28/06/2017
Unappreciated Business Capital
Hi All, been a while since the last time I write to you, please accept my apologies about this. But be rest assured I have been working, striving hard to forge new business frontiers and the experience has been humbling, one of which i`ll like to share with you today.
So, the question is, how do you deal with money issues with the people in your lives, your friends, colleagues, fellow faith believers, either Muslims or Christians. More especially, how do you deal on money issues with your Spouse, Blood brother/sister, and even your Parents.
How positive your answer is to this very private and individual question might just be your lifeline to a business start-up, business continuity/existence and it might actually save your ass during times of business crisis.
A lot of persons take their relationships with the above mentioned persons in their lives for granted so much that they disregard and disrespect the core of sustenance that God has strategically placed in their lives. They go and deal with these persons with a sense of entitlement, which is not a crime, but messes up with the opportunities they have to such an extent that their Spouse, Brother, Sister, oh and even their Parents, cannot and will not trust them with a dime, or to bring it more back home, trust them with a kobo (in our local broken English tone) of their money in their times of crucial need.
At Tebeth Group, we were recently blessed with a contracted that requires us to have double digit millions in Naira to execute the Contract. We are currently with little or no back up cash/capital of our own to run the Contract and to make matters worse, the Customer, a multinational conglomerate said they are not giving any advance payment to all new Vendors just being signed up into their Procurement process.
So, we had no other option than to source the funds on our own or lose the Contract. The next thing of course was to turn to the Banks in the hope that they should be able to do their constitutional responsibility to the Nigerian Nation, which is, supporting businesses and industry to grow. Alas, we are are heartbroken after meeting and talking with five banks and all returned the same verdict, ”The Bank is not loaning any business any money for now” even though a GM in one of the Banks is a personal friend and a fellow Club member. We then turned to the Investment institutions and some other private businessmen that are ready to loan you money on the provision of a ”good” collateral together with a crazy percentage of the amount to be borrowed as their interest charge(s). We had little or no other choice but were ready to go the way with them all the way and then, my biological brother called me up, as he is wont to do, and when he asked, ”how is business going”, i simply poured out my mind and the current struggles the business was going through and when I finished, he asked, how much are you willing to share on the money you want to loan, I replied 5% on the profit after completing the contract, he said 5%?, that is rather low and was ready to call it off when I blurted out, yes, yes, we can actually share up to 10% of the total capital being requested for/needed.
As if there was a Spiritual force waiting for us to have that conversation, he said, okay, let me see, how much do you need to place the Order first, I told him, then I told him the balance and pronto, he said ”Give me your company’s Account Number, I will send the advance payment to you to book the Order” while he works on getting the balance for me. When in three hours time, we got the alert in our Bank Account, we swung into action, within three days, we have received the balance from him , paid the UK Distributors and we will be supplying this week by God`s Grace.
When I asked him later how he was able to raise and borrow my company the money, what he made me to realize is that I have always dealt with him on financial issues as a customer deals with a business and that I don’t let a sense of entitlement tricks me into not returning monies I borrow from him. Moreover, he said he has called me on some occasions in the past to oversee some businesses for him, I did the business and and returned all monies made to him after which he paid me a commission on the business. So he is not scared to release the money he has on him for the advance payment, while he actually borrowed some millions too to make up the balance payment on our behalf.
LESSON LEARNT : As business start-ups, you don’t usually have the clout that the big organizations have with the Banks to access loans, but you have access to a friend, a colleague, spouse, family member(s), brother, sister and parent(s) that can easily fund your business ideas and growth, but how readily do you make them do that for you. Do not let the spirit of undue entitlement rob you of a precious strategic strength that you have in these relationships by not returning monies you borrowed from them, or eating the revenue on any venture they entrust you with, or simply not keeping your financial responsibility to them. While thy might not take you to Court like they would do to an outsider, but they have taken you to the Court of Family Justice and Opinions, and be quite sure, they have won already as the verdict usually is, guilty as charged.
Also, know that everyone tunes in to a particular FM in their lives, which is WIIIFM (what is in it for me). So as business people, know that you can`t earn money for yourself alone, because as the business grows, the funds you need to grow increases and you have to take some form of loans, either from the Banks or not, and those cash don’t come free, they are usually charged for interests which is what the Banks live on, so why deny your own blood brother the same privilege(s)? if he can go all out to borrow money on your behalf too.
Treat your folks well, take good care of their money and assets in your care and be sure when you run into a crisis as an Entrepreneur, you would have them at your back pushing and guiding you all the way. Till I write to you once again, remain ”Entrepreneurally Fit”.
Yours In Business,
ABAYOMI OGUNRO
By abayomioJune 28, 20171,139 WordsLeave a commentEdit
NOW is the TIME
History is replete with the stories around “Recessions” based on the number of times it has been documented to have happened around the world, the numerous loss of jobs and loss of standard or quality of living/life that follows suit. The frustrations runs deep and desperation sets in, you can be feeling alone and almost useless,especially when you cant contribute financially into your responsibilities like before.
Worse still, there are very little job opportunities around either to suck up the mass of unemployed resources available in an economy battling with recession. it is either you are Not Qualified or you are Over Qualified for the little vacancies available. While these are not your concerns but simply an opportunity to earn some income…..
NOW is the TIME, time for what you may ask? Time to make a head-start on that little child’s dream you’ve always had, You, sitting atop a multi-million Dollar organization, with over a thousand or more employees consistently adding values to national economies and impacting life directly on a day-to-day basis. NOW is the TIME to engineer all of your life’s and jobs experience, technical knowledge, expertise, skills and talent to bear on the precarious situation you’ve found yourself.
NOW is the TIME to pull back the cover on the last couple of years of your life and sum up who you are professionally, who you are “in terms of value-add” you can give in exchange for beneficial income to your person. To dig and search deep to your inner core and discover what make you tick, what give you fun and what makes you feel importance when you do them. NOW is the TIME to discover your nature-scripted avenue to flourish and feel secured in the knowledge that THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TRAINING YOURSELF FOR ALL THESE YEARS”.
My name is Abayomi Ogunro, a proven business professional with over 15years of elite job, business, skills and personal strength development. I have been privileged to work and serve in small scale organizations in Nigeria to working in two Global, Transnational organizations, the last of which I had oversight over six African Countries.
It is my desire to share to those who are confused about their personal strengths, what skills/talents they have and how they can translate same for their personal financial gain and fulfillment. I have a deep sense of urgency to engage these category of people to quickly discover and marshal out action-plans for taking “deliveries of their BRAIN-CHILD” because NOW is the TIME, the best TIME to start is during recession. I will be sharing along this line for the next couple of weeks even as I have a forth-coming Seminar to this effect in 2017. Please stay posted and alert on this blog-line.
Regards,
Abayomi Ogunro
By abayomioNovember 28, 2016467 WordsLeave a commentEdit
