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MODUPE MARC-DAWODUETIQUETTE ACCORDING TO

NoteBusiness Secrets of All time

Alfred Ade-Ijimakinwa

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Entrepreneurs are constantly in search of lasting secrets to running their businesses. Most times, they choose great mentors, read business books,

subscribe to business journals and magazines. Some attend business schools, seminars, conferences and workshops. All these definitely will help to sustain your business; however there are four amazing business secrets that successful entrepreneurs must possess if truly they want to build successful businesses.

Direction: The most important part of running a business is having a sense of direction. No two businesses are alike and so cannot be run with a business model. As an entrepreneur, you must have a sense of direction; the path you want your business to travel. Now, I call this business road map. A map is an integral part of every explorer's gadgets. With every other necessary gadget, but a map, the entire exploration will be meaningless and fruitless. Same applies to business. Without your personal business map (business model), the running of your business will lead to chaos, losses and eventually bankruptcy. So it is important that you have your business map when you are starting or running your business. Again, like I mentioned earlier, you cannot run your business with someone else's business map or model. Take for example; Yahoo! and Google are offering almost the same products and services, but their business models are different. Also, do you think Coca Cola and Pepsi are running on the same business model? Of course not! So your business model must be uniquely for your business and should be guided jealously.

Mindset: another secret to running a successful business is your mindset. Mindset simply means your fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines your response and interpretation of situations. Different types of situations, good, bad and ugly, will befall your business, but your response to these circumstances will determine the success or failure of your business. We have heard of entrepreneurs who were heavily in debts and yet went on to build successful businesses. Also, we have heard of those who died of heart attack when their businesses hit the rock. If you want to stand the test of time to eventually build a successful business, you must have a positive mindset or approach to every situation. An entrepreneur does not know the difference between failure and success; he uses both to his or her advantage.

Approach: this is simply your way of dealing with circumstances. This is where most entrepreneurs get it all wrong. When you don't have the right approach to dealing with good or terrible situation, your business is subject to fail. This is a very fragile part of running a business. Your approach to every situation requires that you sit and plan. My advice is this; don't take any decision until you have taking quality time to really plan how you want to go about the situation confronting you. Don't be a spontaneous decision taker even if your gut is 100% right; make sure you plan a way out with your strategic team (not staff) or whoever is in the boat with you and you are sure to minimizing your mistakes and failures.

Preparation: I like this definition of preparation, which is the state of having been made ready beforehand. In business, you must be very proactive; you must create or control situations by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened. Every successful entrepreneur is extremely proactive; they are always on top of their game. And that is what you must become. See a situation before it arises and design possible solutions to handling it. Read that last sentence again. I said “possible solutions”. It is absolute stupidity when you have a single solution to solving a problem. You must have multiple solutions when you want to solve a single problem. That way, you are sure to eventually solve the problem no matter how tough it is.

If you can consistently put these amazing business secrets to action, then your business will experience a dynamic breakthrough. God speed on your journey to business success!

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MODUPE MARC-DAWODUETIQUETTE ACCORDING TO

CEO, MARC FORTE

D

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uring the Age of Enlightenment, in the 17th Century, the middle class bourgeoisie realized it was necessary to identify

themselves with the royal families and the elites by adopting their artistic behavioral and social lifestyle. These include when to show emotion, how to elegantly dress, the act of graceful conversation and excellent speech, how to network and courteously behave in social gathering, most especially around women. And so the rules of personal and corporate etiquette were birthed. Although, in our society, etiquette is yet to be fully accepted as an integral part of our everyday lifestyle and the edge required, differentiating you and your business from others, some organizations are working tirelessly to educate individuals and corporate organizations. Such organization is Marc Forte, owned by Modupe Marc-Dawodu. Modupe is a woman on a mission and her interview will inspire and spark a light in you.

: Who is Modupe Marc-Dawodu?

That actually is a very tough question and everybody shy away from answering it. But I can say Modupe Marc-Dawodu is an Executive Coach. She is a Counselor, a Human Resource Specialist and an Organization Development Consultant?

: Marc Forte is the name of your business, how did you come about the name?

: I've always liked the word “forte” for what it stands for because it means your strength; your strong point. Also I like the pronunciation as well; it sounds exotic. I'd always had that word cocooned in that one day when I'm going to start my own business; I would love to represent it with that word. But when it was time for me to register my business, I was told Forte will not work that it is a general word. I would need to add a prefix or suffix to it to make it uniquely mine. So my lawyer suggested I add my name to it. So I thought of Modupe Forte, but it didn't sound right. Then somehow, I just thought of my surname and that was how Marc Forte was born.

: What were the challenges you faced when you started and how did you manage or overcome them?

When you are going to start anything, it has it challenges, we all know that.

