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How do I set up a branding business in Africa?

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Answers

Valentin Boyanov

Management Consultant

This is a very large matter, of course. It needs thorough investigation, otherwise would be a grandiose waste of money and time and will lead to a failure. I have business experience in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Central Asia. And I am convinced, whatever is well working in one place, doesn't work mandatory well in other places. Provided, it is not about any international brand of electronic gadgets, construction machines, power generators or fashion clothes. As you say to "set up branding business", obviously you mean to set up a new brand. In that case, first I advise if you are not African, find somebody lived for long and last years there. Local mentality and culture' knowledge is the most important factor. There are tons of investigations, reports, etc. from banks, agencies, companies or private investigators. Those can be supportive to you. But the main support shall be from a local person, he/she will explain to you the culture. And there is the starting point of your business. all the best Val

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Justin Hamel

$50 MILLION+ In Revenue Made From My Brand Names

Video production is in super high demand and a great lucrative niche! I would start by building up your social media channels with your work. Showing off your skills. Demonstrating your value consistently. Next find brands that get you motivated and offer them a free video for their brand. You will find 9 outta 10 brands are always looking for high quality video. Study their social media channels and if they are not using a lot of videos odds are they dont have a source of good video production. Offering the free video will show your skills, help the brand and make them want to hire you (if you are good) and also can also go viral. Make sure to watermark the free video. From there you just have to seal the deal with those brand and then you can start using them as a reference to your clients and that will surely help attract high paying clients. I have lots of other ideas here too. If you need my help along the way Im just a call away.

Jason Kanigan

Business Strategist & Conversion Expert

Chiropractors often sell supplements to drive revenue in their business. They're capped out like dentists and tradespeople on the hours they can crack backs (or 'drill and fill' as the dentists do), so supplements are a great complimentary product that doesn't eat time to fulfill. You'll see a bunch of them and doctors getting into CBD oil now. Their client base already has trust in them so these recommendations are easy to swallow heh heh. Be looking for your version of supplements in the architectural field. Something complimentary, that your clientele already trusts you about, that you can earn a recurring income on while not using up more of your time. One advantage I see them having over you is I presume they see more people in a day. What can you do to increase the number of people you see in a day, to leverage your "architect authority" and drive the income stream of the complimentary product or service? Could be as easy as loans: helping people rent money from your position as a professional. Food for thought.

Tamás Varga

I'll help you to find potential growth hacks.

Create a simple logo in photoshop using a font. Zero cost. But, it's worth hiring a designer. If you don't know any, just hit the #logodesign hashtag on instagram and DM the one you liked most and offer the money you have.

Justin Hamel

$50 MILLION+ In Revenue Made From My Brand Names

I would start with some growth hacks to increase your sales without raising your costs that much. 1. Social media - provide valuable content related to your SAAS and the industry it targets. Build traction by showing case studies, customer reviews, how customers use your product and how it saves them time & their sanity. 2. Referrals - if you have happy customers who love your product you could create and easy referral program offering your happy customers an incentive for sharing your product. Make this very easy like 1-2 clicks. All the biggest SAAS companies have used this tactic to scale their users rapidly. 3. Create Content - Create valuable content on your website that will laser target your client base in the search engines for the problems they have, and how you can solve them. Along the same lines of the social media content creation... Case studies, how users use your product, videos, reviews, tips & tricks, etc. I would set aside at least 30 minutes per day and focus on this. Ideally more time will increase sales. But the key is consistency. I have lots of other ideas how to help here so if you need my help along the way Im just one call away.

Kerby Meyers

Strategic thinker and communicator, author

Hi: It sounds like your non-profit is in the early stages, so it's probably as rich in vision and mission as it is poor in cash. That's a great start. Now take that vision and mission and sell it to family, friends, colleagues and strangers. Open with what need exists, follow with what you're doing to fulfill that need and what's driving you and close with an appeal for $. Once you're more established and have outcomes, there are other sources, but as you get rolling, it's all about selling that vision and mission. If you wish to discuss, send me a PM through Clarity for 15 free minutes. Cheers, Kerby

John Comley

Clarity Expert

One of the best resources BY FAR for SEO is SEMRush.com. Their free PDFs (https://www.semrush.com/ebooks/) will keep you awake for nights! Let me know if I can help you further.

