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How to Win the CBN/NYSC Annual Venture Prize Competition

This competition is an initiative of the CBN as part of its corporate social responsibility and in consonance with the principle of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). It is designed to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of the youth corps members during their service year and to encourage them to imbibe entrepreneurial concepts and ideas. The Annual Venture Prize Competition is majorly aimed at reducing the dependence on white collar jobs which would stimulate economic growth, development of local technology and generation of employment.

It is open to only serving corps members in every batch of a given year. The Award is in two categories (State/National) and it covers all legal business concepts except commerce. Interested corpers are expected to submit a business proposal to the state level for critical examination by the state Inter-Agency Selection Committee where three winners usually emerge. The prize money for the state awards is;

– 1st Prize: N200,000.00

– 2nd Prize: N150,000.00

– 3rd Prize: N100,000.00

Ten best proposals from each Development Finance Office are sent to the Department and subjected to further examination by the National Selection Committee to select the national winners which has the following prize money tied to it.

– 1st Prize: N1,000,000.00

– 2nd Prize: N750,000.00

– 3rd Prize: N500,000.00

All winners will be given Certificates of Merit, linked to banks to sponsor their projects and invited to participate at a course at any of the Entrepreneurship Development Centers (EDCs).

Annual Venture Prize Competition draft procedure.

Identify a Need or Problem

For you to be a participant of this millionaire making award you must have a business concept or idea. There must be a need or market you are willing to satisfy. Your business idea might be innovative or an improvement on an existing concern which would add value to the life of the people.

Carryout an In-Depth Business Analysis

You must engage in a critical analysis of the business. The profitability, durability and legality of the business must be ascertained. You must have a good understanding of the proposed business.

Create a Marketable and Exceptional Business Plan/ Feasibility Report

After you have ascertained that the business idea is viable and profitable, compose a winning business plan. The plan must be written according to the statutory format. The format is as follows:

1. Business Plan and Corporate Directive ( Vision, Mission and Objectives, etc)

2. Operational Strategies ( Uniqueness of the Organization)

3. Strategic Plan and Objectives

4. Projected Outreach, Market Share and Marketing Strategy

5. Financial Projection/ Strategy

6. Sustainability Strategy

7. SWOT Analysis

8. Risk Identification and Mitigation Strategies

9. Economic and Social Justification – Business Benefits to the Society

10. Environmental/ Infrastructural Analysis (Assessment of the likely Impact of Environmental Factors of the Proposal)

11. Management Structure, etc.

Your business plan is your representative. You will not be there when it will be examined. In fact, your passport to the award process is your feasibility report. Therefore you must ensure that you business plan is outstanding.

If you don’t know how to write one, contact someone that is fully skilful in writing business plans. If you are hiring a professional to assist you in writing the plan, ensure that you are part of the preparation process. That is; be part of the preparation process. This is to enable you learn and understand everything in the report.

It is not advisable to hire a professional that is far from you. This is true because, he will just give you a finished work without educating you. You might be asked to defend the proposal before the Committee.

You can also make your business plan unique by adding pictures, PowerPoint slides and audiovisual CDs to make your business points clearer.

Submit Proposal

Ensure you submit your proposal within the stipulated time. It should be submitted to either the Head, Development Finance Office, in the branch of the CBN in the state of service or to the Director, Development Finance Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, Corporate Headquarters, Abuja. Also ensure that the proposal carry your NYSC call-up number, contact address and phone number. Make sure you follow-up the proposal by visiting the Committee office to get information. You must also listen to daily news and read current dailies to get new hints as regards to the Annual Prize Competition.

Components of a Winning Proposal

– The business starting capital must be from one hundred thousand to a million naira: Given that the lowest prize money is N 100,000.00 and the highest is N1, 000,000.00 let your business be the type that can be started with the minimum of the least prize money and the maximum of the highest prize.

– The business must be legal: There are businesses that are illegal in Nigeria. Ensure you go to Corporate Affairs Commission to get the full lists of legal business. Also there are some goods that are contraband in Nigeria.

– The business must be resident in Nigeria: The sole aim of this programme is to boast the economy of Nigeria and not foreign countries. Therefore, the business must be located in Nigeria.

– The business must have the tendency of employing Nigerian citizens: The business must have the capacity of employing you and other unemployed Nigerians

– You must prove that you will not abandon the business for a white collar job: This competition is solely for entrepreneurs. Consequently, if you have the intention of starting the business with the intention of abandoning it immediately you secure a white collar job, this programme is not for you. It is strictly for passionate entrepreneurs.

– You must prove that the business would be profitable. One of the goals of this initiative is to Stimulate economic growth. Therefore, the proposal must show that you business has the capacity of making profit.

– Your proposal will receive massive attention when it is geared towards using and develop local technology.

– This programme covers all business concepts except commerce. Commercial activities are very risky. Your business idea must not be to buy and sell of finished goods. Rather it should be able to produce better goods at a competitive price and time.

– The cost of your products must be competitive: Your goods or services must be exceptional but affordable.

– Your business idea must contain something good that your competitor are not doing or are not doing well.

– Your proposal will scale-through if your business is using locally produced raw materials

Fat and Slow Verses Slim and Agile Business Structure – Who Will Win? You Will Be Surprised

For years companies are trying to create the right balance between a fat and agile organization. During the 1970’s, companies multiplied their own infrastructure whenever they expanded into the international markets, yet left the strategy decision making to the headquarters’ management only. This organizational structure made the company a fat one and not that agile. Today a company’s structure is built on local management teams that are subordinate to a regional management, which in turns is managed by the headquarters. This structure simplifies the decision making process and lessen the bureaucracy, all the while providing the headquarters at the mother country with full control.

