image: mycounsellingservice.com.au

Step 1: Always Be Doing Something
We all have up days and down days, but there are two broad categories of people. One category let the progress in their lives be determined by this while the other category don't let this damage their productivity. 

In the end, the moods will fade and our emotions will have newer things to focus on, it is only what we do that stands. And if you always do very little when you are not in a good mood, you are the one who would ultimately be short-changed. 

I am always doing something. 

It is not just a productive work ethic, rather, some of the best things I have created were borne out of unpleasant experiences. And when I look back, I am always happy I didn't let an unhappy day keep me from doing my best.

Step 2: Don't Fight Your Emotions
No matter how educated and logical you are, you will always feel the emotions of envy, anger, fear and sadness even when you are logically fighting it. It's just the way we are.

However, nothing can be as energy draining and unproductive as constantly fighting one's emotions. 

Personally, I use a two pronged approach to keeping unpleasant emotional interference minimal. I avoid situations, people and places that stir up in me unpleasant emotions. And when I am overcome by any emotion, I simply let time do its magic on it; I don't blow it up nor try to fight it. 

The result is that I end up doing mostly the very things I would be proud of, rather than having to spend extra efforts trying to undo what was done in an emotionally tense moment.

Step 3: Read Wide; Read A Lot!
Having a wide memory collection of experiences of other people and their struggles can be the difference between being suicidal and being optimistic. Reading constantly gives you a lot more productive ways to handle events in your life. You tend to see a wider range of possibilities and can focus more easily on the outcome you desire. 

I go as far as reading books written centuries ago. Most of the stress we experience in life is due to our narrow view of life in general. We are not very good at grasping in a meaningful way that we are just a spot in both the time dimension and the space dimension. And that the frustration we are experiencing because of a very minor issue is purely a negative over-reaction.


Last week, I got a rejection email from Y Combinator about my application to Startup School (their free online startup mentoring program which is different from the widely popular Y Combinator Accelerator). A few hours after, I got another email stating that the previous email was an error due to a malfunction in the selection/announcement program, that I should have gotten a congratulatory email instead. 

And so began our journey into the amazing world of Y Combinator distance coaching. We are assigned a mentor who takes care of a group of 15 to 25 startups, with weekly live meetings and progress review. And there are weekly recorded teachings from veterans in the YC community. They even provide opportunities for one to come participate in the live teaching sessions instead of waiting for the recorded ones, just that you need to be in California, USA for that.

I have admonished my team members to make the most of this uncommon opportunity. We would be exposed to teachings from some of the best folks in the startup community -- people who have walked the walk and built billion dollar startups. 

In addition to the amazing learning and personalized help they are providing, they are also offering 100 startups $10,000 at the end of the 10 weeks mentorship program. For free. As a grant. No strings attached. And we already get access to loads of free and deeply subsidized tools from Amazon, Google and many other startup services/tools providers. They estimate that these benefits run into over $100,000 in value.

We are not the only Nigerian startup admitted. I have seen a couple in just my group. And they all are doing very cool stuff. Was really impressed by one based in Abuja: https://gerocare.org/ 


At the end of the program, we become part of a global founders community and get opportunities to collaborate with other startups around the world. Also, we get a higher chance of being taken into the prestigious Y Combinator Accelerator should we decide to apply. The mentor assigned us will coach us on what to watch out for and how best to present our product/idea to get a higher chance of successful application.

Personally, I want to learn all I can about improving our services and business. I have spent too much time improving the technical side of our business, it's high time we worked on the business side of our business properly too.

RelianceHMO, in my short interaction with them, is really living up to their name.


Like I mentioned in my last Friday post, we're setting up a health insurance plan for every staff of the company. I have been trying to get a quote from Hygeia HMO for about a week now. I have also tried reaching a couple of other well known HMOs. Some pick calls and promise to get back, others don't even pick calls. In the end I threw myself at chance and googled "HMO in Nigeria".


I went through the search results from top to bottom, even retried contacting Hygeia HMO. At the bottom of the list was RelianceHMO. The website looked very lovely and thoughtfully put together. But I was still trying to call Redcare HMO, then I noticed a chatbox pop up on RelianceHMO site. Then what I thought was an automated chat message appeared. I responded. And a human replied. Guided me through the entire process. Called us when I said we have questions to ask. It was so smooth and quick, I couldn't believe it until it was completely done. What took me several back and forth days with AXA Mansard last year for just an individual plan. I was thinking corporate plan would involve weeks and lots of paper work. 

