Successful = Action, Balance, Dreams, Plans and Beliefs

A woman is on a long hike ride through breathtaking valleys and over majestic mountains.  After sunbathing atop a cliff overlooking the water below, she sees she’ll have to backtrack in order to return home.  Thinking it over, she realizes that the jump into the cool water below isn’t that large after all.  If she jumps, she can continue forward toward new, exciting landscapes.  Gathering her courage, she approaches the side of the cliff.  She takes a deep breath and takes a leap of faith.

Balance

Accomplishment requires a balance between safety and daring.  If you’re too careful, you won’t open yourself up to all the opportunities that are waiting to present themselves.  If you’re too reckless, you may find yourself lost without a map.  Find the appropriate middle ground, and great success will appear in front of your eyes.

Taking Action

Life is about movement.  You’ve got to make decisions and hopefully make the right ones.  In order to accomplish great things, you’ll need a combination of motivation and thoughtfulness.  You’ll also need to keep your eyes open to new possibilities.  When situations arise that are out of your comfort zone, you’ve got to have the confidence to take action even if you’re not sure of yourself.  You have to keep moving.

Imagination

At the same time, don’t become pigeonholed into a particular way of doing things.  Even if your way of solving challenges proves to be effective, don’t be afraid of dreaming up innovative ways to act and react.  Your imagination is an unlimited resource.  It’s not only the source of your creative ideas, but it’s a fertile testing ground for thought experiments.  Dreams are like a mirror world.  They reflect our desires and fears, our motivations and disappointments.  Look deep into your imagination, pull out what you find, and plant your fresh discoveries in the real world.

Making Plans

A sound strategy always pays off.  Even if everything blows up in your face, by formulating and implementing your plans, you’ll be able to take an objective look at what went right and what went wrong.  However, don’t become obsessed with your plans.  React to situations with the best response as they arise.  Remember, your plan is only a map.  Reality is the terrain, and you’ve got to think on your feet.  Have confidence in your abilities and have confidence in your plans.  To get the most from your belief system, you’ve got to have a little bit of…

Faith

Sometimes there’s nothing left but to make that leap into the water below.  Give yourself credit for your ideas and your capabilities.  Let your plans and your dreams become a reality.  If you don’t have faith in yourself and your business, you’ll lack the unshakeable confidence needed for success.  Without a strong belief in yourself and your ideas, your dreams and plans will be locked in the prison of your own head.  Grab the key of faith and release them.

Symbiosis

The great thing is that actions and dreams, plans and beliefs, all combine together like puzzle pieces to drive success.  Your dreams feed your actions.  Your beliefs actualize your plans.  Your plans give rise to new dreams and so on.  Balance your life and your business with a hearty dose of each ingredient.

Though they may seem mysterious, great accomplishments are not an enigma.  If you can dream them, you can create them.  If you believe in yourself, you can bring your plans to life.

Why Education is Important in Our Life

It is very easy to explain importance ofeducation. No human beings are able to survive properly without education. By the means ofeducation only one’s potential can be used to maximum extent.Education tells men how to think, how to work properly, how to make decision. Through educationonly one can make separate identity. It is most important in life like our basic need foods, clothe and shelter. With the beginning we learnt how to interact with others, how to make friends because ofeducation only. As I remember when my parents had enrolled my name in school not only I learnt the alphabets and numbers but also I made friends, interacted with them with teachers.

With further development you were faced with the sense of competition and desire and other such emotions and feelings, you also learnt to control these emotions and feelings. And also teaches how to act in different situations. Education is not just restricted to teaching a person the basic academics, say computers,mathematics, geography or history education is a much larger term.

If you want to find out the impact of education on any individuality, you better do an intense observation to the ways of well-educated people and then compare them with an illiterate man. You would get a clear picture of the education and its accurate concept. Educationis one of the important factors which formulate the persona of a person. Education is a productive and beneficial factor in a person’s life. It is everyone’s right to get. The training of a human mind is not complete without education. Only because of education a man are able to receive information from the external humanity, to notify him with past and receive all essential information concerning the present.

When one travels around the world, one observes to what an extraordinary degree human nature is the same, whether in India or Australia, London, Europe or America.
Conservative education makes independent thinking extremely complicated. If we are being educated merely to achieve distinction, to get a better job, to be more efficient, to have wider domination over others, then our lives will be shallow and empty. If we are being educated only to be scientists, to be scholars wedded to books, or specialists addicted to knowledge, then we shall be contributing to the destruction and misery of the world.

