Maintaining a Work-Life Balance

When you are starting a side business or new company, it is easy to let the new venture soak up every waking hour. In our hearts we know failure is not an option. Our income is dependent on the success of the business. Our family is depending on us. Our friends are cheering us on and it would be disappointing and embarrassing to fail.

Importance of Work-Life Balance

You cannot let your business consume you completely. Focusing on your company 100% of every waking hour will ruin your life, your relationships and your ability to sleep.

This is especially true for married entrepreneurs. While your family is likely depending on your success, they also need to be able to spend quality time with you. If your relationship gets to the point that it feels more like room-mates and less like a married couple, you are in trouble. The worst position for an entrepreneur to be in is things are tough at the office and there is a lack of support at home because the spouse feels unappreciated. Your home should be a place of safety and support so you can go out and work it even harder the next day. There must be a point where you put the smart-phone down, spend some time together as a couple, re-focus, and re-energize for tomorrow.

How to Maintain Work-Life Balance

Here are two tips every entrepreneur should aim to integrate into their schedules.

Schedule Hours Off

Most entrepreneurs do something with their business on a daily basis. Weekdays, weekends, holidays, birthdays, you name it… you are likely to be at least taking a call or answering an email.

That’s fine and necessary for your company to grow as you need it to.

But you have to schedule some quiet alone time with yourself and your family. Even if you can’t have a set period of time every day, try to set aside an hour or two every few days at the same time. It could be as simple as when you come home, you turn your phone off from 5:30 to 7:00pm. The calls and emails can wait while you focus on your family, and you pick up the pace after a quiet dinner.

Schedule Days Off

After you have integrated a set period of hours off for most days, set up your schedule to take a set day off every few weeks. You could take every other Saturday to kick back and relax.

The Key to Work-Life Balance: Start at the Beginning

If your schedule is ingrained into your life to the point that you have habits, it is much more difficult to succeed in transitioning with having work-life balance. Change is difficult and habits are hard to break.

To counteract this, build your work-life balance into your schedule before you start your next venture. To the budding entrepreneur it seems backwards to be taking time off when you’ve got the energy, drive and interest to keep pushing through on a business issue. But will you have the energy next month? Next quarter? Next year? Don’t trade next year’s energy to push through difficult times for today’s small issues.

Selecting Insurance Plans Using Needs Analysis

Knowing how much insurance you will need as a small business owner can be a challenging endeavor. Nevertheless, having the appropriate insurance policy can save a small business a lot of money.

Needs analysis can give you a better idea of what kind and how much insurance would be the optimum for your business. Of course, buying liability, property and health insurance, in addition to Workmen’s Compensation can be quite expensive, so assessing your business’ needs and what kind and how much insurance can be crucial.

Evaluating Your Business

The first consideration when using needs analysis for deciding on an insurance policy for your small business consists of accurately analyzing the different liabilities and assets which directly affect the business. These include:

• Property – this includes equipment, real estate and other assets.
• Business Volume – the amount of accounts receivable and the average cash flow of the business.
• Salaries – how much you pay yourself and however many employees the company has.
• Overhead – the cost of running the business including rent, utilities and other miscellaneous expenses.
• Future Trends and the Local Economy – how future trends and the state of the local economy will affect the business in the future.

You can then better determine your company’s insurance objectives and what type of insurance plan would be optimal for your business by keeping the above factors in mind.

The second consideration for your insurance needs involves estimating your business’s potential for losses. This includes fire, theft, property damage, an employee’s legal action or losses due to economic hardship.

Getting the Right Amount of Insurance

Once you have evaluated your assets and liabilities, you will be much better prepared to determine how much insurance your company will need. You will want adequate coverage for your assets so make an accurate assessment of potential risks to your property to get adequate coverage.

Remember, a high premium will provide a higher amount of coverage so be aware of potential risks and make sure your business is covered for any high risk factors. Also, if you choose a higher deductible, you will probably pay less for your policy. Make sure you get the right amount of insurance depending on what your company can afford.

