₦airaland Forum

It is no longer news that your posts should be 90/10 or 80/20.

That is 90% tips, industry trends, engaging posts, helpful content, etc, and 10% promotional.

The questions you probably ask yourself are:

� How do I find what to post?
� I don't even know what to post!

You have to answer these questions otherwise, your page would become a buy, buy, buy page which is not ideal.

To seamlessly create the 90% of your posts, you need to build your content around a theme. E.g.:

If you sell kiddies toys, create a parenting theme.

If you sell fashion items, create a lifestyle (fashion) theme.

If you sell foods, create a nutrition theme.

If you sell makeup services/products, create a lifestyle (beauty & cosmetics) theme.

The 4 examples above are quite broad, now tell me how you would ever run out of good engaging content.

It’s a new year and I know you have made lots of resolutions to be at your best this year. The 5 tips I share in this post will help you improve your daily productivity as an entrepreneur, thereby being able to achieve all of your 2018 goals.

1. Always start your day early

Early to bed, early to rise is an old saying that still rings true till date. When you sleep early, you are likely to wake up early, energized and ready to tackle the day. This is so because having around 8 hours of straight sleep per day improves your mental alertness, cognition and emotional wellbeing. It is in these states of sound health that you can actually function well to take actions towards your goal. Moreover, if you start your day with a positive perception, you will feel energized to do as much productive work as you can.

2. Write down your daily tasks

You may do this at the beginning of every week or the night before each new day. Make a list of all that you need to do and cross them out as you complete each task.

A list will give you direction as to what next you should do instead of spending all of your productive time thinking of what next or aimlessly browsing the internet.

Your to-do list can be as simple as jotting your tasks in a list form inside your notebook or you can go the app way. Examples of apps you can use are Evernote, Redbooth, Slack, Trello, etc. Keep your tasks short and simple so you can achieve them easily in little time. See my example below:

* Call Joseph about the business registration – 9am
* Reply Ade’s email – 9:30am
* Update Facebook profile introduction
* Send a follow up email to EFG Logisitics

3. Work with the Pomodoro technique

This technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It helps you manage your time efficiently and also organizes your daily activities. To work in Pomodoro mode, all you need do is use a timer to breakdown your tasks into intervals. This method of working allows you to focus on the task at hand for a set duration.

There are six steps in the original technique:

Decide on the task to be done.

Set the pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes).

Work on the task.

End work when the timer rings and put a checkmark on a piece of paper.

If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3–5 minutes), then go to step 2.

After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15–30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1.
(Source – Wikipedia)

4. Outsource your non core activities

By outsourcing your non core activities such as accounting, hiring and online presence management, you will realize that you are able to focus your attention on pleasing your customers and placing your organization at a competitive advantage. Here are 8 tasks you should outsource to boost your productivity as an entrepreneur.

5. Take breaks

A break is necessary to help you relax after long days of work. You should get massages, play fun games and actually do nothing for some time. Taking breaks will help you regain strength mentally and physically and you will have fresh energy to serve your customers better.

You can maintain a productive entrepreneur lifestyle without long hours or burnouts; just apply all or some of the tips above. Do you have any productivity tips you would like to share? Connect with us on social media, let’s discuss.

Source: https://excellaid.com.ng/5-tips-for-a-productive-entrepreneur-lifestyle/

Lalasticlala, let's help our entrepreneurs here have a productive 2018.

This man is saying nonsense as usual.

I remember when I was in JSS1 or so, close to 20 years, my neighbor who travelled to Libya returned after some months looking like a destitute with sad experiences. It's not after Ghadaffi that Libya started treating migrants with disdain.

And this exactly makes me wonder why people still go there, at least if you must run away from your country, get informed about your route of escape to avoid stories that touch.

If you are wondering how to increase your business visibility both online and offline, here are some actionable tips that will help you increase sales, attract customers and retain your existing clients.

