5 Myths Of Leadership

When it comes to leadership there is no one size fits all. Every leader has his/her own personality, style, and approach to leading teams. That said, there are leadership truths and myths that seem to surface time and again when I talk to successful entrepreneurs and leadership gurus. Here are several that are consistently brought up and the ones I have personally observed and experienced.
Myth 1: Leaders work smarter, not harder.
I have never fully understood the “work smarter, not harder” statement. There are definitely ways to be smarter about prioritizing your tasks effectively, planning your day wisely to increase your productivity, and, as a leader, to know when and what tasks to delegate. But every single successful person I know have always worked very hard on realizing his/her dreams. Great leaders empower their teams to do more, they are very protective of their time, and they are shrewd in applying their knowledge and experience in order to move forward and avoid mistakes either they themselves or others made in the past. One could call that “working smart”. But nothing great has ever been achieved without working hard. True leaders lead by example, they are first in and last ones out, they are fully invested in the vision of their ventures and, through showing their dedication, they inspire people around them to show the same kind of commitment and display the same behaviors.

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Gary Vaynerchuk is a successful serial entrepreneur and his perspective is that there is no substitute for doing the work. “We’re living through a period right now where we have a lot of very smart people looking at math, and analytics, and efficiencies,” says Vaynerchuk. “I think those are all great things to take pride in, but I also think you need to put in the work… You can call out all the best business opportunities you want, but the bottom line is that nobody ever got paid to make snow-angels.”

“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” – Estee Lauder
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

Myth 2: Leaders have all the answers.
On the contrary. The best leaders have a clear understanding of their own limitations. They know that success is a team sport and there is no such thing as a “self-made” man. They realize that it takes a diverse team to truly innovate. They search for passionate people in diverse areas of expertise and bring them together. Great leaders listen more than they speak. They listen with the goal to understand, not the goal to answer. They hire amazing teams and solicit regular input from team members. They admit their mistakes and empower their people to execute on the company’s vision through their own knowledge and initiative vs. a dictate from above.
Truly amazing leaders empower others to become leaders. Their higher goal is to work themselves out of the job so that if they are not around, the organization functions just as successfully as when they are.

“Leaders don’t create more followers, they create more leaders.” – Tom Peters
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu

Myth 3: Great leaders are always in the spotlight.
It is true that if you are a leader of the company there is an expectation that you will also be a company’s spokesperson. But leadership comes in many forms. You don’t have to be on the organization’s executive team to be a leader. True leaders (whether they are at the helm or not) are humble. They don’t much care about the spotlight. They care about the results. And that comes from focus.

Some of the greatest leaders of our time were simple men who shied away from limelight and yet have transformed industries and took their companies to new heights.
In his book Good to Great Jim Collins says that exceptional leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. “It’s not that [they] have no ego or self-interest,” says Collins. “Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious – but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.” These amazing leaders, Collins found, “are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless.” I bet you have never heard of Darwin E. Smith or Colman Mockler, but these men brought glory to the brands we currently admire, the companies that lead (and are still leading) the industry.
When Smith became CEO of Kimberly-Clark, the paper company’s stock had fallen 36% behind the general market. In 20 years of his tenure, Smith transformed the brand into the leading paper-based consumer products company in the world. Under his leadership, Kimberly-Clark generated cumulative stock returns 4.1 times the general market and surpassed its direct rivals. In retirement, Smith humbly reflected on his outstanding performance saying simply: “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job.”

Mockler was the CEO of Gillette from 1975 to 1991 and during his leadership faced three take-over attacks that threatened to destroy the company. If the company capitulated, the executive team stood to receive great compensation, but Mockler fought for the future greatness of the organization he believed in and won. He went on to lead Gillette to amazing growth and fantastic returns. Publicity-shy Mockler was humble and gracious man who declined most of the requests to be interviewed and photographed, but no one who knew this amazing leader have mistaken his modesty for weakness.
“You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.” – Harry S. Truman
“It’s alright to be Goliath but always act like David.” – Philip Knight

Myth 4: Leaders are always “on”
Even though great leaders work hard, they realize that they need the space to be able to strategize, to think, to create.
“’Restore connection’ is not just for devices,” cautions Arianna Huffington. “It is for people too. If we cannot disconnect, we cannot lead.” Leaders like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were known to go away for extended periods of time to reconnect with themselves, their vision, and their ideas. Leaders need to find that place of wisdom, strength, and real connection (with themselves and others) and they need to lead from that place.
Smart leaders also build the culture of creativity through encouraging their employees to take time to reflect.
“Creating the culture of burnout is opposite to creating a culture of sustainable creativity,” says Arianna Huffington. “This is something that needs to be taught in business schools. This mentality needs to be introduced as a leadership and performance-enhancing tool.”

