Let's Talk Entrepreneurship

15/02/2023

Many people are turning to the internet to look for opportunities. Some have built successful internet based businesses or side-hustles that add to their regular income. Here are five (5) online businesses/side-hustles that you can consider.

1. DROP-SHIPPING/SERVICING: This is a business model where one does not need to stock products they are interested in selling. What I am saying is you do not need capital to source the products from suppliers/wholesalers. Just identify and arrange with a reliable seller of the products and start promoting. Price the products above what the owner is charging. Anytime you have an order, give order details to seller and it will be delivered to the buyer and the extra price goes to you. Simple! The business model is called DROP-SERVICING where you deal in services and not physical products.

2. AFFILIATE MARKETING: Simply, affiliate marketing is where you promote the products or services of other companies and earn a commission for doing so. When you register with an affiliate program, you are given a unique code/link which will be used by the people you recommend the products or services to. When they buy using that link, you earn a specified commission.

3. MONITIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA: You have no idea the amount of money people earn on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok etc. By creating content and gaining a following over time, many money making opportunities become available. Apart from these platforms paying you for creating content for their users, you can also become an influencer to other businesses outside these platforms because you have a following.

4. CREATING DIGITAL PRODUCTS: Digital products include EBooks, Online video courses, Podcasts, Coaching sessions etc. You can create these products by leveraging on your knowledge, experience, skills, interests, passion etc. If you are on retirement, this is the best you can do to share your years of experience with the whole world and also earn income.

5. FREELANCING: Online freelancing websites are platforms where people with jobs are matched with people who have the skills to do them. With freelancing, you are not an employee of any one person/company so you can take jobs from multiple companies provided you can handle them at the specified times. You can find freelancing jobs on Freelancer.com, Upwork, Fiverr, Guru, etc.

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06/02/2023

"As long as you are going to be thinking anyway, think big." Donald Trump

05/02/2023

Start-up stories of giant brands
Episode 4

THE START-UP STORY OF ZOOM

Many of us became familiar with Zoom, the video-communications provider only during the peak of Covid 19 when movement was restricted. It has however been in existence since 2012.
Read below the start-up story of Zoom.

Eric Yuan, the founder of Zoom migrated to the US from China after struggling with Visa issues for long. Once in the US, he worked with Silicon Valley companies such as WebEx and Cisco in the telecommunications industry for many years.

According to Yuan during an interview, Zoom was inspired by his desire to communicate face to face with his long distance girlfriend while in school. He needed to travel a 10hr journey to see her in real time. He continued to nurse this dream and at a point pitched it to his colleagues at Cisco but they did not buy into the idea.

In 2011, Eric Yuan left Cisco to start his dream, a dream he referred to as a DAYDREAM/long awaited dream. People thought the video-telecommunications industry was saturated but he never gave up. The company started with the name Saasbee Inc. and was later changed to Zoom Video Communications, Inc. in 2012. Zoom had a steady growth until the outbreak of Covid 19 when its popularity and user base boomed globally. Today, Zoom is used by millions of individuals and thousands of businesses worldwide. As at January 2023, its market capitalization stood at about $22 billion.

Take away from Zoom's start-up story

1. He conceived an idea to solve a challenge he had: long distance travels.
2. Prior experience in the field: Eric Yuan was already working in the telecommunications field as a software engineer. Experience from your current job can launch you into a profitable venture.
3. Don't fear competition: Cisco Webex, Skype, etc were there before Zoom. I often meet people who tell me, "Oh someone is already selling this and that in my area". You can start the same business and overtake them through healthy competition strategies.

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05/02/2023

"If you hear a voice saying 'you are not a painter' then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced."-Vincent Van Gogh

04/02/2023

“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles F. Kettering

02/02/2023

True talk, man!

