3 Areas Where Money Is Hidden - Business --- MUST READ

Elementary principles of economics has taught us that money is a medium of exchange. That money facilitate exchange of goods and services. Money is a legal tender that is used as a medium of exchange. And it comes in various forms; there is paper money and there are coins spent in different parts of the world. So, to get money, you need to exchange something for money. It may be a service or a products or goods. Everybody can identify money (perhaps for infants), and everybody wants money in varying degrees. Unfortunately, not many people know the principles that drives money. Not many people know how to make money. Not many people know how to multiply money. Not many people know the best way to preserve money for the future. All these I will share from time to time on this platform.

In today’s world, many people have many funny understanding of money. Someone said in Yoruba; ‘’Enu Kinihun ni owo wa’’ (Meaning: “Money lies in the mouth of lion’’) So if you believe in this philosophy that money lies in the mouth of lions, then how do you access money that is in the mouth of a lion without being a prey to the lion? People who believe this kind of ‘theology’ believe that getting money is a tall order. Someone also think it is a do-or-die affair. That for anybody to access money you must be ready to kill the ‘lion’ in whose mouth money is lying. What a lie!

The other philosophy people have about money is that you got to struggle or hustle for money. Struggling and hustling do not mean the same with hardwork or diligence. If you know what to do and do it well, money will come if you continue in that stead. It is not struggle or hustling that guarantee money otherwise those who hustle hawking on the street should be richer than others who don’t.

It is also crazy to think that there are people destined to have money. What you think and believe can limit you or uplift you. There is nobody that is destined to be poor. Yes, I know Jesus said;
“For the poor you have with you always…….’’Mathew 26 Vs 11, Mark 14 Vs 7 and John 12 Vs 8.

We often qoute this scripture to justify our resolve to remain poor but you need to know that in the context of the above scripture, Jesus was not talking about money. He was passing a comment to his disciple who rebukked Mary Magdalene who poured expensive fragrance oil on Jesus. I believe what Jesus meant is that those who are poor in understanding you will always have them. To be poor in understanding is to reason spiritual things in money perspective! Assuming he was even talking about money, is it justifiable that you remain poor after Christ had become poor so that you and I might become rich through His poverty?2 Corinthians 8 Vs 9

God created all humans the same though we may have different height, size or skin colour. And he also gave man same amount of time. Everybody all over the world have their own share of 24 hours. If you are interested in making money, what we do with the resources at our disposal will determine how much money we make.

BUT DOES EVERYBODY HAVE THE SAME OPPORTUNITY AT GETTING MONEY?

Everybody have the same opportunity at getting money if you render a service or create a product or goods to exchange for money.

DOES EVERYBODY HAVE THE SAME OPPORTUNITY AT GETTING RICH?
First we need to understand from my personal opinion that having money is not the same as being rich. And being rich is not the same as being wealthy. Though people use ‘rich’ or ‘wealthy’ loosely but both words have deeper meaning than money. Being rich is relative. Being wealthy is relative and both should not be considered only in terms of money. Generally, someone is considered to be rich by what you have in terms of money, influence, asset, etc. For me what I consider as ‘wealthy’ is what you do with what you have! So you get my drift now when I say, being rich is not the same as being wealthy. If you have money, influence, asset etc and you are not impacting lives, you are of all men most miserable because God gave you all those not for your selfish use but for the benefit of others around you.

Another flawed thinking about money that is common amongst our church brethren is the saying that ‘’Money is the root of all evil’’. Hey, if you believe that you believe a lie. That is NOT what the Bible says. The Bible says;
“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows”
1 Timothy 6 Vs 10
Can you see from above scripture that money is not the problem but greediness?
Ok, lets go to the subject matter of discuss;
3 AREAS WHERE MONEY IS HIDDEN

1. Money is hidden in Ideas: Which idea do you have? What idea has been on your mind, most dominant and you are afraid to carry it out. Someone once said that the grave is full of men with ideas. I beg you by the mercy of God, don’t take your ideas to the grave. Pray about it thoroughly and begin to execute it. Ideas can be God given and it can be self-given. If the idea is God given, it can never ever die. If it is self-given you will struggle and it will eventually die no matter how long or how much effort you put into it.