1. Get a business website

Always see a website as your online office especially if you are a small business owner. If you want to measure up to your competitors, you should have a business website, even if it is a basic one.

Most people now find out about a business on the internet before making buying decisions. If a potential customer searches for you and you are not available online, you stand a high risk of losing that potential to a competitor who has a strong presence on the internet.

2. Attend industry events

Search for business events around you and try to attend as much as necessary. If you are on a low budget, you may reach out to the event organizers and offer them some form of service in return for a free exhibition space or an opportunity to address the attendees in your area of specialization. This will help create awareness for your business.

3. Ask your customers to spread the word

Your customers are your best marketers, but you have to do your part before they act as one. Do your customer service well, delight them, offer them assistance when they need it and reward them. for being with you.

A satisfied customer will naturally tell family and friends about your business. Always ask for their feedback which can help you improve in your service areas and further impress your clients.

You may also do a ‘refer and earn’ where you reward them for referring new clients to you.

4. Create loyalty programs

Loyalty programs are structured marketing strategies designed by merchants to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of businesses associated with each program – (Wikipedia). These programs exist covering most types of business, each one having varying features and rewards schemes. Refer to this article for more on loyalty programs.

5. Consider listing in local directories

Search for online business directories and add your business to these websites. A good example is vconnect.com. Most of these directories have high raking on search engines such that a search for your keyword is very likely to bring up page results containing your business details.

6. Don’t overlook networking

Acquire good business cards and tell as much people as you can about your services. Let friends and family know what you do, and offer to help them with issues you can solve. If they don’t patronize you directly, they will definitely refer you to whoever needs your services.

7. Do content marketing

Create useful content and share them on social media and other relevant places. Here is a complete guide to help you get started with blogging and content marketing.

8. Do social media marketing

You should have social media profiles where you can share helpful tips and information in order to build a trusting audience that would patronize you. Most people get it wrong with social media marketing – they are either too salesy or spammy. Here are some mistakes you must avoid at all costs.

I hope the 8 points above will help you create a winning visibility strategy for your business. Do not hesitate to contact me if you need clarification on any of the points above.

Source: https://excellaid.com.ng/8-ways-to-increase-your-business-visibility

You need a support system while you're starting a business (and afterwards). A family member or friend that you can bounce ideas off and who will listen sympathetically to the latest business start up crisis is invaluable. Credit - thebalance.com
_____________________________

A Virtual Assistant is also available to help you focus on your core jobs and become more productive without burnouts or stress. � Contact us via http://excellaid.com.ng/free-consultation, let's discuss your daily productivity potential �

Email management remains a dreadful daily activity of an entrepreneur. But it is inevitable to receive and send emails in a business. Here are 3 quick tips to help you manage your inbox efficiently on a daily basis.

1. Delete unwanted emails immediately

You will recognize these emails once you see them. The subject line is a big tip off. Just trash these emails or mark them as spam so they don’t find way into your priority inbox next time.

2. Have a separate account for receiving newsletters

You’ve probably signed up for newsletters that you actually want to read. To avoid these mails from making your priority inbox fill up too quickly, sign up for newsletters with a separate email address.

Also, the best time for reading these mails is after work hours to avoid distractions. Most newsletters contain links and call to actions that you might be interested in. So, to save time and really focus on your own job, open your newsletter mailbox after close of work.

3. Reply immediately

Set aside about 20 minutes in the morning to check your priority inbox and reply to urgent inquiries immediately. Your priority inbox is where requests, client communications, sales and other important information about your business enter.

You may have more than one mail account for your priority inbox based on the category of emails you receive. However, be careful not to reveal the addresses carelessly to avoid your inbox being filled up with spam.

If you have to take actions on the emails in your priority inbox, you may schedule them for later in the day, depending on the urgency of such actions. But make sure you send a response or acknowledgement to the sender immediately after reading the mail.

These 3 easy hacks will help you concentrate on work plus reduce the chaos in your mailbox.