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu:

:

When you are going to give birth, from conception to delivery, it doesn't come easy. I got to a point in my life; I had worked, in my last place of employment, for ten years. This is an organization I had worked with from practically the beginning of my career. I grew with them and we had and still have very cordial relationship. But during my tenth year in that organization; this was like a milestone, I had to sit down to really think. I had to ask myself some very key questions like what am I really doing with my life. Am I where I want to be? Is this what I truly want for myself? By the time I did a lot of retrospection; I realized I had to make the move to the next level. That organization was my comfort zone, but I couldn't stay cocooned in that comfort zone like forever, so I decided to move on. Again, I was c o n f r o n t e d w i t h a n o t h e r d i f f i c u l t challenge—what exactly do I need to go into. I was waiting for the heavens to open and a loud voice will tell me what I need to do. But I knew I was waiting for the impossible. When I eventually spoke to my younger brother who is also my business consultant, he told me I should do what I was trained to do—to develop people and organizations. And that is what I have been doing ever since.

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: Where were you working before setting up Marc Forte?

: I was formally working with Poise Nigeria, the premier finishing school in Nigeria. I am happy that the organization is a brand in Nigeria and that it developed and set me on the right direction. I still maintain a very good relationship with Poise Nigeria. And I am so proud to have been part of the organisation.

: Who was your first client?

: My first client was a very good friend of mine. He was one of the people who had encouraged me for years and wanted me to launch out. The day I told him I was going to set out, he was glad to offer me my first job. He simply told me his organization is organizing its annual retreat and he wants me to be the Strategy Consultant and that was it. That was my first client.

: How did you build your network of high profile clientele afterwards?

: It was like a miracle; that is the truth. I am one of the many Consultants who believe in this mantra that says “faith or hope

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

is not a strategy in business”. But I can tell you that mine has been a miracle. Although I had my marketing strategy to run newspaper adverts and social media publicity, what really worked for me was referral. And these referrals came based on my credibility.

: Can you mention few of your clients?

: Probitas Partners LLP was my very first client. Afterwards, I've had NNPC, Healthcare International, Dimension Data, Sirius Associates, Heritage House Montessori School and Afterschool Graduate Development Center (AGDC) to mention but few.

: We know that Nigeria is a fresh ground when it comes to the services, like etiquette, that your business provides, how did you gain acceptance into corporate organizations and individuals?

: First and foremost, the credit should go to Poise Nigeria because it premiered etiquette as a service required by individuals and corporate organizations in Nigeria. My years at Poise Nigeria saw that penetration into corporate organizations; we did quite some field work. Poise Nigeria did lots of publicity to get

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Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

corporate organizations and top executives to understand that they need such services to stand out of the crowd. So, for Marc Forte, we are simply riding on the works that has been done by Poise Nigeria. Nevertheless, if you are able to practice what you preach it tends to authenticate what you are trying to sell to people. And that's what I do—I practice what I preach.

: Have you had difficult clients?

: You will always have difficult clients. You will have those who are insatiable no matter what you do. You will have those who want to test your value and etiquette. You will have those who don't like your face for no particular reason. Some organizations have trainers that they prefer, but if you get the job, based on merit, some key people become very angry. No matter what you do for these set of clients, you just might not get it right. For this kind of clients, you might need to walk away most especially for those who are asking for thing that will erode your values. We've had to walk away from these extremely difficult clients; most especially those who are requesting for what is total against our business value and ethics. However, if you go extra mile to satisfy your difficult customers, they will eventually become your loyal customers. So it is important that you do your best to satisfy them except they want something totally different from what you believe in.

: Now that your business is steadily growing, what is your major publicity medium?

: A lot of what we have done has been online. From existing database and referrals, we have been sending our e-newsletter to all our contacts on our mailing list. Recently, we hired a social media expert who advised us on how to go about our social media publicity. Our social media expert was able to advise us right so that people will not only see us as an existing business, but will also patronize us. So, we are presently leveraging on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. We once in a while run our adverts on the websites of some local Newspapers. We also do some traditional advertising, placing adverts in local newspapers and magazines to target some specific market who probably are not strong Internet users.

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Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

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: Marc Forte partners with foreign organizations like Burlington School and Finesse Worldwide Incorporated, how did you build these alliances?

: I travelled to attend some programs in the United States and United Kingdom; it was during these programs that I met with some of these contacts. It was on these trips that the idea of partnering with these organizations was birthed. Partnering with these organizations give Marc Forte some credibility. We use this partnership to also capture some sets of customers who probably want to use their vacations to develop themselves. It is also a way of getting some of our clients to experience life outside the shores of Nigeria.

: Getting the right staff in our society is quite challenging, what is your recruitment strategy?