The online management dashboard they gave us was superb and there is a phone app to help us remember all that is covered in the plan, also generates our e-ID card for the hospitals and allow us to directly chat with doctors. 

So far I am wowed. 

What is left is to now make use of the actual hospital visits and benefits. I am guessing it would be same as what I experienced with AXA Mansard as the hospitals don't seem to bother much about which HMO you are using except for documentation and reconciliation. But then again, I might be wrong. It would be nice, though, to be pleasantly surprised. At this stage, things must go terribly wrong for me to change my pleasant impression of RelianceHMO.

Go try them out: https://www.reliancehmo.com/ And maybe help me collect the PR fee they definitely owe me.
image: fabiusmaximus.com

I have seen over N1,000,000 of my stocks investment money wiped off this year. And we are just 8 months into the year.

How did this happen? What did I do wrong? Am I able to sleep well at night? Shouldn't I move my money to Treasury Bills or other capital guaranteed investment scheme? 

I will tell you how it happened but first let's get it over with the other questions.

I didn't do anything wrong. I sleep very well at night and even on some afternoons. No, I am not moving my money to Treasury Bills.

Back to how it all happened. 

My stocks investment are split into 15 Nigerian Companies (Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, Ecobank, First Bank, GSK, Mansard Insurance, Nigerian Breweries, Nestle, NewGold ETF, Okomu Oil, PZ, Total, UBA, Unilever and Zenith Bank) and 2 USA dollar denominated ETFs (DB Commodity Tracking PowerShares and iShares Gold Trust).

Most of the losses came from my Nigerian stocks. And this is due to the capital flight from our stocks by the foreign investors in order to gain from the increased risk free return (US bonds) in USA and in trend with the general new distaste for emerging (and frontier) markets. Some say the election/political risk is also contributing to it.

My US holdings are also not fairing well. I have seen significant losses in my Gold ETF holding and as for the reason, the experts are divided and bewildered. It runs against conventional investment wisdom that Gold will go down in a time of increased global markets trouble and economic wars (courtesy Donald Trump). Also, my Commodity ETF holding has slightly dipped (the rise in Oil has been what is preventing a deep slid in that one).

Why then am I not worried?

It is because that is the nature of stocks investment. It goes up and down. Volatile. In fact, I have been buying steadily up till early this month when it dawned on me to start saving towards my wedding. If not for that near term need, I would just keep buying stocks without bothering about the decline.

What then is the source of my confidence?

It is God. Pastor Poju Oyemade explained in today's sermon that we must always see God's hand in all we have and do. And if I will try to explain how God did it, it would be that He made me to have a well thought out investment strategy. I bought into companies and securities that I was sure were selling at a discount (below their true value). I don't care about how much further below their true value they go because I know they will rise back to what is sensible. Also, I don't care about the election effect (as I believe it will be short-lived) and I am not worried by the fleeing foreign investors (we all know they always come back). 


Register for the upcoming hands-on Nigerian industry relevant Financial Modelling.

Just 10 slots available!


Our lead trainer has built financial models, investment portfolio risk models, stocks analysis models, automated financial reporting templates, loan schedules, FX tracker, market indices tracker and many other financial projects for corporate clients within and outside Nigeria. He is not going to share book knowledge with you but real world expertise and templates you can readily use. He is also one of the few Africans that have been vetted and accepted as a Financial Modelling and Valuation expert on TopTal whose client base span fortune 500 companies and other big companies across Europe, Americas, Australia and Asia. You can view his TopTal profile here


He is the sole developer of the only Nigerian financial markets analysis tool on Microsoft office store, developer of Nigerian stocks analysis dashboard and the brain behind the Nigeria Market Data platform.

He has also published an Amazon bestseller on Microsoft Excel: Microsoft Excel and Business Data Analysis for The Busy Professional and another bestseller on Power BI Power BI for the Busy Professional book. He is the type of all-rounder you would want to be trained by. 