By law, your business will need Workers’ Compensation Insurance. Consult with your company’s lawyer or advisor on how much your company may need and what type of package would be optimal for you and your employees.

Comprehensive coverage might be optimal for your business if you have several employees and own the business property. Group health and life insurance along with disability, property, flood and fire insurance can often be included in your policy.

Choose a Reliable Carrier

A reliable insurance company and an experienced agent can be an important element to obtaining the right amount of insurance for your business. A knowledgeable agent can help you perform your needs analysis and can sometimes speed up the claim process if you need to make one.

Also, choosing an insurance company with a good reputation and solid finances will give you greater peace of mind if any unfortunate event befalls your business. The last thing you need if you have to make a claim is an insolvent insurance carrier.

Finally, have your business appraised periodically to gauge how much insurance you will need on an ongoing basis. Since business finances and assets change over time, the amount of insurance you might need can also change.

The Life and Times of the Legendary Steve Jobs

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is gone, handing the reins of the company he co-founded over to his long-time right hand man, Tim Cook. At his exist, Apple had eclipsed oil giant Exxon Mobil as the world’s largest corporation, with a $350 billion market capitalization and nearly $80 billion in cash. Steve Jobs’ storied life and career is legendary, and truly a case where the truth is stranger, and more inspiring, than fiction. Steve Jobs was all of these – a college dropout who recycled bottles just to make ends meet, a vegetarian Buddhist who frequently experimented with LSD, a pariah exiled from his own company and finally the founding father of three seminal products – the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad – which would redefine the landscape of personal computing forever. Now, as Jobs exists and the entire Wintel empire, which marginalized Apple during the 1980s and 1990s, lies shattered and broken in burning pieces at his feet, let’s take a look back at the life of the man who has been called the Walt Disney, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison of our time.

In 1955, the boy who would become Steve Jobs was given up for adoption by a Syrian father and an American mother, and adopted by the Jobs family in Mountain View. As a high school student, he frequently attended Hewlett-Packard lectures, working there part-time one summer. It was during that fateful summer that Jobs met the other Steve – Steve Wozniak, Jobs’ so-called “partner in crime”. The two Steves would remain friends for life, although it would be decades before their brainchild, Apple, would be born. Jobs dropped out of college after one semester, slept in friends’ rooms, recycled cans and bottles for pocket money, and ate free meals at a local Hare Krishna temple. It was there that Jobs was introduced to Buddhist philosophies, and he decided to travel to India in search of spiritual enlightenment. After saving up money from a brief stint at the fledgling video game maker Atari, Jobs traveled to India and became a practicing Buddhist, returning with a shaved head and donning traditional Indian clothing. Jobs openly acknowledge that he experimented frequently with LSD, calling it one of the most important experiences in his life.

In 1976, the two Steves and investor Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computers. Wayne was the “adult supervision” for the two Steves, who were both in their early 20s – similar to Google’s triumvirate of one adult (Schmidt) and two kids (Page and Brin). However, a mere two weeks later, in one of the worst business decisions in history, Wayne relinquished his 10% stake, then worth $800. Had Wayne held onto his shares, his investment would be worth more than $35 billion today. After several years of increasing profitability, Jobs lured PepsiCo president John Sculley to become the CEO of Apple in 1983, famously asking him, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

Sculley was Apple’s greatest asset in its formative years. He was responsible for increasing the company’s annual revenue from $800 million to $8 billion within ten years. Sculley was the mastermind behind Apple’s famed “1984” advertisement which took aim at IBM’s dominance of the personal computer market. He spread adoption of the Macintosh and raised its price to increase profit margins. However, Sculley was soon butting heads with Jobs over Jobs’ “non-linear” management style. In 1985, a power struggle between Jobs and Sculley ended with the Board of Directors ousting Jobs three months before his 30th birthday.

