A panel discussion session was part of the program
during the meeting. Many interesting issues came up and quite some intelligent
responses were offered by the panellist.
Today I am taking you through some of the questions
and responses from that meeting
Question
1
How can I open up to my staffs in a way that they
would not eventually walk out on the company and taking with them all my
invested expertise?
Answer
1.
The
Vision belongs to you the CEO. The company has to take the risk as this is a
creative line of profession where you cannot hold on to all you have in you.
2.
Grooming
of staffs or workers is a part of your company’s growth and development
exercise, it is truly difficult to train staffs with the hope to benefit from
your investment in them and watch them leave, yet you have to look out for the
loyal staffs that are willing to stay and work.
My Comment: Training is a very important part of
growing any business. Some trainings are received on the job while others are
held in a formal training program. Some companies I have known devised bonding
through contractual agreement or terms of employment as a way to forestall
early departure of staff immediately after training. Some terms included in the
contractual agreement are
ü Staff exiting within One(1) year of
training cannot work for a competitor until after 2 years
ü If the training is a paid training, the
trainee agrees to refund the training fee if they exit within six (6) months
after the training
ü The trainee must commit to train at least
one staff within three(3) months of attending the training
Question
2
To survive in this industry requires having strong
business connections, God fatherism, etc. How do we start-up planners survive
the pressure?
Answer
1.
Connection
only comes from God. You have to be prayerful by following your beliefs. Also
you have to learn to go out and meet people, attend seminars, trainings,
conferences and social gathering. It will help you to build your network and
contacts. If you stay in your office or house, work will not just walk in
neither will contact fly in from nowhere to locate you. There is no magic in
success you work hard for it.
My Comments: It is all about business planning. Before
venturing into entrepreneurship, develop a business plan that will guide you.
Package your services in such a way that it will be attractive to customers. No
matter the amount of connections you have in business, if you offer
unsatisfactory service, it is difficult to retain a customer. It is a well-known
fact that one satisfied customer is the one greatest sales person you will ever
have. Referral is the key. So I will recommend that start-up should be ready to
provide High quality service because to beat a champion, you really have to
knock him out.
Question
3
I used to work with a photography outfit that charges
N300, 000.00 (Three Hundred Thousand Naira) for a wedding photography package.
When I left and started my own outfit I charge my customers about N120, 000.00
(One Hundred and twenty thousand Naira) or even less to deliver the same
quality of service as done by my former company. Is it a professional doing
this?
Answer
We all are in business to make profit, so why charge
less than expectation? You have to value your worth in terms of
ü Time spent
ü Knowledge of the job
ü Experience gathered
ü Overhead charge on equipment
ü Other logistics including a percentage on depreciating
value of equipment.
These are some of the factors you need to take into
consideration especially in service delivery and charge adequately for it.
Another way to tackle this is to standardize your
outfit in terms of costing. Set a bench mark on your charges and be disciplined
enough to stand by it. Do not be bothered about someone else charges.
Every job is not your job. Do not rush at any job that
comes your way. Take only the job that is worth your value.
Question
4
How do we address the issue of Vendor Bashing from
event planners and fellow vendor providers?
Answer:
The issue of vendor bashing is so complicated that we
panellist cannot in short time say enough to resolve it.
Firstly, it starts with the attitude of individual
event planners. Every planners does not exhibit such poor attitude towards
fellow service providers. Where this type of brashness is natural to the
planner then it will take a personal measure of correction to deal with that.
Secondly, Planners and vendors of interest should
practice fair play and endeavour not to force their preferred vendors on the
customer through blackmailing another vendor. Behaving in such a manner
obviously paints a bad image of such a planner before the customer too.
Planners should at best adhere only to recommending their preferred vendors and
leave the client to decide especially in cases where the client has other
vendors at heart.
Finally, the Association also has a role to play in
this matter. If the member professional services are standardized and the
planner repeatedly bashes other service providers. This should be treated as
offensive and reported cases if proven should be penalized in accordance with
the disciplinary measures of the association.
Thanks to Ajibola Olatomirin-Richards of Vivid
Entertainment Ltd who took the pains to take down these notes. There will be
more on this next week.
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