How to start a business with little or no funding

By Peter Osalor 

So you tried everything and asked everyone, but nobody offered you a loan? Well, do not despair; others have started businesses in similar circumstances. Starting a business without outside funding is known as bootstrapping. In bootstrapping, the entrepreneur uses his or her personal savings, overdraft, or bond on their home. Most well- known successful business entrepreneurs like Bill Gates (Microsoft), Michael Dell (Dell computers), and Richard Branson adopted a combination of personal bootstrapping plans to start- off their businesses. To obtain maximum result, you need to use a combination of bootstrapping options to leverage every opportunity instead of focusing on one option. There’s is no uniform “Start- up” fee for building a business, so different businesses will have different needs. It’s important to first estimate how much you need before you start finding alternative methods to fund your business. There are two main parts of starting a business with less: Lowering your costs or Increase your available capital from outside source. These have three options, but I will discuss one. Reduce your needs: your first option is to change your business model to demand fewer needs. For example, if you were planning on starting a company of personal trainer, you could reduce your “employee” expenses by being the sole “employee” at the start. Unless you need office space, you can work from home. You can do your home- work to find cheaper sources of suppliers or even cut out the entire product lines that are too expensive to produce at the outset. The following tactics will help you start your business with minimal capital: SIX TACTICS FOR STARTING A BUSINESS WITH NO/ MINIMAL CAPITAL 
1.Break the Golden Handcuffs The reality is that starting a business entails a lot of sacrifice in your personal life and tightening the belt. Once you have set a deadline to launch your business, you have to learn to live on less and put money aside to help you fund the business. 
2. Back yourself An entrepreneur who is not willing to invest his own money into his business does not believe in himself. Once you can invest your own resources into the business, you can expect support from close relatives and friends who believe in you and know the amount of money you have pumped into the business, which is a clear indication of your commitment to make the business succeed. 
3. DIY (Do – It- Yourself) An entrepreneur at the start-up must endeavour to be jack -of- all –trades. Although you may have your own specialty it does not matter when you add some other works to your business, after all, the more you do, the less you need to pay someone else. This can help you save some money and get the business off the ground. The entrepreneur and the management team at the start-up stage must train themselves to do most of the work instead of outsourcing. 
4. Work in Parallel At the start-up stage of your business, you can sell your time to raise some money while you are building your business from the income generated from the consulting work. 
5. Keep the End in Mind Although consulting can generate some money for a start-up business, there is a possibility of over dependence and forgetting the big picture of developing your own brand. This means the entrepreneur can become greedy and caught up in a circle of generating money outside of the business, with fewer opportunities, than selling from within the business. Although the latter will take time and needs a long-term mentality, the rewards could be greater. 
6. Focus on cash-flow. Cash is the king, queen, and prince of every business.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/start-business-little-no-funding/

Apple Loop: Worrying iPhone 7 Leak, Boring iPad Pro Design Revealed, Greedy iPhone SE Strategy

Ewan Spence ,

 CONTRIBUTOR

Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes the leaked iPhone 7 blueprints and third-party cases, Apple’s grab for cash with the iPhone SE design, a 3D-printed iPad Pro, new Apple Watch accessories, Apple vs FBI reaches for a Private Eye standard, a new man-in-the-middle iTunes malware attack, why you should not close apps, and a new ‘Messaging as a Platform’ app is released.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read the weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).

iPhone 7 Blueprints Show Little Change

Although it is an even-numbered year, and the iPhone range generally gets a style refresh in these years, the iPhone 7 looks to be little more than an update to the iPhone 6 style. That’s according to blueprints leaked through French site NoWhereElse. These show the new antenna housing, the cut-outs for the camera, and a worrying trend of iteration. Gordon Kelly reports:

Despite the iPhone 7 expected to be a ‘design change year’, it appears Apple is not planning to make wholesale changes from the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S that preceded it.

Antenna bands and camera module aside, the schematics appear to show a phone which is virtually identical is style designs Apple has been selling since 2014. This is likely to come as a disappointment given Apple is set to kill the headphone jack and the hope was, as compensation for this polarizing move, customers would see Apple make dramatic design improvements.

More thoughts on the blueprints and the design decisions can be found here on Forbes.

…and The iPhone 7 Case Leaks Confirms It

As well as blueprints, the supply chain has a number of case designs leaking this week, which confirms many of the design features of the presumptively titled iPhone 7 ahead of the launch in September. Gordon Kelly continues his look at the new design and the implication for the camera and the headphone jack:

17 months ago my analysis of Apple developer rule changes concluded that Apple would ditch the headphone jack on the iPhone within the next two years. Numerous leaks have since corroborated this and Unbox’s video again backs this up.

