From the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
You may have noticed the falling of all currencies in Africa against the US$, this means two things:
that everyone is after one thing - US$
that your value to the rest of the world just got far stronger.
What does that mean?
With your costs in a local currency (rent, salaries, raw materials) if you can sell in US$ (or one of the other major western currencies) then you will appear to your client as great value, whilst back home you are making the same profits (which in the coronavirus era is something to be heavily applauded).
So if you are now far better value and the whole world is at the same time searching for US$, why not have some fun and grab some for yourself?
How do you do this?
We mentioned in an earlier feature that if you are a story teller, consultant or general business guru, you should look to go international with such tools as Upwork; Fiverr and Patreon, and suddenly your potential market will grow by billions (and you get paid in US$!). We are not saying it will be easy - if it was easy, everyone would be doing it!But in a strange yet fun way, that means that whatever you do on these sites will be better than what your competition is doing (given they are doing nothing!).
Indeed we had an excellent chat with sales trainer Sheila Baloyi of the ThutoKhumo Group who is now looking to take her excellent sales course international. During our conversation with her and also a number of others who have reached out to us in the operations and finance team, we have expressed our surprise that so few understand or even use LinkedIn. Here is a site that is all about business, it is stacked full of influential and generally wealthy people, many of whom may need your services or goods, personally or for their own business. It was originally founded as a global jobs market, but it has now turned into a free global market place for information and building the trust of you and your brand (hard selling is not encouraged, but as you will see that’s what makes it so powerful).
We had a discussion recently with a senior investment banker in London who was telling us that with the CEO of Twitter said all his staff can now work permanently from home. With his own bank trying to work out how to get 3,000 employees up to their office floors in Canary Wharf, London when only 1 person will be allowed in the lift at any one time, many are now realizing WFH (work from home) is here to stay. This also means that employers will not need in the future to employ those within commuting distance of their London, New York or Tokyo office, but will have a global workforce and thousands of consultants to pick from (take note all you Lionesses who run accounting firms - seriously Go Global!).
In addition, for Lioness owned and run manufacturing and wholesale firms, this is your moment! From now on, no self respecting western company will just look to China for its supplies. They must diversify so this gives you a huge opportunity if you can just get your name out there…and with your currency low and costs in local currency, you will be great value.
Likewise, Lionesses will now not only be able to pick from a much larger pool of workers (unless you require factory and manufacturing workers of course, who need to be at the machines), but will also be able to sell internationally in a much easier way (easier, because this is the ‘new normal’ for shopping in the western world). If you have a customer in London looking to buy that new handbag - think how you can differentiate yourself. Why not give her the personalized customer service and ‘Zoom’ a meeting with her where you can personally show the bag and all its beautiful detail before it is posted.
A few weeks back, we mentioned South African entrepreneur Clare Appleyard and her excellent webinar (here), showing her expertise, and allowing her audience to trust her (as she answered questions clearly, honestly and didn’t dodge the difficult ones). Why not go international yourself? Bit difficult for Clare - as one can imagine, there are some issues with putting a diamond in an envelope and trusting the South African Post Office to deliver! But we are sure innovation will change this soon. Keep the faith Clare!
Instagram videos and photos, and YouTube videos are a brilliant way to reach out and touch a new audience, and of course keep in touch with your current clients. Then post them on Facebook. What have you got to lose, other than a few hours? Send us the videos and we shall happily share on our ‘Lioness Launch’ page. Remember, build the trust before the sale.
Until you have built your audience, a hard sell will simply be ignored. But if you can start to build an audience that is happy and willing to read, see, view and learn about your business, then they will begin to trust you and the next time someone needs a handbag (and who doesn’t!) or if one of their friends needs one, they will recommend you. Why? Because they trust you, they know you, they understand your manufacturing process, you are not cutting corners, and you are connected (not just in the Instagram, Youtube or LinkedIn way). But most importantly, they have become really touched by your story.
In what is now such a small and instant global marketplace, where and how you touch your customers, how you build their trust and how you increase these touch-points with them and in turn with their friends and connections is going to be essential.
So plan how you are going to do this on a large sheet of paper. Although we keep on saying that bad Cash Flow kills a business, Strategy is another area that if you get it wrong, kills, so Plan!
We have seen far too much good money being thrown at poor strategy, so think hard on how you are going to Build the Trust in your Audience.
Please take a moment to look at the inspirational Lionesses, Ysolde Shimwe and Kevine Kagirimpundu of UZURI K&Y from Rwanda showing on YouTube and Instagram (search for Uzuriky), their design process and then taking us on a tour of their workshop (this fabulous video had a massive and well deserved 41,331 views on Instagram). This is exactly what we are talking about. Note how professional the video looks and how much fun they seem to have had making it (the funky music helps of course). So do some research on how to do this - it will be worth it. What we love is that once you go to their website (and the videos just draw you in to click that button), there is an instant chance to chat to them on Messenger, plus their Whatsapp number. Make the buying process as easy as possible, Lionesses!
Encouraged by this call to arms, believe us - when you start writing articles or doing small webinars or videos on your favourite subject - your passion, your work, your business - you will build that trust. If nothing else, just by selling one article or ‘doing the books’ in London, Paris or New York, allows you to state on your website “Sales/Clients in London, Paris, NY…”!
How’s that for thinking outside the box, having fun and earning Pounds, Euros or US$!