Michael Dale Williams is a Marketing consultant who is
passionate about helping entrepreneurs and SMEs create profitable businesses.
His book, ‘The More3 Formula’; endorsed by the renowned development, sales and
business expert, Brian Tracy, has helped numerous entrepreneurs see business
from a different perspective and increase their profit. In Nigeria he has
worked as a consultant to the carnival committee in Cross River State, the
Managing Director of the Cross River State Tourism Board; and currently, he is
the Business Development Manager for Ebonylife TV. In this interview with
Omonefe Eruotor, he lets us in on his journey and shares some invaluable
entrepreneural tips.
You have worked in Advertising,
Marketing, Tourism, Event Management and Media in different parts of the world.
Please tell us how what you do runs through these different organizational
types and how you have learnt to adjust with each move.
The common thread that runs through everything I do is
marketing. My first company was an event management consultancy in London and
my primary role was to market our signature events. I must have done a
reasonable job because a US cosmetics company asked us to market a model search
for them across the UK. That went well also and the company asked us to help
with marketing some of their brands, including the world-famous Pink Oil
Moisturizer. Eventually, we morphed into an advertising agency, handling five
of their product ranges. Later on, I got opportunities to create advertising
for banks, money transfer agents like MoneyGram and other consumer goods.
Tourism came from my knowledge of my home country, Jamaica, which gave me an
opportunity to partner with a Public Relations agency to handle the Jamaica
Tourist Board account in the UK. A combination of that experience and serving
on the board of the London Notting Hill Carnival, led to the opportunity to
work in Cross River.
Sometimes, people try out
different areas before they eventually settle for one, or discover themselves.
How and when did you discover your path in business development?
I've been involved in
business development throughout all of my working life. From my second job at
22 years old, in advertising sales, I went into selling telephone systems to
companies. When I became an entrepreneur in events and advertising, I had to do
business development to survive - without clients there is no business. As head
of the Tourism Bureau in Calabar, I still couldn't escape business development
because my role on the Calabar Festival committee involved leading the effort
to raise sponsorship. I'm happy to say that during my time there we raised over
N1.5 billion to support the carnival, concerts and other events that made up
the festival.
You have been a part of
some highly innovative and successful projects with organizations including The
Jamaican Tourist Board, London Nottinghill Carnival Office, Cross River State
Tourism Bureau, and currently, Ebonylife TV. How do you keep yourself relevant
in your field?
The only way to stay
relevant is to do your best work, give the best possible advice and try to
innovate as much as possible. I'm always learning new skills, reading and
researching; trying to stay abreast of new technology, particularly in
communication; and, most importantly, I rarely remain within the confines of a
job description because I always have more to contribute to an organisation's
strategy, marketing or management.
With the economic downturn in Nigeria,
the need for multiple streams of income cannot be overemphasized. How best
would you advise a budding entrepreneur to build a strong organization for
himself while holding on to a regular 9-5 job?
First of all, it is
important not to cheat your day job. That means working long hours and weekends
on your own business. Years ago, when I was working with my partners to set up
our first business, I cheated my day job by making calls unrelated to my work.
When they started to make people redundant, I was the first to go. I was hurt
and embarrassed, but I learned from it. My second piece of advice is to stick
to something you understand or make the extra effort to learn as much as you
can about the industry before jumping in. Finally, make sure that you choose a
business that meets a genuine need and fills a gap in the market. Always
remember that the best businesses are created to solve problems - and Nigeria
is full of problems!
A huge challenge for small
businesses is capital. Considering the fact that the web has become the best
market place, what tips would you give small business owners with good products
who cannot afford proper branding and web presence.
If you can't find the
money for professional branding and an online presence, then perhaps you
shouldn't be in business. The Internet has lowered the barriers to entry in
virtually every industry, so there shouldn't be any excuse. There are lots of
ways around the issue of lack of capital. One of best methods is to trade goods
and services with potential suppliers by doing barter deals. Another way is to
give away equity in your business in exchange for financial support or services
that you need. When I started in business, a friend lent us his office, someone
else donated secondhand office furniture, while others volunteered their
services because they believed in what we were doing. A lot of this depends on
having good relationships and building up goodwill that you can cash in later,
when you need it. In the past, I've had graphic designers and web developers
offer their services, in exchange for a share of the business, because they
wanted to be involved on a long-term basis.
You have proferred a solution to
organizations for business growth - Superior Customer Service- and
organizations with few customers seem to excel at this. How can those with high
volume of customers in Nigeria also benefit from this principle?
Nigerian businesses with thousands or even millions of
customers can benefit enormously from what I term Superior Customer Service.
With a large volume of customers, even a small increase in your average
transaction value (cost of an order) or average frequency (the number of times
a customer makes a purchase) will pay huge dividends when multiplied by the
number of customers.
In your
book, one of the points you raised is that a clear organizational structure is
important for business growth. Could you throw a little more light on this
point?
I think the point you are
referring to is where I say that the structure of your organisation should be
geared towards providing outstanding customer service. That means the number of
staff in a particular department or area should be relative to the efficiency
your customers require. For example, if you run a bar, your profitability
depends on how many drinks are being served each night. If it takes 30 minutes
to be served and no one comes to check if the customers need a refill, you're
losing money. Having the right number of well-trained bartenders and waiting
staff are critical to your success. Just last week, I was in a fancy bar where
we waited nearly 40 minutes for our first drink. By the time they arrived, we
were almost ready to go, and we could have had two drinks each in that time.
With cocktails costing N2,500 to N4,500 each, how much would you lose in 5 or 6
hours with 40-50 people in the bar? The minimum would be N100,000 in a single
evening. Conversely, if you were running a cocktail bar with typical Nigerian
service, I could easily show you how to increase your takings by N100,000 per
night - that's an extra N30 million per annum.
Ebonylife TV’s ‘The Wedding Party’ has
been rated the highest –grossing Nigerian film (domestic gross). While I
congratulate you and the Ebonylife TV team, could you share a tip from that
success that will help other entrepreneurs?
As we speak, The Wedding
Party has grossed over N470 million; nearly N300m more than the no.2 movie on
the all-time list of highest-grossing films. Any entrepreneur can learn from
its success by paying close attention. The first thing is to look at what your
competitors are doing and try to improve on it. Secondly, you should pay
attention to the quality of your product - don't cut corners. Thirdly, you
should always invest in marketing - it tends to pay off. Lastly, it's the
quality that translates to valuable word-of-mouth marketing, long after your
budget has been exhausted.
Do you plan to retire at any point? What is
your take on retirement for those in the private sector?
Hopefully, retirement is
a long way off or maybe never. I'm just getting started with my writing career
and a few other exciting ventures. EbonyLife is entering an interesting new
phase too. My take on retirement is to do what you love and you will never want
to retire - you'll be having too much fun. If you have a good team around you
to delegate to, you don't have to work as hard. Just do the things that
interest and engage you - the things you would do anyway, if your bills were
all paid.
What more should we expect from you in
the near future? Any surprises? New books?
Haha. Yes, a few
surprises and at least one new book this year. This one will be about my
experiences in Nigeria - some of them very funny, some quite touching. If you
follow my blog, you will know what to expect.
Mr. Williams also writes
about his travel and food on his blog (fromkingstontocalabar). You can reach
him through any of the online addresses below:
Facebook – michael.d.williams.1272
Instagram – michaelwilliams1007
Twitter – @michael100762
Website – www.fromkingstontocalabar.com,
www.ebonylifetv.com
E-mail – michael@more3.co.uk
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