This training is aimed at making you proficient in building Financial Models and carrying out Valuation for existing businesses, startups and capital projects. You will learn to create financial models from scratch using Microsoft Excel and build one during the training on a real Nigerian company. You will also learn how to apply them in real world situations so as to help friends with their business valuations, help your company with financial planning and advise clients on equity funding. The training is strictly targeting people with accounting background and basic knowledge of corporate finance.

You will get lunch, a branded DVD with training materials and templates, training notepad with pen, hardcopy comprehensive training reference materials, a training certificate from us (a registered Microsoft Partner), access to our online community and after training support.

Our different trainings have had participants from Guinness Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Schlumberger, Chevron, Periscope, Brains and Hammers, GfK, Palladium Group, First Bank, Citi Bank, Dalberg, PMI, EatNGO, NLNG, GSK, Promasidor, SaveTheChildren, Mobil, FMDQ, NSE, Biofem Pharmaceuticals, Total, Vodacom, Nestle, Nigerian Breweries, Delta Afrik, LATC Marine, Broll, Habanera (JTI), SABMiller, IBM, Airtel, Diamond Bank, ECOWAS, Ministry of Finance, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Nokia Siemens Networks and DDB.

Reach Michael on 0700ANALYTICS, 0808-938-2423, 0806-312-5227 and mike@urbizedge.com or Hannah on 0802-118-0874 and hannah@urbizedge.com or Emmanuel on 0908-482-5064 and emmanuel@urbizedge.com to register.

Date: Monday 17th September 2018 to Wednesday 19th September 2018.
Venue: Kristina Jade Learning Center, 70b Olorunlogbon street, Off Alade Lawal street, Anthony Village, Lagos.

For Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo and Benin: Kindly contact us on +1-941-312-2149 or email info@urbizedge.com for details of training date. Thanks!

The training outline is:

1) Introduction to Financial Modelling and Valuation
a. Referesher on the fundamental accounting principles
b. Building a Trial Balance
c. Building the Income Statement from the Trial Balance
d. Building the Balance Sheet Statement from the Trial Balance
e. Building the Cash Flow Statement from the Trial Balance
f. Introduction to Financial Ratios

2) Different Types of Financial Models
a. Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Model
b. Comparative Company Analysis (comps) Model
c. Sum-of-the-parts Model
d. Leveraged Buy Out (LBO) Model
e. Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Model
f. Book value Model
g. Dividend Discount Model

3) Building a Discounted Cash Flow Model from Scratch
a. Template Building from Scratch
i. Creating the Required Sheets and Having an Index Sheet
ii. General Model Structure Design
iii. Working Across Multiple Sheets at Once
iv. Linking Sheets
v. Absolute and Relative References
vi. Template Building Tricks
b. Required Excel Tools and Formulas
i. What-If-Analysis Tools: Goal Seek, Scenario Manager and Data Table
ii. Charts
iii. PivotTable and PowerPivot
iv. Power Excel Formulas

4) DCF Modelling Stages
a. DCF Modelling Stage One: Projection Ratios and Scenarios (Optimistic, Base and Pessimistic)
i. Income Statement Drivers Projections
ii. Balance Sheet Drivers Projections
b. DCF Modelling Stage Two: Financial Statements Forecasts
i. Income Statement Forecast
ii. Balance Sheet Forecast
iii. Cashflow Statement Forecast
c. DCF Modelling Stage Three: Valuation
i. Enterprise Value = Discounted Cashflow of Explicit Forecast Period + Discounted Terminal Value
ii. Calculation of WACC, CAPM and Cost of Debt
iii. Practical Reality of the Nigerian Economic Space
iv. Extracting The Equity Value from The Enterprise Value
v. Senitivity Analysis: WACC vs Perpetuity growth
d. Practical Use of The Results
i. Company Valaution: Sell-side, Buy-side and Advisory
ii. Business Unit or Subsidiary Valuation
iii. Capital Project Valuation

5) Financial Ratios
a. Liquidity Ratios
b. Asset Management Ratios
c. Leverage Ratios
d. Profitability Ratios
e. Valuation Ratios
f. Financial Project Planning Excel formulas


Reach Michael on 0700ANALYTICS, 0808-938-2423, 0806-312-5227 and mike@urbizedge.com or Hannah on 0802-118-0874 and hannah@urbizedge.com or Emmanuel on 0908-482-5064 and emmanuel@urbizedge.com to register.
image: flipotv.info

In continuation of the restructuring of my business. We are currently building a standard operating procedure (SOP) document for the company, that documents the company mission, vision, corporate values, services, strategy, organogram, each role description from Managing Director down and the internal processes for ensuring quality assurance (standardization) in the delivery of all our services.

