5 Big Distractions That Sabotage Your Entrepreneurial Success

Seldom does success come easily in business. Not to be pessimistic, but most entrepreneurs who make it have inevitably faced a myriad of challenges along the way. That’s just the way it is.

And what has stunted their growth and success along the way hasn't necessarily been major obstacles or turbulent storms. It's been the distractions they've allowed to invade their lives. These are often subtle distractions, so entrepreneurs may not even know there’s a problem until one day they wake up to see that their efforts have been derailed.

Listening to too many people

I’ve seen it time and time again. An otherwise intelligent, ambitious and driven entrepreneur with a seemingly infinite number of great ideas allows his or her vision to become clouded by listening to everyone else’s opinion.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s important to get feedback. Connecting with the right mentorscan be integral for finding success.  

However, listening to too many people is a sure-fire way to become overwhelmed. It’s often the catalyst for self-doubt. When you’ve got too many voices in your head telling you what’s right and what’s wrong, your own inner beacon of light can’t properly shine.

All of a sudden you’re second-guessing yourself, and your decision-making becomes hazy. That's why I recommend getting opinions and feedback from just a few select people whom you trust and know have your best interests in mind.

. Procrastinating on critical tasks

“I’ll procrastinate tomorrow” is a humorous line that captures the essence of prolonging important tasks just because they don’t seem very appealing at the moment. Procrastination, however, often creates a vicious cycle where it gets easier and easier to put off what you should being doing right now.

Without keeping this problem in check, you may develop a habit of laziness, which can doom your overall success.

One technique that I’ve found useful is to prioritize my tasks in order of importance and difficulty. I then tackle the biggest and baddest tasks early in the day when I have the most energy, and save the tasks that are lower on the totem pole for later.

Another reason why I believe that many people procrastinate is simply because they’re overwhelmed or intimidated by certain tasks. However, this can usually be remedied by breaking larger tasks down into smaller, more manageable steps.

This approach might be compared to scoring a touchdown in football. If you simply focus on getting first downs, you’ll eventually make it to the end zone.   

Source: ENTREPRENEUR

Crude Oil Price Plunges on Surprise Inventory Growth

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory of 521.1 million barrels. The commercial crude inventory remains at historically high levels for this time of year, according to the EIA.

A combination of rising gasoline inventories and small, but steady, increases in the U.S. onshore rig count continue to weigh on crude prices. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for September delivery dipped to a low of $42.51 early Wednesday morning, nearly 1% below its closing price on Tuesday.

uesday evening the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories fell by 827,000 barrels in the week ending July 15. API also reported gasoline supplies decreased by 423,000 barrels and distillate supplies rose by 292,000 barrels. For the same period, analysts had estimated a decrease of around 2.3 million barrels in crude inventories, along with a rise of 36,000 barrels in gasoline supplies and a 714,000-barrel increase in distillates.

Total gasoline inventories increased by 500,000 barrels last week, according to the EIA, and remain well above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the agency’s measure of consumption) averaged about 9.8 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 2.6% compared with the same period a year ago.

Earlier this week, James Mick, managing director and portfolio manager at energy investment firm Tortoise Capital Advisors noted:

Concerns seem to be centered on a potential gasoline inventory glut despite peak seasonal demand. The narrative is based on the warm winter weather and resultant weak diesel cracks forcing refiners earlier in the year to shift away from the normal seasonal diesel production and instead favor gasoline. The result was a build of gasoline and while demand has been strong, it has not been enough to overcome the negative sentiment.

Despite concerns, gasoline inventory levels are still within the five-year range and just a few days above normal on a days-supplied basis when factoring in the current higher level of overall demand. With refinery maintenance coming up in September, this definitely is something to watch for in regards to near-term crude oil prices.

Before the EIA report, WTI crude for September delivery traded up about 0.5% at around $43.13 a barrel, and it tumbled to around $42.40 shortly after the report’s release. WTI crude settled at $42.92 on Tuesday. The 52-week range on September futures is $32.85 to $54.91.

Distillate inventories decreased by 800,000 barrels last week and remain above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Distillate product supplied averaged over 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 0.2% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged over 4.9 million barrels a day last week, roughly flat compared with the prior week’s production of 5 million barrels.

For the past week, crude imports averaged over 8.4 million barrels a day, up by about 303,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 92.4% of capacity, with daily input averaging about 16.6 million barrels, about 277,000 barrels a day less than the previous week’s average.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.148, down from $2.194 a week ago and down about 16 cents compared with the month-ago price. Last year at this time, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $2.710 on average in the United States.

Source:24/7

7 Tips For Success For Social Entrepreneurs

Sophi Tranchell  is the CEO of a chocolate company that is shaking up the chocolate industry. Divine Chocolate’s radical proposition turns the usual supply chain on its head, putting cocoa farmers high up the value chain, with the biggest share in the company. The company, which now does £12.6 million (approximately $16.5 million dollars) in annual sales, was set up from the start as a social enterprise, driven by its social mission: “To grow a successful global farmer-owned chocolate company using the amazing power of chocolate to delight and engage, and bring people together to create dignified trading relations, thereby empowering producers and consumers.”

When you are running a company that is positioned directly opposite the status quo, and competing alongside well-established popular brands, you need absolute belief in your mission, and a personal commitment to your vision of what can be achieved. Your long-term goal is to prove that yours could be a new and better way for business to be done.

Tranchell and Divine Chocolate are multi-award winning pioneering social enterprises in one of the most competitive Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market sectors. Most recently, Tranchell scooped a Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year accolade, and was also honored with an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) award from the Queen, for her services to the UK food industry. After 18 years experience with the successes and setbacks of pursuing her vision — a world where cocoa farmers are remunerated sustainably and empowered, so chocolate can be celebrated and cherished by everyone — Tranchell shares her top seven tips for those thinking about setting up their own socially motivated enterprise.

Get your product and price right.

“However inspiring your company mission and however many people it benefits, your company will not succeed unless its product and/or service is as good as or better than its direct competitors,” Tranchell says. Divine Chocolate’s aim was to introduce a high quality premium chocolate product — so it was very clear who their major competitors were. “Our challenge was not just to produce an excellent product. We had to find a factory of the standard and capacity we required which was independent and prepared to make all Divine products with our own traceable sustainably sourced supply of cocoa. We wanted to be careful about our main manufacturing partner, and also protect our supply chain. That is the key to our mission, but it puts an additional premium on the product which can’t be passed onto the consumer.” Managing product quality at a competitive price is a tough challenge for any company, but it becomes especially complex when the company also must stick to this kind of mission. “It’s crucial to build in enough margin to allow you to market appropriately in your category,” she advises.

