A WORD FROM AKAN -MY BUSINESS, MY BABY - My School Aid

25/01/2018

A WORD FROM AKAN -MY BUSINESS, MY BABY



MY BUSINESS, MY BABY

A lot of students are involved in diverse business activities, both legal and illegal, everyday. My focus is on the legal businesses; the other part can be discussed by some other entity.
As Brian Tracy rightly puts it, Business is an art of creativity and keeping a customer in a cost-effective manner. Profits are not the purpose of a business (I know this will shock some non-business students who might have been taught that businesses are meant for profit making). As Peter Drucker said, “errant assumptions lie at the root of every failure”.

A lot of positivity accompanied the year 2018 at all levels and spheres of life. The year did not start badly, either; oil price in Nigeria hit the $70 mark, inflation in Nigeria declined to 15.37, amongst a few others. As a business leader, my own question would be, “how well-placed are you in an advantageous position for this much-anticipated economic uplift?”

In today’s Nigeria, the people-agenda is much more pertinent. The process of how you conduct your business affairs as a student, whether a start-up, evolving or fully developed one, is dependent on the truth that to maximize your business potential, you must treat it like a baby.

I have outlined some points to explain the concept of treating your business like a baby:

1. It needs to be well fed: Learn to re-invest in your business. Pump resources into it: money, labor and otherwise.  Learn to advertise and keep the business robust.

2. Keep it healthy, always: Like a mother always looks out for signs and symptoms, so it is with businesses; do not wait until it is ill before you act. Learn the concept of innovation, packaging, etc.

3. The baby needs good parents: Productive partnerships are like good parents and house-helps; they help build the business.

4. It needs nurturing: Just like a new born baby with innate talent that needs nurturing, so does the business. Do not give up because something is not going right in the business; learn to keep nurturing it.

Businesses experience transformations due to the leader’s belief and investment in money, time and great people.

Happy ‘businessing’ in 2018.

Adapted from Seni Adetu