Guard your money!

Sometimes a single business idea can be one of the causes of bankruptcy. Some organizations would have remained in business if they had known the strategy to differentiating and dissociating business ideas and personalities. Don’t throw away your money in today’s world of business, where the Dollar is crashing in value and the Cedis is rising in the same market. It shows that just anything can happen. And that applies to anyone and any business. Sometimes the best thing to do in business is to remain naïve because overconfidence can devastate even big corporation faster than you can imagine.
Today there are still misconceptions about what a good business idea is. Some people may refer to a good business as the one that has potential. Others may call it a business that can yield profit in short time. Another may define a good business as one that has the characteristics of perpetuity irrespective of who comes along to run it. The question is what do you want to build? Do you want to build a good business or the best business around? If you wanted the best corporation, then what does it take to build it?
One of the things that it takes to build the best corporation is brilliant idea. There are good idea, bad idea and brilliant idea! Investors are looking for brilliant idea. The difference in these three kinds of ideas will determine where your business will end. If your business is built on a good idea. It is a matter of time. If it is built on a bad idea, it may get obsolete. People can easily point to where your company used to stand each time they drive past. If it is not built on a bad idea, then why are you struggling in it? What makes that business stand out? How is it brilliant than others? It may not bring the result you want in the immediate period but it will not bring you into loss either. So a business that is hanging in the balance can still be a brilliant idea? Wait and read on. I understand that you want to know what it takes for a business to skyrocket.
I remember how I have invested into some business ideas without considering the principles I am about to share with you. I thought that mere consulting was all it takes. I thought that having good intention was all it takes. So I consulted with an “expert” but I still ended up losing my money. Accurate analysis of these principles I am about discussing will save you from losing money. I learnt them in a hard way and that is why I can make bold to say that it is not enough to have an idea. It is important to scrutinize the idea. Some ideas are mere charm. They look golden but lack substance. Meanwhile some ideas appear ludicrous yet they are very lucrative and worth all the risk. Hurriedly embracing an idea will be tantamount to throwing away your money. Moving from loss to loss can dampen your spirit and self esteem even though it’s been said that success is moving from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
This is an age of innovation where all idea has to be analyzed. This is because some ideas can wreck your life investment faster than you can ever imagine. What it takes to know they are superficial is a closer look. An objective stare, a more intentional analysis on the ideas will show you all the loop holes. The litmus for business idea in our environment has to transcend feelings and sentiments. Ideas have got to be tested based on facts. Let me quickly take you through the basics. The three basic tenets of any brilliant ideas are as follows:
#1. Evaluation: This is the step one in the scrutiny. The step by step of what the business will cost. Costing in terms of future value of the money invested. A brilliant evaluation leads to a successful business. A good evaluation of the business idea will show you how the idea will sell. It will address what it will cost to execute and when will the business break even? Reaching a point like this is easy in costing and budgeting. The question is this. How much would it cost to take it off the ground? If the amount expected to take the business off the floor is too outrageous and higher than necessary, it may be a red flag. If the business will gulp more at the beginning such that few amounts of money will trickle in at the break even period which may even take several months than necessary? It may be a bad idea to invest in it. You need to ask: at what point precisely will that business break will even. What will be the requirements for that to happen? At this stage, what does the business posses and what does it require? If it possess nothing and require everything from you. Execution of the idea may be unnecessary once it has failed evaluation test.
#2. Market! A ready market! And desperate Market! Another thing is who are the audience that will benefit from the business idea? You need to seek your customers first before you search for investor. Who are your clients and Customers? Are they asking for the product or services you are planning to sell or you are just thinking they will ask for it when you bring it to them? When you bring it on them, without their actual need of it, you will be at their mercy because they may not even want your product and services at all. You are going to be appealing to pity if you don’t gather customers first!
#3. Your experience: What is your track record? Have you done this before? What do you know about this business? Who have done it before? Why did those people succeed or fail? What was your result like when you did it? Are you planning to do it the same way they did it? What will make you stand out? This third principle is another thing investors are very concerned about. They don’t want to just throw their money into garbage. What have you sold so far concerning the product or service? Is this idea going to sell without manipulations? This third principle will prove your business idea. Don’t go into business idea without checking these things first. Don’t invest your money without understanding these theories.