How do you manage your email as a busy entrepreneur? Share with us in the comments.

http://excellaid.com.ng/quick-email-management-tips-for-a-busy-entrepreneur/

� http://excellaid.com.ng/contact � Get 50% off every article we write for you, valid till July 5th, 2017 � July is the beginning of the second half of 2017. How far with your content goals? Have you been consistent with blogging, or you've not even started due to insufficient time? Maybe you don't even know what to write or you just don't like to write. � Did you know that engaging with your audience on social media is made easier when you have blog articles from which you can extract snippets to develop into social media content? � This is just one of the numerous benefits of business blogging. You can still achieve your content strategy goals this year starting with business​ blogging and we are on ground to help you achieve your goals with our content writing services. Call or send a DM now to get started. We are affordable and reliable � http://excellaid.com.ng/contact �

Dear entrepeneurs, what would you do if you can gain free time of up to 3 hours per day to focus on your core jobs and do more? � Distractions come in different forms and some are disguised as administrative tasks. You don't have to do them when you can outsource them. Work smart, not hard. Learn more at http://excellaid.com.ng

This is my response.
But you people here should stop promoting misinformation. You guys can also do your research and be able to properly modify submissions like this before pushing it to the front page.

WordPress
Squarespace
The Grid

These 3 are all superb but for finance, I will suggest the self hosted WordPress, that is, wordpress.org

Winters22:
As an introvert, how do you go about finding a job/ get job offers?

Introversion is independent of almost all the issues listed here. These articles might help http://www.quietrev.com/search/?q=Job+search. Again, introversion is not a minus for you. Be more informed about it and make it your strength.

One industry with a high number of skill based business is the fashion industry. You will notice that most of the designers discovered their passion for fashion later in life after having studied another course in school.

You too can do the same. Regardless of your field of study, you can become anything you want to be based on your skills. All you need to do is follow a planned approach towards sharpening your skills and turning it into products or services that people will patronise and pay for.

If you are looking to develop your skills into a profitable business, here are some approaches that you should take to actualise your goal.

1. Read literatures
There are lots of published works of the early comers in your niche available for you to read and learn from. Stories such as how they started their journey, and lessons learnt from their mistakes. You should get these books and read through so that you can start based on the experience of established industry players.

Bear in mind though, that you cannot have the same journey with another person. Only use the literature as a guide, do not plan your journey solely around it.

2. Follow industry leaders
The tool I recommend for this approach is social media. Either you follow a company page or an individual account, you stand to gain a lot of experience. You will get insight into how they navigate activities​ such as customer complaints, product announcement, and general audience engagement. For individual accounts, you also stand a good chance to glimpse into how they reason as some of these leaders use social media to indirectly mentor their followers.

3. Get a mentor
Mentors are experts who have acquired experience and rich knowledge in their fields. Some are like moving encyclopedia such that spending​ just an hour with them could change your perspective on a subject matter.

To hone your skills into a money maker, you should seek out mentors in your industry and learn directly from them. They are also available to guide and put you in the right mindset of a professional.

4. Further learning
If your skills require technical knowledge such as IT, you may need to enrol in classes to learn further. There are several online classes that you can join and learn at your own pace. Examples of sites where you can sharpen your IT skills are Codecademy and W3Schools.

If you are going into entrepreneurship, you should form an organised reading habit and dig into the articles at Entrepreneur and Small Business Trends.

Another way you can learn further is through internships. Some organisations accept graduates into short term internship programmes where they can learn or develop business skills. You may consider interning for some months in a company with long strides where you get to learn the business in a real setting.

You don’t have to take all of the aforementioned approaches to sharpen your skills. However, it is advisable to explore each briefly to identify the one you are more comfortable with. You may then stick with it till you are ready to launch and start selling your skills for profit.