Articulate your mission clearly.

“Articulating your mission clearly is really important,” Tranchell notes. She continues, “It needs to both convince and attract investors and partners, and it needs at all times to drive what the company does. The mission must remind all your staff and partners why they are doing this work. It should encompass the benefit(s) you want to deliver, the people you will be impacting, and how you’re going to accomplish it.” As you grow the company, this mission will be your anchor as well as your driving force. Along with “agreed upon company values,” it will help you and your staff focus on what is important, and “make decisions that sometimes fly in the face of normal business practices in your sector.”

Articulate a strong USP.

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is unlikely to be purely your social mission. “You need to find a way to capture how your social mission is related to the quality of your product, which is not always easy or straightforward,” Tranchell explains. “At Divine Chocolate, our USP is presented as ‘owned by cocoa farmers, made for chocolate lovers’ – which does not suggest a direct causal relationship between ownership and product quality, but does combine two ‘feel-good’ reasons for choosing our products.”

Choose your investors and Board members carefully.

Your mission and your business plan are both equally important when wooing investors and Board members. You are looking for people who share your values and who will be patient and supportive, rather than looking for a quick return, or immediate success. “It is also sensible to find a mix of people who can bring a really useful mix of experience and/or influence to the business,” Tranchell suggests. “Divine Chocolate started out with an investment from TWIN, the NGO specializing in working with smallholder farmers, ethical retailer The Body Shop, and development NGOs Christian Aid and Comic Relief. All had complementary missions, and could offer different types of support. For example, The Body Shop provided a customer network and an initial outlet; Christian Aid and Comic Relief also offered access to huge networks. They were names that carried a lot of positive brand awareness and integrity in the UK. We have also invited people with very useful experience in the FMCG market to join our Board.”

Engage with your grassroots audience, and empower them to help change happen.

It is likely that the aim of your social mission is aligned with the desires of activists and proactive consumer groups already in existence, with their own networks. “Even if they are not necessarily the right target market for the product you are selling, these people and groups will be predisposed to help you promote your values-based product to others who are,” Tranchell explains. “Divine Chocolate is very fortunate to be selling chocolate, a product loved by almost everyone. We reached out from the start to the Fair Trade network, already well established in the UK, as well as to religious communities. We focused in on their desire to alleviate poverty, and to realize that they were really making a difference. It is in the nature of campaigners to want something they can do, and Divine Chocolate provided an easy ask: “To love chocolate is human, to choose Fair Trade is Divine.’”

Read more here

Source: Forbes

Entrepreneurs Need To Embrace Futurism

Entrepreneurs often struggle to capture lightning in a bottle by trying to create a product today that anticipates tomorrow’s trends. But are the bulk of these entrepreneurs not looking far enough ahead?

Early this month, The New York Times ran a fascinating article that talked a little about the recently deceased futurist Alfred Toffler’s work (Future Shock) and the demise of the idea most associated with him, futurism:

"In many large ways, it’s almost as if we have collectively stopped planning for the future. Instead, we all just sort of bounce along in the present, caught in the headlights of a tomorrow pushed by a few large corporations and shaped by the inescapable logic of hyper-efficiency — a future heading straight for us. It’s not just future shock; we now have future blindness.

Farhad Manjoo, who wrote the Times piece, argues that many technological changes are happening so quickly that global crises are occurring as a result. The thrust of this piece is that our governments should really take a closer look at the academic study of futurism and try to determine how to better and more smoothly integrate technology in order to prepare for the future.

Webb explains that too often, a company or app takes off, and people assume that it represents a trend worth investing in.

“When in reality, that underlying technology may be something that’s useful in this moment, but it will eventually become something else without paying attention to meaningful trends,” she says, using beepers as an example. For a brief moment in history, many people were interested in investing in beepers without being able to see that beepers weren’t the trend, mobile communication was. “True trends signify the leverage of a modern behavior more than a shining object,” says Webb, who will be publishing a book.The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, later this year. “If you’re not serious about tracing trends, as an entrepreneur you are being irresponsible.”

Source: Forbes 

Why Failure Is The Key To Workplace Culture Success

What do potato chips, Post-It Notes, pacemakers, penicillin and Silly Putty all have in common?

They were all created by making mistakes. In fact, in each case, the inventor was attempting to create something completely different and thought that he had failed with the final product. Of course, as decades have gone by and profits have been made, the benefit of hindsight tells us that these so-called failures were actually triumphs. It’s like that old adage about Thomas Edison and the light bulb: 

When questioned on his many failures, he retorted that he hadn’t failed 10,000 times, but succeeded in finding 10,000 methods that wouldn’t work.

Failure, mistakes, mishaps — they all play a vital role in helping employees learn and grow, too. Unfortunately, however, organizations penalize mistakes and create employees who are risk-averse and too shy or nervous to try anything new. The best companies are those that encourage failure, embrace out-of-the-box thinking, and allow employees to make mistakes and see what happens.

Your Brain Actually Expands On Failure

Something interesting happens to the brain when you make a mistake. According to a report in published in Scientific American, your brain begins compiling information about the experience and actually gets bigger throughout the learning scenario. And, while the brain returns to close to its original size after the learning experience, it retains new neural pathways by taking in new information, compiling the key takeaways from trial and error. Making mistakes matures the brain, resulting in more efficient synapses and fundamentally altered neurons. In short, failure can actually makes you smarter.

Source: forbes

Nigerian Naira Heads To The Rocks, Declines 0.3% to 294

Nigerian Naira on Wednesday keeps heading to its normal value as Central Bank of Nigeria hands off on the country's currency.

The naira declines 0.3% to 294.25 against the United States Dollar as of 2:54pm in Lagos, record low on a closing basis.

Also, Naira to dollar 3-month non-deliverable forwards fall 0.9% to 328 against the USD

On the black market, the naira on Tuesday depreciated further against the dollar exchanging at N368/$. The previous day, it traded at N365 per dollar.

Source:nigeriabulletin

Bill Gates: Why young entrepreneurs are Africa’s greatest hope

Bill Gates believes countries throughout Africa can obtain economic prosperity and fairly distributed wealth — but only by mobilizing the region’s young entrepreneurs.

He shared his optimistic vision as he delivered the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at South Africa’s University of Pretoria over the weekend. Gates said that the dynamism of youth has the power to change the world, noting that Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and he himself all began their entrepreneurial journeys before turning 22.

“Young people are better than old people at driving innovation, because they are not locked in by the limits of the past,” Gates said. “When I started Microsoft in 1975 – at the age of 19 – computer science was a young field. We didn’t feel beholden to old notions about what computers could or should do. We dreamed about the next big thing, and we scoured the world around us for the ideas and the tools that would help us create it.”

