Journal

Posted by: Nigel Collier

23 January 2010

RAW2010 - Inspiration From Kanya King, Founder Of The MOBOs

In recent times, there are few speeches I’ve heard from business leaders that have resonated so closely with our own perspective than that of Wednesday’s speech by MOBOs founder Kanya King at the RAW2010 event in Manchester at The Lowry Theatre. The event was the brain child of Imran Hakim, Mike Perls and Scott Fletcher with a host of other collaborators and supporters. The event was a great success and there was a great sense of energy from everyone there, due to the profile of the attendees, 350 of the North West’s top entrepreneurs. We were very pleased to have attended.

One guest speaker in particular stood out for me and with apologies to Kanya King if my notes aren’t wholly accurate, here are the highlights of her speech.

Creating The MOBOs From Nothing

1. Your Profession: Pick an area you are really passionate about. This provides the drive and motivation during the difficult times.
2. Advice: Be careful who you listen to. Surround yourself with people who can offer quality advice, who may not actually be from your sector.
3. Income: Have a second income and a third income.
4. Collaboration: Collaborate for mutual benefit such as affiliate deals and commission only deals. No-one gets anywhere alone.
5. Social Media: Social media should be an essential part of the digital marketing strategy. Word of mouth was very important for the MOBOs.
6. Unique: Create your own unique space because you can’t just compete on price and be cheapest.
7. Financial Control: Control your finances yourself. Know the numbers inside out.
8. Reputation: Reputation is essential. Go above and beyond expectations to keep customers happy. Always ask for referrals.
9. Be An Advocate: Write about the subject of your sector. Be a spokesperson for your industry, define the issues you want to comment on and get your thoughts out there.
10. Networking: Networking is a valuable tool. Don’t just collect business cards, meet people, be memorable, meet people, do business in person, meet people! Create and sustain relationships.
11. Mentors: Find them and use them.
12. In Summary: Passion, clear goals, self-belief, aspiring to greater things and an absolute refusal to quit are the ingredients for success.

You can tell that Kanya’s point of view is born out of hard-fought experience, especially when you hear her speak. She is very measured, has a very believable and human delivery and is very inspiring to listen to. There’s a lot to admire and one point in particular is highly relevant to Skylab.

Having stressed the importance of social media, Kanya has hit on one of the key components of the digital strategies Skylab develops for many of our clients. Having an integrated digital strategy that encompasses your online presence from websites and web apps to the various forms of social media is absolutely crucial for any business, brand or organisation that wants to fully engage with its customers, clients, fans or followers. Whether it’s the desire to become a publisher, a broadcaster or the desire to deliver specific content to the world, the strategy that sits behind it is crucial. Anything less than a cohesive digital strategy will leave your digital message slowly decaying on the internet.

Skylab helps many businesses both large and small develop their digital strategy in order to engage new customers, raise brand profile and ultimately generate revenue…. and hopefully, having taken inspiration from Kanya King’s speech, we will be even more focused on offering that service to an even higher standard in the future.

Thank you Kanya…

Comments

Sian

Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 4.17am

She was fabulous - direct and honest, I enjoyed her speech very much too.

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