So close to greatness...

“Whatever your hands find to do, do it diligently with all your heart”
-Scripture.
Working faithfully and quietly on a job you dislike sometimes may seem discouraging. The length of time you spend there may be like forever. It may look like there is no way out of the rut you got yourself into. I will tell you that when you are faithful there in that place. Promotion is certain…if you are faithful in little, God will make you master of many. You must have come across that scripture that said: “promotion does not come the south or from the east or west. Promotion comes from above.” God is a promoter and a rewarder. He rewards the diligent man and woman come what may.
I was at work going somewhere on bus when I met a certain lady who happens to be the Vice president and a Human resource manager of a reputable company in Manitoba, Canada. Sitting close to me on bus, she smiled like an everyday people. She was not dressing extraordinarily. Only heavens know what she was doing on bus. I would expect her to drive her own car around. Was she trying to conserve gas like me? Did she leave her car at home with her husband as I did with Ken? In a nutshell, we exchanged contacts and I was humbled that God can bring greatness to you right where you are. He knows your address. You need to understand that you are serving God and people… In that tedious job, work whole heartedly as a CEO or a clergy would do. Whether you are sitting on the board or serving God in the pulpit; put up a good attitude. You never know when greatness is closest to you.
Sometimes you never know who you are sitting next to. We come so close to greatness oftentimes than we can ever imagine. You can never know how much of greatness you may have snubbed on a certain day when you are having one of those bad days. You don’t even know who you are talking with or who is listening to you. Sometimes, somewhere close by is a stranger who is actually quiet but more interested in your conversation at times. That is why it is of utmost importance that we try to always show a good attitude. It is good to reflect the best side to people as much as we can. We should leave first timers and outsiders with a smile at any time we are parting from meeting. First impression always lasts longer. We should try to put up a good attitude everywhere we go. Being kind ambassador wherever we find ourselves is very important.
What really left an impression on me concerning my Vice president friend whom I met on bus was that, the humble lady happens to be so simple despite her reputable position in business world. She was just sitting by trying to engage me in a conversation. She already started talking to my company on bus. She was just being friendly, warm and pleasant to us. As she was being kind and friendly through her conversation, I was indifferent on my part. I was just there as though I was not there. I was not present minded as such. I sat tiredly on the bus thinking and reflecting… I was not really interested in talking with any one. I was interrupted by her question. “So how are you enjoying your job?” “It’s okay…it is all about being able to do something meaningful with your hands, investing your time and more. It’s a matter of having the gut to appreciate the dignity of labor.” I said. Sometimes it is not so much as what kind of job you are doing. Rather it is how do you really see what you are doing? Do you see it as an opportunity to pay bills, contribute your quota to the world, serve people and make a mark thereafter? These are what really matter. It is not that job in itself. It is how you see it. It is all about you. It is how you see yourself in that job. It’s about your ego... it is important that you take time to appreciate the opportunity to do, and to give something where some others can’t. When there’s a layoff here and there. It is vital you look beyond the brand of job to getting something to do which will bring in the money you need. As you do so diligently; God will look at your heart and bless you in turn...

HOW TO GET THINGS DONE WITHOUT SPENDING CASH [Part 3]

I learnt some of these principles I am about to share from my mother. Like so many people, my background and upbringing have shaped me. There are certain things we just pick up in growing up. There are certain principles we didn’t even read from books but which we are now writing into books. My mum likes to get things done without spending too much of cash. If she has to spend at all, she would prefer to pay a fair amount. She got a lot of things done so cheap! When I read her life like a book; I discovered that she knows how to make friends easily. She can make friend with a stranger in a blink! In getting her things done; she persuades people. Sometimes, it can be embarrassing because she will just apply this principle on anyone at anywhere. She just doesn’t care what you think of her.

