Chukwuma Asala

Chukwuma Asala is an international student from Nigeria who is studying to earn an MBA from the State University of New York in Albany. He has analyzed more than 20 industry case studies throughout his education thus far, and hopes to bring some of his business knowledge to Gaebler.com.

Articles written by Chukwuma Asala

Chukwuma is an avid reader of business books and an active observer of real-world entrepreneurship. In each of his articles, he blends his many talents along with his keen understanding of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

• Activities to Keep Your Sales Numbers Growing - The challenges in sales tend to be progressive, especially if you are new to sales. The first challenge is simply how to make a sale. The second and usually tougher challenge is how to keep your sales numbers growing. This article will give some insight to some of the habits you must form to keep your numbers on the up and up.
• Attributes of Entrepreneurs - What does it take to become an entrepreneur? It takes a certain mindset and a different way of thinking to get into business.
• Benefits Versus Features - Most people in sales feel people are complicated and too demanding. The reality is however that people are very simple, but sales people make the decision-making process complicated. The only question customers really want answered is: What's in it for me? This article will emphasize the importance of focusing on the benefits of a product rather than the features when selling.
• Characteristics of Successful Salesmen - There is a generic profile for every successful person. That is to say they all have a few things in common that if you aspire to have you too can also be successful in your current position. This article will take a look closely at some of the key characteristics you must have to be successful in Sales.
• Developing a Mentoring Relationship - The business world is full of people with wisdom and knowledge who wish they could share their knowledg with other people. However, the reality is that most people don't know how to use a mentor or a coach effectively, and so a lot of this wisdom is untouched. It takes work to develop an effective mentoring relationship and this article will touch on some of the key things to focus on when looking for mentorship from someone.
• Developing Leaders Around You - The mark of a real leader today is in how many leaders are coming behind him. This article will highlight the importance of developing leaders around you and how to effectively do this in an organization.
• Dressing for Success - Dress has always been very important in business. No matter the industry, there is a universal look that every successful person has. This article will go over some of the ways to enhance your business image so you can put your best foot forward.
• Effective Presentations - One of the biggest skills to develop in sales is giving effective presentations. Most people will buy a product because the individual left a big impression on them, and presentations are a good way to leave and make an impression on customers.
• Entrepreneurship or Job Security? - Why should you become an entrepreneur? Determining whether or not you're cut out to be an entrepreneur can be a difficult task. Here we take a look at what to consider in terms of job security, and why people may be choosing more careers in entrepreneurship.
• External Recruiting - No matter how small your company or enterprise, the short-term as well as the long-term success of your business will be determined by the ability for your company to stay innovative. An outside party is usually the best catalyst for such innovation. This article will talk about the different pros and cons of external recruiting and when it is most effective to bring an outsider into the organization.
• How Personal Growth Fuels Business Growth - Most businesses measure their growth by revenue or sales. But a more important proxy to measure an organizations growth with is the personal growth of the leader or head of the organization. This article will highlight the importance of pursuing personal growth as a standard for business growth.
• How to Develop Charisma - As a leader you must master the ability to influence people. We all know people who just seem to attract crowds everywhere they go and have people feeling endeared to them in seconds. This article will give some key points on how to develop charisma, one of the more important intangibles when dealing with people.
• How to Get Repeat Sales - Sales keep an organization profitable. Repeat sales ensure that the organization will not fall back to previous benchmarks. How exactly does one effectively keep previous customers and build on an already existing customer base? This article will give some tips on getting and more importantly keeping customers.
• How to Handle Conflict and Confrontation - Conflict is inevitable when people are involved. Egos and emotions are always being tested and as such it takes a person with good knowledge of conflict resolution to help alleviate situations in an organization that otherwise if left untouched could be disastrous. This article will talk about some of the different aspects of handing conflict and confrontation.
• How to Lead Leaders - Most people if asked if they would want a high performer to come into their organization would almost immediately respond with an emphatic yes. But it is much easier to lead a follower than it is to lead a leader. How does one go about leading a self-starter? This article will broach some key things to be aware of when managing a leader in your organization.
• How to Offer Constructive Criticism - The toughest thing about managing people is you're in a position where you see the mistakes they make and feel the need to correct them. This is especially important if these mistakes could prove very costly to the organization as a whole. This article will give a few tips on how to offer criticism without creating dissension with your employees.
• Important Elements of a Good Business Plan - A business plan is not complicated to write but a botched business plan will get you nowhere with future investors. This article will highlight some common mistakes when writing business plans.
• Internal Recruiting - Recruiting is a huge human resources function in any business. Internal recruiting is usually the first choice for most small startups that are looking to grow their employee base. This article will talk about the different pros and cons of internal recruiting and when it is most effective.
• Job Mentality Versus Business Ownership Mentality - Business ownership is not for everyone. If it were, more and more people would become business owners and fewer people would be looking to work for business owners or companies. This article will summarize the differences between a business ownership mentality and a job mentality.
