7 Steps To Starting A Book Club

Reading is fun and getting people of like minds to share views and opinions on books is an exhilarating experience. So, you have a passion for reading and want to join a book club but there are none close to you? Why don't you start one? Believe me, when I say it is worthwhile. First off, two things you will need are patience and ability to sacrifice be it your money or time. 

You will need patience because the turnout will not be what you expect. 40 people signaled their interest in the book club when I started but only 11 turned up on the D-day and even till now, our attendance is always between 10-15 people. But I am not bothered because of these people, there are five who do not miss the meeting for anything. And for these ones, I will keep at it. Also the testimonies coming from members since joining the club is encouragement enough.

You will need to sacrifice your time and money when  there is call for it. I use my money to send text messages to members, made snacks for our meetings, I have had to give transport fare to a member and spend my time co-coordinating it.  But you know what, I will do it again, if necessary.

1. Look for a bookshop to partner with. I use the lunch room of Oasis Bookshop as the meeting venue of my book club(BookLovers Club) and also made a deal with them to give members 10% discount on any book they buy from them. It's a win -win situation. They get patronage from us and we use their premises.
2. Get your membership form and rules and regulation form ready before you hold your first meeting. You will thank me for this tip later. This is because people are bound to misbehave especially hoarding discussion time and you will need to caution them without sounding bossy. They need to agree to obey the rules and that's why you need the rules and regulation form to sign. I call mine the code of conduct form. ( I can send you a copy for your perusal)
3. Choose a book for each meeting and have members read it ahead of time to enable full participation in the literary discourse. and make it a book that has a general theme that everyone can relate to. Allow members to lead the discussion from time to time.. I drew up a schedule of who is leading each month, though I am standing in this month because the scheduled person cannot make it.
4. Start advertising majorly by word of mouth in your local assembly, church, school e.t.c. I talked about sacrifice earlier one, this is one area you will need to sacrifice your money to make flyers to pass around. You can make a banner to put at the bookshop premises (ask if it is okay). You can also tell them to advertise for you as well. it is to their benefit too: more patronage.
5. Organize fun events! For our February meeting, we visited an orphanage. The coordinator was so impressed she promised to join us. Next thing I am planning is to have a prominent writer attend the meeting.  I had planned to have a Google+ Hangout with Ms.Chinamada Adichie sometime back but I was told she was out of the country then. I am still planning on doing it.
6. People like to eat and party so I ask members to bring in snacks and drinks (though not compulsory) which we share during our "love feast" and that is the time immediately after the literary discourse. This helped my members and I to build a wonderful rapport.
7. Be friendly, nice and genuinely interested in people. it will go a long way to make your members feel at ease with you and in the meeting. Feel free to contact me (info@moduoetaiwo.com) if you have any question.

3 Reasons To Use Online Advertising in 2014

It is that time of the year when resolutions are made, past strategies are evaluated and dreams rekindled. Most likely you are thinking of better ways to boost sales, generate leads or create awareness for your business or brand. Have you thought of Online Advertisement? Compared to traditional marketing strategies, online advertising has these unique advantages:

1. Target

2. Cheaper Cost

3. Better Result

1. Target 

You can reach the people who need your services or products 

most with Online Advertising. It allows you run advertising campaigns targeted at a particular country, people, profession, skill. Facebook and Google Ads among other allow for such.

2. Cheaper Cost

Unlike traditional marketing where you most likely pay upfront for advertising, most online advertising programs allow you to pay only after advertising. With some online adverts, you will only pay when someone clicks your advert. Note that you advert will still be displayed and that to me is free advertisement for you. Some online Nigerian stores like Jumia.and Konga are typical example of such. You see their advert displayed on all websites so whether you click on  it or not, you have seen it but they only get to pay when you click on it. Which traditional marketing can beat that?

3. Better Result

The chances of your online advertising strategies achieving results is way over your offline strategies. This is because your adverts reaches those who actually need your services as against the general population with offline adverts.

What Has Social Media To Do With Recruitment?

I wrote a post a while back  on the need to guard one's online reputation like one would one's life. And i made an example of an HR personnel who checks out applicant's social profiles to gauge the persona of such candidate. A couple of people thought i was exaggerating.

Well, this article proves i am not exaggerating. Then i came across a rather bizarre story of an applicant who was asked to log in to her Facebook profile during an interview process so the hiring manager could see it. You can read the story here. (Remind me in my next post to tell you  the facial expressions of  my friends who thought i was exaggerating when they read it. Maybe now, it will sink in that their social media profiles is their life on the internet.)

Nigeria may jut be waking up to full capacity of social media but it won't be long before we harness it's potentials in its entirety.  The need to check one's posts online is not enough, you may need to censor those you connect to as friends especially on Facebook. This is because, of the three social networks employers said they use to screen applicants, Facebook has  a whopping 76%, followed by Twitter with 53% and Linkedin 48% according to a survey conducted by Reppler. Your perfect and unblemished resume with excellent recommendations on LinkedIn is not enough to get you that dream job of yours. A word is not enough for the wise!

