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6 Mistakes Every Entrepreneur Should Avoid

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Becoming a successful entrepreneur in a business terrain such as Nigeria is a venture fraught with peculiar challenges.
Considering the many little details that naturally go into setting up a business and nurturing it to a path of profitability and sustainability, many entrepreneurs can be forgiven for getting lost along the way.
However, ask any successful entrepreneur and you will discover that mistakes are a luxury an entrepreneur cannot afford.
These useful tips from the Research and Development Unit of Yudala – Nigeria’s pioneer online and offline e-commerce outfit –  will guide you from making these costly mistakes that may mar your entrepreneurial journey.

Thinking you can do it all alone
As an entrepreneur, it is understandable to think that no one can sell your idea or product better or more passionately than yourself.
While this mindset may serve you well at the outset, this may significantly hamper your speed or lead to mental and physical fatigue/burnout, especially as you scale up.
Even if your Intelligence Quotient (IQ) rivals that of Albert Einstein, you will benefit from relying on the expertise and input of other knowledgeable hands, employees, consultants or partners. These reliable external influences can help provide the much-needed new perspective or fresh strategy that will help take your business to the next level.
This is also important for entrepreneurs who, out of force of habit, get stuck in a particular way of doing things simply because it works, without realizing that there might be a smarter, more efficient way to achieve better results.

Refusal to take pains before pleasure
This is a flaw that is predominantly rife among the new generation of entrepreneurs. Many have had their sterling entrepreneurial dreams cut short simply because they were not ready to start small and take pains before pleasure.
Entrepreneurship is a difficult, arduous journey; one that certainly requires steely discipline and in most cases, gradual growth.
Sadly, it is common these days to see many budding entrepreneurs embrace a flamboyant lifestyle at the first signs of success. If you choose to buy that expensive car or fly Business Class from the moment you close your first big deal, you may be making a mistake that could truncate your success.
For long-term and sustainable success, every entrepreneur must be ready to take the business through a structured incubation period in order to survive in a highly competitive knowledge-driven economy. This demands not only moral and financial discipline but a determination to make huge sacrifices.

Not allowing technology lead
 The world has gone digital. In fact, we are approaching the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also described as Industry 4.0: an age in which a range of new technologies are expectedly fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds in addition to impacting all disciplines, economies and industries.
This is an age marked by emerging technology breakthroughs in a number of fields, including robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, The Internet of Things, 3D printing and autonomous vehicles.
Whatever the nature of your business, you will be struggling against an overwhelming tide if your business is not technology-driven.
The 21st Century entrepreneur is one that is not only technology-smart but willing to continually find new ways to automate his business.  You definitely cannot keep up with competition if you don’t make the most of technology.
With the growing utility of the smartphone and other tech-gadgets, a number of opportunities have emerged, presenting refreshingly new ways for consuming goods and services. For smart entrepreneurs, these technology-enabled platforms also lower business costs and the barriers to create and sustain wealth.

Allowing sentiments cloud business decisions:
Sentiments or emotions have no place in business. The best and most successful entrepreneurs all have one thing in common: they are renowned for their bloody-mindedness when it comes to taking business decisions. 
The ability to make effective business decisions is one that could spell the difference between brilliant success and dismal failure for every entrepreneur.
This is especially considering the fact that, as a business leader, you are bound to make loads of decisions every day that have a direct impact on your business, employees, customers or the marketplace.
These include hiring or manpower requirements as your success heavily depends on the competence of your employees; expansion plans, operational or financial decisions. Such sensitive decisions are best treated as they ought to: from the perspective of its impact and benefit to the business.

Poor marketing
Even if you operate in a niche market, the peculiarities of contemporary society and fickle attention span of potential consumers means that you must properly market your product, solution or idea for it to get accepted.
Unconsciously, many new entrepreneurs often make this mistake of erroneously believing that their products/ideas are so novel or unique that they can get away with a meagre effort at marketing.
For these ones, it is worth restating that the days of the maxim: “If you build it, they will come,” seems to be long gone. If you desire success as an entrepreneur, then you must admit the fact that your business must effectively invest in marketing. In addition to the word of mouth/free referrals that will come from constantly delivering great service, your business stands a better chance if you work out efficient marketing strategies that will necessarily accommodate content marketing, digital marketing, point-of-sales, promotional marketing, SEO, PR and paid advertising, among others.

