Personal Finance
How to fund your business without a debt sentence (Part 1)
The lack of funding is a great excuse for people who are not really ready to start a business.
According to Mark Cuban, one of American’s entrepreneurs, owner of Dallas Mavericks, and TV Personality, the biggest mistake most people make is to think that they have to raise money to start a business.
As a financial advisor, I totally agree with Mark. There is no such thing as a successful business that became successful because of funding. Yet every week I receive tons of emails asking for advice on how to raise money or if I would invest in their businesses.
The answer always is “No” and you will discover the reason at the end of this article.
While I understand that certain businesses genuinely do need funding, and while funding is necessary at certain stages in a business, I do not think that every business needs funding to get started. And in fact, the majority of funding needs are not real funding needs, but the lack of ability to create money from thin air.
Most Funding requests are disguised gap in creativity and sales skills. Because with the right sales and creative skills, you can create the amount of money that you want. And you can also break down your business into the version that you can fund with your own money.
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Thus funding problem is majorly disguised creativity and sales problems. And quite frankly the lack of funding is a great excuse for people who are not really ready to start a business.
I know this because great entrepreneurs are not stopped by funding challenges. And the greatest entrepreneurs in the world all started in spite of funding challenges.
Amazon started out from the garage of Bezos’ in Bellevue, Washington. He started out with funding of almost $250,000 from his parents.
Facemash now Facebook started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and a group of friends. They started out with sweat equity, technical skills, and the ability to sell their idea and build a solid community.
Apple started out in Jobs’ garage on April 1, 1976, by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. They started their business with sweat equity, technical skills, and the ability to sell a not so perfect Apple 1 product without a monitor, keyboard, or casing.
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Bill Gates and his business partner Paul Allen built the world’s largest software business, Microsoft, from technological innovation, keen business strategy, and aggressive business tactics.
You will find a similar story for Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, Dangote, and so on.
These men built their businesses from the ground up with sweat equity, the right attitude, personal savings, or support from families. Funding did not stop them and funding will not stop you if you are serious about entrepreneurship. Quite frankly funding at the early stage of a business increases business stress, dilutes control, and expands leadership complexity.
So while you may fantasize about some strange investor sent by God coming along. To lift your business off the ground. In reality, this rarely happens. You must find ways to fund your way to a proven business model. Investors rarely fund ordinary ideas or struggling businesses. They fund businesses that are already succeeding but need funding to expand that success. This is why banks rarely lend to SMEs but do so easily to successful businesses. And why the majority of successful business owners started off on their own
So why do people still waste time looking for funding?
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People gravitate towards funding for three reasons. The first is the Fantasy of overnight success. The second is the desire to use another person’s money to fix fundamental problems. That can only be solved through discipline and hard work. And the third is to make an already successful business even more successful.
Among these three reasons, only one is of interest to the investor. Investors are not on a mission to rescue your business or make you rich. They are on a mission to increase their wealth and achieve more financial success. They will only invest in businesses that can help them achieve their goals. And until your business develops this capacity you are not yet funding worthy.
Thus the only purpose for funding is to transfer investor’s idle funds or funds that are less optimized to a profitable business vehicle. That has the capacity to generate higher profits. This means that your business must have the capacity to turnaround investors’ money very quickly. If your business is not yet at this stage. You should focus on bringing it up to this stage and then attracting investor’s funding can become easy for you.
The key to successful funding is to answer the three funding questions. First, is my business fundable? Second, do I need funding for wealth-creating purposes? And third is my business at the stage where it can turn around investors’ money without losing it? Answering these questions is key to funding your business.
A business is ready for funding when it has certain key attributes. There are seven key attributes that attract investors and make a business funding worthy.
Watch out for the next part of this interesting series
About author
Grace Agada is The Senior Financial Happiness Director @ Create Solid Wealth. She is an Author and Column Contributor in Six National Newspaper. She is a contributor at BellaNaija, Nairametrics and Proshare and she is on a mission to help working-class professionals and CEOs become more financially successful. To learn more about Grace and how she can help you send an email to [email protected]
Personal Finance
How interest rates impact your wallet
It is imperative to understand how interest rates impact our wallets.
In the financial world, the interest rate plays a huge role in any financial transaction. Interest rate is the proportion of money a borrower pays for an asset or any form of debt. It is the return or interest paid to the financial service provider.
In Nigeria, interest rates are by financial institutions and the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) assigned by the federal government to keep interest rates at a moderate and stable price level for proper economic growth.
When it comes to interest rates, either increasing rates or declining rates, the economy gets influenced in many ways. Rates of interest ascertain economic performance. Lower interest rates are a sign of a slow or poor economy as interest rates are changed to enable cash flow.
Higher interest rates are, in turn, viewed as an indicator of a healthy economy with favorable cash flow. Interest rates can slow down or improve an economy. It is necessary to examine the various aspects of our financial life influenced in different rate scenarios to understand how interest rates impact our wallets;
Some ways interest rate can impact your finance are:
Saving Culture
Many factors influence how an individual saves, but a decline in interest rates tends to discourage saving because the reward is affected. A higher interest rate makes it attractive to save money as it enhances increased return. Thus, a change in interest rates influences an individual saving, which is an essential part of financial planning.
Loans
How you will be affected by a change in interest rate depends on if you are inclined to borrowing or investing. Because the interest placed on loans will be less, lower interest rates offer more opportunities to borrow or acquire cheaper loans, which means it favours the borrowers. People are discouraged from getting loans to invest in their businesses because a higher interest rate translates to a higher borrowing cost.
