LET PEACE BE YOUR STRATEGY! by John Obidi

On the 31st of December, 2018, many will converge at various faith-based gatherings to cross over into the New Year.

The regular declarations will be made by religious leaders which will be followed by rousing responses of "AMEEEENNN!!!"

How many people truly get the declarations promised? Not many.

When I was a kid, we were always changing stickers. Each year had a new theme that promised 'Final Victory'. 

It never came.

When I turned 15, I made peace with the fact that things would never get better for my family unless through my own personal efforts. I had to figure out the game of life on my own.

Over time, I've given myself to the study of life and especially the ways of God. There's a lot I don't know, but there's also a lot I've figured out.

PRAYER WORKS, but not in the way many think.

Growing up, we heard testimonies of people who simply prayed and woke up to find their needs met - new car, house, lucrative job, etc., and we lusted after those results with a convoluted understanding of the requirements.

Many have mentioned the factors required for answered prayers - faith, perseverance, determination, etc.

You've left out perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle - PEOPLE.

To understand this, you must understand why humans exist and why we function the way we do.

God made us to function in this dimension, because by His own laws, spirit beings cannot operate in our dimension. As He is bound by His own laws, even He MUST find willing humans before He can get stuff done.

How does this concern you? When you pray for something, or even vaguely desire it, God doesn't snap His fingers and drop it in your lap.

God won't steal from Peter to pay Paul. He created all humans and ensures that there is balance.

What does He do?

He looks into the timeline of your life to find the perfect intersection of people, places and opportunity required to give you what you need.

The most important catalyst is the 'people' factor.

God looks into your life to see which humans can push you closer to your goals. Imagine if after He has found the perfect connection, He finds that you have a beef with that person. E go hard oh.

Here's the interesting, but complicated thing - God is just. By giving us free will, He has made peace with the fact that our chosen expression of freewill, will sometimes be at odds with His agenda, and He is bound by His laws to respect it.

God will not force a person who hates you to love you!

When your file lands on that person's desk and he tears it up because of a memory of what you did to them, thunder will not fire them.

They will live long and full. You're the one who needs the promotion. Your destiny will be delayed until God can now find the one person in the industry you have not pissed off.

The Apostle Paul said, "Pursue peace with all men..."

Jesus himself said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God"

I posted yesterday, "In this business, people don't necessarily favour the competent. They favour who they like."

In this age where sounding 'savage' is glorified above thoughtful introspection, do not be tempted to step on the banana peel of youth.

We young people tend to be pretty hotheaded, but in my village we have a saying, "Eye wey dey cry, dey see road"

This means that even in the flurry of unbridled emotion, you can still work in your best interests.

Talk to mentors who are well into their 50s and above. Many will tell you rich stories about how they had to bury the hatchet with a rival in order to achieve a lofty goal.

These stories aren't told. Instead, it's young people who haven't smelt life that are encouraging you to "not take nonsense".

In 2019, be at peace with everyone. Don't intentionally piss people off.

There is no emotional or financial benefit in promoting the 'Pepper Dem Gang'. Why would you want to knowingly provoke a person into hating you? Are you so clueless about the workings of life?

Many of you reading this are 'upcoming' and so the story I'm about to share will resonate.

There's a bible story about David when he was running away from King Saul who sought to kill him. He had to run away from Israel to a place called Gath in the land of the Philistines.

Note that this was the same Gath whose champion David had killed - GOLIATH! He had run into their hand because he had no choice now.

When the men of Gath recognized David, they reported to their king that THE MIGHTY DAVID was in their land.

Instant wisdom fell upon David and he pretended to be mad.

When the King of the Philistines saw David fooling himself, he said to his men, "Why did you let him in here? Can't you see he has lost his mind?"

And that's how David's life was spared - wisdom. He had just a few men. There was no sense in fighting or provoking a bigger enemy

And so, to you reading this - there is no sense in provoking anyone.

Women, don't lead a man on because of what you think you can get. If you don't want to do, just be honest about it and set respectable boundaries.

Guys, don't tell a woman you love her because of what you think you can gain. If it's not true, don't say it.

We are all very young and that is what makes it dangerous - you never know where anyone will end up.

YOU NEED PEOPLE!