Enough on my mother! If I ask you to take an inventory of your life right now, if you were to make a list of all your previous transactions, all the deals you’ve ever involved in. Is there anything you can find that you have bought that you could have gotten for free? What got in your way? Could it be your ego, Pride, class, or status? What were the things you bought recently? How much did you spend on each? Who could you have spoken to, that may have given you one or two of those items for free? Who in your network is able to give you things you may need next time? How will you prepare yourself, how will you package your request? Do you know how to deliver a speech delivery in order to make your request granted? Do you know what to do so that the other party will not say no to you?

The problem sometimes is in how we package our words...it is in how we ask what we ask for. Yes, I still make a mistake in this area myself. For instance, I ask hurriedly, I ask when my target is too stressed. I asked when my giver has nothing to give in some situation. I don’t wait patiently enough for the person to process my request positively. Sometimes I even want it right now! I could have asked for things that I have not earned enough trust to receive. Every now and then; I get into bumps like these and I get a no because I asked amiss. Sometimes, when we ask different things consistently from the same person, the person may feel overburdened and overwhelmed by our series of requests. That is why our approach matters. I am still learning how well to ask without getting a no from people. It may mean that I will need to become better at my negotiation skills. It may mean that I will have to stop asking desperately. It may mean that I will find a common ground. It may mean that I will need to think win-win more than ever before. It may mean that I will have to learn how my request will benefit the other party before I even make that request at all. That way, it will be a super win-win deal for us both.

Summarily, there are three vital aspects of getting things done without spending cash:
#1. Negotiation
#2. Speech delivery,
#3. Relationship

Negotiation: Here, we are concerned with details of the cost. What is the price? What is the amount required to get that thing done? What is the bargaining power involved? What is the amount on you as a potential buyer with which you want to trade? What is the flat rate? What is the industry price? Your target here is never to provoke the other party because you want to get things done for free or cheap.

Speech delivery: Here we want to know how to say what we want to say. What are the ways to package our words in such a way that it will be appealing to the listener? How can we avoid asking like a beggar? Sometimes, depending on the situation at hand; I will literarily beg the other person if I know that I have not been able to earn trust up to that time. We are concerned with the time that we must ask and the moments we don’t have to ask especially if for any reason the other person is biased, angry, et.al. When do we stop begging and start asking like we are actually making a fair offer? When do we start asking like we are trying to help the other party? It is in being flexible, sensitive enough to know the right time, the right mood, the right person, the understanding of the temperament before asking. When in transaction or negotiation, it is important to know what it means to be a great word processor, what it means to be a better speech packager. The writer of the book written to the Colossians wrote: “Let your words be seasoned with salt and grace that you might know how to answer every man accordingly.”

Relationship: Here we concerned about who we are dealing with? How long have we known the fellow? What have you done personally for the person? Were they things that count as great deposit in terms of their emotional bank account? Sometimes we think we have earned enough trust in a relationship but we are only presumptuous and full of assumptions because the other party don’t see things the same way. We need to understand what kind of person we are dealing with? We need to know what makes the person tick. We must find out what puts them on and off? Understanding how to earn trust. It will make us have access to people and with people. And that access is very important. Once it is abused. There is no remedy. And that is the thing that determines if people will do things for you for free or not. I would rather beg if I knew that I don’t fall into a person’s good book, rather than become so forceful in my request. If you don’t want to continue receiving a negative response in getting things done for free; you need to pay more attention to your relationships and how you ask. Queen Esther knew how to ask and when to ask for the lives of the Jews from the king Ahasuerus; when Hamman, a certain officer wanted to destroy them.