Myth 5: Great leaders are born, not made
“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” – Vince Lombardi
“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born – that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” – Warren G. Bennis
Anyone can excel at anything if they truly put their mind to it. Leadership is a skill, not a genetic disposition. Enough said.

The Simple Secret Of Business Innovation And Personal Growth

Don’t try to please everyone.
It’s impossible to make everyone happy. Period. Whether you are a business or an individual, when you are absorbed by living up to other people’s expectations, you are not spending your time and efforts on forming, living up to, and exceeding your own.
The reality is: there will always be someone who will judge or complain. There will always be someone who will not believe in what you are trying to build. There will always be critics and people who don’t like you or use your product. Dita von Teese said: “You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” And that’s okay.
If you are a business, you have to worry about stakeholders, vendors, employees, customers, competitors. These groups of people are all important to listen to. But what you might find is that each group at some point will probably hold you back. And that is because they may not have the vision that you have or lack all the relevant information to form an educated opinion. Should you listen to them? Absolutely! But at some point you will need to make the best decision that aligns with your vision and stick to it. And if you are always looking over your shoulder to see what your competitors are doing or saying and worrying about besting them vs. focusing on your vision and your purpose, you will find yourself following vs. leading.

Henry Ford said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Steve Jobs said: “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

James Dyson said: “If you want to do something different, you’re going to come up against a lot of naysayers.”

Jeff Bezos said: “I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.”
And these leaders know a thing or two about courage of conviction and charting their own course, the course that transformed industries.

Another example? Facebook’s CEO. For years Mark Zuckerberg was fighting for his vision of what he wanted Facebook to become. People didn’t believe it was smart to offer the service beyond colleges, but he did it. And it ended up being one of the critical reasons for the scale his company achieved today. Some of his employees and investors thought rolling out the News Feed might kill the product. On the contrary, News Feed became an essential feature that transformed the way people communicate on the network and substantially increased usage. The same story repeated itself when he created an ecosystem around Facebook as a platform.
The best innovations come from the rebels, the entrepreneurs who defied the norm and challenged status quo. James Dyson, Jeff Bezos, Henry Ford, Jack Welch and many other, less known, names transformed industries and customer expectations, if not behaviors. And they didn’t do that by trying to please everyone around them. As a matter of fact, they made a lot of people uncomfortable with the pace of innovation they have inspired and their unwillingness to compromise their vision.

You move forward both personally and professionally by daring to evolve, learn, and do things others haven’t. You get noticed by standing out in the crowd. You inspire others by shaping a new path and inviting others to follow. By trying to please everyone, you electrify no one.

And what about those whispers and the judgmental looks of disapproval? Those will fade away. People have their own problems to focus on. In my experience, most of the judgment is imaginary anyway. When you worry about something, your mind tends to blow things out of proportions and transfix on little things. A lot of it ends up being in your head only.  Instead, just ignore nay-sayers and non-believers and move on with your purpose. It’s your life, so own it. Don’t let others define your passions for you. Lose the partners that don’t share your vision. Fire the customers that force you to ignore your values. As Malcolm X said: “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” You only attract the best (partners, customers, employees) by taking a stand, knowing who you are and who you are not, and having courage to live your life according to your own set of principles. Believe me, your tribe will understand. And will stand by you. And that’s what you are looking for. Not the approval of everyone, but the approval and excitement of a few – your true partners, your true advocates. And that group of people, your tribe, will help you reach new heights of success.

