SECRETS TO CREATING BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS

What do Arianna Huffington, Jay-Z and the founders of Twitter all have in common?

They changed the face of American culture forever.
They have enabled us to "see ourselves, or something in the world, differently," explains author Grant McCracken. In his book  "Culturematic," McCracken discusses how these and other innovators came up with revolutionary concepts that helped shape the way we see the world today.
McCracken describes "culturematic" as "a little machine for making culture. It's an ingenuity engine." The cultural innovators practicing this art form all get one key thing right: They challenged the traditional order in which our world is run. "They speak to us because they go against the grain of expectation," McCracken shares.  See  the most valuable secrets from their successes after the cut.

32 WAYS TO USE FACEBOOK FOR YOUR NIGERIA BUSINESS

For most the most part, Nigeria business owners thinks Facebook is  just for keeping tabs on friends and filling out quizzes. others open a facebook business page simply because they hear its the best way to market a brand. “Yes” it can be used as a highly effective business tool only if you know what to do. It’s great for marketing your products, landing gigs and connecting with your customers. Here are 32 ways to use Facebook in your Nigerian business.

DEAR NIGERIAN BUSINESS OWNER

Dear Nigerian Business Owner ,

Today I want to share with you one of the key ingredients for your Entrepreneurial success. It's Free and you can do it right now but I can guarantee that virtually none of your competitors are doing it.

What is it? It's thinking outside the box. It's taking a step back from your business and looking at your marketing in a totally new way.

Let me explain. Most businesses are trapped in a prison. It's the prison that says they have to market in the same way that everyone else in their profession markets. So all the plumbers advertise in the yellow pages, all the hairdressers advertise in the local paper, all the double glazing companies use telemarketing, promoters, Fliers etc.

THE DRAGONS DEN! LESSONS LEARNED

Here is the truth about entrepreneur success, everybody has an idea. But real entrepreneurs understands that there is hope and that there is opportunity for anyone with an idea. 

The classic entrepreneurial opportunities is when someone with an idea or invention has built it to some level and they need help moving it to the next level. This is what gets the brain working and thinking how do I do the right pitch, how do i successfully ask for the money, what makes it a great business.   MORE AFTER THE CUT

CREATIVE BENEFITS FOR SMALL EMPLOYERS

HOW DO SMALL EMPLOYERS COMPETE WITH COMPANIES LIKE GOOGLE?

Fortune’s recent “Best Companies to Work For” issue could make small employers feel they should just give up trying to attract and retain the best employees. Instead, employers need to be creative in identifying things that give them an edge in their own geographic market area.

Small employers do have an edge to build from. A recent poll of college graduates by Quick Connect showed that savvy students and recent graduates are more interested in smaller companies that will “invest in them and provide growth opportunities”. Small companies are clearly more appealing; with only 3 out of 10 of those participating in the poll saying they would prefer to work for a large company.

A NEW BREED OF ENTEPRENURES AND THE NEW FACE OF BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

Quick Connect Nigeria aka QCN is a pioneer in the provision of corporate discounts, benefits and incentives. Over 500,000 merchants are enrolled in over 12,000 cities and 106 countries and counting. They design proactive business strategies that help businesses retain, attract and engage customers and employees in order to increase their overall corporate bottom-line. 

The GameChanger Network: ANOTHER QCN BREAKTHROUGH FOR AFRICA BUSINESSES

The GameChanger Network: ANOTHER QCN BREAKTHROUGH FOR AFRICA BUSINESSES: Sustainable community and people development begins with the locals. The best fine dining or fast foods anywhere that tend to do well d...

ANOTHER QCN BREAKTHROUGH FOR AFRICA BUSINESSES

Sustainable community and people development begins with the locals. The best fine dining or fast foods anywhere that tend to do well do so because they meet the needs of the community. But, community residents act responsibly and reciprocate the gesture when they are part of the creative process, especially when their rewards are tied to performance and support for the projects.  

I'm very happy bring you this latest business strategy because I know that a whole lot of businesses I have meet during my work here in Nigeria and in most part of the world are just doing it wrong; plain and simple! I have spent a lot of time and money researching what works from what doesn’t.  I’m more inclined to write about this new trend in marketing as a result of my understanding of your target market, the economy and your need to satisfy your corporate social responsibility. But above all are the immediate needs of your customers new or old.    

MAKE GOOD MONEY DECISIONS FASTER

How do you know the difference between "roughly right" and "not at all right"? And just how much time can elapse before "fast and roughly right" becomes "precise and slow?" Hours? Days? Months?

A simple, flexible Know-Think-Do framework can enable leaders and their teams to immediately start making these fast and roughly right decisions. To paraphrase Einstein, this framework is "as simple as possible, but not simpler." 