The case not only lacks a dedicated headphone jack port, but no slot on the case can even fit the Apple headphone plug – it’s a no go. Furthermore the case backs up growing talk that it will be replaced by an all in one (music and charging) Lightning cable and dual speaker arrangement.

Apple Grabs The SE Cash

The leaks around the iPhone SE, widely expected to be launched on Monday March 21st, show a device that is almost identical to the iPhone 5S, but with upgraded internals, and one critical change on the outside. By changing the edges to reflect the curved iPhone 6 design cues – as opposed to the harder edged iPhone 5S – Apple has rendered a huge range of peripherals as obsolete:

If, as Apple and many analysts suspect, the slowdown in iPhone sales is due to customers waiting on a replacement four-inch screened iPhone, then the iPhone SE is targeted at those users. Those users will likely have a bundle of favorite accessories. If they do upgrade to Apple’s latest handset (and Apple really needs everyone to upgrade this year) , they are going to have to buy everything again. Apple (and by extension the peripheral manufacturers in the Made for iPhone program) are going to see more sales on the ancillary products.

INTRODUCING MARKETING

Definition Of Marketing (CONTINUED)

While one might argue that the marketing function must be the most important function at L.L. Bean, this is not the case. L.L. Bean is just as likely to lose a customer because of incorrect billing (an accounting function) or a flawed hunting boot (a product function) as it is from a misleading ad (a marketing function).

Admittedly, marketing is often a critical part of a firm's success. Nevertheless, the importance of marketing must be kept in perspective. For many large manufacturers such as Proctor & Gamble, Microsoft, Toyota, and Sanyo, marketing represents a major expenditure, and these businesses depend on the effectiveness of their marketing effort. Conversely, for regulated industries (such as utilities, social services, or medical care or small businesses providing a one-of-a-kind product) marketing may be little more than a few informative brochures. There are literally thousands of examples of businesses-many quite small; that have neither the resources nor the inclination to support an elaborate marketing organization and strategy. These businesses rely less on research than on common sense. In all these the marketing program is worth the costs only if it fits the organization and facilitates its ability to reach its goals.

 NEWS-LINE: PICTURE YOUR MISSION

Artist Linda Armantrout, owner of Armantrout Graphic Design and Illustration, works with businesses to help them picture their goals-literally-through a "pictorial mission statement." As option to the typical written mission statement that is handed down to employees from management. Armantrout creates a bright watercolor picture of the statement, after receiving input from both employees and managers, The final result is usually a collage of sorts that depicts what is important to the staff and the business-such as clients, products, services, and ethics.

The mission statement picture that Armantrout designs is framed and hung at the company to remind employees of their goals. The pictorial statements also can be put on coffee mugs, jackets, and desktop posters, or turned into screen savers.

One of Armantrout's clients, BancOne Leasing Corporation, came up with a colorful image of a globe surrounded by images representing its clients and services. Drawings of airplanes and buses represent what the company leases and the globe represents its national presence.

Sources: Katie Ford. "Picture Your Goals In Color, " The Denver Business Journal, March 17-18, 1999, pp. 33A, 35A.

Shirleen Holt, "Mission Possible, " Business Week, August 16. 1999, p. F-12.

Teri Lammers , ''The Effective and Indispensable Mission Statement," Inc., August. 1999, p. 75.

Justification for Study:

This task of determining the appropriateness of marketing for a particular business or institution serves as a major justification for learning about marketing. Although marketing has clearly come of age during the decades of the 1970, 1980s, and 1990s, there is still a deal of misunderstanding about the meaning and usefulness of marketing. For most of the global public, marketing is still equated with advertising and personal selling. While marketing is both of those, it is also much more.

The business community can attribute a partial explanation, this general lack of understanding about marketing to the uneven acceptance and adoption of marketing. Some businesses still exist in the dark ages when marketing was defined as "the sales department will sell whatever the piant produces." Others have advanced a bit further, in that they have a marketing officer and engage in market research, product development, promotion and have a long list of marketing activities. More and more businesses firmly believe that the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous, meaning that the marketer knows and understands the customer so well that the product or service is already what's wanted a n d sells itself.

This does not mean that marketing ignores the engineering and production of the product or the importance of it. It does suggest, however, that attention to customers-who they are and who they are going to be-is seen to be in the best long-term interest of the company. As a student interested in business, it is beneficial for you to have an accurate and complete comprehension of the role marketing can and should play in today's business world.