Following John Warrillow's advice on trimming down our offerings to just the one or two we are extremely good at (the ones customers give us a consistent 5 star rating), we have decided to take out the traditional consulting which is difficult to productivise+scale and replace it with the Data Analysis as a Service. We would be focusing heavily on scaling our training services, which has been that rave review product for us. So now I am documenting how we deliver excellent training -- right from the prospecting, to sales conversion, to logistics, to training content, to the training delivery and after training engagement+support. Then will teach data analysts we hire, how to execute them all in the UrBizEdge way (already started this and happy with the progress). Also, we would be doing more on our mass market solutions side. 

In documenting the roles, we are including the terms of remuneration. So I have been rethinking the salary structure. How some roles will have a mix of fixed salary, performance bonus and allowance. Then this got me to hurry up on fixing our income (PAYE) tax registration. And we would pay pension as every organization should. We would have an health insurance plan for staff.

However, I am hitting some roadblocks as to what allowances and perks are applicable to the key roles we currently have people filling:

  1. Managing Director
  2. Business Development Manager
  3. Data Analysts
  4. Sales Executive
Since, it's money related stuff. I wanted to thoroughly think it through and go through as many recommendations/suggestions as possible before reviewing with the team.

Again, I would like suggestions from you all. How do companies typically structure these? Where can I get some more real world examples? Which have you seen/experienced? What, in general, do you think?

Thanks!
image: eventbrite

One of the advantages of being a bookworm is that I get to learn from other people's experiences and knowledge. And not just regular people or the ones I am constrained to meet in my day-to-day activities. I get to learn from the world's best. People who have both the technical/academic knowledge and the experiential knowledge. They have opened my eyes to things I never would have figured out on my own. They have taught me great business lessons that run against what I commonly see in my Naija environment.

And today, I am sharing with you the books I have most benefited from in my pursuit of entrepreneurial happyness. 

1. Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You


This is perhaps the book that has had the most effect on me. It is packed full of precious rare gems that every entrepreneur would want to have. 


2. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It


This book is a must read for every entrepreneur who wants to shorten his learning curve greatly. I wish I had read this book the very year I started my business. 

3. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling


People say I become completely different when I am delivering a training -- that I kinda just flip from the quiet introvertive person to a very lively engaging person. I always get star ratings for my excellent and very lively training classes. What most people don't know is that this book is what motivated me to always act like someone plugged to an 11,000 Volts electricity when it's training or demo time. 

4. How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It


Mark Cuban's business autobiography is a very inspiring book. It will motivate you on any down-day you have. He wrote it in such a way that whatever troubles you are facing in building your business will look like a no-big-deal and you would actually feel like you can succeed since Mark Cuban did it.

5. Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days



This is the book that shows you the 10 years that led to the overnight success you see in popular companies.


And those are the books I absolutely will recommend every entrepreneur to read. 

As an extra, I am currently reading The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue and Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine. If they end up being as great as the reviews say they are, then, I'll be sure to give you some helpful gist about the value in them.
When you hear the word "Entrepreneurship", I bet what first comes to your mind is the concept of "starting and growing a business". I don't think anyone expects it to be the story of personal growth. 

image: changeyourgamebealeader.com
For me, my four years entrepreneurial journey has been more of an incredible personal growth than growing a business.

At the start, disregarding the many smaller reasons, the main reason I resigned my telecoms job and started UrBizEdge was that I wanted to be my own boss and being an entrepreneur was one of my life goals. It is not two reasons but two sides of the same coin/reason.

So in April 2014, my entrepreneurial journey started. Though, I had been preparing intensely for it for over a year, even almost resigned in 2013 to start until a mentor advised me to first register the company, buy most of what I needed to run the business and save enough to get through the first year if no profit in the first year. God bless him! It was what I saved that got me through my first year.

