Quality for a lifetime
June - July ‘09
Entrepreneurship vs. Employment
Investing Wisely
Management Human Relations Customer Relations
Quiet Time
Dear Professionals & Business Leaders! Are You Sick & Tired of Your Job/Business/Career? Or Have you been affected by the Current Economic Recession? If Yes, Would you like to LEARN HOW other Professionals & Business Leaders are coping in these Uncertain Economic Times? Visit: www.smartprofessionals.net or Telephone 0738 420 317 / 0723 838 873 For Your Copy of Free Report
Rolling up those sleeves
Editorial
… it’s time to do the usual - unusually!!! Managing Editor Wangari Kimani-Maina Advertising Executives Frederick Mwarangu Nahashon Mithanga Content availed by Ryan P. Allis John Wright Doug Staneart Paul Zane Pilzer Nancy Mann Jackson www.businessknowledgesource.com www.fujitsu.com Wangari Kimani-Maina Design and Photography Frederick Rukungu Nahashon Mithanga Distribution & Circulation Eagle Afric Holdings Ltd. Published by: Eagle Afric Holdings Ltd. P.O. Box 24329, Karen 00502 Tel: +254 020 3597825 E-mail: info@esteemedonline.com
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pportunities don’t hang on trees like mangoes ready for plucking. They are sought after, waited upon based on careful calculation and grabbed as they pass by in life’s journey. In the last two editions i.e. April - May and May-June as well as this edition, we have carried a full page advert on the AGOA exhibition that will be happening in the month of August from 3rd to 6th. Needless to say, there are those Esteemed readers who have taken advantage of the advert and have signed up as exhibitors. Congratulations to those who have done this. For they that have not, my opening phrase needs to ring in your mind again. This is a forum that will opened up your organization to the western markets and vice versa. The other point I need to make is that your business will never enjoy too much exposure especially to potential investors, partners, business associates and venture capitalists. For those who cannot make it, I urge you to sign up with Esteemed because we are going to be there. The August - September Edition will be printed out and distributed for free during the AGOA forum. This is not an opportunity that comes every day. Let’s do a little math: 1/8 page ad will cost you Kshs. 4,205/= (costs inclusive VAT). I am sure for a period of two months with part of it being international exposure, this will not be money wasted in advertising. In the magazine this time around, Smart Professionals tell us, through their website, how professionals & business leaders are coping in these uncertain economic times. It is a great read. In addition, we have a great collection of articles look forward to you enjoying them. We make special mention of and congratulate team members of Callkey Networks who took the time and effort to visit Soul Mercy Children’s home. Advertisers in this edition include the upcoming AGOA (African Growth & Opportunities Act), Smart Professionals and White House Restaurant situated along the infamous Ngong Road.
Copyright Information Esteemed is a bi-monthly magazine published by Eagle Afric Holdings Ltd. Views expressed in the articles and contributions are not necessarily those of the publisher. All rights reserved. While every reasonable effort has been made and precautions taken to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the content herein, neither the Esteemed team, nor its advertisers, nor printers can accept responsibility for any damages or inconvenience that may arise there from. The views expressed within the publication are those of the authors exclusively and not necessarily those of the Esteemed owners. Any material sent to us will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and may or may not be acknowledged as receipted. This material will also be subject to scrutiny for unrestricted editing and commentary at the discretion of the Editorial team. All content, including adverts created by Esteemed are Copyright of Eagle Afric Holdings Ltd. and may not be recreated in part or in whole without prior consent of the publishers. Copyright ©
Thank you for your continued support and remember that reading enhances your knowledge. Keep that feedback coming! With lots of love Wangari
Please visit our stand at the AGOA Exhibition at KICC, Nairobi Kenya 3rd to 6th August 2008
Next Edition Be in it and get seen at the AGOA forum
Feedback Your say: Thanks a lot… Mwangi We say: Thank you. Your Say: After looking through your magazine I thought to myself, Well your advertising with pictures of other models well how would you like to use me to grow my portfolio - Rahab We say: Thank you Rahab. At Esteemed we nurture and develop talent when given the opportunity. Please check your mail to see how to part of our cover pictures
Entrepreneurship vs. Employment
