MY SAGE STORY by Hussaina Abdullahi

STORY SO FAR

Now looking back, SAGE has been a part of most of my life without me even realizing it. Am sure you are all wondering how? The story goes like this. When I was still in Primary school, my elder brother was in Model secondary school Maitama,Abuja and a SAGE member at that time. He always came home and told us about their projects, activities, competitions, presentations. He was always practicing his presentation scripts so much that everyone at home got to know the script at heart. It may sound like I am exaggerating but this really happened. I still remember their project was on ‘Energy saving bulbs’ sponsored by Osram. That was where my SAGE story started, that was why I got interested in joining SAGE the moment I got into Secondary school.

I am Hussaina Abdullahi, A student of Sungkyunkwan University, Korea. Graduated as a SAGE student from Model secondary school Maitama and this is my story so far. To keep this short I will go straight to the point about my journey being a SAGE student.

To be sincere it wasn’t so eventful, our projects were not as awesome as it used to be, and we never won anything while I was in SAGE. By then we got sad and frustrated about this, but you later realize that’s not the point. SAGE is more than winning awards and moving to the next stage, SAGE is about you, your confidence, self esteem and the ability to speak gracefully in front of a crowd, SAGE builds you from you just being like everyone else, to you who thinks ahead and know how to handle risks beyond you.

Visit to the Central Bank of Nigeria Money Museum- 2013 Global Money Week activity organised by SAGE Nigeria 

I applied my experiences from SAGE to other aspects of my life, whereby I ended up getting a Scholarship to study in South Korea as an undergraduate student. This is just one of the many things to say about my SAGE experience. There is a lot more, I can keep going on and on.

 I am glad to have been a member of SAGE. Although back then I didn’t really appreciate it, but as time goes by you get to realize, you get to see and know things that were not so obvious to you before. In time I got to acknowledge SAGE was part of what made who I am today in some ways, to conclude I have to thank the Almighty for seeing me through my journey. It has been an amazing experience, and this is my story so far.

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET : SOCIAL MEDIA - A KEY SAGE GLOBAL CRITERIA

2016 SAGE World Cup award winning  Socially Responsible Business project  -The Real Farmers online market annual report .


In SAGE, We believe media is an important component in business therefore it is very important to learn how to market and advertise like an entrepreneur.

1. Know how to capture the attention of your target customers
An advertisement informs. But a good and effective advertisement moves people to buy. How do you make advertisements like that? First, you need to know the interest of your customers. If you know the very thing/s that will catch the attention of your customers, then you have what you need (ex. A seller of a vitamin supplement product knows that many of its target customers are concerned with beauty. As such, the seller focuses on advertising the benefits its products to beautification).

2. Decide on the most effective advertisement channels

What are advertisement channels? These are your means of delivering your sales pitch to your target customers. In an online business setting, advertisement channels commonly include submission sites (article submission, video submission, audio submission, etc.), social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) emailing, popups, sponsoring, and such. How do you decide which channels to use? It all depends on what channels your target customers are mostly exposed to. For example, if you target customers are internet-savvy people who are most likely exposed to Facebook all the time, using Facebook as one of your advertisement channels would be a good idea. Take note that it is not necessary to utilize all channels. You only need to use to utilize those that are necessary.

3. Use Facebook to reach customers

Facebook really maximized its potential for providing support to online merchants. Facebook offers unique and comprehensive advertisement tools that allow you to target specific niches (age groups, interest groups, gender groups, etc.)

4. Use Twitter to reach customers

Twitter is like a real-time newsfeed site that spurts out new information by the minute. This makes a great way to communicate with your customers and target customers. If your target customers are likely to be Twitter users (people living in the city, people who like technology, etc.), then using Twitter would be a good way to reach your customers.

6. Apply SEO techniques to boost your webpage's visibility

SAGE Student of Zamani College Kaduna displays business project at the 2010 SAGE National Exhibition and Awards ceremony in held in Enugu 

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a technique used by online merchants to increase traffic (visits and views) into their website. It makes a website ‘more visible’ by making the website have a better chance of appearing on the top search results of search engines such as Google and Yahoo. There are many SEO techniques and it is advisable to use all of them. But this is complicated stuff so it is better to hire someone to do this for you.

HOW TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR.

1. Absorb a portion of your earnings as additional capital

The net income (earnings minus all the expenses and costs including employee salary, taxes, rent, etc.) arising from your business is definitely the fruits of your labor. This is the part of the income that will become yours - an amount that you can withdraw or personal use. However, there are times when an entrepreneur refuses to make a withdrawal (or refuses to make a full withdrawal). This is because they return the net income to the business as ‘additional investment’. This is how businesses grow.

