You have successfully taken your business from stage zero to the first stage. Now you have a product live in the market, some customers, maybe a couple of partners, and even a financier. What next? It is now time to move the business to the next stage – thousands of customers, millions of dollars in revenue, a larger team, maybe more financiers, and so on.
Note first that there is no saying how long the startup stage would or should last. It can be a year, two years, five years, or even more. It is evident to everyone on the team when it is time to move on to the growth stage.
Here are three skills you need to grow your business from the launch stage to become a successful company.
Sales
You must work on sales to grow revenue from hundreds of thousands into millions. Get more customers, increase your market share, expand into new areas, and boost sales. You will need the skills to execute these at the growth stage.
Customer service
This is closely linked to the former. As you onboard new customers, you must develop a customer service culture that will keep your customers glued to you. There will be constant competition with other brands upping their game to give as much or even more than you do. It may require you to upgrade your solution to keep up. They become your evangelists if you can keep your customers happy and satisfied.
Team building and people management
You will work with a larger team than you did at the beginning. Depending on your model, this may be completely remote, physical, or hybrid. It will take more from you to manage a team of 100 people than to manage a group of 10. That is why I mentioned in a previous post that one person might not have all the skills, but in some cases, they do. You may be good at building and working very well with a team of 10 people, but not a group of 100.
One thing you should keep in mind is creating a sense of mission that brings them together. A lot at this stage will depend on the culture you built with a more minor team. How you develop and treat your team members is very important.
There are other skills you will need as you gradually grow your business from the launch stage to become a successful company. Things like risk management, resource management, and so on. Most of them may have team members with that expertise, but you have to be directly involved in sales and people management. You should know what is going on with your sales team at every point because the business is going nowhere if there are no sales.
Online food ordering platform Uber eats has partnered with ride-hailing robotics company Carkten to launch its Robot delivery service in Miami, USA, as it seeks to enhance its delivery capacity.
The six-wheeled robots are equipped with multiple sensors and cameras to help them avoid collisions and also choose safer routes void of hazards.
The robots which make use of the sidewalks will alert customers when their food is on the way and instruct them on where to come to pick it from.
Customers can then proceed to unlock the machine by using their phones to open and take their orders from a secure compartment.
Despite the launch of the robot, customers will be presented with an option to opt out if they prefer to have their items delivered by a courier.
Commenting on the launch of its Robot delivery service, Uber’s global head of autonomous mobility and delivery Noah Zych said, “Our partnership with Cartken marks another important milestone for our efforts in automated and autonomous technology and will provide greater reliability and affordability to Miami merchants and consumers”.
Also commenting is the co-founder and CEO of Cartken who said, “Together, we have the opportunity to reduce traffic congestion, help local merchants to increase delivery capacity, and bring consumers fast, convenient, and emission-free deliveries,”
For now, the Uber eats Robot delivery service will only be functional in Miami but will eventually expand to other parts of Miami-Dade County and additional cities next year according to the company.
Uber’s use of delivery robots will no doubt help the company to cut down cost as well as enable traffic decongestion which will ensure speedy delivery.
According to reports, consumers’ desires for faster delivery are one factor behind a significant increase in delivery robots.
Although the market for autonomous delivery robots is still in its infancy, however the demand for delivery robots is indeed moving on an upward trend.
The delivery robots market report share was estimated to be USD 212 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 957 million by 2026, at a CAGR of 35.1% from 2021 to 2026.
Reduction in delivery costs in last-mile deliveries and increase in venture funding are reportedly the key factors driving the growth of the delivery robot market.
Furthermore, the worldwide growth of the e-commerce market is a factor propelling the growth of the delivery robot market.
Many have written that Obi and Kwankwaso do not have nationwide political structures like Tinubu and Atiku to win the Nigerian presidency next year. This is my response:
My Response: Mobile internet is reducing information asymmetry as more voters can bypass the filters and intermediaries to get information from the sources. The existence of information asymmetry makes market systems imperfect. In politics, it does the same thing – imperfect electoral systems.
But in 2023, Nigeria will have the first mobile internet era election. This is the first app utility-anchored national election. I am not arguing that decades-old political structures are not important, my point is that disintermediation (cutting out intermediaries) is evident, and general voters have access to more information about candidates now, to make decisions independently, out of the influence of political bundlers and brokers.
The Ezes, Obas, Amanyanabos and Emirs influenced many past elections through zone defense and zone offense (as in football) via block voting, being custodians of information; the village head determined the candidates for most villagers.
In 2023, that will not happen because they do not have exclusivity on the information about candidates. This makes the paths wide open for candidates because the Best Message will WIN depending on how INEC behaves. The power of aggregation construct is now strong.
Indeed, the greatest danger is using old tools to model new systems. Think of when many Wall Street experts predicted that Tesla would go bankrupt, using models developed for Ford, Toyota and GM, for a car company that has unleashed new vistas of innovation.
If you use old political tools to evaluate new political systems, you will lose. President Trump did rallies during the pandemic and modeled his acceptability based on the crowd-size when Biden did none. After the elections and results counted, he realized that new technologies and evolving engaging patterns have changed many things and early voting made many of those rallies useless; some precincts had voted in excess of 50% before his rallies!
Young People, if anyone tells you that your candidate has no chance; ignore him or her. Indeed, if tech changes markets, it can change politics in Nigeria. The most valued financial institution in Nigeria is Flutterwave. Its market cap can buy GTBank* and Zenith Bank combined. It took Kuda bank 3 years to hit a milestone which took Wema bank more than 70 years. It is 0-0 at full time and they are getting into sudden-death extra time, with every candidate positioned to score that first goal to win it.
