{"id":392374,"date":"2018-01-18T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=392374"},"modified":"2020-01-31T11:06:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T11:06:37","slug":"effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/","title":{"rendered":"Effective Living Series: Andrew Ayiku\u2019s 11 avoidable business errors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The third day of the third week of Effective Living Series on the <strong>Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> featured a session on\u00a0avoidable business errors by Business Coach, Andrew Ayiku.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday&#8217;s discussion focused on the common business errors which are made in both the formal and informal sector.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ayiku said the greatest mistake most people commit is not having a business plan and gave five pointers for creating a business plan<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Business description: What do you plan to do? Why are you starting the venture? What are the opportunities or need that you exist to address? What are you doing to address these needs?<\/li>\n<li>Market analysis: who will be your customer? What do they want from you? Are your customers young, old, male, female, high income, low income, etc.? Are there behavioural characteristics that differentiate your customers (for instance price shopper versus convenience shoppers)?<\/li>\n<li>Competitor assessment: Who will you compete against? What do these competitors offer &#8211; Market share, product and service features, relationship with customers, length of time in business?<\/li>\n<li>Marketing plan: How do you plan to implement your idea &#8211; Resources, Logistics, Human, Legal issues?<\/li>\n<li>Financial plan: How much money will it cost and where will you get the necessary funds &#8211; forecast income and cash?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The second mistake, Mr. Ayiku said, was businesses being unclear about what differentiates their business from that of a competitor&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>He said every business that succeeds or is successful has been able to stand out from a business which provides the same services or product.<\/p>\n<p>[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;bJ0XRktNvM8HwWmNLiQsgRiwLfnKZqk5&#8243;]&#8221;Create a unique selling propositions. You not differentiating your market from the rest means you cannot sell to everyone, which is probably the biggest mistake most small businesses owners make. You narrow your client base and centre your business needs on a few loyal clients or a single industry,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>A third mistake made by businesses according to Andrew Ayiku is managing their finances badly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Don\u2019t mix your personal and business finances, have organised finances and make every money count. Determine your capital needs, manage your daily cash spending and control your cost better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to him ignoring the already existing competition is one mistake most businesses make.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The funniest thing is that there is an incredible amount of things you can learn as a starting business from your competitor,&#8221; he stated.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Google search your competitor, follow them on social media, walk around their space if you can, find out as much as you can and figure out how you can use that to build your business.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another point Andrew Ayiku noted is the inability of businesses to network and create a social capital.<\/p>\n<p>He believes that meeting other business leaders is essential to getting &#8220;inside knowledge&#8221; on the movers and shakers in your community and industry.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Networking can help you partner with enlightened competitors to deliver a wider range of services to time-crunched clients. In your moment of networking take the opportunity to find a mentor, someone who is well experienced,\u00a0invite them to lunch to learn what business tactics worked for them and which did not,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Refusing to outsource or partner with other is also a major error businesses should avoid, according to Mr Ayiku.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To grow and develop your business, do what you do best and let others do the rest for you by outsourcing your work. Partner with others who can perform jobs components you have not mastered and focus on your strongest strengths whiles delivering a better product.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another thing Mr Ayiku believes could lead to the downfall of businesses is picking the wrong team members. He however advised against deciding to &#8220;become a loner and build an empire.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Be wise and choose dedicated people who understand your company and would love to see it grow as if it were their own.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One crucial thing businesses need to avoid is not being able to change and adapt to the market needs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Try new marketing activities. You need a marketing plan, every business does,&#8221; Mr Ayiku said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ayiku also advised businesses to never underestimate the &#8220;power of word of mouth&#8221; in marketing their business.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The beauty of word of mouth costs nothing. This can only happen if you provide good products and customers are thrilled by it. If you encourage your clients to spread the word, you will get more new customers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A number of growing businesses fall short because of their pricing models, Mr Ayiku noted, often because of pressure from competitors.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Many businesses instantly slash prices when competitors provide the same product for less. However small business must learn to match prices of an operation with more purchasing power or lower overhead to avoid selling themselves short,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The final thing for businesses to understand according to Andrew Ayiku is &#8220;putting on smoke and mirrors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the ability to be able to understand that there is a thin line between projecting a highly professional image and putting on an act to attract new business.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You should always try and be honest and have integrity in other not to risk your reputation and that of your business. Always be honest about your business operations and your clients will reward you with multiple businesses.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By: Farida Yusif\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The third day of the third week of Effective Living Series on the Citi Breakfast Show featured a session on\u00a0avoidable business errors by Business Coach, Andrew Ayiku. Wednesday&#8217;s discussion focused on the common business errors which are made in both the formal and informal sector. Mr. Ayiku said the greatest mistake most people commit is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":180821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1730,11696],"tags":[16051,16211,2810,3],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Effective Living Series: Andrew Ayiku\u2019s 11 avoidable business errors - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Effective Living Series: Andrew Ayiku\u2019s 11 avoidable business errors - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The third day of the third week of Effective Living Series on the Citi Breakfast Show featured a session on\u00a0avoidable business errors by Business Coach, Andrew Ayiku. Wednesday&#8217;s discussion focused on the common business errors which are made in both the formal and informal sector. Mr. Ayiku said the greatest mistake most people commit is [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-18T14:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-31T11:06:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/\",\"name\":\"Effective Living Series: Andrew Ayiku\u2019s 11 avoidable business errors - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-18T14:00:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-31T11:06:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Effective Living Series: Andrew Ayiku\u2019s 11 avoidable business errors\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\",\"name\":\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"description\":\"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1\",\"name\":\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/kojo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Effective Living Series: Andrew Ayiku\u2019s 11 avoidable business errors - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Effective Living Series: Andrew Ayiku\u2019s 11 avoidable business errors - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","og_description":"The third day of the third week of Effective Living Series on the Citi Breakfast Show featured a session on\u00a0avoidable business errors by Business Coach, Andrew Ayiku. Wednesday&#8217;s discussion focused on the common business errors which are made in both the formal and informal sector. Mr. Ayiku said the greatest mistake most people commit is [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/","og_site_name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3","article_published_time":"2018-01-18T14:00:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-01-31T11:06:37+00:00","author":"Kojo Akoto Boateng","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@citi973","twitter_site":"@citi973","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kojo Akoto Boateng","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/","name":"Effective Living Series: Andrew Ayiku\u2019s 11 avoidable business errors - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-01-18T14:00:39+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-31T11:06:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/effective-living-series-andrew-ayikus-11-avoidable-business-errors\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Effective Living Series: Andrew Ayiku\u2019s 11 avoidable business errors"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/","name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","description":"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1","name":"Kojo Akoto Boateng","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kojo Akoto Boateng"},"url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/kojo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}