The youthful audacity to dream big and execute on those dreams, Gates said, are essential to tackling the daunting challenges Africa faces today. He noted that several young entrepreneurs in Africa have already created some solutions.

Gates described Thato Kgatlhanye, who founded Repurpose Schoolbags at 23 years old. The startup recycles plastic shopping bags and turns them into book bags with solar panels that charge during a child’s walk to and from school. The solar energy powers a light to help students do homework after the sun sets.

On the non-profit side, Gates highlighted an NGO called Educate!, which teaches high school students the skills they need to start their own businesses.

“The real returns will come if we can multiply this talent for innovation by the whole of Africa’s growing youth population,” he said. “That depends on whether Africa’s young people — all of Africa’s young people — are given the opportunity to thrive.”

Fortunately, as the world’s youngest continent, Africa has a large pool of youthful energy and creativity. In the next 35 years 2 billion babies will be born on the continent and by 2050 40 percent of the world’s children will live in Africa, according to Gates.

But, unfortunately, Africa’s young people face some major challenges. They are entering the age where they are most at risk of contracting HIV, a disease that still has a very high rate of infection. Malnutrition, which goes hand in hand with poverty, also prevents young people from reaching their full potential. Gates points out that nearly one-third of Africa’s children suffer from malnutrition and millions more have micronutrient deficiencies.

“Candidly, it’s hard to imagine a better future for Africa’s youth without tackling this problem,” Gates said.

He also calls for education reform to help young would-be entrepreneurs reach their potential.

Throughout his speech, Gates described ways that technology can address these issues with greater efficiency. Mobile phone adoption in Africa is growing rapidly, leapfrogging computers which require more energy and WiFi. By digitizing education, finances and other aspects of life in Africa, Gates says, we can tap a larger pool of innovators.

“If there is one thing I’m sure of, it is this: Africa can achieve the future it aspires to,” he said. “That future depends on the people of Africa working together, across economic and social strata and across national borders, to lay a foundation so that Africa’s young people have the opportunities they deserve

Source: Geekwire

Entrepreneurs' Four Worst Personality Traits And The One That Can Redeem Them

Recent psychological research hints that entrepreneurs may boast a few advantages over the general population—for instance, in their ability to cope with stress, higher levels of optimism, and resilience. But those advantages, such as they are, may come at a price. Researchers have noticed how these characteristics often go hand in hand with less savory ones. Here's a look at four of the more common negative personally traits entrepreneurs tend to share, plus one that can not only hold the others in check but even put them to good use.

1. PROBLEMS WITH AUTHORITY

Entrepreneurs have been found on balance to distrust authority, and it's easy to understand why. They dislike the status quo and are reluctant to follow rules. That's why they make much better leaders than followers and tend to be innovative thinkers. But this tendency may also help explain why many great entrepreneurs are too volcanic and emotionally unintelligent to be good managers. Even the Dalai Lama would be stressed working for Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezoz

2. EXCESSIVE RISK-TAKING

We often celebrate bold risk-taking in successful business leaders, but some studies suggest entrepreneurs are more prone to take risks to a reckless degree. Although the reasons for this are unclear, there are two probable causes. One has to do with a low tolerance for boredom, which propels entrepreneurs (and criminals) to seek out risky activities sheerly for the thrilling experience. This pattern of behavior is also pretty common among artists and those who love extreme sports like deep-sea diving, mountain boarding, and skydiving, and the like.

A high percentage of corporate crimes can be pretty reliably correlated with the narcissistic personalities of their perpetrators.

The other reason relates to a tendency to distort reality in one’s favor. That is, entrepreneurs are more inclined than most to interpret events as opportunities—largely because they're more prone to overconfidence and less aware of threats than other people generally are. In the psychological sense, at least, it may not be totally ludicrous to regard some entrepreneurs as highly functioning psychopaths.

3. HIGH LEVELS OF NARCISSISM

As some studies indicate, entrepreneurs are often more self-centered and can be susceptible to feelings of entitlement. That occasionally gives many business leaders the vision they're celebrated for. Sometimes—think Henry Ford, Walt Disney, or Elon Musk—those visions are translated into actual innovation. However, for plenty of ambitious entrepreneurs, their visions will remain just dreams. As Thomas Edison famously noted, "vision without implementation is just hallucination." Perhaps it isn't all that surprising that such a high percentage of corporate crimes can be LEVELS with the narcissistic personalities of their perpetrators.

4. MACHIAVELLIANISM

Psychological studies suggest that entrepreneurs are often more manipulative, which arguably helps them become effective salespeople. Remember that successfully entrepreneurship is as much about having great ideas as it is aboutpersuading people that they're great.

In that sense, entrepreneurial people are more likely to possess a dangerous combination of higher social skills and lower moral inhibitions. This sometimes helps them charm and influence others, or even take advantage of them.

WHAT IT TAKES TO HARNESS BAD HABITS

Many of these qualities are well known, having seeped into the popular imagination. But not only do many of these personality tendencies have roots in science, researchers are also beginning to understand how they can be channeled for either positive or negative outcomes. After all, a narcissistic personality, for instance, doesn't necessarily predict destructive behavior—some narcissists can do real good in the world.

Even people with counterproductive personality traits can be effective.

The question, then, is what determines whether individuals with these characteristics will find success in entrepreneurship—in ways that don't come at others' expense—or simply wind up criminals. One key differentiator some studies have indicated is self-control: The more conscientious or prudent people are—no matter their other characteristics—the less likely they'll be to drawn toward harmful or illegal activities.

Researchers are still parsing the links between IQ and delinquency, sensitive to the more direct causal role that poverty plays in crime, but some studies suggestthat cognitive abilities may have a more indirect influence on criminal behavior as well, when coupled with other predictive personally traits including self-control. Finally, gender also seems to be a factor—even though that finding may also be more heavily influenced by social forces than psychological ones: While researchers have found no major differences in entrepreneurial aptitude between men and women, men have been found to be more likely to engage in illegal activities than women.

Personality is far from the only factor that influences success or failure for entrepreneurs. Education, geography, the quality of your ideas, and of course luck, all play roles—sometimes decisively. Even people with counterproductive personality traits can be effective. They key is first becoming aware of them and, second, possessing the self-control to channel those negative tendencies into useful results.

It's actually pretty hard to think of a single well-known business leader who hasn'tshown some kind of disruptive—and even delinquent—personality qualities. But it's equally difficult to think of one who didn't manage to harness those tendencies or balance them out by relying on people with strong personalities of an opposite sort. After all, few of us accomplish great things alone. An arguably true test of our personalities is how we behave—indeed, who we become—when we interact with others.