2.Money is hidden in your talent and skill: What Skill or talent do you have? Are you developing your talent and skill in any way? How frequently are you doing that? The challenge with many people here is that they know their talent or skill but how to convert the talent to cash is their challenge. If that is you, you can do me a mail via the link below and lets have a chat. Or better still, locate any successful person or persons in your field who may be willing to guide you in that area.

3.Money is hidden in the challenges in your environment: The more problems in your environment, the more challenging the society is, the more money there is to make. It is possible to make legitimate money in any society or country where there are challenges. Interestingly, there is no society or country without a challenge! Think about the solutions to the problems in the environment where you live and you will be on the way to making serious money!

God is not against Christians making money but He is against you making it at the expense of your soul or salvation. He cares about how the money is made. Just imagine that Job was righteous and rich, same for Abraham. You don’t need to cut corners, cheat, defraud someone or defraud an organisation, deal in drugs or engage in prostitution or armed robbery, kidnapping etc to make money. If you have a relationship with God through Jesus, He will tell you how to make money. Truth is you can make money without God. But the money you make in unGodly way can never ever confer rest and peace of mind and you can never pass it on to the next generation. There are people who are stinkingly rich who are sick and stinking and no deodorant can clean them up because their money was from a dirty source ! Except you repent and become sober and regenerated in Christ Jesus, your life will end like the Biblical Nabal, the rich fool!!

Ladies and gentlemen, it just does not make any sense to claim to serve a BIG God and you live beggarly on people. It just does not make any sense to have a Father as rich as God and you languish in poverty and penury!

Friends, nobody has the monopoly of making money. Until you make up your mind to make money, you will be a spectator watching others make good, clean money

0

How To Overcome Spending Without Caution - Business

The unlimited nature, wants, and needs of man makes ‘careful spending’ a tedious task for everyone. Though money would naturally be spent to satisfy a need, it becomes a more viable asset when such need is well thought out before spending on it, after which you make a quantitative expression of a plan which would last within the period of time you want it to. i.e within the range of time you want those needs to be satisfied.

It is believed that when money is unavailable, many needs begin to flow through one’s thought thereby making one feel financially handicapped, depressed and sometimes frustrated. However, once the money becomes available these needs seem to disappear from the mind and you find yourself spending on things not budgeted for.

This is the major reason for extravagant spending, financial experts say in such case one ends up spending more money than necessary.

Therefore, in order for you to spend wisely, the following must be put into consideration:

Create a plan : It is very essential to plan before your income arrives and avoid planning beyond your income. Plan and then make reserve. This helps you to withstand problems and emergencies that comes thereafter and keeps you from borrowing and piling up debts. While doing this, don’t forget to plan your spending according to the resources and important needs that you have at hand. Hence, make a list of things needed and stick to them when money becomes available.

This created plan should not be kept in thought because there is a greater probability of it evaporating at the appearance or arrival of money, hence, it should be written down and adhered to. Lack of planning and budgeting results to spending money not originally intended for, especially when they are not of necessity at that time.

Satisfaction of pressing needs: Things that are needed most should be satisfied first before the others i.e. the highly pressing issues should be at the top of the list indicating its pressure on which it has to be met. if For instance, you want to buy an expensive bracelet and a wristwatch, bracelet portrays no economic value or purpose than the wristwatch, so you can put that aside. Don’t buy things that attracts your eyes when it sure can’t serve any positive purpose

Spending within your means : This implies spending within your capability and strength and avoiding every extra cost that is not budgeted for so as not to end up a debtor. Make sure you buy those things you have already proposed to, as you have already listed out according to your scale of reference.

Contentment: Be pleased, proud and satisfied with whatever you have, either big or small. Contentment with your salary allows you spend prudently according to the limit of your income. It takes discipline to be contented in spending. When you’re not disciplined in spending, you discover that is either you bought little or what you has worth no use at all. Satisfaction helps you to be able to ignore irrelevant purchases focusing on needs and making progress within your financial capacity. Lack of this major component leads to serious extravagant spending.

