Starting a business can be a daunting experience, but with a clearly mapped out strategy, you can obtain results that help you not only break through business barriers, but also scale in time and grow exponentially.
This is why I recommend this little but insightful book “Strategy Plain and Simple” by Vaughan Evans. Just like the title, it’s a pretty straightforward book, written in simple terms. This makes it easy to understand and implement.
It’s focused on three key areas: 1. Understanding the market. 2. Creating competitive advantage. 3. Managing risks.
These three key areas have been broken down further into small bites and explained in detail. It’s such an insightful book that gives valuable and practical advice.
You’ve got to read this one to see for yourself.
Highly recommended for entrepreneurs, startup managers and business oriented individuals.
PS: This isn’t one of those bulky business books that may take you forever to read. So for those who love small and insightful books, this is one of them.
Two years and eight months (2 years and 8 months), seems like only yesterday when I began, but on some days, if also feels like a very long time spearheading my young company, Brave Publicity.
It’s been an enjoyable experience that has birth much growth and progress, even though I’ve had my share of slow days and days when I felt tired, but, I wouldn’t have it any other way, because it’s all working together for my good, and has brought me here.
So I’ll be sharing seven (7) key things about this journey so far and hopefully, you learn some useful things, that can help you walk better in your own BOSS Shoes.
Motivation
I’ll start off with motivation. As a young business owner, one of the things I’ve learnt to do is encourage and push myself. There are days when I don’t feel like doing anything, getting up from my bed and moving to my workstation. There are days when I don’t get any form of external encouragement, but I still choose to get up every day to put in the work required. That has made a whole lot of difference, because I can literally observe my progress and the depth of improvement I’ve had over the years.
The field of Corporate Communications, Public Relations and Publishing is one that requires a lot of creativity, attention to detail and hands-on experience.
So you may not notice all of your improvements within a short period, but over time, you’d definitely observe much progress.
Remember, CONSISTENCY is KEY.
The Work Place
My work station has been my home for most of the time, except for periods when I need to visit a Work-Hub or go print out my in-house projects/ products by Brave Publicity or projects for clients.
I’ve learnt that having a defined work station even at home is very important. It helps you keep things in perspective and makes you take more seriously your work at your company.
So just like everyone else, when I’m not out at my day job, I’m at home at my work station. Being at home can be distracting sometimes, especially when you live with others, but when you put boundaries in place, others will respect it and understand that you’re at work and not really at home with them.
I will admit that being at home is sometimes lonely, but I try to stay cheerful. Calm and soothing music helps sometimes, and then catching up with what others have been up to online, also helps.
So, when the Pandemic for COVID-19 happened, resulting to series of global lockdown episodes, it wasn’t so hard to adjust, as it had become a routine to work from home. The only difference was, there were more folks at home and it felt more like a work hub on some days, as everyone was working remotely and having virtual meetings right from home.
I do look forward to a time when this changes soon, but for now, a remote work station from home and occasional Work-Hub visits will have to do. It’s called process, so don’t be in a hurry.
Leverage on the things that you can and invest only in the things that matter most. The early stage requires being very prudent and investing wisely.
If you’re privileged to have better, that’s also great. Just embrace your own process, it defers for everyone.
Structures
If there’s anything I’m grateful for, it’s structure. Vision precedes structure, before content. As a young visionary, with God’s help, I’ve been able to gradually map out structures that has helped make running the business much easier.
From Communications Structures, to Corporate Structures or Financial Structures. Some have not been so easy to execute, but I take each day at a time and do what I can every day to make things better, until they become the global standard of excellence and sustainability.
When you have the end in view, I believe that all of your action steps when taken intentionally, eventually align towards accomplishing the end result.
It has required much studying and learning from those who are way ahead of me or those well established in my industry or business in general. Attending trainings, personal coaching sessions, seminars, webinars, reading etc., to learn.
I’ve also learnt to not be ashamed to ask questions or ask for guidance from others ahead of me or even my peers sometimes.
I understand my areas of strength and the things I’m very great at, but I also try not to take on the stance of knowing it all, or being the “Top Professional”, because there is always room for improvement and much to learn.
I also know that there is an abundance of wisdom that can only be found in those who have had years of experience in any career path and this should never be taken for granted.
There is still a lot to figure out, but I’ve definitely made progress.
Respect
I’ve also learnt to respect my young company and that has meant walking away from certain offers that come in the guise of work. Especially from those who see the value you bring to the table, yet choose to overlook that, and approach you as a person and not your company. All because they think you are young.
