₦airaland Forum

http://nairabrains.com/2011/09/how-to-get-your-business-name-registered-in-nigeria-with-less-stress/

get some useful tips

If you’ve got a wonderful idea, you think will seriously improve operations in a particular niche and you wish to sell your idea to a big company and make your bucks here’s some little advice for you.

Is the Idea Going to Improve Their Bottom Line or Business Processes?
Before you get all excited about your wonderful idea ask yourself some question. One of them is the one we just asked. You will need to clearly define how your idea is going to help the company.

- Will it save them substantial amount on operational cost?
- Will it help them sell more and make more money?
- Will it eliminate accidents at the manufacturing plant?
- Will it help the company in efficient use of raw materials?

And more. Find out what, in concrete terms, you think your idea will be doing for the company you intend to sell them to,

more: http://nairabrains.com/2011/11/got-an-idea-to-sell-how-to-approach-companies-and-sell-your-ideas-to-them/

This is a unique topic because not everybody who has a job understands the need for his/her own business as well. Is my job not my business? You ask.

Your job is definitely not your business or you wouldn’t be paid what the owner wanted. If you are working for someone else then that’s your job. Your business is the extra thing you do for yourself no matter how small where you are the boss and determine what you pay yourself and what you do and when you do it.

The topic to show why you need your own business even if you have a job is one to be reserved for another day. Today I write on how a career person who works for someone else and still has his own business on the side can combine both effectively and manage the 24 hours he has in a day.

Plan Your Day Each Night Before:
This is one of the most effective time management advice I learnt while setting out to start my own business a few years ago. Since then I have never hesitated to share this advice. Though I sometimes fail to stick to it I always seem to have a better grip of my day whenever I take the pains to plan well before I go to bed.
You already know the time you should allocate to your job. Where the work lies is in allocating time for your business and this should be done in a way not to stress you up and affect your performance on the job,

http://nairabrains.com/2011/11/how-to-manage-your-time-between-your-business-and-your-job/

Google everywhere!!

According to latest statistics from SocialBakers Facebook users in Nigeria have crossed the four million mark,

With a Facebook population of 4, 076, 160 as at October 2011, Nigeria added 189, 900 users to the popular social network within the past month, with a growth rate of 4.89%.

This latest Facebook population grew by more than 953, 060 in the last 6 months.

In August 2011, Nigeria ranked 15th fastest growing country on Facebook globally. This latest statistics puts Nigeria in the #35 position in the world ranking on countries on Facebook.

Nigeria thus, maintains its third spot in Africa after Egypt and South Africa, currently at #1 and #2 spots in Africa with 8, 929, 740 users and 4, 567, 640 users respectively.

It is expected that Nigeria will overtake South Africa by May 2012, if both countries add their current average new users every month over the next six months.

http://nairabrains.com/2011/11/facebook-users-in-nigeria-pass-four-million-mark/

Don't think we need spamming here or half baked marketing Hector.

Most people don't know that the number of share capital you choose to use affects the amount you pay for incorporation

This spam bot keeps blocking the full article. You can read it further below

http://nairabrains.com/2011/11/three-internet-business-nichesmodels-you-should-not-get-into-now-in-nigeria/

I agree, business is Nigeria though it has its challenges can be highly rewarding

1. Marketing- How do you get the services or goods to be bought by the target audience in good steady flow.
2. Personnel Management - If you are going to work with a few employees it will not be easy to get the best from them.
3. Cash flow Management - How do you manage the flow of revenue. Decisions like, whether to buy more advertising or pay for a new office equipment will face you as a starting businessman.
4. Cash Crunch - Chances are you may be down on cash flow especially when business is not moving well. How do you overcome that?

http://nairabrains.com/category/business/

I first got my lesson on business negotiation several years ago when as a bleary eyed 19 year old writer I was faced with negotiating with an experienced, cunning small publisher who wished to purchase the manuscript for my first ever book. It was a novel I wanted to publish but couldn’t get any conventional publisher to publish me.

After considering the option of self publishing I decided on selling all rights to the book. My dire financial situation didn’t help matters so I had to sell to raise some money.

