AVOIDING FAILURE IN NEW & EXISTING BUSINESS

Hundreds of thousands of businesses are formed every year. Many of them are in significant need of capital, presenting opportunities for investors.
While startup investing is not for everyone, those with a high risk tolerance can find it a stimulating and potentially rewarding pastime. The possibility of getting in on the ground floor of the next Uber or Facebook, speculative as that might be, can be compelling.
Suppose you hear about an exciting new company looking for investors. You are aware that a majority of startups end up failing within the first few years, but you think this one could hit it big. What do you do?

1. Check out the Management

You ultimately are investing not just in a product or an idea, but in the people running the company. No matter how innovative or promising the business concept may seem, the enterprise is unlikely to succeed without capable management. You should assess not only the founders, but also those promoting the investment. An initial review often can be done online. In the case of those with professional licenses (such as brokers, accountants, and attorneys), you can check their license status and any disciplinary history. You want the people running or associated with the company to not only have clean backgrounds, but also a record of success in other ventures. Look for qualities such as experience, intelligence, creativity, integrity, discipline, and leadership ability.

2. Determine How the Business Will Make Money

Lots of companies are based on an intriguing concept. But the company must be able to translate that concept into a product or service that it can produce and sell at a profit and in sufficient quantities to generate reasonable cash flow. What is the startup's monetization plan? What is the market demand? Who are the competitors? What is the marketing strategy? Is the business scalable, having the ability to grow rapidly without sacrificing quality or profitability? If the company is unable to provide good answers to these questions, its likelihood of success is dubious.

3. Rely on Advisors

If you are buying a used car, it is good practice to hire a mechanic to look the vehicle over to make sure you are not getting a lemon. The same principle applies in evaluating a startup. It is crucial to use qualified professionals, such as an attorney and accountant. Make sure your advisors are familiar with startups-an attorney specializing in personal injury cases probably will not be a good fit. You may also want to consult with experts in the business sector in which the startup operates. Your advisors will provide various insights you would not have on your own. They also will help you command respect from the company.

4. Thoroughly Research the Startup

Ask lots of questions and request lots of documents. If the business is concerned about revealing confidential information, it can have you sign a nondisclosure agreement. You and your advisors will want to examine the startup's business plan, offering memorandum, financial statements, budgets, capitalization table, and corporate documents (articles, bylaws, prior investor agreements, etc.) If the documents are shoddy or incomplete, that is a bad sign. Be wary of internal financial statements; statements prepared by an outside CPA have more credibility. Audited financial statements are best, but are less common because of their expense. If your investigation raises red flags, insist on complete explanations.

5. Review the Investment Documents

Your advisors can be of great help here. At the very least, you want to be fully informed as to how the deal is being structured and what rights and obligations you and the company will have. Your attorney can advise you as to what document changes might be in your best interests and help you negotiate with the company. Your accountant can let you know whether the valuation seems reasonable. Do not proceed unless everything is fully documented. You should not invest based on a handshake or mere verbal assurances.
Startup investing requires patience and hard work. Although there are no guarantees, you can reduce the risks and boost the chances of success by following the principles discussed above

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10 MOST PROFITABLE SMALL BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

KEY TO SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS IN NIGERIA TODAY 

The economic situation in Nigeria today has called for wisdom. Gone are the days that the fresh graduates get many different job offers and opportunities when they finished their studies. I even heard that sometimes back then, the employers goes to schools to convince and lure the heart of fresh graduate (finalists) to work in their companies. As you can imagine such must attract good and heavy remunerations. But the revers is the case now. Why because we are having more people graduating to the the labour market and less or few people are ready to retire. Thanks to the democracy under which an old papa get new appointment at his old age even when he has retired once or twice and still collecting pensions.
Another problems that is spoiling our future is the sudden diversion to technology in almost every organizations. This may sound strange to some of you but the truth is that the use or let me say over reliance on technology also contribute to unemployment situation in Nigeria.

WHAT IS THE WAY OUT?
An adage says when the going become tough only the tough keep going. What this means is that the youth or graduates of today should learn how to keep going in any situation that they find themselves. And how can you do this is by doing what is called feasibility studies, that is, find out what are the problems in your society and then think on how you can turn these problems into an opportunities. We have done little of this and we found out that one of the biggest way to conquer this bad economic and unemployment situation is by going into a small scales business. And which of those business are growing faster that can bring to you a brighter future? We've been able to collate ten (10) of them out there. Read below the 10 most profitable small or no start-up capital business in Nigeria today.