I became the one man army: I did all the marketing, all the admin work, all the actual (operational/project) work promised the client, all the customer support, all the accounting/tax work and all the product development. I built up content for my online training classes. Wrote books to sell on Amazon and give as training reference materials. Built VBA programs for clients. Did the organizing and teaching for every training contract we won. I was basically working like a mad man or someone on drugs.

After a while, life became very stressful and the whole running my own business looked like I was just burying myself under heaps of non-ending work. I would work and not have time to go chasing for the payment. Then when I tried chasing for payment, I would end up with extra work and time wasting meetings. I knew I had to do something about the new life I have worked myself into -- one that is fast becoming a miserable life.

I was earning more money than I ever did working as an employee but I was not having a life at all. Just work, work, work. 

That was how my first two years were like.

In my third year, I started to put more structure into how I did things. I started learning more about the business side of running a business instead of reading just technical books and becoming technically better. I began finding out that if I left myself at the mercy/control of the clients, I would be back to what it was like in paid employment -- being overused by others without adequate compensation. So I started saying NO more often. Would turn down projects to go practice French in Porto Novo. Started doing daily french classes in Alliance Française. Snatched my life from others' grip. 

Then I started building a team. First tried using the remote approach. A flexible team that doesn't have to be holed together in an office. It didn't work. I just ended up with more work -- doing the actual work and teaching the team how to do them and having to communicate (the tedious part of it all) with the team. 

So I gave up on the remote team option.

Now I have a physical team. Full-time staff. And it's working fine. Way better than the remote team option. I still do a lot of work but gradually I am shifting more work to them. We are now having proper division of labour. And I am now able to do proper business structuring.

I have been reading up on operations management, building a business that can work without me and books that coach one on how to have a properly structured business. Also, I am now better at client engagement. No more letting the client dictate all the terms and starting work without clear direction and cost agreement. 

Why then did I say it's been more of a personal growth than business growth?

It is because in the sea of businesses that exist, mine is not any spectacular. I know people who earn more than our entire revenues as their salaries. And I don't mean expats or MDs of big companies, I mean regular guys with same years of work experience as me working in non management roles in big organizations. So nothing incredible yet about my company. Rather, most of the growth has been personal. 

These past four years have made me a radically changed man. More a man. I say and do whatever I want to do without worrying about pissing off anyone. No office politicking. I see a great idea, I implement it. Nobody to seek approval from. I work hard for everything I earn, so I am less inclined to live up to anyone's standard. 

I have seen videos I created for fun generate me over $5,000 passive income. I have seen a book I hurriedly put together last year Christmas break period generate me over $1,000 free real money. I have seen a trial project to vet developers for my stocks analysis app generate sales of up to N900,000/month and a 10% profit. In short, I have seen that results don't come from show-off or hype or sweet talk or big talk or the scintillating idea. Results come from doing and tweaking. Again and again.

My entrepreneurial journey has forced me to grow in ways nothing else would have triggered. I have found what I am obviously good at (technical stuff, teaching and reading), what I am surprisingly good at (wining projects, business communication and strategy), what I am horrible at (price negotiation, strongman tactics that deliver big bucks in business and human resource management), and what I completely avoid (partnerships, investor funding and having a board). 

It's been no easy journey but I am glad I embarked on it.
And the latest significant expense in my quest for fluency in French is Amazon Echo.


It is an amazing device. A smart speaker. Yes, speaker (that is smart). It connects to my Audible audiobook account, Spotify, Pandora, Kindle, TuneIn radio and many other services to deliver anything I want on my voice command. 

I bought it majorly for my French learning. I am always telling it, "Alexa, play RFI monde from TuneIn radio". That way I am always having a french immersion in my home office. Alexa is the voice activated AI in the device and many other Amazon smart devices.

Also, we have this self-development sessions in my company where we pick a very inspiring and productivity enhancing book for Alexa to read for us. All I just say is, "Alexa, read The Success Principles by Jack Canfield from Audible". And that's it. 

The only catch is that you must have it always connected to both power and internet. Luckily, I have an inverter/solar power system and Tizeti 24/7 unlimited internet. 