Underestimating the importance of customer service
It is easy for entrepreneurs to forget one of the major reasons they remain in business: the customer. This mistake often creeps in when a business begins to acquire more patrons and success seems more within reach.
That is when the tendency to treat customers with levity begins to rear its ugly head, often with dire consequences for the unsuspecting business owner.
With access to the internet on the rise and social media coming to play a more important role in the swift dissemination of news and other information, you will be making a grave mistake underestimating the importance of keeping the least customer happy.
Your business can quickly go from being the darling of your patrons to trending on social media for the wrong reasons. Instructively, the vituperations of a disgruntled customer can erode months of goodwill you have built up.
Also, you must bear in mind that negative news spreads faster than good news. To avoid this pitfall, it is important to ensure that the channels of communication with the customer are kept open.
Feedback is essential and you can ask your customers to provide these through your interactions with them. This way, you can keep your fingers on the pulse of the customer, identify areas of weaknesses and understand the customer’s expectations.


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PalmPay Unveils First Set of Winners in Eid Mobile Bonanza

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PalmPay has announced the first set of winners in its ongoing Eid campaign tagged PalmPay Eid Bonanza, which kicked off on April 10th and will run until April 30th, 2024.

Since the start of the bonanza on April 10th, 5 lucky winners have been emerging daily simply by performing tasks on the PalmPay App such as transferring funds, airtime and data purchases, bill payments, and savings.

Comfort Udoh from Lagos, one of the proud recipients of an iPhone 15 Pro, expressed her sheer delight. “I simply won by recharging my phone with airtime on the PalmPay app. I received the exciting news via a call from PalmPay Nigeria. I thank them for the generous reward of a brand new iPhone 15 pro”

Also, Mr. Abegurin Patrick Segun’s winning entry came about when he placed a N100 bet using his PalmPay app. It was a delightful surprise for him to receive a call from PalmPay Nigeria, informing him of his victory in the daily raffle draw, and he’s now the proud owner of an Infinix Hot 40i.

To participate in the remaining weeks of the campaign, download the PalmPay App from Google Play or App Store. Sign up for an account and include your BVN or NIN to complete the process and click on the  Eid Bonanza Feature.

There are still numerous phones to be won daily, along with the added bonus of daily free transfers to any bank via the PalmPay App.

Enakeno Umuteme, the Head of Marketing and Communications at PalmPay Nigeria, notes that “Our primary objective is to reward and acknowledge our loyal customers. This campaign stays true to its promise of appreciating Nigerians who are PalmPay users”

PalmPay offers an array of services including money transfers, bill payments, credit services, and savings on its app and via its mobile money agents. Since its inception in Nigeria in 2019 under a Mobile Money Operator license, the platform has amassed over 30 million app users as part of its cashless payment ecosystem.


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Kaspersky Warns of Data Stealers Hunting for User Credentials

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As the malware development market continues to flourish with new stealers such as Lumma, for the last three years Redline still remains the dominant data-stealing malware used by cybercriminals.

More than half of every device (55%) targeted by password-stealer attacks in 2023 has been infected with the Redline malware, Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence finds.

Infostealers infiltrate devices to illicitly obtain sensitive credentials such as logins and passwords, which are then peddled on the shadow market, posing significant cybersecurity threats to personal and corporate systems.

According to information gleaned from log-files traded or distributed freely on the dark web, Redline was used in 51% of infostealer infections from 2020 to 2023. Other notable malware families included Vidar (17%) and Raccoon (nearly 12%).

In total, around 100 distinct infostealer types were identified by Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence between 2020 and 2023 using metadata from log-files.

The underground market for data-stealing malware development is expanding, evident from the rising popularity of new stealers.

Between 2021 and 2023, the portion of infections caused by new stealers grew from 4% to 28%. Specifically, in 2023, the new “Lumma” stealer alone was responsible for more than 6% of all infections.

“Lumma emerged in 2022 and gained popularity in 2023, through a Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) distribution model.

