Have you ever wondered why finances seem to disappear the moment you make a decision to follow your dream? When you decide to leave your job and focus on building your business?
I believe in provision, but the first test seemingly of entrepreneurship is to find if you can do with less, and tests not mustered seem to persist until we gain a mastery of them, and another challenge arises.
This is the life of entrepreneurship as I know it. Below are a few personal antidotes to this predicament:
1. Insure your well being before you leave your job, save up enough income to cover yourself for at least six months.
I learned this the hard way. I left my job and started my company, Westia Group, without any leverage for my well being.
By keeping a safe pouch to cushion you through the dry months, you give yourself the ability to focus on growing your business. You will achieve your goals faster, with less stress and without a major downgrade in your living standards. Save at least ten percent of your salary.
2. Start the business before you resign.
This gives you much needed headway. It would be especially beneficial to resign when the business seems to be growing faster and needing more of your focus.
By getting the business in good financial shape before your resignation puts less pressure on your finances. Again I learned the hard way on this one as well.
3. Do not make emotional decisions with finances and business.
Business and the markets are hinged on emotions, and those emotions must not be your own. Rich people leverage other peoples emotions, money and time to make them rich. They do not act from their own blinding emotions. Use LOGIC, its not as simple but it must be done.
4. Build multiple streams of passive income.
Depending on your just started business to take care of your might just be foolishness. You need to nourish a business first before it can nourish you. Besides you might fail three or four times. So build multiple streams of income- buy and lease containers, start an online business, write blogs, anything that does not take too much of your time from your business.
5. Do not neglect your big picture business.
This business will take care of your needs in the future, so build it. My mentor once told me that bankers respect you more when you bootstrap, when you show that you don’t need them. Bootstrap and pivot till you get there.
6. Develop your own systems for financial progress
I have learned and grown a lot from my habit of watching people, watching businesses and everything in life- looking for trends. I would say that people generally act the same, from my observation. However, I have not limited it to people. I have taken it to business and finances as well.
Learn and watch the people that you aspire to be like, watch their systems, attitudes, behaviours for financial progress, model them and improve on thier strategies to develop your own processes. Dont reinvent the wheel, improve the wheel and make faster spins!
7. Teach about money and success
This may sound crazy, that you want to be financially successful, and you go off trying to teach about just that.
But human nature shows that we attract that which focus our interest on and God always opens answers to questions.
By teaching, you open yourself to new knowledge and experiences in that area, as you ask questions, research- and lo you are an expert. Teaching about money and success makes you conscious of these things, thereby increasing your chances of attaining.
8. Never start a business on borrowed money
Getting a loan to start a business seems to be wise when starting out. I, however, think it is not. Apart from the risk associated with business, you would be starting your business in a hole and this will catch-up with you later. As I said earlier, if you can bootstrap, please do. You pump more value into your business when you do this. Debt is expensive- it can pump-up your business finances and your blood pressure alike.
Paul Petros is a serial entrepreneur and investor, having started his first business at the age 13. He has started over 6 businesses that have failed and at 26 is building a distribution company, Westia Group in Africa.
