At the last FATE Foundation Annual General Assembly event, the guest speaker, Fola Adeola shared these 4 Successful Entrepreneur tips with attendees;

1. Build and maintain relationships

Building and maintaining relationships is a sure way of becoming a Successful Entrepreneur and one tool you can use effectively is the personalized bulk SMS

SMS is a cheap and effective way of

• Staying in touch with your customers and suppliers
• Asking them for a re-order
• Getting feedback about your products or services
• Asking for referrals
• Finding out how your clients and staff are doing on a weekend etc.
• It is limitless what you can do with it, I use it as an effective soul winning and follow-up tool for my Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International chapter.

What makes this service different is that it makes your SMS personal by calling the names of your recipients each time you send them SMS whether they are 10,000 or 10.

Some quotes of that stress the importance of calling people’s name;

Words have meaning and names have power. – Author Unknown

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. – John F. Kennedy

The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers. – Marshall McLuhan

Always call people by their names!

This service costs only N1,000 monthly and it’ll help you build brand ambassadors. Read my article titled 3 ways to make Money with Personalized Bulk SMS Service

2. Master leadership

Fola says one of his secrets of how he became a Successful Entrepreneur is this, in the last 30 years he has spent at least 10 days in class, improving and honing his leadership skills in the areas he has chosen to play.

3. Create joint ventures

Another successful entrepreneur tip is to look out for effective partnerships i.e. he says nothing stops FATE Foundation Alumni members from coming together, putting up structures and sharing resources for the mutual benefit of all. A good example is silicon valley.

4. Develop your people (staff)

According to him a number of entrepreneurs care less about their people. They don’t bother to find out how they or their families are doing.

He said, you should care for your people, ask them questions, find out about their families and if you ask me, I’ll say send them personalized SMS on a monthly basis thanking them for all they are doing to grow your business – you’ll be shocked!

If you want to become a successful entrepreneur then you must care for your people.

About Fola Adeola

Born in January 1954, Fola is married to Hajara, and has four children.

Fola obtained a Diploma in Accounting from Yaba College of Technology in1975 and became a Chartered Accountant in 1980 following his training with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells and D.O. Dafinone & Company (Chartered Accountants). He has received professional development training at notable institutions worldwide including, Harvard Business School, INSEAD. And the International Institute for Management Development.

Fola Adeola and Late Tayo Aderinokun founded Guaranty Trust Bank Plc in 1990 and today it has grown to become one of Nigerian’s biggest banks. He is the Chairman of the following organisations amongst many;

1. FATE Foundation – a not for profit organisation
2. Main 1 cable
3. Eterna Oil & Gas
4. ARM Investments

Conclusion on successful entrepreneur tips

If you are looking forward to starting a business in the nearest future then I suggest that you attend a FATE Foundation entrepreneurial program, this will help you avoid some of the costly mistakes small businesses owners make – I have made lots of mistakes but with FATE you can avoid some.

What do you think about Fola Adeola’s tips? Please leave a comment below….. Click here to view some photos of the event on Facebook!

I pray you become a highly successful entrepreneur so that you can touch lives, create jobs and make an impact, in Jesus name, Amen!