Business Idea & Opportunity Evaluation We all have to admit, at one point or another, we have thought about starting a business to either supplement our current income source or provide an alternative to being employed. In these tough economic times, these thoughts have honestly increased. However, few have the guts to go on to the realization of these thoughts. Sometimes the very thought of capital is so scary it puts you off almost immediately. For the minority who pursue their dream of owning a business in real time some things have to be taken into consideration. Consultants do not come cheap and that is why at Esteemed we seek to gather informative articles from consultants. This time around, we share with you how best to evaluate the business ideas and opportunities that you are considering for implementation. Ryan P. Allis takes us through. In analyzing your business ideas you must be able to pass them through a test to determine if they truly are valid opportunities. All of your ideas must have a demonstrated need, ready market, and ability to provide a solid return on investment. Is the idea feasible in the marketplace? Is there demand? Can it be done? Are you able to pull together the persons and resources to pull it off before the window of opportunity closes? These questions must be considered and answered. Opportunity-focused entrepreneurs start with the customer and the market in mind. They analyze the market to determine industry issues, market structure, market size, growth rate, market capacity, attainable market share, cost structure, the core economics, exit strategy issues, time to breakeven, opportunity costs, and barriers to entry. Below are two models that entrepreneurs use to evaluate their business ideas and plans. 14 Questions to Ask Every Time
3. How would you make money? (Revenue Model) 4. How will you differentiate your company from what is already out there? (Unique selling proposition) 5. What are the barriers to entry? 6. How many competitors do you have and of what quality are they? (Competitive Analysis) 7. How big is your market in dollars? (Market Size) 8. How fast is the market growing or shrinking? (Market Growth) 9. What percent of the market do you believe you could gain? (Market Share) 10. What type of company would this be? (Lifestyle or High Potential, Sole Proprietorship or Corporation) 11. How much would it cost to get started? (Start-up Costs) 12. Do you plan to use debt capital or raise investment? If so, how much and what type? (Investment needs) 13. Do you plan to sell your company or go public (list the company on the stock markets) one day? (Exit Strategy) 14. If you take on investment, how much money do you think your investors will get back in return? (Return on Investment) Let’s take the above fourteen questions and term them into an easy model that you can use to evaluate your business ideas you come up with. This is called the RAMP model. The RAMP Model
Let’s start with the first letter, R, which stands for Return. Return really is return on investment
Discuss Exit Strategy (acquisition or IPO)
Is it profitable? Will your revenues be higher than your expenses?
Time to breakeven (how long before cash flow positive? How long until the company begins to have an aggregate net income)
Investment Needed. How much money will it take to start-up this venture. Will it be $20,000, $200,000, or $2,000,000?
To evaluate opportunities, entrepreneurs ask the following questions: 1. What is the need you fill or problem you solve? (Value Proposition) 2. Who are you selling to? (Target Market)
Now let’s look at A. A stands for advantages
Look at cost structure (suppliers, what each element will cost to source or manufacture)
Barriers to entry (large competitors, regulations, patents, large capital requirements. If there are many barriers to entry, it will be difficult to enter a market. The higher the barriers to entry, the more disadvantaged you will be.
Intellectual Property. Do you have a pro-
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prietary advantage such as a patents or exclusive licenses on what you will be selling.
Distribution Channel. How will you be selling your product? Will you sell it direct to the consumer via the Internet, sell it to wholesales, sell it to businesses, or sell it to retail stores. If can develop a unique distribution channel this can surely be an advantage.
Now let’s look at M. M stands for Market
The Need. Is there a big need for this product or service. Try to avoid ideas that sound cool but there is no real need for. Make sure your product or service fills and need or solves a problem.
Target market (who are you selling to? businesses? consumers? what demographics?)
Analyze target market (who are you selling to? businesses? consumers? what demographics?)
Pricing (what you they charge, what will be the price, will there be a high enough markup).
Analyze market size
Finally let’s look at P. P stands for potential
Risk vs. Reward. How risky is the opportunity? If it is very risky, it there a chance for the business to do very well. Will there be a high reward for the founders and investors if the company succeeds?
The Team. Is the team right for the business. Do you have knowledge in this area.
Timing. Is the market ready for your product. You may have a great idea for flying cars, but if consumers are not ready for your product you may not be able to turn your idea into a successful business.
Goal Fit. Does the business concept fit the goals of the team to create a high potential or lifestyle business?
By using the RAMP model and the fourteen questions above you should be able to do a thorough job analyzing your business ideas and opportunities presented to you Ryan P. Allis, 20, is the author of Zero to One Million, a guide to building a company to $1 million in sales, and the founder of zeromillion.com. Ryan is also the CEO of Broadwick Corp., a provider of the permission-based email marketing software and CEO of Virante, Inc., a web marketing and search engine optimization firm. Ryan is an economics major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a Blanchard Scholar.