The relationship you create, nurture and sustain will bring everything to you for free. The bond we have with someone will determine if we will be able to get things done through them for free. So you may want to ask: what is bond or bonding? How do we create that? A bond is when the chemistry becomes one in any relationship. When your personality, ideology, perception, paradigm, perspective, principles, beliefs and sometimes behaviour; seem aligned with another person’s. Then you are able to relate better. Then we can say that there is a bonding between you both.

I am still learning how to make friends and influence people every day. I learnt from Dale Carnegie's book some principles of creating relationship. However, I have learnt over the years how important it is, to keep and sustain these relationships I create. I also discovered that in trying to keep relationships, not all relationships are worth keeping. Some like bread grow moulds and they can't be kept. In so doing, I have learnt how to sustain friendship with only people that matter to my destiny and life callings. I have learnt in a hard way how to let go of difficult people from my network. The reason is because you cannot carry everybody in the course of your life. That will sap you of energy if you are trying to carry difficult people along at all cost. Some people are opinionated; there are prejudiced people. There are biased, parochial people. There are racist. There are difficult people. These are people you will never be able to form any bonding with. They wouldn’t understand you. No matter how much you try. They won’t give you the benefits of the doubt, so why try?

How to get things done without spending cash!

This article is about how to get things done without actually spending cash.I am about to share with you one of my life’s top secrets. Being a man from a humble background; in the course of my growing up; I had to eke out with difficulty to spend money on what I wanted for myself. Most of my things were bought for me and my siblings. We never had excess cash flowing around as kids. There was nothing like pocket money. I started thinking of how else to get what I wanted in life without having to be deprived and denied. At a point I would think of doing trade, business with any thing called resources at my disposal. I can sell/market any stuff I can lay my hands on, once it is mine. I love to have cash on me. Much more i love to have assets. I remember once when we were young. I was in the elementary school then. I was eating breakfast with my younger brother. I could not finish my food but my brother had finished his meal hurriedly. I remember turning my piece of bread into a burger snack right there at the breakfast table and selling it to my junior brother for money which he was to pay back on credit. He found it so difficult to reject my offer as I marketed that left over breakfast of mine to him. He was so convinced that he was buying something different from the same piece of bread and omelet we were eating together at the table. Although, he went into perceived debt just to eat that instant “burger snack” I manufactured and sold to him at the breakfast table that morning at home. Sadly, he was unable to pay me back thereafter. And that was the first experience that should have taught me not to sell anything on credit again. My point was that since childhood, I had grown a business mindset. I had been selling things. I advanced into a student- business man when I entered high school such that I bought a certain used toy-game of soccer and rented it out to school mates when I was in high school. They will play my game and pay me some token for it. I will time them on it to make more money.