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The Chaos Imperative: How Provocation Breeds Innovation Ekaterina WalterContributor

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5 Myths Of Leadership Ekaterina WalterContributor

Tips For Entrepreneurs This Holiday Season

The holidays are a profitable time of year for many businesses. However, business owners whose products or services do not necessarily jump out as gift ideas may be at a loss for how to participate during this peak shopping season. For example, large retail stores like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Bed Bath and Beyond have no problem marketing their products as gifts; however, what about a local furniture store or salon? Oftentimes, gift cards can be a lucrative solution. Below are tips for entrepreneurs whose businesses are not in the traditional holiday industry to leverage the shopping season, thus increasing sales and spreading awareness about products and services.

Gift cards are one of the simplest ways to promote your business during holiday shopping. The benefit of gift cards is twofold: first, it allows the gift receiver to select their own purchase rather than forcing the shopper to guess at what he or she would like, and, second, it spreads the word about your business. If one of your loyal customers gives a gift card to your store to one or more of their friends who may not have heard of your business, you could gain new followers who bring in revenue throughout the year.

Another benefit about selling gift cards, particularly around the holidays, is called breakage. Breakage is the term used when gift cards are not redeemed. Because not everyone who receives a gift card will use it (or use all of it), you may wish to slightly discount your gift cards to incentivize customers to buy them. Thus, you could sell $30 gift cards for $25 to provide further value to holiday shoppers, knowing that the branding is worth more than the $5 hit and that, due to breakage, you are unlikely to lose money.

When selling gift cards, you must also consider their expiration. You should set the expiration for a long enough duration from the time of purchase so that your customers do not worry about their friends or family not having time to use it. In addition, check your state’s policy on expiration, as there are some states that do not allow gift cards to ever expire.

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By utilizing gift cards, almost all businesses, large or small, can be a source for a great holiday gift and can spread their brand.
While we all want to have profitable holiday sales, entrepreneurs should also not forget to give back this holiday season, particularly if they have had a successful year. This could include traditional means such as donating or volunteering, or entrepreneurs could seek more creative ways of giving back. I would like to give props to Charitybuzz, an organization that auctions off various donations, from celebrity luncheons to luxurious getaways, with proceeds benefiting charities.

Charitybuzz is an innovative way for entrepreneurs to raise funds for causes that matter to them. For example, I have donated a year of entrepreneurial training for auction that will benefit the Stratus Foundation, a not-for-profit that awards scholarships for free test preparation and admissions counseling to underrepresented applicants. I highly recommend that entrepreneurs not only focus on increasing revenue this holiday season, but also check out Charitybuzz as a great way to give back this year.

Researcher Grows Yam In The Air

Researchers at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have come up with soilless yam propagation as they have successfully grown seed yams in the air using aeroponics technology.


The fete is raising hopes and more options for the propagation of virus- and disease-free planting materials.
In preliminary trials, Dr Norbert Maroya, Project Manager for the Yam Improvement for Incomes and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project at IITA, together with a team of scientists successfully propagated yam by directly planting vine cuttings in Aeroponics System (AS) boxes to produce mini-tubers in the air.
Aeroponics System is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium. The technology is widely used by commercial potato seed producers in eastern Africa – like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Southern Africa like Mozambique, Malawi - but successfully growing yam on aeroponics is a novelty for rapidly multiplying the much needed clean seed yam tubers in large quantities.
“With this approach we are optimistic that farmers will begin to have clean seed yams for better harvest,” Dr Maroya said Preliminary results showed that vine rooting in Aeroponics System had at least 95% success rate compared to vine rooting in carbonized rice husk with a maximum rate of 70%. Rooting time was much shorter in aeroponics.

Aeroponics is coming at an opportune time for African farmers. Traditionally, seed yam production is expensive and inefficient. Farmers save about 25 to 30% of their harvest for planting the same area in the following season, meaning less money in their pockets.
Moreover, these saved seeds are often infested with pathogens that significantly reduce farmers’ yield year after year.

However with an established Aeroponics System for seed yam propagation at the premises of an interested private investor, seed company or humanitarian nongovernmental organization; yam producers can have access to clean seed yams.
The soilless yam propagation system will increase the productivity of seed and ware yam and effectively reduce diseases and pests incidence and severity (no soilborne or vector-transmitted pests and diseases during the vegetative phase).