: The first thing I look out for is passion. Although it is difficult to get people who value passion over what they are going to earn, I can't afford to employ people who will come on board and will mess up the

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

entire organizational system I am trying to build. My earlier staff did not earn anything, but were passionate to see the business grow. At the very beginning, I made it very clear that we will only earn salaries if we bring in money through programs. I told them I would love to pay them well or buy cars for marketing, but we need to work hard to afford these luxuries. So we didn't have fixed monthly salaries, we concluded if we run programs, then we get paid. If we don't do anything the following month, we don't get paid and the strategy worked. Also, I created a Bonus Scheme; if you bring in a job, then you will get a bonus and that worked too. So from the early stage, I was very transparent with my staff. Maybe that was what kept Marc Forte going or I was lucky to have met people who for nothing believed in what I was doing and they decided to work with me. However, today, we are able to pay ourselves for our hard work. Not as much as we should, but at least good enough to say we are doing well.

: Your Initial Start-up capital, where did it come from?

: Start-up capital is one of

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BUSINBUSIN SLIFELIFE

BUSIN SSI

THE BUSINESS

SIDE OF

NELSON MADELA

THE BUSINESS

SIDE OF

NELSON MANDELA

(1918-2013)

the major challenges that any entrepreneur in Nigeria will tell you he or she is facing. For me, my start-up capital came from my personal savings.

: Is there any room for interns who want to understudy Modupe Marc- Dawodu or Marc Forte?

: We get so many requests, but we are trying to manage the crowd. We don't have many interns right now; but we are working to build a proper structure for them. So, we take interns and we presently have one working with us.

: What is your biggest achievement?

: Resigning from a place where I was comfortable, happy and in a good relationship with my subordinates and boss and venturing into the unknown. Crawling from that unknown to being comfortable is perhaps my biggest achievement. When I was starting, ninety percent of the advices I got were very discouraging. They were all telling me how difficult it is to be an entrepreneur in our society. Although I've had my share of difficulty and challenging moment, it is not as bad as people think or say.

: And your greatest challenge?

: Funding is perhaps my greatest challenge right now. You want to give birth to an extraordinary idea, but you don't have the required fund to push it through. For every step of development and stage of growth, we had to try to minimize and work around what fund we had. So, funding is our greatest challenge.

: Where do you see Marc Forte and Modupe Marc-Dawodu in the next twenty years?

: Twenty years is quite a long time. Say in the next ten years, Marc Forte will be standing on its own. I must have grown it, create the right system for someone else to run it while I pursue my other dreams.

: What is your perception when it comes to running a business in Nigeria compare to developed countries?

: It is incomparable. Your co-entrepreneurs in a developed country can't

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Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

imagine or believe that some minor issues will keep you awake at night here in Nigeria. Perhaps out there, what will keep an entrepreneur awake is probably how to generate or develop an idea, but in Nigeria it is nothing close to such. You are probably thinking how to pay electricity bill or buying diesel to run your electricity generator. If you have to run a business in Nigeria, you have to develop a thick skin because some challenging issues will be staring at you whether you like it or not.

: What is the greatest challenge of entrepreneurship in Nigeria and what do you think should be done?

: Funding is still the greatest challenge and I am aware that the government and some private organizations are doing a lot to help SMEs. We are hoping that this good act will continue and they will have monitoring bodies to make sure this money that are giving out to entrepreneurs are properly utilized. Also, banks are beginning to support entrepreneurs, but their interest rates are quite high, but we hope it will all get better with time.

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: We believe you have competitors, what is your edge or USP over them?

: One of the things we believe in at Marc Forte is our methodology. We spent a lot of money on that. When you come for our training, it is not like what you get in other trainings. We infuse a lot of real life situations and our trainings are very practical. We do more of coaching than teaching. In teaching, there is a teacher who knows it all and is there to just tell you all you need to do. But in coaching, there is a guide who says this is where you are going and would work with you until you get there or achieve your desired result. It is more of a mutual relationship between our trainers and attendees. Also, we have follow-up sessions attached to all our programs to make sure what was learned during any of our training programs are well utilized individually and corporately.

: Have you ever been bankrupt or feel like quitting because things were not working as planned?

: Bankrupt? No. Quitting? No. Things not working not as planned? Yes, severally. But immediately such happen, I just switch gear and look at how else I can do what I want to do.

: If you are not into what you are doing right now, what else will you be doing?

: If I am outside the country, I will be a Forensic Investigator. I love that profession. That in Nigeria will be boring.

: So do you believe in diversifying and creating multiple streams of income?

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

Modupe Marc-Dawodu

: I believe in diversifying and multiple streams of income, but it has not worked for me because I am conservative by nature; I am very perseverance. If I find something working for me, it takes a long time to look away from it. “If it is not broke, don't fix it” is one of my mantras. But now, I have discovered I have to and I'm trying to be spontaneous; to take more risk, to be out there doing things differently and not remain generic. Also, before I started Marc Forte, my time wasn't totally mine even during weekends. But with more time on my side now, it is becoming more interesting that it doesn't have to be a one-way traffic. I can actually diversify and also do other things of personal interest that can generate income.