This means any criminal, even those without advanced technical skills, can purchase a subscription for a pre-made malicious solution and use this stealer to carry out cyberattacks.

“Lumma is primarily designed for stealing credentials and other information from cryptocurrency wallets, commonly spread through email, YouTube, and Discord spam campaigns,” says Sergey Shcherbel, expert at Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence.

To guard against data-stealing malware, individuals are advised to use a comprehensive security solution for any device. This will help prevent infections and alert them to dangers, such as suspicious sites or phishing emails that can be an initial vector for infection. Companies can help their users, employees and partners protect themselves from the threat by proactively monitoring leaks and prompting users to change leaked passwords immediately.


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World Energy Conferencing

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By Okoko Chidozie Christian

[email protected]; 09025179984.

In an increasing world, the effectiveness of meaningful human interaction becomes ever important.

World Energy Conferencing

The significance of networking remains at the very core of what we do; and to support this we strive to offer more opportunities through digital platforms to engage online year round.

Conferences as indispensable part of business could be a vital opportunity that is certain to reap one’s time, organizational commitment and lots more.

Research proven creditably reveals that conferencing provides a rare opportunity for key individuals within field specialism to come together collaboratively all over the world, in the same place, at the same time.

Such environment provides the perfect platform to network,

form partnership and exchange knowledge with both peers, and people from connected industries with whom one may not have previously connected.

A prospect such as this is sure to serve well both now and in the future.

Having known that conferences attract a unique and incredible mix of thinkers, leaders, experts and emerging talents with an existing predisposition to develop skills; it also stimulates industry progress and contribute to important global conversations.

World energy conferencing are energy-focused events set to draw in the world’s top businesses and their leaders to put the wheels of actions in motion against climate crisis and other major threats to the energy sectors and wider world as a result.

The later part of last year saw one of the world’s most pivotal sustainability events to date, COP28 reported in my previous article “Sustainability of Clean and Renewable Energy” on April 1st, 2024. The event saw world’s leaders take urgent actions and decisions on the transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable and energy efficiency.

Undoubtedly, conference brings a wealth of forums, events, programmes which unite leaders about energy and industry’s interest topics, insights, guidance and tackling of some of the most pressing challenges.

These energy events will help in bringing together leading companies and talented people to provide business professional with high quality trade shows, digital solutions and connections, research reveals.

Some of the anticipated World energy events include World Utilities Conference Abu Dhabi, UAE (May 8-10,2024); International Conference in Energy Paris, France (14-15 May, 2024); Reuters Global Energy Transition New York, USA (7-8 June, 2024); Energy Tech Summit, Bilbao, Spain (10-11 April, 2024 ); Offshore Technology Conference, OTC in Houston Texas (6-9 May 2024), and many more.

World Energy Conferencing help companies and individuals to gain access to official media partnering and news publications for the world’s largest energy events thereby increasing their brand visibility through a variety of compelling content platforms helping to share latest innovations which are shaping the future of energy.

Also, connect industry leaders and passionate individuals from across the globe all committed to advancing the future of the energy industry in a path towards sustainable, renewable and affordable energy.

Technology expositions has helped a wide range of industry-leading companies to present energy-efficient products, energy management services and solutions.

Also, creates an environment for global think tank, powered by global innovation, pioneering minds and groundbreaking insights. As creating a new energy future require bold and different thinking, majority of these conferences regarded as the foremost events get accelerated global transition to clean energy, and bring leaders, policy-makers, investment incubators, corporate partners and world-class start-ups to work towards a greener tomorrow.

However, apart from being at the frontier of discovery on a global platform, conferencing witnesses the solution, ideas and game changers that matters amongst the world’s leading energy brands. It opens way for stakeholders to a unique occasion in examining critical insights, global drivers of energy prices and to network with energy specialists from other international companies of the world.

World energy conference platforms showcase advances in energy and a highly interactive experience that inspire progressive leadership thinking, collaborative and constructive actions. Regarding the concept of its most vital meetings, reflects its present and dedicated future to the entire society.

So, as we look ahead to the next 100years of energy mix; it is critical we consider not just the future of our energy technology, but also how we increase society’s energy literacy and create more inclusive bottom-up energy communities.


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