BEFORE YOU START THE BUSINESS - PART 1

Setting up your own business is exciting, but can also be challenging if you’re not prepared. You may be thinking of starting a new business, or you may be looking to take over an existing business. Perhaps you have decided to turn your hobby into a business. 

The first and most important step to take before you start the business is to anaylise your business idea, to understand the differences between a business and a hobby and decide if you are aiming to run a business for fun or for value creation.  

Before you get started, think through your business concept and decide on your goals and objectives. Find out if there is a need for your products or services, and who are your competitors.

Research all aspects of your business idea by gathering, analysing and evaluating information, and then decide whether the market can sustain your business.

Some questions you could

TREAT ME LIKE MONEY.

(the value of time) 

Several times in my life, I have found money while walking down the street. The most I ever found was a five-niara note. That was exciting! Usually, it was a token or a dime. Sometimes I found money while watching my father's clothes or under a tree. Never have I 'found' twenty minutes or even ten minutes. Several times I have been given gifts of time when a doctor or someone else wasn't ready for me, and gave me a few minutes to read something while I waited for them. 

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with #86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!

Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.

·         To realize the value of TEN YEARS, ask the newly divorced couple.

·         To realize the value of FOUR YEARS, ask the college graduate.

·         To realize the value of A YEAR, ask a student who has failed his final exam.

·         To realize the value of A MONTH, ask a mother who's given birth to a premature baby.

·         To realize the value of A WEEK, ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

·         To realize the value of A DAY, ask a daily wage laborer who has bills to pay.

THE CONCEPTS OF WEALTH CREATION

{Excerpts from My Book; WALKING IN FINANCIAL FREEDOM}

Money needs to be understood. Most people never understand the basics of money and then they wonder why it never gets well with them. Financial language is different. Even if you are not a student of finance or economics knowing some simple terms like net worth, assets, liabilities, investment, liquidity, bearish and bullish markets, simple and compound interests, etc is a good idea. Remember, money is used by all, so it is important to know how it operates. Only when you know the language of the money you can know and understand what it says to you.

Wealth can simply be described as your ability to sustain “a lifestyle”, and to spend money on whatever you choose without depleting your cash flow. This can only be achieved if, through careful planning, you can subsume all your expenses within your income and live comfortably without working for the rest of your mortal life. Please, try and measure your definition of wealth in time. Take for instance, if you lose your job today, how many days can you survive based on your assets? This should be a food for thought for you if you are employed, what are you investing your income on? You must have assets generating income to cover all your monthly expenses, that is how you can be independently wealthy.

What are Assets and Liabilities here?

Assets are income-generating properties. Things that put money into your pocket i.e. stocks, bonds, mutual funds, commercial properties, skills, special abilities, businesses, etc

Liabilities are money-consuming properties. Things that take money out of your pocket i.e. personal belongings (Clothes etc), cars, etc

Now that you know what Assets and Liabilities are, what is your net worth?

Net worth is calculated by subtracting your liabilities from your assets. You may be a high-income earner yet be a low-net-worth individual. This means that your outflow (expenses) is greater than your inflow (income). This scenario applies to most people and even countries. On the other hand, you could be a low-income earner and have a high net worth. This means that not only do you live within your means, but you endeavor to create a surplus at all times. This is the best way to create wealth; you use money to create more money. Otherwise, one will leave all his/her lives on the deficit, serving people with a surplus. The “financial world” is a hoax where many people sweat the stuff for few to reap whether at the individual, corporate or country levels.

I DARE YOU...!!!

I am sure I have two categories of people reading this; {.....the PREVILEDGED and the LESS PREVILEDGED}. I mean in terms of employment.

If you are an Employee, congratulations! You are one of the privileged ones. There are millions of people out there who desire to be earning the meager salary that you earn.........., there are thousands of people with better qualifications than yours who are praying to be doing the dirty job you think you are doing.

Whether the job is paying you small or big, whether you are satisfied with it or not, what is most necessary is what you are able to bring out of it. Can you think of the years you have spent on that job? Can you list those things you have always wanted to achieve but have not because your salary is not always enough? I have one message for you........, [start thinking investment].

Tolu, why this preaching? .........I want you to stop complaining and start seeing yourself among the privileged ones. Then