Monday 27 January 2014

Office face-offs

I don’t know if you've heard about the village that was connected to the rest of the town by a very long and narrow bridge. The bridge must have been built during the carriage era because it could accommodate only one car at a time. It is therefore customary to find cars on one end of the bridge patiently waiting for traffic from the other end to cross, before embarking on it. But on this day, two impatient motorists were approaching the bridge from the two ends. Although, it was quite easy to see vehicles from opposite ends, neither driver applied the brakes. Instead they picked up the speed, that the dust they kicked up on the dirt track before the bridge was as thick as an atomic cloud. By the time they stepped on the brakes, both cars were facing each other in the middle of the bridge.

After an eternity of staring down each other, they killed their engines. The younger driver then decided to really infuriate the other so that he will be forced to back up the car and make room for him. He picked the newspaper he had just bought, stepped out of his car and sat on the bonnet to peruse the contents. When he heard the sound of the other car door opening, he stole a glance and saw the driver coming out. He had braced himself for all manner of invective when the older man cleared his throat and respectfully said, “I see that is today’s paper, could you kindly pass it when you are through?” I can’t recall how the story ended, but there is another face off that ended funnily.


Monday 20 January 2014

Techniques for obtaining highly efficient employees

Another reason that people advance for not going into business for themselves, especially those who have a day job, is the dearth of trustworthy employees.

I, for one, have heard of several people who desired to go into the business of transportation but got discouraged when they were told about several other businesses that were ruined by unscrupulous drivers. “You can never be certain of the story they would come up with at the end of each day” a transportation business owner once complained. “If it isn't one of a broken down vehicle, it will be one of arrests by the traffic police. But, rest assured that you are not getting any remittances that day”. We will come back to how he rescued his business but first let’s hear from a friend who described his employees as godsends.


Sunday 12 January 2014

Six degrees of separation


Lack of funds or insufficient funds is a reason many people give for not going into business. They are aware of the challenges that start-up businesses face and will not embark on one until they are assured of sufficient capital to run the business. They also know that for a country like Nigeria, there is greater hope of finding the path through which water enters the coconut shell than there is for finding loans and overdrafts in the banks. I wish to share a few insights for getting out of this tight corner.