We may be highly educated, but if we are without meaningful combination of thought and feeling, our lives are incomplete and clashing. Education develops a meaningful outlook on life.

The individual are different but to accentuate the differences and to encourage the development of a definite type education is must.

Education is not just a matter of training the mind. Training makes for efficiency, but it does not bring about completeness. Knowledge and efficiency are necessary, which brings up byeducation.

Education should help us to discover lasting values; unfortunately, the present system ofeducation is making us submissive, emotionless and deeply thoughtless.
Systems, whether educational or political, are not changed without explanation; they are transformed when there is a fundamental change in ourselves. The individual is of first importance, not the system; and as long as the individual does not understand the total process of himself, no system can bring order and peace to the world.

2012 "State of Online Branded Communities" Study

Mature social brands demonstrated a new level of “experimentation” in their approach to their owned online community assets. This was one of the key conclusions in  2012 State of Online Branded Communities studyfrom ComBlu, which uses both quantitative and qualitative measures to assign Lumen ratings as an indicator of how well a brand delivers an integrated, meaningful experience across its community/social ecosystem. 

One of the qualitative data points is an assessment of the maturity of the brand’s community strategy. These range from cohesive, social experimentation, community overload to ghost town. The social experimentation category jumped from 50 percent to 55 percent, which dragged down the scores of some previously high-scoring brands such as Intel, American Express and Discovery. At first, this was disturbing. However, the ComBlu team concluded that this actually is a healthy phenomenon. 

A natural part of the maturation cycle of community strategy is to make adjustments based on member input and performance analytics. When brands first launched communities, legacy knowledge was non-existent and experimentation was rampant. Brands tried many things with no obvious strategy and searched for the ultimate “secret sauce” of community.

As brands gain experience and measurement becomes more sophisticated, they are using their learning to jettison non-performing engagement approaches and are introducing new tools and engagement catalysts. The goal is to stimulate new levels of engagement and reignite dormant community members. They thus enter a new phase of experimentation and no doubt will apply the best performing new ideas across a new cohesive framework in the near future. This is a trend to watch to see if cohesive strategy rebounds in 2013.

Last year, we saw a growth in the number of brands that offered a cohesive framework across their community and social ecosystem. The decline in the percentage of brands in the cohesive category this year equaled the gain in the experimentation stage.

We initiated our study four years ago when we could not find any data about community experience from the members’ perspective. Most research focused on brands self-reporting many things: social marketing budget in dollars and as a percentage of overall marketing spent, growth of that budget year over year, who “owns” social inside the organization, the split between social business and social enablement, how they intended to engage within these communities, and so on. We also found lots of opinion and research about online community best practices, but again, the existing studies stopped short of determining how those practices impact engagement levels, stimulate return visits or generate a robust community experience. 

ComBlu created a best practices scorecard that overlaid multiple studies on the topic to find the core practices across multiple sources. We then joined just over 200 communities representing 92 companies across 15 industries and scored our experiences against the scorecard. While this is a herculean task, it has become a labor of love. Our main objective is to gain first-hand experience of how these communities engage and interact with their members.

Specifically, the research assesses the brands’ effectiveness in:

• Providing a meaningful experience for members.
• Integrating their brand strategies across multiple communities and social media.
• Applying best practices to strengthen customer engagement.

Key Takeaways 

In 2012, we’ve found:

• Activity levels are generally healthy but fairly static across the board. While 43 percent of communities are enjoying high-levels of activity, that’s a mere one percent jump from last year.
• Many brands continue to define Facebook as “community” and are missing the opportunity to engage more deeply with defined customer segments through a true online branded community. A “social only” approach is as incomplete as a “community only” strategy. The two are symbiotic and contribute to overall engagement. It is important for brands to understand what to do where and optimize the natural leverage between the owned and social infrastructure.
• Top performing industries include telecommunications, gaming, technology and consumer electronics, entertainment, and consumer products-beverage. And, notably, #1 ranked Telecomm is the first industry in which all of the brands scored over 50 points.

Once again, the report contains great information, insights and data on community constructs, best practices and social integration but the industry section is especially jam packed this year, with more analysis of segment-specific performance data.

8 Signs You've Found Your Life's Work

Wondering if the job you have now is "the one"--or just another stop on the way to something more fulfilling? Check out this list to know whether it's time to settle in or keep moving.