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Business Principles
Conducting Effective Business Meetings
good, but my whole job description involves going to meetings." I was inHow would you describe meetings you have trigued, so I asked her to tell me more. attended in the past? I was facilitating a workShe was a personal assistant to a manshop on how to facilitate more successful meet- ager of a Fortune 500 company, and she ings, and to start things off, I asked the group was hired by her boss to attend the meetthat very question. The answers that they pro- ings that he could not attend himself bevided were very similar to answers that I have cause there were not enough hours in the received from hundreds of workshop particiday. After class, she and I sat down and pants over the last ten years. identified 32-hours of wasted meeting time that she was participating in every The first two responses were… "Meetings are week. These were meetings that neither looooooooooong," and "Meetings are BOW- she nor her boss was actually needed ring (this workshop was actually held in my for, but that one of them attended every hometown of Fort Worth, Texas - thus the week. Over the next year, this one perTexas twang.)" son increased productivity of her team by over 200%. Granted, this is an extreme Those two responses almost always come up case, but there are probably hours in when I ask the question. Others that also come each of our weeks that are wasted by up a lot are: Wastes of time, non-productive, ineffective meetings. confrontational, inefficient, repetitive, and a number of other negative descriptions. Every The tips below are strategies that I have once in a while, I get a response like positive, collected over the years from class meminformative, or necessary, but usually the other bers who swear by their effectiveness. I participants gang-up against the person very hope they work for you as well. quickly. Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meetMost people believe that business meetings ing. Write it out, and distribute it to particiare necessary evils, and in many cases, they pants ahead of time. This will help avoid are. But one of the most important things we the "chasing of rabbits," and help particican remember about business meetings is to pants be more prepared for the meeting. NOT have one unless it is absolutely necessary. When your employees and coworkers are in staff meetings, they are not producing. Noth- Follow the Agenda: This sounds very elementary, but you'd be surprised by the ing is ever produced until after the meeting is over. One of my first pieces of advice to people number of people who take the time to who want to make meetings more effective is to create an agenda, and then totally disregard the agenda during the meeting. have fewer of them. About five years ago, I made this statement in Limit the Agenda: Ask yourself, "What are the three most important things we a class, and a young lady in the front row need to cover in the meeting?" Limit the raised her hand and said, "That sounds really By Doug Staneart
The Five C's of Management According to a survey TSN, "Less than onethird of all supervisors and managers are perceived to be strong leaders." As a result, increasingly larger percentages of our workforce are disengaged. So what does it take for a manager to be "perceived as a strong leader?" Character: People will not follow someone for long if they can't trust them. Not long ago a well known CEO was "ousted" after a probe into a personal relationship with a female executive at the same firm. "The board concluded that the facts reflected poorly on his judgment and would impair his ability to lead the company…his actions were inconsistent with our code of conduct." Leaders have to be trustworthy to produce sustainable results. Caring : "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." When Lou Holtz was coach at Notre Dame, the second question he used to ask every player before being selected to play after "Can I trust you?" was "Do you CARE about me, your teammates, and Notre Dame?" If a
agenda to these three points. The rest of the things you wanted to cover, by definition, weren't really that important anyway, so why waste everyone's time? Set a Time Limit: I would suggest setting the time limit for the meeting to be no longer than 30-minutes. In future meetings, shorten the time by five minutes until the time limit is 15-minutes or less. The leader of the meeting will become much more efficient, and the participants will become much more focused as well. When the time limit is up, end the meeting. You may not get to cover every single thing that you wanted to the first couple of times you try this, but within a short time, you will find that the major information points are being discussed and decisions are being made very efficiently. Encourage Participation from Everyone, but don't Force Them: Instead of going around the table and asking for opinions or input, just ask a question and let people volunteer their answers. There will be times during any meeting that each person will "phase out" (especially if it is a looooong and BOW-ring meeting.) If we call on every person, it wastes time, and puts people on the spot. Other ways of encouraging participation is to just ask a question, and after someone answers, say something like, "Good, let's hear from someone else." If there are people in your meeting who rarely speak, instead of calling on them directly, you might say something like, "I value the opinion of each of you, does anyone else have something to add." Then, just look at the person you want to hear from. If he or she has something to say, he or she will say it if encouraged in this way. If he or she doesn't, then you haven't embarrassed the person. Meetings can be a very powerful way to communicate and solve problems if you use these simple tips. Doug Staneart, doug@leaderinstitute.com, is CEO of The Leaders Institute, Management and Public Speaking Training.
