NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME!

NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME!

Today is July 6th and the year is now more than half-way complete.

It's with this fact in mind that I'd like to ask you a few important
questions.

When would be a good time to implement a new idea, an idea that
could very well change your life? That's simple isn't it, right
now -- today.

If you want to increase your sales, when would be a good time to
start calling more customers?

How about next month? It will never work, you need to start today,
right now that's when you need to start calling more people.

When would be a great time to pay off your debt and change from
being a spender to a saver? After you file for bankruptcy?

Of course not, you start right now - this instant.

When would be a great time to lose some weight and take care of
your health? Waiting until the heart attack comes is not the
answer; you want to get down to the gym right now!

If you have a big, ambitious goal that's been begging for your
attention, when should you pursue it?
When the time is right? (Check my article Titled “ Make the Vision Plain”)


When it's a full moon?

When you are 50?

The answer is right now -- TODAY!

When should you start doing anything that's really worth doing,
you need to do it now.

When do you start to love your spouse the right way?

Now is the time!

As mentioned earlier, the year is now more than 50% complete, have
you started with a bang or a whimper?

Are you more than 50% of the way towards your goals?

If you had ambitions of making over N12, 000,000.00 this year, you should
already have made OVER N6, 000,000.00.

Are you on track? Are you even close?

If not, if you are behind target, YOU need to put some urgency
in your efforts. You need to realize that the amount of time
you have to make 2012 the absolute best year of your life is
quickly passing. It is time that you cannot get back.

Fortunately for you, I have some good news.

Get a copy of “The New DAWN” to show you how to double your results in real time!

Tony Egba

08038037674

Be Graceful Under Pressure:

Why do some choke, while others stay cool and calm? It's all about you how prepare.
You're on stage. Three hundred pairs of eyes are fixed on you. You're killing: Twenty minutes in and the audience is in the palm of your hand.

Then your slide show freezes up. Your computer refuse to work!
Your skin tingles. Your body tenses. You stammer. Your eyes dart back and forth from the audience to the screen to your laptop to the stage manager in the wings.
You fall apart.

"Pressure raises self-consciousness and anxiety about performing correctly, which increases the attention paid to skill processes and their step-by-step control. Attention to execution at this step-by-step level is thought to disrupt well-learned or procedural performances."
Or, as those of us less learned describe it, you choke.

Still, somehow, some way, in the very same situation, other people don't choke. What do they have that we don't?
Maybe it's coolness under fire. Maybe it's what the more colorful call “knowing what to do when the chips are down”. Whatever you call that sense of grace under pressure, some people are just born with it, right?

Wrong!

Some people do seem naturally confident and poised under pressure. But poise isn't natural. Poise is a skill that some people develop. And anybody who is so determine can learn it
People like you and me!

How? Let's start with a basic premise. When you panic, you don't freak out because you lack bravery or courage. You don't lose your cool because you aren't born with the right stuff.

You panic because you face an uncomfortable situation and you don't know what to do. You freeze because you haven't done the work to change, "Oh-my-God-this-can-NOT-be happening-to-me-right-now..." into, "Oops. That's unfortunate. Oh well. No problem. I know what to do."

Once you know what to do at any situation, your degree of anxiety will tend to zero!

That is why hanging tough when things go wrong isn't the result of bravery. Bravery is the result of knowing what to do and how to do it when things go wrong. Thinking clearly and staying at the top of your game is easy when you've actually practiced for the Plan B

And that's why the key to maintaining your poise during even the most stressful situations is to gain experience. Not just any experience, though; the right kind of experience, the kind that builds confidence.

For example, say you're scheduled to do a product demo for an important customer or give a keynote address in an important occasion. The pressure is high because your business is struggling and if you don't land this customer you might have to let some employees go.
Here's how to ensure you can stay cool--no matter what happens:

1. Practice the basics.

Run through your demo a number of times. Smooth out the kinks. Make sure you know it cold.
Make sure you can perform it on autopilot--in a good way--so that some of your focus can be applied to reading the room instead of wondering, "Okay, what do I do next?"

Then think about the most likely questions or interruptions. Rehearse what you'll do if the client wants to see a certain function again. Rehearse what you'll do if the client wants to know how a certain function applies to their processes. From the customer's point of view, the best demos are interactive and informal--make sure you're ready to present the demo as a conversation rather than a presentation.

