Whether you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur, or you’ve been running your business for a while, there’s a lot you can learn from Genevieve Magazine’s CEO, Betty Irabor:
- Work experience is never a bad idea. Before Genevieve, Betty Irabor worked as a journalist, starting out at The National Concord. She also worked at Haisha Investment Company as a Public Relations/Administration Manager for 2 years before teaming up with her husband as CEO of Ruyi Communications.
- Always be working on your main thing. Even while running Ruyi Communications, Mrs Irabor continued to find expression for her writing flair, freelancing for newspapers including This Day, Vanguard and The Guardian.
- Start as soon as you get the vision. When ideas come and you don’t act on them, they soon fizzle out. Keep your vision from being a passing fancy by taking action. Mrs Irabor was leafing through the pages of a lifestyle magazine published in Singapore when the spark that lit the Genevieve vision was born. She immediately created a dummy of Genevieve Magazine and began sampling the opinions of her friends and family.
- Define from the onset the values that will govern your products, services and business as a whole. Mrs Irabor’s vision was for a wholesome magazine that would reflect and celebrate the values of the total woman, and she decided that every story in the magazine would be based on this.
- Be passionate and believe in your business. Your passion and firm belief is what will inspire investors to invest in your business.
- Growing a business organically is smart. Rather than invest a lot of money into the business at once, Mrs Irabor decided to invest in proportion to the growth of the business. Check out what Kehinde Kamson of Sweet Sensation, and Kene Rapu of Kene Rapu, had to say about growing a business organically.
- Put checks and balances in place. Your board of directors is meant to fulfil this role. Mrs Irabor even went further to institute an advisory board consisting of respected media personnel including Doyin Abiola, Sam Amuka Pemu and Dr Bello Osagie.
- Employ vision-carriers. Don’t just recruit people who are all about money.
- Put a good financial structure in place. After losing profits due to financial structure defects, Mrs Irabor employed a financial manager to solve this problem. Do this early and save your business loss of profit.
- Don’t be cowed by competition. At the time Genevieve started, there were no other gloss magazines with content in line with its theme. As time went on, more lifestyle magazines were published but instead of backing down, the Genevieve team sat up even more and pursued the dream standard to the fullest.
- It is never too late to start building your dream business. Betty Irabor started Genevieve Magazine at the age of 45. Whenever you wake up is your morning, so live your dream!
- Have a succession plan. You don’t want to invest in a business that will crumble in your absence. Betty Irabor’s daughter, Sonia Irabor, shares her creativity and passion about the magazine and was one of the magazine’s youngest contributors at the initial stages. She is currently studying Media Communications, majoring in Publishing, in preparation to take over management of the company at the appropriate time. Pretty neat, right?
With a supportive and understanding family, a solid value system, and the determination to succeed against the odds, you can build the business of your dreams!
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This particular article has ignited a strong passion to step out and do the needful.
I love every single bullet point, defintely worth pondering about but taking bold steps to excute the next phase in one’s life. It’s better to keep trying to materialise one’s God given talent rather waiting for manna to drop from heaven.
Most times, we need to make a little effort, exercise that mustard seed of faith regardless of it’s inconspicuous size and believe in what we have to offer.
No work experience is a waste of time even the criticisms are most helpful.
“Disappoint the grave, don’t die with your talents”
“When you wake up is your morning.”
Holding on to this today.
Number 11 just sticks. It means we should not be prisoners of our age or any other circumstance.