Except you have investors already lined up and some have even wired you large sum of money or you are extremely rich, you will need to start small. Unfortunately, if you have worked for big companies that even own more than one car park just to ease parking for staff then you are definitely not going to know how to start small. And if your motivation is to put some big multinational out of business in one to three years then you are going to start small the wrong way.

image: alchemycombatclub.com

There is a right way to start small. And today, in three basic steps I will show that way.

1. Start small physically
There is one advice that I heard repeatedly from books, from people already running their own business and those who failed at running a business. That advice is that you should not start with a fancy big office space or an office space at all. I once read how Sahara Oil (Sahara Group) began. Tonye Cole said there was a time they were all using a room and they were nine. Nine people including the MD were all sharing the same office/room. I doubt if you wanted to start an oil company you would rent a room. Even filing stations use more than a room. 

Think about Facebook, for a fairly long time it was run from Mark's dormitory. Then Apple, the world's biggest company, it was run from a garage for its first years. I'm sure if there is a good documentation of how the big Nigerian companies started, their story will be more humble.

One of the biggest mistake you can make when starting small is to care too much about office impression. It's a lot of work to get the attention of your market and the first ones you will get will probably not even come to see your office. Don't laden yourself with unnecessary expenses. In starting small, you also have to start physically small.

2. Pick a small market
50% of 1000 is 500. 0% of 10 million is zero. Don't make the mistake of wanting to compete with everyone you feel you can beat. Don't enter every market you can enter. You don't have the resources of Aliko Dangote nor do you have a good margin of error. The same way you start your career from the bottom and grow into more responsibility giving roles, so also you should start from a small market and grow into other markets with time. 

The obvious reasons are it takes a lot of marketing and time to get the attention of a big market. And if you are starting small, you don't have that resources. It is also easy for the competition to bring you down when they are far richer than you. So start with a very small market.

In my case, I have narrowed my market to Lagos, Microsoft Excel and Data Analysis. Every week I get job invites from foreign clients, wanting me to apply for their consulting projects. Last year those mails were my best mails. Like free clients. Now I don't read through them anymore. I want to focus on Lagos. Luckily, Lagos is the size of Ghana and I can crisscross it much more easily. I am already seeing results of focusing on just Lagos.

3. Be the best
The greatest edge a small business has is that it can easily upgrade its technology and improve its products/services. To upgrade my Excel training to the soon to be released Office 16, I am the only one who needs to learn it. I can beat (and already beat) my competition by being at the bleeding edge of Microsoft Excel and VBA programming. Regularly, Microsoft organizes online meetings where the Office development team show us (MVPs) what they are working on and things other regular users will never know. And I bring those knowledge to bear in my products and services.

When you are starting small, you need to be the best in the small niche you have chosen for yourself.


And those are the three basic steps to starting small the right way.

Yesterday was a very good day for me. I finally got around finishing a client's software that has been getting me daily calls and mails. The generator was very cooperative, no unpleasant surprise when I needed it most. And I got an award mail. I have been screened and picked as one of the top 2 percent Nigerian Executives in IT and Software. 

It was by a business research and publication company run, surprisingly, by an American who is also an Harvard MBA graduate. He had been involved in starting a few foreign investor backed businesses in Nigeria and noticed the dearth of dependable market research data in Nigeria. So he started The Top Executives business publication that researches and lists the top Nigerian Executives and Companies in over 24 industries. And publishes a yearly book that is like the Who's Who in the business world in Nigeria by industry.

And luckily for me, I am in this year's publication. So when foreign companies are reading through them to look for business partners or IT vendors in Nigeria, my chances of being discovered are now higher.

My listing is in the K - Z book. You can get it on Amazon via: http://www.amazon.com/Nigerian-Top-Executives-Software-Industry/dp/1507533454 

Below is the congratulatory mail I got:

Dear Michael,

By analyzing the Nigerian IT and software industry, then ranking executives in several categories which reflect the exemplary strength of your business network and the size of your company, we are pleased to inform you that we have ranked you in the top 2% of overall Nigerian executives.

