The Power of Information in Growing Your Business

THE POWER OF INFORMATION IN GROWING YOUR BUSINESS (Excerpt from my book – GROWING YOUR BUSINESS)

                                                                         

“What makes a man is what he knows but a man can only be measured by how much of what he knows that he applies.” It was with these words that I started an interactive session in one of the seminars that I facilitated. After that session, an elderly man walked up to me and said, “With the amount of information available today, it is only a choice to claim ignorance on anything. In those days, we couldn’t even get to buy what you have freely today.” Amazingly, some people still live today as if they are in the 1950s. The quantum of information available in the last one decade is greater than the sum of all information available in the past 5000 years put together. With over 10 billion pages of viable information on the internet, what else could one ask for? With over 100 million books written and published in the last one decade on several issues across all divide, what else can one lay claim to as the reason for ignorance? While several Institutes and research bodies are still working on unraveling some mysteries that science does not yet have comprehensive answers to, there are several millions of pages of data that have been released for use by the public. Can you imagine how many copies of newspapers, magazines, bulletins, newsletters, gazette, bullions, and several other information pages have been released in the past ten years? Information released in seminars, workshops, public presentations and speeches, audio, video, etc are not exempted. The information that took decades to obtain before 1900, took at least a year to obtain after 1950, took weeks to obtain before 1990, took hours to obtain at the turn of the millennium, now takes seconds to obtain, or maybe split seconds in some instances. One truth which we cannot deny is that, there is abundance of information, maybe more than we need at times, but, application! How much of the information that we need to apply have we applied?

Business starting processes, improvement and sustenance have never been this easy. Whatever business area you have chosen, there is more than enough information on it.

Business growth is definitely retarded when there is no knowledge or there is inadequate application of it. In a knowledge age as we are in, both the information you need, and the application procedure is made easier. The problem we have most times include the following: Complacency, over-processing and analyzing of the information, fear of application, lack of trust in the information or improper application, disrespect for the provider of the information, etc. This is where most growing businesses get stocked. When you, as a small business owner, begin to allow any of those factors to get in your way of doing business better, you can be sure of only one thing – stunted business growth.

More information is nonsense if it does not bring about improved or increased knowledge for your business. This same background should help you determine what kind of information you seek, and how that information can be applied to better your business. Get this straight: information is power to you only if it helps you improve your business. You need to get information, but beyond that, get the right information for your business need. Even when there are opportunities for support programmes that could enhance your business, it is only when you know about it that you can take advantage of it. Recently, the Federal Government of Nigeria opened a window of support for entrepreneurship through the ‘Youwin’ programme. A lot of people didn’t even hear about it, or heard only after the application closed. Some people heard but because the application is online, they were discouraged, some simply criticized and never utilized it. Meanwhile others heard, applied and won, now they have funds for their businesses. It’s all in what you know and apply.

How armed with information about your business are you? How much do you know of it? How often do you research about it? How many books have you read about it? Someone once said, to hide anything from a black man, put it in a book. Does that apply to you too? What seminars, workshop or other forms of training have you attended since you started that business? How much of your competitors do you know or know anything about? What strategies have you discovered recently that could turn your business around? What counsel have you sought?

Viable applicable information doesn’t just come your way by your folding of arms and hoping. You have to take decisive steps and make frantic efforts to seek to get them, and when you do, be ready to apply them. Apply them. Apply them for results, apply them the proper way and at the appropriate time to get the maximum results from that initiative of yours.

The greatest business growth actually comes by way of information. Someone takes advantage of, and acted on a piece of information and it produces results for him.

Information for business growth can come in different forms: it could be that we are well positioned at a strategic point at an opportune time and we got the information, it could be privileged information from someone who is in the know and wants us to partake of an opening. Most times however, we have to look for information for our business growth.

If you know that someone somewhere has the information that you most badly need for the growth of your business, why not go to him? Even if you have to pay to get him, why not! Information is power. Power for your business growth!

Information that the business person must look for, must be timely and appropriate. For information to be timely, it must be obtained at the time when the need for it is high. For some kind of businesses, some information obtained from the pages of the newspapers are already late news. The business person most create access to information from the original source while they are red-hot and can quickly be taken advantage of.

For information to be appropriate, the business person must create capacity for it. You must get the right information that you need, but beyond that, you must have the capacity to use that information. If you get the right information at the right time, and you have the capacity to deliver on it, and you actually deliver, business growth is inevitable.

NOTE: For full text on this, and/or to get the book – GROWING YOUR BUSINESS, call +2348036490073 or mail: sanjanepublications@yahoo.com.