This month marks the nine-month anniversary of the most natural and obvious, most joyful and energizing decision of my life: to fully commit 100% to my life's work.

I've spent every day falling more madly in love with how I live my life and spend my time, the contributions I'm making to society, and the discomfort and growth that I feel each day.

My journey getting here was both arduous and enthralling. It was not at all straightforward. I had numerous experiences that collectively brought me here, teaching me what I'm capable of and showing me what does and does not resonate.

Though I've known for many years that my purpose is to unlock human potential, it took me some time to fully embrace my intuition, to figure out how to actualize this vision, and to build the courage to lean into my fears. (And it's still, and always will be, an ongoing learning process.)

I've made the mistake of plunging headfirst into a business commitment that wasn't fulfilling, spending more time trying to make it work than actually getting stuff done. I've felt red flags early on in a startup but waited nine months to listen to my intution. I've put off my own ideas to help others actualize their visions because it was less scary. Though I would relive my mistakes all over again in a second (and I believe making more mistakes helps you grow and gain confidence), I'd love to save you some time and energy along your journey.

Inspired by an article by MeiMei Fox about finding "the one" in love, and based on my own experiences and conversations with friends who are in love with how they work, live, and play, here are 8 signs you've found your life's work:

1. It doesn't feel like work.Your life's work is not a "job"--it's a way of living. Your work enables you to create the lifestyle you want for yourself and your lifestyle includes your work. You frequently stop and think to yourself, "Wait, am I seriously working right now?" You can hardly distinguish between work, play, and life--as they are all intertwined. In everything you do, you are constantly pursuing your vision of optimal living.

2. You are aligned with your core values. Your life's work is an extension of your beliefs and worldview. You live in integrity because what you do is in accordance with who you are. This alignment will inspire you to move a small mountain if that's what you have to do to realize your vision. Every day you work to manifest and actualize the world you imagine because by making it so, you'll make the world more alive, beautiful and well.

3. You are willing to suffer.Passion comes from the latin word 'pati,' which means 'to suffer.' Your life's work is less about following a passion and more about your willingness to suffer along the way. The journey will be immensly challenging at times. You'll be exposed to unexpected challenges and setbacks and you may endure hardship, rejection, and sacrifice. These roadblocks will motivate you. In fact, you see the short-term pain and discomfort as tremendous opportunities for learning, growth and depth; they're critical to appreciating the beautiful and joyous moments.

4. You experience frequent flow.You naturally and often fall "in flow," deeply immersed by your work and the present moment. At 1:13 p.m. you realize five hours have gone by since you looked at the clock last. Or, you look up and realize it's 12:21 a.m. and your instinct is to keep creating. Flow isn't something you have to force; it just happens.

5. You make room for living.Your work provides you the ability to live fully and enjoy life. Though you feel captivated and enthralled by your work, you make room for healthy routines like fitness, connection, spontaniety, and play. These activities re-energize and enable you to live a holistically fulfilling life.

6. Commitment is an honor.When you discover your life's work, the question of commitment is easy. There is no hestitation or analyzation as to whether or not the work is right for you. Your heart says yes. Your mind says yes. Your body says yes. Commitment to your work feels like breahting. You cannot imagine spending your time dedicated to any other purpose.

7. The people who matter notice."You look vibrant!" and "I've never seen you so healthy and happy!" and "This is without question what you're meant to be doing!" are among the comments you may hear from the people closest to you when you're on the right path. It's important to note that these people who care for you deeply may also be the first to question and worry in the early stages. But, once you are thriving, they'll notice and lovingly support your efforts.

8. You fall asleep exhausted, fulfilled, and ready for tomorrow.You go to sleep each night grateful for the day. You know you're on the right path, you gave the day your all, and you can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow. This is your life and you cannot imagine living it any other way.

Amber Rae is Founder & CEO of The Bold Academy, a life accelerator designed to help you lead the life you were meant to lead. Applications for Bold Academy San Francisco are now open. For more on Amber, check out her blog or follow her on Twitter.

New IBM Study On Social Business Adoption

Social business, and indeed social media as a whole, often struggles to achieve the results it should do. Research earlier this year found that just 13% of IT professionals thought their internal social networks were a success.  The general failure of social business to deliver results led one group to issue a $10,000 bounty for anyone that could prove positive ROI from their social business endeavours.

