The Challenges of Being a Black-skin Female Entrepreneur. An Interview with Apolline Adiju

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December 15, 2019

What a man can do, a woman can also, if not better. Take it or leave it, women are also taking the lead in business.

I had the pleasure of speaking with a female entrepreneur, Apolline, over the weekend. She shared the challenges of starting and running a business.

I believe everyone will definitely learn from her wealth of knowledge.

It’s good to have you on this segment, Apolline. I hope you don’t mind sharing more about yourself with the audience?

I am Apolline Adiju, a digital marketing consultant. I work with small and medium-sized companies. Both in the B2B and B2C space.

I help them research, create and execute marketing campaigns to improve their profitability.

Interesting! For how long have you been into this business?

It is over 5 years now.

That’s a really long time in the game. I hope I can follow your footsteps one day. But if I may ask, how did this begin?

Actually, I stumbled into it.

I started as an affiliate and network marketer.

I had a group of friends and business owners in the field who admired the way I updated my social media accounts with captivating content. Which helped to attract recruits and grow my network marketing business.

Most of my colleagues sought for help with their own social media accounts.

That’s how I started managing social media accounts, as a Social Media Manager with a gradual increase.

However, I realized that most business owners I worked with wanted more than just managing their accounts. They wanted leads and sales.

This encouraged me to upgrade my skills (with certifications and training sessions) from a social media manager to a full-time marketing consultant.

What a journey! How has been the journey since you started?

Thank you, Chinedu! I must admit that it is not a bed of roses. But I’m happy I never gave up.

Working with several niches. Learning their pitfalls and how to overcome them.

Like all startups or business owners, you’ve got to be patient and learn the trade.

I made so many mistakes that have helped me become better at what I do.

How did you feel when you landed your first client?

Like a dream come true. Although I was nervous and not sure about myself.

How were you able to handle it?

It was easy, but I lacked confidence at that moment. Thank God, my mentor was always by my side.

Also, I was part of a Facebook group that helped to uplift my confidence as an introvert.

An introvert? Really? I never noticed that about you anyway. Being a Marketing Consultant is time consuming and energy draining, how do you combine that with running a home?

No one does. In fact, most people are surprised when I tell them I’m an introvert.

Because they believe introverts shy away from people and can’t interact with so many people like I do.

True though.

However, I studied a lot about my personality and how to avoid being overwhelmed amid people.

Balancing work and running a home wasn’t easy at the start.

I remember working 12 hours a day to catch up with client work.

These days I’ve developed systems and use project management tools that help to streamline some of these processes.

Even at that, I’m not sure I will make a good project manager. Being a female entrepreneur for five years, what can you say about that (I mean the experience)?

It’s challenging in a male-dominated space since most people who play the entrepreneurship game sometimes end up losing or fake it till they make it.

But I’ve always been up to the task and would encourage my fellow women not to give up.

You just had it on your profile that you are an MBA candidate, what’s that all about?

It’s a personal development goal I set for myself.

I’ve always wanted to get a Doctors in Business Administration DBA and the MBA is the first step to achieve that.

I plan to transition from entrepreneurship back to the corporate world. To get C level marketing experience with more substantial organizations while running my business at the same time.

It’s a step up to attract private corporate consulting clients in the future.

That’s a smart move and I must commend you for that. So with this being done, where do you see your business in the next five years?

Thanks, Chinedu! I appreciate it.

In the next five years, I see myself getting projects with larger corporations and organizations.

Being a brown skin woman, was there any point a client refused to work with you because of your colour?

Omg! So many times. I almost gave up at one point.

A handful of people refused to work with me based on that.

I had a prospect who refused to hire me and claimed I wasn’t a good fit. He went on to hire my British friend, who wasn’t good at it. She was new in the business by then.

Guess what? I successfully executed that project for this client under the aliases of my friend and she’s (the client) not aware to date.

I’ve had that a lot too. But it keeps me going stronger.

Apolline, what advice do you have for aspiring marketing consultants that look up to you?

Start with one aspect of the marketing you love the most. Master it, before you branch into another section.

Don’t try to do it all at once.

Word of wisdom! If anyone wants to contact you for business, where can you be reached?

I can be reached on LinkedIn or through my calendar .Or they can visit my website .

Thank you, Apolline, for your time. I wish you a wonderful remainder of the year and a prosperous 2020.

Thank you, Chinedu, for having me on your segment. I wish you the same.