That is why we have included you in our premier publication of the Nigerian Top Executives in the IT & Software Industry 2015 which is now available world-wide on Amazon (here: http://www.amazon.com/Nigerian-Top-Executives-Software-Industry/dp/1507533454). In this publication, you will find yourself among your esteemed peers with several key points highlighting the skills, perseverance and aspirations of the selected business leaders. Copies are already being reserved by libraries, professional groups, universities, researchers and other executives.

All nominations, including your selection and ranking are being presented to our Board, which includes top industry executives who may have the most impact upon the international business network. To highlight your success, and for your added credibility, reflecting your hard work, perseverance, and tremendous accomplishment and continued future success, our board is presenting you with the Top Executives in the IT and software industry 2015, “Award of Excellence 2015”.  A free copy of your personalized Excellence Award which can be printed in your office on High quality stock, suitable for framing, is available on this private link: (removed as it is private)

I along with our board want to personally congratulate you on the fine example you are setting for your peers and your country. Please let me offer you my best personal wishes for all of your future endeavors.

Respectfully,

Elvis Krivokuca, MBA
Editor-in-Chief

For about 2 years now I have been acquiring books on data analysis. And today I will be sharing with you the list of books I have on Data analysis: they span financial analysis, decision analysis and predictive analysis.

Mining the Social Web: Data Mining Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, GitHub, and More by Matthew A. Russell

Predictive Analytics: Microsoft Excel by Conrad Carlberg

Applied Predictive Modeling by Max Kuhn, Kjell Johnson

Data Science for Business: What you need to know about data mining and data-analytic thinking by Foster Provost, Tom Fawcett

Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information into Insight by John W. Foreman

Predictive Analytics For Dummies by Anasse Bari, Mohamed Chaouchi, Tommy Jung

Decision Analytics: Microsoft Excel by Conrad Carlberg

image: pearsonhighered.com

Statistical Analysis: Microsoft Excel 2010 by Conrad Carlberg

image: datacommunitydc.org

R for Everyone: Advanced Analytics and Graphics (Addison-Wesley Data & Analytics Series) by Jared P. Lander

The Valuation of Financial Companies: Tools and Techniques to Measure the Value of Banks, Insurance Companies and Other Financial Institutions (The Wiley Finance Series) by Mario Massari, Gianfranco Gianfrate, Laura Zanetti

image: simonbenninga.com

Financial Modeling by Simon Benninga

Security Analysis: The Classic 1940 Edition: The Classic 1940 Edition by Benjamin Graham, David Dodd


I am not done reading them all but they are the books that have helped shaped my perspective on data analysis and given me some of the hard skills I have.

All the images are from Amazon.com except otherwise stated.

There is a joy in creating. In doing something that wouldn't have been done had you not thought of doing it.

image: entrepreneur.com

Each blog post I write gives me a joy that comes from knowing that it never would have been written if I had not written it and even if someone else has written something similar, mine would always have my unique voice. It is my little creation.

Everyday, I work from morning till past midnight with just short breaks to brush, shower, eat and take a short nap. But I always sleep happy and tired, never stressed and sad. Reason? I am doing tasks that engage my creativity and filling me with that special joy that comes from creating. Every Excel program I write is like a work of art. Every Excel training I take is like art class. Every Excel job I do require creative thinking. So everyday I experience the joy of creating.

Those who live a fulfilled life are those who built up that life slowly. They were in everything they did for the long run. No one ever got into the book of greatness by winning a lottery or any short term action. Every major thing in life takes time to form. We are better off living our lives like we are in a marathon and everyday is either a practice day or race day. One peculiar thing about a marathon is that no one can successfully force you to do one. No one can force you to run a 42 Km race that takes professionals up to 5 hours to finish. Your friends can force you to join them in a sprint. You can wake up one morning and decide to do a 400m dash. But you can't just wake up one day and decide to do a marathon without already building up to it. Also you can't put in the humongous effort required to be fit for a marathon if you are not enjoying the process. And one sure way of enjoying what you do is by doing what you enjoy. By doing something that brings out the creativity in you, something that gives you the joy that come from creating.