Being kicked out of Apple didn’t slow down Jobs one bit, though. In 1985, he founded his own computer company, NeXT, which produced very expensive, state of the art machines years ahead of the technological curve. It was with these computers that Jobs showed his aesthetic craftsmanship and minimalist sensibilities. His NeXTCube, enclosed in a sleek magnesium cube, was pure eye candy compared to the clunky Wintel machines that dominated the early 1990s. However, these machines proved too expensive to manufacture on a large scale, and by 1993, he had only sold 50,000 units. While NeXT was a failure, Jobs made one of his most important investments during this time. In 1986, Jobs purchased The Graphics Group, a computer graphics subdivision of Lucasfilm, for $10 million. This company, under Jobs’ guidance, would evolve into Pixar – the CGI giant that produced such hits as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and countless other family friendly films. In 2006, his $10 million investment was purchased by Disney for $7.4 billion in stock, making Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder with a 7% stake.

Meanwhile, back at Apple, Jobs’ nemesis Sculley was ousted by the Board of Directors in 1993, after years of shrinking margins and profitability. Sculley was blamed for waging a pointless, costly war against IBM and the irreparable fragmentation of its product line, which offered too many variants of its core Macintosh line, baffling and alienating consumers. Apple replaced Sculley with Gil Amelio, who didn’t fare much better than his predecessor. Amelio stated, “Apple is like a ship with a hole in the bottom, leaking water and my job is to get the ship pointed in the right direction.” Unfortunately for Amelio, a mutiny ensued and the crew tossed the captain overboard in 1996. Before he was replaced, however, Amelio purchased Jobs’ NeXT Computers for $429 million, paving the way for Jobs’ return. Jobs became the interim CEO in 1997, and by 2000 he had become the permanent CEO.

After ironically borrowing $150 million from his friend and fellow “Pirate of Silicon Valley”, Bill Gates, Jobs immediately axed several unprofitable ventures, such as the Newton (which would become the prototype for the iPad), Cyberdog and OpenDoc to shed dead weight. He then launched the first “i” product – the all-in-one computer, the iMac, in 1998. With the iMac, designed by award-winning product designer Johnathan Ive, Jobs started the theme of sleek minimalist products in an assortment of basic colors. Ive’s aesthetic theme would eventually carry over to the next major product – the iPod, and make its way into the iPhone and iPad as well. Ive’s designs have been credited as the primary reason for the brisk sales of modern Apple products. Together, Jobs and Ive were able to capture the MP3 player industry nearly instantly with the iPod in 2001, the mobile handset industry with the iPhone in 2007, and the previously non-existent tablet market with the iPad in 2010. His moves into the smart-phone and tablet markets were sharply criticized at first, by cynics who believed that the computer maker would crash and burn in unfamiliar markets, but Jobs proved them wrong with his remarkable ability to time product releases and cycles with near perfection.

Even as Jobs is gone, Apple’s product line is guaranteed for at least another two years. When Jobs returned to Apple as a prodigal son, Apple shares were worth $4. Today they close in on $400. Whether or not Apple will survive the next decade without his innovation remains to be seen, but Jobs’ success as an entrepreneur and technological savant has already made him a modern day legend.

Now, what is the economy of Nigeria or your family saying about your life and destiny? Would you allow the distractions of this country derail you from fulfilling your destiny? What is the next decade gonna remember you for?
Think Tank as my friend would say.
God bless the Nigerian Youths, God bless Nigeria.

Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace

There was a time when the concept of creativity was only associated with writers, painters, musicians and similar people in artistic professions. But with the ever-increasing necessity of cultivating a unique brand personality, the need for creative thinking has transitioned from the arts into everyday business. In addition, the act of producing a product that distinguishes itself from competitors in a marketplace where differences are often hard to come by demands a high degree of creativity both in innovation and marketing.
As a result, it’s now become commonplace for companies – both large and small – to adopt policies that foster creativity and thereby promote innovation.
But what is meant by creativity? And how can it be harnessed effectively?