This really undermines the work and value of any young business owner and the importance of their young business.
If you don’t put some respect on your work, especially in the early stages, I believe that people will abuse it. I’ve see it done to others and I have experienced a bit of that myself. Working alone in the early stage does this, but you’ve got to draw the line and be intentional about what you take up as a consultation for your business.
Respect for my work and young company has also meant saying no to familiar folks, who just want things done for free or below the asking price or value as stated.
It still remains surprising sometimes, when I know that they would never in their wildest dreams approach another business that offers the same services for such.
I’ve also discovered that sometimes, my services are much better, but because of such familiarity, they would rather bid for lower, than pay you what it’s worth or the asking price.
So when turned down, they would rather go elsewhere, paying more to someone else, sometimes for even less value and excellent delivery. Sad, but this happens. Familiarity in business is no joke and should be watch out for and that could sometimes include family and close friends.
Brain Picking
The most annoying part of being a young business owner, who knows her onions is those who approach you in the guise of interest in your services or person, just to pick your brain for ideas or to get answers to questions they have.
Sometimes, these are people in your industry as well, who may need to know some things to revert to their own clients or to make progress themselves.
So they come around and try to be friendly and are very strategic about picking your brain to get answers, without actual consultations, or being willing to pay you for such services, or even willing to undergo proper trainings themselves to do well, without resorting to tricks.
It’s a sad place to be, and when you discover such folks, it can be quite painful, but you’ve got to learn to create healthy boundaries.
Just like a young child, a 2year old is still a baby that needs protection, in the same vein, you can’t afford to mishandle your young business or let others take advantage of you.
There is no harm in helping a colleague when they come clean and you both have mutual understanding and some form of agreement, but tricks are very hurtful and its simply plain manipulation that should not be tolerated.
On the flip side, this also happens when you’re out sourcing for clients.
Some folks don’t really want to work with you, they only engage you long enough to pick at your brain for ideas.
Some go as far as requesting for a mapped out strategy/ proposal. Then they thereafter dismiss your work.
More often than not, you would later discover that those ideas proffered to them in a bid to secure a project or consultation are being implemented in your absence, right after they have dismissed your proposals or they just simply stayed mute and non-responsive to any on-going conversation.
Very sad, but that’s a down side to the early stages of spearheading things in business. Mistakes would happen, and you will sometimes learn the hard way. Working remotely also causes this sometimes.
It’s almost like a power game, because you seem to be at their mercy and in need of clients.
But with structures like a standard portfolio, a website, and evidence of successful and past projects already executed, you can turn things around in your favor, securing good clients, and also avoid being taken advantage of by people who really don’t mean well or have any intention of engaging you for profit.
Clients
Working with clients across various industries has taught me a lot and has helped my business grow faster in terms of quality and speed of delivery.
Every client is different and understanding their needs, expectations and limitations helps you know how to serve them better. What makes one client excited and satisfied, may not necessarily make another happy.
One has got to be patient with them and be willing to point out areas that need their attention. As the professional, you often know better, even though you must pay attention to their needs, and map out a strategy and custom solution that fits and works just for them.
I’ve also learnt that compromising on the asking price for a service to a client is always a bad idea. Sometimes, those who pay less are the ones who are more demanding and expect leaps in delivery for a small budget for their work.
Never compromise on the asking price, especially when it affects your profit margin.
The question that helps set things in perspective when this happens to me is I ask myself:
“If I compromise on the price for this project, would I also need to compromise on the volume of work, time and value that would be put into this project for this client?”
The answer is always “NO”.
Because I love to do excellent work, I know that I would feel bad for delivering less value than promised or less than what I know my business is capable of delivering.
Some folks do it I guess, but I can’t because of my core values of integrity and excellence.
The few times when I have compromised on the price, I have always regretted it, as I seemed to be giving so much more for so much less. A very stressful experience that left me very dissatisfied, that I eventually walked away.
So weigh your options when it comes to asking for your value when engaging a client.
Compromise always breeds regret. You deserve better and deserve to be paid what you are worth, even though your business may be young.
Lastly, understand that not all of your friends or family members will be your clients. It is what it is, so don’t take things too personal or feel too bad if they don’t patronize you or choose to work with you when the opportunity presents itself.