Today it is important for a company to be agile, because it gives it the ability to compete in the global market. In the near future the headquarters of companies or parent companies will no longer have total control over their own branches or subsidiaries, and will become much smaller and more independent. However, this structure has yet to develop into its final stage where the opposite situation will happen…

The global market is acting in two parallel directions:

A. A very competitive direction that forces companies to be on top of their game, i.e. to be innovative, price attractive and service oriented. All this is because that in order to cope, a company has to have a quick way of thinking and an excellent executing process.

B. The latter direction is the process of a widening gap between large companies and small ones. This is created because big companies are swallowing middle size ones to avoid competitive forces. As part of this process big companies will buy or merge with middle size companies that fit their own long term strategic needs. As a result, the big companies will become bigger and the number of middle size will shrink down. In addition, the number of small size companies will rise, because more people are looking to become independent. In this global market expansion it will be hard to maintain a middle size company for long.

Ten years ago top managers said that if you are not number one or two or even three in your own country then you must change direction of business strategy, because it is simply not working. Today, if you’re not one, two or three in the Global market, then you should strategically do something different. Big companies have already started initiating this new way of thinking process, by using and implementing a subsidiary structure that allows them to control more than one market segment at a time, from foods to plastics, or minerals and cosmetics.

This market trend will create 5 to 10 big empire companies that will control most of the global market. Therefore, strategic and operational flexibility will not be as important as today.

You Win With a Business Plan

No matter how small your business idea, a business plan can help you build the confidence you need to get to opening day. Business planning is not just for large or high-growth ventures, and it really shouldn’t be put off until you need to borrow money.

As healthy as the planning is, many small and microbusiness owners will put it off as long as they can. And it’s easy to understand why. Business planning involves the tedious process of organizing your thoughts and getting them onto paper, more likely into a word processor. It includes a whole whack of potentially unfamiliar activities, such as researching, writing and building a credible set of financial projections.

Indeed, why would anyone knowingly put themselves through such pain? Thankfully, the benefits far outweigh any negatives. Here 11 ways you will win by taking the time to develop a business plan:

You know where you’re going
You will have a roadmap or blueprint for your business
You will have a document to look back on in order to measure your progress
A plan will help protect your investment and equity from loss
You will find out if your idea will work
You can discover and solve problems before starting the business
You will build confidence in your business idea
The plan can help you get financing
You become the expert for your business
You will prove your business case
You will have a document to use for communicating with others, family, partners, investors, bankers

Business planning can appear larger than it really is, until you step up and embrace it. Think of it as a cost-effective learning process for anyone aspiring to operate a successful business in today’s complex global work environment. A business plan can be a giant step toward making your dream business a reality.

Planning your business doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time or money, and you don’t have to go it alone. Two local agencies that do a great job of helping entrepreneurs get started are the Community Futures Development Corporation at 562-9622, and the Aboriginal Business Development Centre at 562-6325.

Whether you are thinking of starting, buying or growing a business, I urge you to first develop a business plan. Once you take the plunge, you might just have fun doing it!

After all, it is you who really wins with a business plan.

The Easiest Horse Races to Handicap and Win

If you have been handicapping horse races and trying to win money then you probably know how difficult it can be. But did you ever consider the fact that all horse races are not created equally? There are horse races that are easier to handicap and also are very profitable.

Wise bettors keep track of their progress and wagers so they can tell what they are good at and where their strengths are so that they can focus their efforts and maximize their time to best advantage. Some people specialize in maidens while others prefer to handicap turf races.

The first thing I advise you to do is to keep records of what you wager on and how well you do. Keep notes and refer to them. Set aside a little time each week or month to go over your bets and see where your handicapping strengths are.

I have found that mid level claimers are the best races for me. I prefer the ones run on a dirt track or all weather track, too. The reasons I have found these races particularly profitable is that I can get good odds on horses that are improving and it is also easier to compare the horses.

Claiming races are WYSIWYG races, meaning, “what you see is what you get.” Very few good trainers put a horse that can compete in a $25,000 claiming race for a purse of $25,000 in a race for a lower purse. It just doesn’t make economic sense. They put their horse where it can be competitive and earn the most money. Training horses, after all, is a business and that makes good business sense.

So when I handicap a mid level claiming race and compare the horses it is relatively easy to see which horse is capable of competing at that level and which horses are moving up or dropping down in class.

Another benefit of handicapping those races is that I can see a good trainer claim a horse and follow the moves that he or she is making to improve the horse and win. Equipment changes help but there are other things they do, such as changes in diet and exercise that will improve a horse. Some trainers like to claim a horse and drop it in class if they are reasonably certain that their horse can win the race. The runner might be claimed from the race for a lower price than they paid for it, but the claiming check they receive, plus the purse money and any bets they win offset the loss in claiming price.

All of these moves and the horses ability are more transparent in claiming races. Most claimers have been running for a while and have shown what they can do, hence the term WYSIWYG. When I see a horse that has demonstrated the ability to win at the $10,000 level for a fair trainer that has been claimed and is now in the barn of a much better trainer, I know the horse will probably improve and win at a higher level. These bets often are not appreciated by the public and good odds can be found on them.

The reason I stick with mid level claimers is that experience has shown the runners in the cheaper races are just too inconsistent and sometimes have major problems. Once in a while they manage a god performance but their record is so spotty it is impossible to tell when that might be.

Try sticking to mid level claiming races for a few programs and see how you do. Use a reasonable system and have realistic expectations and you may be pleasantly surprised by your own performance as a handicapper.