• Keeping an Organization Unified - Unity is not easy to come by in an organization. Creating unity most times is not the challenge but keeping it is. Just how does one go about keeping a team growing together with one goal, one agenda and one purpose? This article will highlight some important tips on creating and keeping unity in your company.
• Key Characteristics of Goals - Everyone knows that it is important to have goals in business. But why is it so few people know how to go about setting goals and more importantly seeing through to completion? This article will highlight the key characteristics of goals in business.
• Managing Different Personality Types: Introverts and Extroverts - There are a lot of different personalities, but almost every personality type will typically fall into one of these two categories: introversion and extroversion. This article will take a look at differences between these personality types and how to effectively manage and facilitate teamwork between these two personalities.
• Managing Personalities by Mastering You - If you can understand the different types of personalities people have, it makes it much simpler to communicate with and manage them. This article examines the four common personalities as defined by Gordon McFarlane, an author and motivational speaker on leadership, sales and relationships.
• Overcoming Rejection in Sales - The biggest challenge in sales is how take a rejection of what you are trying to sell and keep going. This article highlights the key elements of understanding and mastering this skill early in your sales career or business.
• Referral Marketing - Advertising is one of the most expensive marketing functions for a business. No matter how good a product or service is, without advertising it is not as effective as a lesser quality product that has a strong advertising campaign. More businesses today however are starting to leverage consumer referral as a means of expanding their market coverage. This article will explain this new phenomenon and give some points on why this is working.
• Retirement Myths - Growing up we were taught a lot of things that at the time were as real as anything else we believed at that time. Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny all played a huge role in our lives at a time when we were too innocent to know the difference. This article will take a look at some of the similarities between Santa, the Easter Bunny, and retirement.
• Signs of Disunity in an Organization - An organization that is unified in their purpose is unstoppable in the marketplace. Unity is easy to create and maintain in a small organization. As a business or company grows however it become increasingly difficult and great care must be taken to keep the organization motivated and loyal to the mission statement of the company. This article will point out five key things to look for which are clear signs an organization's unity is at risk.
• The Importance of Having a Mentor - If you examine any successful person they typically have one thing in common: a mentor. Nearly every successful person in history had someone who they could confide in and learn from when times were tough. This article will highlight the importance of having a mentor in business and entrepreneurship.
• The Importance of Reading - Aside from the personal growth and enjoyment derived from reading, there are numerous benefits to incorporating a personal growth reading regimen into your daily schedule.
• The Importance of Using a Sales Script - Most people, when asked whether or not they feel that sales is a hard profession, respond with an emphatic "yes". For the brave ones who venture into sales, they find that selling is not hard at all. It is making a sale consistently that is the challenge. This article touches on the importance of using a sales script to achieve consistency in your sales calls, appointments, and ultimately results.
• The Job Security Myth - A myth can be defined as a traditional story accepted as history which serves to explain the world view of how things are done today. This article will take a look at how the popular phrase, "job security", is fast-becoming one of the more popular myths in the 21st century.
• The Root Cause of Failure in Entrepreneurship - It is a well-known fact that all ninety-five percent of businesses fail within the first five years of inception. This article will take a look at some of the common pitfalls to succeeding as an entrepreneur and what to avoid when going through those first five years.
• Tips On Managing Your Finances - Money is becoming increasingly hard to manage in today's economy. And with rising inflation, job losses, and the recent credit crunch, business owners must be very tactful in matters of finances if they are to continue to stay in the black and out of the red. This article will highlight some key elements of effective money management both at the business level and personal level.
• Tips on Setting Appointments - Most people in sales know that feeling of picking up the phone and having it weigh 20 pounds. The fear of making calls to book appointments has stopped many a good salesmen from cashing in on a good client. This article will go over the format for making a successful phone call to book an appointment with a prospect.
• Tips on Starting a Business in College - It is rare, but there are some young buckaroos who get the entrepreneurial itch early in their college career and decide they want to join the few who are looking to control their own destinies. Here are some tips for how to succeed as a young entrepreneur still in college.
• Tips on Time Management - Successful people are very ruthless with how they use their time. As a new business owner and entrepreneur or a veteran business owner, time management will either be your biggest asset or largest liability. This article will highlight some of the keys to managing your time effectively in business.
• Wal-Mart and Distribution - Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. This company has dominated the business of distribution for the last five decades and doesn't look to be slowing down. This article will talk about why distribution is still the business to beat in the marketplace.
• What It Takes to Become an Entrepreneur - What exactly does it take to be able to succeed as an entrepreneur? This article will examine the mindset necessary for someone to succeed on his or her own in business.
• Why Affiliate Marketing - Many people today are looking at affiliate marketing as a good business model to get into for a number of reasons. This article will highlight the pros of the industry and why it is the business model for the next decade.
• Why Network Marketing Makes Sense - This article discusses why network marketing businesses are fast-becoming the first option for budding entrepreneurs looking to get their feet wet before jumping in the deep end of entrepreneurship.
• Why Social Networking Is Hot - There is no question that the biggest buzz the last few years has been social networking websites. This article will explain why.