There are also several secondary reasons to studying marketing. One we have already alluded to in our discussion on definitions: The application of marketing to more nonprofit and non-business institutions is growing. Churches, museums, the United Way, the U.S. Armed Forces, politicians, and others are hiring individuals with marketing expertise. This has opened up thousands of new job opportunities for those with a working knowledge of marketing.

Even if you are not getting a degree in marketing, knowing about: marketing will pay off in a variety of careers. Consider the following individuals:

• Paul Moore, an engineer specializing in earth moving equipment, constantly works with product development and sales personnel in order to create superior products.

• Christy Wood, a CPA, is a top tax specialist who spends much of her time maintaining customer relationships, and at least three month seeking new customers.

• Steve Jacobson, a systems analyst and expert programmer, understands that his skills must be used to find the right combination of hardware and software for every one of his customers.

• Doris Kelly, a personnel manager, must be skilled at finding, hiring, and training individuals to facilitate her organization's marketing efforts.

• Craig Roberts, an ex-Microsoft engineer, has recently started a dot-com company and is in the process of raising capital.

There are two final factors that justify the study of marketing for nearly every citizen. First of all, we are all consumers and active participants in the marketing network. Understanding the rudiments of marketing will make us better consumers, which in tum will force businesses to do their jobs better. Second, marketing has an impact on society as a whole.

Concepts such as trade deficit, embargo, devaluation of a foreign currency, price fixing, deceptive advertising, and product safety take on a whole new meaning when we view them in a marketing context. This knowledge should make you a more enlightened citizen who understands what such social and political issues mean to you and to our society.

Marketing capsules summarize the information throughout this text. Characteristics of a Marketing Organization. As noted earlier, the application of marketing in a particular organization varies tremendously, ranging from common-sense marketing to marketing departments with thousands

of staff members and multi-million dollar budgets. Yet both may have a great deal in common in respect to how they view the activity called marketing. We refer to these common characteristics as the Cs of Marketing . They are your clues that a business understands marketing.

Extract from the book titled: Core Concept Of Marketing by John Burnett

How Business Leaders Can Thrive With A Hybrid Cloud

By Cynthya Peranandam and Laura Sanders, IBM

The benefits of hybrid cloud have been clear for some time.

Along with the cost efficiency of moving certain workloads to the cloud, hybrid environments allow organizations the flexibility to maintain and better secure data on-premise or scale out as needed.

In many ways, the hybrid cloud has become the norm.

IDC predicts that more than 80 percent of enterprise IT organizations will commit to hybrid cloud architectures by 2017. But getting real value from hybrid environments isn’t necessarily easy. In fact, many organizations struggle with a deliberate hybrid strategy and with managing their growing IT sprawl.

To accelerate enterprise hybrid cloud adoption, IBM and VMware, Inc. today announceda strategic partnership designed to help enterprises take better advantage of cloud’s speed and economics.  The new agreement will enable enterprise customers to easily extend their existing workloads, as they are, from their on-premises software-defined data center to the cloud.

Because getting hybrid cloud right can lead to great payoffs. A new IBM Center for Applied Insights study, “Growing up Hybrid: Accelerating Digital Transformation,” reveals that among those that have embraced hybrid environments, leading organizations report greater competitive advantage and ROI.

Not only are these leaders deliberate about choosing a hybrid blend, but they also use hybrid cloud to power digital transformation — spurring digital business goals and kick-starting next-generation initiatives such as the Internet of Things (IoT), advancedanalytics and cognitive computing.

Driving more efficiency and productivity benefits

Even at the most basic level, companies that are strategic and deliberate about hybrid adoption manage to get more value from their investments.

The study found that 85 percent of hybrid leaders are reporting cost reductions, achieved by shifting some fixed costs to variable costs. And 82 percent of leaders say they’re also improving productivity.

While these benefits aren’t surprising, the additional value enjoyed by leading organizations when compared with other adopters is remarkable.

Moving up the digital value chain for business growth

Above and beyond the productivity gains, what’s new is the focus on hybrid cloud as an enabler of digital change, by enabling product and service innovation and the ability to expand into new markets and serve new customer segments.

These findings demonstrate that hybrid cloud is also key for developers to accelerate development and to seamlessly access data resources and composable APIs.

With entire industries shifting their focus to digital services, hybrid cloud has emerged as a differentiator: leading companies are four times more likely than the lagging segment to use hybrid cloud for digital services.