Yes, some may support you doggedly, while at other times, some may not. Not because they don’t want to, sometimes, it’s because they can’t afford to, it all depends on the kind of services and products you offer.
So you must weigh things carefully, so that your friendships don’t go down as a result of their non-participation or support for your business.
Yes, you may hope that they become your clients one of these days, but if they don’t, move on.
Sometimes, you need to look beyond your circle for those who really need your services and products and trust that the right people will stick with you for the long haul, especially when what you offer or bring to the table is of great value and remains relevant to the needs of people.
Balance
By spearheading things at the early stages of my business at Brave Publicity, I’ve discovered from my own experiences as well as from listening to others, that, it’s normal to do a lot at the beginning. Including running multiple roles.
It’s a tiring experience sometimes, but it is through these experiences that one grows and gains mastery of their craft and industry. Making you a better leader when you eventually bring others onboard to work with you.
There are days when I feel absolutely tired, like the work for the day would never end.
So I just simply rest or take a break or take some days off, not too long, because I know progress requires consistency, but enough rest that brings back some normalcy and balance into my life.
Juggling a flexible day job with a full time business is not easy, but when you experience those small wins, the trill of all of the sacrifices you make becomes totally worth it.
I still fight for balance, but I know this is only temporary and may only surface in some stages of business, when growing or trying to scale.
So, that’s a summary of how it’s been going so far. If you’re like me, on your own adventure in business, I hope you’re encouraged.
Don’t let the deceit of “The Instagram Life” or the glam social media and lit pictures weigh you down.
The truth is, a lot of grit, grind and hard work goes on behind the scenes. The thing is, some folks only wear their crowns gracefully, even though it may be very heavy.
So believe in yourself. Enjoy your process of becoming. Embrace all seasons, including the slow seasons and celebrate your mile stones, big or small. They make the journey worth the while.
As a believer in God and Christian, I also trust God for His timely help, favor and guidance, as He continues to open the right doors to me and shut the wrong ones. When I feel discouraged, I know who to turn to for strength and help, and that has kept me going.
I hope you’re encouraged young one, as you walk gracefully in those “Boss Shoes”.
I look forward to sharing some more with you in the times ahead. Thank you for reading.
Article by Opeolu Adeyemi. Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!
Diversity is such an important force in the world. How boring a place, the world would be if we all were the same, had same interests and saw things from the same perspective.
Creativity would be lost, uniqueness and all of those great things that makes life so beautiful and colorful would seize to exist, because diversity makes all of these wonderful things possible.
Humans are the most diverse, dynamic and intelligent set of beings on the Earth you know, and this is one of the forces that makes us so powerful and special.
Every day, we meet new people and we sometimes are quite amazed by how different they are from us. Their unique abilities, experiences, interests, skills, heart and the beauty of who they are and their personalities just simply shines through. So, diversity is quite important and the world is so much better for it.
When it comes to the workplace and team formation, diversity plays a huge role on the strength of a team and so, I’ll be sharing on its importance, impact, and why we should have an open mind by embracing the concept of “Team Diversity” in all spheres and walks of life.
Here are six things worthy of note regarding team diversity and why you should embrace this great culture and belief system.
A Pool of Knowledge and Ideas
Applied knowledge is power and when you have a diverse gathering of people, great ideas and solutions are bound to emerge from such places. Ideas that stem from diverse work experiences, backgrounds, sources, and network of these dynamic individuals.
Diversity of Skills and Uniqueness
When it comes to vision, execution and posterity, structures and people are always the solution. With a diverse team comes diverse skills sets and perspectives for delivery. When you have sameness in a room or gathering, it’s always difficult to think outside your own “Outside The Box” ideas, but with diversity, you would come to experience new mind shifts and experiences that can help you accomplish so much for vision actualization and sustainability of your businesses and goals.
The Strength of Divide and Conquer
The Lion remains king of the Juggle, capable of operating alone, but he also understands when the strength of the Pride is needed. Pride of Lions operate by the strength of divide and conquer, and sometimes may come together to focus on a prey, depending on how challenging it may be or what their target is.
Diversity of teams helps you to be able to collaborate to divide and conquer territories that may be unfamiliar to you, but may be accessible and familiar to others onboard. This is the reason, some businesses are capable of expanding and spreading to other regions of the world.
If your focus remains on sameness and exclusivity of certain people from your circle or group, those you may have placed in a category mentally, then you just may be placing a cap on your ability to know and achieve greater things.