Dr Robert Asiedu, IITA Director for Western Africa described the results as “impressive.” “Yam is an important crop in Africa and addressing the seeds’ constraint will go a long way in improving the livelihoods of farmers who depend on the crop for their livelihood,” he added.
In conducting the aeroponics trial, a special structure was built in an existing screen house with Dixon shelf frames using perforated styrofoam box, as support for plant vines, while the developing roots of the plants in the air were enclosed in conditions of total darkness to simulate the situation of soil to the roots. For the plant and tuber to develop, an automated power house system was established for atomizing periodically nutrient enriched water solution in the form of mist to feed the plants.

Foreign private jet operators scramble for Nigerian market

Private jet and chartered aircraft companies from Europe and North America, especially the United States and Canada, are bracing for a boom in the Nigeria’s private jet market as the nation gets ready for general elections in 2015, findings have shown.

 

Top aviation officials disclosed that a significant number of the companies from Europe, the US and Canada were already submitting applications through local representatives to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the Ministry of Aviation to bring in aircraft into the country for charter operations.

 

It was also learnt that some foreign private jets had started coming into country in preparation for the boom, expected to begin as early as the first quarter of 2014. The source said, “I think 2014 is going to be a very booming year for private jet operators in the country. The local operators are warming up for this seriously. But the interesting and surprising thing about this is that a number of foreign companies, especially from Europe, the US and Canada, have submitted documents, seeking permission to bring in private jets into the country for charter operations.

 

“Well, government is still looking at those applications because you know the recent reform in the general aviation sector has changed the landscape of the charter business. We don’t know what the Ministry of Aviation will do about it.”

 

According to another top official of the Ministry of Aviation close to the matter, some of the applications by the foreign companies were actually submitted by their local representatives.

The official, however, pointed out that the recent aviation law, which barred foreign-registered jets from carrying out charter operation business in the country, had brought the application process into a ‘suspense’ and nobody could say what could be the next action on the matter.

 

The official said, “Some of the foreign companies applying for permission to bring airplanes into the country are actually doing so in partnership with some local representatives who are submitting these applications on their behalf.

 

“The challenge now is some of these foreign companies may not be ready to de-register their planes and make them Nigerian-registered. If government insists, they may look for a leeway because a number of them are desperate to come in to enjoy the boom.”

Politicians had spent N2.52bn on charter flights within 10 weeks preceding the April 2011 elections, according to investigation.

 

The politicians, it was learnt, used the charter flights to move from one campaign venue to the other as the April elections closed in.

Investigation by our correspondent also revealed that each of the four major indigenous charter jet operators, who conveyed politicians to various parts of the country for electioneering, made about $420,000 (N63m) every week.

Industry sources said each of the operators worked for about 70 hours a week with the fee for each hour fixed at about $6,000 (N900,000).

 

As at 2011, the four major indigenous charter jet operators in the country then were Kings Airlines, Wings Aviation, Top Brazz Aviation and Overland Airways.

However, findings showed that other airlines, including Associated Airlines, also engaged in charter services occasionally, while some non-aviation companies, which own private jets, rented them out to their politician-friends for charter services.

 

Currently, the charter aircraft operators in the country include Hanger8, Kings Airlines, Top Brazz Aviation, Wings Aviation, Overland Airways, Arik Air, Vistajet and Aero Contractors.

Further findings showed that Nigerians, notably public office holders and businessmen, spent about N29.7bn on charter flights in 2012.

Statistics from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, showed that the nation’s airports handled an average of 50 charter flights per day in 2012.

Charter flight operators said politicians, state governors and other clients paid an average of $7,000 per hour for each flight.

Charter airline operators at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, said each of the charter flights took an average of one and a half hours; hence, the operators generated about $10,500 in revenue from each flight. This means that eminent Nigerians who patronised the services of the operators spent about $525,000 (N81.38m) on charter flights each day in 2012.

Consequently, the Very Important Persons must have spent about $191.625m (N29.7bn) on charter flights in 2012 at $525,000 multiplied by 365 days.

 

The statistics for 2013 could not be obtained from the aviation authorities.