Enabling disruption with emerging technologies

But the biggest factor separating leaders from the pack is their use of hybrid cloud to enable forward-looking initiatives. According to Gartner, 40 percent of organizations expect the IoT to transform their business or offer significant new revenue or cost-saving opportunities.

Cognitive computing, or the use of adaptive learning systems to glean insights and augment business decisions, is another key technology underpinned by hybrid cloud, with as many as five times as many leaders using hybrid to jump start cognitive efforts.

While many organizations already use hybrid cloud, not all enjoy the full extent of its benefits. Companies don’t always start with a comprehensive strategy, which is a critical requirement to getting the best business outcomes from hybrid adoption. The use of advanced hybrid cloud management technologies — from automation to predictive analytics to open technologies and high security — are also essential to their success.

Cynthya Peranandam is Principal Consultant for the IBM Center for Applied Insights.

Laura Sanders is General Manager of IBM Global Technology Systems Services.

To learn more about the new era of business, visit http://wwwibm.com/outthink

A version of this story originally appeared on the IBM Center for Applied Insights blogon Feb. 9, 2016.

China's banks lost $22B to Alibaba and Tencent in 2015, but that's not their biggest problem

Contributor: Zennon Kapron 

Despite years of trying with pilot mobile payment programs and roll-outs in major cities, China’s banks and UnionPay have largely been left out of China’s mobile payment revolution. According to Analysys China, in Q3-2015 UnionPay controlled about 1.8% of the mobile payment market by transaction volume through its China Mobile Pay JV and its Merchant Services arm. Basically, very very little. At the same time, China’s mobile and internet payment markets grew more than 40% from 2014-2015 and were dominated by digital payment providers Alipay and Tenpay.

This led to a RMB 150 billion (~$23 billion) ‘loss’ in potential transaction fees for China’s banks and UnionPay in 2015 as overall consumer spend continued to shift from traditional card payments where banks are strong, to online payments, where they are weak. This number is projected to increase to RMB 400 billion (~$61 billion)* by 2020. Although overall, card transaction fees only represent about 5-8% of banks’ revenues in China, $23 billion is still a significant.

The financial loss certainly hurts, the bigger worry is the transaction data. Lots of it: tens of billions of transactions went across digital channels in 2015. Certainly big data in any sense of the phrase.

The challenge is that Alipay and WeChat Pay transactions do not go through banks or across the UnionPay card network. Basically Alipay and Tenpay (the platform behind WeChat Pay) have their own payment network or ‘rails’. As a user pays, money moves from the user’s bank to the user’s account on the Alipay platform, then to the merchant’s account on Alipay and then eventually to the merchants bank.

Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/zennonkapron/2016/03/06/china-banks-lost-22b-to-alibaba-and-tencent-in-2015-but-thats-not-their-biggest-problem/#be56c8628458

Billionaires 2016: The Youngest In The World

This video shows you the youngest billionaire in the world. This will inspire you to keep those dreams alive, because you too can become a billionaire; all you need to do is follow the laid down principles and you will be on your way to becoming one of the world's youngest billionaires. you may be there thinking you are too young to do something, I can challenge you that you are not too young; you are old enough to own any empire.
Think about it, if you are above 18 yrs of age, then you are already an adult; so wake up to that challenge of becoming one of the youngest billionaire of your time. Am equally very inspired. Enjoy the video
  


To watch video follow the link: http://www.forbes.com/video/4780138729001/

INTRODUCING MARKETING

This course is to bring to you the concept of marketing. Marketing is the heart of every  business success; for your business to succeed, you need a good marketing concept. Therefor, we are going to take you through a course on concept of marketing; just follow us step-by-step and we will take you through it. I bet you, after this course, you will become one of the best marketers around. Happy learning!

Sources: Corie Brown, "Look Who's Taking Care of Business," Newsweek, August 18, 1997, p. 62. Karen Schoemer, "Burning Love," Newsweek, August 18, 1997, pp. 58-61. G. Brown, "More Earll' Elvis Unearthed ," The Denver Pos t, August 15, 1997, p. 9F. Greg Hassell, "King of Trees Rises From Graceland," Houston Chronicle, Dec. 8,1999, p. 11. Duncan Hughes, "Elvis is Back From the Dead Fmancially," Sunday Business, August 15, 1999, p. 23.