2020: How to reap more by Nigerian Graduates

By

Rasheed Adebiyi

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December 14, 2019

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Are you a graduate? And you are reading this? Thank God for your life. The Gregorian calendar year 2019 is rolling to an end. Everybody is thanking God for keeping them alive. You are wondering why it was so difficult for you to achieve your dreams. I know, as a graduate who has completed your service year to the fatherland, you struggled throughout 2019 to get a job so that you can become a man or woman of your own dream, but 16 days to the end of the last month in the year, you keep wondering what happened. You keep asking why you are still on the same spot. You feel worthless? The phrasal question who education epp is already getting at you? 2019 is already winding down. Don’t you think it is high time you started planning for 2020? It is another 365 days of 52 weeks and 12 months. It is another opportunity to fulfill your dream. It is a new canvas on which you could beautifully craft the images of your dream. However, achieving your goals is a job on its own. This is regardless of what you seek to become. As we look forward to 2020, would you please take a look at what you did not do right in 2019 and strive to make a difference? If you are interested, please tag along.

# Change your strategy and tactics. Strategy is a broad plan of action aimed at achieving a goal while tactics refer to the means for achieving the goals. In 2019, do you have a strategy at all? As said earlier, achieving your goals is a job on its own. In 2020, divide the whole year into four quarters of 3 months and state your plan and how you want to go about it from January to March. Are you applying for a scholarship for a higher degree? Are you attending trainings? Are you acquiring new skills? Are you making more connections? Whatever you need to do, please strategize. It will go a long way to ensure you have a path you follow and you can evaluate.

#Be more Deliberate. Reaching your goals is more of personal deliberateness than any other thing. In 2020, be more deliberate about your plans, strategies and tactics. As a graduate, you have to choose what you do, where you go and how you spend your meagre resources. Are you asking if you have resources? Yes. You do. The least, and most important of your resources, is your time. Volunteer. Attend programmes. Freelance. Let this be deliberate and contribute to your dream. In the new year, do things deliberately.

#Improve your webinality. In 2020, one area you have to check as a graduate is your web presence. I think you should understand that the recruitment landscape is changing every day. Companies now recruit, check applicants’ background and interest via social media handles. This is webinality . This is a term coined by erudite Nigerian born US based Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe to describe how you use the social media to tell the world the talents you have and the works of your hands. In the new year, pledge to focus more on displaying what you could do, what you are doing and your professional achievements. Make it a year of focusing on building your online persona.

#Start from somewhere. You are a graduate and looking for a job? You insist that unless you get that dream job paying the six figures annual pay, there is no show. It is understandable. After all, you spent a whole 4years in the university to get trained for the dream jobs. Yet, interviews after interviews, you are never called upon. Wait! It is time for you to start considering what is available. It has been said that such move would not diminish you. Rather, it would afford you the opportunity to earn something that could fund your ways to your whatever you seek to do. It could enable you to save for higher degrees or application for foreign scholarships. In 2020, give a chance to that job that you think lowly of. It may assist to move on.

#Make a Commitment to Skill Up. In 2020, it is imperative to skill up. Many Nigerian graduates do not have skills that may make them relevant and sought after by employers. This explains why you need to skill up. As 2019 winds down, you must audit your skills with a plan to get skilled up in 2020. If you discover any gap, you have to get trained especially on digital skills. Opportunities to tune up your skills abound both online and offline. However, be strategic about your search for skills. Ensure those you seek align with your areas of interest. Plug the skill gap you have.

#Be more Open to Opportunities. One of the major issues with Nigerian graduates is their inability to see opportunities especially in their immediate environment. They usually look for big opportunities and breakthroughs neglecting the little ones that could have big impact over time. So, in 2020, I urge you to attune your binoculars to see opportunities that abound in your environment. One of such areas of opportunities is agriculture. I have been told that there are some aspects of it that does not require any capital to start off but with a high returns on the little investments made.

As 2019 gradually bids humanity bye, it is imperative to plan ahead so as to reap the fruits of labour sowed. May the approaching new year yield more opportunities.

New Graduates: Their Thoughts, The Expectations On Them And The Long In-between

By

Kalu Ndukwe

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December 14, 2019

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After the completion of their undergraduate programme, most new graduates heave sighs of relief that their days of ‘stress’ are over; that they are finally free to live and enjoy their time as they please.

Typically, most graduates regard studying as bondage and consider graduation as the beginning of freedom. As a result, the phase of life after the end of projects defense is dedicated to elaborate celebration of various forms and rites that are performed to ‘cleans’ self from what most graduates consider ‘university stress’.

The association of life in college (university) with stress and the considering of graduation as marking the end of the so called stress, has dangerous implications for individuals who think along that line.