Did you just discover a new skill that you want to develop? Share your planned approach with us.

https://excellaid.com.ng/how-to-develop-your-skills-into-a-viable-business/

I stopped to buy one of my favorite foods on my way home from work yesterday. I had paid my money and was waiting for the vendor to package the item when another buyer arrived. He asked for the price of the commodity and the vendor’s son told him the real amount which is the same amount I paid. However, the mother arrived almost immediately with my packaged item, just in time to hear the new buyer’s question. She answered too, adding almost 5% to it.

The item in question is sold at the same fixed price nationwide, so it is not a question of whether I was lucky to pay lesser than the man. The vendor’s son was surprised at the new price, I could see the expression on his face, he was even about to speak out but his mother shut him up.

To me, that is the worst behaviour a mother could exhibit at any time especially in the presence of her little one. She lied and was trying to cheat at the same time! Those acts will be engrained into her son’s memory and could birth negative vices in him.

There are various scenarios of corruption that children witness daily, and since it is coming from their parents or elderly ones, they assume that those occurrences are proper. Children see the older ones as role models and they follow in their steps, actions and words combined.

Some parents even go to the extent of procuring special examination centre pass for their children, when it is clear that to them that they will be given ready answers to their examination questions, an act which is seriously against the examination conduct. If your child knows that he has your back and support for any corrupt act, do you expect him to grow up without corruption?

A man once offered to pay his daughter’s school authority for her to be promoted to the next class because the girl had repeated the same class several times. Is it not best to tackle the main reason of the girl’s academic dullness than try to buy her way to the next class?

Even among themselves, parents exhibit bad behaviours while the children are watching. Imagine a father who holds a high position at work entertaining official visits in his home just to do some side deals. And the mother too, employing all manner of cunny actions to cheat her customers.

If you act corrupt, your children will grow up corrupt because they look up to you for clues on how to blend into the society. Before the society impacts the child, he is first formed at home. The kind of formation he receives will determine how he responds to societal occurrences.

Back to the vendor, her son, and the buyer; I would have spoken out about the correct price of the item. But I just finished an episode with a cabbie who was trying to overcharge me too. So I was very exhausted, moreover, the buyer countered the mother’s price, according to him, he bought the item the previous day at the same normal amount I paid for it.

https://tsadekolaa./2017/02/14/corruption-just-like-charity-begins-at-home/

Setting up a business blog page on your website is as simple as ABC. All other things that make it seem complex are modifications which are usually not necessary.

Functionalities such as scrolling text and pop up bars sometimes require some bit of coding that you are probably not familair with. So you do not have to worry about these modifications. All you need is just a blog page to show your target audience that you know your bit about the product or service your business offers.

Getting started
There are several platforms on which you can blog. We have Medium, LinkedIn Pulse, Tumblr, Nairaland, etc. However, it is more advisable to blog from your own website, and republish your content on the aforementioned platforms.

To blog on any of the platforms mentioned above, you need to visit the websites, create an account in your business name, set up your profile (add description, your website url, and social media handles) follow your interests and start writing. Each of these platforms have specific rules and regulations, ensure you read and follow them to avoid being penalised for breaching any of the rules.

To blog on your own website if you have one already, follow the steps in this post (https://www.shoutmeloud.com/how-to-make-a-blog-in-your-website.html). You will learn how to design your blog to attract the right audience and publish contents that are search engine optimised.

To set up only a blog page (if you do not have a business website but just want to publish contents about your business/industry on the internet) you can use Blogger or WordPress and you do not have to spend any money to get started. There are several tutorials online that can help you succeed in blogging and the overall management of your website on these two platforms. However, bear in mind that it is more business wise to pay for at least a domain name if you want to occupy a more competitive advantageous position on the internet.