: How does Modupe Marc-Dawodu relax or what do you do outside work?

: If I have any opportunity, I sleep. If I am not sleeping, I play the piano or watch epic movies. Outside work, I am happily married and spend time with my family. I am very active in my local church. Right now in my department, we are teaching some indigent children who attend the church how to read and write. And it is awesome when you see these children very excited when they can spell a particular word. It's a fulfillment for me. I am not a party person; I rarely go to weddings except you are a very close relative or friend. I dread spending hours in traffic or sitting down in a party when I don't even have so much time on my side.

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I'm sure you have read or heard the joke about a gentleman that went visiting a friend. While there, he was asked if he would want to be

served tea or water. He opted for tea, and was asked what kind of tea he preferred, green, black, white, oolong or herbal? He selected black and was further asked if he wanted it with cream. He answered in the affirmative and was told to make his choice of milk from whole, low-fat, skim, fat-free or organic? A little exasperated he answered that he wanted low-fat milk. What about sugar, the server asked, would you prefer white, brown, muscovado, sucanat, honey or sweetener? The guest, now highly irritated said 'don' bother anymore with the tea, just give me water'. To which he was replied 'would you want mineral water, sparkling water, distilled water, or spring and would you want it hot, cold, or tepid?'We have all been provided with a number of incredible and irrevocable gifts that are often times overlooked. One of such gifts given to you and I is the power of choice. This is a gift that many choose to utilise judiciously or otherwise. I bet we know that the choices we make sharpen our lives.

In my journey towards success, I've had to make several choices; easy, difficult, diplomatic, offensive, name it. From some I got burnt, from some promotion, from some I lost friends and

from some I built life-long relationships but in order to receive the rich rewards of success, there will always be a price to be paid. The greater the magnitude of success, the higher the price to be paid.

Many seek success, but few are willing to make the necessary investments in order to secure it. Why do you think the road has been labelled 'straight and narrow' since the days of our forefathers? Because even back then when there weren't as many sophisticated options, they had been conscious of the fact that success and excellence do not come cheap. How much more in our own days when competition is so stiff and the order of the day? One of the prevailing dangers of our age is the proliferation of alternatives. We live in a world where we are often pressured to take shortcuts to 'save time and cut costs' as much as possible, emphasis on the cut cost.

However, if you're not a skilled and experienced executive, the wrong shortcut would end up costing you a lot more.

Often times we are searching for an unrealistic, low-cost, cheap solution and we do so without making the effort to genuinely understand the goals or enormity of the desired result.

I have personally found that if you are willing to pay the price required for success, the rewards are customarily richer than one could imagine. It is

These Other AlternativesModupe Marc-Dawodu

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actually not only what you achieve that matters but what you become along the way that makes the experience so rich and rewarding. My team focuses on

this mantra: “The fastest way to do something is to do it right.”

While that may not seem fast, the clients that are forever chasing

cheaper alternatives usually don't have anything to show for it and

then pay more at the end of the day, either in cash or in kind. After

observing this behavior for years, may I share some dangers of

cheaper alternatives that I've learned from my mistakes, clients,

potential clients and the general public;

1. Not all cheaper alternatives are alternatives. Lack of understanding of a problem or solution leads many to falsely assume that a cheaper alternative would give the same result. They may have found a shortcut but trust me, it's often accompanied by a costly fallacy. Value cannot be diluted.

2. Succeeding with cheaper alternatives often depend on luck. Winning the lottery is a shortcut to wealth IF and ONLY IF you win. Most people that play the lottery never find this shortcut to be to their advantage, after all how often do you win? Counting on luck to be your shortcut usually leads to a future pain. In business, hope isn't a strategy!

3. Searching for shortcuts can sometimes be more work. Free is usually not free and believe me if the grass is greener on the other side, they must be paying higher water bills and paying more for fertilizers.

4. Selling cheaper alternatives is big business. We see many businesses that gladly sell short-term shortcuts to those anxious for a magical, quick quick, now now solution to their plight. While not our recommended business approach, these companies are filling a genuine emotional need even though the long-term outcome is usually very unpleasant and costly for the recipients. If your cheaper alternative is making quick money for some people then be rest assured that they may not exactly have your best interest at heart.

Education is everything, after all cauliflower is cabbage with a university degree. Are you one who will pay or are you one who wants a free ride?

Modupe Marc-Dawodu is an Executive Coach. She is a Counselor, a Human Resource Specialist, an Organizations Development Consultant and the CEO of Marc Forte