End to Racism and Discrimination by Acceptance of People’s Uniqueness
Racism and discrimination is such a terrible mindset. It destroys and robs people of the chance to come to know the beauty and brilliance that resides in many others that are very different from themselves.
Beyond the global scale of the “Black vs. White” or the “Everybody Else vs. Racists” protest movements know around the world, grassroots and local levels across all Nations also have their own fair share of this big problem, and they come in forms like tribalism and social exclusivity and stereotypical assumptions.
Racism and Discrimination is such a terrible mindset that has been passed on from an older generation with grudges and wrong beliefs, forcing the younger generation to develop hatred for something or people, picking on and continuing battles that sometimes have existed before their birth.
Some with structures that have encouraged the continuity of brutal and systemic racism and discrimination, which have place some minorities in a perpetual state of struggle and poverty.
The moment, we begin to embrace the uniqueness of others and incorporate such diversity in our organizations, businesses and wider communities of influence; with structures that encourages diversity and aids in the success of those who are often excluded: groups, people and tribes, only then will we begin to see positive shifts regarding the end of racism and discrimination.
The great news is we can begin from where we are, with our own organizations and businesses, reorienting those within our sphere of influence about the importance of embracing humanity and diversity. While opening doors of opportunity for others to advance in places where there has been unjust exclusiveness, barriers and hindrances.
End to Inequality Including Gender Inequality
In many businesses and organizations, for years, most industries have been mostly male dominated, and this transcends leadership opportunities as well as strategic roles that are core to the growth and development of many communities as well as nations. However, this norm is beginning to experience a shift with global and glocal efforts towards closing the gender and inequality gaps.
When we have a healthy mind shift and perspective that embraces and encourages team diversity, we begin to think about all aspects of this. Bringing onboard all those that should be on some tables of influence, leadership, service or power.
This is achieved by taking into consideration, first the humanity of all people, secondly the need to foster great team strength for posterity by developing tolerance and respect for the uniqueness and preferences of others, especially when those things do not put anyone else in harm’s way.
Lastly, their value, namely: experience, merit and skills, a very important factor that should qualify anyone to be a part of anything great and worthy of attention, irrespective of who they are.
As it is in the world today, there is a lot of unjust actions to many who by merit should have access to or be on board certain teams or have access to some opportunities, but have been hindered. This will always be wrong. So to see change, there is a need to start with ourselves, and the teams within our sphere of influence.
This simple action is capable of widening our team’s scope of experience that comes from collaborating with different people. Only then will we come to appreciate the beauty of diversity, and this can cause a ripple effect that can ignite the positive change we need to see regarding bridging the inequality gap.
The Humanity Factor and Love
When you see people, it is my hope that you first see humanity, before a person’s race, origin, background or the color of their skin. I hope you see someone living and breathing the same air just like you, with the same red blood flowing through your veins. Someone with a heart and heart-beat just like yours, showing up every day, in efforts to make their own lives, families and communities better. Someone with great dreams, desires and aspirations, just like you, someone with a brilliant mind and a good heart.
I hope you see humanity first.
I hope you give them a chance when opportunities of life for great things and collaborations come your way, especially when those opportunities accessible to you or are within your power for decision making. I hope you see the beautiful human before you and you can respond in love to them, just as you would love yourself and in the same vein, respond to others you love.
This is the ultimate factor that can foster the possibility and humanity of team diversity, LOVE. This is for every human. This is for you. And me.
Thank you for reading.
Article by Opeolu Adeyemi. Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!
One of the most challenging aspects of Corporate Communications and Public Relations is being able to execute your campaign strategy effectively and in time, while meeting all targets. Such that the client or customer’s expectation are met or even exceeded. When success is achieved for every mile stone of a campaign, it brings much satisfaction and reinforces confidence in one’s abilities.
However, when things don’t pan out as planned, with errors, delays, time lapses and poor delivery and engagement of automated messages or poor engagement and conversion rates or sales via the various communication assets. Then this becomes a big concern.
Re-examining the strategy implemented is critical to
understanding and identifying the improvement opportunities available for
achieving success with subsequent campaigns.
It is also imperative to take into consideration feedback from clients and the receivers or the target audience (where available).
Some of the following are suggestions that should be taken into consideration when PR efforts don’t go exactly as planned or yield poor results:
Strategy and Execution:
Re-examining the mapped out plan helps one understand what may have gone wrong in the execution of any campaign.
