Success in any venture, either business, pleasure or even life itself, is very deliberate. In other words, Success does not happen by chance.
This is one of the key points i try to drive home to business owners who attend my training sessions. In 2018, i have had the privilege of sharing knowledge with over a thousand business owners in Lagos, Enugu, Kaduna and Abuja. The theme of these training sessions have majorly been around the use of Social Media Platforms (especially Facebook and Instagram) to significantly their businesses.
Businesses must realize that digital marketing and advertising must form up to 60% of their marketing strategies if they are to grow significantly. With this in mind, they must rethink their social media strategy and start to see Social as a tool and not like a Gym subscription. (Something you have but do not use).
I had also had to privilege of sharing the stage with my team members from Digivate 360 at the Fate Foundation 3rd Annual Alumni Conference at MUSON Centre, where we shared knowledge and experience around the theme Building For Scale.
In summary, the following points are what i feel businesses must be deliberate about if they want to grow their business incrementally and at scale.
- Digital Collaboration: Every single day, new businesses are being discovered online. Customers prefer to look for you on Instagram then to search the web for your website. Smart businesses leverage on each others businesses to reach new audiences everyday. Have clear value propositions, look for fitting partnerships.
- Embrace Mobile: More often than not, we are stuck in the idea that some tasks are better performed on a computer. True. Mobile phones, however, have become incredibly powerful that you no longer need to wait till you are in front of a PC. Invoices, Receipts, Emails, Graphic Design, Payments, Group Meetings, etc are a few tasks that can comfortably be carried out on mobile today.
- Digital Tools: Tools are essential to keeping the business running smoothly. Google Drive is your new external hard disk that can hardly get lost. Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides are your documents, spreadsheets and Presentation slides that you can start on your phone, continue on your PC, finish on your phone. Other people can have access to, and work on the same files, real time. Everything is on autosave, as long as you have a gmail account. Skype and Zoom for meetings. Accounting tools such as Freshbooks, Quickbooks, Xero can also come in handy.
Finally, as a Facebook Advertising Expert, i would leave this with you. If you want to grow your business successfully, you cannot exclude marketing on the Facebook Family of Apps and Services. This includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network.
Building anything worthwhile requires consistency and hard work. Even with the myriad of smart tools we are surrounded by, you cannot replace consistency and hard work. Success is always deliberate.