Read post on website to get links to download free blogging resources from HubSpot

https://excellaid.com.ng/business-blogging-series-how-to-setup-a-business-blog-page/

More

The ex-governor returned to Nigeria after serving his jail term in UK annd his return was highly celebrated. However, Nigerians on Twitter have warned him to stay low, or else.. see the hilarious tweets below.

seunny4lif:
Coke dey ooooh
Lepa size or big size

Give me mountain dew with N100 popcorn. the tori go long small

This map is not very correct. The whole of NK, Mexico??!!

eph12:
Ahan! I never stated otherwise. I thought we could have a discussion or debate on this. Don't know why you scared of someone quoting you.

if any part of that post was insulting maybe you should point it out or you could just ignore and forget I quoted you

You left no room for debate at bolded. Just ignore me please.

eph12:
Totally wrong. An employer whether Nigerian or not, knows the importance of keeping a good employee. They normally won't want the employee to leave but at the same time they cannot afford more than what they can afford to pay.

eph12:
Totally wrong. An employer whether Nigerian or not, knows the importance of keeping a good employee. They normally won't want the employee to leave but at the same time they cannot afford more than what they can afford to pay.

My opinion please. You don't have to quote me to voice yours.

Ipobdevil:
http://dailypost.ng/2017/01/04/buhari-die-soon-prophet-owusu-bempah/

Prophets of doom. Is it not said that when you foresee a negative occurrence, profess positivity with your tongue and it shall come to pass? They keep seeing evils to justify that end time is near, thereby increase fear in their members to pay their tithe regularly. Who will not die anyway?

If you exhibit all of the skills listed above, a typical Nigerian employer won't promote you still. Instead, they would see you as arrogant and look for ways of making you exit the company.

Doing business nowadays is incomplete without creating an online presence; a series of strategies that causes your business to be found on the internet. One of these strategies is a business website. To enjoy the benefits and get the desired results from having a website, you need to optimise it for search engines and visitors interaction.

Below is a quick checklist of simple measures you can take if you want to increase visitors engagement and keep them coming back.

Social media buttons must show up even in mobile view
I once visited a website from my mobile device and I decided to follow them on Twitter but I couldn’t find the follow button. From experience, I rotated my device interface and voila! there it was at the top right corner of the page.

Since people now access the internet from various screen sizes, it is important that your social media buttons be displayed across several sizes so your audience could see them regardless of the size of their device. If your theme does not support showing social media buttons in mobile view, you may add them as links to the sidebar or footer widget.

You can have lots of dedicated followers on social media if you make it easy for users to find your profile link and follow you. This will drive offsite engagement and promote genuine backlinks to your website.

Always include sharing buttons after posts
Add sharing buttons after posts to make it easy for readers to share them with followers, friends or colleagues. This creates a wider readership for your posts and also increases genuine backlinks which is very good for SEO.

Avoid spelling errors especially on the homepage
Do not prepare your web content in a hurry. Spelling errors can increase your bounce rate because it is a big turn off. Always go through your writings even after publishing them. You may also get an editor to help you review your content before publishing.

Make call to action (CTA) buttons prominent
If you have free resources to give to your audience, make sure you add compelling messages that would attract them to click and take actions. Do not just write “Free resources” and hope they would click. Make it attractive, and include the benefits they stand to gain if they take action.

Open outbound links in a new tab
This allows your visitor to finish on a page and even take actions before leaving for another page or website. Although, the reader may just tap the back button to go back to your page, he might also get carried away with other posts on the new website. It’s either way. However, it is best to open outbound link in a new tab especially when the link is in between your write-up or at any part of your blog post.

What have I left out? How do you increase visitors engagement on your website?

http://excellaid.com.ng/how-to-increase-visitors-engagement-on-your-website

Must people just write? Being an introvert, no matter the type does not mean you are restricted to embark on any endeavour. It only means you need to recharge after taking part in some activities such as socialising. Just stop the guess work and stop writing just anything.

Contract or no contract, the guy at least had colleagues when he was with the company, those are witnesses. He must also had taken some selfies or group pictures while working with them, and bank alert for salaries of jobs done, those are exhibits. And some other documents too. OP if your friend can, he should sue them. You can't just fire someone anyhow without tangible reason in this recession.