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Social Media and You!

  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+ are the most common Social networking sites available.You probably know more than the aforementioned.  There is a plethora of them out there and you probably have an account on one if not all of them. But to what use do you put them to?

To many it is a place to hang out with friends, some display their idiosyncrasies on their profiles while  many use it to rant and vent their frustration on whoever has irked them. Yet for some it is a tool for development, a means to teach others and for some other people it is their voice to speak out  like what Stella Damasus did on the underage marriage issue that rocked our country some weeks back. 

Do you know your profiles say a lot about you? For instance, say, I am a potential employer and i decide to check out your profile, what will I find? Will your posts make me want to employ you? Don't think employers don't do that. I have heard a Human Resource personnel say she does that at the last stage of  the recruitment process in her organisation.

What does this tell you? Treat your social media profiles like you would treat your reputation. Guard it! You won't go about messing up your own image now, would you? Be mindful of what you post, remember your social media profiles is your image online.

Invest in Knowledge!

To invest is to put  time, effort, money and all one has into a venture with a mind to getting profit from such. A lot of investment opportunities abound when it comes to business but the underlying factor for any kind of investment is knowledge. It will be foolhardy to venture into what you have no hint of. I daresay every human endeavor needs some amount of knowledge. You want to get married, you need to know what marriage entails and you prepare yourself for it. You want to study at the University, you need to know which University offers the course of your choice.

Many sources abound for knowledge; Books, CD, DVD, Newspapers, Magazines even from talking to peers, co-workers, family and the aged (believe me, those "Old School Mamas and Papas"  are like a treasure chest of knowledge and experience. No wonder that  adage says "what an old man sees sitting down, a young man cannot see standing up." It is because they have been there, seen and done it all!) .

The cheapest way to acquire knowledge  (and even become an expert) about anything is by reading books. I started reading at the age of eight, then I was reading Mills & Boon romance series, though hidden inside my Macmillan textbooks. I had to disguise it as my textbooks because my aunt, from whom i had stolen the novel from would skin me alive (funny, she did the opposite when she eventually found out, she encouraged me to go for "my size" so to say).  Later in Secondary School, i met friends who had a deeper hunger for books. One of them stood out, in the sense that when we all were reading romance novels, she kept herself busy with motivational,inspirational and business books. She started doing business while in the tertiary institution and by the time we were doing our National Youth Service, she had a thriving business. And that was when I started acquiring knowledge about business. Oh, how I love Rich Dad, Poor Dad in those days!

What's my point? Don't limit yourself to a particular genre of books. Read widely. Parents, encourage your children to read widely so as to have a balance. Spend time with books in your area of interest or purpose in life but endeavour to read others too!

Six Years After...

It 's been six years that i made my last post on this blog. And from that time till now, a lot has happened. I have grown from a start up entrepreneur, changed location, gone through hurdles i never expected to and conquered and switched back to paid employment.

I have wept at tragedies, failures, deaths and disappointment along this journey of life in those six years. I have seen so much hatred and inhumane acts perpetrated by humans against themselves and where i can't weep, i shake my head in sorrow.

I have laughed. Oh! how i  have laughed at the funny side of life and at my own mistakes. After all, what else can one do, rather than laugh and learn from one's failures or mistakes. And from those mistakes, I have reignited my passion for writing. Going back to paid employment to many was a mistake but writing the content for the website, newsletters and creating sales and promotional materials for the company i work for has woken me up from my writer's block . I am so happy my writing and creative juices are flowing again and i want to encourage others through the Home Front Book Club i anchor on radio and write about on my other blog (www.hfbookclub.blogspot.com)

Six years! I can write a book on all that went down those six years so i am glad i am back to blogging and i am looking forward to it. Just want to thank blogger.com for keeping my space intact till i came back.  Expect posts about issues of interests to this enterprising, creative and hard working young woman who is gradually making her mark in the sands of time.

dupitai

It is a Sunday evening in Surulere where i live and i am sitting in front of my PC putting my thoughts on paper. i am thinking of what tomorrow holds for me, having just started my little business and wondering if i will make enough sales tomorrow. Thinking of how to get my business(Goshenbiz( to the level i want it to get to. thinking of ways, methods and the means to get there. Thinking of how the economic situation of my country, Nigeria will affect my business. I am thinking of a lot of things, how to help my parents and siblings with their financial needs. How to get my non governmental organization going,for i want to have an NGO catering to the needs of rape victims and helping to train the girl child from childhood to womanhood. How to help the aged in my community, i see so many of them in need and i cant help but wonder where their children are and why they are not fulfilling their responsibility of taking care of their parents. my thoughts are of all sorts this cool Sunday evening but i hope by tomorrow my mood perks up.