Hephzibah's Business

In all the years I've lived on this earth, I had never heard of a 3 day Sallah holiday. It has traditionally been a 2 day holiday. Enter 2016. The moon refused to show up as expected. Therefore, the public holiday was extended. While those in paid employment rejoice and dive under duvets, not everyone is jubilant. Ifeoma Malo asked a poignant question that inspired this post "With all the numerous and often unplanned holidays we have in Nigeria, please how do entrepreneurs and SMEs survive in Nigeria". My response was " Find ways to work around public holidays (planned and unplanned). The holidays are not going away". I gave it more thought so I asked my friends "How can a business owner minimize the impact of public holidays on his/her business?" Dionne Obodo had this fantastic tip. "I usually include it in my 3-5 year Business projections when doing Company Business Planning. That time can be used for Team Building/Cohesion Exercises ...

I was on my own, dreaming of my Sunday ice cream, when a matter came to my attention. It had to do with someone who was behind on school fees that was complaining about how the school embarrassed her child during the graduation ceremony. I need someone to explain all the weird "graduation" ceremonies I see in schools these days but let me try to stay on track. I was privileged to be involved in the review of a school's business plan when the school was applying for a loan. One of the questions raised was how sure the school management was about getting the school fees they had included in their revenue projections. In case you are not aware, school fees are schools' major revenue sources. Some of these schools have loans they are servicing. All of them have obligations to their staff. They have rents and taxes to pay. I understand that the economic climate is not very friendly. It's biting school owners the same way it's biting you. At the risk of soundi...

Question: You said something about having furniture for parents. Could you please expatiate on it? Answer: The furniture I was talking about are chairs and tables where they can sit when waiting for their kids. Some daycares do not have a place a parent can sit. Sometimes you just need to sit and listen to the teacher rather than standing while the teacher or director is talking to you. Remember some of these parents come from work very tired. It’s something like a waiting place or a reception area with two or three seats  Question: I believe not everyone is qualified character-wise and temperament-wise to run a day care. So what kind of person should run a day care?  Answer: Each one of us have areas we are so good at which may not be so with others. Please do an assessment to know which area you are good at. Some of us can be very good farmers, engineers, professors and doctors. Check which area you are good at and start the business. Also, you can start and get the ri...

Good day. In one of the WhatsApp groups I belong to, one of the members shared a "ladder" with us about starting a Daycare Business.  There was a Question and Answer session you may also want to read. There are few things to consider when starting a day care and I will take us through some of them step by step. These days day cares are on high demand. This is because of how busy people have become and also the fact that in many countries, we can no longer [easily] get responsible house helps.  When you want to start a daycare facility in your area, there are many things to consider (though different countries have different requirements). I am going to mention the general ones but do not forget to check with your country’s authority to see if there is more that is required of you. Try and meet your country’s day care business licensing requirements and [remember] you may have to obtain separate licensing to run a business in your city or town.  In addition to the...

Kate Maduekwe Tomato news from Nigeria is trending. One of the unique ways to store tomato without relying on the epileptic power supply from the national grid. Lesson 101 Buy your ripe tomatoes, tatashe, onion and pepper. Wash then clean and blend to paste. Boil till all the water drains or use a cheese cloth to drain the water and then boil. Alternate method Wash clean, cut into chunks, boil and then blend into paste. Lesson 201: Fill airtight storage containers with the tomato paste. Get a big pot, add water and line the under with your empty cut up bag of rice or beans, put the bottled tomatoes standing upright in the pot. Put the pot on fire and boil for about 10 to 15 minutes to build up pressure in the bottled tomatoes. Remove from the pot when cool and stark in your kitchen store. Only open them when you want to use. Once opened, use all of it or store in your fridge. This can preserve for up to 6 months without electricity.

Facebook isn't a secret money pile just waiting to be found, but it can be a reliable source of extra income with some work and a clever approach. Read the steps below to learn how to make money using Facebook. The Basics Make great posts. The foundation of any successful plan to make money with social media is good content, and lots of it. On Facebook, that means a stream of interesting links, images, and updates every day. •Search for a niche and fill it with quality content. It doesn't have to be a niche nobody else is filling, but it should be specific enough that it's clear to the casual observer. For example, maybe you'll post content for cat lovers, mothers, or people with a certain political affiliation. If you plan to market a product with your account, be sure to link the product to your posts in some way. •Consider opening up another Facebook account and keeping it separate from your personal account. Use this account for your posts, and link them on yo...

This topic has been bouncing around in my head all week. So, I'll just write the vision and make it plain.  I'll like to share a few tips that can help minimize the hardship being experienced in this economy. Please feel free to share your tips too. 1. Track all your expenses and identify opportunities for cost savings. Look at what you spend and justify every expense. Check if you can get cheaper rates elsewhere without compromising on the utility derived. Ask yourself if you can't actually do the task yourself. I hand wash my clothes (if you don't want to, don't mind me jere). These are the practical benefits I get from hand washing. - I save the money I would have given someone else to help me wash them or the money I would have paid for the electricity used for a washing machine. - I get to spend the time meditating and getting inspiration and sometimes answers for pressing issues. Erm, if you're too busy for hand washing, do what works for you o... 2. In...

Adekanmi David Taye shared a post with us on my Professionals Without Borders Facebook Group about 7 Great Jobs You Can easily Do From Home And Get Paid. You can read up the post here . I have picked up on Data Entry. Join the Professionals Without Borders Facebook Group to stay up to date on the rest. Data Entry jobs require good computer skills, endurance, attention to details, precision, and stamina. What a Data Entry Expert Does A data entry expert enters data. The job involves organising and/or completing data. As a data entry expert, you could be given some bunch of muddled up data and asked to organise them. A data entry expert may also be given a data file with incomplete data and told to fill in the missing pieces. Normally the data to be organised or completed will be provided in spreadsheet like MS Excel or in database software like MS Access. Entering data into a spreadsheet may be easy, but entering thousands of them require lots of stamina and precision. ...