0

5 THINGS EVERY NIGERIAN SHOULD KNOW AND DO

If you are not feeling the wind now, don’t worry, you will soon get it. Some of us in the IT world were the first hit, my mouth was wide agape when I saw my web hosting invoice for last month.

The devaluation of the Naira is an evil wind that blows no body any good, except for some peculiar people, I will let you know about them later. I heard Baba Dangote lost some serious dough and even some banks are looking at their staff with “one kind eye”.

Well times are hard and may still be, the Federal Government just wanted to devalue the Naira by only 10% but now it’s over 20%, who added the extra 10%, well that same hand may still make it to 25% or more, who knows.

Yes, if every Nigerian will know and implement the recommendations below, we will be fine, I promise, or economics promise.

1. Think Export not Import

Forget all those hype about using 10k to start import business, the major flaw in that line of trade is the marketing part. How do you sell when there are cheaper alternatives on ground?

There are still some rays of opportunity in the import business, but for now export makes the most sense.

With the devaluation of the Naira, may countries will be looking on to Nigeria as a cheaper source of raw material and a good investment destination, though some are still afraid, it’s your duty to allay their fears by doing honest business in accordance to best global practice.

Don’t think export is that complicated, just the same way you import, it starts with getting the right information, understanding the process, identifying the key players, networking with the right people, testing the waters, positioning yourself and maximizing your reach.

The best way to position yourself is by getting a cooperate website and or a cooperate identity, stock your portfolio with verifiable information you know your prospects will need, promote it through social interactions, watch the inquiries come in and aim for conversion.

You can get a professional website at a very affordable price here.

2. Patronize Made-in-Nigeria Products:

Yes I agree with you that most Made-in Nigeria products suck in quality with respite to their foreign counterparts. Maybe our indigenous producers haven’t understood that Nigeria has the highest buying power in Africa and rank very high in the world.

In my opinion, the more we patronize made in Nigeria products, the more our indigenous producers aim for quality and grow in their capacity.

By doing this, we are strengthening the home grown economy (Local Content) by reducing capital flight and creating job opportunities, cushioning the effects of retrenchment, downsizing and austerity measures. Yea, it’s time to “rock” the ABA-MADE designers with no apology, they will have cause to expand beyond Nigeria now.

3.Invest, Don’t Save:

Looks like an Irony right, but that’s the truth, the money in the bank will continue to depreciate with the falling economy, but if you invest wisely now most businesses are downsizing, selling off or liquidating, you will grow with the next wave of economic boom.

If you must save, (I don’t know why), you should convert the cash into dollar or any other strong currency.

In times of economic down turn, people tend to panic, sell off the extra cars, sell of the business that is going down, or anything that may not be making money at the moment, buy them if they are assets, don’t take pity while making the bargains, go as low as possible, you will get things at ridiculous prices. Remember to close the deal as fast as possible.

People will be hungry, they will sell off stuffs, lands, house e.t.c buy them, get virtual contracts online and hire people to execute them.

Don’t forget to invest in people too. At the end, only buy or invest in Assets not liabilities (luxury)

4. Become Financially Literate:

A financial literate is one who knows the difference between an asset and Liability (Carpenter’s perspective), you should be able to recognize them, appraise them and buy or discard them.

It’s time to read, it’s time to attend lectures and seminars, it’s time to study, yes, study about money, know very much about the economy, appraise investment opportunities, and invest in the passive income quadrant.

You can’t be a financial literate overnight, you have to start from the basics, the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki will set you in the right frame of mind. It’s not late to get started now.

After every economic gloom, the economy of a state raises again stronger than it was, , old players who lose their footing are laid aside new players with higher financial intelligence make it big. Only the financial genius rise stronger with the economy, are you one?

5. Take Your Business Online

Yes the slogan is “globalize the local and localize the global”. The simplest window to going global is through the internet. You don’t have to own a complicated website to be online, you can start with your twitter or facebook profile, you can start from Nairaland or any other forum website.