Employees, don't antagonize your boss in the office because your equally clueless colleagues will applaud you.

Thought leaders, don't use your tiny clout to 'sub' people - big or small. The streets are watching.

Be the sort of person that is easy to help - that when God opens the timeline of your life with an intent to bless you, there will be so many (human) options He can choose from.

This way, He can plot the quickest route.

In 2019, let peace be your strategy. You don't need to hang with every crowd, but be cordial.

You don't need to acquiesce to every request, but you can be graceful in your responses.

In 2019, pursue peace with all men, women, children and aliens.

God bless you.

John Obidi,

Founder, Headstart Africa

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Small Businesses you can Start with Little Capital (1)

If you are looking to start a Small Business, but thinking that lack of capital is a hindrance, here are some Small Businesses you can start with very little capital- some require as little as 10k to start up:

Freelancing

A freelancing business is one in which you do little jobs for different people or companies. They can include 'Online freelancing', which covers digital marketing, data entry, consultations and even regular content writing. You can take up projects, work on them and deliver them as per the set timelines. Once you start having a certain amount of clientele, you can outsource it or include more people in your team. Slowly grow your network.

Food business

Going into food business does not necessarily require getting a shop. You do this business from home, and even on mobile basis. The food business is highly profitable and comes with low investment. Therefore you can think of some genuine ideas such as:

• Front yard coffee shop
• Home-based catering or delivery
• Cake Baking
• Breakfast making
• Homemade pickles, spreads, and jams
• Homemade sweets and chocolates

Online learning or tutoring

You can start your own online teaching business. All you have to do is get an affordable tool that will host your entire online learning materials and then start selling. There are a number of companies who provide e-learning software platforms at extremely affordable rates. You can build your entire online training modules and give access to your students as per their requirements.

YouTube Channel Partner

It’s extremely easy to create a channel on YouTube. You simply need to create an account. Once done you can start creating content and upload them at your convenience. Creative videos can help you earn good revenue. Post creative videos with original content and see how you create a good fan following.

Live streaming

Live streaming can become a huge task if you handle it yourself. The minute detailing can easily pull you down. However, if you get a readymade platform that has all the aspects of live streaming and helps you create a live streaming website in no time at all then you must never let go of this opportunity.

Real estate appraiser

This job today has a lot of potentials as the real estate is booming currently. You can become a real estate appraiser and earn good money. Licensed appraisers earn even more. Once your business is quite stable you can expand and get more revenue in.

Blogging

If you are into writing, start a blog. It can be on anything – travel, food, finance – any topic or topics that you like. And then you can start earning money through different affiliation. Don’t forget to add push notification. That way you can keep your readers engaged. Integrate the push notification tools for web and mobile browsers at extremely affordable rates.

E-commerce portal

Start an e-commerce business and start selling products. You can contact sellers and ask them to sell through your portal.

Sell decorative knick-knacks and potteries, homemade paper bags or rug bags online

Bye bye plastic, paper bags will do your work. Plastic is a big environmental. Create your own set of paper bags and rug bags. Using old clothes you can recreate beautiful shopping bags that people would love to carry around. Add beads and bright colors and you can sell them online at nominal rates. People today go out of their ways to decorate their homes. What better way than to supply them with homemade decorative knick knacks and even pottery items. Put your creative skills to good use and come up with beautiful pottery items.

Stock and trading

This is not a new business idea but since the market is rising steadily, it can be the right time. If you have a sharp finance knowledge, know how the market works and have a clear idea of how to handle money matters, this is the ideal startup business for you.

Create Apps

If you have interest and knowledge in making apps and android programming then you can start your own app making online business.

Website themes creation

If you know web development then you can develop different industry-specific website themes and sell them online.

SEO consultant

Become a Search Engine Optimizer and provide your expertise to different companies online.

Viral video making

If you know motion graphics or video making, you can take contracts of creating viral videos for other companies.

Digital marketing consultant

Digital marketing is a huge umbrella which comes SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing and so on. You can offer digital marketing services to different companies online.

