Binance’s hotly-anticipated Singapore crypto exchange is now live — and underwhelming

https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/23/binance-singapore/

Building our own Unicorns

If you closely follow markets, the jumia IPO has caught your attention. It has breathed life into African tech startups that were stagnating after years of “high praise” from top business publications. Founders are raring to go again and build the next african unicorn.

It is all exciting till you get down to answering some tough questions; “what business am I in?, what need am I filling? (What problem am I attempting to solve? ), is this solution scalable (is it profitable? ), and is this industry growing or is it stagnating?

To build a unicorn is almost impossible, but we can build businesses that mean something to the people we intend to serve. And as these people interact with our almost perfect solutions to their needs and tell others about it, then maybe we may be able to build our own unicorns.

Stories like Jumia should not get us just excited, they should kick us out of our confort zones and get us to work. To actively seek ways to fill market gaps with valuable products or services.

Changing markets

I recently walked into one of Kampala’s growing business hubs and was blown away. There are protagonists, quietly building enterprises that offer value to the target audiences in ways that one could think are unimaginable in an economy like Uganda.

For me, these men and women, will define the future of the marketplace. As I walked in on some of them, as a pretend customer inquiring about their services, I kept on asking myself, “how do I fit in this paradigm? How do position myself to benefit from these new opportunities?”

You can ask yourself the same question; how do  you fit in this emerging market structure that will define the way we do business in this country?

Investing in Financial markets

I recently had a chat with friends on investing in the stock market. It was so interesting as I preached the markets gospel, something many people dread thanks to the reputation created by stock brokers.
Here are my top 5 to do activities before you dive in:
– Educate yourself. Read a book, I recommend the intelligent investor, but there are a couple of good books on investment. Because you must be knowledgeable about the business you’re in, educate yourself on how the markets work, what makes a company a good investment or otherwise.
– Develop investment goals. After acquiring basic knowledge of the markets, it is vital to write down what you hope to gain financially by investing in the stock market. Be as rational as possible when doing this.
– At this point, it is important to visit a professional investment advisor. This will help get out of the cloud and develop a more realistic investment strategy.
– Get a good brokerage firm to do your biding. Usually, your advisor will help point you in the right direction on this aspect.
– Get into the markets with your strategy, keep adjusting it incase certain fundamentals change. The most important rule is to know why you are investing in a particular company.
Happy investing!

House of Cards: Lessons in Power and Politics for Corporate Entrepreneurs

Educative!

The Iterate Blog

No spoilers: Based on Season 1. If you like it, I might derive more dirty tricks from season 2!

Wake up your inner entrepreneur – it’s time to disrupt yourself. By hauge2.

Take Kodak, Nokia and Commodore in their prime time, and ask yourself why your company is any different right now.

Getting enthusiasm about your ideas at lunch is one thing – getting the organization behind your mission to innovate, is another.

Disobedient innovation, or intrapreneurship as we prefer to call it, requires political skills: Any good idea in an established organization is also a threat to someone (anyone who perpetuates the status quo).

Master the politics – become an effective entrepreneur

But you’re not an underdog. You’re Frank Underwood, ready to outmaneuver the opposition with political virtuosity, lean thinking and entrepreneurial charm.

Like the president, who unknowingly unleashes a monster when double-crossing Underwood in the first episode…

View original post 1,036 more words

Sport is about dreams, the pain and toil we undergo to achieve them, and the glory we share with friends and family when we achieve them. That is why sport has a contagious effect on people,  that’s why it commands a big following second to religion. Some have gone the skewed mile and declared it a religion after all it embraces the same “values” as the various faiths we belong to

In Uganda, the spirit of networks, sharing happy moments that are embedded in the core of culture of Ugandan society has led to the rapid growth of sporting disciplines in the country. The love for sport is unquestionable, but why doesn’t this love last a lifetime? Why is sport a fling to many Ugandans? Why is it hot girl you meet at the bus stop on Monday morning but the attraction never lasts till Friday? I have been trying to answer this question not just as a fan of sport, but as an enthusiast of the business of sport and the impact it has had on the global economy. I go to games each weekend trying to answer this question, but to date, answers have eluded me. All are I have are “what ifs?”

