Regis Ohia

This is why light TRAVELS faster than sound.

Your page or product may look good but it may not sound good to the ears of the right buyers.

Marketing is Work remember, so you have to give your customers what they want to hear by selling a solution to the right buyer.

A turn over is not gotten from a Make over. You make money by identifying the right opportunities in the right problems of the right people.

Right opportunities create Products, in the right problems you find the right Place for your business and by correct marketing, you target the right People.

Work on your outlook but be careful of the sound that comes after. Ensure it's a Turn over!

Stop Entertaining the wrong Audience!

You don't sell a Rolls-Royce to a 3 year old. You'll only get him excited.

I think you've entertained your customers enough and trust me that may still not bring in real buyers especially when your followers do not have the capacity to buy your product.

My job as a marketer is to form the right connection between qualified buyers for your products and you, and make them want to buy from you.

“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

There's this Igbo proverb that says, and I quote "Oke soro Ngwere maa mmiri, mmiri Koo Ngwere o ga ako oke"- This simply means "you don't do something because your friends are doing it".

I see a whole lot of business owners and entrepreneurs pour money into advertising on social media just because every other person is doing it and at the end of the day there's no result to show for it. Well you're not alone in this. In fact I was once like you. I wanted to grow my business and so I spent 5000 naira daily running ads on Facebook and Instagram with nothing to show for it I almost cried lol. Omo I had to go learn how to do this thing myself.

What you don't know is there are different ways to run ads on Facebook and Instagram to get different kinds of results. There's a type of ad to run to make sales and another type of ad to run to get likes and comments and a different type entirely to generate leads. As long as you don't know this, you'll keep doing giveaway for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook in the name of running ads.

Chat me up, let me reason you one or two on how to run ads and get the desired results 😋

I hope you realise that there are over 7 billion people across the globe and you also realise that you cannot sale to even 1billion people except you have a very useful app (that would be great, by the way). As long as you don't, you need a marketer to plot your business to your correct market share and speak their language so well that they buy.

There are lot of people willing to spend money online. The question is why should they buy from you out of the millions of people selling the same thing you're selling? Answer this question and you've solved 50% of the problem.

FACEBOOK IS THE NEW BILLBOARD

Scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed is a bit like driving down the highway. As you scroll, you see ads, promoted posts, as well as random comments.

And if you, as a business, are willing to pay, your message will also appear in the newsfeed of your target audience.

With Facebook, you can spend as little as you want and still expand your reach.

Because it's a social platform, and because they collect data on our behavior every day, they know a lot about us. All that data makes them the most powerful ad platform available today.

Target your ads precisely enough, and you're sure to get the right eyeballs on your message.

Announcement! I am back, bigger and better.

I took a break from social media and so many other activities to master this digital marketing thing. I really wanted to be the best in digital marketing and not just traditional marketing.

It cost me money o😐but I can categorically tell you that I am now one of the best in:
Digital marketing
Information marketing
E-commerce
Landing page creation
Whatsapp/sms marketing etc.

This is a great time to be alive🤗

Few days ago, a local sponge was on display on one of the popular e-commerce sites in Nigeria and possibly advertised consistently on the media not to make a joke but obvious profits. I won't be surprised at the sales they make from this; people buy out of inquisition and several other reasons. The good thing about their selling price was targeting the product per the customers they were reaching out for by upscaling the value over what is locally accepted. I didn't buy the sponge, so who knows what kind of "fibre" the sponge is made from (on a lighter note).

Online marketing is one of the most underused tools in Nigeria, as much as we see ads every other day. This is not a post to encourage you to hop in on the opportunity that abounds in our national market but to consider your marketing decisions in terms of your product type and target.

It is quite sad to run an ad because you want people to know that you have arrived as an entrepreneur, that is without any agenda to convert publicity to sales.

It is sad because you may not be prepared for coincidental sales which may occur. This is why rather than just an image you want to paint, you must think in terms of your product.

As good as my profile in marketing is, I will never assure you of sales on a product I cannot vouch for. This is because sales can become your waterloo, "you cannot deceive a customer twice". Be very informed about your product, dear entrepreneur.

The people who market on bill boards, lamp posts and Transit buses don't do so because they are not well enlightened to use the internet. In fact, some of them do have a budget for it; the crux is that they know the worth of their product in cost of production and salable value, they know who can buy it, sometimes why they buy it, and where to find them.

If I wanted to sell luxury lamp stands, I'd swiftly think social media and target adequately because I know that my customers most assuredly have a phone and live in certain luxury areas.