STREET SMART ACADEMY ...NOW OPEN

“The absence of vision and innovation breeds fear, shrinks income and fans anxiety” 
Victor Osazuwa  

The ensuing information is for that “Nigerian “who wants to beat the odds. So if you want to remain where you are don’t read further. Only 2% Nigerian Directors and Managers will get a proposal and read it to the end. Only 1% will see the need for it.  This explains why only 1% of our over 150 million population will make it big.

There you go, you have it all spelled out for you in black and white. You may decide to dump of the email just as you can decide to become the Next big Deal in town.   Just remember whichever way you decide to go…there will always be room to fit.

What you are about to read is part of the intro of the “Project What Next” series,  a course offered by Street Smart Academy, a division of Quick Connect. It is designed to provide sustainable and proactive solutions for both the accomplished and unaccomplished Nigerian.

EMAIL MARKETING.. A MUST READ

Email marketing is a set of practices aimed at exploiting email messages so as to promote or sell a product or service. Every web marketing manual praises the email as an invaluable economic, practical, measurable and profitable business tool.  And it's exactly so. Thanks to the email it’s now possible to carry out advertising campaigns at a really low cost but still benefiting from a considerably high return on investment. This is also because it is now so wide spread, demographically and geographically, it is very flexible, and is very easy to create and use. But how many companies are truly aware of these qualities, and exploit them to fullest?

On average a user from Nigeria receives about 33 emails a day. Obviously, in the case of a manager or a person in the communication sector - these numbers increase exponentially.

INSPIRATION BY STEVE JOBS AND PICASSO

What is inspiration? Steve Jobs and Picasso provide some insights

 So, what is inspiration and how can you tap into it when you need to become inspired?

In today’s post, I’m going to share one of the ideas used by Pablo Picasso and Steve Jobs, when they were looking for creative inspiration. I’m also going to share a couple of tips of my own, but first, let’s take a brief look at the definition of inspiration.

Inspiration defined

The Oxford Dictionary defines inspiration as: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

Commonly we think of people being randomly struck by a flash of inspiration, so we see inspiration as a feeling that occurs almost by accident. However, as the start of that dictionary definition states, inspiration is a process. We become mentally stimulated (inspired) to do something. The key here, is to learn how to create that inspired state when we need to.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WORRY

7 things you need to know about worry, including a more helpful alternative.Stop Worrying

1. Worrying doesn’t make things better.
2. Worrying is a hideous waste of your time. Time is your most valuable resource.
3. Worrying is infectious to those who love you. Your family and friends will start to worry about you, when they sense you’re worried about something.
4. Worrying is infectious to your clients and customers. You can usually tell very quickly, when a business owner is worried about business. It’s common for people to pull their accounts from vendors, who they believe may be about to go broke.
5. The vast majority of things we worry about, either never happen or when they do happen, were nothing to worry about.
6. Worrying causes you to feel worse (and worse and worse.) It can also make you ill.
7. Worrying is the lowest possible use of your amazing imagination. Use your mind to build images of what you want and the things you are grateful for. Don’t use your mind as a movie theater, which plays the worst case scenarios of whatever you’re worrying about, over and over again.

You get to determine what you think about. You choose what you focus on. If you want one less thing to worry about, stop worrying. 

NOW CONSIDER THIS WONDERFUL INSPIRATION BY STEVE JOBS AND PICASSO

YOUR WEBSITE FIVE YEARS FROM NOW

Five years from now, your website won’t look like a website. It will look like a TV channel.

Video is taking over the Internet and your website will eventually morph into a multi media channel that people will access from a variety of devices.

Even today, when video is successfully added to a page, it’s common to see sales increase anywhere from 50% to 250%.

So……Why wait?

Every day that goes by where you’re not using Internet Video effectively is losing you money. Lots of money. I see many business owners daunted and confused by the idea of online video. They don’t know where to start.

The good news is, you don’t even have to like the idea of being on video to make this work. But you do need to be willing to use the power of online video to increase your sales.

At Better Business Network, we’ll cover how to do online video properly – and if you’re already doing it, I’ll show you the results of our most recent 2013 tests and the big online video mistakes that you need to avoid.

If you haven’t reserved your place yet,  YOU CAN REGISTER HERE – it is free!!

BETTER BUSINESS NETWORK OR NOTHING ELSE...29TH MAY

Did you know that Facebook has:

1.06 Billion users
150 Billion "friend connections"
2.7 Billion "likes" a day
1.13 Trillion "likes" since the site first went live.

150 Billion is a lot of connections.

... imagine you had a penny for every "friend connection" on Facebook and you stacked them one on top of the other.

How high do you think that stack would go?

Well... a British penny is around 1.52mm thick.

So stack 150 Billion of them and you'd have to crane your neck back a long way to see the top, some 228,000 Kilometres away (which isn't far off 2/3 of the way to the moon, or more than 5 times around the Earth, whichever you prefer).

Why does this matter?