Source:FAST COMPANY

6 Ways to Make Your Business Look Big While You're Still Growing It

One key way to establish trust and credibility in your industry is to give the appearance that your company is much larger than it is. Even if you have a small budget, you can invest in products and services that allow you to look and feel more like a corporation, even though you’re still a small business.

1. Get a central business address.

If you’re running your business from home, it can be dangerous to list that address online.

Whether you pay for virtual office space in your city or simply opt to get a box from your local UPS store, you’ll have a standard street address you can use to receive mail.

Many of these services also allow you to receive packages from FedEx and UPS so you can separate home and business purchases with ease. Some services will also scan your mail, and send it to you via email, to make it easier to keep up with what’s coming in so you don’t have to physically go pick up your mail every day

2. Use larger invoice numbers.

If you’re sending out quotes and invoices to clients, start with higher numbers.

This gives the appearance that you’ve been in business longer than you have been and facilitates buyer trust and confidence. If you use a small invoice number like 12 or 20, it may make the customer feel like you just opened your business last week. Even if you did just open your business last week, you don’t want to project that image to your customers.

Many invoicing solutions, such as PayPal and Quickbooks allow you to choose your starting invoice number, so you can keep things organized for your accounting and bookkeeping needs.

3. Use a virtual private branch exchange (PBX).

A PBX is a telephone system that allows you to switch calls between various lines while allowing all employees to share the same single phone system. Instead of investing thousands of dollars in a physical PBX system, turn to a cloud-based option that uses voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) like Skype.

You’ll get to choose your own phone number, or port an existing number over, and you’ll be able to provide multiple extensions for extension-to-extension dialing within your company. With a virtual PBX, you can also back your business with a toll-free number and have a virtual answering service direct users to the right department to address their issues.

4. Don’t use a formal title on your business card.

If you’re a one-person operation, it’s clear you’re the CEO. But, what’s not clear is why the CEO would be doing everything in the business. Until your business grows to include multiple employees or contractors, just skip using a title on your business cards and other communications altogether

5. Pay special attention to your website.

Your website is the face of your business and is open 24/7. There are many ways you can create a professional looking, quality website, even on a budget.

With free platforms like WordPress, you can invest a few hundred dollars into your domain, hosting and a premium theme and be up and running in a couple of hours. Or, you can hire a professional designer to create a completely custom look for you.

Regardless of which route you take, make sure to include essential information such as your address, phone number, hours of operation, email address and a contact form, so people can easily reach you.

If your sell physical products or services, one way to make your company look bigger is to include an online store option. This is also affordable and easy to do with a number of solutions online. Just make sure you have the tools you need to ship orders in a timely manner.

When it comes to the copy on your website, use plural language like “we” instead of "I." This will automatically suggest you have a larger team of employees working for you.

6. Convert your sole proprietorship to an LLC.

Though it will take a bit of cash, there are several online legal assistance services to help you. Laws and procedures vary by state but consider taking the time to convert to an LLC, also known as a limited liability corporation. Even solopreneurs can benefit from an LLC.

With an LLC, you can choose to file taxes as if you were a corporation, which stops the business from being taxed through your personal federal tax return. Registering an LLC requires less paperwork than registering an S-Corporation or a C-Corporation.

With an LLC Operating Agreement, you’ll be able to create the rules that govern your business. Otherwise, your state’s laws will be the default rules.

Under an LLC, the members are protected from liability. You are not personally liable for any judgments or debts against the company. As such, if your business runs into legal or financial trouble, your creditors are forbidden from seeking your personal assets, such as your home or car.

Though it may feel deceptive, there’s nothing wrong with putting on a bigger face to the world. As your company grows, you’ll bring on additional staff to handle the load, and this way, you’ll be ready for it all from the start.

Source: ENTREPRENEUR

3 Strategies To Generate Wealth (Not To Be Confused With Income

I read this article on Forbes website.. it brought to light what being wealthy is all about...If I make 100,000 a year, I may not be wealthy..I must be crazy to say that, right? Well, take a look at what Forbes says on this issue

"We all want to make more money – that’s why you’re reading this article. Yet while many of us went to college or started successful businesses, we still struggle with figuring out how to move past living paycheck to paycheck or generating enough income to move into being “wealthy.” After all, if you need to “work” to meet your financial needs, you’re not wealthy

Official definitions of wealth include having an abundance of money, valuable possessions or material things. But this doesn’t quite cut the mustard. Taking it a step further, wealth for our purposes is defined as having enough of said money and valuable possessions to preserve your current lifestyle without having to work to do so.

Income, on the other hand, can simply be defined as earned compensation for performing a service, selling goods or property. Passive income is also included, which would include income earned from financial investments.

Check out these two examples:

Sally makes $100,000 a year (aka a six-figure income) but is by no means wealthy.She makes just enough to cover the rent on her expensive New York City apartment, pay student loans, cover the minimums on her credit card payments, pay groceries and has a little saved for a rainy day.

Rebecca on the other hand makes the same $100,000 a year but has managed to save prudently while maintaining a modest lifestyle. Though she makes a handsome salary, she’s chosen to live a debt-free life with $2 million saved from various investments. She can easily choose to retire now and live on roughly $57,000 for the next 35 years without needing to work again.

The lesson? While Sally makes a six-figure income, she is just about broke. Rebecca is wealthy. We want wealthy."

Am sure am now making sense... let's see what investopedia says...

"Investopedia gives a simple breakdown on how to generate wealth: make it, save it and then invest it.

1. Making it. When thinking about generating wealth, this is the first step. How will you make enough to not only cover your living expenses but save the rest to invest in other areas to build long-term wealth? The goal is to be in a position where you don’t have to work or earn money to maintain your lifestyle. Making it includes earned and/or passive income. This can include the traditional route of going to school and securing a high-paying job while living on a modest income or earning passive income by accumulating a massive rental portfolio in which you are earning income and building assets. There are many ways and combinations that can help you achieve your goal of making enough money to become wealthy.

If this is a struggle for you, ask yourself the following questions:

How much money do I make now?Is this enough to cover my expenses while saving and investing to accomplish the goal of being wealthy?If not, what can I do to change course?What path will ultimately get me on the path toward making enough to become wealthy?

2. Saving it. Now that we’ve covered making the money, let’s discuss saving it. Many people delude themselves into thinking they don’t have enough to save, but this is rarely the case. They usually have a spending problem that includes too much fat in the budget. If this pertains to you, stop that. Get a realistic budget and stick to it. Get rid of the extra stuff you don’t need, and get serious about your long-term goals. Your budget is a living document, and it can and will change. This is OK. Maintain your goal and be purposed in your daily spending. It’s easier said than done, but if wealth is your ultimate goal then the financial whims of today need to take a back seat.