When you get your footing and understand how the internet works, you can then step up your game and go for a website, don’t see owning a website as a complicated process. Just see it as your business “Curriculum Vitae” that is online.

Prospects what to know about you, about your product and or services and how they can patronize you, your website serves that purpose.

You can get a standard, professionally built and designed for conversion for just Naira N10,000.

We are currently running a promo aimed at getting 100 businesses online before the end of April, be part of this move with numerous benefits. 

0

Must Read: FIVE Tips To Becoming A successful Business Man

Did you know that the owner of the SnapChat application Evans Spiegel once turned down a $3 Billion offer from Facebook for the sale of his application? Now the application is worth over $10billion and he isn’t stopping there.

To attain fulfilment in life, here are Five tips to guard you

1. Appreciate your Effort and little Achievement: Give yourself a moment to appreciate what you’ve achieved, but no more. When the time comes to move forward, move! Success is but a single point on a much longer journey, it is not the end of that journey. Imagine a company like Apple stopping after the invention of Apple iPod or Henry Ford deciding the Model T car was good enough , where would they be today without people constantly striving to improve upon what they’ve already achieved?

2. Learn from Failure and Find Things to Improve on: If success is a marker on your journey, failure is the map. When we fail, we discover something important about ourselves. We discover how to persevere, how to get better, and what does NOT work. We discover which paths to avoid and it fine tunes our approach. Revel in failure and learn from it at every step. The most successful entrepreneurs in history are remembered for their triumphs but will tell you only of their failures and how they learned from them.

3. Visualise the Positive and you will discover the Next Step: When the next step is unsure, imagine what it COULD be. Imagine the successes you can have and how you will use those to get closer to your goal. Imagine the knowledge you will gain even if you fail to achieve the results you are striving for. Whatever you do, visualise yourself doing something. It might feel like you’re looking out over a cliff, unsure of what’s beyond the clouds but know that whatever you find beyond those clouds is exactly what you’ve been looking for.

4. Discover your path to Success: Every path is different and those who enjoy and learn from the steps in their personal path to success will thrive. Be the one who finds joy in even the hardest moments and you will never dread what comes next on the arduous journey you’ve set yourself on.

5. Recognise the potential in those moments and use them to propel yourself forward: This is where most Humans fail and a tiny percentage of humans excel. Recognising the potential in something that lack lustre, grabbing every opportunity by the horns. When you recognise that -Nothing is too small – You will find yourself amassing so much success. The insight of that application all started when the owner of Snap Chat Evan Spiegel recognised the potential in a problem! His college friend Reggie Brown said something to the effect of “I WISH THERE WAS AN APP TO SEND DISAPEARING PHOTOS” after he had uploaded some photos to the disgust of his family members .

BE INSPIRED, BE MOTIVATED.

0

How to avoid start-up mistakes --- Business

Udeme Ekwere writes on common mistakes of start-up businesses and ways to avoid them

Sometimes, a business is doomed to fail from the beginning because the entrepreneur failed to recognise and implement basic steps that help to build a business.

In some climes, up to 70 per cent of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises fail within the first year and close to 50 per cent of the remaining 30 per cent fail within the next three years.

An entrepreneur must ensure that he takes time to learn the ropes and carry out proper research before getting involved in any kind of business.

Experts have said that the incidence of failure can be minimised with effective business planning.

Prospective business owners are also encouraged to conduct adequate feasibility studies before venturing into any business. They should also avoid the bandwagon, as innovation is the key to success in business.

Below are some indicators that business owners have to pay particular attention to if they are to build and operate successful businesses.

Know the market

A major reason why companies fail is that they run into the problem of little or no market for the product that they have created. Experts say it is essential for would-be business owners to go into a businesses with high product demand.

An Enterpreneur, Mr. David Skok, says that this can either be due to simple execution, or a more strategic problem, which is a failure to achieve product/market fit.