Mark McKeever

Strategy + Culture + Innovation

It’s an interesting concept and the next step is to qualify it further with some market research. Where will you find your potential customers for services? My initial assumption would be in a relatively dense urban setting where people want to commute to work or school by biking, or otherwise on their feet, and they need access to a shower and a place to change clothes. I recommend surveying the nearest metro area (New York, San Francisco, et cetera) which is close to you and look for a traffic pattern that would support providing the services. Maybe there is a neighborhood of office buildings or a university where there are inadequate showering options for commuters. I think you could do a site survey for a few places, to see what you learn. You might also consider spending some time at the bike racks and talking with bicyclists to see how they are dealing with the issue today. Is there a need for what you would like to provide? How much would they be willing to pay? You can also scout out the real estate to determine the costs of creating a facility with the tenant improvements necessary to serve your customers. Conversely, maybe the business is brokering existing shower or bathroom facilities at businesses or at residences with your customers in a manner similar to Airbnb. Maybe the business is providing portable showering facilities by converting RVs so they 2-3 sets of showers, then you can serve weekday commuters but also provide services at local festivals where there are no services. It’s hard to say what the results will be but I believe doing some market research will give you a better sense of the viability of the concept. You may well uncover other unmet needs that you could serve better than your original concept. If you can identify a basic value proposition to get started, then you can iterate from there.

Alec J.

Wealth manager and Entrepreneur

Hello, Great question! I went from a large firm to a small business and became the manager quickly. I ran and managed the entire office and that is how my experience relates. There are multiple ways to keep the manager enticed to stay in your organization. Here are a few ideas that have worked, could work, and other ideas that I have heard. 1. Pay - of course providing a higher pay to the manager to retain them. This shows that they are valued to the growth of the company. You are investing in the manager as a key piece to keep the company growing. 2. Providing Education - Paying for classes to help this certain employee grow personally. Ideally, paying for the classes to help this employee grow professionally will help both your company and your employees growth. 3. Retirement - provide a retirement account for the employee if you do not have one yet. 4. Student Loans - help by paying for part of their student loans. Obviously this relates to pay but this is a different way that can keep the employee enticed to stay. 5. Delegate - if they are that good and qualified to keep, allow them for responsibility/freedom to incorporate their ideas so they feel the value they are bringing to the company. This is just a few example but I hope these help and if you want more ideas, please reach out. good luck!

Jose Montoya

Business High Paid Consultant

We need to start with the outcome in mind; if meeting facilitator knows what he/she would like to accomplish then meeting would be more productive. Basics are: 1. Create an agenda (and attach to it) and let it know 2. Be prepare 3. Listen to understand 4, Have an assigment to participans as a follow up 5. Stand up meetings are more productive.

Sheffie Robinson

Marketing, Tech, and MVP Dev with Wordpress

First and foremost, I would challenge you to test the user experience and prove the concept of your product before building a mobile app. Mobile app development is not cheap and if you get the feature set wrong from a user standpoint, you will have spent money to develop blindly. Can you build a similar experience that provides value in a web application instead? You probably can. Even a few hundred users can get you the information you need to know almost exactly what the mobile app needs. There are mobile first websites that were around for years before they built the app just to make sure the experience was on par with what they expected. Test, test, test, and test again before jumping out there.

Kerby Meyers

Strategic thinker and communicator, author

Hi: Sounds like you have a potential solution to offer to the marketplace. Or is it a service that clients can plug into existing processes? It's great that you've developed the requisitie experience and skills, but whether you're offering a solution or service, you now need to spin your thinking around: * Who is using this technology currently? * What are the headaches those users experience while using this technology? * How does your solution or service resolve those headaches? * Are users willing to pay to resolve those headaches? * What will it take to get users to switch from their current solution or service to your solution or service? If you don't do this legwork in the marketplace to identify existing issues, challenges and headaches, there's a high likelihood your solution or service will fall flat. If you wish to discuss, send me a PM through Clarity for 15 free minutes. Cheers, Kerby

Ozan Dagdeviren

Author, Startup mentor. Focus on people decisions.

Hi! Why don't you try starting "a" business before attempting to start a "chain" of businesses. I'd recommend a search around the keyword of "bootstrapping a business". There are many blogs out there that have great content on that such as commonwisdom.co.uk

NELSON NYAMARI

commerce graduate

As an expert in small business, small business HRA can be best managed if the reimbursement on healthcare are done and all employees are included into the insurance. It is prudent to handle the insurance and factor it in your payroll to avoid penalties. It is worth purchasing a software if the assignment is bulky but if not, consider doing it in your usual payroll. However, you can still buy the software for improved efficiencies and easier retrieval of information.

