Most of the time I have been with clients, apparently successful but when you actually go deep, understand their financials, you realize they are almost on the drip. Money isn’t on the bank account. Though things could be moving on, the sales are not growing. Cash collections are not happening. The company is in survival mode. As a leader, you must try to avoid such a scenario. The starting point is to set sales targets for all staff. Give everybody in the organization a target to sell. This reminds me of Nile Bank when I was starting my career. By…
#WayoftheGuerrilla for super sales – marketing your services
Are you an entrepreneur, professor, accountant or medical doctor? Regardless of your profession or career, where do you spend most of your effort? What choices are you making to create marketing presence? One of the choices you can’t run away from is being a #WayofTheGuerrilla for your personal branding and marketing. You must be able to market your skills, value offering and or products in an innovative way despite the limitations your profession puts you in.You must be able to innovatively market. To do so, you need: Time You don’t just wake up and begin marketing and selling. You take…
#WayOfThGuerrilla: what is your sales focus?
The kind of decisions you take can make or fail your business. As an entrepreneur, what is your focus? As a follower of the #WayofTheGuerrilla, for super sales, where do you put your effort?Regardless of business or professionalism, marketing and sales is one is the number one skill you need to develop in your life. When it comes to your career and business, where do you put a lot of strength and focus? Do you focus your business effort on generating sales, or cost cutting, creating networks or breaking bridges? Remember, whatever you choose to focus on be it in…
#WayofTheGuerrilla selling on shoestring budget
As an entrepreneur or CEO, when it comes to running your business, where do you put a lot of priority? Do you focus on putting money on the table or removing money from the table?Putting money on the table is all about marketing and sales. Removing the money is about internal controls and procedures to minimize fraud and abuse. Both of these things are critical. But what do you focus on as an entrepreneur? For any business,I have got to understand that it is not about the lack of capital that makes businesses to stagnate,it is the failure to sell…
Why Indians succeed easily in Africa, part 3
Know the difference between an asset and a liability. Even for some of us accountants, the clarity between assets and a liability is not so clear. For example, is a car an asset? Take the following test: Does your car have potential to increase future cash flows? Does the benefits your car offers exceed the costs of ownership in the long term? Does your car have a resale future value higher than the purchase and maintenance costs combined? Does your asset have readily available buyer anytime you would want to dispose of it? You get the idea. An asset should…
Why Indians succeed easily in Africa, part 2
Involve family in their business Once I was at one of the top Indian owned company here in Uganda. I had been invited to make a presentation to the board on the topic “the role of the Board in strategy execution and risk management.” One of the attendees caught my eye. It was a 12 year old young man, who was seated among the board members. During break I enquired what the young man was doing among the top honchos of one of the biggest local fast moving consumer goods. They told me he was one of the grandsons of…
