Let Discuss Cryptocoins

The most valuable "real estate" in the world! A few months ago, I was talking with a leading entrepreneur who has made billions in the media business. Our discussion centered on how an entrepreneur can use the Internet to make billions of dollars. We called it the most "valuable REAL ESTATE in the world… more valuable than land." Every entrepreneur needs to "see" the Internet as "valuable real estate," in much the same way you would see a piece of land for building something like a hotel.

___Building an efficient organization. As an entrepreneur, you may have a great idea or innovation which you believe is going to change your community, your country, or maybe even the world we live in.  And you’ll probably make a lot of money along the way. That’s allowed, and there’s nothing wrong with it, provided you don’t harm others, the environment, or break the law. Go ahead, make money, be a billionaire, and you know I’ll be right there cheering you all the way! But before you can ever get there, you’ll have to build an efficient business organization, employing lots of people, because no one can do these things alone.

Image Caption: U.S. Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker; Founder and Chairman of Econet Wireless Group, Strive Masiyiwa; Chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical, Andrew Liveris; and Co-Founder and CEO of Andela, Jeremy Johnson. __The US-Africa Business Forum. A few days ago the honor of speaking at the 2nd US-Africa Business Forum, a gathering of CEOs from Africa and the USA, African heads of state and government, and top American government officials, including President Obama. My panel, chaired by US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, was called: “High tech growth: How innovation and technology are driving African economic growth.”

Trusted relationships matter. The "lions" are always out there.  You have to respect that they’re there, also hunting. It’s part of business.  Our research told us that Liquid Telecom would have possible competitors who also wanted to acquire the asset. The sellers were likely to follow a tender process. Our intelligence seemed to suggest that some very aggressive competitors could emerge, with very deep pockets. We developed our business plan carefully, and discussed how we would

__Buying a business: six key questions. A good entrepreneur must never be too sentimental towards a business. There’s a time to buy, a time to sell, and even a time to close a business. It's all business, and in a successful business career, you must have the capacity to do all three. In the first part of this series, I introduced you to the subject of "buying or selling businesses."  As an entrepreneur, you need to be aware

Scholarships for global leaders of the 21st century. Great news! For the second year now, I’m excited to tell you about a scholarship program for young people to get a Master’s degree in Global Affairs from one of China’s top universities.  If you’re selected, this could really be the chance of a lifetime! Not only will you expand your learning, but you’ll also share the experience of studying for a year in China with other young leaders from around the world.

Image credit: Andrew McConnell. Just by chance a few days ago I found a YouTube video of the Academy Award-winning American actor Denzel Washington speaking to a graduating class at an American university. The power of his words reminded me of my New Year’s message several months ago when I talked about the importance of your words. I'll share the link with you, as I think those of you who know of this great star may really be surprised. In the course of the current series on the importance of sales and marketing, some of you have asked about personal branding. I won’t go into great detail on

During the last few weeks, I have blogged on the importance of sales and marketing skills. We’ve also begun to discuss the importance of building, nurturing, and sustaining a brand. I’ve tried to show you that behind the sales campaigns, promotions, and advertising you see on TV and in newspapers is a highly complex business tool which you must appreciate and master if you want to develop a profitable business. This series has been one of the most successful ever, with reach sometimes

__Your marketing strategy. When I first got started, I sure knew how to sell, but I didn't know how to market… I must have been in business for about five years when I first really got into marketing. It happened during a particularly difficult time in our economy, when things were really down and business wasn’t really moving. I tried to run some adverts in a local newspaper to create awareness of the

___You and your brand. When I launched my first business in 1996, I didn’t really know that much about marketing. As I mentioned in my first post in this series, I first learnt to "sell" when I was only eight years old. Remember my story about selling sweets to my school friends? People bought from me because they knew me and, of course, I was selling something I knew that they wanted! It’s possible to run a very successful business short-term, even if you don’t know anything about marketing. You can sell, sell, and sell. But if you want to run a really profitable business, you must understand the importance of marketing, which involves many steps.

Study to show yourself approved. There is more to sales and marketing than simply putting an advert in a newspaper or on social media. Sales and marketing is a professional discipline just like engineering or accounting. You must be conscious of the need to acquire some deeper academic understanding of this subject if you want to run a successful business or be a top executive. You know by now that I don't believe in experience which is not supported by continuous study and scholarship.