From the conception stage on to the execution stage, to what the campaign entails (the drivers and enablers / partners of the campaign at the various stages), to the resources required to drive the campaigns (both online and offline efforts) is essential. Understanding how each of these factors inter played and the influence they exerted on a campaign is very important.
This enables one to identify those areas of strengths and weaknesses by the drivers or personnel involved at each stage and the kind of support or adjustments that would be required for subsequent campaigns.
Communication Assets and Automation Platforms:
Planning and timeliness is paramount to effective communication and the efficiency of the communication assets and platforms utilized.
Sometimes the failure or success of a campaign is largely dependent on this. This may include CRM platforms, SMS platforms, Email Marketing platforms, and other virtual communication, including automation applications for social media and corporate communication.
It is also important to ensure that the chosen platforms perform optimally and the internet connection remains strong and secured, especially when running campaigns, scheduling bulk messages, email, posts etc. This ensures that such scheduled messages are delivered in time without lags or delays.
Analytics and Data:
Feedback about the status of a campaign at various stages is largely dependent on data and taking informed decisions based on the information obtained.
From the type, volume and conversion rates, to the intensity of engagements such as: clicks, navigation, interests, duration of time spent on landing pages or websites, demographics, sales etc.
All of these analytical information helps one adjust a campaign accordingly, especially campaigns that are scheduled to run at different intervals or periods of time. Information from analytics helps one know if a campaign is meeting the set goals and how it can be adjusted for better performance online and offline.
Feedback:
Feedback from receivers, target audience and customers whom the campaign or services are designed to serve must be taken seriously, if there will be any changes to enhance performance. This is irrespective of how great one thinks an idea is or beneficial to people or the target audience.
This includes complaints, suggestions and
grey areas that one may have overlooked, but keep coming up in conversations by
the target audience, customers and potential customers.
“Noise Listening” is a skill that must be honed for success and continuity in business.
Often, areas of complaints make good improvement opportunities. It is also important to take note of areas of success in all of one’s campaigns, communication, marketing and PR efforts, and find ways to replicate such strategies or results in subsequent campaigns.
Attention to Detail:
Many times, campaigns go wrong from not paying attention to some of those minute details.
This can be very costly especially when PR efforts are channeled to a very large audience and the communication efforts have multiple errors that cannot be retrieved nor rectified on time without incurring damage or a huge cost.
This includes errors such as: wrong content of sponsored ads that cannot be rectified once flagged off, wrong SMS messages, email marketing efforts with wrong links or landing pages, wrongly printed or branded materials etc. Many of these things kind of errors come at a cost.
They are also often misleading and defeats the purpose and goals of the campaign at the end of the day. However, when careful attention to detail is given, the stress level on execution is drastically reduced and the probability of recording success becomes higher.
Conclusion.
The bottom line is this.
Feedback and a re-examination of any Communication and PR campaign strategy is important, and identification of improvement opportunities after such campaigns have been executed is key to being able to have repeat and successful PR efforts, all achieved via informed decisions. Thus creating a success model that can be replicated and adjusted across a variety of projects.
It worthy to note that, no experience is ever a waste and as one continues to work on a variety of campaign and PR projects, mastery is obtained to know what could potentially work best for each unique campaign project that comes our way.
Thank you for reading.
Article by Opeolu Adeyemi. Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!
#BraveReview. Do you feel like a small fish swimming in oceans deep of the workplace? Are you a freshman in the world of works, who has no idea on where to begin? Do you find yourself constantly enraged with your struggles at the work place?
Ever wondered what wrong actions you took that others got promoted right before your very eyes and years of more experience? Ever secretly wondered how some folks climbed the success ladder faster than many others? If you’ve asked yourself these questions and many more, then this book is for you!
We absolutely love the “Rule of Work” book by Richard Templar, and we think you will too! In his simple yet clear and strategic method of communication, he has created a rule book that serves as a guide to your journey through the corporate world; it also serves as a great tool for all who want to run their own enterprises.
This book will sometimes have you laughing hard, smiling sheepishly at your own faults and sometimes, have you wondering why Richard thinks he can order you around with his firm beliefs. Well…, you bought his book. Even though it’s a Rule Book, it’s not designed to change a personality, but designed to equip everyone interested in becoming better, more effective, relevant and successful at the work place.
The “Rule of Work” is just one book out of the many Rule books written by Richard! The is indeed a very carefully crafted read and we applaud this amazing author!
Brave Publicity Ink! 