Before you consider making more money, you have to first of all be a good steward of your current income. Apart from having an efficient system of personal financial management that leaves you richer each month rather than poorer, you also need to become your banker of first resort. By maintaining a healthy cash reserve through prudent saving, you can fund your dreams rather than go from bank to bank, telling the story of your life and getting turned down in the process.
Before you start to invest, invest in your personal financial education. Invest in knowing what you are doing before you do it. If you know what you are doing, you become empowered to take the right decisions. If you do not know what you are doing, you may think that what you need is more money. If you cannot control your current expenses, you will remain perpetually in trouble no matter how much your income increases. Your expenditure will increase to catch up and overtake your income. It is like trying to fill up a bucket with gaping holes. If the rate of water outflow is greater than inflow, the level of water in the bucket will keep going down despite the inflow.
The same principle plays out in your personal finance. If your cash outflow exceeds your cash inflow, your savings (if you have any), keeps going down until you run on empty. Basic common sense dictates that you spend less than you earn. The only acceptable reason to break this law is when you are investing in assets; assets that will increase your cash inflow, and eventually pay for itself.
The best source of capital for your business start up is your savings. This is within your control. Approaching friends and family for a loan is not tidy, and in some cases jeopardises relationships. Friendship and borrowing don’t mix. It is a recipe for heartbreak and recriminations. Most people nowadays do not borrow amounts higher than what they can give away or afford to lose. You gather enough courage to go tell an acquaintance the story of your dreams, and ask for a N200K loan for example. After you are done, he offers to chip in N10K as a gift. He is saying that he does not want the hassle of being owed, with the likelihood of not seeing his money again. He has had his fingers burnt so many times, he has become credit shy. To show his support by the way, here is N10K. Besides, he has his own business plan too. He did not come to Lagos to admire the flyovers.
The best place to borrow from is your savings, followed by the banks. We are all familiar with the story of borrowing from banks, even before the global credit squeeze. They withhold credit when you need it most, and beg you to have some, when you don’t need it anymore. They are just being cautious. Bad loans is a nightmare to banks, so when your track record is not known, yes comes very slowly.
To be able to save, you have to control your expenses. You have to stay on top of your personal finances. You need to have a plan for your personal finance, and work towards it. You have to cut your coat according to your cloth, not according to your size. You can downsize to fit your cloth. You have to learn how to do long term planning, rather spend on impulse fuelled by peer pressure. You can also time your purchases to coincide with when the item goes on sale or are cheaper. For example, air fares are much cheaper when you purchase online months ahead, rather than some days before. You have to spend on good books that will put you through the paces. There are excellent resources on the internet too.
If you cannot control thousands and decide to shoot for millions, in the unlikely event that you make it, without the capacity to manage it, you will soon be back to square one. Get the foundation right before you start building. Invest in your personal financial education.
– Usiere Uko is editor of www.financialfreedominspiration.com and author of Practical Steps to Financial Freedom and Independence – www.amazon.com/Practical-Steps-Financial-Freedom-Independence/dp/147006832X .
One of the greatest mistakes you can make is to launch a new idea without testing it. Many people lose thousands and millions of Naira every year on products they did not test before introducing them to the market. It’s true that the life of an entrepreneur is full of risky adventures but what we shall be discussing is how to take calculated risks.
How do you test an idea? How do you find out if people will buy it or patronize it? We shall be looking at several steps you can take before you invest too much time, money, emotion and other resources.
Be Your Own Devil’s Advocate
The easiest way to go about this is to attempt to disprove the idea that there exists a profitable demand for the product or service. If you cannot disprove this preposition, then by default you have reason to bring the product or service to the marketplace.
Seek Out People in the Same Business
A very important strategy in testing your idea is to seek out people who are already doing the same business and ask their opinions of the product or service. In the multitude of counselors there is safety. Share your idea with them and ask for their honest opinions. Don’t be afraid that someone will steal your idea. There are a thousand and one ideas out there for anyone to use. So be perfectly open.
Confirm the Demand
Before you introduce a new product or service to the marketplace, you need to make sure that there is or there will be a solid demand for it. During my speaking tour in Nairobi, I applied this technique. I produced a copy of the Audio CD of my speeches. The following day, I had an early morning program where I told the audience that the CD will be sold based on the demand and it will be available by tomorrow. Almost everyone paid. It was clear that the product will sell.
Check With Family & Friends
Family and friends are very good targets for market research. Ask your family and friends if they would buy the product or patronize the service. How much would they be willing to pay for it? Listen to their questions, criticisms and concerns. If you can’t answer their questions and concerns in a logical and convincing way, it could be that there is something wrong with your idea.
Create a Selling Promotion
A selling promotion is like an advertisement for a publication, a series of sales letters or emails. In the promotion, you would announce the product or service, and also tell people the particular time it will be available. Then you would give prospective customers the opportunity to pre-purchase at a discounted price with 100 percent money back guarantee. The key here is not to make money but to see if your customers or your marketplace will respond to your product.
Use The Seminar Approach
Organizing a seminar for your potential customers could be a great opportunity to test your idea. It will help you to have first hand information on the needs and concerns of the people. Before I published my bestselling book “There is Money in Your House” I had series of seminars with Churches on the topic. And the response from people was amazing. In fact most people were thrilled by just hearing the title. I didn’t need a seer to tell me that the book will be a market success.
Follow these steps to test your idea before you invest too many resources on it.
You will succeed!
– Chinedum Azuh
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EMAIL: learninglab4@gmail.com
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| Invest your time for eternity
Invest your life for the life to be Forever gone are the hours you’ve lost Don’t waste your life; count again the cost;
Your money place in the Saviour’s hand It’s only safe when in heaven’s strand You never lose what you give to God But lose all else when you withhold;
Invest your work in the Saviour’s plan Work hard for God and His will for man Don’t count the hours that you toil and plod You will reap again all you do for God;
Don’t waste your life for a passing joy Don’t sell your soul for a fragile toy Give till it hurts; give your very blood You live but once; LIVE ALL OUT FOR GOD. – segun eshorun |
| Thank God for his word. Thank God because it does not fail. Glory to God because the scriptures cannot be broken.
Like we said we must consciously sow seeds because they hold the key to the future. So what do we do? We must always remove the seed FIRST. Now you can view the seed in so many ways because really there are varieties of seeds. But let’s broadly have two classes. There are the First fruits. Ex 23:19 “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God.” This seed is so important not only for the increase it ensures but because it is an act of: WORSHIP – Deut. 26:10: “And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God” HONOUR – Proverb: 3:9 “Honor the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase” and is a simple way of showing “in all your ways acknowledge Him” financially. Simply put, set aside seed to be sown into the most fertile soil of ministry. Tope Aladenusi calls it “the investment with steady returns”
There is also the general seed that is kept to be invested in a variety of places. That’s the “Proverb 21:20: There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.” Friends it is foolishness to spend/eat all we have. There is a portion we withhold. “Proverb:11:24: There is he that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” Note the withholdeth more than is meet. So a part of all you have and get must be set aside for investment. Most times we don’t because we believe we don’t have enough in the first place, so why set aside something from nothing. Remember, the disciples saw five loaves and two fishes as nothing if five thousand people were to be fed, but Jesus taught them it was something.
God’s grace ensures you have something to invest. He ministereth both bread and seed. There is always a part that is tagged seed/investment in all that comes your way. If we save 10% of all we waste we will be 100% better each month. Do a simple exercise. Buy a small jotter; record ALL your expenses in a month. ALL. No matter how small and negligible it is. At the end of the month put each expense where they belong and see where your seed goes. Do something about it. Now! -emmanuel aladenusi
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