Here, I share my years of expertise in doing all of the foregoing successfully in the VERY peculiar Nigerian environment with any interested persons.

Nigeria is a country where most of the accepted laws on business and economy do NOT function normally. People do not buy for the reasons that most other consumers in other parts of the world generally do. Opinion polls are heavily influenced here by what respondents think they should "say" based on what they know is the popular position or thinking, and(or rewards they think they can get) not how they really "feel" about issues.

One example. Professor Janice Olawoye of the University of Ibadan once wrote in a paper published back in the '80s, about a well known researcher from abroad who expressed frustration on being told that answers provided by village respondents to questions like "How many children have you given birth to" were NOT totally truthful.

The reason was that the village women who had lost babies at birth or whose children had died believed it was degrading to count children born that were no longer alive. So a woman who had actually given birth to six children, two of whom died of malaria for instance, would respond in the questionnaire that she had only ever given birth to four children!

The researcher, being from the developed world, could not understand why the people thought this way and wonder "How can one ever carry out an accurate survey when people do not give the truthful answers to the questions?" he asked. I still feel his pain - even now.

In business, the situation is similar. You will often find that having a well prepared business plan, possessing an MBA, and having high technical proficiency in your chosen vocation may not be enough to earn you the needed patronage from your target audience. So much else, little of it having to do with ABILITY to deliver the needed product, service or solution competently, tends to be used to decide who wins the "contract" etc.

If you "know" how to "BEG" or you know someone on the inside, or you know someone who knows someone on the inside, you can even win a project you have NO proven competence or qualification to do. That's when you see people who sub-contract big projects to more competent - but less connected - others at miserly rates, with the latter humbly accepting to do the job for the peanuts offered!

I saw a lot of this while starting out, and I decided very early on that I would NEVER accept to work that way. I made up my mind I would learn how to make clients COME to me. How? By building my competence over time, and SHOWING it via every opportunity clients give me to serve them - so that they can TELL OTHERS about me, by showing off the finished products I deliver.

The result: Increase inflow of new and repeat business.

You have probably heard it said that "Cash flow is the life blood of a business". Cash flow is a crucial requirement for continuous, uninterrupted operation of ANY business - be it service or product based.

I describe my company (Self-Development Academy)'s Excel Heaven as the FIRST provider of Preprogrammed and Custom Spreadsheet based solutions in Nigeria. Services we offer include Workbook Auditing/Optimisation and VBA Automation; Custom Spreadsheet Software Development & Sales; Job-Based Spreadsheet Coaching; and Consulting/Advisory Services on effective application of spreadsheets for business use.

Apart from MTN communications that I did a training job for in November 2003, ALL the clients I have done business with have been Small and Medium enterprises. No big names companies. Yet they value my services enough to pay me to build and maintain software in a market where even Microsoft's products are pirated, and sold for as low as N150(about a dollar)!

I am the same guy who - some years ago - repeatedly got laughed out of people's offices whenever I went to introduce my Custom Excel-VB Driven software Development services. Many times I was mocked by prospects who called me on my mobile days or weeks after I visited them to ask me "So, how's business going?" even as they laughed out loud.

That same guy today earns six figure income of over N100, 000(divide by N120 to get dollar equivalent) in 5 working days from ONE client. There MUST be something I KNOW (and knew when I was starting out) that a lot of people out here do (and did) not!

From those lean early years when I could count the number of decent paying clients I had on JUST one hand (five fingers), I now serve a growing client base that requires me to maintain a Client Support Service Record to keep track.

Many people who are exceptionally gifted in their chosen vocations lack the business marketing skills to ensure their companies survival as profit making enterprises. And THIS is why they eventually fail or continue struggling to stay afloat even though the business turnover volume may rise.

My success has come NOT just because of my proven competence in delivering satisfactory spreadsheet based solutions to a wide variety of PAYING clients, but also because of my emphasis on - among other things  -diligent/intelligent business marketing aimed at building a virile client base to ensure sustained sales patronage over time.

So What Exactly Did/Do I Do?

The following quote provides a quick hint, after which three key points are explained:

“Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two - and only these two - basic functions: Marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results, all the rest are 'costs'." - Peter Drucker

1. I use a Practical Marketing Strategy That Works In My Biz Environment: In April 2002, I sent out my first service introduction letters and flyers to ALL the big and not-so-big name companies I could identify within and outside Lagos. I kept doing this for at least the first three (3) years - in addition to placing newspaper adverts.

Over time I learned one hard lesson: Finding the RIGHT clients for your services may not require you to do what others do. I did NOT win a single project using those methods. You have to develop something that works for you - borrow ideas from others, add some of your own, then TEST, TEST, TEST and TEST.