If I wanted to sell a biscuit worth #50 per one at retail stores, I wouldn't mind setting up a billboard in a market area or lamp posts leading to the market to convince wholesalers that I mean business and there's something new for retailers.
..But if I wanted to sell brooms, I'd likely implore personal selling and engagement with certain market women associations.

My thought to you today is simple.
1. Know why your product can be trusted
2. Know who will likely buy it.
3. Know where they can be found.

Regis Ohia is now on WhatsApp.

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning. You must neither stop nor give up.

It's not about fame but about the frame of a successful man. It's all about being the best. It's about challenging myself everyday.

The frame and stature of a successful entrepreneur is experience—in skills and knowledge and this is why I don't stop.

I completed the course "Marketing and Communications" yesterday from the International Business Management Institute in Berlin, Germany and trust me I won't stop because my service to humanity gets easier with more experience added to my profile.

My prayer for you this month is that the Lord help you not to lean on your own understanding but in everything acknowledge him so that he can direct your words, thoughts and actions. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. Happy New month.

PC: I and my mentor, Niyi Adesanya.

You know, in 2016, Etisalat brought Niyi Adesanya to my school as one of the speakers at a conference hosted by them and we were electrified by the man. I tried everything to get to him that day but couldn't. Fast forward to today, here I am under his mentorship.

Great things takes time.

Yesterday I became part of the Niyi Adesanya Business Community, a community of top business professionals in the country and guess what? Niyi Adesanya will be mentoring me for the next six months. Out of this world 💪🌚

YOUR FIRST CUSTOMERS ARE YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

Oga business owner, if you cannot convince your family and friends to patronise you then you don't have any business being in business.

When I started my training course in Printing, my father did not really fancy the idea because he thought the printing I was talking about was photocopying and scanning lol (story for another day). It took sometime for him to even come and know where I was learning but when he did, he was convinced that I was in the right place and was doing the right thing.

Then guess what, my first customer was my father himself, then the second customer was a referral from him. The person he referred has been a customer ever since plus many other people who he has referred me to.

I and my business at some point was thriving on referrals from friends and family alone and even till this moment, a huge part of my customer base came through referrals just like the pictures of the advertising campaign I did for Fekomi Herbals in this post. I got the job through a referral from a man who's been supporting me from way back when I was learning the trade.

Begin to talk to everyone you know, tell them about what you do and beg them to tell others. You won't die, drop the shame and speak.

Personally, I'll never be afraid to tell everyone that I am the best go-to person for printing and advertising. I am good at what I do and so I'll continually put it in the face of those that matter.

Start today.

Every salesman has to deal with the fear of failure and when I say salesman, I mean you, a business man/woman, wanting to sell to customers, acquire new customers or a career person eager to be promoted by solving more problems and selling your value to your boss. So everyone is a salesman in one way or the other and everyday you'll have to deal with the fear of failure; it is as critical as the need to succeed. But as you win, the more confident you will become, and the more confident you become, I expect that you increase the fear of failure by trying something new.

And as you fear failing so much that it spikes your desire to succeed, I expect that you consider what Jean-Claude Killy told Guy Drut in 1976 when he was France's only hope for a track and field medal.

In Guy Drut's words, as pulled out from What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School by Mark H. Mc Cormack, "Jean-Claude told me that I was the only one who knew how to get my body and mind to their ultimate peak for the Olympic Games. He then told me that after I had done this that I should keep saying to myself "I have done everything I can to get ready for this race and if I win, everything will be great, but if I don't win, my friends will still be my friends, my enemies will still be my enemies and the world will still be the same"

Point 1: Get your body and mind at its peak
Point 2: Dash ahead with the mindset that whatever happens:
1. Your friends will remain your friends (those who turn against you when you fail, were never your friends).
2. Your enemies will remain your enemies.
3. You won't wake up with your bed on the roof~the world will remain the same.

Remember this and be Free!

Yesterday I had the privilege to be with mama Nike Davies-Okundaye, the owner of Nike Art Gallery in Lekki, Lagos Nigeria.

Nike Art Gallery according to Wikipedia is the largest of its kind in the whole of West Africa. We were told that it boasts a collection of about 25,000 diverse art works from about 5000 Nigerian artists.

I also had the privilege to meet Abiola Ogunniyi, of SJ tours.

It's a privilege to see and meet with great people and learn from the abundance of their wealth.

"Hello I'm Mary from MTN"

You stopped to read this because of MTN, not because of Mary.

How you sell yourself matters this week. A good salesman or marketer knows that his pitch happens in less than a minute...the first 5 seconds are super important in hooking your client before you say what you want, so use what's stronger than your name till you make a name for yourself.