player had a selfish motive for being on the team and didn't care enough to put the team interests first, he didn't want that young man on the team. He also said if the young man didn't believe that he could trust the coach and feel cared about in return, he shouldn't want to be on the team. Leaders show they care about their team personally and professionally. Commitment: There's a poster on the gym wall in Clint Eastwood's movie Pretty Baby that says "Winners do what losers won't do." Leaders are like that also. They DO things poor managers won't do. COMMIT to your business. "Believe in it more than anybody else. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don't know if you're born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it." By John Wright
Confidence: Leaders know where they are going and demonstrate by their words and actions that there is no doubt that they will arrive. Furthermore, they make you want to go with them. They instill confidence in you as well. They get you to believe in yourself and your team and to see yourself as winners before it actually occurs. In his book Reagan on Leadership, James
Strock lists Ronald Reagan's accomplishments while in office and concludes "Above all, Reagan restored America's belief in itself." Communication: Leaders have crystal clear compelling visions and communicate those visions repeatedly. In his book Leadership, the first principle Rudolph Giuliani shares is his insistence on his routine morning meeting. "I consider it the cornerstone to efficient functioning within any system…We accomplish a great deal during that first hour, in large part because the lines of communication were so clear." In addition to letting people also know clearly where they stand, leaders are also exceptional listeners. "Make sure you get unfiltered information. Top managers need all sorts of information, good and bad…especially bad. This is why it is crucial to have a mechanism in place that insures a steady stream of information from all quarters." Managers that develop these qualities will create an environment where their team will willingly do what they would not otherwise do. John Wright is a speaker and trainer for High Impact Leaders Management Training. He specializes in leadership and management programs for all levels throughout organizations.
Callkey heard and answered a call On a warm Saturday afternoon, what had began as a thought materialized for the Callkey staff as they visited Soul Mercy Children’s home.
The welcoming party
Putting it up reminds us all… The hosts entertained the guests
The gratitude on the children’s faces said it all. Thank you for thinking about us Callkey staff familiarize themselves with the hosts
Hearts of compassion Hands laden with gifts of love
Posing for group photo
Beyond the physical gifts they shared, the comThe proprietor of the home addresses the visiting party pany also offered to host and maintain a brand new website for the home, at no cost whatsoever. Kudos to Callkey. Keep up the spirit
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Investing Wisely
21st Century - The Age of the Entrepreneur
In writing this column for this edition, a lot of reference has been made to a book—The Next Millionaire by Paul Zane Pilzer. According to Pilzer, Wealth is the product of physical resources times technology i.e. W=P (physical resources)* T (Technology). As an entrepreneur, your W (wealth) = your P (physical resources) and P is your relationships. The people you know and whose trust you’ve earned. The businesses you know about from your direct experience, and the amount of time you have available to work, times your T (technology) which consist of your basic skills, your ability to read, write, speak, calculate, process information. The functional specialized skills you have learnt to date, and three the most important, your ability to adapt to change and learn new skills.
fashion design company for new designers that need a start iron rod production selling traditional jewelry brail screen that reads computer and translates the text on a computer into 3D brail that the blind could read lumber company Make a ski board rotating wardrobe at ski resorts flavored straws grocery store that also had a fitness center a diagonal load dishwasher
When you make an investment you are either making the effort to take from someone else (legally and rightfully) and get rich or you have seen an opportunity to make money out of nothing. For instance, if today, you walked around your village and saw all these old men and women abandoned by their children who go to the big city to make money; and you decide to set up an Old People’s home where they can live dignified lives while being taken care off, you will have created an investment for yourself with great returns out of nothing.
sushi restaurant
Ideas to guide you outside the box
bringing broadband internet access into developing countries
The following ideas were brainstormed by fourteen high school students in a 90 minute period on July 20, 2003.
underwater restaurant spa franchise foldable hammock for car trunks high quality light fixtures health bar chain comfy, damage-free ear phones chair with popcorn holder, tray, built-in radio, massager self-cleaning microwave
Candy-land theme park chain web design/advertising company per month CD online company
Stop fighting the changes that come to you and start embracing them educational software for the visually impaired
Sonar for blind people voice/data equipment for hospitals drink machine that talks to you a teddy bear with sensors and small computer inside that would talk to infants/ toddlers and encourage good behavior or tell them a bed-time story online store where you could customize clothing and then have it shipped to you an educational software company that made console games for kids that were actually fun to play
security software to protect against hackers and credit card scams
New brand of cola
wholesale store without membership card
triangular and circular houses
aerobic center for teenagers
interchangeable shoes
chair store w/ imported European chocolate
café
restaurants for dogs and cats
pens that never from out of ink
oxygen tanks so dogs and cats can go diving
new type of fuel
computer animation company
hovercars
real estate company
new internet service provider
cosmetics/hair care company
college/cheerleader/ male calendars
bowling alley
voice-activated radio/TV voice activated house remote control finder voice activated keys
Store that makes custom clothes electronic translator that you put in your ear
Monorail company
hydrogen powered cars easy wrinkle remover never-ending bottle of soda underwear with pockets new clothing line donut store shoe pockets wireless TV head sets hair coloring shampoo desks with build in computers text books on computers automatic dog food dispenser remote control lawnmower washer-dryer all in one combo color eye drops mechanical spiders MP3 player watch watch that automatically knows what time zone it’s in butt-wiping toilets better toothpaste virus protection toothbrush with toothpaste in it video phone logo changing shirt solar color changing shirt solar powered sports cars color changing nail polish TV on cell phones personal soda dispenser voice-controlled air conditioning system resort color changing hair bow voice activated elevators phone/tv/radio in a shower sponges with built in soap self-moving furniture multi-colored markets reversible backpacks student tracker system remote to control of your appliances sneakers with comfortable insides auto food/water dispenser for animals for when family is away for a few days vacuum with perfume in it trash can with perfume in it real-looking pony tail that hooks in your hair 3 in 1 paint color can refrigerator that has an alarm for bad food cat food dispenser boats that give a smooth ride
Business is about serving other people. The better you are at giving people something that improves their lives, the more successful you are and the more money you make. One of the greatest challenges every entrepreneur faces is the people around him who don’t believe and understand that by getting rich, they are absolutely doing God’s work at the highest level. Get out there and be a better person by serving others. Give them more product for less money and that makes you very rich.