31/01/2023

Startup stories of giant brands
Episode 3

STARTUP STORY OF FACEBOOK

It was in 2004! A Somophore (2nd year student of a US College) at Harvard University called Mark Zuckerberg, a computer science student who was clever in coding developed a website and named it Facebook where his school mates could connect socially. Note that Mark had earlier on in his first year at Harvard tried developing programs including a website called faceMash where students rated the beauty of two selected female students based on votes. This initiative, though popular did not last. It however made Mark Zuckerberg a campus celebrity. I am sure this first initiative gave him credibility for Facebook's acceptance on campus.

On February 4, 2004, the day of the launch of Facebook, Zuckerberg and his roommates almost kept vigil as they watched their fellow student's gradually signed up unto the platform. In 24 hours, about 1,500 people (students) were registered on it. Soon, Facebook grew beyond the walls of Harvard University to other schools in the states. By the end of the first year, Facebook had about a million users. That was when an investor called Peter Thiel invested $500,000 dollars into the startup. Mark Zuckerberg left Harvard to run his business! You can call it dropout 🤔. For me, it was an honorable dropout from college😀😀.

Facebook grew from strength to strength, acquiring Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for a whopping $19 billion to cushion its dominance in the social media space. The rest as they say is history and today Facebook has close to 3 billion monthly active users. Last year, Facebook changed its parent company's name to Meta. It's founder and owner, Mark Zuckerberg is ranked among the world's richest people.

Take always
1. Zuckerberg was already skilled in coding before enrolling in college. l can say he had a talent, gift, skill which are the "go to" for business ideas.
2. I think he was a sociable person and liked connecting with other people.
3. He dropped out of college because it was worth it. It's not always about school and college certificates. You can build a successful business with or without a college degree.

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31/01/2023

Charity, they say begins at home! I forgot about this popular saying but honestly I haven't gone far so I am coming home 😀. Today, I present to you the startup story of this compound house we are all living in, FACEBOOK.
Startup stories of giant brands
Episode 3

STARTUP STORY OF FACEBOOK

It was in 2004! A Somophore (2nd year student of a US College) at Harvard University called Mark Zuckerberg, a computer science student who was clever in coding developed a website and named it Facebook where his school mates could connect socially. Note that Mark had earlier on in his first year at Harvard tried developing programs including a website called faceMash where students rated the beauty of two selected female students based on votes. This initiative, though popular did not last. It however made Mark Zukerberg a campus celebrity. I am sure this first initiative gave him credibility for Facebook's acceptance on campus.

On February 4, 2004, the day of the launch of Facebook, Zuckerberg and his roommates almost kept vigil as they watched their fellow student's gradually signed up unto the platform. In 24 hours, about 1,500 people (students) were registered on it. Soon, Facebook grew beyond the walls of Harvard University to other schools in the states. By the end of the first year, Facebook had about a million users. That was when an investor called Peter Thiel invested $500,000 dollars into the startup. Mark Zukerberg left Harvard to run his business! You can call it dropout 🤔. For me, it was an honorable dropout.😀😀.

Facebook grew from strength to strength, acquiring Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for a whopping $19 billion to cushion its dominance in the social media space. The rest as they say is history and today Facebook has close to 3 billion monthly active users. Last year, Facebook changed its parent company's name to Meta. It's founder and owner is ranked among the world's richest people.

Take always
1. Zuckerberg was already skilled at coding before enrolling in college. l can say he had a talent, gift, skill which are the "go to" for business ideas.
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28/01/2023

Start-up stories of giant brands
Episode 2

START-UP STORY OF AIRBNB

Hotel and guest house operators in the hospitality industry are facing fierce competition from Airbnb, a company that operates an online marketplace for short term stays in private homes/apartments. It is a multi-billion dollar company with about 6 billion listings in more than 100,000 cities worldwide as at the end of 2022, boasting of millions of tourists and guests visiting the site.
Let’s look at the humble start-up story of this tech giant.