So the joy from creating makes hard and resource-intensive long-term pursuits enjoyable. Vince Lombardi puts it this way: "I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious." He meant when you've put in your all at a cause you enjoy, engaging your creativity and followed it to the end.

The joy in creating is what makes each day thoroughly enjoyable. Doing something that wouldn't be done if you had not done it. And maybe doing something that scares you each day (and that was what writing daily about my life once was). Going after an exhausting hard good cause. Doing the things you thoroughly enjoy. Daily loving the creative person you are growing into.

There is a joy in creating and you should try to find it daily.

I still have a message seating in my LinkedIn inbox from a contact who wants to know what data analysis really is. Every month I meet or get a call or receive an email from someone trying to know more about the relevance and true meaning of data analysis. So I thought it was time I gave a detailed answer everyone can access.

image: xlstat.com

Data analysis is the process of transforming raw data into useful information using standard analytical methods. 

An example we can all relate to at this current time in Nigeria is the voters registration. After INEC did the extensive voters registration in 2011, it had the raw data of the millions of people who registered. Now that's a lot of data. You don't expect that INEC would put all that records on Microsoft Word, get millions of A4 paper and print everything out. No. INEC had to get a data analyst (or a data analysis firm) who would take that huge raw data and transform it into much more useful information that will answer the following questions:

1. How many people registered in each state, each local government and each registration ward?
2. How many of all those who registered are male and how many are female?
3. At what rate of printing the permanent voters registration card will we be able to get everything ready before the 2015 elections?
4. What percentage of the people 18 years and above in each state registered (modelling it with population census data)?
5. How successful is the voters registration compared to previous voters registrations?
6. Can we see a visual representation of the states from the ones with the highest voting influence/power to the lowest voting power?
7. If people are expected to vote where they registered, how should we deploy our resources such that no place has too little or too much resources? And what margin of error should we prepare for?
8. If everyone who registered votes, how can we have the results computed and verified within the shortest possible time?
9. Using a modelling system, how can we optimize the registration process we used in 2011 to get a better process for the next registration exercise.
10. What is the estimated number of people who would turn 18 after the 2011 registration exercise and before the 2015 election?
11. What is the slowest rate of distribution of the voters card that will still let us meet the election deadline? 
12. How much did it cost us on average to register one person, print his voter's card and get it to him?
13. Can I have a dashboard with all these information? And can I view it on my iPad?

Those are the questions the INEC head should want to have answers to and only a data analyst can get him those answers. So now you have an idea of what data analysis is. It takes something as lengthy and boring as registration data of millions of people and turn it into a beautiful questions answering priestess.

One thing that confuses people is they think about data analysis in terms of a software. They ask me: so what data analysis software do you use? Isn't SPSS better than Excel? Can you use R? 

Data analysis is a science and not a software. Once you know what you want to do, then use whatever tool you can use (even manual on the paper with pencil calculations). Document your methodology. Give the error specifications. And build a sound analysis with a logical conclusion. Also show them you are not just some number churning robot, give them a business impacting recommendation. And don't forget to hand-over a beautiful dashboard.

Now you know what data analysis really is.

The brain is in a lot of ways like the computer. It has a CPU, an operating system and a RAM. And we all have different configurations. I have met people who have very high CPU, high-end computing capacity. They process complex information fast and easily. They are not easily overwhelmed by the tasks and decisions they encounter everyday.

We also have different operating systems. It's usually a mix of what we learned growing up (the culture we were immersed in), what we put in conscious effort to learn (education) and our personal philosophies. It is the reason you prefer beef to duck meat: you grew up eating beef. Our operating system is what makes us great at some job roles or tasks and not great at some other tasks. It is what makes the difference between a nerd and a socialite. 