Team-Building With a Purpose
Human Relations
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sense that this is just a waste of time,” LiPuma many companies primarily “want to enhance says. “But as the day approached, there was genuine excitement and anticipation. The employees’ engagement in the company,” Announce that you’re planning a team-building says Nat Measley, master of fun at Newark, morning of the event was very satisfying for us exercise for your staff, and watch the eyes roll. Del.-based The Fun Department, a consult- as owners because everyone was milling around and getting excited about what was to Team-building events have a reputation among ing firm that helps companies develop culcome.” many employees as time-wasters that simply tures of having fun with a purpose. keep them away from the office as more work “An engaged employee will stop and pick Starting with a get-to-know-you icebreaker, the piles up, but savvy entrepreup a piece of trash in the hallway, a disen- 37 participants played several games that reneurs design programs that will help them gaged employee will walk by the piece of quired balance, trust and teamwork. In one reach specific goals for their team. game, each group was given balloons and tape trash and leave it, and an actively disenand instructed to build a tower of balloons, For instance, when Ken Keller, owner of a Ren- gaged employee will throw the trash on competing for the highest tower. “We had a aissance Executive Forums franchise in Valen- the floor,” Measley says. certain amount of time to blow up balloons and cia, California., needed to develop rapport Along with bolstering employees’ commithold them together with our tape,” says Mary and trust among a group of top executives, he ment to the company, “a lot of companies Kremer, an employee at Lender Consulting. “It took them to a vineyard and told them to create are seeing the layoffs and the uncertainty, was nice to experience working as a group, their own wine. At Viansa Winery in Sonoma, and they just want to get people out of the sharing engineering ideas and putting them to California, the group was divided into teams office and reenergize them,” says Lloyd use.” and each team was given a few wine parietals. Davis, president of Viansa Winery. “They They had to work together to create their own Aside from playing games, the experience want to get [employees] to stop thinking signature wine, design a label and develop “generated lots of ideas as to how to apply the about the bad things happening and start lessons learned during the fun routines to our a marketing pitch, all to be presented to judges thinking about the good things that could daily work,” LiPuma says. “There was a reat the end of the competition. Not only was the happen in the company.” newed sense of camaraderie and a better unactivity “a blast,” Keller says, it also “helped Christopher Burgos was hoping to boost derstanding of how each of us reacts to certain people really get focused on the task at hand employee morale when he hired The Fun situations. There was a real sense of teamwork and work together toward a common goal.” Department to stage team-building exercises in several of the exercises, especially when we Keller builds teams for a living, working with for his firm, Diamond State Financial Group paired people that were not familiar with each individual business owners to form peer groups in Newark, Del. The Fun Department took a other before the gathering.” that serve as each other’s board of advisors. group of Diamond State’s salespeople out of He says unique experiences like the Viansa the office for an all-day competition with vari- Reinforcing Company Values At LunchByte Systems, a provider of software wine-blending program are useful for building ous stops such as bowling and go-karting. and services for school cafeterias, the goal effective working relationships because people “One of the of a recent team-building program was to Creatively designed are doing something unfamiliar, leading them to goals was to programs help shatter the “showcase the importance of customer depend on each other to figure it out. take the staff stereotypes of company service and communications,” says Colin away from the “One thing that really helped with Viansa was retreats that accomplish Sheridan, president of the company. office and stress that this was not a scary experience and no nothing. Create-Learning Team Building conducted for the day,” one was the boss,” Keller says. And it had to the activity as part of a two-day company Measley says. help that everyone went home with their own wide staff development meeting, with the com“Chris used the event proactively to counterbottle of self-blended wine. pany’s values of customer service and open act any serious morale issues. Specifically, Creatively designed programs like the winetaking the group out of that office setting was communication were emphasized throughout. blending competition help shatter the stereothe key to targeting those goals Chris wanted In one game, Project Rollerball, employees types of company retreats that accomplish accomplished. Sometimes it can be that sim- were divided