Defining the Creative Environment
Creativity is the mental and social process used to generate ideas, concepts and associations that lead to the exploitation of new ideas. Or to put it simply: innovation. Through the creative process, employees are tasked with exploring the profitable outcome of an existing or potential endeavor, which typically involves generating and applying alternative options to a company’s products, services and procedures through the use of conscious or unconscious insight. This creative insight is the direct result of the diversity of the team – specifically, individuals who possess different attributes and perspectives.
It’s important to note that innovation is usually not a naturally-occurring phenomenon. Like a plant, it requires the proper nutrients to flourish, including effective strategies and frameworks that promote divergent levels of thinking. For example, by supporting an open exchange of ideas among employees at all levels, organizations are able to inspire personnel and maintain innovative workplaces.
Therefore supervisors must manage for the creative process and not attempt to manage the creativity itself, as creativity typically does not occur exclusively in an individual’s head but is the result of interaction with a social context where it’s codified, interpreted and assimilated into something new. Within this system, incentives are paramount – ranging from tangible rewards such as monetary compensation to the intangible, including personal satisfaction and social entrepreneurship.

How to Set Up a Creative Work Space to Foster Innovation
Establishing a creative environment takes more than just turning your employees loose and giving them free reign in the hope they’ll hit on something valuable. As with any other system, the process of creativity requires the proper framework to operate effectively, which also enables management to evaluate the profitability of the results.
Popular approaches to fostering innovation through creativity include:

• Create a stimulating environment. Offices that include stimulating objects such as journals, art, games and other items – some of which may not even be directly related to your business – serve as sources of inspiration. In addition, structuring the work area by removing physical barriers between people will improve communication and promote creative interaction.

• Reward efforts through positive psychological reinforcement. Encourage your employees to take risks, rewarding them for creative ideas and not penalizing them when they fail. In doing so, you’ll enable people to be more ready to take on assignments that stretch their potential (and that of your organization), discussing in advance any foreseeable risks and creating the necessary contingency plan. Encourage employees at all levels to contribute suggestions for improving current business operations.

• Foster different points of view through outside perspectives. Innovation can often spring from a review of how your customers view and use your products and services. Soliciting their opinions can provide valuable insight into potential areas for improvement as well as areas where you’re succeeding (essential knowledge for positioning against competitors). Other perspectives might include: vendors, speakers from other industries or consumers using a competitor’s products or services.

Traditional vs Online Universities – What’s the Difference?

Online universities and traditional colleges that offer courses in physical classrooms have the same end goal: provide students with an educational experience that enables them to grow in their chosen field and eventually earn a degree. But although their purpose is the same, both possess significant differences in the approach they take, setting them distinctly apart.
Distance learning definitely has its upside, especially for those who can’t afford the time or costs associated with attending a standard brick-and-mortar university.

Benefits of Online Learning
• No pre-defined class schedule
• No commute to campus
• Lower tuition
• Fewer fees (parking, activity, etc.)
• Ability to engage online with classmates around the country (and the world)

Disadvantages of Online Learning
• Direct contact with instructors and classmates, providing learning through immediate feedback
• Physical textbooks and supplemental materials that are believed to be more beneficial when consuming large amounts of content
• Student participation readily encouraged (and often accounts for a portion of the final grade)
• Potential for networking and social interaction with other classmates (some of whom you may end up working with one day)