Then, we've all got different (short term) memory capacity. 

Today, I will be talking about the interesting part of this all. Something I have paid attention to for 8 years now and have experimented with in my life. And it is that you can upgrade your CPU, update your OS and increase your RAM.  And substantially.

image: blog.tutorhub.com

A quick illustration of the CPU upgrade I most recently underwent is by quitting my job. Maybe it's going to be an extreme example but it brings out the idea I want share neatly. Here's a list of the comparison of my CPU features before I quit my job and now:

1. I couldn't pick more than a few phone calls a day without having a headache. Now I can pick and make lots of phone call a day without getting too stressed out. My CPU now handles more phone conversations than before.
2. I couldn't manage doing too many tasks at once. I would rather have one task, spend all the time it would take to finish it before moving to another task. Now, I am constantly doing many jobs at once. Today, I will be doing two jobs. Oscillating between them. My CPU can now multi-task better.
3. It used to take just a few requests to overwhelm me and I would be sick when my salary is delayed by one week. Now, I am constantly inundated with requests and my payment delayed by over a month. My CPU is now upgraded to handle such high resource situations without frying out.
4. I program faster and more efficiently. I write faster and better. I think faster and wider. My CPU is obviously upgraded.

And as for my OS. By reading and joining the right community of people, I have been able to update my OS to a less buggy and more productive one. I now do more with the same resources and have a better understanding of a lot of things -- especially business and personal fulfillment.

Finally, for my RAM. I don't think it has increased since 2012 when I become good at using my left hand.

The point I want you to walk into this new week with is that nothing in your life has to stay the same, not even brain configuration. You can improve any aspect of your life that you want to. You can change your thinking (OS), you can grow your base competence and life skills (CPU) and you can have a better short-term memory. You can be better. And faster. 

In every generation there is what is hippy, what is trending, what is getting all the attention and making others look not smart enough. And it varies also by profession and social circle. When Warren Buffet was starting his career, it was the Wall Street. All the money in the investment world seemed to be only there and everyone trying to hit it somewhere else was swimming against the tide and working harder for every dollar they earned. And quoting him --
"If a graduating MBA were to ask me, ‘How do I get rich in a hurry?’ I would not respond with quotations from Ben Franklin or Horatio Alger, but would, instead, hold my nose with one hand and point with the other toward Wall Street."

In Nigeria now and the business field and youth social circle, it is applying for startup competitions and seeking external (angel or venture) funding. And unfortunately for those of us without that mindset, it works and looks great. The same guy you saw at a tech event building something only a tech investor will buy, something most people won't even use let alone pay for, then six months later you hear he has gotten a $50,000 funding. He got into some startup competition and won. He sure deserves it, the only issue is he makes the rest of us look very not smart and working too hard for whatever we get.

image: roxics.com

I call these trends noise. They make you lose sight of the signal. They are loud, dominating and can be very rewarding. Like coming up with a business idea just for YouWIN and not because you really wanted to do the business or even plan to do it after winning. They make the ones sweating in the field look dumb and on a long course.

So as you can see, noise is not bad except for the unlucky ones. When you ride it you can become rich with less stress. The only trouble with noise is that it doesn't stay forever. That's why no one in Wall Street is as rich as Warren Buffett. They have to keep spotting and trying to ride each new noise. Noise can't sustain you went you hit a hard time. Noise can't keep you in the game when all the hype is gone. Only following the signal have long lasting effects. Having a fundamentally sound reason and passion for your business can keep you going when the music stops or changes. You have to rise above the noise.

They are a super lucky few who have the noise amplify their signal. They have hit the jackpot of having a genuine passion and sound reason for a business that is winning competitions and bringing in free money (money not realised from sales, extraordinary income). But over the long term there wouldn't be much difference between the business that got free money and the one that didn't as long as they were both well managed. If you rise above the noise and latch onto the signal, you will always come out on top. The cream always rise to the top.