into six functional team units to design and execute a solution to a business ple.” nothing. challenge. “The aim of the project is to deliver “Team-building gets a bad rap because [some Burgos’ company also participated in the customer satisfaction and an excellent product annual Fun Department Corporate Games, organizations] offer programs and really don’t in a profitable and sustainable way by being an afternoon of field and team events where able to communicate and operate with flexibility know what they’re doing,” says Mike Cardus, various companies compete against each across different functions and areas,” Sheridan president of Create-Learning Teambuilding in other. Employee morale improved just by says. Buffalo, N.Y. “For instance, a YMCA camp getting out and playing together, according to might say they offer corporate teambuilding. Burgos. And it also “helped increase produc- In debriefing the exercise, discussions of cusTheir staff may have a bachelor’s degree in tivity, since they needed to qualify to attend,” tomer service and communication came up recreation so they can plan a fun activity, but again and again. “It was a good reminder of he says. that doesn’t necessarily apply back to work some simple but easily forgotten principles,” life.” Fostering Communication Sheridan says. “I am sure there were some eye Lender Consulting Services in Rochester, rolls but once we got Cardus says the most successful team-building activities will be explicitly linked back to partici- N.Y., has small offices across several states, started with the activities so many employees never work together. people had fun. During the pants’ jobs, and they’ll understand how skills CEO Mark LiPuma wanted to open lines of debriefs, it was obvious developed can translate into workplace habits. communication among staff across the com- that the objectives and To make that happen, each teambuilding pany, so he hired Cardus of Create-Learning lessons were understood experience must be strategically designed Team Building (I looked up the company by everyone. It was a good with specific goals in mind. name, they separate the words) to facilitate a change of pace versus two-hour team-building activity. meetings and presentaImproving Morale tions and it got the points While each organization’s goals for a team“At first there was some reluctance and a across.” building program vary, in the current economy,
By Nancy Mann Jackson
Standing out When you last made a presentation did this happen:
Your audience dozed off Your audience made noises Your audience kept walking in and out You walked away with nothing but a simple morale boosting ‘good presentation’ pat on the back
Esteemed Presentations Don’t sweat through preparing a presentation. Just tell us what you want to present, how much time you have, your audience - simple, professionals, politicians, children, young adults and leave the rest to us. You can even tell your boss you did it on your own! You will walk away from the podium - NOTICED!!! Talk to us - 020 3597825 or E-mail lizmaina@esteemedonline.com for personalized attention
To place your advert in Esteemed Magazine, contact us on info@esteemedonline.com or call +254 020 3597825/ + 254 720 838446 For those who have seen and used our badges, the feedback is generally the same. People like and cherish personalized items. Students will gladly wear a badge with their name and declare their achievements. For the young boys in games, it means a lot to have a badge that says - Best game scorer! For those events that last a lifetime such as the international Women’s day - it feels great to spot a colorful badge saying I am proud to be a woman Badges say what is in your heart, what you are proud of and that is what Kilimara badges do. We bring out your heart’s message at the most affordable cost with the highest quality possible. We do:
Social badges - weddings, birthdays School badges - performance recognition; management; student roles Staff Badges Church Badges Event Badges - conferences, seminars etc We think outside the box with you. Join our list of growing clients and enjoy the beauty of variety with Kilimara badges Kilimara Investments Mr. George Kimani P.O. Box 24979 - 00502 Nairobi, Kenya; Tel: +254 020 2099502/ +254 733 549099 E-mail: kilimara@gmail.com
Can’t pay, WON’T pay? Do you have customers who won't pay what they owe you? Do you have problems collecting on accounts that are past due? Here are some guidelines that can help you know how you can deal with those unfortunate incidents when your customers don't quite live up to their agreements and they won't pay you what they owe to you and to your company. 1. Protect yourself before you even run into problems The first place where you should start when it comes to problems with customers is before they even become customers. It has become common to run credit checks on new customers, so you shouldn't feel awkward about asking potential customers to fill out a formal credit report. Also, you should make all of your payment requirements, your prices, any extra fees, and due dates absolutely clear with any new customers so that everyone is on the same page in terms of payment.