In a nutshell, my childhood experience with inadequate liquidity or flow of cash, shaped my thinking and forced me into thinking, asking questions, experimenting on how else I could successfully get things done without having to spend money directly. And I remember how I started early in life to trade in things like invisibles, values, trade by barter, exchange services. I tried maximizing my relationships, made more friends, whether they are intimate or not, it does not matter. I realized that I was going to need people to get to where I intend to go in life. I did not want to be misjudged or perceived wrongly as a user or a leach or a parasite on people. So I started thinking of how to trade value for value. I figured how to be resourceful and useful to people’s causes. I had to earn trust with people. I had to develop myself and force myself to learn to grow into someone who will have something so meaningful and edifying to say, something tangible to offer the people I come across. There were points when I had to serve people in order to be assisted, accepted and be paid. I had to volunteer at some points. I have helped some people in order to win friends, network people and thereby winning friends and gaining more influence. I’ve had to read wide in order to create great knowledge base.
I had to read the bible to reach spiritual consciousnesses. I meditated to reach a depth and develop uncommon strategies, ideas that can attract money. I stopped asking for money for whatever reason. And I started asking for a bond, a relationship and trust with people. I knew that if I asked for money; I will only have it once and that is from the transaction we may have together. But after that transaction is over, I will not be able to go to the person to get another cash to meet my needs until I have to get into another transaction again with similar or another set of people entirely. I realized that if I could just focus on building relationships and I am able to make trustworthy friendships. Things will be a little bit different. From my friendship I will build a trust. And if I could build a trust, then I would have access to people's cash at any time. So I focused on something much more important. And that is relationship.
It was with GOD and His inspiration in terms of this idea that I have been able to achieve more. Hence, I was able to network and do much of what I did without having money. For instance, I shot a movie as an undergraduate without a sponsor. I published my book in United States of America without spending my personal money directly. To list a few, I achieved small feats here and there as a young man without having abundance of cash in savings account. I got out of debt after shooting the film which I shot as an undergraduate through the same principle. I worked with an elderly lecturer-friend who recruited me based on his recognition of my potentials and on the relationship we share. The bonding we had together snowballed into being a part of his family life. I traveled out of my country of birth and tried this same principle in another country and it is working. And I am getting discounts, gifts, free tickets, gate pass, and so on without spending my personal cash. This principle of relationship formation works. I call it learning to bond with people rather than just meeting them casually. Encountering people on a deeper ground; require that we listen deeply to them. Appreciate whatever they are doing; whatever they have done in time past and what they still need to get done. Ask for how you can be a part of whatever they are doing so as to help out. Please note that I emphasized that we must think in terms of win-win for the people we are relating with. I tried to use value to achieve value. I tried to use people relational skills to achieve something of great value. This is how to achieve results without virtual money.And you can do the same thing.

HOW I BEAT LIFE PRANKS...

Could this be true? That somehow we all want to know what our call is. What is my purpose, what is my work and assignment? If I have a calling, what is it? I have found out that most of us having known our callings are scared away. We look at the enormity of the responsibilities surrounding that call and flee. Yet we sincerely want to know. Why do we want to know then? Who are we deceiving? Is it true that we just want to know for the sake of knowing and then probably walk away without lifting a finger about it?

It could be overwhelming to consider life and life-calls some times. Life! It could be so demanding. So painful, so crazy, so personal and so funny! I love one thing about life...Its how so crafty it could be on you. Life knows how to play some pranks on us all. It has its own intelligence .It’s own mind, full of baits. We can’t just master life. We will keep learning what life is till we die. We will continue to experience “newness”, madness and maladies of life as long as we are on this side of the earth. We may know more but fail to check often on life. The results…? - Regret, some pain or the other.

Recently, I received a phone call from my shift supervisor at work; asking me to take up some extra shift and make more money to the detriments of my goals, spiritual development and more. It was a promising offer. But it was more than that. It was not an overtime offer that could merely offer more money. Rather, it was temptation that could take me farther away from God! Life is so funny. It will promise us more money, more fame and more fun. Life will offer us more overtime; more and more of everything until we die…but wait a second. How much will be enough? When will we be satisfied? Can we ever get satisfied? We sometimes forget that life is like a cliff. You are easily lured by the beauty of this vantage point. But you could die so cheaply by tripping and falling headlong from the same cliff. When we fail to weigh our decisions; when we fail to reconsider some offer and prizes before taking them up; we pay higher price.

The cost for living is dying. Death to self, life to God… living for afterlife is the key. Life is continually in the asking of our very life. Life is in the asking for our very soul continually. For what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? That was the word of a wise teacher several centuries ago. Those witty words worth reconsidering today… Why do we do what we do? Why do we take or give whatever we exchange? Is it to sell our souls or to buy back time, opportunities, and values for good? Think for thoughts! How, when and where will life give you a chance to answer your calling? Do life and your calling merge? You have been trying to ask some questions? I know. Okay, life will want to burden you up. You need to know that. It will want to squeeze you into molds with mundane matters so as to prevent you from answering your ultimate calling and fulfilling your purpose. So what will you do? That is the question. Say No to life. “Abbish?” [Can you hear that?].Make more peace, happiness, fulfillment than more money.

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