Expenses
Lower interest rates allow companies to acquire less costly loans that impact the price of the goods they sell. As far as expenses are concerned, people will have more funds to spend on goods and services.
Income
Interest rates can have an impact on the income people earn by affecting economic growth. Slow economic growth will influence the level of income earned. With substantially less income, people will have less cash to survive on.
When setting financial goals and making meaningful decisions regarding one’s finances, understanding the impact interest rates have on one’s life can help.
Personal Finance
5 Key habits of people who are very good at saving money
Let’s quickly highlight 5 key habits usually found in individuals who are very good at saving money.
Saving money is hard. Period. This is a well-known fact. Despite the vast amount of information on ways and techniques to save money out there, 90% of people still struggle with it.
A large percentage of the working demographic live paycheck to paycheck. A huge chunk of this percentage is swimming in an ocean of debts. Avoiding calls and burning bridges, in a bid to save face.
When it comes to personal finance and savings, there are two foremost arguments
- The Income argument
- The Individual argument
The Income school of thought argues that for you to be able to save money, you must be earning enough. This means that the art of saving is largely dependent on the income earned.
The Individual argument postulates that if you can’t manage the little you earn, there is no guarantee you will be able to save when you start earning more. This means that the art of saving has more to do with the individual involved than the income in question
Whatever side of the argument you lean on, I believe you must have come across people who are simply just good with money. it seems to come naturally to them. They have so much control over their financial life that other people confidently entrust them with their own money.
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After a little bit of research, we want to quickly highlight 5 key habits usually found in individuals who are very good at saving money. There might be other factors, but these five habits are always present.
Delayed Gratification
Money smart individuals are not impulsive when it comes to spending money. Put in simple terms, they buy because they need and not because they want. They seem to defy the general rule of marketing which believes that human beings naturally make purchases based on emotions and not logic.
They are not lured by the appeal of big brands and most times go for products that will last a long while
Individuals who are good with saving money make a lot of sacrifices for the greater good ahead. They just don’t set saving goals, they have the discipline to achieve them.
They readily sacrifice the little joys of evening shawarma to make rent at the end of the year without going broke.
Delayed gratification is one key habit that is always present in individuals who are very good with money.
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Obsessed With Self Control
Individuals who are very good at saving money usually exhibit a high level of self-control in other areas of their life. A closer look will reveal that they portray the same meticulous approach they have with money in other areas of their lives.
Many were taught by their parents from an early stage, while some picked it up themselves while growing up.
Individuals who are good with money possess extraordinary willpower which keeps their human side in check. This helps them live below their means and always dredge up extra cash to save.
Big Record Keepers
Not many people know the exact amount they spent last month. It takes a meticulous individual who is obsessed with saving every penny to go that far.
Money smart individuals keep clear records of all their transactions. These records help them draw up a savings plan or goal.
Money smart individuals see shopping as a big occasion. They don’t trivialize the art of spending money as ordinary people do. They keep good records of all transactions made and always reflect on them.
They have a good knowledge of the numbers and can always tell when they are overspending.
Numbers are critical!
Every Penny Counts
Individuals who are good with saving money have equal respect for an N1000 note and an N20 note. To them, there is no difference between the two. They treat money as an entity and do not apportion importance based on value.
Ordinary folks see an N20 bill as easily expendable, Money smart individuals see the missing N80 to make it an N100.
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Huge Fan Of Investing
Money smart Individuals always have a knack for investing their savings. The major driving force behind their saving habits is usually the love for investing. You cant be a successful investor if you don’t have idle cash to invest.
Money smart individuals are fund of making long term bets. They enjoy the idea of watching their money yield more money. They are obsessed with it.
They are always fishing for the latest smart investment opportunities available.
Their saving ethics is usually driven by the fear of missing out on a very good investment opportunity.
There might be other contributing factors behind the reason why some people are better at saving money than others.
We believe the above reasons are the foremost
The Good news is most of these habits can be adopted by people who are eager to join the elite club of money-smart individuals.
Today is the best day to start!
Ikenna Agu
January 24, 2021 at 1:26 pm
I agree with the idea of sales and creativity being key ingredients to self fund your business.
However, I do have issues with most of the people mentioned in reference to this article.
Whether you like it or not they had help, Steve Jobs garage belonged to his parents, Bill Gates had a lot of help from his mother.
250,000 Dollars as at when Bezos got it was still a lot of money, Elon Musk, Dangote etc go and check their back stories.
Information is free to share, but share it fairly, I know a lot of people who have been misguided by this notion of “doing it on their own”, they’re so blinded that they can’t see the “helping hand” much like the ones the people mentioned in your article got when it’s stating them in the face.
James Kase
January 26, 2021 at 3:34 am
I would have had a problem with the mentions but I think the author cleared herself out her. Read this paragraph as captioned below;
“These men built their businesses from the ground up with sweat equity, the right attitude, personal savings, or support from families.”
Evelyn
January 24, 2021 at 2:41 pm
Helpful and interesting.
Ben Ejembi
January 24, 2021 at 4:21 pm
Great insight God bless you
Udosco
January 31, 2021 at 9:11 am
Is there no longer a word like financial capital? Please we should not encourage people to start businesses without the required fundings, Cos that’s what leads to frustration.