Guess what? I now make phone calls for N4.40k per minute and free international calls. And how? I kept searching online and trying all the alternatives to Skype I found. Then yesterday I found www.nairacalls.com and I have stopped searching. The call quality is good and the call rate is N4.40k per minute. Now, I'll be canceling my Skype subscription which charges between N6.60 and N8.20k per minute. 

Amazingly, I have found calling via a VoIP service like Skype and the numerous others I tried very convenient. If I see a phone number online, instead of typing out the digits on my phone I just copy and paste in the VoIP tool and make a call. It allows me to easily call people by copying the number in their email signature or call a company by copying the number on their website. And I don't have to worry about placing a phone against my ear or looking for headset.

image: digitalbloggers.com

Today, I will be sharing with you on how you can make the most of the digital world and become a first class citizen of the digital world. And what I mean by being a first class citizen of the digital world is that, just like flying first class on an airline, you get the maximum benefits available. You are able to access and benefit from all the goodness of the digital world. 

Next question you might have is: What do I mean by digital world? The digital world is simply the internet plus the services that run on the internet plus the devices that get you access to those services and the e-Alternatives to things you already do.

Taking me as an example, I have managed to squeeze myself into the first class section of the digital world. Now:

1. I get most of my business clients via digital (online) marketing.
2. I make very cheap local phone calls and free international calls by using an internet phone application.
3. I have stopped buying physical books. Over 80% of my books are eBooks. They are cheaper, easier to read (day or night), always with me and weightless.
4. My friends and family abroad can call me for free via a US line I bought from Skype. I have used it to call and receive phone calls from businesses in US that I'm trying to be a West African partner to.
5. I make my entire living on the PC, a digital device. On Microsoft Excel to be specific.
6. I manage one of my many twitter accounts with a software that is scheduling my tweets, promoting my blog and growing my twitter followers (I now have a total of 14,475 followers that is growing at the rate of over 100 followers per day).
7. I have a blog that is both my daily dairy and a source of great friends.
8. I read one of the best newspaper in the world for the business-minded -- The Economist. My annual subscription to it is for the electronic copy. It comes as both eText and audio. I often listen to the audio copy. It's a little cheaper than the print version but much more convenient to read/listen to.
9. I am not bothered by DSTV's subscription price increase. I watch my movies on Netflix and access those series everyone is talking about. I also don't have to pay monthly or be worried that I have wasted money when I have no time throughout the month to sit in front of a movie.
10. I get the newest top songs and the albums I love without buying them. I use Spotify. All those amazing Hillsong music I have always loved listening to are now on my phone.
11. I follow the trend in my field and have the same edge as those living in US with regards to my work competence because I am a first class citizen of the digital world. As long as a thing is available online, it is available to me. And increasingly, every resource I need: books, webinars, conference, training and latest tool of the trade are all available online.

So how do you become a first class citizen of the digital world, like me?

It's easy. You have to let go of all your limiting beliefs about the online world, about eBooks, about internet calls, about online training and about paying for things online. You have to try out everything that can help you be a better person or professional and is available online. You have to search for e-alternatives to things you use or do -- like books, music and movies. You have to join the community of upward digital socially mobile people. Join communities of people in your field, people with your interests and people already where you hope to be. Increase your status by association.

To be a first class citizen of the digital world you have to squeeze yourself in.

To compensate for my extreme introversion, God has made it easy for me do and enjoy some tasks a lot of people find not so enjoyable. And in today's post I will be sharing with you those tasks that I find amazingly easy to do.

image: tamuitoeasy.blogspot.com

1. Writing Computer Program

I forced myself to go sleep at 3:30am so that I will be able to wake up early to do this blog post. And guess what I was doing till 3:30am? I was writing a program. A Microsoft Excel program.