Tip: Your company/business name is always stronger.

The LION himself wishes you a fruitful week.

“Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

It was a huge privilege to sit and learn from the great Eagle Stephen Akintayo himself earlier today.

Dr Stephen is a billionaire realtor who has made billions in real estate in major countries in the world. His company GText Global, has offices in Nigeria, Dubai, U.S.A and the UK. I have been blessed enormously by the billionaire himself and so, you will begin to see the results in the coming days.

~Follow who know road.

As an indigene of Imo State, it is very important that I take active part in the dialogues and discussions that affect our dear State. To this effect, I'll be attending the 2023 Doable Team Critical Stakeholders Canvass where prominent individuals and stakeholders of Imo State would be discussing how to create a pathway for the birth of the “Imo of our Collective Dreams”. A State that everyone would be proud to call his own and relate with. Join me on the 29th of August 2021 at Residency Hotels, No 5, Asa Afariogun, Airport way, Isolo Ajao Estate, Lagos for this epoch event. It’s Doable!

Congratulation to me for completing the course "mastering the basics of communication" from London Academy Business School.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. —William Shakespeare

The realization that the self is lacking, that there is always more to learn and that one doesn't know nearly everything, or even as much as he thinks he knows is the hallmark of the wise man. He knows that he still has much to learn and so he chases more knowledge. The more you know, the better you become.

There's more to come. 👑🙌

FIND THAT SHEEP.

You already know this parable, the question is how it affects your selling and marketing instincts as an enterpreneur.

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them—what do you do? You leave the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost until you find it. When you find it, you are so happy that you put it on your shoulders and carry it back home. Then you call your friends and neighbors together and say to them, ‘I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who do not need to repent.

Luke 15:4‭-‬7 GNT

https://bible.com/bible/68/luk.15.4-7.GNT

I have always wondered why the shepherd would leave 99 sheep and go after one but we must understand that Jesus was talking to people in the shepherding business, they had good insight into what he was talking about as against most of us in the modern world. So I'll break it down.

Sheep do not wander away except they are injured, sick or consider themselves a weaklink which can attract predators to the rest of the herd. A safe herd will always stay together, in fact as calm as sheep are supposed they can successfully trample on a predator as a heard. Simply put they dont survive in isolation.

In business, you must have heard that it is easier to retain and earn from an already loyal customer than acquire new customers. So my nugget for you is simple.

1. Create a record system for your customers, how else are you going to know when you lose them or have to chase after them?

Yes, the business is big and all that, so have a mailing list. Get their birthdays, be intentional about your customers. Sometimes you truly have to leave your safe herd to chase after that one customer.

2. Build a safety mechanism for your customers. Have you seen some diehard fans of particular brands? You dare not say anything wrong about such brands to them, they can fight you for it. Why? The business owners have worked hard to not just build but retain their brand identity.

Your brand identity is your safety mechanism and till you are consistent with it, absolutely no one will fight for your product standards without your presence like the case of the shepherd.

I mean, sheep fighting for a master that will take their wool/ a business owner that will take his customer's money.—think about this.

3. Be audacious—Follow-up on your customers, ask why they didn't order the regular. We truly lose some and win some but showing you care means so much, see, some customers simply do not want to bother you—their regular for instance costs a #100,000, they've got just #70,000 and don't feel vibed enough to ask for what their budget can offer; it's your place to follow-up.

Find that sheep!

As an experienced Marketing/Branding consultant, I can honestly tell you that you will often hold your business in such an esteem that overboards that of your customers—the sad truth is they buy from you and as we do in branding, conducting due diligence from your customers about your business will amaze you.

For instance, Wendy isn't going to buy doughnuts from the tuck shop in school anymore and she stopped Rita from doing same too because she doesn't want the seller, Mummy Lizzy, to hurt her friend as she did to her over her #50 change.

Everybody cannot be a seller but practically everyone above age 3 is a buyer.

What is your biggest fear in referring a friend to a store you have shopped with before? Often a customer service mishap.

The seller is rude, doesn't package his/her goods properly, the store environment is unkempt, the staff are not well trained and honestly you only shop there for relationship sake or simply because you have no closer option. In fact if you eventually refer a friend, you would do so with a precautionary handbook— e.g Don't get angry o if the seller is frowning or if nobody answers you, just pick what you want and show her.

Take these reasons and mirror it to your business, will you refer a friend to your business to shop with you? Will you buy from you? Marketing is indeed futile till customers are interested in your products or service. Marketing might bring them over but giving your business a good and irresistibly effective brand identity will keep them.

Doing business in Nigeria is hard.

