QUICK BUSINESS ADVICE FOR 2023

Happy New Year!

I hope you are all fired up for the year. There is a new energy in the business world and if you can quickly tap into it, I believe that it would help your business decisions and results. Here are a few urgent tips I hope you implement immediately.

  1. 2022 is OVER. It does not matter how severe the losses and disappointment you suffered were, LET THEM GO! An entrepreneur told me that he started a business, sent his key staff for training overseas and invited his two friends as board members. Late last year, his friend, stole his business model, his staff and major investor and opened a competing business. He’s already spoken to lawyers but my advice is not to devote so much time, energy and resources over the disappointment of yesterday. Move forward! Utilise that anger in a productive way because undeniably, success shuts down every kind of boardroom noise. So, leave the bad experiences and failed expectations behind and push forward. Remember, this is not the time for reviews f last year’s woes; that should have happened at the end of the last quarter of the year. By now, you must have realised what went wrong or the steps that led to disappointments and you must have drawn your lessons on what should and can be done going forward. Work with those.

  1. 2023 is a new canvas given to you, fill it with what you want. You have 365 days to build some new blocks in your company’s structure or fortify your organisational foundation or even branch into other things. See this year as a second chance, a new and precious opportunity to get it right or get what was right to be much bigger. Commit to doing just that with all of your resources and attention. Make this year count!

  1. Have a tunnel vision mentality when it comes to accomplishing your goals, whether they are financial, product or service based. Every department must show steps that they have and would take to achieve and smash the targets. All arms of the organisation should feel a new energy, an urgency to succeed brilliantly. Again, I remind you of organisations that surpassed their annual targets in the middle of the year 2022 despite all the numerous crippling conditions that corporations complained about. These companies set fresh targets and met all. Let your mantra be ‘It is possible. We can do it.’

In setting targets though, please be realistic.

A certain entrepreneur complained to me about his company’s financial status. His staff strength and quality was good and I know his industry is currently experiencing a boom but his own company was just struggling. I looked at his annual report and the answer was glaring. He neither hired more competent staff, nor changed his business module but each year, he went from an expected turnover of an equivalent of $1.5m in his local currency to $10m and $50m. They never made 50% of their targets in the three years under review. Your goals must be realistic and in direct proportion to what you put in. If you want to double your turnover, make sure that you have established the internal capacity to achieve that.

  1. Make room for other opportunities. While it is essential to focus fully on the company’s goals, an entrepreneur should not be so engrossed in his usual business that he fails to take advantage of opportunities that are well within his company’s area of expertise and which his firm can easily explore and pull off.

  1. Network, learn and improve. You can survey affiliations and partnerships within and outside your place of business. More organisations have achieved international status through affiliations. Check what works best for you and be careful not to lock yourself into a joint venture that drains rather than elevate your company. Move your corporate habits into the present; be 2023 compliant. Take advantage of the innovations in the tech space, marketing and communications. So much is happening to make the corporate environment seamless, use what works best for you. Take online courses if you need to brush up your knowledge and skills; 2022 methods are already outdated, you know. It is time to upgrade.

  1. Pay attention to your staff component. The CEO should not be the wisest and most competent around the conference table. If your members of staff don’t challenge you with ideas that astound you and have you thinking more and more outside the proverbial box, you may need to go headhunting.

Have a grand year and promote peaceful co-existence.

So long!

Fatherhood with Ibe

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

It was the first day of January but I had to pick up my associate, Joel, for a business lunch, a couple of years ago. We’d had a long and interesting conversation with some foreign partners in the United States who had shown interest in our venture. Frankly, Joel and I would rather have been home with our families for the New Year eve celebrations but the lunch with these partners was to establish a more cordial atmosphere and perhaps take the conversation further; we felt it was best to postpone our journeys back home to our countries and conclude as best as we could on the business.

We had driven just a few minutes when a call came through on Joel’s phone. He looked at me and said that it was his son on the line. I signalled for him to go ahead because he had talked about how disappointed his young son would be at his inability to be home for Christmas and New Year’s eve.

A young voice came across on the laptop.

“Happy new year, Daddy!” He greeted warmly. Joel returned the greeting and asked if his son was through with church service.

“Yes! Daddy, I called you after our Crossover prayers but you did not pick.” The boy complained.

Joel answered that the time difference had messed up his schedule.

“I returned your call but Mum said you had gone to bed. The word is that you barely made it into the New Year awake.” Joel added, teasing his son.

“I was feeling sleepy but I didn’t sleep.” The boy grumbled. “But the girls slept off,” he disclosed in a chuckle. It was obviously a ‘man joke’ in their home because Joel laughed.

“Daddy, when are you coming home? I miss you and you promised to take me hiking before schools resume.”

Joel laughed.

“Didn’t your Mum say hiking is too dangerous for a boy your age?” Joel asked. I heard the boy groan.

“Dad, I’m not a baby. I am eight years old!” He protested. Joel laughed and agreed that his son was very old indeed.

“I made a New Year resolution, Dad!” He announced proudly.

“That’s great! What is the resolution?”

“I am going to be rich!” He said.

“That is a prayer, not a resolution.” Joel corrected gently.

“Dad, do you know the difference between a prayer and a resolution?” The boy asked with a bit of challenge in his voice. It reminded me of the banter of yesteryears with my children. I started to smile.

“Why don’t you tell me? What is prayer? “

“Prayer is when we talk to God about what we need and thank Him for the things He has done for us.” The boy said. I was impressed.

“Do you also know what a resolution is?”

“Yes Dad. Mum said it’s a decision to do some things or stop doing some things so that you can achieve a result that you want.”

“Excellent! So now, do you think getting rich at your age is a prayer or a resolution?” Joel asked.

“It’s a resolution because God already said I am rich. I have now decided that I will be rich.”

Joel chuckled.

“How are you going to be rich?”

“You know how I always give Mum any money that people give me? I won’t do that again because Mummy does not give me back the money, ever! Aunty Nanda will open an account for me….”

“Aunt Nanda? What of the account that your mum opened for you?”

“Then I will have two accounts.” The smart boy replied quickly. “Next, you will help me to sell the car that takes us to school and we will follow the school bus.”

“The car is mine!” Joel protested good-naturedly.

“No Dad! You always say ‘you can use the children’s car. So, it is ours.”

“Noted! Is your school bus free?”

“No Dad but it’s ‘fairly cheap,’ that’s what my teacher said. You can pay for that.” He said benevolently.

At this point, I couldn’t hold back my laughter. The boy seemed surprised to hear another voice and quickly asked his Dad if he was in a meeting. When Joel said ‘kind of,’ he apologised nicely and asked his Dad to call him afterwards.

“Interesting resolution and action plan!” I commented, still laughing.

“Children come up with all sorts of bogus ideas. Imagine him at eight thinking of selling my car. I think I should insure everything in my house down to silverwares.” Joel joked.

We talked a bit about children and Joel told me the mental torment of waiting hopelessly for a child for 15 years and how he and his wife coped.

 (Next edition)

So long! And do have a beautiful and fulfilling year!