What I have said above is what I have done. It took me nearly four (4) years of hard work to get close to what I do today. Back then finding clients was a haphazard process. You see out here we lack reliable business directories and yellow pages to consult in our search for prospective clients. The few available listings are often disorganised/unstructured and NOT comprehensive.

Over time, especially due my limited resources, this problem made it necessary for me to ultimately adopt what I call a 100% door-to-door, foot soldier marketing of my products and services.

In the process, I gradually learnt what to say and how to say it to get hired or make a sale. I discovered that a lot of the stuff that we read from books on sales and marketing from abroad especially developed societies WILL NOT work without intelligent adaptation to accommodate the unique socio-economic realities of our society.

In essence, I developed a marketing strategy suited to the environment in which I operate. As a result, today I get called up by prospective clients looking for solutions like those I offer. In 2008, more than 95% of the new or repeat business I have gotten has come as a result of my phone ringing, due to an existing client needing me again - or prospective client calling based on a referral.

Click the link below to read my article titled: "To Win Profitable Clients More Frequently, Find & HIT Your Prospect's Exposed Felt-Needs Nerve!"

Click here to read full article

2. I Create NEW Products Aimed At Addressing REAL Identified Target Audience's Needs: My experiences helped me realise that people out here WILL buy a software solution or service if it does something they want, but which they have found they CANNOT get from the off-the-shelf commercial software whose pirated copies are so widely available in the market.

So, I simply set about offering real-world relevant solutions that addressed the unique peculiarities which businesses out here have to deal with, and which foreign software solutions do not fully cater for - if at all.

The result: Dramatic increase in clients' perception of the relevance of the solutions I offer. The lesson here: Sometimes the market may be rejecting you because you have not yet done enough THINKING about how to communicate the value you offer that can benefit them.

You must be willing to do the "research" as you accumulate rejection experiences, to identify what they really want. The title of the book by Napoleon Hill was not a mistake: "Think and Grow Rich!".

3. I Employ An Aggressively Implemented Zero Receivables Policy: This is probably the most important thing. Ensuring that I get the ALL the money from EVERY sale into my hands, pockets or account.

Out here there is a big problem getting people to pay for almost anything they buy from you. I believe (as a client of mine often says), what you permit grows. After some unpleasant experiences in my earlier years, I started by requesting 100% advance payment for my services. People paid - but I got to a point that I saw it was stopping me from getting more business.

So I began asking for 70 - 75% advance, and then offering the client up to 10% off if s/he chose to pay everything ONCE. That way, I got my money in, and did not have to wait long periods, make endless calls and visits to get my balance.

In the few instances when a client tries to delay payment without convincing reasons, I simply use the strategy of "Confronting Without Being Combative", to bring pressure to bear. Very rarely has this failed to work.

Click the link below to read my article titled: "To Win More Often in Life, Master the Art of Non-Combative Confrontation"

Click here to read full article

My reputation with my clients in this regard has earned me nicknames such as "Ijebu" - because according to them I do not joke about money". But it has worked, and I enjoy very good relations with most of them - one in which there is mutual respect and consideration.

Others have noticed it: For instance, I have even had another service provider with the same client ask: "Mr. Solagbade, why is it that you always get paid immediately and my payment is often delayed?", after he witnessed me collecting on three different occasions.

Summary

Herman Holtz - the renowned (now late) consultant's consultant, was right: Any business that is making SALES (and by this I mean getting the money IN and NOT making credit sales which you then have to SPEND MORE MONEY to follow collections of payment for) is very, very unlikely to fold up even if it is mismanaged in every other department of its operation.

For as long as sales continue to come in, there will be CASH to keep running the business. An outage of cash will bring even the biggest giant of a business to its knees.

Here's ONE sign that could suggest a company is not making enough sales, or is not BRINGING IN and HOLDING ON TO enough of the money from sales (maybe due to undisciplined spending) to keep going: It obtains an overdraft facility from the bank to cover daily operating expenses.

Here's hoping the above information will help you grow your sales log, and COLLECT the money from such sales, so your business can flourish.

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It is my belief that just as I was able to develop over four(4) automated spreadsheet applications to solve real-life problems – in my spare time - as a non-IT staff in Guinness Nigeria Plc (read details on the about page at www.excelheaven.spontaneousdevelopment.com), your staff, if equipped with similar skills, can do the same for your company – and possibly help you AVOID expending scarce cash (1). buying expensive commercial software or (2). hiring "pricey" software developers.

Click here to learn how I have built custom Excel-VB driven software for client companies for as much as N200,000.00(Proof Available). While there you can request/download my FREE MS Excel Coaching Skills Matrix workbook and a one-page Excel VB Programming Coaching Course Outline.

Call 234-803-302-1263 to request further details.

Web www.spontaneousdevelopment.com

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Yours in Self-Development!

Tayo K. Solagbade
Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist