WHY YOU SHOULD PAY YOURSELF A SALARY AS AN ENTREPRENEUR
Ever thought about the value of the time you invested in your business? The money spent and perhaps the compensation you deserve?
Do you, for instance, cut your own salary when there is little or no cash flow? Yet ensure all your employees get paid, rent and taxes as well. Honestly, I agree that sometimes it is just unavoidable, but it doesn’t have to be the default payment structure in your business.
It probably never occurred to you that failing to pay your own salary is not being selfless neither is it being smart. Some schools of thought advise start-up entrepreneurs not to pay themselves a salary for a period of 6 months. While I understand their point of view but do not agree it is the best approach.
In fact, it is unsustainable and should be considered a last resort. You need to realize you are running a business and if you keep skipping your own salary, how then do you achieve your business goals?
Thinking the business is doing so well forgetting that you have not considered your own payment.
Episode 7 of Business Nuggets by Martwayne was made to address some questions you need to think about. Which might help you understand the need to pay yourself a salary.
Consequently, the 8th episode of this series will be on “How To Pay Yourself a Salary”
Click the podcast below to listen.
Some of those questions are;
⇒ How much is my business owing me in salary?
⇒ Have I really thought about the time invested in the business?
⇒ What do I need to consider before I consider a third party?
At the end of this episode, you will know why your business needs to be able to pay you some stipends no matter how little it is. Consequently, you will decide what to do it. Spend it? Invest it into the business? Totally up to you!.
Take note, it is a business and if you had hired someone else to do the task, you would have to pay the person anyway…You derve to be compensated for your hard work!!!
Business Nugget By Martwayne
A podcast series of short entrepreneurship tips that will help kickstart or grow your business and help you on your entrepreneurship journey. Each episode is created to help you turn your passion to profit and into a viable business.
If you will like to dive deeper into how this works, Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, enable notification to never miss a video!!!
Why You Need To Delegate Work Effectively In Your Business
“Only I can do it” “No employee can do it better!” Made these statements before? News flash……You will burn out! Yes, I said it! You need to see why it is necessary to effectively delegate tasks to your employees.
If you can’t set a structure for your business such that it can run smoothly in your absence, then here is a wake-up call! This article can help you plan your week ahead.
Honestly, I used to have that notion as well. I felt I was some sort of wonder woman. Until reality struck and I literally broke down due to stress.
Think of it this way, are you making money so you can live the kind of life you deserve or you just want to make money so you can keep spending it on medications?
Click the video to listen and then carefully analyze how you have been running your business.
You do not need to break down before you make adjustments and that’s why I am here to tell you why and how to delegate tasks in your business.
So if you are ready to face the fact, trust people and accept that they can do it even better than you.
And by so doing, you are giving them an opportunity to learn and get better. In turn, you can channel your time to other aspects of the business such as planning, networking, strategizing, and so on.
Business Nugget By Martwayne
A podcast series of short entrepreneurship tips that will help kickstart or grow your business and help you on your entrepreneurship journey. Each episode is created to help you turn your passion to profit and into a viable business.
If you will like to dive deeper into how this works, Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, enable notification to never miss a video!!!
What Is Your Role During The Consideration Stage Of The Buyer’s Journey?
A thorough understanding of the buyer’s journey is an essential part of inbound marketing. You should, however, know the right content to create for your customers since the aim of inbound marketing is to draw potential customers to your digital channels.
A Buyer’s journey is the path taken by a potential customer on
his/her way to purchase a product.
The paths taken by your potential customer are somewhat similar to building a relationship. It certainly would look awkward if a guy brings a wedding ring to a first date right? He probably has to build some sort of friendship, spend some quality time with her better before proposing.
“It’s similar to building a relationship with your target market so you can know when they are ready to buy your stuff. You make them aware , trust and then see you as an authority”
To create quality content for your customers, you need to know who they are, what problem they have, what you can do, and how you can help. And that is where the concept of The Buyer’s Journey comes. Before a customer decides to purchase a product, he/ she would have gone through some thought processes . Remember your customer is not just buying for the sake of buying , rather to solve a problem.
At each of these stages, what your potential customer is searching the web for is different. But by understanding this path, you can position your product to them appropriately.
THE AWARENESS STAGE
Take, for instance, Stephanie loves to sew clothes but she does not seem to get it right. She’s not even sure of what name to describe the problem, but she sure knows she has some challenges.
“My clothes do not fit after sewing, I don’t even know what I am doing wrong “
At this stage, Stephanie knows she has a problem with her sewing but not sure of what it is, so at this stage, she is most likely doing research on sewing mistakes beginners make, why am I making mistakes in my sewing projects? e.t.c
This stage is the awareness stage, she is simply looking for informational resources to understand the challenge and possibly give a name to it. This is not the point to sell your fashion school to her or the sewing tools you sell. Rather, you make her understand what the problem is using different resources.
These resources might be in form of
Blog posts
E-books
Checklists
Cheat sheets
How to videos
THE CONSIDERATION STAGE
The customer has given a name to the problem and is looking for approaches to solve them. The knowledge from the awareness stage can help them narrow their search to specific keywords, products, and companies that can help solve their problems. This is where you leverage search engine optimization , digital ads ,a good product copy and most likely get their contact to exchange for the resources you are providing.