I have seen my french greatly improve. I now hear what the fast native speakers are saying on radio, like 1/3rd of the time. And last month, I went touring Republique du Bénin, Togo and Ghana (wanted to get to Cote d'Ivoire but no more free time). I found it a lot easier conversing with the french speaking Béninoise and Togolaise. I could converse well with everyone though occasionally I had trouble understanding some of what they said until they repeated slowly or used simpler french. 

I got the Amazon Echo for $84.99 (there was a sales that period on Amazon from the usual $99.99) but had to pay over $30 more to have it shipped via MallForAfrica.



.Interestingly, there is another similar sale going on now.



Setting up Echo is very easy and you can manage it via an online portal: https://alexa.amazon.com Which I use from anywhere (home or away) to control the device remotely.


I sometimes hook it to my FM Radio transmitter so people in my neighbourhood can join in the French love. Well, it's actually so I can listen overnight on the radio by my bedside. 

All these work to be fluent in French 🤔. 

We recently came up with this innovative solution for busy professionals. It is an industry first: DaaS. Data Analysis As A Service. A subscription based service. In fact, I'll share with you the very announcement letter/email I sent out to our customers/leads.

Make us your secret weapon!

Have you ever experienced the analyst's block (kinda like writer's block, when you just don't know how to make the report you want)?

Have you ever felt your report could be better?

Have you ever felt like you were not making the most of the data at your disposal? Like there is more you could be uncovering and tracking and reporting?

Have you ever felt you need experts you can call on any day and at any time but won't cost you an arm and leg?

Okay, maybe I lied about the not costing you an arm and leg. The good thing is that we have structured it flexibly so you can always get more value than the cost.

We have created an industry first: DaaS (Data Analysis as a Service).

Maybe you have tried training. Perhaps you have attended our in-depth high value training class. You have our video learning materials, our book and our practice files. We hope you remember everything we taught you. However, things are changing. You are changing. Your work is changing. The industry is changing. Excel is changing. Power BI is changing. Everything is changing. You already have a demanding job and can't be spending all day keeping abreast of what's new and applicable to you as regards making the most of your data and reports. We are offering to be your secret weapon.

So what's the DaaS structured as?

It is simple and straightforward as ABC.

A. You can reach us remotely (calls, Skype, emails, SMS etc) and at our office (70b Olorunlogbon street, after Banex hotel, Anthony Village, Lagos) for targeted help with your office work. Note: we won't come to your office or house.
B. There is fair usage policy (FUP). So you have to book not less than 24hrs prior and you are entitled to 24hrs/month (which is equivalent to 3 full days) consulting time (both remote and physical). Any length of time above that will attract some extra small charge/fee.
C. You have a dedicated resource (more like technical account manager). It is not Michael. He/she is your primary contact, handles all your work requests, communication, meetings and projects. There is a pool of internal resources (Michael inclusive) he/she will draw on, as appropriate, to satisfy all your relevant needs. We have full-time data analysts that are already handling consulting projects and training, so just as skilled as Michael and they are the ones designated as technical account managers.

So how much does this cost?

That's the best part: there are four flexi plans.
  1. N45,000/month. You can cancel anytime and restart anytime (no refunds, when you cancel it means you just don't pay when your subscription elapses).
  2. N90,000/quarter
  3. N150,000/half-year
  4. N200,000/year
And it's not negotiable. Why that funny pricing structure? That is the result of our own in-house data analytics on the pricing.

We already bill N100,000/day for one-on-one consulting (corporate clients rate is N250,000/day) and even when we are overpowered by the superior negotiating tactics of some of you, we only go as low as N70,000/day for individuals. And that is 8 hrs at a go which is never as effective as two separate 4 hrs, and way less than the 24 hrs spreadable over an entire month that we are offering you at N45,000/month and even less than N19,000/month when you take the year option.

We can only service 10 people at the same time. So if you need our service but delay too much, you will have to wait for an open slot if all 10 slots are taken. And just as we can't review the price downwards, so also will we not accept you doubling the fee so we can take you up.

What do you think?

If interested, get in touch as soon as you can and we will get in touch with you. Reach Michael on 0700ANALYTICS, 0808-938-2423, 0806-312-5227 and mike@urbizedge.com or Hannah on 0802-118-0874 and hannah@urbizedge.com or Emmanuel on 0908-482-5064 and emmanuel@urbizedge.com

Again, welcome to the world of DaaS!