Lately, a number of private jet and charter aircraft terminals have sprung up across the country, aside the ones being built by the Federal Government through the remodelling project of the Minister of Aviation.

The growth in the purchase of private jet in Nigeria as well as the frequent use of charter aircraft have also led to the development of multi-million dollars private jet hangars, where repairs and maintenance could be done in the country.

Some of these are Execujets Nigeria Hangar, Caverton Hangar and EverGreen Hangar, all located at the Lagos airport.

The Managing Director of ED Aviation, Mr. Edward Young, however said about 70 per cent of the charter jet business in the country was still being done with foreign-registered planes.

Young, who noted that some aspects of the foreign operators’ business were questionable, however, said the recent crackdown by the government had reduced this considerably.

 

An industry expert and analyst, Captain Ken Wemambu, said a lot of foreign companies were applying to come into the nation’s charter jet sector because “it is very robust.”

He said the foreign companies seeking to come into the country would capitalise on certain clauses in the recent aviation reform law to enable them to get approval to operate in the country.

He said, “The private jet and charter jet sub-sector is booming. Already, we have close to 200 private aircraft in the country. Others will still come in. A lot of companies have also been applying to come into the country. If you compare this with the scheduled passenger sub-sector, there is a huge difference. Many private jets in Europe and North America have been parked because there is no business. Many people are no longer doing the charter flights in Europe and America. Since we are preparing for elections, most of them will want to come here to partake in the boom.”

 

Early this year, foreign private jet manufacturers had also taken interest in Nigeria’s private jet market.

Barely two months after Dassault Aviation, a French private jet manufacturer brought some of its latest business aircraft to Abuja and Lagos on a sales tour in January, Cessna Incorporation of United States arrived the country for a similar display.

The aircraft were brought into the country by a Cessna’s agent, Jetalliance, an Austria-based company, in conjunction with a Nigeria aviation company, Airfirst Limited.

Earlier, Bombardier Business Jets Incorporation of Canada also came to Lagos for a sales tour and static display of one of its latest jets, Global 6000.

The team was led by the Sales Director, Africa, Bombardier Business Aircraft, Mr. Robert Habjanic, who said Nigeria was the company’s largest market in Africa, with about 35 Bombardier-made private jets currently flying its airspace.

 

He noted the aircraft market had been growing tremendously in Nigeria in the last five years and attributed this to the fact that “Nigeria is an emerging market.”

Economic downturn in Europe and America has led to a sharp decline in the demand for private jets in the regions and luxury aircraft makers are looking at Africa, Asia and the Middle East, which are now the main markets for use of private jets.

According to industry analysts and players, Nigeria and China constitute two of the fastest growing private jet market in the world.

 

An industry expert, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, said, “The economy is expanding, with increasing investments within the country and the region. This will invariably necessitate instantaneous travel that scheduled airlines cannot provide.

“Also, the privacy needed in a country filled with paparazzi can be an issue. Increasing political and religious issues are contributory.”

In May, the Federal Government introduced the National Civil Aviation Policy, 2013, which directed that all foreign-registered private jets should no longer be allowed to stay in the country beyond 15 days.

 

The policy, however, said foreign-registered private jets on special mission in Nigeria would be allowed to stay for only 60 days, following a special approval from the office of the minister.

Government has also hoped to cash in on the rise in the private jet market for more revenue. For instance, a few months ago, the government came up with a policy, asking foreign-registered planes to pay $4000 luxury tax, while Nigerian-registered were to pay $3000.

After serious of legal tussle between Airlines Operators of Nigeria and the NCAA, the Senate directed the government to suspend the fee.

 

Industry players believe the recent aviation law banning foreign-registered planes from carrying chartered business in Nigeria will affect the future of the business.

Currently, government has yet to say whether it will review the law or not.

But Wemambu said, “Whether the government reviews it or not, the foreign companies will still look for some clauses in the law and hide under it to come in.”

How To Win Your Customers' Heart

One unhappy customer can spread the word about your business and cost you potential clients very quickly. You can expect to have only one chance to make a good impression with your customer service department.