So a new report released this month by IBM should be required reading for anyone with a desire to create a social business.  The report, called The Business of Social Business: What works and how it’s done, looked at social business projects across 1,000 companies from a wide array of industries.  They wanted to find out how companies are using social business and what was working for them.

Three main areas jumped out as being particularly successful:

• Creating valued customer experiences
• Driving workforce productivity and effectiveness
• Accelerating innovation

Suffice to say that each of these are relatively obvious areas to utilise social business and are thus good places to begin the process of becoming social.  Of greater interest however is the importance IBM placed on the cultural aspect of social business.  Success rests on your ability to weave social into the fabric of how you do business.

In order for this to happen they recommend that the following three issues are addressed:

1. You need to figure out how to incorporate social metrics into traditional processes
2. You need to be clear on the risks involved and how to manage them
3. This is a change management thing, and whilst it will require a unique application of change management, it will nonetheless require tried and tested techniques to influence corporate culture and performance.

I wrote almost a year ago to the day about how successful social adoption is a cultural thing more than it is a technical thing, and this report underlines that completely.  The twin issues of ROI and risk however have received more recent coverage.

Social business ROI

Last month Deloitte released a report on the importance of connecting social business with the over-arching aims of the organisation.  They suggested that whilst most organisations have ‘best practice’ guidelines in place, most of the time we end up working around those guidelines in order to cope with exceptional circumstances.  By making these so called hidden practices visible, social business can then drive real business value.

Managing the risks of social media

The issue of risk was one that was covered nicely by Charlene Li and her Altimeter Group earlier this summer.  They broke down risk management into four main areas:

1. Identify the risk- First things first you have to identify the risks you face.  These could be a risk to your brand, a leaking of confidential information, legal violations or identity theft.  Altimeter found that the most common threat was to a companies brand, but if you investigate potential sources of risk you may come up with something more specific to your own situation.
2. Assess the risk - Next you have to assess how likely that risk is to do you damage.  It’s basically a bit of probability analysis.  Couple up the likelihood of a risk happening with the damage it would do if it did occur to give you a decent understanding of the risks you face and the damage they can do.
3. Manage and mitigate the risk – The next step is to deal with the risk.  You might be able to eliminate it completely (unlikely) or you might be able to reduce the odds of it occuring, or indeed mitigating the damage should the worst materialise.  Common strategies here include providing outstanding training on how staff should behave on social media and what you expect from them when they use it.
4. Monitor and evaluate the risk – As with most things like this, you should never be completely satisfied, so the final step is to regularly review and regulate their existing risk strategies to take account of both the success of the current strategy and the changing landscape within which they operate.

What are the best money making business ideas that can make you become rich? What is the best business to start? Well, this article is an answer to these questions.

As this year draws to an end, you need to position yourself properly because there are a lot of income opportunities available that can take you to whole new level. Whether you are an entrepreneur or investor, you will surely find this compilation valuable. So without wasting your time, below are 30 best money making business ideas that can make you become rich.

• Event and party planning

If you have been complimented on your parties, you might be good enough to be a party planner. Many people who are throwing parties will desperately need your service. Let them know you can handle everything from invitations to the catering, from the entertainment to cleaning up afterwards, from the wine shopping’s to decorations. The best places to herald your services would be in the entertainment section of most of the daily newspaper.

I will recommend some soft sell magazine, because placing an advert in some of these magazines will surely go a long way in getting some customers. Generally, this work goes for a flat fee, depending upon the size of the party.  From N15,000 to N200,000. Think of what you are going to make in a year if you are doing at least 2 parties in a month.

• Biography Writing

A lot of writers are going to be instant Millionaires this year and even next. I checked my record and discovered that a lot of Nigeria Business men, CEOs, Politicians are going to be 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, and 80 years. If you have a passion for writing, you can target their birthdays, fix a date for the lunching and you are good to go. Some of them have a lot of companies and friends that are ready to donate to the lunching of the book. So what are you waiting for to target a Nigerian Millionaire today and be an instant millionaire.

• Computer class instructor

Computers have become part of everyone’s life, not only in the workplace, but in the home as well. They are part of our jobs and also part of our entertainment. You can check the computer book section of a bookstore near you and use the knowledge you have gained to teach others how to begin using a computer; how to use it more efficiently, how to get more out of it, or how to use specific software programs. This type of class can be offered through your home but you might also consider contacting a local computer retailer and offer to conduct the classes in his/her store. This would bring traffic into the store that is specifically interested in his product as well as give you access to a variety of machines and software to demonstrate with.