What Most Graduates Think

By holding that notion, these individuals make the mistake of entertaining the belief that

1) After graduation, studying becomes a leisure and no more a necessity;
2) Graduation marks the end of need for intense /pressured preparation
3) Examinations ends after graduation
4) Making plans is an academic exercise
5) Asking hard questions and seeking out helps on ‘how tos’, is a lecture room stuff
6) Planning elaborate vacations and leisure visits are important ventures that can’t be made to wait.
7) Noting important guides or jotting helpful advice down are non classy act that should be avoided.
8) After vacations and the rest of the leisure, there are available jobs that can be secured and commenced immediately, through the aid of friends, relations etc. Therefore, there’s no need for much self strain in this regard.
9) Outward look, online image count for nothing (or does not matter). As long as one knows what one wants, everything will fall into shape.
10) Professional success will suddenly be achieved.

Why the list goes on and can’t all be summarized here, they exactly are thinking patterns that are least tolerated by the world’s increasing competitive professional arena, (especially for the majority of persons of which the circumstances of their individual cases may not help to mitigate the ugly effects that may be occasioned by reckless professional unpreparedness).

The Expectations

The reason for this is not far fetched. Competition has a way of bringing up many criteria and using same to influence who gets what. As such, the professional world is more favourable to:

1) Individuals who, through their good records and actions, show that they have been prepared and are ready to create value or make valuable contributions or deliver value;
2) Persons who, at the beginning of their career, can afford to commit more to learning and self improvement; working longer hours to grow capabilities and gain professional momentum;
3) Individuals that deliberately commit to career planning and to seeking out advice from experienced professionals in their field of interest, etc, on relevant ‘how tos’ for career beginners;
4) Persons whose physical and online image does not compromise their professional interest. But whose daily enthusiasm and actions/ deeds promote their career;
5) Graduates who deliberately take up tasks that convey to professional observers that they ( the graduates) are useful or have something important to offer.

The Long In-between

In essence, a new graduate may not border to learn how to draft a professionally sound resume and the rest that go with it. But if a shabby CV and cover letter is submitted to an employer, it is highly likely that the job seeker will be regretted and screened out without further assessment. So, why some new grads may think examinations end with graduation, the reality in the professional arena is that assessments are routines. In this case, individuals may not be given areas of concentration or time table to guide them in their preparation.

In another light, why it’s true that from time immemorial, people have always seek public attention as part of a plan to achieve useful career target. There seems to be a rising trend among young persons to be increasingly busy in seeking popularity for no other reason than the painful sake of just being known. That’s all.

This is totally unnecessary. No one should be proud that he or she is known but that popularity does not in any way put a dime in his or her account.

Hiring managers may be busy enough that they are not able to tell new grads personally, to pay more attention to using their public presence (physical and online) to showcase those talents/ skills that they posses that can lead to their being hired and paid. But the story of the proposed redesign of the logo of Innoson Motors Manufacturing (IVM) and many more others should be strong evidence that the job world clearly upholds the practice of ‘by their fruits, we shall know’ those that are worth working with. Failing to promote professional well-being through public presence then, is a painful self disservice.

A graduate who has had difficulty getting a job and who claims to have been disappointed by friends and relatives in getting him or her a job needs to really review his or her general job hunt method. At a time in my professional journey, I realised that while it hurts to feel trusted allies are just unable to lend needed career assistance. In some cases, they are not to blame. They are overwhelmed by the nature of the demands placed on them. Think about it. What do you expect when you tell someone to get you a job, given that there are no immediate openings known to the person. As a result, there will be need for wide hunt for available openings. But the person is busy with his or her own job, other career demands and maybe family. But you in contrast have a less busy engagements and would have more efficiently undertaking those rigorous task of getting job if properly guided. Should not the fair approach in this case be to seek out for advice and strategies to fast track getting the job. And let any hunting of job for you on their part be an additional help? In other words, how about making up a plan yourself and then consulting appropriate individuals to assist you with ideas and recommendations for executing the various aspects of your plan instead of wholly burdening a sufficiently busy person(s) with the onerous task of working out a solution to your needs from scratch to finish?

In short, nobody may tell college students or new grads they need to learn how to job hunt. Certainly, some grads may not know how to unlock all their nature imbued channels, through which the world of career will see their value and seek their services.However, not learning how to and taking the initiative to apply steps that will bring opportunities, is a sad undoing for a student or graduate.

This Week in Nigeria Capital Market (Dec. 9-13): Yields, Rates and Stock Picks

By

Azeez Lawal

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December 14, 2019

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Government, Banks, SMEs and/or Consumers… who is benefiting from the crashing rates?