 

One of the major challenges for start-ups and small and medium scale enterprises is ensuring patronage, according to experts. They observe that many young entrepreneurs often assume that after getting a good business plan, securing the needed funds and establishing a business, their job is done. However, many go on to discover that getting acceptance and patronage can also be challenging, with many finding it even more tasking to retain their customers or ensure that they stay loyal.

But with many companies competing for customers, experts stress that entrepreneurs must ensure that they do their utmost to keep their customers loyal as failure in this regard may mean failure of the business and the loss of their investment, which may lead to financial ruin.

The good news is that there are many steps that companies can take to ensure that their customers or clients keep patronising them despite the pervading stiff competition.

Some of the steps recommended by experts are explained below.

 

Exceed expectations

As an entrepreneur, it is important that you ensure that you deliver the ‘goods.’ You must ensure that your product or service meets the needs of your clients. Some experts stress that even that may not be enough to keep them loyal as it is possible that other companies can also meet their needs. According to them, for you to truly have an edge and keep the customer more loyal, you need to exceed their expectations. This means you have to give them something extra; something they didn’t expect, but which they will be delighted to have. As long as they know that you go the extra mile to ensure they don’t just get value for their money but that they get more than their money’s worth, they are unlikely to stop coming back for more.

 

Provide excellent customer service

No matter how good or affordable your products or services are, experts say if you have terrible customer service, some of your customers won’t mind settling for less just to avoid the ‘horrors’ they get to face whenever they patronise you. There are several companies today that list phone numbers that never connect on their products. What this means is that when a customer wants to seek clarification on the usage of a product, for instance, the customer may have to go all the way to your office. Even when this is not the case, many customers have taken to the social media to lament about how rude a customer service agent was to them with many of them not only deciding to stop patronising the company involved but also encouraging their friends not to bother trying. It could be worse; these are just mild examples. On the flip side, experts say companies with excellent customer service are capable of keeping their customers loyal even when their products are not the best around. Some customers will rather settle for less than go for more, knowing they would be poorly treated as a result.

 

Ensure your service is good enough for you

As an entrepreneur, experts say another way you can keep your customers loyal is by ensuring that you treat them the way you would treat yourself. There are definitely products and services, which you don’t produce or provide, that you depend on other companies for. How do you expect those companies to treat you? What kind of services do you expect from them? Are your services that good? Are you treating your customers that way or even better? You have to view things from the customer’s perspective and ensure that you put yourself in their shoes when coming up with new strategies. That will help you get it right.

 

Build relationships

To keep customers loyal, it is important that entrepreneurs build or have a good relationship with their clients. And it is these little things that help to build that relationship. There will be indecisive customers and customers with complaints, etc. How would you deal with them? How patient are you with clients? Do your workers have the patience to allow choosy customers to make up their minds? Or are they likely to snap, “Make up your mind; I don’t have all day?”

According to experts, building relationships involves the ability to keep a smiling face, develop rapport with your clients and remember their names, among other things.

In building relationships, experts say it is also important that you have transparent dealings with your customers.

 

For instance, if you or one of your workers makes a mistake, it is important that you take responsibility for that mistake and make amends for it. If you run a delivery service and you send the wrong item to a customer, apologise and quickly correct the error instead of trying to make it a win-win situation by suggesting that the item sent would serve the same purpose.

Experts explain that honesty and sincerity are very vital in sustaining and boosting customer loyalty. They say with the level of competition among companies, it is easier for customers to know when companies are sincere in dealing with them or lying to them. By being sincere or honest in your dealings, customers will get to trust you and once they perceive that you are credible, they are less likely to stop coming back.

 

Reward loyal customers

So, in your quest to attract new customers, registration for your gym is now half what it used to be with huge discounts on other charges for new members? What about the old members? What are you doing for them? Nothing. This is a mistake several business owners make, according to experts. They warn that once old customers get the feeling that they are being taken for granted, they are likely to move on. They add that it is important for business owners to note that gaining X amount of new customers and losing the same amount of old customers means there has been no gain; rather, the company may end up losing as the new customers may not even stay for as long as the old ones.

 

Educate your employees

While it is possible to attract customers by constantly throwing products ‘in their faces’ through adverts and the likes, expert say a sure way to win customer loyalty is by educating them about what they need or what is best for them. They explain that once you start adding value to your employees by providing them with useful information about what they need, what is good for them and how they can avoid certain pitfalls, you stand a chance of boosting their loyalty to you.