The publisher sensed and knew I needed money and made a terribly low offer. It was unacceptable for something I had spent close to one year writing.

The shocker was that I later accepted his offer after weeks of haggling and negotiating. He refused to budge or even add some couple of thousands to his initial offer. In the end, instead of going empty handed and even losing my work (I had already given him a copy of the manuscript to proofread for publishing) I took the money and went on my way.

That experience effectively turned me away from fiction writing ( I think in some way I’m glad for that) still it taught me a lot about successful negotiation.

There are many half truths out there about successful negotiation which do not help growing business people and professionals much. Whether you are in business negotiating for a deal or an employee looking for a raise here are five pieces of advice that will help you negotiate more successfully. ,

http://nairabrains.com/2011/10/5-top-negotiation-tactics-to-make-you-win-every-time/

The startup, prices.com.ng, says its a price comparison website that aids shoppers in making the right decision on what to buy. Prices.com.ng aims at getting buyers different items at the best available price.

It covers appliances/electronics, books, computer items, games, phones and even bulk sms. A scan through their site showed about 270 appliances for the user to compare on. These included microwave ovens (12), refridgerators (152), washing machines (13), Air conditioners (92).

According to the founders new items are being added daily from new merchants who sign up to have their items compared with others by buyers,

More Review @ http://nairabrains.com/2011/10/new-shopping-site-that-lets-you-compare-prices-from-various-merchants-debuts/

@OP you can mail me: chukswriter@yahoo.com so I can inform you of a new site abt to be launched that will take care of your project needs

1. Use a Bank that Respects You for Your Savings Account: A friend used to complain that his bank (names with held) regularly deducted little amounts of money from his savings accounts for no reason. I quickly advised him to move to another bank with greater respect for their customers’ money when a substantial amount went missing from his savings account. If you are serious about making your savings count use a bank that will give you around 3-5% on your savings when you do not withdraw for long periods of time.

2. Watch TV only 1-2 hours a Day: Watching too much television does two things to you; it makes you spend time you would have used for productive activities and you get exposed to many ads that tempt you to spend your money.

3. Watch Your Phone Credit Expenses: I long ago discovered that phone call bills and expenses are easily one of my highest expenses every month. How many times do you recharge your phone’s credit per week and spend them on making worthless calls. If you recharge and spend on business and important calls then it’s good but if you spend thousands every week on the phone with nothing to show for it you had better cut the habit and free up more money to be saved. Subscribe to prepaid packages that cut less credit and gives free additional credit bonuses for recharges made. Watch out for our complete report on Best Phone Prepaid Packages in Nigeria.

4. Don’t Buy on Impulse Ever: How many times have you bought something you never planned or budgeted to buy. You just saw a particular shoe and loved it. Then without thinking about your finances you pull out some cash and pay. The truth is , most of the items we buy on impulse we can do without them. Think before making any purchase. Ask yourself if you really need that item before you buy,

http://nairabrains.com/2011/10/10-ways-to-save-more-money-and-get-rich-a-bit-faster/

@stagger, I agree with the area thing. Down the southeast some towns are a goldmine for cyber cafes because the level of exposure technology wise is still low. You struggle when you open cyber cafe in an up-to-date and technologically aware city.

Check this article: How to Register Your Business Name in Nigeria with Less Stress

http://nairabrains.com/2011/09/how-to-get-your-business-name-registered-in-nigeria-with-less-stress/

Since that article (which I think was too narrow anyway) there are emerging tech startups in Nigeria which need to be brought to light; Vconnect, Ngcareers, DealDey etc,

www.NairaBrains.com is doing a report on them that will be out soon.

Some few years ago cyber cafes were springing up everywhere across the country. Despite the high cost of getting internet service from the ISPs cyber cafes still made some nice profits as many persons took to the new fad of daytime and even night browsing. The yahoo boys contributed to keeping cyber cafes busy as well.

Today, however, in almost every major neighbourhood you find cyber cafes shutting down. It therefore worries one a bit to see several persons making serious enquiries as to how to set up a cyber cafe business. While we may not want to sound discouraging the basic foundation to setting a vable business is looking at immediate future prospects of such business idea.