New fund launched to support children and youth in emergencies Did you know that 75 million of the world’s children and youth are missing out on school because of violent conflicts, natural disasters and health emergencies like Ebola? I don’t need to tell you that people in such crises are more vulnerable to risk of abuse, human trafficking, extremism, and exploitation of many kinds. It’s a terrible situation and children are usually the worst affected.

__Presentation is extremely important. In July 1997 I learned about a public tender for a GSM cellular license taking place in the southern African country of Botswana. I decided that we must submit a bid, even though I knew the competition would be fierce. Having purchased the bid documents, I sat down with my team and carefully went through each page, line by line. We must have spent three days, working over 20 hours a day, reviewing this document which was not more than 50 pages long.

 A few weeks ago I identified the most important skill in business as the ability to read. The second most important is the ability to count (work in numbers). I've also talked about this before. Now what is the third? It's the ability to sell! This is a huge topic and one of my favorites: Every entrepreneur must be a good salesperson.  You must never stop selling, even if you're the richest man in the world. I remember listening to Bill Gates one day talking passionately about one of the products from Microsoft.  I thought to

When I start some of my projects, I’m sure a few people think I’m really “way out there” as far as what seems possible in this world. “Too ambitious!”  “Impossible!” “You must be joking!?” Although I don’t know if many would say this to me, I expect they think it sometimes. What about you? Do you sometimes have a great idea but, even before other people tell you, “No way! Not you!” you say those words to yourself?  Do you make the big mistake of stopping yourself in your own tracks even before you do your research? Even before you start putting real foundations under your business visions?

If a business opportunity looks too good to be true, it could be much worse than that! A friend of mine in South Africa who is into "BEE deals" (as they call them over there, stands for Black Economic Empowerment), called me one morning, very excited:  "I have these American guys who want to sell us a company in one of the Caribbean Islands. It's a financial services business. It makes a lot of money. Can I bring them to see you?" He's a dear friend so I acquiesced to his request. The Americans were smooth, sophisticated guys from Texas who made a

This week I just happened to read a very inspiring article in Black Entrepreneur.com from 2014 that I want to share with you: How did a 9-year old, Mikaila Ulmer of Sugar Land, TX, beat out the conglomerate giants such as Kraft, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble to land coveted shelf space and a million dollar contract with Whole Foods? Her precocious response? “I don’t know? Do they make theirs with love?” Her company, BeeSweet Lemonade,  is the

__Maybe it was "esusu," "stokvel," and "mukando" that got me into business after all! In my last post I talked about a traditional savings scheme practiced across Africa. It’s easily the largest savings bank on the African continent, holding billions of dollars with operations in every single country in Africa (each one with its own brand name), and a branch network that goes right down to the village level! Well, it's more than a single bank, it is more of a system. I talked in my post about how technology could be applied to this amazing informal system to make it more efficient, modern and secure. I imagined that African entrepreneurs (including myself) will soon create a multibillion dollar industry around it. The mobile phone and the Internet are the key tools to making this happen.

__Applying technology to an old, old idea! In some parts of West Africa, they call it "susu." In South Africa they call it a "stokvel." In Zimbabwe they call it "mukando.” __A group of people who know and trust each other get together and they form a savings club. They agree to save a certain amount of money every month and each one of them takes turns to receive a large amount of money. It’s a traditional savings and loan idea that’s been around for a very, very long time. Women in informal markets, in villages, in church groups, do it. Low income workers do it, right across Africa. People who have tried to estimate how much money circulates in these informal savings schemes believe it’s probably billions of dollars across Africa.

Image Caption: A farmer uses mobile phone technology to compare prices at various markets within, Burkina Faso, West Africa. __Use mobile phones and the Internet to change your business. Most of the fastest growing businesses in the world are businesses that have "re-imagined" well established business areas by introducing innovations based on the Internet and mobile phone technologies. You don’t have to change the business you’re in to make it a "technology company." You just have to "re-imagine" it using the Internet and the mobile phone. Let's look at some examples: # From 'flea markets' to eCommerce: Africa is full of what we commonly call "flea markets" (informal markets). These are small little businesses selling almost anything that we find in every African city. Some are huge -- Mbare Market in Harare, Ikeja Market in Lagos, Kibera in Kenya, to name some of the best known. There you can buy almost anything!