In 2019, I spoke to a very respected and important friend of mine to invest in my printing business. He agreed, we had discussions about the whole process and were almost done with the whole paper work when the deal fell through. He didn't invest and I was so devastated. Fast forward to early 2020 and the lock down that happened, I realised that whatever happened was a blessing.

During the end sars protest last year in nigeria, the fagba Community of Lagos State experienced a huge clash between the yorubas and the hausas. Lots of lives and properties were lost and one of such properties was that of Shekinah pharmacy (this is a very big pharmacy in the area) and everything was razed down by fire from that clash. They were able to renovate the place and even make it bigger, finer and better than it used to be and I was really happy with it. Fast forward to this morning, I had to pass that area and to my surprise the pharmacy was no longer there. It was demolished by the government as part of the road expansion plan going on in that area. Infact a new shopping mall that was commissioned about three months ago was also demolished. Talk of doing business!

You must then understand that to even take the decision to go into business is a great risk and when you're in, you would be faced with issues you never saw coming. Issues that even harvard business school will never prepare you for and if you're not passionate enough about what you do, you will end up giving up. Yet you can survive if you at least do the following.

1. Don't just go into business because people are in it and it is profitable. Chances are when you don't see the profit, you'll pack your bag.

2. It is advisable that you learn everything you can about a business before going into it. There's a huge difference between me who spent time learning printing and someone who just decided to buy printing machines because he has the money. There are some situations that money will never solve in business but experience will.

3. Innovate.
There are people who started selling in a store in 1993 and are still in that same store till today doing the same thing with no plan of expansion or innovation. This kind of business can easily die when issues comes up. So what do you do then, begin to expand and innovate. When I started, I only learnt printing and then from printing, I was able to raise money to learn graphic design. I was into graphic design and printing for a while before I had to go and learn everything I could about publishing and then media and advertising and then marketing. The man who taught me printing does only printing, the man who taught me graphic design does graphic design and a bit of printing but I have been able to gather other skills that has been able to put me at a better advantage in the industry.

4. There's no need to rush. Great things take time.
I see a whole lot of business people with plans of expansion and development projects and in as much as these are good, they actually have to wait for the right time. Don't start a new business or expansion when you've not gained ground on the current one you're into. Don't just spend money because you have money. Tesla has about 17billion dollars in reserve cash. That is enough money to start 20 new companies but it lies there in reserve. So in as much as you want to grow and expand you must do it with caution especially when you're in a country like Nigeria where anything bad can happen. Keep striving!

(Photo credit: I and Mr Folarin Salami at the Doable Team Executive meeting)

Pause and reflect

How do you think the local ewagoyin seller is making her daily sales, year in-year out?
She may not have a business plan or strategy that makes her think beyond her shade but don't be surprised when she says, "I have sent my three kids to the University from this trade"

You see the problem:
1. You have a business plan but you cannot afford a treat talk less of footing your school fees.

2. Your product is well packaged, on instagram and virtually promoted every other day but what you have is likes.

3. All posh and no gain, we didn't come to count bridge in Lagos, haba.

That's why we all need influencers, those people who are the movers/shakers in your industry, first, locally, in your community, city and state. And this doesn't happen by a business plan or randomly meeting people.

You see, to find these local influencers, you should also set up a SMART goal for marketing.

Say Tunde sells mens' hair products, He makes this his goal:

I will meet the local barber in my street today who can influence his customers on my behalf by having a haircut as well as taking my product along.

It has to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and of course, have a timeline to it.

WHY BRANDING?

You have surely heard that Garri doesn't deploy adverts yet it sells faster than noodles. Well, not in today's world, we've got Branded Garri with promises of it being debris free, portioned and even with a few add-ins to save cost and time. How did I figure this out? The business in question did well to brand the product with the right information and advert channels else I'd never had known.

So why Branding?

1. You are not the only one in business🤷🏽‍♂️

There are at least three people doing the business you are doing, often these people aren't far away from you, they are known; of course this shouldn't stop you from venturing into the business sector of your choosing but you must have a plan and part of that plan must be Branding. You must carve a niche for yourself and you must be known for something.

2. Branding gives your business a personality.

A century back, more and more businesses relied on celebrities to give a personality to their brand, it still works but the main plan was to make the brand as human and relatable as possible beyond the strictly business mode. You see, branding puts a face to your business which people can reckon with(a face/notion that makes them pause to listen or react to by buying). When you hear "it's in you!", you know it's Peak and that's just a tagline. Beyond the tagline is how often you have heard the phrase through adverts, so much that you know what's coming next after or before the tagline.

