One of the places that has become the new frontier in the world of business nowadays is Africa. Indeed, the continent has come out from its rather backward past and emerged as a potential for commercial activity. Thus, many entrepreneurs have set their eyes into conquering Africa’s business scene.

However, doing business and investing in Africa is certainly not going to be easy. Just like any new business front, Africa poses a lot of challenges that a company opening here needs to overcome. And what’s more, the continent has some unique features that needs to be considered by any business wanting to establish itself here.

One of the biggest considerations that one seeking to put up a business here need to think closely about is the continent’s culture. In fact, there is a lot of cultural notions that one needs to take note of here, mainly because the continent has a large number of different groups. In contrast, though the Chinese market, for instance, have a large reach, its culture is pretty much a homogeneous one, which means that targeting this particular market would be fairly easy.  

Sadly, this is not the case for Africa. The groups of people here are very diverse such that you will find two entirely different cultural groups in one city alone. Thus, instead of creating a general business strategy to cover all of the possible areas, one might have to break it down into several components to specifically suit these particular cultures.

Note that such a business strategy is helpful not only in marketing but also in building your company. In particular, knowing each group’s cultural heritage would be very helpful in putting up your business team. Since many Africans came from distinct tribal groups that have been at odds with each other in the past, these sentiments would often still run deeply even in the workplace. For instance, it is not uncommon for business managers in South Africa to have a hard time putting workers with Zulu and Xhosa backgrounds together.

But, of course, this doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. In fact, this one has already been done by many of the most successful businesses in the country. So what’s the secret? Well, its all about building a long term relation with the people here. Unlike other countries where relationships are strictly “for business purposes”, here you need to build a long term, almost spiritual, bond with the people around you. This will help you strengthen your hold on the various different markets here.  

Another thing that you need to keep in mind is the continent’s economic conditions. Though it has been said earlier that Africa will be the next frontier, don’t expect the people here to be as affluent as those coming from Korea. The truth of the matter is, most people here are living on an average to below average condition. Thus, you also need to consider their livelihood in order to target potential markets or get potential employees. This way, you will be able to gain a better foothold in the continent.

Gratitude is defined as a positive emotion that acknowledges a benefit that one has received or will receive.  It is about showing others how thankful you are for their actions.  This is reflected in how you act towards and respond to others.  In business, gratitude is about realizing that every customer counts, even the difficult ones.  It is about realizing that each day, each customer that you encounter is the reason that you are in business.  Therefore, think of gratitude when you encounter your next customer, and think of how that customer can impact you personally.  Show your customers how genuinely grateful you are for their business.

There are everyday actions that you can take to show your gratitude towards your customers:

1).  Be willing to serve- even though at times, you may feel that you can’t face another complaint, you must remember what the customer means to you- he is the life of your business. Then gratitude and willingness to serve will follow.  You will find that this positive “friendly” attitude is contagious.  Your customers will tell others how remarkable you are.

2). Always say thank you- thank you are two words that when used will always benefit you.  Always thank your customers for their business and do it in a way that they know how grateful you are to have them (not just anyone) as a customer. Even though you are providing a service to them, they are building your business and in the long run providing opportunities for you and as well as for your family.

3). Always be positive- in any situation focus on only the positive.  At times, this can be difficult to do, especially in the face of a ranting, raving customer.  Stay calm and let the customer vent.  Soon most will come back to reality.  Keep in mind that this customer can impact you and your company.  Therefore, think of a positive way to solve the problem.  Then show the customer your gratitude for their allowing you to help them.

Remember, “when you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears” (Anthony Robbins).  With a positive business strategy that includes gratitude as well as attitude, your business can flourish.

Building a large sphere of influence in any business is an important piece of the puzzle when trying to brand yourself as an expert in your market niche. There are many areas that one need to focus on that will allow anyone who has enough patience to create a large sphere of influence.

I find that many business people prefer to learn how and then turn it back to the professionals after they have fiddled with it a while and realize the time involved is more than they bargained for. It takes a serious amount of time, at least an hour or two every day including weekends. I have found that 14 hours a week is a minimum investment. Understanding your small business strategies will help you know when to hire a pro or at least get their advice.

Once you begin to build your influence, you become a resource within your industry or market niche. This is important because if you are not a resource to others you are just a face in the crowd. I use the old Yellow Pages analogy in my seminars. In today’s world of instantaneous information gathering the Yellow Pages have become a dinosaur. Businesses buy an ad, it gets printed and then delivered to someone’s porch and there it sits until the resident happens to use the front door. When they see twenty pounds of newsprint quality books what do they do? They pick them cursing the company that put them there and then set them in the recycle bin. Do businesses want to be in recycle bin? Of course not. Then why do they keep doing the same thing over and over again? Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity?