Giving the evolving and present economic condition in Nigeria setting up a cyber cafe is not a very wise decision. Unless the investor has the capacity to add several other revenue channels to boost bottomline.

Here are three dangers to watch out for if you must embark on setting up a cyber cafe business;

http://nairabrains.com/2011/09/three-3-dangers-of-starting-a-cyber-cafe-business-why-you-should-consider-other-business-options/

Working effectively does not mean working too hard, having no rest and generally behaving sour. Here are specific things to do to increase the level of effectiveness in your career work.

Keep your desk and your files organized to avoid wasting time shuffling through piles of paper. This enables for faster location of files and reduces frustration in looking for important documents under piles of paper.
Go through your inbox at the beginning of each work day. Either throw away, file or follow up on each item. I have discovered that each day I fail to check my mail, I’ll have to spend more time than necessary reading them, and deleting unwanted mail.
Prioritize a list of the tasks you need to accomplish that day. The best way to plan your time is to make a to-do list of every task you foresee doing for the day and start from the most urgent or important. Make your list flexible to accommodate any emergency tasks that may come up.
Delegate tasks to co-workers and assistants if possible and free up your time to do only the really important tasks. Shun the do-all-myself mentality. It will only make you take work home which is bad enough.
Finish one task before you go on to the next. This will help clear your desk faster rather than having half finished tasks clustering your desk.
Reduce paperwork by storing important information and making use of the computer or electronic organizer.
Communicate effectively and plan carefully to make sure tasks are done properly the first time around.
Schedule time when you’ll be available, and let colleagues know, to avoid constant interruptions. Close the door if you need to.
Take breaks. A short walk or quick lunch away from the office will increase your overall productivity.
Before leaving for the day, tidy up your desk and make a short list of projects you will need to do the next day.

Try not to take work home. It’s never a good policy. You are meant to enjoy your work and not be enslaved by it.

http://nairabrains.com/category/personal-development/career/

For readers who have read so many books on personal finance this article may be unacceptable. Still I wrote it with the business person in mind. I tried to approach the subject matter from the point of entrepreneurship.

The idea for this writing came a few years back when I read a view point on personal wealth creation that turned my financial reasoning around for good.

Before then I believed the right path to financial freedom was in saving alone. Reducing expenses is surely not a bad thing. In fact it still is the bedrock of personal finance but making it the only focus of your race to financial freedom is simply taking the rough path.

While I do not fault some popular personal finance gurus and advisers on their tips for financial independence my only grouse is that those pieces of advice are many times not ambitious. There has to be a more aggressive approach to increasing your networth.

For a worker who earns a fixed amount as salary that barely covers his needs but wants to become financially independent as soon as possible what advice will you give him? Will it be enough to ask him to reduce his feeding expenses, transportation costs and housing expenses and save the savings made from them?

There must be a better approach to help him with his finances.

What if you ask him to keep his expenses at an acceptable level and explore channels to increase his income, saving and investing the extra income. This looks to me a more pragmatic option.

During my struggle with finances I had tried to bring myself to reducing my expenses appreciably. I devoured books and applied all the advice on savings including automatic deduction from income. While some worked the results were not very satisfactory for me. I wanted appreciable impact in my finances,

http://nairabrains.com/2011/07/the-right-approach-to-personal-finance-between-increasing-your-income-and-reducing-your-expenses/

Same problem I face sometimes. It's all an issue of delegating. That attitude doesn't encourage for greater exploits in business. To start with you'll have to learn to grow and nurture an idea, then systemize it and draw back a bit assuming only supervisory and overseeing role. Then you can start birthing another baby. As soon as I have my Technology solutions firm standing and I attract the right minds I will step back forsomething entirely interesting that I can't afford not to work on.

Covenant University, Ota has commenced post UTME screening tests (what it calls Scholastic Aptitude Test), it began on July 2 and will run until July 16, 2011. Interested candidates should book a convenient date for the test within the testing period. Candidates are also expected to pay a post UTME screening test of N1,000 at any of the designated banks. Candidates are expected to go to the venue of the Post UTME test with their payment teller, copy of the completed online application form, character assessment form and confidential report form.

