They are finding the right Passion, Personality, Problems, People, Product, Platform, Package, Profit, and Posterity.
We can start by asking questions like what is my (1.) PASSION? How do I align my (2) PERSONALITY with my passion (there has to be a consistently)? What is the (3) PROBLEM that my passion can solve? Who are the (4) PEOPLE with that problem? As a business, how best can I sell it? I mean what is the (5) PRODUCT you are selling in alignment to the problem (you’ve got to create product, it’s what you use to exchange for wealth in the market place)
After finding passion, connecting with the right personality that solves a problem for the people with your product, comes other salient questions. You need to ask, how do I find a (6) PLATFORM. May I state here that if no one is ready to give you one, (which is very likely), you have to create one. Please (7) PACKAGE yourself and the other 6 mentioned above (ensure that it is unique, consistent and easy to identify.
Because you are a business, Make (8) PROFIT
Don’t stop at profit, go one step into POSTERITY, ensure it is either built to last or successfully transitioned or transferable.
When an egg is broken from the outside, life ends. But when it is broken from the inside, life begins. Begin the break from the inside of you. This is because the concept of transformation can only begin as an inside. Now let’s go inside out with these discoveries.
PASSION
Magic happens when we find and focus on what we can do effortlessly, and excitedly. It’s called passion, that thing you love to do, even if you were not paid to do it, you’d still love to do it. Building a business around your passion is key. But these days, passion and vision and the role they play is becoming too much of a buzz word. The truth is practically speaking, your disposition to life, your background, routines and culture, what you do daily with your time and your personal habits will determine your destiny more than your passion and vision can. Two major discoveries individuals must first make is passion then vision in that order. This is because passion is the best fuel for vision. Even when we find the vision, we need to walk and trust the process, which may not look linear as we move. As a matter of facts, real vision are not always what they first seem. Even Joseph the dreamer’s vision wasn’t even clear to him in the beginning, he saw a dream but thought it meant to be head of his father’s SME, lol. He just wanted to be head of Jacob’s PLC.
PERSONALITY It’s important to know why you act the way you do. People are different and certain personality is a misfit with certain purpose and vision. For out of the 107 billion people that have died since the existence of humans and the 7 billion people alive, there are only 16 categories of people the world has. This is according to The Myer Briggs Theory. The entire concept is called the Myer Briggs Personality type Test. A few years ago I took it, and realized that I am ENTJ, meaning I am an Extrovert, Intuitive, Thinking and Judging type of person. Find yours! The Myer Briggs Personality Model looks at 4 different parameters (and each parameters you can either be one of the two letters that represents their opposites). It looks at us and the world in relation to how we.
PROBLEMS Problem is the cause of business. That is essentially what people pay you to solve it. For every time you solve a problem you create a chance to grow and succeed. Be a lover of solving problems. In a world filled with problems, the one that succeeds fastest is the one full of solutions. In our world filled with different delusions of intelligence, a successful and intelligent mind is the one who enters with ease and completeness into the spirit of problems and then arrives at an end with a solution by the shortest route possible. Have a habit of being passionate about solving problems. Every time you are upset about a problem, remember that it’s your passion crying to be let out. It starts by sending signals through frustration from what you’re doing that is not it. It holds the key to your happiness and success. Follow it.
PEOPLE
People are key. Whether as customers, employees or partners, people are the channels of blessings. They’d divide your efforts and multiply your results. In building a business and finding that critical factor, everyone think it’s finance, but its finding and managing people. For the lack of the right people, most CEO’s have been reduced to mere supervisors of their staff as against their two main roles, Strategy and Networking for Revenue and Expansion. In other words most CEO and top level executive now major in what is minor. They sweat the petty things and then pet the sweaty things. If you understand leadership and structure, you’d do more smart work than hard work. In other words you’d get more done with less for leadership is the art of getting things done through people. In managing people in an organization, I have noticed that in every organization, there are four kinds of colleagues, employees/people out there. They are usually of these:
- Dumb and lazy (usually loyal yet uninspiring and not ambitious)
- Smart and lazy (usually creative)
- Dumb and ambitious (usually cunning)
- Smart and ambitious (usually high flying).
They are all relevant but needs to be involved most appropriately and in a good mix to succeed. In business, the outward part of people refers to customers. It’s important to not just get but retain them. Don’t be transactional but relational with people. What you should do is create a community for your customers and even deeper in it, a focus group within it. Identify each of these people and treat a bit differently. Create a CRM- Customer Relationship Management system. From it, more frequently and as time goes, sieve and concentrate on those whose purchase, feedback and referral over time yields a revenue stream exceeding, by a considerable margin, the CAQ- customer acquisition cost; that is, the company’s cost stream for attracting, selling, and serving that customer over time. This is also referred to as Customer Life Time Value.
PRODUCT
You’ve got to have a product. That is the container that you put the value and it can be Sl in units for I see a lot of people who come into the market place with value and yet unprepared because they didn’t come with a container. It’s the container that brings the multiplier effect. What is the product for your market? For some people it’s an App, a software, a training, a merchandise, a tangible goods and for creatives is an art delivered in a payable experience through shows.
PLATFORM
Learn to leverage or own a space. Create a podium that elevates you to the access of your market. Everyone who has ever succeeded came through standing on one. For some its media, others it’s a stage, for some it’s their network or sets of influencers they ride on their back. Platform enhances and projects value. Where’s yours?
PACKAGE Brand your product. Don’t put your good product in a bad package. The only thing more important than what you are selling is what the buyer believe he is buying -BE BRANDED”
Put simply, a brand is the difference between a bottle of sugared, flavored carbonated water and a bottle of Coca-Cola, a car and a Benz, a phone and that of an Apple. It is the sum of the functional and intangible, that a consumer attributes to product or service. It is one of the most powerful things to build in life or business. When Procter & Gamble acquired Gillette in early 2005, only $6b of the $57b purchase price was for its tangible assets, the vast majority of the value being in its brands and relationship. On average, 86% of the market value is intangible, which is the real measure of the worth of new ideas, the right market choices and the brands to ensure future success in them. If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything. A unique and alluring identity and consistency is the key here. Keep doing what you do till you don’t have to introduce yourself. Package your product right. To begin this journey is to create a perception. A brand that captures your eyes gains notice. A brand that captures your mind gains attention. A brand that captures your heart gains commitment and only a few do this.
Profit refers to the point where you break even. The break even point is the point where revenue expense. If it’s not for free then make worthy the fee. And take out a portion of that to serve posterity.
In nutshell, when you find your passion, build a personality for solving a problem with it, then you create a product that is sell-able through a platform and through and for the right people, don’t forget to package it right. It’s a matter of time for people would reward you for it as profit. But looking beyond that, make it value for prosperity. I look forward to helping you build that brand using these P’s.
Eizu, ©Hexavia!
Strategy. Business StartUps and Corporate Restructuring Consulting
T: 08035202891
Uwaoma Eizu is the lead strategist at Hexavia! He is a graduate of Mathematics with two MBAs and over a decade of experience working with startups and big businesses. His core is in building startups and in corporate restructuring. He is also a certified member of the Nigerian Institute of Management, Institute of Strategic Management of Nigeria and the Project Management Institute, USA. By the side, he writes weekly for the BusinessDay newspaper.
1 comment
Very insightful. Thanks for sharing.