In 2007, two roommates, Brian Chesky and Joe Geggia who relocated from New York to San Francisco soon found themselves struggling to pay their rent. There were unemployed at that moment. An upcoming conference was to take place in the city. They reasoned that traditional hotels were a bit expensive and considering the huge number of people attending the conference, some attendees may not find places to stay. They decided to rent the floor of their apartment to guests that were coming to the city for the conference. They settled on air mattresses and breakfast as the package for guests. Hence, the name Airbnb which stands for air-bed (mattresses) and breakfast. Their website was launched and they bought three air-mattresses and had their first three clients, two men and a woman. In 2008 Nathan Blecharczyk joined as co-founder. The name was later shortened to simply Airbnb.
Many people did not believe the start-up was going to work and so the founders struggled with funding. They sold cereals to raise $30,000 for the business and later won another $20,000 from Y combinator, an initiative by candidates Obama and McCain during the 2008 US elections. This funding which came with training cushioned the business and soon, the start-up grew exponentially and the rest is history.

Take-always from this start-up story:

1. The founders had a problem: no money to pay rent so they were always thinking of a way out.
2. An upcoming conference presented an opportunity. Their entrepreneurial lenses were on. That is why I always say, if you want to be an entrepreneur, you need to develop entrepreneurial eyes.
3. They did not give up when the business was struggling financially. They worked other jobs to finance their dream.
4. People discouraged them but they believed in the idea and themselves.

26/01/2023

Start-up stories of giant brands
Episode 1
THE START-UP STORY OF UBER
The popular ride hailing service provider, Uber has revolutionized the public transport sector. It was the pioneer of online ride hailing service providers. But how did Uber as a business start?

One snowy evening in the city of Paris in 2009, two friends who were also co-founders of start-ups they had sold, Travis Kalanick and Garret Camp got stranded. They could not find a taxi. They had attended an annual tech conference in Paris. They began to reason together “what if there exist a way where one would just request for a ride from your current location and have a car pull up for you”. How wonderful would that be!

Back in San Francisco, Camp continued to nurse the idea and finally convinced Kalanick to join. Thus, the conception of those thoughts at that moment when the two friends could not easily find a taxi gave birth to Ubercab. Other friends came on board and the prototype for Ubercab was built. In February 2010, the first employee, Graves was employed as general manager and later CEO following the launch. Kalanick, the co-founder later became CEO and the team continued working on the start-up. The mobile App itself was publicly launched in 2011 in San Francisco. Initially, only black luxury cars were used. Following complaints from taxi drivers in San Francisco, Ubercab became Uber. The company expanded to other parts of the globe and today Uber is a household name in most parts of the world. It has diversified into food delivery, grocery delivery and freight businesses. Undoubtedly, Uber as a business went through stages of growth and today, the business is a multi-billion dollar one.
Do not easily discard ideas that come to mind when you encounter problems. An "Uber" may be cooking in your pot. Like and follow the page ‘Let’s Talk Entrepreneurship with Alice’ for more.

14/01/2023

There are many characteristics that define who an ENTREPRENEUR is but the outstanding one is the ability to take RISKS.
Without it, you would procrastinate forever. The other characteristics or traits are stated in the comments section:

13/01/2023

2023 is here!
Put on your ENTREPRENEURIAL LENS and let's go!
Follow this page for tips on small business and entrepreneurship development.

13/01/2023

Every product or service in the market today was created to solve a problem that existed.
What problems, challenges or struggles do you see people in your community or any other environment you know of go through each day?
Providing solutions, in other words creating a product or service for each of those problems is what ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS ALL ABOUT.

Follow this page for tips on small business and entrepreneurship development.

13/01/2023

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
This year, put on your ENTREPRENEURIAL LENS and let's go!

21/05/2022

Getting a side-hustle /side-business to supplement your income in these hard economic times has become a necessity. In this video, I share five(5) side-hustl...

23/04/2022

Research shows that companies that take the time to write plans for their businesses grow faster as compared to those with no business plans. It is never too...

17/03/2022

Raising funds to either start or scale up a business is one of the top challenges for upcoming entrepreneurs. In this video I share five(5) ways of raising f...

22/02/2022