3. Investing it. Investing your money requires a gut check. In other words, what’s your risk tolerance? If you’re like me, then you think the stock market is a fool’s errand that should be avoided. If you’re like others, then the stock market is your playground. What can you tolerate? Other options for investing your cash include real estate investments such as flipping or buying and holding properties to build equity while making a profit on the rents collected. How you choose to invest your money depends on your values and risk tolerance. I tend to lean toward real estate because this is an area I’ve studied carefully while taking into account all of the risks and potential benefits. That works for me. What investing strategy works for you?

Income and wealth, while related, are very different. Many of us can earn an income but few are truly wealthy. When considering your path to creating wealth, review the above-mentioned strategies and chart your path. Not having to get up and go to work is a great feeling because you now own your day. On the other hand, working for a paycheck maintains your position in having to work for a living. What works for you? Start there."

It isn't how much you earn that makes you wealthy.. it is what you have left after earning that makes you wealthy..Here in Nigeria, things are really tough.. House rent bills are killing... Can you cut down on somethings? Can you live a modest and debt free life?If you "make it", "save it" and "invest it", you can cope...

*Some content taking from Forbes"..
Credit: Forbes.com

4 Tips for Marketing Events That Will Transform Your Online Business

Event marketing can help your online business generate a lot of buzz and attention among influencers. While this marketing approach is most common among well-established businesses, its effectiveness can also be employed for small scale online businesses.

One of the drawbacks of any form of marketing, online or offline, is getting it to work for your business. Same goes for event marketing. While using events to expand the reach of your online business might sound like a regular affair, there are a couple of tricky aspects to it. This article covers tips you should master to see effective results with your next event marketing.

1. Target likely influencers.

It might be easy to convince influencers to attend your events, but getting them to promote you is not.

In order to attract the right set of eyeballs to your business, you need to target influencers that are relevant to your industry. These are authorities that readers in your niche rely on for recommendations and advice. By targeting these people, your event will yield more value.See how to determine if an influencer is a good fit for your event:

Do they talk about things that matter to your audience? If an influencer mostly talks about subjects that your target audience would not want to read on a regular basis, chances are they won't drive targeted traffic to your online business.

Who do they associate with? If the influencers you're targeting only associate with others that do not know a thing about your industry, their audience will not find any interest in what you're talking about too.

How active are they online? Study the influencer's online sharing habits before inviting them to your event. If they don't share content from others, chances are they won't promote you.

2. Prime customers through social media.

You should increase the interest of the influencers in your event. If you've gotten an influencer lined up for your event, keep them engaged through emails and social media. A strategic use of anticipation though repeat mentions and reminders on their favorite social network will heighten their interest in the event.

You want to reach out to them on Twitter, mentioning your event where an opportunity rises. However, avoid overdoing it. Using the right hashtag in your conversations with them and mentioning them once in a while in relevant conversations will do the trick.

3. Engage like-minded partners.

Another way to ensure your event marketing is successful is by bringing other experts on-board to host the event with you. Identify key players in your industry whose presence you know will  encourage influencers to attend your event.There are several roles participating partners can add value to your event; the following are some of them.

Sponsorship: You do not need to bear the cost of hosting an event on your own. When your event is hosted together with a partner that contributes financially to help bring your event to live, they will have a sense of ownership that makes them want to promote it further.

Exhibitors: Your other partners could be co-exhibitors who also want to showcase their business. Having co-exhibitors will add diversity to your event and help broaden the reach of the event through cross-promotion. However, be picky of who your exhibiting partners are in order to avoid distorting the aim of the event.

Content: Great content is the backbone of a successful event marketing. As you seek partners to generate content for your event, a good angle to look at are your users. User generated content can enhance your event marketing.

4. Use souvenirs to make a lasting impression.

This will work only if the event is an in-person show. Events that bring people together in the real world can help to promote your business on the internet. By handing souvenirs to attendees and influencers who attend your event, the event will be memorable and have your marketing effort reach more mile.This could include printing a complementary card for the invited influencers that incorporates the event into their brand. As they give the business cards to people, your event can spark conversations and help promote your brand further.

Source: ENTREPRENEUR (ayodeji onibalusi)

Why This Auto Repair Franchise Expanded to Nigeria

Image credit: Body Lawson Studios

Most domestic companies start their international expansion by staying in the neighborhood, playing it relatively safe by venturing into Canada or maybe Mexico. Moran Family of Brands is taking a different route, one that stretches 5,972 miles from the automotive repair and maintenance franchisor’s Midlothian, Ill., home, all the way to Lagos, Nigeria.

That’s where, this past March, the company broke ground on its first foreign franchise, a 38,000-square-foot facility that will serve as both a cobranded Mr. Transmission/Milex Complete Auto Care shop and headquarters for master franchisees Temi Adelu-Davis and Glen Davis. Temi is a native of Nigeria who came to the U.S. to earn her MBA while Glen ran an auto repair store in Houston. Now relocated to Lagos, the couple will be responsible for operating their shop once it opens this fall as well as recruiting franchisees to open nine more locations throughout Nigeria over the next seven years.

We spoke to Moran’s president, Pete Baldine, about the company’s first foray into a foreign market.

It took 26 years for Moran to go international. Why now? And why Nigeria?

It had more to do with the right people. We’d looked at other international opportunities over the years but never felt comfortable enough to move forward. The Davises actually approached us, and after several months of due diligence, we felt confident that they not only had the financial strength and leadership ability necessary, but that they knew their market.

Why did they choose you?

They had done their research and looked at some of our competitors, but they liked our cobrand option and felt that a “one-stop shop” strategy was right for Nigeria. 

Did you have to make any adjustments to your system?

Because parts sourcing is limited in Nigeria, we’re making their facility larger than normal so they can warehouse parts there to supply future franchise locations. We also modified our training program, adding an entire week to teach them how to award franchises, get them open and support the franchisees.

What’s in store for the future?

The Nigerian deal got the inertia going. Now we’re ready to continue that international movement. We’re already working on a deal to sign another master franchisee in Liberia, and we’ve signed on with two brokerage groups to help us expand in Europe and the Middle East.

SOURCE: ENTREPRENEUR (TRACY STAPP)

5 Toxic People Who Will Stunt Your Business Growth

Image credit: shutterstock 

When your business stops growing and your sales are down, your first instinct is to examine the numbers or take a hard look at your product line. But what if the numbers are solid and your products pass the test? 

How much thought do you give the people who sell your products? Are they fully invested in your company and continually growing your business? Are they doing everything they possibly can to improve your company? Do they possess desirable traits to engage customers, or do people avoid being around them at all costs? Maybe it’s time to make sure you have the right people and the right environment in your company.