More Small Business Ideas:

• Tailoring
• Barbing
• Shoe Making
• Soap Making
• Carpentry
• Computer Services
• Trading of different sorts
• Hair Dressing
• Makeups
• Lithography
• Graphics Design
• Plumbing
• Upholstery
• Bead Crafts
• Baking
• House Painting
• Cobbling
• Mobile Food Service
• Nursery
• Delivery Service etc.

There are innumerable ideas that you will get when it comes to starting your own business. However, you need to know which one is best for you, your mental temperament and your budget. You must feel passionate about the idea. Follow your gut feeling, trust your instincts, and do some good homework before you start.

Ref: readwrite

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How you can Make Money from Instagram if you Love Reading

If you are among those people who don't know what to do with their Instagram account, you should read this to the end please. 

So, on Sunday after church service, a friend of mine came to me to seek for my advice on starting an online business. 

He told me about his love for books if there is anyway to monetize it. I laugh and quickly told him yes he can monetize it by growing a huge following of people like him that love reading the kind of books he reads. 

'You can start an Instagram account right now around the subject of books that you read and see how people will camp around you', I told him. 

You can build an Instagram account, start by talking about the book you are reading, what you have learned, why you enjoy the book, the page that you are, etc. 

Every page you read, share a summary on it. With targeted highly engaging hashtags in your niche, there is no way you won't attract your kind of audience. 

I continued explaining many things to him. I even told him that a good way to monetize his kind of interest is through affiliate marketing because this is what I have seen many people do even with blogging. 

If there is a book you are reading and people are showing interest, your own is to go on Amazon, sign up as an affiliate (it is free), look for the book, get the affiliate link and drop it on your IG bio. 

So, as you continue sharing insights from the book, you keep telling your followers that they can get the book from your bio. 

I also told him that one way to really boost engagement is to start something like a "30 days series or challenge" where him and his followers will be sharing insights from a particular book. 

I spoke with this guy for like 35 minutes and the only thing that left him mouth was that he is looking for a fast fast way not this one I am talking. 

I took a pause, looked at him and was speechless for some minutes as I listen to him telling me how difficult it will be for him to be posting everyday and it will take him ages to be able to build a huge following. 

After he has finished speaking, I just told him I had to go that I was already hungry. He thanked me for my time and left. 

I was just down emotionally. This guy just flushed a 6 figure business idea down the toilet.

Do you know I have written an article on this topic for a client before? I have written an article for a client in the past on how to make money as a book reader. 

I consulted many sites before I could gather something tangible to write and send to the client. And by doing that, I had to study many materials and get to know that people can actually make money just by reading books. 

If he has shown interest, I would have also told him that he can make money by writing book reviews on books 📚 he has read. 

After his followers must have read the review, they will want to go get the book if they like the review, and by that, he will be making good commission from his affiliate link. 

Aside that, book authors will be messaging him to write a review about their book for a fee. I mean he will be getting paid by authors for him to review their books. 

This may not happen immediately, but with patience, consistency and faith, it will surely happen. 

Anyways, he will still go back to what he was doing and keep getting the same result. Most people are just in the look out for a get rich quick scheme, and unfortunately, I don't teach that. 

Credits: Okon Joseph

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Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses

Great minds have argued and won their arguments in recent times- they have countered the definition of ‘Entrepreneurship’ given to us within the four walls of our Alma mater. Entrepreneurship is a word that has many definitions because different experts have different opinions on it. Some say that entrepreneurship is a business undertaking in which individuals work for themselves. This has however been disputed by great minds because they say that an individual can’t work independently. This is because business requires innovation and leadership.

There is one common underlying factor in all the definitions of entrepreneurship. That is, it involves taking an idea, developing a business around it and managing the business around it while assuming its risk. Entrepreneurship involves risk-taking innovations.

Looking at a small business on the other hand, it is not so different from entrepreneurship. Experts define it as a business that is owned or controlled by one person or a few individuals. The decision-making process is also directly influenced by the owner and its shares in the market are relatively small. It also has few employees mostly less than 50.

What is Entrepreneurship?

“Entrepreneurship is the process in which an individual recognizes a business opportunity and creates a business from it. It is the willingness and capacity of an individual to develop and manage a business venture with the risks to make a profit in the long run.”

Any individual who is willing to undertake such risks is known as an Entrepreneur. However, entrepreneurship is scary because there is no guarantee that the business will succeed. Most of the entrepreneurs are however risk takers and are passionate about their cause. Furthermore, they comprehend that the bigger the risk, the bigger the return.