2. Then rework the basics.

All your initial practice will result in a set of logical steps: 1, 2, 3... To really know your stuff, change it up. Start with step 5. Start at the end and work backwards. Skip a couple of steps.

Rehearsing a different order helps reinforce your knowledge of your material and also prepares you for those inevitable moments when the client says, "That sounds good so far... but what I really want to know is this."
When that happens you won't need to say, "We'll get to that later," and frustrate your client because you're fully prepared to get to it now.

3. Practice the "What if?"

Once your presentation is in good shape it's time to prepare for things that could cause you to freeze. What if your software locks up? Figure out what you'll do. What if your client is delayed and you only get 10 minutes instead of 30? Decide how to shorten your presentation so you still hit key points. What if you get questions you aren't able to answer? Decide how you will respond.
Go ahead; go crazy. Think of some outlandish scenarios and decide how you'll handle them. It's actually kind of fun.

4. Visualize.

Athletes mentally rehearse; they imagine themselves performing an action. It works for them--and can work for you.
There's no need to make your product fail on cue so you can practice what to do. Just rehearse it in your mind. There's no need to get a few friends to role play hijacking your meeting so you can rehearse how you'll respond. Just picture it happening, and picture what you'll do.

Not only is visualization effective, it also has a calming effect: Picturing yourself succeeding is a great way to build confidence and self-assurance. (You must always visualizing yourself succeeding)

5. Create solution shelves.

Responding quickly is a skill that can be developed; that's why the military, police, and emergency workers train relentlessly. There's no need to think on your feet if you've already done the thinking. Stick your solutions on mental shelves, and when you're faced with a tough situation, reach for the solution.

Go back to your "What If" scenarios. If a key employee doesn't show, what's the solution? Stick the answer on your shelf. What if price is an issue before you even get a chance to start? Stick the answer on your shelf. What if the room you're shown into isn't appropriate for the demo? Stick the answer on your shelf.

The more answers you prepare and shelve, the more you can rehearse and visualize. Instead of having to think on your feet, it's stimulus-response.

Stimulus-response is easy.

6. Learn from close calls.

Say something goes wrong; your client doesn't notice, but you realize it was a close call that could have ruined the presentation. Don't just walk away relieved. Think through what you could have done--and add the solution to your mental shelf.
Close calls are like gifts, because they let you learn painlessly.

7. Rinse and repeat everywhere.

You can apply this approach to almost any situation, whether business or personal: Giving feedback, pitching investors, disciplining employees, dealing with confrontation, playing a sport, starting and building relationships... it doesn't matter.

You don't need to be brave. Just take a systematic approach to developing skills and gaining confidence.

Do the work and bravery, composure, and coolness under fire are unnecessary.

They're automatic.

‘TO FAIL TO PREPARE IS TO PREPARE TO FAIL”

Please take important note of this point I am about to make now- Things may not necessarily go the way you plan them but in most cases you will end up with want you that is the divine bonus to those who have planned and prepared well.

Tony Egba.
08038037674

How Sell Your Ideas

How Sell Your Ideas

Elmer Wheeler, the famous “sell the sizzle not the steak”, has some good advice about how to sell your ideas.

 

Have you ever approached your boss with a red-hot idea for increasing efficiency only to have him become resentful instead of enthusiastic?

Have you ever offered your wife or husband or the neighbor so-called good advice? If you have, you know what I mean when I say that people resent having other people’s ideas forced on them. 

When someone approaches us with a new idea, our instinctive reaction is to put up a defense against it. We feel that we must protect our individuality, and most of us are egotistical enough to think that our ideas are better than anyone else’s. 

But there are three tested rules for putting your ideas across to other people so as to arouse their enthusiasm. And here are the three rules. 

Rule one: Use a fly rod, not a feeding tube. 

Others won’t accept your idea until they can accept it as their idea. When you want to sell someone an idea, take a lesson from the fisherman who casts his fly temptingly near the fish. He can never ram the hook in the fish’s mouth, but he can entice the fish to come to the hook. 

Don’t appear too anxious to have your ideas accepted; just bring them out where they can be seen. You might say, “Have you considered this,” instead of, “This is the way.” “You think this idea would work?” is better. “Than here’s what we should do.” Let the other fellow sell himself on your idea, and then he’ll stay sold.

Rule number two: Let the other fellow argue your case for you. 