A few types of people can disrupt your business growth. Read below to see how many you might recognize in your own company.

1. The know-it-alls.

I’m sure we've all encountered people in the workplace who think they have all the answers. They critique how everyone else performs certain tasks. It doesn't matter whether they're criticizing a manager or an employee. Know-it-alls always point out how the job could’ve been done better or how they would’ve done it differently.In their eyes, they could easily run the entire company with no problems. Know-it-alls usually don’t know very much, but they talk a big game. Make sure to cut any know-it-alls out of your company. They will only create problems for your team and your brand.

2. The unmotivated.

In my opinion, this is the most common culprit across every company. Unmotivated individuals will not help your business grow. They will do the minimum amount of work, putting forth baseline effort so they don't get fired. If extra work needs doing, they'll ignore the issue or try to find a shortcut to complete the task as soon as possible.

We all know what happens when you take shortcuts in business. As a leader, the best thing you can do is learn what motivates each employee. It's something different for everyone. Discover what drives your workers, and they'll go the extra mile to help grow your business.

3. The insomniacs.

There is a huge misconception about sleep and building a company. Many people think you have to either lose sleep or sleep only a few hours a day -- after all, that's valuable time you could use to improve your business. That simply isn’t accurate. Arianna Huffington, author of "The Sleep Revolution" and cofounder of the Huffington Post, believes the opposite: “By sleeping more, we become more competent and in control of our lives," she says.

The same is true of your workers. If an employee isn’t getting enough sleep, you'll see an exhausted team member. Workers who lack energy for day-to-day living can't possibly do what’s needed to help you grow your business. Make sure the people who surround you make well-balanced sleep patterns a priority. You want them at 100 percent, not 55 percent. 

4. The complainers.

Unfortunately, there are far too many of these types. Complainers readily tell others about their awful bosses or how they wish they had another job. If you allow complaining in your company, you will see overall morale decrease dramatically. And of course that affects your growth potential. 

If you lead a company and get complaints that people don’t like you, work on becoming a better person. But if the majority of people find you likeable and only a few constantly complain, it's time to part ways. Keeping these people within your business will contribute to creating a poor company culture.

5. The liars.

Maintaining customer trust tops the list for achieving business growth. Customers who trust you will continue to buy your products and will refer you to everyone they know. But if someone in your company consistently over-promises and under-delivers, that someone will drive away your customers. Liars typically exaggerate a product's benefits, all in the name of making a sale.

There's just one big problem: After the sale, the customer generally returns to get a refund and tells all their friends about their negative experience. Being honest with your customers is the best way to keep them coming back. If you hear too many customer complaints about a particular salesperson, cut ties before he or she damages your company's reputation. 

Stunted growth isn't always about the quality of your product or how many calls your sales team makes. It could simply be that some of the people you hired to help you succeed actually are hindering your goals. Pay close attention to whom you bring aboard. They might just be costing you to lose business.

Source: ENTREPRENEUR (Tyler Leslie)

Six Steps To Grow Your Business With Referrals

DO you have enough customers? Here’s a better question: Do you have enough of the right kind of customers?

Do you agonize and strategize over the marketing plan you’ve designed to position offerings in front of your profile prospect? What’s the right message, platform, frequency, etc.? And do you then pray that the precious cash you’ve commit to marketing crosses over that pivotal line from expense to investment?

Agony and prayer; not a great strategy, right? But if this sounds familiar, you’re in good company. Marketing legend, John Wanamaker (1838-1922) once lamented, “Half of my advertising budget is wasted; I just don’t know which half.” It’s true, marketing metrics have come a long way since Mr. Wanamaker’s time, but that emerging science has been somewhat marginalized by increasing pressure from the digital marketplace. Indeed, getting customers on the proverbial dotted line is still challenging in the 21^st century, especially for small businesses.

Beyond marketing, perhaps the primary reason for our customer acquisition challenge can be attributed to a human trait that’s at once primordial and unfortunate: We make things harder than they have to be. There are many examples, but arguably one of the most dramatic is also one of the simplest to fix: failure to ask for referrals.

Business referrals are now, and have always been there for the picking. And they’re as old school fundamental as they are new school relevant. So why don’t more people take advantage of this low-hanging fruit? It’s that can’t-get-out-of-my-own-way thing. Too many salespeople and organizations don’t have a referral strategy and teach referral practices.

Even though getting referrals is fall-off-a-log easy, there are specific practices to follow. Here are six I recommend to help you get started with your strategy.

1. Spend as much time developing a referral strategy as you do a marketing strategy. When you do, two things will happen very quickly: you’ll gain new customers you weren’t getting from marketing, which will take performance pressure off of your marketing plan.
2. Identify existing customers who like what you do. Each one is that valuable asset called a center-of-influence (COI).
3. Explain – in person – that you need their help and how they can help you. For example: “Mr. Smith, thank you for your business over the years. We’d like to have more customers like you. I’m sure you ask your customers for referrals, and would like to ask if I may do the same with you.”
4. Ivan Misner, founder of Business Network International (BNI) furnishes the next critical question: “Who do you know who …has your high standards?” “…uses the products we offer?” “…you would like to help do business with good companies like ours?” (Your “Who do you who …” here.)
5. When you get a referral, thank the COI profusely before, during and after the subsequent contact, ESPECIALLY if you get the business. One thing I always say to my COIs is, “If a referral is a friend (or customer) before I contact them, I promise they will still be after I talk with them.”
6. For millennia, business referrers have been paying it forward. As Ivan Misner says, “Givers gain.” The best way to have a sustainable referral strategy is to be an active referrer yourself. It’s much easier to ask someone for a referral to whom you’ve just given a referral. 

If you’re still not sold on referrals, look around and you’ll see many successful businesses that grow ONLY by referrals – essentially no marketing. There’s one primal reason why referrals can be more productive than marketing: People are hard-wired to want to help other people when they’re asked.

Get out of your own way and make a full commitment to creating and executing a referral strategy.

Source: Forbes(Jordan Lebeau)

7 Ways to Make LinkedIn Help You Find A Job

Career experts agree that LinkedIn is an essential job search tool. Your LinkedIn profile can serve as a passive job magnet ,since recruiters and hiring managers use the site as a gold mine for locating candidates . Let's take a look at ways to make LinkedIn help you find a job 

1. Customize your URL. Your URL (uniform resource locator) is the address of your LinkedIn page on the Web. Customizing it will drive it toward the top of a Google search on your name. On your profile page next to the rectangular grey “Edit” button to the right of your name, click on the drop-down menu, and then click on “Public profile settings.” Halfway down the page on the right side you’ll see a grey bar that says “Your public profile URL.” Underneath the bar, click on the blue phrase that says “Customize your public profile URL.” 