Kerby Meyers

Strategic thinker and communicator, author

Hi: Sounds like things are moving along well -- nice job. There will be fits and starts to any venture, so as you assess what's going on here, consider: * stepping back and realistically determining if you're being fair to this process -- everyone has different work styles and you should respect those differences within the context of constantly making progress * discussing the situation with your co-founders (can't tell if the creator is one of them) and making sure you're aligned on expectations for this stage -- and whether those expectations are being met * renewing your broader strategy/vision with the team to ensure that everyone knows what the ultimate goals are (beyond the stages getting there) * Developing a 30/60/90 plan (or something like it) complete with goals, measurables and tactics that are built around making progress If you wish to discuss, send me a PM through Clarity for 15 free minutes. Cheers, Kerby

Ozan Dagdeviren

Author, Startup mentor. Focus on people decisions.

One thing you can not do (should not even attempt to do) is to change the market's demand for a service or product. It is what it is. The best strategy is to adapt. So I would approach your situation by asking the following question: What is in demand, needed, frequently used etc by the people (i.e there is market demand for it) AND is in the intersection of my skills, know-how, interests and talents? You might be a great mechanical engineer, but try taking a broader perspective if there isn't talent for this job. What new skill & know-how area can you more easily master than others, which there is also a good demand for?

Gregg Kennelly

Building Operations Enthusiast #CRE

Separate, but related note: "NYC Open Data" is growing every day & provides free data https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/ For national data check out the parent organization Socrata.com. Great resources for public data records, which are 100% free, contains everything from real estate transactions to the number of public bathrooms... Best of luck tracking down the costs.

Margie Kubicek

Creating a healthy balance of economy & ecology

In my experience, this data has been at no cost. Most property appraiser sites offer sales data as an excel file for download. Each property can be looked at with exterior photos, or base floor plans. It would take quite alot of dara entry to input into a program, the issue would be the accuracy, if properties change hands within a year. Hope this helps! Warm Regards, Margie

Valentin Boyanov

Management Consultant

Is your research showing, that your business would expect strong increasing sales trend ? Is the revenue expected, shows that you can include bank charges in the cost, and still to be on the positive revenue side ? If both are yes, do not waste time, but take a bank loan and go for. If both are no, do not waste time, but think about other business. If one is yes and another one - no, spend more time on the investigation. Market investigation is the first and most important one. all the best Val

Forex Trading

MT4 Expert Adviser, Forex Trading,Web Developer

Hi , I have experience on Google Drive , development , mostly Google SpreadSheets add-on and triggers with google script web scraping updating google spreadsheet and email notification based on search, If I have more knowledge about your requirement , maybe I can help, thanks

David Favor

Fractional CTO

Setup a content rich blog about the tech. Monetize via on page ads selling your device. Buy traffic from Gemini + Outbrain + Taboola to your site. Also, buy display ads through Taboola + other Ad Networks to place on sites to sell your product. Build a mailing list of opt-ins off your site. Use retargeting pixels to stalk people who visit your site.

Nitesh Sharoff

Accelerated Growth using Rapid Experimentation

Where possible, I recommend getting it to work in a specific region. I.e. If this was Uber, I'd focus on London or a specific city to work on. If this was a cleaning service - I'd focus on a particular area where possible. The stages of a successful business don't differ - your product market fit is the first most important piece of the puzzle. Together with that, if you can successfully get it to work in one place, you can then either VC fund it with real data or bootstrap it yourself and scale the operation quickly. It would help if you gave me a bit more context on the idea, I'm sure I could get you a more detailed answer. Landing pages are one piece only - you need to crack the other side. There is quite a bit of information online about Airbnb and how they got hosts on board with events and whatnot. Hope that helps.

Kerby Meyers

Strategic thinker and communicator, author

Hi: Looks like you've done a lot of good work - well done. I contend that your first fundraising effort should be friends and family. The leads are warm so you can focus on your pitch -- developing it, honing it, practicing it -- and the process -- setting the cadence for meetings, follow-ups and closing. Then a bit further down the road, you'll not only have something more tangible to sell to angel and seed investors (thanks to the funding you raised first), but you'll be more comfortable with what you have to do to pull those dollars through the door. If you wish to discuss, send me a PM through Clarity for 15 free minutes. Cheers, Kerby

David Favor

Fractional CTO

If $100/month is too much, then likely this business is in to early a life cycle stage to justify a CRM. My suggestion is you use https://Drip.com which starts at $50/month.

Ashey Hebrkersman

Yoga Instructor and Disney Travel Master

Before even beginning to think about launching your project you need to evaluate why you want to do it at all. Just doing it "because" is going to make you go mad, you'll want a reason to do it because it will be taking much of your time up. Make sure you go over strengths and weaknesses . If you are just doing a random journey story here and there I wouldn't add it but if you are great at bringing in people with your stories then that would be great because it would help people be more intend with your project . Keep a calendar that you can keep your deadlines on so you don't forget because I have seen this many times as well .

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