Types of Entrepreneurs

Home based business owners

These are entrepreneurs who run their businesses from their homes. Others may opt for offices or other locations, but home-based entrepreneurs work from home. Statistics show some of the major enterprises were once home based business.

Online business owners

These are entrepreneurs who conduct their businesses online. They are internet based, and they could be small businesses or large corporations. Examples of companies that get their primary income from online activities include Jumia and Paystack.

Serial entrepreneurs

Serial entrepreneurs have several businesses at once. They, therefore, end up having several sources of income.

What is a Small Business?

As seen above, a small business is a business whose control and ownership belong to one individual or few people. The capital contribution is therefore from these few individuals who often control the decision-making process. In addition to this, small businesses have few employees.

In describing a small business, certain factors must be considered, and these factors are universal: 

• The number of their employees is low;
• Their sales volume is relatively low;
• They have weak financial strength;
• They are relatively small in size;
• Their initial capital outlay is low;
• They have a small market share;
• They have a small management body.
• Difference Between Small Business and Entrepreneurship

We can discuss the details by looking at the following:

Behaviourial Patterns

Entrepreneurs and small business owners are both self-employed, but their behaviours are different. Entrepreneurs often want to change and develop things. They are happy in creating energy as opposed to being comfortable with their current situation. Small business owners, on the other hand, are content as long as they are successful. They will rarely try to do more.

Innovations

Entrepreneurs are known to invent and develop things. Their minds are technical as opposed to small business owners who often do what entrepreneurs are doing already. Whereas entrepreneurs are proactive, small business owners are reactive.

Motivation

Most entrepreneurs will start up a business because they are passionate about it. They will do what they love without thinking about the risks or even profits in the case that the business is successful. On the other hand, small businesses set up their businesses with the main motive of earning profits. That is why when the risks become too much, they will shut down the business to avoid losses.

Market Share

Entrepreneurs often have the vision of helping the world. Therefore, their businesses will have an impact on many people. For instance, Facebook is serving almost everybody in the world. They, therefore, have a significant market share. For small business owners, they have a small market share because they serve people around them. They put their communities first and their needs. This brings about a gap in the market shares of entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Mindsets

Entrepreneurs and small business owners have different mindsets. While entrepreneurs will look for the next big venture when their companies are good, small business owners will retain their business. They are sentimental, and they believe that their business is for their community.

In Summary,

Both small business owners and entrepreneurs are self-employed, and they have much more in common. 

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THE FIVE THINGS THAT YOU NEED TO TAKE YOUR BRAND INTERNATIONAL IN 2019

John Obidi, a Media Strategist, has identified five key things that you need in order to take your brand global in 2019. And as one who desires success, you have to take action now! These things are:

1. Website;

2. Profile;

3. Podcast;

4. Book;

5. Product.

You can see these in the image below. Looking at them one at a time we understand that:

i. A Website will first give your brand an online presence. This means that people can engage with your brand from anywhere they're located around the world. So, whatever it is that you do, you need to get yourself online. And it's affordable. You don't have to Neckbreaking Website for an online presence. You can get a Small Business Website to tell the world what you do and how to reach and do business with you. To get a Cheap and Affordable Small Business Website, leave a comment below.

ii. A Profile goes beyond what you have on your Facebook Wall. You need a professional profile that will easily tell people about you and what you do. Your profile presents people with information about the job you've done and the things you can do, all at a glance. You can create a page on your Small Business Website that carries your complete profile- this kind of page is usually called an ‘About Me Page’.

iii. A Podcast is an audio recording which is usually intended to add value to those who listen to it. You can create a Podcast and upload it on internet platforms like SoundCloud and iTunes. You can learn more about Podcasting on the internet.

iv. A Book seems to be the new normal when it comes to sharing your contact. People who meet or read about you will want to know about you. Handing them you own book will speak more volume than a mere complimentary card. If you haven't written a book, it's high time you started.

v. A Product you created will page way for you in 2019. People want to do business with you, but you start packaging your skill into a product now in order not to fall out as we move into next year.

Go all out now an take the needed action!!!

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