Having the ear of others changes their perception of you and your business, they won’t think of you as having an agenda but as a solution to their needs and the needs of others. others. How do you get their ear? Start with a blog. Having a blog, as part of your website is important. Creating good content is the key to blogging. You can optimize all you want but if you don’t have good quality content it won’t matter. So make sure your posts are timely, newsworthy (don’t just self promote) and have value for you clients or customers. A good post can hold someone on your site for 10 – 15 minutes and make them want to do business with you. My partner in Bayes Squared, Mike Bayes also owns an SEO company and his motto is “A blog a day keeps page 3 away.” Meaning a good quality blog will be found and read and get you Google page rank up. It’s not all that easy but it’s a start.

Ever thought about charging more for the services you offer? The more perceived value others have of you the higher the price they will pay for you. Perceived value comes from having influence.

Organization is a major key to any online work. I went back to my trusty old Franklin Covey Day Planner because it is easier than trying to keep track of everything in my smart phone. I have a set routine for each morning, each week and each month that pertains to my online presence and how people see me. It takes 2 to 3 hours a day to complete everything for my 3 companies. Sounds like a lot, but it is well worth it. But you can’t organize until you have a few other things in place.

Start thinking about what market your business falls into. Have you broken it down into a marketable niche? Do you know who you are trying to reach and what your message is? Do you even know what they want or do you have a product or service that you know everyone needs so they will just come beating down your door to get it? Have you done your research?

Yes? Good, then it’s time to write your blog, do a series same day every week or twice a week. Don’t miss one. If people like what you have to say they will expect a regular schedule.

Do videos of yourself or your product. Get them on You Tube and Face Book. Tell people about them. Video interview leaders in your niche or let others interview you. Videos get prospects involved. That’s why YouTube is so busy. People love videos. Here’s a tip: don’t go to professional. The more natural the better – think organic.

Always get you audience involved. Use call to actions, give away reports, white papers or guides. Make them do something that involves your website, blog or social media outlets. Do polls and surveys and post the results.

Ask webmasters if they would like free articles for their site written by you. Never assume they won’t. Many will.

Do Joint Ventures with the big guys who have large lists! This is one of my favorites. I work a business owner who has tied in with a site in his niche that has a mailing list of over 400,000 contacts. Every time they run one of his articles it goes out to their entire list. What is only 1% read his article? That’s 4,000 readers, what if 1% went to his site – 400 visitors. What if 10% read it and then 10% visited his site? That’s 4,000 visitors. Get the drift? Numbers mean influence.

This barely scratches the surface of what it takes but it’s a start.

Remember it takes time. If you have the time – Great. If not find a good small business strategies company that can help you with it.

Linkedin for Your Online Business Strategy
What isLinkedin and  can you use it to gain leads in your online business? The answer is yes but it is not an easy social networking platform to use like facebook or  twitter.
 
Linkedin is a community of business and corporate professionals interacting in a more organized. adept way. You need to have a special knowledge base or mindset in order to be able to speak with these people on their terms. When I first heard of Linkedin and how my mentors were getting 15+  leads per day, I needed to begin using this strategy as well.  It wasn’t as easy as I thought. Sign up, add friends and contacts and start networking…..right? Wrong!

As a member of Linkedin you have to some how be affiliated with the people to be able to add them to your network. Based on my hit and miss experience I have narrowed it down to what I believe are a few easy points to help you Linkin.

The first point you need to consider is building a profile that looks authoritative. By that I mean you should have a quality picture of yourself and a background that looks proficient.
Your profile needs to look skillful, like you are applying for a regular position/job, it should be done with as much quality as a resume. Do Not Use under any circumstances cartoons
pics, or cuddly little animals or funny jokes, sayings. Remember these people are pro’s.

The second point would be to brand yourself as an authority. List your educational qualities, and your professional background.  You are seeking other marketers to join your business, so I would stay away from including all the online companies you have worked with or  work with currently.  Remember the focus is on you as a proficient leader in your field, not on your business(s).

Now after setting yourself up with your experience, skills, and educational background  your Gmail account connections that are relevant can and should be accessed or imported to join in your Linkedin Network. This is one of the easiest ways to begin connecting with your peers. Linkedin will provide you with an option asking them to join. Then search on Linkedin for individuals you already know and request to connect with them.