He says, “Most of the time the first product that a start-up brings to market would not meet the market need. In the best cases, it will take a few revisions to get the product/market fit right. In the worst cases, the product will be way off base, and a complete re-think is required.

“If this happens it is a clear indication of a team that didn’t do the work to get out and validate their ideas with customers before, and during, development.”

Adequate cash flow

It has been said that cash is the lubricant needed to oil a business. A major reason that start-ups fail is because they run out of cash. A key job of an entrepreneur is to understand how much cash is left and whether that will carry the company to a milestone that can lead to a successful financing, or to cash flow positive

Many start-up entrepreneurs are usually not concerned with backup plans, and they also don’t keep funds for emergencies. To enable a backup plan to function properly, it is equally important to keep sufficient funds aside to fund those solutions.

Start-up businesses usually involve huge sums. The business owner may not have put his own money in the project, or perhaps could have got funding from banks or other financial institutions.

Skok explains, “In such circumstances, unprofessional handling of financial affairs could lead to losses, which in turn may prevent the business owner from getting future monetary help from these institutions.

“Having emergency funds can also help put off foreclosure from clients who reneged on their payments, or losses suffered from damaged or missing stock, until the flow of income steadies out to give stability to the company.”

Focus on your strategy

The best thing about start-up businesses is their willingness to pursue plans. They would give their all, for the plan to work perfectly but as soon as they face a hitch, some will waver, and start looking to approach the process differently.

Every start-up business works on and around a planned strategy, the approach of entrepreneurs might be a little different, but it is important for them to stick to the chosen approach.

Experts have said that changing an approach too soon may likely lead to confusion and rather than solve the problem, it may leave one dangling between two possible paths of solution with no end in sight.

Such fickle-mindedness speaks about the level of on the part of the entrepreneur, and means that the business owner did not do proper homework before jumping into the business.

Changing methods too soon will hamper growth, because you will have to start learning about the new method before implementing it. Give your methods some time, or put in some more effort and you might get the results you want.

Perseverance

Perseverance is very important to ensure the successful running of a business. It is simply a conscious persistent determination. It involves regularly evaluating each one of your goals and actions deciding whether or not you should keep going.

A business analyst, Mrs. Adejoke Onabanjo, says in Nigeria, many people who give up in business will always have one or two things to put the blame on.

Although, everyone is aware of the economy which does not make doing business an easy feat, there are issues with multiple tax, that many people try to evade at every opportunity, electricity and finding the right personnel to work with.

“To overcome this, you need to view the world as one full of endless possibilities. Once you are pursuing your heart’s true desire, smart perseverance takes care of itself. You will be naturally motivated to pursue your desires,” she says.

0

Ways To Turn Your Ideas Into Reality - Business

John intends to start a business, Ada wants to write a book and Bayo is good at music and wants to become a professional musician. They have many ideas running through their minds about these things they want to do. John has a lot of business ideas, Ada has ideas of different plot lines for her book and Bayo has a lot of good tunes in mind. But they all have a common problem - how will they bring these ideas to reality?
Ideas are great but unless something is done with them, they remain worthless.

In this post, I will try to suggest ways to go about bringing your ideas to reality. The points are not exhaustive because I intend to make it brief. Please stay with me.

1. Get organised.
Scott Belsky in his book on this subject states that a surplus of ideas is as dangerous as a lack of it. The tendency to jump from one idea to another drains your energy and you struggle to make progress. Without some structure, you can become an addict of the brain-spinning indulgence of idea generation.

Let's consider two individuals, Tunde and Ahmed. Tunde has a lot of ideas but is so disorganized that no particular idea is fully realised while Ahmed with half the creativity and just a little more organisational ability makes more progress in implementing his ideas.
So we can see that someone with average creativity but good organisation skill will make a greater impact than the disorganised creative geniuses among us. This is why some 'less creative' artists might produce more work than their talented inventive counterparts.