2. Write a crisp, detailed summary of your career. Shoot for between 100 and 300 words, and try to tell a compelling story about yourself that includes specifics and quantifiable achievements. Use keywords and phrases that you would find in a job description that would interest you. 

3. Flesh out the experience section. This is your chance to write an online résumé. Many people only include their current job. Take the time to list the significant jobs that built your career. You don’t need to be exhaustive.

4. List your skills. Below Experience and Education you’ll find “Skills & Expertise.” LinkedIn introduced this feature in Feb. 2011, so if you created your profile before then, as I did, you may have never fleshed this out. Take a minimum of 10 minutes and do it. This section offers a shorthand way to tell potential employers what you can do. It also gives your connections the chance to “endorse” you for those skills, an option since Sept. 2012.Add to your skills by clicking the grey “Edit” button next to your picture and typing a skill into the box under the Skills & Expertise heading. You can also put your cursor on the word “More” on the dark line at the top of your profile page and scroll down to “Skills & Expertise.” This takes you to a page where you can type in a word and a helpful list of related skills will appear on the left-hand side of the page. The page will also show you a list of people who have that skill in their profile and LinkedIn groups centered on that skill.

5. Get at least five recommendations. In brief, though they can seem repetitive and gratuitous, they can also be helpful because not only do they show up on your LinkedIn page, they also appear on the page of the recommendation writer, and his or her connections can all read them. Also, recruiters do read them. Like your career summary, recommendations should include meaty specifics about skills and accomplishments. In the world of LinkedIn, it’s acceptable to offer to draft a recommendation for the person you’re asking to recommend you. 

6. Add websites that showcase your work. For a journalist, this is easier than for other types of workers, since our writing gets posted online with ready Web addresses. For a designer or photographer, this is an opportunity to include a link to a personal website that showcases your work. If you’re in sales, you can link to customers

.

7. Connect. Connections are the backbone of your LinkedIn profile, and what gives you the strength to network. For instance, if you’re interested in working for Company X and you see that one of your connections has a contact there, you can ask your connection to make an introduction to that contact for you. .

There are different views on how aggressively you should increase your list of connections..and the one LinkedIn professionals recommend: Do I know the person in a professional or personal context, and would I want to connect with the person on professional matters, face to face? Would I be willing to ask that person for an introduction, and would I be willing to make one for them, if they asked?

One the other hand, some people think you should connect with as many people as possible because of the compound effect of multiple connections. Forbes contributor Dan Schawbel, who has a hard-to-fathom 7,400 connections, has written a compelling argument here. He says that you appear more influential and more powerful to others if you have more than 500 connections.

SOURCE: FORBES.

First U.S. trader convicted of spoofing sentenced to three years in jail..Learn from it

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge sentenced futures trader Michael Coscia to three years in prison on Wednesday, a lighter punishment than prosecutors had sought for the first person criminally convicted of the manipulative trading practice of spoofing.

Coscia also was sentenced to two years of supervised release from jail, in a case that was closely watched by traders who want to avoid similar charges and market regulators.

Spoofing involves placing bids to buy or offers to sell futures contracts with the intent to cancel them before execution. By creating an illusion of demand, spoofers can influence prices to benefit their market positions.

Prosecutors had asked U.S. Judge Harry Leinenweber to lock up Coscia, owner of New Jersey-based Panther Energy Trading, for as long as seven years and three months after he was convicted last year of spoofing and commodities fraud.

Leinenweber told a packed courtroom in Chicago that Coscia's typical earnings of about $150,000 per month tripled while he was spoofing markets in 2011.

"It's hard to see why he was doing that other than greed," the judge said.

Coscia, who had denied wrongdoing during his trial, said in short prepared remarks at the sentencing: "I stand here convicted and shamed because of my actions."

Stephen Senderowitz, one of Coscia's attorneys, said he would appeal the conviction, partly because the government did not sufficiently show that other traders lost money as a result Coscia's actions.

The trader embraced more than a dozen family members and friends after the sentencing. He must report to prison by Sept. 30.

Prosecutors and regulators hope Coscia's prison term will discourage other traders from trying to spoof markets. His prosecution was the first under an anti-spoofing provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform.

Coscia was accused of using computer algorithms to quickly place large orders that he never intended to execute into markets run by CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange.

"Initially, there was skepticism that the government could pull this off. I don't think that skepticism is around anymore," said Renato Mariotti, a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Coscia last year.

Mariotti, now a partner at the law firm Thompson Coburn, added that more spoofing indictments were likely soon.

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission also brought criminal and civil spoofing charges against Navinder Sarao, a London-based trader accused of market manipulation that contributed to the May 2010 "flash crash" in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly plunged more than 1,000 points. Sarao has denied the allegations.

Entrepreneurs/Business men and women should learn from this...

Coscia's case is U.S. v. Coscia, 14-cr-00551, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois.

Source : Reuters
Credit to Michael Hirtzer and Tom Polansek

2 Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs Share Their Path to Success

The following excerpt is from Michael Glauser’s new book Main Street Entrepreneur. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble |iTunes

A resilient sense of mission was one of the first things we noticed about the entrepreneurs we interviewed across America -- they’re driven by a purpose much bigger than themselves. 

While they all realize they need to make money, none of them mentioned that as a primary driver. Instead, they want to change the world in their own small or large way, create jobs in their beloved hometowns, and give back to their communities. They’re solving a problem that intrigues them and doing something they’re passionate about, while providing the best service in their industry.

This strong sense of purpose is a critical launching pad for a new venture. It does four things for your growing business:

1)It gets you through the difficult times you’ll inevitably face.

2)It sets a higher standard of excellence for your business.

3)It appeals to like-minded team members who share your values.

4)It attracts and keeps customers who love what you’re doing.

Introducing Benny and Julie Benson, two of the mission-driven entrepreneurs we met. Notice how their strong “why” for building their business impacts everything they do

Meet the Bensons

Benny and Julie both grew up on farms in Colorado with horses, livestock, and wide-open spaces. When Benny was in high school, he traded a horse for his first motorcycle. The second motorcycle he bought was in two buckets full of parts. Then he started building and selling motorcycles, cars, and boats. In college, he and Julie both earned degrees in mechanical engineering and moved to California to work in corporate America. Of his first day on the job, Benny says, “I wanted to get there early on the first day, so I left two hours early; I showed up 15 minutes late. That was my introduction to traffic in Southern California.”