As the CBN continues to tighten the lid on any incentive to invest in Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTB), banks are compelled to continue to open their taps for lending to consumers and SMEs. At the close T-Bills Primary Market Auction (PMA) on 11th December 2019, T-bills stop rates hit another new-year low. In fact, T-Bill rates have now declined by over 30% across all tenors in the last one month. At the current inflation rate of 11.61%, the real return on T-Bills is now zero.

A lower yield environment is positive for the government’s swelling debt service costs and presents a good opportunity for SMEs, Corporates to raise debt at much cheaper rates. At the other end, it creates a conundrum for Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), fund managers, who are now stuck with negative real returns on new investment in T-Bills.

As if the low yields on T-Bills aren’t enough, CBN Director, Banking Supervision Department, Mr. Hassan Bello mentioned that The Central Bank of Nigeria will increase banks’ Loan to Deposit Ratio to 70% by 2020, he gave this hint during the week while speaking at the 2019 workshop for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had noted in November an increase of N1.17 trillion in absolute gross credit between May and October, this was attributed to the adjusted LDR for deposit money banks. Manufacturing was the largest beneficiary, accounting for N460 billion of the increase. Consumer loans shared N360 billion from the total.

Despite these positive moves by the CBN, sadly, there is very little impact this can have in the long-run without commensurate fiscal efforts.In an economy stuck in a low growth cycle and susceptible to erratic and inconsistent government policies, we can only hope that the Government will handle its fiscal responsibilities with more urgency to reap the full rewards of a low-interest environment.

In plain language, imagine getting a loan from the Bank at 12%, then you spend 4 hours out of 10 productive hours in traffic daily, you can only power your factory 11 hours out of a possible 18 for fear of diesel cost, your raw materials spend 34 days at the port instead of 2 days, etc.

Beautiful monetary policies and lower interest rates without commensurate fiscal policies to fix infrastructures will always make a 12% interest rate feel like 27%. It’s the responsibility of fiscal policies to fix roads, power and ports.

Updates from the Stock Market: Greetings from Santa

December! Always a month to remember, the green trees laced with red and lightings, the merry mood and the memorable feelings that come with it…

Look closely at the images below, particularly the month of December, the red spots are supposed to give one a feeling of merry, except that in this case, it’s the gauge for daily performance of stocks in the equities market. Unlike the Santa feeling that comes with December, red in the equities market means the market is bleeding, losing money.

In fact, the first few days of this December are the worst of all the years under review (2012-2019). The gains (green) recorded so far were as a result of the fall in treasury bill yields after the 11th of December Auction. Typically, bearish treasury yields create bullish opportunities for the equities market, exactly what played out on 11th and 12th as seen below, sadly, headwinds in the economy wouldn’t let the equities market enjoy the excess funds flowing from the money market.

Falling ASI or stock prices cause panic in some investors, but fluctuations in the stock market represent business as usual for others. Investors who are comfortable with this reality know how to respond to falling prices and how to pick companies that are good buys when stock prices are on the downward trend.

What should you do when the stock market is in red?

Find a good company that is underpriced, buy and be patient. Most importantly, you must know your investment objective, risk appetite and investment horizon.

Here is a list of some underpriced stocks with potential for high dividend yields and capital gain. (Please note that the stock picks and the potentials presented are not guarantees, they are only recommendations. The equities market comes with its own risk, consider your risk appetite before investing)

Smile! There are still enough trading days left to make this December one to remember.

FOLLOW Me on LinkedIn

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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December 13, 2019

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It was very emotional: “Sir, you have refused my connection request on LinkedIn. Was it because I had only OND and did not attend a university?”. That was an email from a LinkedIn user this morning. It touched me since I have no answer to the problem: I have max’d my allowed direct connections on LinkedIn. In other words, I cannot accept any new connections even though you can send me requests! I have thousands of requests PENDING which would fade.

Accepting anyone in my network does not cause me anything and I do not check profile or status before I accept. To move forward, the only option available is to FOLLOW me. If you click FOLLOW, if we are not connected already, you will read my feeds. Do it now as I want you to be reading me! (lol).

Of course, I have my email there if you have something you want to pass across since FOLLOW does not allow that.

But know one thing: your education or status has no relationship on this. I am a village boy; I grew up knowing that many can rise. OND is a huge accomplishment and you are already rising.

FOLLOW Here.

The Challenges of Being a Black-skin Female Entrepreneur. An Interview with Apolline Adiju

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2020: How to reap more by Nigerian Graduates

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