By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting CC
So far we have looked at:-
1. The difference between being an employee and an employer;
2. Your Purpose:
3. The People around you and
4. Your Personal Footprint.
5. Knowledge & what you do with it
6. The Generosity of your Spirit
7. The Role of Technology in your Business
8. Self Confidence
9. Creativity
10. Focus
11. Vision
12. Result
13. Networking
14. Leadership
15. Management
16. Problem Solving
17. Being Innovative
18. Teamwork
19. Strategy
Believe it or not there are a whole lot more – today we will explore a few more.
1. Branding
We all know just how important it is to brand ourselves. Think about it for a moment, even the huge big brands like Coca Cola continue to spend millions on advertising, just to ensure that their branding remains forefront in the minds of the general populace. Even the famous ‘no name brands’ are . . . well brands in themselves – they brand the Pick ‘n Pay’s and the Checkers, as the in-house cheaper, but ‘just as good quality’ products.
The message is therefore very clear – if you don’t brand yourself, you are quite possibly branding someone else and you are most definitely sending prospective client’s elsewhere. So get yourself and your company properly branded before you start you marketing campaigns.
2. Marketing
Marketing is about getting your message out there – the “who you are” and the “what you sell”, be that product or service. It makes logical sense then that who you are and what you sell will only affect the people that ‘hear’ about you or travel as far as your message goes. Pretty much like you may very well be known by everybody at your child’s nursery school, if you move to another province no-one at the new nursery school will know you at all. In order for your marketing to be successful it has to reach everyone in your target market.
3. Profit and Passion
Unless you are a well-heeled (or married to a well-heeled) philanthropist, the fact of the matter is that you will need to make a living and in order to make a living you will need to make a profit. Yes I know that ‘doing what you love’ means that it doesn’t feel like work, but that’s the beauty of doing what you love and charging for it – you will get out as much as you put in! Okay, you might not get it out straight away, but you will reap the rewards at some point. My workshop that was written almost 10 years ago now, has just brought in a huge lump sum and I mean huge – I wish you could see the look of pure glee on my face right now. Actually if the truth be told, it is exactly that passion that you need in order to put the kind of effort in that will determine the kind of rewards that you will eventually get out.
If you’re doing it for free, you are not a business person but rather a philanthropist, if you are doing it for a fee then you are a business person – the challenge here of course is that you need to decide just who you are.
Next time we will continue to look at some of the other issues that you will need or be aware of to become a successful Entrepreneur.
Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za
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