Today, as has been my practice for the past decade, I tuned in to two of Sunday’s most popular local sports shows on radio, one on Ddembe fm and the other on Top radio. Top radio presenters were discussing their growing distaste of the retardation affecting local football. On Ddembe fm discussed Nelson Mandela and what lessons sports administrators should draw from him. I got more what ifs, more criticisms of the current structure of sport, the leaders of sport and their failure to create an environment for organic growth of sport. But then, what if we stopped crying over the lost 34 year the Uganda cranes has not played at the Nations cup and concentrated on how we can change that? What if we stopped talking good game and started building this revenue generating industry? What if we took sport for what it really is? The most entertaining job in the world!

What if we realized that if we wanted to make sports an industry, we treat it like one? What if we treated sports for what it really is, a social business; with social and monetary goals. That fans always get value for money in form of quality entertainment, and that the players, who put their bodies on the line to feed our hunger and thirst of sport, get a fair remuneration for their efforts. What if we started addressing the fundamentals questions that need answers in this young stagnated industry? What if we closed the door to whack ass powerbrokers and embraced true visionaries? What if we could love sport everyday of our lives rather than just on a Saturday or Sunday?

Raising capital for your startup

When I left university at the beginning of June 2011, my dream was to start my own company. I had two ideas in mind; a sports management firm and liquid detergent manufacturing company. I had done Industrial chemistry and loved it, so I chose the path of logic, do what I know first, as I learn more about the business of sport.

I shared my idea with my parents, who welcomed the idea and backed me with my seed capital.  Petra Cleaning Solutions was born. It run course for about 4 months when, it needed additional capital to grow, but having failed to raise it, I closed it up got a job in my father’s organization to raise capital.

I have learnt many lessons about the tough challenge of raising capital for your startup when you have no track record for anyone to give you their money and trust that you’ll make the best of it. To make matters worse, in the developing world were VCs and angel investors are like rare earth metals, it could take you a lifetime to start your dream business if you set yourself on the journey of looking for investment. I would love to share a one that I got from my young brother.

Starting with available options

We set out to use our salaries, as small as they may be to invest in low cost income generating initiatives that could set us on the path of our dreams. For a entrepreneur, the test of your calling is how you work around your impediments in order to achieve your dreams. When doing low cost initiatives will help you raise income for your dream, do them, do  not neglect them.

They will be part of your learning curve. By the time you embark on executing your dream business, you’ll be an experienced business person and save you too many troubles. Start with what you have, do not pity yourself , take the challenge, and remember the old saying, “Rome was never built in one day!”

Before It’s “GOLD”…..there’s “MUD”

Niche is not dead

Many people believe the era of niche blogging and businesses is phasing out and that bloggers and marketers should put all their emphasis on every new opportunity. My message to them is quite simple; “If you do not stand for something, you’re going to fall for everything!” Many years down the road, you’re going to curse web claiming a that there was a hypothetical “burst” in the blog industry which led to the collapse of many internet businesses . And yet, the truth is, your followed every new business idea “experts” recommended and ended up being good at all of them and not best at one of them. Before that happens, before you invest all your money in courses you aren’t sure you will use for the long haul, please sit back and listen(read) what I have to say niche businesses aren’t dying out, they are growing, here is why

Why do you do this?/What business are you in?

Many times we start businesses because we have been told of the opportunity in the industry and never own up the idea. We may even make the necessary research to launch the business and even make money out of it, but beyond that, we cannot innovate, we cannot change anything. When you find yourself in such a predicament, your bound to fail when competition heats up (and it will , people like profitable ventures!)

There is nothing criminal to discover a new source of income, and adapting it. It criminal not to try to answer the question, “What business am I in?”, because if for a minute you answered that question, everything changes. New perspectives like understanding the customer you will deal with in case you pursued that idea, solving their problems or satisfying their needs will trigger every sleeping cell in you to action.