Stephanie for instance could search for ;
Online sewing techniques for the perfect finishing
Best Fashion School in Lagos .Here, she has identified the problem, the name, and the solution.
And you can provide them with;
Case- Studies
Reviews
Webinars
Templates
Frequently Asked Questions
THE DECISION STAGE
At this stage of the buyer’s journey, the customer research is narrowing down the list of possible products, vendors, comparing pricing, benefits, etc. Now Stephanie is aware of you, trusts you and then knows you have authority in the filed.
She is more informed and you can offer her;
Free trials
Free Consultations
Or even an attractive discount.
And then she will see “Why your sewing class better and the benefits she will get”
CONCLUSION
Bottom line, you need to understand the exact stage your client is, otherwise, you will be trying to close a deal with a client that does not even know what problem she has. Never assume they know what they want, have an intimate understanding, and deliver the right value at the right time.
Enjoyed reading this article? Join Our Business Webinars every Thursday, @ 8pm WAT, live on Instagram where Professionals share fantastic tips and tricks to help your business grow.
Making a profit is one of your primary goals as a business owner. Hence the need to decipher how to increase sales online.
With e-retail sales accounting for 14% of retail sales worldwide, which has been forecasted to increase to about 22% in 2023, we, therefore, have to come up with online strategies to boost sales as we all hope for a global speedy recovery.
According to The State Of Fashion in 2021 report, the Covid-19 pandemics has been said to step up the industry trends with shopping shifting to digital channels, and with more closure of brick and mortar stores. As a result, propelled fashion businesses to adopt digital marketing strategies to improve their presence and sales.
Beyond increasing online sales, adopting effective online sales strategies can also help businesses to increase their brand awareness and also track their sales trends in order to better understand consumer needs and deliver appropriately.
Thus, any fashion brand that intends to grow needs to be more customer-centric i.e has to have the needs of the consumer in the center of all decisions.
In episode 13 of Business nuggets by Martwayne, I had the pleasure of hosting Tobi Asehinde, the CEO and founder of Digital Marketing Skill Institute. Who willingly shared invaluable strategies and insights into the way and how we must adopt online strategies to make more sales.
8 STRATEGIES TO INCREASE ONLINE SALES
Here are some of the highlights of what was discussed in this Webinar:
You need to know the time it takes for a stranger to buy your product.
Monitor your marketing channels (online and on-site) in order to appropriately attribute the source of a conversion.
Have a clear picture of your target market, and the stage they are i.e awareness, consideration or decision stage
Identify the content suitable for your customers at these buying stages .
Research what your competitors are doing.
Use retargeting to close more deals.
Never be afraid of users unsubscribing from your mail list.
Sell yourself, never assume people know what you do
A new Monday approaches, you feel stressed out because you’re not prepared at all. At the end of the week, you feel frustrated because you couldn’t accomplish much. Can you relate?
During any given time, you will likely have a lot on your plate, especially as a business owner. And it’s easy to get so overwhelmed and bogged down that you’re not sure where to start. You may miss deadlines, send out items for delivery late and mess things up. And listen: It’s OK to make mistakes. We’re all human.
But, honestly, a lot of times, situations like that can be avoided by doing one very simple thing: planning out your week ahead of time rather than winging it.
Why you should plan your week
Simply put, as a business owner, planning your week in advance helps you block out time for the most important and urgent things in your business, and personal life. We cannot discuss planning your week without talking about time management.
You can lose money and may or may not get it back, but when you lose time, there really is no option, it is gone and gone for good.
I do not dispute the fact that we are humans , so sometimes things might not go exactly how we have planned . Hence, the reason to be give room for unforeseen circumstances . The more reason we should delve into time management a bit. To plan your week appropriately, you need to be able to place your activities in either of these 4 quadrants, this will help you prioritize while creating your to-do-list. I will explain better later in this article.
How To Plan Your Week
Know your goal ahead of time.
Identify what is urgent or important
Create a To-do-list
Be realistic with time.
Be disciplined and committed to following it (there is always a sense of fulfillment when you thick that box!!!)
Okay back to our Time Management Quadrant. So it’s very easy for us as business owners, in fact, humans generally, to spend the bulk of our time in quadrants 1 and 3, but then this will not do us any good.
The quadrant that should make the most of our time should be quadrant 2. The planning, development stage. (pssst…” he more time we spend here, then the less tendency for us to spend more time in quadrant 1”)
The examples listed above are important but not urgent, but if you do not spend time on them, then they will result in being urgent and important as seen below.
BONUS TIPS
Here is a list of some applications that can help you create a To-do list
Plan your entire week ahead of time, from clothing to meetings and activities. Have a to-do list for everything! Do this, and you’ll be more productive, settled, and in a better place mentally. I agree it is not easy but I have been adopting this and trust me, ticking off that to-do list does wonders for you!
Do you plan your week ahead of time? Has it been helpful? Share with us in the comment section.