Now, he instinctively feels called upon to raise some objection to save face. Give him a chance to disagree with you by presenting your own objections. “Now the way to convince another,” said wise old Ben Franklin, “is to state your case moderately and accurately. Then say that of course you may be mistaken about it, which causes your listener to receive what you have to say and, like as not, turn about and convince you of it, since you were in doubt. 

But if you go at him in a tone of certainty and arrogance, you only make an opponent of him.”

Abraham Lincoln used the same technique in selling his ideas to a jury. He argued both sides of the case. But there was always this subtle suggestion that his side was the logical one.

Said an opposing lawyer about him, “He made a better statement of my case to the jury than I could have made myself.”

Rule number three: Ask; don’t tell.

 Patrick Henry, another famous idea-salesman, knew how to do this. In his famous liberty or death speech he asked, “Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle? Shall we lie supinely on our backs? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?”

Now if you try saying the same thing in positive statements, all you get is antagonism. 

Three rules for selling your ideas: One, use a fly rod, not a feeding tube. Two, let the other fellow argue your case for you by not being too sure. And three, ask; don’t tell. It’s good advice.

Tony Egba

08038037674

Guerilla Marketing

Guerilla Marketing Guerrilla marketing is a form of marketing which relies on the use of innovative, unexpected, and quirky techniques to familiarise people with a brand or concept. The goal is to gain exposure by being unusual, and to attract buzz and discussion along the way. This style of marketing is very well suited to small businesses and companies with limited advertising budgets, although major corporations around the world have also been involved in guerrilla marketing campaigns, some of which have been very successful. This concept was first named and discussed by Jay Conrad Levinson in a 1984 book of the same name. Levinson put forward a number of guerrilla marketing principles in his book and sparked enthusiasm for the trend, further refining it in additional books, articles, and workshops. By the early 2000s, guerrilla marketing had become so common that it was mainstream. This type of marketing can pop up anywhere. In conventional locations like billboards, magazines, and TV ads, guerrilla marketing often involves the use of a quirky or bizarre device, such as an unusually shaped billboard, a peculiar magazine ad, or a video advertisement that doesn't follow the normal formula. Sometimes, the very product being advertised may be obscured, forcing people to engage with the advertisement and do some research to find out what's going on. This, in turn, generates buzz as people discuss the ads, so the ads become a catalyst for introducing new people to the brand. Viral marketing ploys are another guerrilla marketing technique, and they can involve anything from carefully seeded web videos which spark conversation to printing stencils on sidewalks in major cities to draw attention to a brand. Any sort of advertising technique which is new, fresh, and distinctive can be considered guerrilla marketing, especially if it evokes discussion, comment, or even controversy. Many of the tactics used are also low-cost, which can appeal to a company with a limited advertising budget. As the term would suggest, this form of advertising involves a very flexible approach to marketing which is more like sniping than waging open war. Instead of plastering the media with advertisements to force consumers to recognise a brand, a guerrilla marketer relies on stealth and clever tactics to get people interested and engaged. These campaigns tend to be very memorable; few people can remember basic print ads for famous soft drinks, for example, but many consumers remember guerrilla marketing campaigns which generate controversy or intense interest. Do you have a product, service or an Idea to promote? Let us work together to develop unique marketing formula that will make your product or company a household name in a record time! Call today! Tony Egba 08038037674

Mechanizations the vehicle for Agricultural Transformation Agenda

Mechanizations  the vehicle for Agricultural Transformation Agenda

VISION:

An agricultural sector with reduced drudgery, small effective workforce ensuring national food security and meeting the industrial raw material and export needs of the nation.

MISSION:

To promote the development of agriculture, and management of related natural resources to achieve sustainable food security and production of agricultural raw materials to meet the needs of our expanding industrial sector and export market with the effect of enhancing farm income and reducing poverty.

The above is the mission and vision of the Ministry of Agriculture in Nigeria.

The critical means of achieving the above goals sets in the vision is by mechanization and technology;

·         Mechanization reduced drudgery

·         Mechanization creates small effective workforce

·         Mechanization leads to food security

·         Mechanization help to produce the surplus that can be use for raw materials 

·         Mechanization enhance farmers income

One discouraging factor which impedes young people’s willingness to participate in agricultural practice is the drudgery, tediousness and frustratingly low income associated with the traditional methods of farming.

