It’s easy to bask in the euphoria of getting a new job. After all, we all crave for more money and a chance to grow our career.

Do you want to know the hard part? The regret that comes with not doing enough homework about the new job such that 3 months down the line, you transfer aggression to anyone and everyone because of the wrong choice you made.

Congratulations, you’ve been offered a new job. We are all happy for you. But there are times when you need to know whether it’s a job worth taking. 

Trust me, I’ve been there before.

So, before you kiss your current employer goodbye, here are 5 important things to do to avoid stories that touch:

1. Pray about it

This may seem a surprise inclusion but it is the most important. We have to always put God first in everything we do.

When that new job offer comes, pray! Ask God for a sign. Ask God to make you choose wisely. If you sincerely do this, one way or the other, you’ll surely know if you should take the job or not. Only a trial will convince you.

But remember, “heaven helps those who help themselves”. This brings us to number 2.

2. Know your why

Another important decision you should make is to know why you want to leave your current job.

• Is it the salary? 
• Is it the opportunities or lack of it? 
• Is it your boss? 
• Is a colleague sexually harassing you? 
• Is it the distance to work or lack of motivation?

There are numerous reasons to make you leave your current job but one thing you should be sure of is knowing if you’ll get what you are looking for in the new job.

I once left a N60,000 job in Lagos for a N10,000 job in Ibadan. You may think I made a stupid decision but trust me, it was the best decision of my entire career.

I wasn’t fulfilled working as a customer assistant at a laundromat. I had already taken a few courses and certifications in Digital Marketing so when the opportunity to work as an intern came, I grabbed it with both hands.

The 2 months I spent there were tough because I had to live on borrowed cash. But the experience was valuable and its part of the reason I now work at one of the biggest digital agencies in Nigeria.

My reason for leaving the job in Lagos? Fulfillment. What’s yours?

3. Research the new company

The mistake I made before leaving was I didn’t do enough research. Not that it matters now anyway. I was so eager to go even against my family’s wishes. 

To avoid the same fate, ensure you do a comprehensive research about the company you got the job offer. Find out important things like:

• What is the company culture like?
• Is there an opportunity to learn and grow?
• Is there career growth?
• On average, how long do employees stay at the company?
• What are other benefits like Health Insurance and Pension?
• What are the working hours?
• Is there work during weekends?

Getting relevant answers to the above questions will help make your decision easier. If reaching out to full time staff of the new company proves difficult, you can reach out to the interns or IT staff. LinkedIn is a great place to start.

4. Speak to your current boss

Let’s be honest, many of us are so focused on the money this new job is offering, we forget to take other things into consideration.

If you have a good rapport with your boss, you can speak to him about your current role. Maybe you want your tasks reduced or you need a pay rise. 

If there is no much difference between where you are currently and the new place, then talking to your boss may be the best option. 

After all, no boss would want to lose one of their best employees

5. Read Your Offer Letter Thoroughly

It’s not advisable to leave your current job if you’ve not gotten an offer letter from the new job.

I recently read a story of a lady that resigned from her job without getting an offer letter only to realize the salary and working conditions weren’t as discussed.

No one would like to be in such a situation. Now when you do get the offer letter, read it as if your life depends on it. Don’t be in a rush to sign the dotted lines.

If you can, get a lawyer to help you read through. This is because you wouldn’t want a situation whereby a clause in the contract prevents you from doing certain things. By the time you realize, you’ll already be fighting a losing battle.

Getting a new job is usually great. The feeling that someone else wants you, the chance to work in a different environment, meet new people and take on more challenging tasks.

However, if you don’t do proper research before taking on a new role, that feeling will disappear quicker than you know it.

If you have carefully and thoroughly considered your options and see this as the best line of action, by all means, go for it!

You have my blessings.

Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, Howard Schultz, William C Weldon, and Gary Vaynerchuk: Besides being successful CEOs, all are members of the same club: successful CEOs who started out as salespeople. Everybody loves the idea of entrepreneurship but very few people actually want to be a sales person.  If you want to become an entrepreneur, you must learn how to sell. 

The young Buffett sold securities for three years. Cuban was a sales rep who taught himself programming, Schultz sold copiers at Xerox, Weldon started his career as a Sales rep at Johnson and Johnson, Gary was a Sales Rep way back who sold baseball cards and earned thousands of dollars from it.

To be a great entrepreneur, you must possess the skills of a sales person; those same skills that are essential to leading a company: communications, strategic thinking, ambition, integrity, passion for the business and, last but not least, persuasive skills. Entrepreneurship is all about sales. Aside from the great ideas and the passion, it is important for aspiring entrepreneurs to understand that entrepreneurship is basically 80% of sales and marketing.

If you intend to become a founder/CEO and find yourself not obsessed with marketing and sales business, that turns out to be more of a liability than an asset. You can have the best product and services out there on the market but it will be a waste until and unless people realize it’s worth. Having sales strategies is very important. It is important to have a strong handle on the basic sales strategies as they are the ones that are going to bring in development of the products and services ongoing in your business.