You could boast and say 'I've got a lot of good ideas!' but it's of no use if you never turn any of them into reality. Remember, people cannot see into your brain to know what great ideas you have in there (at least not yet, I haven't heard of any device that can do that or have you?)
Therefore no matter the number of fantastic ideas you have running through your brain, you need to prioritize and focus on one or find a way to channel all of them in one direction(if possible) in order to get something out of those ideas. This will require some discipline.

2. Motivate yourself.
The world can sometimes be a cruel place and doing the unfamiliar brings you face to face with resistance.
In the words of Scott Belsky, society is a bit hypocritical. The mainstream shuns creative people especially when they defy the status quo. Dropping out of school or choosing an alternative career is frowned upon but at the same time we celebrate the successes of artists and entrepreneurs who took that path and have enriched various aspects of our lives. Society thus celebrates the outcome of what it frowns at. So you see that you may not get all the support you need from people around you and God help you if your idea is not what people are used to.

Hence you will have to learn to maintain your confidence when doubted. This means you need to believe in the success of the idea you are pursuing even amidst contrary opinions. Remember, there will always be naysayers.

3. Take the bold step.
Stepping out into the unknown can be scary. We all experience that inertia and that is why most ideas die before they come into reality.
But sometimes you just need to step out and you will be surprised at how things will fall in place.

Some years back, my friends and I had an idea about hosting an academic program for kids. We were still in the university at that time and we did not have enough money for the project. We needed to involve some VIPs and that would cost money. The odds were really against us but we stepped out anyway.
In the end, we were able to raise the amount we needed for the project. How did we do it? We were simply passionate about what we wanted to do and were able to sell our idea to those who eventually supported us even though they had not seen such a program before.
That made me realise that anything is possible and sometimes you just have to step out and begin to pursue whatever you have in mind even against the odds.

Let's say you want to write a book and ideas have been coming to you. But because you don't see the possibility of publishing the book due to lack of finance or other constraints, you have decided to neglect those ideas. Don't do that anymore. Start writing the manuscript of that book and put your best into it. You may be surprised that someone will like your work and offer to help you publish it. Even if nobody recognizes you immediately, keep writing and one day, the breakthrough will come for you.
Same goes for any venture you want to go into. Start small and watch it grow into something big.
One problem we have is that we see people who have built large business empires and celebrities who are excelling in their careers and tend to get discouraged. But the fact is, they did not just get there overnight. It took years of working on their ideas until they became reality.

4. Involve other people.
Sometimes you get more out if your ideas when you involve others. The idea of hosting a program for kids that I mentioned earlier was actually brought up by one of us and we all joined hands to make it work. The idea would have died if my friend insisted on doing it alone because it would have been extremely difficult for him to do it all by himself.
Nothing will assist your idea more than a team of people who possess real positive initiative.
The humbling truth is that ideas don't always happen through solitary ingenuity. Other people always play a role in pushing your ideas forward through their valuable suggestions. Your idea could gain a new dimension for good when others get involved.
Involving others make you accountable for being productive and following through with your project. If you work in isolation, your ideas come and go without accountability and stimulation from others.
Partnership helps you capitalize on feedback and it also helps you share the burden of executing the project.
However, partnerships must be carefully formed to avoid engaging the wrong people in your project. That would obviously be counterproductive. Don't involve just any kind of person in your project. Some people will end up killing your idea

As I conclude, let me say a few things worthy of note.
As you pursue your idea, don't get caught up in the novelty of what you are doing that you loose touch with what has already been done before. Note that not much is entirely new and you can learn from the past. As you encounter things during the the execution of your idea, know that the situation you face isn't as isolated and unique as you think. You can tap into previous knowledge which is usually risk-free and time-tested.
As you harness lessons from the past, you must also question them not in a bid to discard them but to avoid being imprisoned by the status quo. While it is certainly good to find and follow time-tested methods as you pursue your projects, it is dangerous to passively accept advice. Hence, rather than carrying on with the way things have always been done, recognise that anything can be done better.


I have to stop here. I can't exhaust all there is to be said on this subject but I believe you get the point I'm trying to make in this post. Thank you for reading. I do hope you found the post helpful.

Feel free to share how you've been able to bring some of your ideas to reality.

1