• Photography Business

All of us have seen professional photographers at sporting events. We may have used the service of professional for a wedding. But what about the local Pee Wee soccer league or the neighborhood blocks party. Most people enjoy good pictures, but most people don’t have the knowledge or experience to take good pictures consistently. If you enjoy using a camera, whether it still camera or a video camera, there is money to be made with it. Perhaps the easiest way to begin is to take the camera to a local youth sporting event and begin taking pictures. Be sure to have inexpensive brochures available explaining to the proud parent where they can order actions shots of their own little super stars in action. A few big weekends of that type of freelance work will let you see how big this market can be.

• Selling educational materials

Selling educational materials is a big business today. Pencils, Exercise books, recommended textbooks, graphical tables, and drawing equipment are some of the materials students cannot do without on a daily basis. People who locate their shops near these schools are bound to make a lot of money. If you can get your shop near any of these schools, you are bound to make a lot of money. If you don’t have enough money to rent a shop, you can get a table and display some of your ware or you can get an umbrella or canopy. Make sure you know the relevant materials that are in demand in this environment; your success in this business is directly related to your ability to sell at a price that is very competitive.

• Pure water business

Do you have a fridge, freezer or you live close to cold rooms; then you can start a pure water business. It is true that millions of people are in the business today, but there is still room for one more person who is still passionate to make it in the business. Markets, schools churches mosques football matches playground and parties are some of the places you can get good business. Other ways of making money is by targeting very big events, securing a stand, rent a freezer and you will make some money.

• Printing and selling GSM recharge card vouchers

Printing GSM recharge vouchers could equally mean printing money. We all know that GSM recharge cards are the fastest selling product today in the country today. Imagine that you are the one producing GSM recharge vouchers that are used in your locality. I don’t know how many GSM subscribers are living in your area but I am sure Nigeria has over 40 million subscribers. You can start your own recharge card printing business. The printer cost N38, 000; you can start with Pins from N20,000. You can print and sell recharge vouchers in the values of all MTN, GLOBACOM, STARCOMS and AIRTELcards. You can never run out of recharge cards or experience scarcity.

• Homemade bread and setting up a bakery

The amount require to set up a Bakery is directly related to the cash at hand, if you want to start small you can get a small parcel of about half a plot or a full plot of land and build a clay oven, it will cost you about N400, 000 to start, while it will cost between N4, 000,000 to N5, 000,000 or more to start on a large scale.

• Setting up a security company

Setting up a security venture is a very lucrative business, to a lot of people, setting up a security company is a capital-intensive project. A lot of people have been scared away from attempting to set up one because of this mind-set and mentality. It is very possible to start or set up a security company with little or no capital. Multinationals pay as much as N65,000 per security officer and the security company collects N15,000 while they pay N50,000 to the security officer.

• Television and Radio production

Nigeria currently has over 140 TV Stations and 200 radio station spread across the Country. There are different types of shows on our Television and Radio; such as current affairs, news, sports programme, Automobile, Information Technology, Telecommunications, Shoppers Guide, Maritime Television, Politics, Aviation, Finance, Insurance, Cultural dances, Personality Profile, Educational Programmes, Musicals, Fashions, Construction, Oil Industry, Religion, Hospitality and Tourism, Real Estate, Dating Game Show, Agriculture, Women Empowerment Programmes,, School Quiz Competition,  Teenage Programmes and so on.

It is imperative to tailor your show towards your professional background, orientation and finally interest. Nigeria movie industry is not making money like when it started 16 years ago as TV and Radio production is now more lucrative as TV and Radio producers now rake in Million of naira from sponsorship fee.

30 Best Money Making Business ideas that can Make You Become Rich

• Real Estate Business

The boom in property sector is already showing in the high cost of cement, even property stocks on the exchange are smelling-hot. This emerging wealth is sure to simmer in to the hands of both the medium and small income earners. It is now glaring that in the face of increased cost of land and property in the real estate sector, there is actually a big opportunity for many who know the secrets of getting it cheap when others are still ignorant and selling high thereafter. After all, that is what real estate is all about, except for the intelligence you need to acquire in order to play in the market rightly. As a new entrant into the industry, all you need to do is be the link between the buyer and the seller; and you are entitled to a particular commission.

