 9-5 job and the working hours are flexible.
You could apply to work in events and media houses and get paid by making people beautiful.
9. Driving
This is one of the online businesses that pay in Nigeria. In Nigeria, there are car-sharing apps like Uber and bolt, where you can register your car and be a driver that transports people on demand. It can be a part-time job or even a full-time one.
Also, there are companies that hire drivers to help transport their employees to their homes and back to work.
10. Playing a Musical Instrument
A skilful musical instrumentalist can perform at events and also create classes for people who want to learn thereby getting cash from engaging in your hobby. Are you an expert in playing the guitar, drums, trumpets or any other musical instrument at all? You can do that and get paid while at it.
Conclusion
Now that you know how you can kill two birds with one stone by knowing the 10 hobbies that pay in Nigeria, keep having fun, and making money out of it.
Tell me which one are you trying soon in the comments section.