Customer Relations
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focus on acquiring the right customers and better segmentation of existing customers to enable individual assessment of circumstances. Both are easier said than done, 3. What to do if initial attempts are not sucof course. Decessful regulation and the ease of If a customer still does not pay after you have switching supplimade a polite phone call or two, then it is probably ers has put prestime for you to contact a third party agent. The sure on compamost common third party agent for retrieving paynies to maximize ment due is third party collection agencies. These customer acquicollection agencies generally charge a commission sition. The danon money collected. Some collection agencies ger is that this charge a flat monthly fee, also. overlooks the If the amount of money owed is significant, then fact that the best you should contact a lawyer. time to carry out an analysis of customer payment records and disposable income is If you feel that it is appropriate, and you do not at the very start of a business relationship. intend on keeping this customer, then you might want to consider filing a claim in small claims court. Do this and it becomes possible to match the customer. This call should be made by your accounts receivable department, or your secretary or another party.
service levels to customer needs, cutting 4. What you should not do with customers who off many debt-related problems at the won't pay source. The second element is being able You should also make sure that all of the lists There are several things that you should not do to work out which existing debtors could of fees, services, due dates, and charges are when customers do not pay. You should not pay and finding ways to encourage them. put out in writing. Give the customer a copy of spread the information around. You also should This can be done by analyzing publicly the contract and keep a copy for yourself. not harass the customer. You cannot threaten the available data on customer’s income levInclude in the contract a section that clearly customer, and you cannot abuse the customer by els and their known outgoings on services outlines ramifications and steps that will be making too frequent phone calls and showing up at like satellite or cable television subscriptaken of payments are not made on time. You all hours. This behavior can get you in trouble with tions, and using it to build collection stratemight choose to have a grace period. Make the law. This approach also will probably not be gies tailored to individuals. this perfectly clear. If you are going to charge successful. money on a specific basis as accounts conRising to the challenge http://www.businessknowledgesource.com/finance/ tinue to go unpaid, make this clear. what_to_do_when_customers_wont_pay_what_is_owed_0 These kinds of insights will give busiSend out bills routinely and on schedule. Mark 23850.html nesses the confidence to chase the bad invoices clearly as invoices and not just a debtors more aggressively, which should Understanding more about your customers is mailing that can be tossed. result in a reduction in the mountain of crucial to reducing bad debts. outstanding debt. It won’t be easy, of 2. The first thing to do after an account course. How does your business view unpaid bills? An due date passes unfortunate occupational hazard? An intractable It’s common to see insurance companies After a customer has passed the stated time organizational problem? Or simply the cost of doclaiming that they don’t insure bad drivers. frame in the contract-10 days past due, for ing business? Businesses can’t afford to ignore the Imagine being able to tell your customers example-send out a reminder notice. Don't issue of bad debt any longer. The problem is parthat they could pay less because you don’t wait to send the notice out! The longer you ticularly acute for companies where debt is the take on bad payers. wait the less chance you will have of retrieving largest single element of ‘cost to serve’ and most the money that is owed. Send out a couple of frustrating is the knowledge that many bad debtors And imagine the PR benefits of being able notices, and send them out promptly. to show that you have invested in debt can afford to pay, but choose not to. management and can now take those If the customer does A new approach to debt management suffering genuine hardship out of the debt not send in payment, recovery process. So, how can businesses respond? At the core is call the customer. Politely remind the customer that the payment is past due. If there is a reason why payment has not been made, perhaps you can work out a payment agreement with
an acknowledgement that businesses need to bring the same level of customer understanding to debt management that they employ in their marketing. If they can distinguish the ‘can’t pays’ from the ‘won’t pays’, they can take more targeted action against those who could pay while also treating the impoverished more sympathetically. There are two main elements to this: a greater
Look at it that way and your view of bad debt could change. It isn’t the cost of doing business any more. It’s a massive opportunity for those with the courage to tackle it. http://www.fujitsu.com/uk/news/insights/ s4b/25-baddebt.html
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Lessons best learnt @ home It’s amazing the lesson you will learn about life in the simple activities of the home. The other day we were scheduled to have a group of visitors coming to see princess and amid all the preparations that go into making a lasting impression that will not embarrass the head of the house out there, I called in for help. I needed assistance with cooking, setting the table, doing the dishes and taking care of princess at the same time. After a successful day, I went to bed tired and thinking about everything we had gone through. It was then that I realized a few things about life. I take this opportunity to share them with you and I hope you find it worthy of your reading time
1. Get in the game Watching others helps, and through watching by the sidelines, we make very good instructors and referees. However, you have to get in there and get your hands and feet dirty for any real impact to be felt over a long time. From the sidelines you may think you are learning something but unless you get into the business you ain’t gaining much. 2. Have a plan. I’m very keen on planning in general, but a time-tested recipe is a godsend. Overtime, it has been proven to me that it is always right to plan and at best, it gives you the confidence to get started. Any plan is a help and it gives folks the sense they aren’t aimlessly flailing. However sometimes we might plan for the wrong things and no matter how well the plan is executed, the end result is wrong. Imagine if people never planned for a coming baby. For nine months since conception, they have known that there will be a birth; but they do not plan for the hospital or attending doctor or clothes or house, how chaotic would it be for the new family? 3. Creativity. The plan is an outline—not a law cast in stone. The creation of a plan, implementation, revision and recreation are what constitute creativity. It is the creative lot rather than the copy cats and inflexible, who land in the world’s halls of fame. Blind devotion to any plan is downright dumb!