The introduction of improved technologies capable of reducing the associated drudgery and cumbersomeness and enhance productivity which predicts increased income, will indubitably make farming attractive to young people. There is thus the need to train a new generation of farmers on mechanization technologies.

In order to achieve the goal of agricultural transformation, it is important that the government should enhance and empower institutions like National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization.

NCAM was formally established by Decree (now Act of the National Assembly) No.35 of 1990 with the mandate to fast-track the positive transformation in the agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy in order to increase the quantity and quality of agricultural products through the introduction and development of need-based, home-grown agricultural mechanization technologies.

This mandate is being achieved through the following specific functions:

i)To encourage and engage in adaptive and innovative research towards the development of indigenous machines for farming and processing techniques;

ii. To design and develop simple and low-cost equipment which can be manufactured with local materials, skills and facilities;

iii. To standardize and certify, in collaboration with the Standards Organizations of

Nigeria (SON), agricultural machines, equipment and engineering practices in use in Nigeria;

iv. To bring into focus mechanical technologies and equipment developed by various institutions, agencies or bodies and evaluate their suitability for adoption;

v. To assist in the commercialization of proven machines, equipment, tools and techniques;

vi. To disseminate information on methods and program for achieving speedy agricultural mechanization;

The Centre has also been empowered to develop and test a large array of mechanization technologies (e.g. tractors, weeders, peelers, threshers, planters, harvesters, seed broadcasters, fertizer spreaders, and various crops processing machineries and devices for different categories of Nigerian crops. The extension and transfer to local fabricators and other members of the public of these technologies should be sustained and expanded.

All the department of Agricultural engineering in Nigerian University and Polytechnics should be overhauled and equipped to produce well trained agricultural engineers to provide qualified personnel to drive our Mechanization.

It is important to note that no matter how good our production system may be, we must have a good and robust post harvest technology in order to achieve our food security. This could be easily achievable if we have a very efficient processing machines to add value to our products.

In the light of the above, it is important that the government should come to the Aid of Agricultural Machinery and Equipment fabrication association of Nigeria by addressing the following constrain that is confronting the Agricultural equipment fabrication Industry:

1 Land holding and land yield per hectare in Nigeria. The average farmers in Nigeria have a very small land portion to farm and coupled with poor agric practice the yield per hectare is very small. Therefore the use o machine and equipment is not profitable.

2. Government policies are not encouraging application of technology in agriculture. The vision and mission of federal Ministry of agriculture in Nigeria has no focus on agric machinery production

3. Steel industry, the producer, of primary raw material (iron and steel) is almost non existence in the nation thereby making the manufacturers of agric equipment to depend on imported iron and steel

4. Power sector in the nation is not stable and diesel is unbearably expensive thereby making the cost of building equipment very high.

5. The primary machines necessary for equipment fabrication that are available to Nigerian fabricators are obsolete as they cannot afford the new and modern equipments

6. There is no fund available to Nigerian fabricators. The paper fund that was announced in the press by the central bank of Nigeria is not accessible to fabricators

7. The federal government through her agencies, apart from few of them like Raw material research development council, NCAM, NEPC and IITA, are not helping the fabricators to develop their capacity.

8. Capacity building of the fabricators is almost non existence.

9. Importation of agricultural equipment that can be produce in Nigeria is a great treat to Nigerian fabricators.

10. Results of research on agricultural equipment are not readily available to the fabricators.

11. Nigerian fabricators can be describe as a one man Local government, because he generate his own power, produce his own water(bore hole) and he build his own road and he is expected to fund his own research and yet he is expected to pay tax to another Government who is not interested in his welfare.
12. Lack of entrepreneurial skill among the fabricators that prevent them from developing their business to suitable level.

The Government can address some of the above constrain through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and her related Agencies by doing the following;

·        Bann equipment that can be easily produce in the country
• Set aside prototype development fund.
• Design development centre
• Supervised grant to private enterprise to produce the designed equipment
• Equipment and facility upgrading for private Fabricators enterprise
• Establishment of industrial parks.
• Exchange program for the engineers in private sector, within and without the country.

Nigeria is a land full of potential and mechanization of agriculture processes will lead to the Transformation that we desired.

Engr. Anthony Egba

National Secretary.

Agricultural Machinery and Equipment

Fabricators Association of Nigeria (AMEFAN)

08038037674