3. Branding gives a company or product a personality/impression(is this a common or luxury item? your branding will tell) , so it is known for something. Branding is what makes Semiat, a bread seller on my street, introduce herself (she says, Semiat the bread seller is here oh!) and ask a very relatable question a caring mother would, "Why are you drinking tea without my butterbread?"

Branding must be relatable to be called branding, it must strike a chord/answer a question you never knew you had in mind, and you really must put attention to it if you want to be known or introduce a product(new/old) in your industry.

Fortunately, You don't have to stress about Branding as we can handle all the designs and services involved in Branding just like we did for VerseOne. A Restaurant/Eatery
Do well to contact us today.

You feel like giving up? There's no Need.

In the course of carrying out my job, there's been a lot of reasons to give up due to problems which come along.

We all go through times when we feel like the trouble is not worth it. When we feel like giving up is the best and only option. When we feel like the problems will never end. We'll there's hope When you find yourself in such a situation, all you need do is the following.

1. Remember why you started in the first place.

Take your mind back to the beginning when it all started. What was the goal you had in mind, what motivated you, why did you decide to start, what did you hope to achieve. Remembering all these should give you a lot of hope and courage to carry on.

2. Ask yourself questions.

I strongly believe in prepping for future interviews so I get to ask myself questions in order to assess where I am and where I'm going; in the said situation, ask—What brought you to the point where you are now? What where you suppose to do that you didn't do and what were you not supposed to do that you did? Write your answers down.

3. Research. How do you get out of the problem you are in? Get your hands on books and other informative materials that can help in solving the problem you are in, research what people in similar situations did to come out of it.

4. Pick yourself up and continue. If you do the above three, you should have the right motivation to carry on.

More issues will come up as you go on, when they do, go back and do the same thing. There's always a reason to carry on.

I was contacted on a Saturday to print and brand 10 Mass Transit Buses (BRT) for Melbet in Abuja and to deliver before Monday morning. For those into advertising, you know how difficult this can be but I was able to make it happen due to excellent team work, delegation and not wanting to "chop alone" lol. Here's what I've learnt.

1. With the right team, everything is possible.

I wrote on delegation last week and explained how people are your key resource, this is in fact why I do not employ simply by referrals because I'm more interested in the zeal of a staff member, referral aside. If your team members do not believe in the job or are simply with the "oga ta, oga o ta(the boss sells or doesn't sell, I'll collect my salary) mindset", like my Yoruba counterparts would say, you're in for it. They must be partners in the main goal even though they know they'll be paid an agreed commission for it at the end of the month or week. How do you build the right team? Listen to your guts, generally speaking. Listen to God inside you, the Holy Spirit. You often know what to do, you just don't trust what you're hearing enough. And inspire your team to become the right team; any team can be right depending on the goal it sees as core and achievable.

2. Sometimes you have to lose some to gain more. To deliver, I had to outsource part, I didn't make all the profit but I was able to deliver and because I delivered they decided to print more buses.

The biggest mistake you'd likely not choose to make but make as a business person is to want it all and hence, often lose it all. As long as you choose to aim big contracts and leave your shadows you must bring in more people to help by outsourcing some of the work you have been given. We could have pulled it off but not within the given timeframe and that would mean a loss of trust in the brand. The fear of most business people is the fact that they might lose the customer to the competition forgetting they have the client's contact/loyalty which the competition doesn't. They also fear this competition using their "reggae to spoil their blues"😅 and that's an easy fix. Most of my colleagues know that I don't sleep on a job, experience has taught me not to delegate without supervision (story for another day).

Outsourcing doesn't mean leaving your competition to do it without supervision, check on your work—why? This time you are working with a different company(team) with very different core values from what is existent in your own company so you must be meticulous about outsourcing.

3. In this entrepreneurship journey, you must be willing to put in the extra hours. Sunday is the only day I have to myself every week, so I had to lose my Sunday, to get the job done.
Entrepreneurship is sacrificial, if you won't make certain sacrifices to meet up with the demand, it's best to go back to the drawing board.

4. Learn to compensate your workers adequately. One of the reasons why I was able to deliver was because my team members were all eager to get the job done because they know that getting the job done on time means more money for them.

Inspire your team to work with you by commissions beyond their usual pay. You must learn as a business person, the need for everyone to be crowned king wherever they find themselves. Till you can make your staff members understand that you value them, they will not stay up with you or sacrifice with you and don't blame them.

Salaries don't make people committed, even if it used to, a lot has changed since the 21st century entrepreneurship revolution so everyone knows the gospel that a static salary is not enough. Doing something different in consideration of your staff will help you a lot in your journey.