• Website designing

Website designers are always in demand by corporate organizations, government agencies NGOs as they are willing to pay big to get their website designed. Some of them are also looking for website developers because some of them need to update the information on their sites. Make sure you don’t price yourself too cheap and make sure you get the required training. A website designing course can take a week or two; if you can browse the net very well, there is a lot of FREE software online that can guide you step-by-step on how to design a website.

• Setting up an NGO

Setting up an NGO strongly depends on the nature and character of the NGO. However, you must make sure you follow your passion; be it taking care of children, old people, environment, or solving social economic problem etc. All you need to do is to start with the little you have; starting with your immediate environment. Let all the corporate organizations and individual in your vicinity know what you are doing. You don’t even need an office; you can start from your house, look for credible people to work with especially influential individual, who can assist you to raise money through their friends. Millions of dollars are budgeted yearly for NGO in Nigeria by foreign donor agencies but such funds are returned to those foreign agencies at the end of their financial year.

• Stock brokerage

Stock brokerage business is a profitable business. Like every other money making venture. It has its own challenges. This is because the market is not stagnant, prices of stocks move upward and downward. In Nigeria, stock brokerage business has not been fully exploited. This is because we are only dealing on equities and not on derivatives. Once you have made up your mind, you don’t need an office; just look for a reputable stock broking firm to work with. The more clients you can convince to invest their money in the stock market, the more money you’ll make.

• Make money as a registered independent petroleum marketer with NNPC

This is the foremost and mother of all the other oil businesses because it provides you with an expansive area to play in this business. For instance, as registered petroleum marketer with NNPC, you can access the following opportunities:

• Own Depots
• Own filling stations
• Import/Export petroleum products

However, to become a registered independent Petroleum marketer with NNPC, the starting point is the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the regulatory arm of the petroleum Industry and find out their requirement and what area you want to engage in, either as a depot owner or filling station owner. And once you are able to meet the requirement, you will be given a license for storage and sales.

• Set up a micro finance bank

The micro finance, regulatory and supervisory framework for Nigeria was introduced to galvanize and empowers the poor and vulnerable people by increasing their access to factors of production. To get started, Micro finance Banks would be required to be well capitalized, technically sound and orientated towards lending based on the cash flow and character of clients. The micro finance bank provides for two categories of MFBs. Credibility would be another major issue for the emerging micro finance banks. Depositors would need solid assurance of the safety of their funds, just as the MFB operators would by the same token require some form of guarantee of repayment of their credits.

• Party equipment rentals

Renting party equipment has become big business particularly in many big cities. Canopies, chairs, stage platform, ice block, drums, cooking utensils, table cloth and other party equipment are in hot demand by party organizers. There is hardly a weekend when parties are not held. Your initial step is to find out fees charged for items and for how long. Then you should investigate the cost of making or buying some of these items. How much you make is directly related to the number of customers you have. A dozen of plastic chairs is being rented out at the rate of between N300 to N400 per dozen, while double canopies goes for N800 each

• Haulage contractor

Haulage includes using trucks and Lorries to convey goods from one point to the other. The movement could be within a city. During conveyance, goods are accompanied by owners. In most cases, truck owners do not go scavenging for loads. They leave their Truck/Lorries to transport companies while haulage contractors obtain trucks from transport companies to convey goods. As an entrepreneur, your role is that of a haulage contractor. Take note, Truck owners welcome contracts that are long term compared to one-off. Let your mark-up be minimal, but you will double your income from payment for goods collected on return trip. Depending on the number of trips and the number of vehicle used, you can earn above N100,000 per month.

• Generator importation and sales

PHCN’s problems began with the total neglect of the industry by the then military government between 1980 and 1999. The near collapse of the industry was due to the poor funding by the government, mismanagement of the utility, corruption, poor service delivery and load shedding, use of substandard materials, electricity theft, poor revenue drive and non-payment of bills by consumers, technical and non-technical losses. You can import any brand of generator into the Country. If you don’t have money, banks are ready to assist would be investors. Just make sure you provide a good after sales service to your customers

• Yam flour production

Processed yam flour is a simple devise for the preservation of yam and making them available at our meals table all year round. Besides, it enhances the storage process and the movement of the product.  The preservation process may be supplemented with the usage of chemical preservative, which are common in Nigeria markets. Yam flour is processed through grinding, drying, parboiling, drying and pulverization process. I visited a Company that produces Yam flour recently; I waited for 2hours before I could collect my pack just because they can’t meet the demand

30 Best Money Making Business ideas that can Make You Become Rich

• Franchising

Do you want to sell foreign product in Nigeria? If yes, then franchising is for you. A Franchise is an agreement or license between two parties, which gives a person or group of persons (The franchisee) the rights to market a product or service using the trademark of another business (the franchisor). Both franchisor and the franchisee have a strong vested interest in the success of the brand and keeping the customer happy. Today, Franchising is available to service businesses, manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, and even professionals services in the medical health care, fast food and beverages hospitality, educational services, training management, business support, estate management, health, beauty and so on.