Last but not least, is to join Groups. Linkedin is similar to other social sites in that you can create targeted searches for MLM or Network Marketing or a certain niche that you wish to use. You may also zero in on other companies, join those groups and become a regular participant of creating or replying to articles and disucssions. You can also post in the job section for career changes if that would be a piece of your target audience.

Like many of the other networking platforms consistency is key with this strategy in order to see results. If one day you write an article and then don’t come back for an extended period of time, you will begin to lose any hard fought believability on Linkedin.

So I highly advise that keep your profile, and all skills, experience, education and background on a proficient, authoritative level. Brand yourself, not your company and be a participant, regularly, and follow these easy points, as you build your connections to stay Linkedin.

There are the obvious reasons for business failure: insufficient funding, poor organization, ineffective marketing. Those are easy to spot and, hopefully, avoid. But there are other much less conspicuous reasons that many entrepreneurs do not realize.

They believe they are doing all the right things yet their results are well below expectations. As they see their dreams slide away, they wonder what possibly could be wrong.

Business failure is much more common than it needs to be, especially if you know these underlying obstacles.

1. You started your business for the wrong reasons. If you are in it for the money, you must be sure why that is so. It is crucial that you have a strong emotional attachment to the reason why you went into that particular business in the first place.

2. Too much or too little knowledge, either about your niche or about the methods of running a business. If you do not have enough information, you will struggle. If you have too much information, you can feel overwhelmed. Perhaps you feel you need to know everything before you can move forward. Keep in mind: you only need to know enough to get the results you want. Everything else can be learned along the way.

3. Fear of failure. It’s not so much about what it will do to you as it is about the belief that this is your one big chance. If you fail, you’ve used up that one opportunity. Instead of moving ahead with the opportunity that is presented to you, you choose to hold onto the dream, rather than risk losing it.

4. Fear of success. This might sound odd since you are in business to succeed, so why would you let fear of success cause your business failure? You have to come to terms with exactly how you feel about success and money. Does it feel right that you can have it all? Or do you think it might be more than you deserve?

If you tackle each of these, you will be well on your way to turning your failing business around.

One way is to become an idea generator. Come up with more than one dream and if one fails, you have many more ready to go.

Write down each new idea and develop business strategies for them, including how you would make money, where it would come from (various revenue streams), how to get customers and traffic, what you will offer and how you will expand on your main idea in the future.

Also, make a list of all the reasons why you deserve to be successful and live the lifestyle you desire. Include your unique talents, what makes you happy both now and when you were young, and exactly what you have to offer. You might want to ask someone you trust for feedback, because they usually can see something in you that you do not see yourself.

Start with these simple business strategies and you can avoid business failure in the future.

Negotiating is an important part of any business. It had better be handled by professionals for your business. That is necessary in order to cut the right deals in negotiation. This profession is a trade all its own. There is a theory to it which needs to be understood by the professionals handling this end of the business. Have you ever heard of a concept known as the Pareto Optimal?

Some people have. For those of you who do not understand, it is a state of affairs which ensures that at least one individual concerned has to be better off than before ensuring than no one is any worse off than before. The business negotiators are expected to ensure precisely that; only, the demand for being better off than before is spread across all units concerned rather than any one of the given units.

Basically, a negotiator develops a business strategy with which people at both ends of any deal stand to gain something out of the deal. Of course, when you are in a business sacrifices have to be made. But that is where the conflict arises, it is owing to the fact that neither end of the business are willing to sacrifice more than the other end.

This is where a negotiator steps in. A good negotiator is one who can resolve a conflict between two businesses that arises over any particular business deal. What the conflict concerns may vary from anything from the share of profits to the pricing of the concerned product.

A negotiator has to suggest a strategy to both businesses and he must bear in mind that both businesses are happy with what they gain. As also both firms are comfortable with the quantity and quality of sacrifice that they are being forced to make in order to gain what they are.  

There are certain factors that a good negotiator must always be aware of. Rehearse your pitch multiple number of times. Get all the feedback you can and then make necessary amendments to it as necessary. You must never sound unprepared or unprofessional when you are actually pitching for some business.

More often than not, the issue is more likely to be regarding the sacrifices that a company has to make in order to go through with a deal rather than the monetary gains of each party. Make sure, you come up with a business proposal that will suffice the comfort requirements of both parties.

Never lose your focus. Your job is to take care of a problem; you have nothing to do with the people involved in the problem. Once you make sure that the conflict is eliminated, the people will automatically be in harmony with one another.