Part one:

 MARKETING: DEFINITION AND JUSTIFICATION:

Defining Marketing

Noted Harvard Professor of Business Theodore Levitt, states that the purpose of all business IS to "find and keep customers." Furthermore, the only way you can achieve this objective is to create a competitive advantage. That is, you must convince buyers (potential customers) that what you have to offer them comes closest to meeting their particular need or want at that point in time. Hopefully, you will be able to provide this advantage consistently, so that eventually the customer will no longer consider other alternatives and will purchase your product out of habit. This loyal behavior is exhibited by people who drive only Fords, brush their teeth only with Crest, buy only Dell computers, and have their plumbing fixed only by "Samson Plumbing-On Call 24 hours, 7 days a week." Creating this blind commitment-without consideration of alternatives-to a particular brand, store, person, or idea is the dream of all businesses. It is unlikely to occur, however, without the support of an effective marketing program . In fact, the specific role of marketing is to provide assistance in identifying, satisfying, and retaining customers.

While the general tasks of marketing are somewhat straightforward, attaching an acceptable definition to the concept has been difficult. A textbook writer once noted, "Marketing is not easy to define. No one has yet been able to formulate a clear, concise definition that finds universal acceptance." Yet a definition of some sort is necessary if we are to layout the boundaries of what is properly to be considered "marketing." How do marketing activities differ from non marketing activities? What activities should one refer to a marketing activities? What institutions should one refer to marketing institutions?

Marketing is advertising to advertising agencies, events to event marketers, knocking on doors to salespeople, direct mail to direct mailers. In other words, to a person with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

In reality, marketing is a way of thinking about business, rather than a bundle of techniques. It's; much more than just selling stuff and collecting money. It's the connection between people and products, customers and companies. Like organic tissue, this kind of connection-or relationship-is always growing or dying. It can never be in a steady state. And like tissue paper, this kind of connection is fragile. Customer relationships, even long-standing ones, are contingent on the last thing that happened.

Tracing the evolution of the various definitions of marketing proposed during the last thirty years reveals two trends: 

1) expansion of the application of marketing to non-profit and non-business institutions; e.g., charities, education, or health care; and 

2) expansion of the responsibilities of marketing beyond the personal survival of the individual firm , to include the betterment of society as a whole . These two factors are reflected in the official American Marketing Association definition published in 1988.

"Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception: pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual (customer) and organizational objectives."

While this definition can help us better comprehend the parameters of marketing, it does not provide a full picture. Definitions of marketing cannot flesh out specific transactions and other relationships among these elements. The following propositions are offered to supplement this definition and better position marketing within the firm:

1. The overall directive for any organization is the mission statement or some equivalent statement of organizational goals. It reflects the inherent philosophy of the organization.

2. Every organization has a set of functional areas (e.g., accounting, production, finance, data processing, marketing) in which tasks  are necessary for the success are performed. These functional areas must be managed if they are to achieve maximum performance.

3. Every functional area is guided by a philosophy (derived from the mission statement or company goals) that governs its approach toward its ultimate set of tasks.

4. Marketing from the other functional areas in that its primary concern is with exchanges that take place in markets, outside the organization (called a transaction).

5. Marketing is most successful when the philosophy, tasks, and manner of implementing available Technology are coordinated and complementary.

Perhaps an example will clarify these propositions: L.L. Bean is an extremely successful mail order company. The organization bases much of its success on its longstanding and straightforward mission statement: "Customer Satisfaction: An L.L. Bean Tradition" (Proposition 1). The philosophy permeates every level of the organization and is reflected in high quality products, fair pricing, convenience, a 100% policy and-above all-dedication to customer service (Proposition 2). This philosophy has necessitated a very high standard of production, efficient billing systems, extensive and responsive communication networks, computerization, innovative cost controls, and so forth .

Moreover, it  means that all of these functional areas have to be in constant communication, must be totally coordinated, and must exhibit a level of harmony and mutual respect that creates a positive environment in order to reach shared goals (Proposition 3). The L.L. Bean marketing philosophy is in close harmony with its mission statement. Everything the marketing department does must reinforce and make real the abstract concept of "consumer satisfaction" (Proposition 4). 

The price-product-quality relationship must be fair. The product must advertise in media that reflects true high quality. Consequently, L.L. Bean advertises through its direct-mail catalog and through print ads in prestigious magazines (e.g. National Geographic). It also has one of the most highly regarded websites (Ad 1. 1). Product selection and design are based upon extensive research indicating the preferences of their customers Since product delivery and possible product return is critical, marketing must be absolutely sure that both these tasks are performed in accordance with customers' wishes (Proposition 5). 

Watch-out for more parts or simply bookmark our blog; you don't have to miss any part.