Nigerian Entrepreneur

7 Points Agenda For Business Success from my business mentor

If you think it’s only the government that needs a 7 Point Agenda, then you’re mistaken, one of my business mentor gave me a quick lecture on 7 Point Agenda for Business Success. Well, most of the points were not really new, but the God factor in business was unique. I couldn’t argue with him because the global financial meltdown has proved the experts wrong. If you care, here are the seven points without my usual long ramblings 😉

1. Have a Goal

If you aim for nothing, you will get nowhere. Your goal must be specific and written down. The process of writing down a goal forces you to describe in a detailed manner what you really intend to achieve. When I started this website, Nigerian Entrepreneur, I wrote out my goal. It has helped to keep me focus and restrained me from following the bandwagon of every new fad that I come across.

2. Develop a blueprint for success

Creating a plan for your personal and business success cannot be over emphasized. If you fail to conscious make a good plan of how you intend to succeed in life, then you have just unconsciously planned to fail in life. Also note that if your plan is not written, then it doesn’t really exist. Don’t be afraid to write down your plan. You can always modify it as you get more informed about life and business.

3. Get Organized

Establish a to-do-list, plan your day and make people adjust to your schedule. God can only work with an organized person, and successful people don’t like associating with disorganized fellows. Nobody enjoys the company of a man who does not know where he is going, what he is doing and what he is aiming for. Circumstances and people should not dictate your schedule. If you don’t learn how to turn down unnecessary distortion of your daily schedule, then you can’t be a successful entrepreneur. Review your performance in the evening before hitting your bed.

4. Build Networks

You can’t be an island and succeed. While following the crowd is not right, trying to be an island is foolish too. You need people and people need you. You must understand that you have strengths and weaknesses. You are designed by God to contribute your strengths and receive help from others to combat your weaknesses. Build relationships before you need them.

5. Be generous with your saving and investment, but stingy with expenses

The size of your harvest is often a function of the seed you sowed. You must understand the difference between liabilities and assets. Anything that brings money into your business is an asset, anything that takes money out of your business is a liability (your Porsche car inclusive). Great business empires were not built by great spending, rather, they were made with great savings and wise investments.

6. Self Development

Continuous investment in yourself is the best decision you can take as an entrepreneur. The knowledge you possess is greater and much more important than the material possessions that you have acquired. A successful entrepreneur can start all over again and yet become successful if striped of all he has acquired. Material possession can be taken away from you, but only mental illness can rob you of what you have invested into your mind. Take time to read good books. Listen to great message that will motivate, inspire and uplift your spirit. Read bibliography of great men and women that impacted their generation.

7. Make God your senior business partner

Irrespective of how smart or intelligent you are, there are times when nothing works. That is when God steps in. If He is your senior partner, He sure will bail you out. My mentor buttress his point with the story of an American oil tycoon named John D. Rockefeller. See the poem he wrote at the age of 86

I was early taught to work as well as play,
My life has been one long, happy holiday;
Full of work and full of play-
I dropped the worry on the way-
And God was good to me everyday.

After reading the poem, I was greatly challenged. How many businessmen can say their life is one long happy holiday? Some of us are still afraid of taking annual vacation.

Well, after all said and done, I still challenged my mentor that President Yar’adua has a 7 Point Agenda which has not really achieved much for Nigerians. So what makes him think this will work. He simply challenged me to bring up my own success formula and prove it works by showing RESULT! He doesn’t believe in TALK, cos talk is cheap. Well, since I couldn’t argue the fact that he is a successful entrepreneur (that’s why I made him my business mentor in the first place), I simply kept my cool, wishing inside of me that I could somehow prove him wrong. Until I can match his success with a better result, I guess he remains the boss (my business mentor).

Now you have the 7 Points Agenda For Business Success, what are you going to do with it? Tell us in a comment! Cheers.