Going back on the payroll....

Well, it has been a while since I really blogged. Much have happened since then.

For the past one year and a half, this entrepreneur had taken up employment with two fund management companies, assuming the role of  the head of business development ( I told myself that it actually reads "intrapreneur"). My businesses (Elixir Synergy Venture & DYAZ Associates) still runs as usual either by my own intraprenuer or my partners. Some plans (training) had to be put on hold to accommodate some changes and some had to be shelved altogether. There is actually some order to this chaos... and you know what? I kinda like i!

Moving from full time entreprenuer to employment was not an easy thing, primarily due to ego and the fear that I will forgo the entrepreneurship roller-coaster once I am back on the payroll. There were demons that I had to really wrestle to the ground. Voices in my head said I need to stay on the path of full time entrepreneurship no matter what. Pain is the only way to go. No pain no gain. Risk is entrepreneurship.

Then I told myself, who the fish (expletive) am I to say no to money! I have to start looking at things objectively and make the decisions based on sound reasons; just what an entrepreneur supposed to do.

Firstly, does taking up employment changes myself and removes my entrepreneurship attributes or skills?  Entrepreneurship is about making money, creating wealth. Being paid for your time and skill is the same. If I managed to generate more wealth per hour then I am being enterprising with my time.

Am I then now no longer an entrepreneur because I take lower risk as I am assured of a pay every month? Firstly, let me correct a misconception. Yes, entrepreneurship is about taking risk, but is supposed to be calculated and managed risk. Taking un-calculated and un-managed risk is not entrepreneurship, it is stupid(ship). What happened in my case was that I found myself able to take on more opportunities (and risks) with the cushion of the pay. The extra dough enabled me to invest more in my businesses without having to leverage on outside parties. I was able to give more staying power to my businesses.

Would my businesses and aspirations suffer because now I have a job? Well, part of being a true passive income earner is to have your businesses run without you having to run it yourself. My situation proved as a perfect opportunity for that, for me to build my management team. But before I leave, I have had to set in place systems to monitor (not cctv) the progress of the business on a daily basis. The procedures were in place to make sure the business runs in a way that I wanted it to be run. All I needed was then the people to manage the business and key in the progress into the system (don't spend money, use google drive documents to create your own monitoring spreadsheet. Plus it is real time). The businesses have been growing for the past one year and a half, so the system must be right...at least most of the time.

As for the training business, I will let the brochure at the end of this blog 'tell' you the story.

So remember, entrepreneurship is not about a business, it is about you.

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 If you would like what you read above, we would be grateful if you could 'like' us at our page here. If you would like to to find out or learn more about the the article above, you can email the author directly at yazdi@theelixirstore.com or be his facebook friend here. 

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Smart Marketing: Sales = f(Reach,Response,Conversion)

Hello there, we meet again. Thanks for reading and remember, if you like what you read, share it please.

Now I am sure all of us have been approached by various marketing 'guru' offering a multitude of ways to boost your sales, make a million in two weeks, become a billionaire in two months. There is the 'Guerrilla' marketing method, the pyramid method, the relationship method, the direct selling method, the multi-level method, the blast method, the brand-centric method, the push sales,the pull sales, the customer relationship method.

And the study and books? I have learned them in school, in university and then when working. There were marketing books for dummies, morons and the insane. There were books on everything: branding, advertising, more advertising, budget marketing, some more branding; for experts, layman, and like I said earlier morons.

uh! uh! Don't forget that the Web 2.0 and the Social Media have opened a whole new can of marketing books and studies.

But wait. Hold on a second. Is it really that complicated?

Well, not really.

What I found was that after all these mumbo jumbo, sales must conform to the following formula:

Sales = f (Reach, Response, Conversion)

Sales is a function of reach, the response to the reach (also known as leads), and finally the conversion of those leads. All small business must know this by heart because if not, you could be wasting your marketing budget  and your energy away. I hate to use the acronym ROI (because I have overused it in my days as an investment banker, trying to get best valuations), but this is how you maximise your marketing ROI.

Reach is your visibility and contact with the customers. Most people call this advertising, promotion or marketing. You have to maximise your reach with your marketing/advertising activities.

Response is the positive feedback that you get from your advertising. It is the percentage of those whom you reached decided to take an interest in your product. This rate is very important as it will determine your leads. Some would also immediately buy your products - that is when they are converted.

Conversion from being an interested party to buying party (customer) can happen on the spot, when you are reaching to them for the first time. Some customers take longer, they need to be 'touched' again the second and third time before that make their purchase. This rate is also very important as it determines your sales rate.

Many small businesses make the mistake of focusing too much on the reach, and ignoring the response and conversion rates. In this case, the entrepreneurs will find themselves working very hard to market their product, but coming home with little results to show. It would be very frustrating.

But there are ways to maximise your sales, now that you have the formula. One way is to create an ultimate customer, then create a brand (on a budget). The only way to make big sales with little money is to be creative and resourceful.

Work Smart Everyone

Other suggested reading
1. Start-ups advice
2. Building a business model
3. Entrepreneurs in distress

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If you like the article above, please like us here. :-)

The Author is the principal of ElixirEducate - a training house for Smart Entrepreneur Program Series. If you would like what you read above or want to know more about our training, we would be grateful if you could 'like' us at our page here. If you would like to to find out or learn more about the the article above, you can email the author directly at yazdi@theelixirstore.com or be his facebook friend here.
 
Lastly, if there is anyone that you know who may benefit from reading this article / post please forward and share this posting by clicking the button "Share" below. Have a great day ahead.