Curriculum – where the buck stops
Like any investment, higher education requires considerable background and planning to select the institution that will best meet your specific needs. Similar to buying a car or a new computer, different universities vary wildly in the value they offer with respect to their online courses. So when trying to determine which one is right for you, it’s important to know that the main difference between the two is in the curriculum… and how it’s presented.
In fact, this is often cited as the primary difference between online universities and courses offered in traditional classrooms. And depending on the university, the difference can be vast.
Coursework that’s offered online attempts to use a formal education process through which the students and instructor interact via the web even though they are not in the same place (and many times not even in the same country). This means all exams, quizzes, lectures and reading are completed online, with course materials delivered via websites, electronic textbooks and streaming lectures, typically provided in an on-demand format. More so than any other consideration, this structure represents the biggest difference between the two styles of learning, specifically because it may have less of a lasting impact on some students due to the limitations of the electronic medium.
It’s been reported that many people require interpersonal interaction to learn effectively and when that connection is removed, as it is through online universities, it alters both the learning experience and potential for retention of the material.
This system of curriculum distribution is very different from that provided through the traditional college classroom. At a brick-and-mortar university, many courses require your physical presence, enforcing an attendance policy that can often significantly impact your grade. While attending class, students are also required to listen and take notes during the lecture and are often tested on the material as its presented in class – some of which is not found in the companion reading material.
As a result, instructors must provide more detailed feedback to ensure the information has been presented clearly, as the student does not have the luxury of reviewing a streaming video feed or re-browsing a web page.
In addition, many colleges are rushing to market with online courses in an attempt to capture this rapidly-growing segment, and are providing versions of their courses that – though technically still providing the same information – do not fulfill the requirements for accreditation. This lack of accreditation often means credits earned may not transfer or be applicable to a degree.
So when signing up for an online university, make sure the curriculum is (1) accredited and (2) transferable or applicable to your end goal.

Happy New Year – Nigeria in Topsy-Turvy

To witness as a living soul another brand-new year is not a child’s play, definitely; one who has a grateful heart would count his/her blessings and would realize that God has been good is His Loving-kindness and tender-mercies, haven’t gone through a 2011 in this part of the world where human lives is nothing in the eyes of the “top-fear-dogs”, where people cannot sleep with their two eyes closed, where fear is the other of the day, where human right is sold for filthy-lucre, where pains and agony presides on peoples affairs.

Nigeria is our country, efforts have been put mop together by the heroes past to make Nigeria emerge, but it’s a pity that the initial vision of those leaders who fought gallantly to make Nigeria what it is today has become a mirage.
What we now have is dichotomy on the topmost other, ranging from the childhood, to teenage, youths and finally adulthood.

Leadership:
"Leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less." – But what influence are we tapping from our leaders, what example are they giving us? Way back some 20 years plus now I’ve leaved to hear that we are the leaders of tomorrow, yet 25 years + after, no leader has emerged from the then youths that ought to be leaders of tomorrow. All the best we could see is rotation of corruption, internal squabble, pervertion of the highest other between our leaders and their family. Awo in the grave will never pray for these leaders, Nnamdi above is placing a curse, and so on. No one would labour to plant and someone would come and waste the effort that such person would be happy. We are stained with blood, the innocent blood that has been shed is definitely crying for revenge.

On-going looting of the treasury would not allow for them to be sensitive, our leaders has failed us.

Militancy: I don’t know why we are gallivanting with the year, someone say of course for the reason of life. Good! Not bad answer. But at occasion of this kind I expect a declaration of prayers. Amidst this entire whole hullabaloo, Militancy is still on in this country, but awaits event(s) as they unfold for them to explode.

Boko Haram: No doubt is political in inclined, and it also posses’ danger and alert of what is known as Religious Crisis. And I strongly believe it is aimed at paralyzing the government of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the political power-lists whom he seek to endorse him to run for the presidential office are still the ones behind the Boko Haramist, because he is refusing to dance to their dictating power.

Susidy Removal: Am afraid if Mr. President still insist on is decision, he would fail woefully. I think democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people and if that be it; why should he refuse the voice of the masses? Over 150 Million people are given opinion on a subject matter and president is refusing them? That’s evil!

Nevertheless, I pray Wisdom for our Dear President to enable him do the right thing at the right time, yanking off any evil advice that is pose to ruin is leadership strength. Our New Year’s gift should not be a hike price of fuel, please do something about this.