• Flour milling

The consumption of bread and other bakery products such as biscuits, chin-chin, gala, meat pie, among others have created a huge market for the wheat flour industry, and it is continually expanding by the day. These items have come to be accepted as part of our dietary need either as food or as snacks, which is taken in between meals. Flour milling is not however restricted to wheat processing alone, several Nigerians cereals and tuber crops are being milled and preserved to powdery flavor, so as to enhance their industry uses and preserve their shelf life for domestic purposes. These include the corn flour, cassava flour, millet flour etc. Processing them into flour and bagging them therefore holds great prospects, considering the fact that these agricultural raw materials are locally sourced. Flour enjoys extensive usage in the bakery, brewing, confectionery, pharmaceutical as well as the food processing sectors of the economy.

• Road haulage transport business

Transport business in Nigeria is as old as the nation itself and there is no doubt that those in the business have been known to have contributed in no small way to the economic development of the country. Transport plays an important role in most business activities. Efficient transport is an essential component in the production and distribution process; commonly referred to as supply chain logistics.

As a new entrant into the business of Haulage business, you can decide to buy a Trailer or more and station it with any of those multinational companies. They will maintain your Trailer for you, employ a driver for you. At the end of every month, all you need to do is to go there and collect your cheque; they pay between N400, 000 to N600,000 on a Trailer every month. Before you can be part of this, you need to register with them as a contractor or fall under another contractor in their fleet. Secondly, you may decide to be an independent operator to some of the big companies in the Country, they will give you a way bill; it might be 10 to 15 trips.

• Create an e-book

If you have some special and extensive knowledge about a particular hobby, activity or skill, then put it to use and write about it. Maybe you know several different ways to tie knots. Maybe you are really good at making homemade Christmas decorations. Maybe you have extensive knowledge about taking care of a sick loved one. Or maybe you know some special tricks in preparing meals for large or small families. You can sell an e-book over and over again. If you only make 50 cents per sell; 10,000 downloads of your book will make you $5,000.

• Get paid to decorate

Imagine having a rewarding, high-paying job that lets you use your creativity to make homes and businesses more beautiful and comfortable. Welcome to the world of interior decorating.  There are few jobs that offer so many benefits. As an interior decorator, you will have the satisfaction of making your vision a reality. You will meet interesting people, and because many people who hire interior decorators are wealthy, you will likely spend time in many beautiful homes. If you start your own interior decorating business, you will enjoy the freedom of being your own boss and could earn N50,000,000 or more per year.

• Start your own bottled water business

Bottled water is extremely popular these days. That is why starting up a home-based bottled water business may prove to be a lucrative venture. Purchase all the necessary equipment and designate a room in your house for this project. Start small and just work your way up as your bottled water business clientele grows.

• Start a food business

Owning a food business is the first step for many entrepreneurs to the world self-employment. A food business can mean any of a number of business ventures, from temporary food stands to catering companies. Depending on which type of food business you plan to own, you will have different investment levels. If you run a temporary food stand, very few funds are needed to get started. If you plan to run a restaurant or even a high class catering business, quite a bit of capital is needed to get started.

• Become a manufacturer representative

If you are a top seller and have years of experience under your belt, going independent as a manufacturer’s representative may be your ticket to sales success. If you like to sell and yearn to be out on your own, the life of a manufacturer’s representative, also known as an independent sales rep may be for you. Experienced salespeople tell us being a manufacturer’s representative is the graduate level of selling, offering potentially higher earnings and freedom from company politics.

• Aluminum door and window manufacturing

Manufacturing aluminum storm windows and doors is a relatively simple process that can even be conducted right from a well-equipped home based workshop. This business start-up will appeal to entrepreneurs with some construction and mechanical aptitude. Once again, aluminum storm windows and doors are easy to manufacture as the material required is referred to as extrusions. It is a simple process of cutting the window framing rails to length, wrapping the glass in a rubber gasket, and attaching the rails that are screw-fastened in the corners.