So the best thing to do, embrace the niche understand every aspect there is about it. Become an authority so that even when times are changing, your innovating, your embracing the change by smelling the winds before anyone hears them. Know your business!

Invest in knowledge

When you choose your niche, it important to try to learn what the rest of competitors are doing. Know how they are producing content. Do not allow surprises. You can lose a battle, but if surprise was the reason you lost, it is so devastating. Draw up a strategy on how to incorporate and improve the latest trends in your industry. If knowledge is your problem, invest in it. Sometimes, as business owners, we  spend huge chunks of our money on advertising and never get returns and yet our business offering are superb. The reason is we never give our selves time to accumulate knowledge on the businesses we are investing in and what they require of us.

Be informed, it cuts down many costs, improves your offering from time to time. Customers  buy value, money only influences them when the value your offering is not a scarcity and anyone else can offer it. Do the smart thing be knowledgeable about your niche, maybe your start should be learning.

Sell

I was watching an interview of a young Australian Internet marketer who has built online businesses that rack in $10M a year. He was asked what his secret was , he answered, “I learned how to sell!” Your niche will never bring you money unless you learn how to sell it. After you have a good idea of what business does and have learned its clientèle, go out, sell something.

Knowing your product often eases your selling pitch. It also a good idea to get your closest friends interested in it. Spread the world and know that every billion dollar company started by selling a single product. If they never sold it, chances are high we would know of them. Sell!

No business is bound for failure unless its owner has no business acumen. May be your niche needs a different approach for it to succeed, the only way it is going to do that is if your understand it. Niche is not ill, it isn’t dying out, the only problem is, innovators are decreasing. So join this scarcity and profit.

 

THE MOTIVATIONS EACH ENTREPRENEUR SHOULD HAVE

This week, I have been inconsistent in writing but I apologize.  The daily struggle of balancing my day job was nearly suffocating me but I have put that right now. Today, I would love to share a lesson I learned during the week, the motivation every entrepreneur should have. i was moved when I encountered a situation where I asked my self  “WHY am I doing this?”.

 

Love what you do

 

First off I begin by quoting a tweet by Brooke Griffin(Follow her on twitter: @BrookeGriffin_) , an Entrepreneur who believes in the power of excelling at doing what you love.

 

If you want something, if you Truly Want Something, You’ll Find a Way to Make it Happen. Be Dedicated & Passionate.

The path of entrepreneurship is a cold and lonely. Turbulent waters are bound to flow in even when your just starting out. The only way your going to survive the sea of death of your business is love what what you do. Money shouldn’t be the only motivation driving you into business because as we all know, you can never have enough money. So don’t make money be at the forefront of what your doing. Yes, it is important to make money in business, its what pays the bills, let it come naturally.

Loving what you do will be only thing that keeps you going. It is what makes you get up very early in the morning despite sleeping late or after making nothing the previous day. Loving what you do is what will enhance creativity and innovation because you will always want to do it in a way that satisfies you and want to make it better.

 

Aspire to be the best

 

I was reading The Dip, a masterpiece written by marketing guru, Seth Godin. In this book Seth elaborates that everything worth having has a dip(cost) .  Imagine, an athlete wanted to win an Olympic gold medal, he would strive to be the best at his discipline by training hard and that would involve intensive training and perseverance. This would cost the athlete time and money. This according Seth Godin creates a scarcity at the top.

 

The lesson he tries to elaborate is that before you set out on the journey of entrepreneurship, plan and think carefully about the resources you need and sacrifices you will need to make.

 

He goes on by emphasizing that in case you provide a product or service to society, distinguish yourself such that anyone who buys from you or hires you, values as the best. in turn, this makes you a scarcity as opposed to just a commodity. Everyone will want to buy from you because your the best.

The lesson I learned is that if you aspire to start a business and don’t envision becoming the best at what you hope to do, do the smart thing and quit now! Save your potential customers from the dread of high priced substandard commodities.