Quiet Time
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Wangari Kimani
4. Trial and errors. Agreeably, you can watch a master at work and believe that you have learnt. However when you get down to do what you have learnt through observation, you will not just make mistakes; you will make so many both big and small and in business life or real life error is the fuel that drives you. As such don’t “tolerate” mistakes or get embarrassed by them. Embrace them! How many times did Edison go wrong before finally crying out “Eureka” with the new invention of a bulb?
5. The same mistakes. As I grew up I was often told, “It is ok to make mistakes. but don’t make the same mistake twice.” How many times do you make virtually the same errors, in something as relatively simple as baking or making chapatis over and over ... and over. Just remember this, nobody ever did anything remarkable right the first, second, third or fourth time.
6. A sense of humor. For the few people who know me really well, they know I have a very hearty laugh. And I don’t mean hearty simply in terms of voice, but my laugh is simply from the heart. Even when things are a mess or awkward. I would rather laugh all my troubles away than fret over them. The ability to laugh, even at yourself is a great cure and prevention of stress. Go through life with a smile, you’d be surprised how much you achieve. Experimentation, whether in business or personal life, depends on learning to laugh at yourself and you can never achieve the best without experimenting. It is said that learning is precisely about making a fool of yourself and often in public. 7. Persistence. An ability to laugh at yourself and contain your ego is key to success in life, but so is steely-eyed determination. Winners want to do everything well, no matter how trivial; and that takes focus and unrelenting drive. It is also worth keeping at the top of your head that winners don’t quit and quitters don’t win. I love the analogy of the alley cat. It doesn’t have much to live for but when it gets into a fight, it fights like the whole world will be stolen if it doesn’t fight. If it loses, it retracts behind dumpsters and lays in the dark licking its wounds. The next day, it will be up fighting again until the visiting enemy goes away.
8. Perfectionism. To master one’s craft requires nothing less than pain-in-the-butt perfectionism. It doesn’t matter how much mess you create to get to the level of perfection. Just perfect your art or skill. Mediocrity didn’t ever do any man justice. Perfectionism sets you apart from the rest of the flock. Am sure not many people look at painters, artists, sculptors, and cooks like they do engineers as structured thinkers. Chances they been dismissed as jokers in life. However, it is the most perfected cook whose book the engineers wife will spend some money on to get a recipe to please her husband; it is the best artists’ painting that the engineer will buy to hang in his library! Carry it always with you that creativity and perfectionism are essential handmaidens. 9. Ownership. If you don’t own the process, you will not have any passion for the job. You will simply do it to fulfill an obligation. Without passion you will not weather out the rough patches because you will be lacking the very crucial aspect of perseverance. There is no such thing as partial or joint ownership when it comes to doing that which your heart urges you to do. For me, Esteemed was my responsibility even though I needed the team we have to make it a reality and a success. Ultimately, it fell Go through life on my shoulders— squarely. There were no with a smile, backups available and I you’d be had two options - sucsurprised how ceed or succeed.
much you achieve
10. Accountability. Until you’re engaged in all aspects of a job, you don’t fully engage. Accountability has to do with taking ownership of the product, the process and everything else that comes with the job. You can have good results and not have someone or something that is responsible for the results. Accountability has to do with stepping forward and saying: I saw the problem, I took a risk and I fell on my face. Even then I stood up and I have learnt my lesson. Being accountable gives the impression of responsibility, and trustworthiness. 11. Take pleasure . Greatness takes practice and brings exquisite pleasure. When you get at your profession, do an apprentice thing and let someone else take up after you. Why? It gives you opportunity to enjoy the fruit of your toil; it gives you a chance to start another business; your business needs an injection of fresh ideas, a new outlook and you can’t give it that. If we want great products, we need to find, attract, and retain great creators.