I enjoy writing computer programs. Amazingly, they don't give me headaches. They don't frustrate me. And they make time fly.

2. Reading

If I don't want to sleep, and maybe for two days straight, all I need to do is to open my favourite books and read. I find reading a very enjoyable activity. And luckily, unlike most other people who also enjoy reading, I also enjoy reading academic and technical books not just novels.

3. Fixing Computer Issues

I can't count the days I have skipped lunch because I was fixing an issue with a computer, either mine or someone else's. Currently and for the past two weeks, I have been trying to setup a Lenovo ThinkServer RD640 and configure a Cisco 2911 router. The router is not working fine with the Swift modem that provides the internet. And it seems I'm the only one trying to wire a Cisco rack router with a cheap Huawei internet modem. No help online. As for the RD640 server, I have downloaded CentOS 7 and Ubuntu Server 14. The annoying Lenovo guys didn't include the RAID configuration software and didn't pre-install the drivers so all the OSs I tried installing on it are not detecting the SAS hard drives. I have downloaded the configuration software and unsuccessfully spent a whole day trying to make a bootable USB from it. Now I will be getting a DVD to burn the software on.

I guess you can already feel the positive vibe fixing computer issues have on me.

4. Writing

I now find writing an amazingly easy task. For about three days in the last two weeks I wrote from daybreak to midnight with just short breaks to put my thoughts together and find something to eat. I find it easy to put my thoughts into written words, even much better than speaking them. 

Every time I write, I feel better afterwards. It's the main reason I am able to keep writing a blog post a day. It helps me relieve stress and feel energised for the day.

5. Bringing Data to Life

I love working with data: boring data, large data, fast changing data and programmable data. I can help you bring out the insights in your data and give the data a breath of life. I always seem to know what to do and what can come out of any particular data.

Since Paypal allowed us access to its service I have been using eBay a lot. I even tried buying my iPhone on eBay. I had won the bid and was just about to make payment when I got banned from eBay. Then I called the customer care and they make it vaguely clear that it was because I was in Nigeria and that I shouldn't open another eBay account.

Well, I opened another eBay account. I couldn't resist the good deals I saw there. I figured out that the worst that would happen is that I will get banned again, hopefully after making one or two purchases. Then I'll open another. And another. Luckily, I didn't get banned again. I'm still using the second account I opened. Even for a side business of selling iTunes gift card, Spotify subscription card and Skype Card. I have already made a few coins selling iTunes gift card and Spotify subscription card. I buy them on eBay and resell with guaranty to buyers in Nigeria. And beyond that I have bought all sorts from a Forex robot to a Netflix Shared account access.

Ebay shows the power of a consumer to consumer market. People sell what they don't need to people who need them. Especially the phones, iPad, laptops, servers and technology gadgets. Then some have figured out a way to buy things cheap and resell cheap on eBay. And I have figured out creative ways of cutting my cost of paying for any product or service. When I want to buy a software I check its price on eBay, there could be someone with an extra/unwanted copy willing to sell it for much less than the list price. When I want to see how much to put aside for the super-powerful laptop I need to get someday, I check on eBay. When I want to renew my Spotify premium I check on eBay; there is always someone selling the Spotify cards for less than its list price. And if I decide to buy Apple Watch after its release date of 24th April 2015, it would be on eBay (or Amazon Marketplace).

The precautions I take in ensuring that I don't become a fraud victim (or buy a bad market) is I buy only from people with lots of positive reviews and high ranking. I also get in touch with them if it's for a high value purchase, to establish a personal connection that can help me further decide if to trust the seller or not.

The funny part is I have never bought anything from any Nigerian online store: Jumia, Konga, Dealdey, Gloo, Kaymu and the rest. But I have been making online purchases from foreign stores since 2009. It began with my buying books from Amazon using a dollar funded card I got from GTBank. I just find it more convenient and cheaper to buy things from foreign online stores. And now eBay is top on my shopping site list.