NO MATTER WHAT YOU'RE SELLING, THIS STRATEGY SHOULD DO THE TRICK

There are no shortage of instructional sales books. In fact, there are probably too many. The difficulty with most of the books is that they tend to teach you how to follow a process or structure that can limit your ability to think on your feet or adjust to a dynamic situation.

A little bit of structured selling isn't a bad thing, but following steps that someone designed to sell to a certain type of buyer isn't going to provide a perfect fit for every situation. The reality is, there are a few basic steps that you can take to move light years ahead of the rest -- key word being "basic" -- that have little to do with the product or service that you're selling. In fact, they have nothing to do with the product or service you're selling, but instead have everything to do with you.

Selling has very little to do with what you sell and everything to do with how you sell, not the product, but yourself. People buy most products in a business setting because they like the person they're buying from, not necessarily because they have the best product or value proposition.

I'm not suggesting that you can have the worst product in your market and easily dominate with your sales genius, although it does happen. Your products should at least be competitive. If they're not, you need to figure out how to improve them or start asking yourself some serious questions -- i.e. why did I choose to sell this terrible product?

Stare into their souls. We all know that you only get one opportunity to make a first impression -- so I'll skip the boring motivational speech. It's how you take advantage of the opportunity that will start you down the path of separating yourself from all the others.

10 TOP REASONS WHY FIRST-TIME ENTREPRENEURS FAIL ( A MUST READ)

"For entrepreneurs -- especially those just starting out -- businesses succeed as much as they fail. I’ve seen this time and again as a mentor and entrepreneur. But statistics also suggest that the failure rate for new startups within the first five years is as high as 50 percent.

Of course, real entrepreneurs treat business failure as a milestone on the road to success. They count on learning from their mistakes, and use the experience to move to the next idea. But why not learn from the mistakes of others, without all the pain and suffering?

Here is my list of 10 top startup failure causes -- and how to avoid them:

1. No written plan. Don’t believe the myth that a business plan isn’t worth the effort. The discipline of writing down a plan is the best way to make sure you actually understand how to transform your idea into a business.

2. Slim or no revenue model. Even a non-profit has to generate revenue (or donations) to offset operating costs. If your product is free, or you lose money on every sale, it’s hard to make it up in volume. You may have the solution to world hunger, but if your customers have no money, your business won’t last long.

3. Limited business opportunities. Not every good idea can become a blockbuster business.

THE 7 DEADLY FINANCIAL SINS OF SMALL BUSINESSES

This year's tax season has finally been put to bed. And many people -- both small-business owners and consumers -- are breathing a collective sigh of relief. However, there is a fundamental difference between business and personal finances when it comes to taxes. While the “average Joe” may not have to worry about taxes again until next year, “Joe the small-business owner” needs to start thinking about his next quarterly tax filing now. Yes, for the small business owner, the taxman cometh four times a year. 

While this is bound to cause anxiety, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With proper planning and the right financial tools, many business owners can approach each filing with confidence.

For the entrepreneur who has achieved this, I applaud you. And for the rest, to start you off on the right track for next year I’ve flagged seven financial faux pas that are commonly overlooked by small businesses.

1. Not keeping financial records up-to-date. This is the number-one mistake small-business owners make and also the most important to remedy. While it seems logical to keep records accurate, it is easier said than done. No one wants to pour over accounts payable, receivables and cashflow at the end of a long day, which is why this important part of the business is often overlooked.

 One way to help manage this is to employ financial tools that do the work for you. The cloud has opened up a myriad of applications that can “speak to one another” and automate backend services. Additionally, the anytime, anywhere ability of cloud computing and smartphones makes it so you can update your books on the go.

ACCESS BANK ASSURES SMEs OF INCREASED SUPPORT

Access Bank Plc has blamed the poor organisational structure of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the country as one of the factors obstructing lending to the sector.

However, the bank restated its resolve to continue to work with SMEs in order to grow their businesses.

Speaking at a forum for SMEs in Lagos, Head, SME Desk, Access Bank, Mr. Oyediji Atoyebi, noted that small and medium businesses are crucial to the development of any nation.

Furthermore, he described SMEs as the main driver of employment in any economy.

“The recapitalisation of the banking sector has enabled the growth of the sector with more banks offering credit facilities to eligible businesses.

“Owing to the organisational structures of majority of SME businesses and other organisational challenges, many banks find it challenging to accurately profile SME businesses and analyse their financial standing,” he added.

Continuing, he pointed out that Access Bank is providing access to finance to operators in the sector.

Atoyebi said Access Bank intends to bring down cost of banking for the SMEs as well as to provide financing at all levels of the value chain in the sector.

He also identified key issues in the sector to include poor funding, low managerial expertise, poor project feasibility study/business case, lack of proper book-keeping and absence of corporate governance.

Furthermore, Atoyebi listed the challenges confronting the SMEs to include unavailability of basic infrastructure, such as electricity, road, and logistic issues, among others; pricing competition, inability to access credit facilities and collateralisation of advanced credits.

He identified the critical success factors for the SMEs to include access to funding, extensible business architecture, government policies and capacity building.