A New Era for Entrepreneurs

Since the recent recession, and at least partially sparked by it, I’m seeing a real resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. I believe the days of the “job work” mentality are thankfully waning, with more people looking to get satisfaction by making the world a better place, rather than just tolerating brain-numbing work to fund enjoyment elsewhere.
According to the Kaufman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity (KIEA), the entrepreneurial rate in the U.S. is already well above the dot.com bubble of 15 years ago, although we have slipped a bit this year from the high point of 320 new entrepreneurs out of 100,000 adults in 2011. It still adds up to over 20 million non-employer businesses out there today, with more starting every day.

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There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks:

1. Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high. An unprecedented number of startups, easily 25 and possibly exceeding 40, are valued today at $1 billion or more, according to a recent NY Times article. A year from now that’s projected to go as high as 100. Thus a record number of entrepreneurs (and employees) are getting rich.
2. Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. According to a report just out, a record 156 operating companies went public in the U.S. in 2013, with aggregate proceeds of over $38 billion. That is a 65% increase in the number of IPOs over 2012, and the highest proceeds raised since the year 2000. Twitter was one of the most notable, with a market capitalization now up to $38 billion all by itself.
3. Funding for early-stage startups is more available than ever. According to David Rose, CEO of Gust, venture capital investors funded about 1500 startups last year, with Angel investors backing over 50,000 more. Of course, with more startups, this is still a tough space, with VCs funding only one out of 400 requests they get, and Angels limiting their focus to one out of 40. No wonder 90% of the successful startups still bootstrap.
4. Cost of entry for a startup is at an all-time low. I can remember when creating a web site for eCommerce could easily require a million dollar investment. Now you can create a web site for almost nothing – and be on your way with your latest invention or personal services. Smartphone apps can be built for less than $10K, so who needs an investor?
5. Startup incubators and accelerators are popping up everywhere. Business incubators were all the rage before the dot-com bubble (700 for profit, many more non-profit). After the bubble burst and the recession, more than 80% of them disappeared. Now they are back in every community, with the best even waving money at graduates.
6. The world is a now single market, both homogeneous and heterogeneous. Entrepreneurs now can think globally about the opportunity, from day one but start locally. This approach, popularly known as “glocalization,” means you design and deliver global solutions that have total relevance to every local market you plan to attack.
7. Social media is a boon for entrepreneurs and startups. With the key social media platforms today, an entrepreneur can tune a product, build a brand, and grow the business with very low cost and a high interactivity never before possible. The elements include communications, mobile platforms, and location-based services.
8. Large corporations have lost their ability to innovate. Conglomerates, which were the engines of growth and vitality in the twentieth century, have proven themselves unable to innovate, and have a tarnished public image due to financial woes and poor management. Most now routinely buy startups for new technology and new products.
9. Women are a growing force as entrepreneurs. Almost 20% of young women now aspire to run their own business today as entrepreneurs (15% in 2008), according to a recent poll by The Telegraph. They inherently have an advantage, since women already control over 70% of household income and over $20 trillion of consumer spending.
10. Baby Boomers are joining the fun in record numbers. The percent of entrepreneurs who are Baby Boomer starting a business since 1996 has grown from 14.3 percent to 23.4 percent last year. In fact, in every one of the last 15 years, Boomers between the ages of 55 and 64 have had a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than Gen-Y.

Looking ahead, a National Venture Capital Association and Dow Jones press release predicts that 2014 will bring further good news for entrepreneurs across several fronts, including more investment, greater IPO volume for exits, greater employment opportunities at startups, and even more improvements in the economy.

They also remind us that all is not rosy, with continuing economic challenges and a gridlocked Congress that could change everything. One of the great things about being an entrepreneur today is that you can lead in countering these challenges, and actually changing the way we think and behave in business, in our community, and our society.

The image of an entrepreneur is at an all-time high, so why would you continue to work in a job that you hate, or provides no satisfaction? Step into a new entrepreneur era where the definition of “work” is something you love. It’s not too late to start.