To your Excel-ling!
Michael Olafusi
0700ANALYTICS
www.urbizedge.com

P.S. We have now fully launched our open class Financial Modelling and Financial Planning course, you can read up on the details and registration steps at https://www.urbizedge.com/FinancialModelling We've spent three years perfecting the curriculum via doing on-request financial modelling training for companies, and building models for both foreign and local clients.
Happy new week!

Surprised to hear from me again? Think I have abandoned blogging? Ah, gotcha!

A lot has been happening really fast in my life lately. Having to not write any blog post daily has freed up significant time for me to spend on reading hard-to-read books and rebuilding my business, UrBizEdge Limited

Have you seen that joke online about the guy who had to look for another job because the company he worked for relocated and didn't inform him? 

image: pinterest.com

Well, as absurd has that sounds, it happened to me/us. The office I use in Ikeja, it was via a special arrangement with a friend. He rented an entire floor with many office rooms than he often use. So one day, while we were discussing, he offered to lease me one of the office rooms. At first, (in 2014) when it was only me running everything I didn't need an office space. But then for tax issues, meetings and other occasional needs it made sense to have a paid office space. So after a week or so of thinking about it, I accepted and he was kind to let me pay a fair rental fee. There were months I didn't step into the office; but then I had it, just was too busy at client side and working from home (my preferred work space) that I seldom go there. Then when I had team members, they would use the place too occasionally. 

Last year, I moved to Gbagada and found it much closer to most places we go than from the Ikeja office. So I turned my living-room to office space. And we used it more than we used the Ikeja office. 

Well, early this month I decided to show our newest staff the office so at least he knows where it is and can use it when he needs to or have a client meeting. Like in the joke I mentioned, my friend had relocated and didn't inform me. When I called him, he said it was in July he got another place and just started the relocation. Well, he could have told me when he was even deciding it not until I found out myself and had to call him. He still wanted us to continue our office sharing arrangement but I don't want another unpleasant surprise. So I decided to get our own dedicated office space and asked him for the refund of the about one year paid for I have left (which I don't think he's wanting to refund).

Emotions aside, it is a positive thing. Though the new office space is very costly but the increased resources we have access to and the better location (in Anthony) makes it a very good one. We are now planning on adding one or two new staff. And you can visit us without me trying to discourage you because I hate the traffic I face in getting to the Ikeja office. This one is just 10 mins drive from my house (sometimes, less). The address is 70b Olorunlogbon street, after Banex hotel and Edichart Supermarket, Anthony Village, Lagos. You can also call me before coming, 0700ANALYTICS (na we get that special number😁)

Also, I have been reading a lot about proper business management. And my MBA courses are really worth it; they've been very eye-opening, helping me see things I never would have figured out myself. So now we are redesigning the company structure. Built an organogram from the company as it would be if we were not funding and resource constrained. 



The idea is to work with the right structure in mind and well explained to every team member. So even though just a couple of us are doing all the 17 roles we should have, gradually as we hire more staff we become more like we should be on the organogram. I got this great learning from Michael Gerber's E-myth Revisited. It is a great book every first time entrepreneur should read.

Also, I am making breakthrough with structuring our consulting business arm. After many hard-lessons from unpaid consulting or undercharging we have now come up with a strict process for onboarding new consulting projects. We would rather be chilling/sleeping than take up a consulting project without agreeing on the payment and scope terms.

Lastly, the enterprise solutions arm is taking off gradually. After launching a trial solution which was successful, grossing between N500,000 & N900,000 monthly at 8% operating profit margin (which isn't bad for the minimal work involved and the nature of the e-product), we are now almost done with the main one. The very one I have always had in mind and have been working on since 2012. Now the developers who built the trial one have been working on this big one since February 2018 and we are almost ready. The final launch link is http://nigeriamarketdata.com/ but you can help test it and give us feedback by accessing the pre-launch one at https://stoka-ui.azurewebsites.net/ 

Just to sneak this in: I should be getting married soon (like in under a year's time). I don't have much control over how private/lowkey or highkey it would be but now you know. So don't feel offended if I suddenly say it has happened and you didn't see any IV. Again, it's outside my control -- deliberately (as I have no experience with non-training event management) and non-deliberately (as I am not the only one involved in the planning).