Benny and Julie enjoyed working on various engineering projects. In particular, they loved creating renewable energy from waste fuels; they just didn’t love doing it in Los Angeles. As Julie explains, “When our daughter was starting school, we took a look around at our environment and our lifestyle, and we didn’t like what we were seeing in Southern California. It was the rat race down there, and the rats were winning. So we thought, ‘We’ve got to get out of here.’ We just wanted a simpler life.”

So they started looking for a new place to live. Ten days after discovering Sisters, Oregon, they moved there to enjoy a better life for their family. Benny describes the criteria they used in making this decision: “Quality of life became the driver. It wasn’t ‘What [are we] going to do?’ It was ‘Where are we going to end up?’ We had to have a major ski area within an hour, we had to have an Olympic-size pool within an hour, and we had to be able to stand out on our deck naked and not worry about somebody looking.”

Initially, they started designing bio-gas plants that use waste fuels produced at landfills, wastewater treatment facilities, and manure storage sites. They operated their business out of a bedroom in their house and flew to various job sites from the airport in Sisters. After designing a number of plants, they felt they were in a strong position to start building them as well, so they did. 

Next they developed an IT solution so they could operate these plants remotely. Now they offer a complete one-stop service to their customers, including designing, building, and managing renewable energy plants -- all from their headquarters in Sisters. Eight years after starting ENERGYneering Solutions, they have 60 employees and have designed and built more than 50 renewable energy plants that are producing power for 150,000 households.

Benny and Julie both believe schools are the heart of any community. As a result, they’re heavily involved in their local schools in a number of ways. As engineers, they help design and teach classes in science, technology, engineering, math, aviation, and meteorology. Their hope is to light a spark in students to explore careers in these fields. Each summer they hire between six and 10 student interns to work for them. Then, while serving on the school district’s budget review committee, Julie realized how much the district was spending on heat. This was a problem ENERGYneering Solutions was well-equipped to solve. The company designed, built, and now operates a biomass plant for the high school, which saves the school tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Of their new life, Julie says, “I really like engineering. It isn’t about what we do for money, it’s about what we can offer the world because engineering to me is really just problem solving. It’s identifying an issue and hoping to make it better somehow.

“Now we live on a property where we have donkeys and horses and sheep and dogs and cats and birds,” she adds. “We’re heavily involved in showing horses, which is not something we could have done in Southern California.”

Benny agrees that they’ve achieved their purpose of merging livelihood and lifestyle in their new location. As he explains, “We can all take off a half day or a day. If it’s snowing, we’re skiing. We shouldn’t really be here today -- we should be on the lake right now -- but you guys were coming.” And then he laughed.

Source: Entrepreneur (feeds)

China accounts for 30% growth in Africa’s power sector

INTERNATIONAL Energy Agency, IEA, has said that China now accounts for 30 percent of Africa’s energy growth, with more than 200 Greenfield power projects contracted to Chinese companies in the last five years, even as it has completed not less than three projects in Nigeria.

IEA, in its July 2016 publication, titled     “Boosting the Power Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa: China’s Involvement” stated that project investments are estimated at about $13 billion between 2010 and 2015 from China, which were financed largely through public lending from China. According to the report, with over 635 million people living without electricity, access to electricity is still a great challenge to sub-Saharan Africa. 

The power sector needs to be well funded, technologies, and capacity building, and significant investment are also needed to support the development of the sector. The report also stated that Chinese contractors have built or are contracted to build 17 Gigawatts of generation capacity in sub-Saharan Africa from 2010 to 2020, equivalent to 10 percent of existing installed capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, or to Finland’s total   installed capacity. 

In West Africa, most Chinese-built capacity is in gas-fired power plants, especially in Nigeria which has enormous natural gas resources. In Nigeria alone, Chinese companies have completed three projects totalling 1.5 GW, with some advanced technologies provided by Western original equipment manufacturers, OEMs, such as General Electric, GE. Executive Director International Energy Agency, Dr. Fatih Birol, said that, at present, various global initiatives promote increased prosperity and economic development in Africa by improving electricity security. “The Power Africa initiative by the United States, the Africa-EU Millennium Development Goals initiative, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, TICAD, process by Japan, the Sustainable Energy for All initiative (SE4ALL) by the United Nations, and the India-Africa Forum Summit, IAFS, are good examples of efforts by the global community to support and promote economic growth in Africa.

 “The active role of Chinese companies in Africa’s power sector is notable, both in terms of magnitude and impact on new electricity capacity additions, mostly coming from renewable energy, including large hydroelectric plants,” he stated. 

Faith also said that “Enhancing energy access in Africa was also one of the G20 initiatives under the Turkish presidency in 2015, and it is currently being discussed as an important topic under China’s 2016 G20 presidency. “Given Africa’s rich energy resources, the potential is huge. Greater global co-operation can deliver benefits for all, ultimately promoting increased energy access and economic growth. In the end, this can only succeed if addressed in a positive way by leaders of African countries. He explained that African energy, in particular access to clean energy, has been a key topic of analysis for the IEA for close to two decades now. Under its open doors policy, the Agency will continue to support expanded energy access and clean energy technology development in Africa. 

On his part, the Deputy Executive Director of the IEA, Paul Simons, said that African countries have relied heavily on the support of China for expansion of their electricity systems, to enable growth and improve living standards. “Greenfield power projects contracted to Chinese companies have become widespread in the region, with more than half of all projects based on renewable energy, mainly hydropower

Source: vanguard Nigeria

NITDA-GIS IT Entrepreneurship Development Programme 2016

National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was created in April 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy and co-ordinate general IT development in the country. It was mandated by the National Information Technology Development Act (2007) to create a framework for the planning, research, development, standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices, activities and systems in Nigeria.

Its role therefore is to develop Information technology in the country through regulatory standards, guidelines and policies. Additionally, NITDA is the clearing house for all IT projects and infrastructure development in the country. It is the prime Agency for e-government implementation, Internet governance and general IT development in Nigeria.

Applications are invited for the position below:

Job Title: NITDA-GIS IT Entrepreneurship Development Programme

Location: Nationwide

Job Summary
NITDA hereby invites interested Information Technology firms to formerly apply for the services of young graduate interns who have completed a 3 month technical training on software development optimised for various sectors of the economy.The placement is part of the overall programme of the Federal Government to empower the young IT graduate with software development skills, business incubation and mentor-ship.The graduate intern will work for the IT firm while the Government pays.

How to Apply

Click Here to Register Online
Or
Click Here to Download Application Form (MS Word)
Note: Completed forms should be submitted to the Software and Outsourcing Department, NITDA ANNEX.

Deadline: 

15th July, 2016.

Visit Http://Www.Nitda.Gov.Ng

Source: job informant