In addition to the above , all candidates are expected to also come along with :

1. Pastoral reference letter
2. Letter of Sponsorship
3. Copy of the 2011/2012 JAMB result with their passport photograph fully embossed on it
4. Ordinary level statement of result i.e WAEC, NECO, IGCSE, NABTEB.
Please note that you are to bring along the documents listed above while coming for your screening

For further info admissions@covenantuniversity.com

http://jobsafricana.com

First Identify the kind of job you need the CV for. The first mistake many people make is that they wish to create a CV to suit any job that comes along. A CV has to be targeted. When you get the job target right other steps then follow.

You can check out http://ngjobsncareers.com/category/career-devt

Sir Alex Ferguson has acted quickly to replace the outgoing Edwin van der Sar by smashing the British transfer record for a goalkeeper and agreeing the signing this summer of David de Gea from Atlético Madrid for a fee believed to be in the region of £17m.


The size of the fee indicates the importance Ferguson has attached to finding the right successor to Van der Sar at Old Trafford. The figure dwarfs the £9m Sunderland paid Hearts for Craig Gordon in 2007 and makes the 20-year-old De Gea, who is yet to win a cap for Spain, the second most expensive goalkeeper in football history behind Gianluigi Buffon, who swapped Parma for Juventus in a deal worth around £32m in 2001.

After six seasons at United Van der Sar is to retire after Saturday's Champions League final against Barcelona and Ferguson will hope the signing of De Gea will prevent filling the No1 shirt turning into the problem it became following the departure of Peter Schmeichel after United won the competition in 1999.

"We've been working on it for quite a while," said Ferguson of the signing. "We identified him quite a while back as one we should go for. He's young, very quick, good composure, presence and an outstanding replacement for Van der Sar,

http://gblsoccer..com/2011/05/manchester-united-confirm-signing-of.html

MrPrsdent:
interesting

but why is GEJ doing the honours and not a minister or PS/Director

Pay more attention to articles. It says President Jonathan who was represented by Chief Emeka Wogu, Minister of Labour and Interior

Some hours ago Nigeria's hom based Super Eagles led by Samson Siasia were defeated 2-1 by unfancied Togo in the final of the WAFU cup.

Despite his brilliance in the coaching game he has taken the second position in FIFA U20 World Cup in Holland, took silver at the Olympics football competition in 2008 and now again lost in the final of the WAFU cup in Abeokuta.

Is Samson Siasia doomed to come second best in any competition he enters?,

http://gblsoccer..com/2011/05/siasia-perpetual-runner-up-coach.html

UEFA have announced that the experiment using two extra match officials, first trialled in last season's Europa League, is to be extended next season to the Champions League and qualifying games for the 2012 European Championship.

The five-referee system garnered mixed reviews in its trials in Europe's second competition last season, but had already been extended for another two years before Thursday's announcement.

The extra officials will first appear in the playoff round of the Champions League, which will be played in August. Domestic football associations are also free to import the system into their own competitions.

http://gblsoccer..com

If you wish to become a secretary or office assistant or perhaps you have the goal of pursuing a career in both fields there are pertinent questions you should expect during interviews.

During interviews for the positions of secretary and office assistant many employers will be looking for various important abilities on the part of the candidates. Most companies will want to hire candidates with proven organizational abilities, quality communication skills, ability to use and maintain vital office equipment and excellent personal relation skills among other things. Thus the questions asked during interview for secretarial or office assistant jobs will be such that will reveal the candidates level of knowledge and qualification in these areas.

Below are some questions to expect in varying forms,

http://ngjobsncareers.com/2011/05/questions-to-expect-during-interviews-for-confidential-secretaryoffice-assistant-applicants.html

Some are real outrageous. Some look like they were in a battle field. We bring only the roughest and meanest. Enjoy

Video Link: http://gblsoccer..com/2011/05/top-10-worst-fouls-in-football-history.html