 2.Make a proposal to financial firms

Having your business absorb a portion of your net income is one way to grow your business. But there is another method - borrow additional investment from lending firms. This is a good choice to make if you need a big amount of money. And if your business is corporation in structure (as registered legally), this is a safer choice.

3. Think of additional products/services you can offer

Another way to grow your business is to offer more services/products than you already do. If you are selling computers for example, you can expand your business by offering other electronic products as well (ex. Digital cameras, MP3 players, etc.). Ideally, your new products should still be somewhat related in nature to your current products. If you want to offer a completely new set of products (ex. You are selling computers and you want to start selling beauty products), it is advisable that you open a separate online store for the new products.

4. Increase your scope of suppliers

As much as you want to be loyal to your supplier/s, it is not how business really goes (unless you signed an exclusivity contract with your supplier). You should still keep your eyes open for the possibility of acquiring new suppliers. Always keep searching. Why? Because you might find suppliers that offer lower prices than your current suppliers. Acquiring merchandise at a lower price means higher income for you. Of course, there are other things to consider such as quality. Ask questions like “though this supplier is cheaper, is his products the best quality?

5. Increase your scope of target customers

Simply put, you should offer products/services that also cater to other demographics. If you are currently offering products for women for example, maybe you should also start offering products for men as well. Also, if you are currently selling to the Nigerian market only, maybe you can think of ways on how to extend your services globally. This is a good way to expand your business if you started with a rather limited scope of target customers. Of course, expansion is going to cost more money. Make sure that you calculated for the costs before making your move. Also, expanding your business is like opening a new business. This means that you will need to do another Feasibility Study before going ahead with the plan. With a Feasibility Study, your plans of expansion will surely take a better path.

6. Increase your scope of advertisement
Doing advertisement is costly. This is why newly opened businesses often limit the scope of their advertisement in order to save on costs (ex. Business chose to advertise via the net only and refused to advertise via Television shows because of the costs). But once your business has become more financially stable, you might want to start increasing your scope of advertisement in order to invite more customers. And if you have so far used only free advertisement tools, maybe you can start using paid advertisement tools (note: Facebook for example offers free and paid advertisement tools. Of course, the paid service is more effective and covers a wider scope.).

APPLY NOW AT SAGE NIGERIA

Job : SAGE State Coordinator 

Locations:   

Abia , Adamawa,  Anambra, Akwa Ibom,  Bauchi,  Bayelsa, Benue,Borno, Cross River, Delta,  Ebonyi,  Edo,Gombe,  Imo,Jigawa, Kano, Kastina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa,  Niger, Ogun,Osun,Oyo Plateau.Rivers,Yobe,Zamfara.


Job brief 

SAGE is Students for the Advancement for Global Entrepreneurship  a global netowrk focused on creating the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders whose innovations and social enterprise address the major unmet needs of our global community. SAGE is committed  to creating the missing link in the educational  sector through hands- on entrepreneurship education ,financial literacy and community service engagement.

We are looking for a competent State Coordinator to Undertake a variety of administrative and  program management tasks. You will help in planning and organising programs and activities as well as carry out important operational duties.

To be an excellent state coordinator, you must be organised and detail-orientated, comfortable working with diverse teams .If you have further skills in program development and human resources support ,we'd like to meet you.

The goal will be to facilitate and manage SAGE programs in states according to the organization's standards.

JOB DESCRIPTION

To identify and appoint (with approval from SAGE Home Office in Abuja) Local Government SAGE coordinators and to communicate regularly, by phone, email, with all local government SAGE Coordinators to ensuring the coordination and success of each local program.

To conduct state SAGE Competition/Awards, identifying two teams from each of the categories-SEB and SRB to represent their State at the SAGE National competitions.

To seek operational funds locally to help their state SAGE program expand its program.

To enter into alliances and partnerships with organizations that support SAGE’s mission.

To write and submit monthly Project report to SAGE Nigeria Home office.

To follow all guidelines, policies and procedures for secondary school SAGE teams as detailed in the SAGE Information Handbook.

Requirements 

• 3-5 years proven experience as program/project  coordinator or relevant position  
• Tech savvy,proficient in MS office 
• Ability to work with diversity and multi- disciplinary teams
• Excellent time management  and organizational skills
• outstanding verbal and written communication skills 
• Detailed oriented and efficient 

Deadline for registration is on the 25th of January, 2017

Training would commence on the 1st of February, 2017

Click to apply : https://goo.gl/9SRdLl

For enquiries email us - info@sagenigeria.org