Continue to work for your candidate, and forget anyone who thinks because he is a “structural engineer” from the school of Nigerian politics, that only his party has an edge. If INEC does it work, this election is the most OPEN.
Comment 1: What is the ratio of people on internet to people without internet?,what is the ratio of youth that partake in election, compared to the old people that vote massively,Prof if you don’t have political structure in Nigeria forget about winning an Election.
My Response: Your model is that when those young people have no jobs, schools are closed, trapped in cities because insecurity will not even allow them to visit homes, they cannot tell those parents how their liberations will come. You think those young people cannot explain to their parents while the price of rice is high. Who would you trust? A local politician who comes every 4 years or your son/daughter with better information?
Edo State government election showed the evolution of awareness in Nigerian politics: the governor built structures in APC but was cut-out, he moved to PDP and was able to win despite the low capacity of PDP which over years he had actually worked to dismantle. APC, from state to national, could not overcome the people’s structures. Osun is also an example.
I am not saying that Obi or Kwankwaso has it; my point is that new structural engineers in Nigerian politics will graduate in 2023.
Comment 2: Your comment has banked heavily on past political structures but fails to recognize Three powerful game changers
More than half of registered voters have never participated in any election in Nigeria due to perceived lack of enthusiasm in candidates. This has changed as daily realities show that majority of Nigerians are enthusiastic about voting in 2023. Who do you think they will Vote for? The people that’s never elicited their enthusiasm or the new players they find more credible?
Information decimation in Nigeria politics depended heavily on political parties and their structures. That’s changed. Internet has changed it. Electorates now relate directly with candidates and the youths who are online freely speak to their aged parents and relations about who to vote for.
New Voters have massively keyed into the System. I’ve Never voted before in any election in Nigeria. But this time around, I registered and I have collected my PVC because I see better choice of candidates in 2023 that made me take the sacrifice to register and collect my PVC and I’m going to Vote. And millions of Nigerians like me did same. Do you think we’re going to vote for PDP or APC that’s Never elicited in us the motivation to participate in ELECTIONS?
Do you know How many people I have mobilized to register and collect their PVCs?
Do you know How Many aged people I talk to everyday about credible Candidates to Vote for in 2023
Do You know that there are millions of first time PVC owners doing same as I’m doing and we’re doing it heartily and not because of payment from any Party
You didn’t take these three powerful game changers into account in your hypothesis
Several high-profile journalists have been suspended on Twitter for going against the platform’s doxxing rule.
The company’s CEO Elon Musk via a tweet disclosed that the suspended accounts engaged in doxxing by disclosing his real-time location thereby endangering his family.
He further stated that the suspended accounts will receive a temporary 7-day suspension.
See what he tweeted; “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not. Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7-day suspension”.
Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not
Musk however did not clarify in what way the suspended journalists shared his exact real-time location.
In a recent Twitter space event, he was questioned about the ban which he stated that the affected journalists were not being treated differently to other citizens, noting that if any user doxx they will get suspended.
Taking to his Twitter account, Musk created a poll, asking users whether the ban of the suspended journalist should be lifted now, tomorrow, in seven days or longer. The poll went in favour of Now with 43%, having the highest votes than the rest option.
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
The Tesla billionaire who seemed to be displeased with the results, hinted that he will redo another poll due to too many options. In the recent poll, he presented only two options, “Now and In 7 days”, which Now had the highest votes with a 60% score.
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
The suspended journalist’s accounts are Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America, and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann, and Tony Webster.
The suspension of these high-profile journalists’ accounts comes a day after Musk suspended the account that tracks his private jet. This spurred him to update the platform’s doxxing rule policy.
Twitter doxxing rule policy states that users may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission. It also prohibits threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so.
The platform further stated that sharing an individual’s live location increases the risk of physical harm. Hence it will not hesitate to remove Tweets that share such information, and accounts dedicated to sharing someone else’s live location will be suspended.
Lately, Musk seems to be going hard on users who divulge to the public any of his private info which he disclosed exposes his family to attack.
Recall that on Thursday, the Tesla billionaire took strict measures by suspending a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, which he described as a breach of privacy.
The account @Elonjet which has more than one million followers was run by a Florida college student Jack Sweeney, who uses publicly available data to track the whereabouts of Elon Musk’s private jet.
Despite suspending the account, Musk threatened to take legal action against the user behind the account.
Several users on the platform have called him out for backtracking on his promise to allow free speech, which he had earlier disclosed that the account that tracks his private jet will not be suspended during his takeover of the company.
Everything is timed and portioned they say. At the appropriate time, opportunities meet with preparedness much like water do invariably finds its level.
Cosmic intelligence is all about laws and energy and frequency and degree. Therein, the same law that prescribes for you diligence and fairness rewards your obedience — nothing else has got that power.
The earthly world is a scheming court, a battle of survival and clashes of egos. Therefore, no ego should ordinarily opt to capitulate to another lest they covet each other’s substance or worse still, either plots to exterminate its threat.
However, when egos are humbled against their volition for your own sake, know it is the making of a higher law that your energy and frequency now align with.
Get yourself out of the providence of this law, and watch the erstwhile humbled egos immediately exploit and merry on your lost charm.
To persist under this law is to continue to uphold the rule. You need not more than diligence and fairness to keep a blessed soul. That is the first tenet of love. Be diligent in your work and fair in your relationship or judgement. That’s all that is required of a traveller in this space.
Also know this, when presented with an array of options including death, man will choose instead to live. And many would prefer to add to the gift of life sound health. Then, other things could follow if they must.
After all, it is sound health that inspires in the youth a constant show of exuberance and frivolity as well as a chronic sense of avarice in the gatherers.
From The Ghaib: Voyage of the Unseen by Ismail A. Tiamiyu
