CAREER AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Increasing Purpose

One of the beautiful things I always looked forward to as a child was my future, my purpose and who I would become in the long run. It is without saying that we seem to have lot of fantasies when we are kids, I mean; I wanted to be an Engineer once when I saw my dad’s construction company’s plan and how they were shaping the way modern houses should look, it became exciting to me but after sometime I realized that my first love, being the study of Law resonated and aligned much better with my characteristics and many talents.

I can understand that you may have taken many steps to becoming who you are meant to be, what you have dreamt of and started laying solid measures towards achieving this goal, so whether you are business oriented or sticking to the many career opportunities that stare you in the face, my letter to you is to help you eventually take strides that lead you to fulfill purpose and develop your career or business.

However, the first thing I would love you to do is define who you are and what your goals are, start by identifying what you have always loved, is it career in a particular field or businesses that span across industries. The beautiful thing about life right now is that a whole lot of people that have regular 9-5 jobs also have some businesses that help stream in other sources of income; thereby helping the balance.

So, let’s start with career development which I have ultimately decided to skip the definition, because it’s somewhat cliché to state the meaning of something that is too obvious to tell, to understand, something I know you do comprehend.

However, what many people don’t know about career development or what many definitions do not base the narrative on is how important the work-life balance is to career development. This aspect of career development to me is one of the most important parts of building a career. Many people are working tirelessly and leaving out the area of also living their lives, their morale constantly down especially when it comes to anything concerning themselves, they are tired, bored and angry, something that reflects very much on how they see life and how their attitude affects those around them. Please don’t make this mistake.

Managing your life and career at the same time is what increasing purpose in career and business development stands for, it is not forgetting yourself and who you are in the process of advancing, it is being aware of who you are and what you want to achieve both at work and at home, some companies have been incorporating this necessary part into their policies and it is really awesome that they can take their staffs for excursions and holiday camp outs. The main issue here is having time that is enough for you and the ones you love and the things you love. Sadly, a lot of people can’t even find time to wash their hair or go to see a movie that just dropped.

In developing your career, you should take some key things into consideration and this is your value, interests, skills and personality trait which shape how you take on a particular job or why, when you know your value some certain type of jobs won’t appeal to you because rather than developing your career, it’s more like the down trodden. Jobs like the ones where they humiliate and make the working environment and culture uncomfortable, bad pay and a dozen persons work, with your skills you will be able to narrow down where you are needed and needle it straight to a more receptive working culture and ambiance that not only brings out the best in you but is interested in shaping your career and molding it.

Developing your career also hugely means advancement, promotion and satisfaction and except you are fast rising in a company and have been promoted from one stage to the other over the past few years, staying in one place for too long without any real territorial and superb fulfillment drops the crown.

So here are some fanciful and workable ways to increase in career development;

• Get a career coach (Could be someone you know who is advanced in the world of career guidance and has reached a certain level to be able to give premium advice

• Regularly update and fine-tune your Resume and Curriculum Vitae

• Become indispensable by actually providing value

• Attend seminars, webinars and networking events

• Volunteer for programs that increase your career choice and professional title

• Learn, learn and keep learning

• Travel and take time off

• Take care of your health and balance your work with your life

These few ways can go a long way to changing how you work and helping you advance and develop your career.

Moving now to business development, in the event that you are a business owner or are thinking of starting one, my main motive is to reconstruct the way we think of business and the way we run it. Helping small businesses has always been my passion and I have mostly wanted to address a whole lot of things about the way a business should be run.

Since, it would be impossible to go on and on and state it all, I would briefly talk about it just a little and hope you don’t get bored

Stay with me dear!

Business development is a very important part of any thriving or striving business but I can tell you here that it’s not always about making money, at least that’s what some business owners think it is, profits and not losses. Yea, making money is the reason for opening the business but have you ever stopped to wonder what the company would look like without values, strategies, and implementation mechanisms? Nothing, that’s the answer. You don’t make money from nothing.

In order to develop your business, marketable ideas should be sought both for short-term goals and long-term goals, leadership is also something you should learn because not everyone is a leader or good manager by default, so in the case that you wish to run your business yourself, it would be very ideal to get proper understanding of leading a business and managing it effectively. I can remember a client I once told to go do a short online course in business management and leadership, he was pissed but came back later to ask why.

To him, he had it all covered, he was a business man who was already making money and here was this young woman telling him to go study to become a better business manager and leader. I told him to focus more on leading.

You cannot develop your business if you do not have the right leadership qualities, if all the people who work for you are scared of having a conversation with you, then there is a problem. One of the reasons why understanding business management is so important is because of how it helps you value and strive for customer satisfaction. I can tell you boldly that the only reason your business can succeed is if it is giving out the value it so loudly says it does. The goal is to make your business succeed.

So, here are some tips to business development;

• Marketing and promotion

• Free samples, discounts, give-away

• Managing other attached vendors to your business like the manufacturing, distribution and delivery channel

• Packaging your business to suit and fit top world standard

• Observing due diligence in the case of expansion

• Monitoring the current state of your business – SWOT ANALYSIS – Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats.

• Making decisions that healthily affect your business.

YES!!!!

I am super glad we got to do this and I must commend you for reading till this stage, means a lot about how intrigued and excited you are about developing your career or business.

While you read through this letter, understand that you can be anything you want to be as long as you make it your standard and tell yourself how valuable and loved you are. Remember our affirmation last Friday? Keep reading it till it sticks and trust me, the sky shall be your starting point.

Dear friend,
Kindly like, comment and share and also listen to the podcast of this same newsletter, which you would find in your mail. Someone said they always had much more anticipation for my podcast. I truly hope you enjoy every single bit of it.

Thankful
Amanda Sibi.