The task: These top-fear-dogs are not the one bombing places, churches and people; it is the hungry youths they are sponsoring to achieve their evil aims, and these youths are so blind to see that these leaders also have their own children, studying abroad for to emerge as ruler in the future. Why will a youth with a future want sell out himself? Sure youths are hungry, why not collect the funds and the weapons and use it against them, why would you be use to destroy what some prominent leaders suffered to build, why are you an instrument in the promotion of bad image of Nigeria in the community of Nations of the world. You need clothes, house, sound education, security etc as a bonafide citizen of this country, have you ask yourself why these leaders won’t provide all of this for you? The money they use in getting the weapons they give you to destroy your own tomorrow, why can’t they use it to meet the common needs of the common-men including you. The Islamist leaders, what are they doing to end this squabble? The Christian leaders who would speak and command attention, what are they standing for? Have they not sold-out? Is their integrity still in-place, have they not worshipped money or better still planning to also contest to loot from the nation’s treasury? Have they not missed their calling?

We the youths are the posterity hope hence is when we can either lay our bed right
or destroy it. It’s a pit that youths of the 21stcentury are empty; today’s youth want to live large at the detriment of others. Discover your seed, use it to cause an onslaught for change, start the change with yourself, let it be felt around you, be the change, begin it now!!!

Am about to cause a revolution, the change is here, the change is now! Be part of the change for a better Nigeria, we have the solution; join us for the change to be implemented.

As I drop my pen in pains, and cry for a change; I wish all, Happy New Year – May we all function at the capacity of the purpose of God for our life this year. And may Nigeria be delivered from the shackles of confusion and to its promise land. Please contribute your own effort for the fulfillment of the Nigeria of our dreams.

God bless the Nigerian youths, God bless our leaders, God bless Mr. President, and God bless Nigeria.

How to Grow Your Brand on Facebook without Wasting Money

As a small business, it can be exciting to dream of having thousands of “friends” on Facebook driving lots of extra traffic to your website or retail locations. But getting to this point of success won’t happen overnight. You will need to invest in your social media efforts. As you spend money in this area, be sure to pick up best practices and avoid wasting money on your overall strategy.

Spend Money on Facebook Wisely
Driving social media traffic to your website or physical stores is a great way to keep customers coming back and to bring new customers in.

Do: Set up a Facebook Page
Facebook has made setting up a business Facebook page pretty simple. You want to make sure your business has a spot on one of the highest trafficked social media sites in the world. Having a Facebook page gives your fans a place to rave about your product or service, and share anything you post to your Facebook wall with their friends.

Don’t: Ignore Your Facebook Page
You can’t just set up a Facebook page and forget about it. You need to regularly spend time monitoring the wall posts and comments. This is where your customers are coming to interact with your brand, and they can’t interact if you aren’t there. Regularly post to your wall with photos, thoughts, articles, and contests. Without regular interaction your Facebook following will never take off.

Do: Add a Profile Photo
When you set up your Facebook business page, be sure to put your company logo up as the profile photo. Don’t leave it blank, and don’t put your own face there unless your face is normally what customers see when they look for your brand.

Don’t: Constantly Change Your Profile Photo
You want to give a consistent message and look to your profile page. When your users are sharing your brand with their friends they shouldn’t have to guess which logo or photo is yours. Consistency will pay off in the long run. Leave the photos to your business’ Facebook wall.

Do: Market to New Customers on Facebook
You can engage with your potential customers on Facebook that aren’t currently “liking” your brand in several ways. You can post something that gets shared by people already “liking” you to their own walls. Add a contest to your wall and give an entry to every person who “likes” the post and shares it on their own walls. You can also invest dollars into advertising on Facebook. Those ad dollars could drive traffic to your Facebook page or back to your website.

Don’t: Spend Thousands Advertising on Facebook
An effective Facebook strategy does not have to be expensive. The steps of setting up a page, adding a profile brand photo, and simply interacting with your customers is not complicated nor costly. You can take all of those steps without spending thousands in marketing. The best social media campaigns are those that begin genuinely with a comment, video or photo shared from a customer that goes viral in the community. To get that interaction, your service has to be top notch. If you have a poor product or service, no amount of Facebook marketing will help you.