Well... if you do it right, Facebook - particularly advertising on Facebook, can be incredibly powerful, because you can leverage the power of those "friend connections" and put them to work to grow your business.

DEFINING LEADERSHIP WITH A QUOTE FROM DR MYLES MONROE

Defining Leadership

Quote about leadership from Dr. Myles Monroe:

“Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration motivated by passion, generated by vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by a purpose.”

Influence
Leadership is about influencing a group or team of people. It is not about power and coercion, although you may influence others to move in a direction that is contrary to their own actions. Influence is creating the want and desire in others to do what you want and desire them to do.
Passion
Passion is contagious and a leader is most effective when he or she is passionate about the team, organization, and the work thereof. Passion is a characteristic that cannot be faked. It has to genuine and portrayed.

THE WORLDS GREATEST MARKETING MACHINE NOW IN NIAJA..AMEN

THE WORLDS GREATEST IS NOW IN NIAJA... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE. 

56 BILLION REASONS WHY YOU NEED THE TWO-SECOND ADVANTAGE

inShare178 The story goes that a motor bike roars up to a red traffic light in La Coruna in Northern Spain. It stops alongside a black town car. From inside, the passenger glances out and sees the young biker leaning over the handlebars. His jean jacket has appliqued patches… a throwback to the 1970s. The old man grabs his phone and calls an aide in the office. Without taking his eyes off the jacket, he describes the jacket’s stitching, its shape and color. He finished the call with a single instruction – ¡Hácedla!“ – Make it.


40 years ago, Amancio Ortega founded Zara on two key principles: give the customers what they want and give it to them faster than anyone else. As the story illustrates even today, those two key principles are at the heart of Zara, the world’s biggest fashion retailer.

Zara stores refresh their stock twice a week and receive orders in 48 hours or less. That has required some key organizational and supply chain decisions. “We never go to fashion shows,” says Loreta Garcia, a 23-year Zara veteran who heads up Zara Woman’s trends department. “We track bloggers and listen to customers, but we change our opinions all the time,” she says. “What seems great today, in two weeks is the worst idea ever.”

COULD A NEW 'COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS' LEAD THE DEVELOPING WORLD?

By Steve Clemons

inShFormally led by the Queen of England, this collection of former British colonies could reconvene into something new and powerful.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani hold a joint news conference at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth / Reuters

India, once considered the jewel in the crown of the British empire, is a member of the fossilized skeletal remains left behind, the Commonwealth of Nations -- but is also a member of the BRICS, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the G-20, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the East Asia Summit, IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa), the NAM (or Non-Aligned Movement), the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization.

AFRICA'S AMAZING RISE AND WHAT IT CAN TEACH THE WORLD

By G. Pascal Zachary

  Ten years into the continent's quiet revolution, lessons for the developing world

A construction worker walks on scaffolding on a tunnel project under construction near the Kenyan capital, Nairobi / Reuters

The poverty mafia once controlled the development debate in Africa. No longer.

The old approach was about how to prevent Africa from getting poorer. All development goals were essentially negative, as experts wallowed in risk-aversion and promoted various doomsday scenarios of an Africa with a rapidly growing population.

4 TIPS ON HOW TO SPOT A LEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY

Here are 4 tips, to help you identify legitimate opportunities and avoid the fake ones. Legitimate opportunities seldom look like certainties. There is always a risk attached. If it looks too good to be true, that’s because it is! The bigger the opportunity, the bigger the risk will seem. Warren Buffett wins big, however, he…

Here are 4 tips, to help you identify legitimate opportunities and avoid the fake ones.

HOW TO TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL AND AVOID THE AVERAGE TRAP

If your business is not providing you with the lifestyle or financial rewards you deserve, you will find today’s post extremely useful. In fact, I wrote it just for you.
Here’s the thing:

• When a business fails spectacularly, you know about it.
• When a business becomes a success, you know about it. 
• However, when a business lands somewhere in between those two, it’s easy to get stuck in The Average Trap, without even knowing.

HOW TO MEET YOUR 2013 MARKETING RESOLUTION (2)

A flat line is better than a declining one, but every business owner wants to see their growth going UP. And maybe for 2013, you’ve vowed that you will do something to make sure that you will see growth throughout the year. Now you need a plan. Here it is:

1. Check Your Sign Up Forms

The first thing you should do (yes, in January) is work on your online signup process. Most email marketing service providers will show you how your sign up form is performing. It might look something like this:

The No-Nonsense Guide to Successful Business Networking

Forget platitudes and theory. Here's the only advice you'll ever need to make business networking pay off.

If effective business networking is so important, why do so few people see any benefits? The problem starts with expectations.

6 WAYS TO ENHANCE YOUR CREDIBILITY

You won't succeed in business if nobody believes in you. Here's how to make certain they do.

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Your success in business is directly proportional to how quickly (and how well) you can establish credibility with your customers, investors, and colleagues.

1. Be genuine about who you really are.