• Employment and career publications

Starting a desktop publishing business that specializes in producing a monthly employment and career guide newspaper is a fantastic new business venture to set in motion. The paper can be distributed throughout the community free of charge and supported by charging companies advertising fees to list their employment and career opportunities in the paper. Additionally, the paper should also include useful information and tips for readers on subjects and topics pertaining to securing gainful employment. The tips could include information, such as how to prepare for a job interview, ten secrets to a winning résumé and more.

• Internet trainer

  Believe it or not, there are still lots of folk; including many senior citizens and retirees who don’t have a clue how to access the internet or where to go once they are on it. If you’re a tech whiz and you like nothing better than tinkering online; then you can teach these individuals learn how to navigate the information superhighway with ease as an internet trainer. You will give seminars, workshops, day-long courses or provide one-on-one assistance at senior centers and in individuals’ homes. And you can teach the basics or tailor your programs to the specific types of internet use your clients want to know.

  In conclusion, these are the top best 30 money making business ides that can make you become rich. You don’t even need to invest in all, just select one of the businesses listed above and concentrate on it. Success will surely be yours.

What Do Startups Need Most Right Now?

For startups, it is the best of times and it is the worst of times. It's easier than ever to launch a company these days. But because there are so many new companies, it's harder than ever for startups to survive. There just aren't enough resources to support them all.

To stay in the game, startups need three things:

1. Money
2. Talent
3. Customers

But with competition so intense, founders are finding it extremely difficult to attract those vital ingredients.

Naval Ravikant is the founder of AngelList, which connects new startups with funding and talent. Recently he asked the entrepreneurs who use his service what things they need and how hard it is for them to get those things. The results of his informal survey show a lot of startups are going hungry.

What Startup Resource Is Hardest To Find Right Now

"In the past, funding was the biggest need but today it's recruiting," says Ravikant, himself a serial entrepreneur who founded Epinions and Vast.com, and currently runs HitForge andVenture Hacks, in addition to AngelList.

After recruiting comes funding, then advisers. "That's followed by social-media marketing and press, which really is another way of saying, 'We need lots of customers.' After that comes cofounders, which

is really interesting."

Interesting because, although cofounders is halfway down the needs list, the fact that it's there at all is yet another indicator of how difficult it now is for startups to bring talent onboard.

"In a frothy environment it becomes so hard to recruit people that you start having to expand your cofounding team," Ravikant says. "It was similar back in the dotcom days. Epinions, which we started in 1998, had five cofounders instead of two, primarily because it was really hard to recruit early-stage employees without giving them cofounder equity."

Top Startup Needs

1. Talent
2. Funding
3. Advisers
4. Social-media marketing
5. Press
6. Cofounders
7. Board members
8. Salespeople
9. PR help
10. Office space, lawyers, accountants

Product/Market Fit Is Key

Not all startups have a tough time pulling talent, however. Ravikant says there are a special few with a magic ingredient that automatically attracts top people: product-market fit. "If you've just raised $250,000, big deal - so have lots of other companies. If you've just come out of an accelerator program, big deal -so have lots of other companies. It's companies that have product-market fit that are able to recruit employees. Everyone else is recruiting cofounders."

Funding is the same. Cash flows to startups that have product-market fit- and trickles to those that don't.

"Raising money has gotten more difficult in the last few months, especially compared to the last few years," Ravikant says. "There were tons of companies launched in the last few years and the amount of series-A VC has not gone up. So it's only companies with real breakout traction that can raise new rounds, while everyone else can't."

Millions Of Users

Seed funds and angels are tired of casting a wide net and hoping one minnow grows into a whale. They'd rather shoot fish in a barrel. So the serious funding now goes to companies that get to millions of users very fast, especially on the consumer side.

Takeaway: if you're an unproven startup, set your sights on $250,000 in funding - max - and expect to treat everyone on the team as a cofounder. It's no longer a realistic option to load the cubicles with employees and then go in search of product-market fit.

The New Math

The upside to this new math: Most startups these days don't need a shedload of investment.

"It's possible we'll see a downturn in overall funding and an increase in the number of startups, just because the amount of money startups need continues to decline," Ravikant says. "What I do think is changing, however, is that startups will be seen more as experiments than businesses capable of being backed by venture capital, at least until they've really proven something."

A few years ago, you just had to be in the game to win funding and talent. Now, Ravikant suggests, the startup world is returning to a more traditional script: To the victor go the spoils.