Talking about the founders’ first campaign that they go through, to them selling is the basic concept of the business to let potential investors find interest in their prospects. Entrepreneurship is not about programming or sweeping people off their feet, it definitely is one of the toughest aspects to deal with. How many times have you seen entrepreneurs on Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs (AYE) TV show fail because they were unable to convince them to invest in their enterprises? Many of these young entrepreneurs had great ideas and great products, but were unable to pitch them in a way that made the investors willing to put their money into it?

If you think sales isn’t an important skill for an entrepreneur to learn, watch a couple episodes of AYE TV show and you’ll quickly change your mind. Think of the blood, sweat, and tears these aspiring entrepreneurs gave to launch successful businesses. It’s almost heartbreaking. You see them crash out just because they didn’t know how to sell their dreams properly. 

Just so you know entrepreneurship is not about quitting your job, having a great idea, building product/services and a team. It is all about having the major strategies that can lead you to selling your products or services to the person you don’t actually know. It does not end here. You have to continuously repeat the process so as to get the best possible results.

So, if there is just one thing that you should be looking forward to when starting your own company then that is to proceed further with sales and marketing. I am telling you; this is not a joke and you really have to be passionate about it once you look forward to investing in it. Entrepreneurship is not a child’s play. 

It is a thought of some entrepreneurs that if they can create a very good and attracting product, then it will be the customers who will be reaching out to them. If we look at the statistics, it never works out that way. The smart entrepreneurs look for the other way around. The basic strategy is to first look and find customers who are willing to have your interest. After that, you start building up your killer products. You do so only when you see that the customers are willing to pay. 

Entrepreneurship is just a game of sales. If you don’t start selling out as soon as you start your company, it can turn to days, this can further lead to weeks, and weeks can end up in months. Well, you never know, it can even go around for a year. Isn’t it? That is why it is a bad idea to start a business without an actual sales strategy. If you can’t push out your products or services and bring it out in front of the world so that they know about you, it’s more or less like your business does not exist. Being able to sell will help you gain more customers for your product. Even when you hire a sales force, you will still need to sell your product to the employees you hire. You will need to sell it to investors. You will need to sell it to everyone you meet. 

As I have mentioned several times that entrepreneurship is all about sales and if it is the thing that you lack the most, trust me, being an entrepreneur is one of the worst ideas that you have ever had.

Every society has its pains, struggles, and challenges. In every country, there are nice people as well as cruel people. For our dear country, we still have our fights, and our battles. For decades we have struggled to build a good image for our country, and our people. 

The greatest challenge we face as a nation is not corruption, but selfishness. Everyone wants to amass wealth for their families, even up to their fifth generations. Some people in public offices see such privilege as an opportunity to share a part of the National Cake. They prefer to spend most of their days overseas, instead of developing the amenities back home. They forget that the monster that they have left behind, is still where it is, and would definitely grow. They don’t believe there is something wrong in the nation because they ride the latest cars, and live in glass houses. They ride with a long queue of escorts, and even ride on one- way roads. They break the laws that they make, claiming to be above the law. They do not see the bad roads, because they live in estates built with gold. And if they see it, they will simply ignore, and say that it is not in Nigeria, or that the people are not tax-compliant. Pathetic! 

Nobody wants to do what is right anymore, without compensation. Contracts figures are inflated, as everyone wants to embezzle money. We are seen as wealthy by foreigners, when in fact, many die, being hungry. We have one of the largest natural gas reserves , but still cannot fix our chronic power issues. Nobody wants to do anything, because nobody cares. Everybody is comfortable, where they are. Nobody wants to speak up, so as not to be indicted. During elections, some of our desperate politicians mobilize the youths to unleash terror, in order to do their dirty bidding. They forget that the lion that is allowed to freely feed on any flesh, would one day feast on the flesh of its owner. 

If you have been to the slums, you will understand why the youths are embittered. If we had done the right thing, we wouldn’t have had any kidnapper stop us on the highways and on our streets. Our houses would not have been burgled, and our properties razed. Our farmlands would have been safe, and our women spared, if we had done the right thing!

What happens to a system that is fantastically corrupt? I mean a system where even the judges are biased, and the others threatened. We claim to be one, but no love to prove we are one. You see brothers fighting brothers, killing themselves. The country is allowed to rot, and at the end the masses suffer for it. When there is insecurity in the nation, these leaders are the first to leave the country. When you go to the airports, you will see a lot of queue, as the whole flights had been booked. Interesting!

Irrespective of all we have seen and heard, I love Nigeria. I believe there are good people here. We do have a conscience, and will not allow the voices of the bad few to drown the voices of the many. If you have an erring child, does that make your entire family corrupt? I don’t think so. We will become great again as a nation. However, this is a task for all of us. Remember, if we do not confront our fears, they will become our greatest nightmares.