1.    RECHARGE CARDS BUSINESS:  The  printing and selling of recharge cards in Nigeria is fast growing everyday. With more people joining the communication network everyday, you too can make it big by making the needed recharge cards available and sell to the end users. It doesn't require much capital to start the business, you can manage small amount of money and then start growing to become bigger. Note that the individual or unit sale profit may not be attractive, don't be discouraged, try and sell more and you will be surprised with your mark-up margin. At the end of the month calculate your profit and you will see that you've earned more than some managers.

     2.     PRODUCING/SELLING SNACKS:   Do you know you can also make it in snacks production? Yes, you can. With the level of poverty in the country, almost everybody can afford to buy snacks. Let me even reveal to you that snack is what some people depends on because they can not afford food stuff. For you to make money doing this, it is left to you to decide which one out of those numerous types of snacks out there that you can produce perfectly. Here, one thing is very important and that is ''packaging''. You have to use an attractive branding/packaging so that people will rush your product in the market. At the starting point you may need to increase the size of your product and also sell at the discounted price in order to win the hearth of many costumer and then beat the competitors.

    3.     MINI IMPORTATION AND EXPORTATION BUSINESS:     If you are the type that surf the internet very well, then this business is for you. Unlike the ancient days, importation and exportation has now become easy with the use of internet. What you just need to do is to do a little research on the internet and you are good to go.You can start with any amount no matter how little it is, and start making money. There's nothing under this business that is too small or too big that you can't buy or sell. For exportation you can start selling/exporting goods like coco-yam, cocoa beans, coffee beans, kola-nut, yam tubers, cassava tubers, locust beans, and many other locally produce products. And for importation, you can order for goods like wrist-watches, phones, laptops, bags, clothes, belts, cameras, shoes, e-books, jewelries, chemicals, etc.
Just make sure you do your research perfectly, and your goods will be sent to you at your own house or the nearest post office.

   4.      FARMING- CULTIVATION OF BEVERAGES:      Beverages are the farm produce that can never be overlooked in Nigeria markets today. If you go into this business I assure you a speedy and quick financial freedom. You can start producing the likes of tomatoes, pepper, okro, ugwu, vegetables etc. These products doesn't take long period before maturing and you will start making thousands of naira. The most sweetable thing there is that you can repeat the production up to twice or trice in a given year.


  5.      SELLING FOOD STUFF:      Food is the universal basic needs of life. No one live without taking something. An adage in Yoruba tribe of Nigeria even says ''what are we going to eat is an elder brother to what are we going to do''. This means that before one think of what to do, he must have already think of what to eat. Moreover, one have to eat no matter whether he's jobless or not. So food is considered as the essential basic needs. Therefore, you can start earning from food stuff business such as rice, yam, beverages, cassava powder, and so on.

  6.      POULTRY BUSINESS:       Poultry business is another opportunity that can speedily take you to higher ground. Though, you will need to acquire some basic knowledge or ideas on it. The reason for this is that this business is very delicate. You need to know the behavioral response of the birds especially to a particular problems or disease so that you can quickly make a control measure before it is too late. Before going to this business I advice you to learn all it takes from the experts.

 7.     FISH FARMING:      Here, you can make a thorough research on this business. It is a simple and interesting business. It doesn't required much capital.

 8.     COMPUTER BUSINESS CENTER:      This particular one is definitely for computer literate people. Once you are very good in handling all the microsoft office applications such as microsoft word, excel, power-point and so on. If you can use these applications perfectly, then you are good for this business. It is just that it may cost you little amount of money to get the needed equipment such as desktop computers, photocopy machines and so on.

 9.    DRYING CLEANING:      Many people have really done well in this business. It has really changed the life of many people. And it will continue to do this because there are more people, more family partaking in the patronage everyday. Therefore you too can join this group and your story will change for better.

 10.  BEADS PRODUCTION:     Despite the economic meltdown in the country, women can never do without make-up and they can spend their last kobo to buy jewelries and anything that can let them look good. You can use this opportunity to make it in life. If you don't know how to produce beads you can quickly learn it. It does not have to take you longer period before you become an expert in beads production.


However, the above listed business is according to my little research earlier this year. Nevertheless the fast moving small scale business is not limited to these 10 mentioned above. You can also do the research  in your area, know what they lack, and how you can be of help to the society and continue to make your money doing this. Let me add this that there is no business that is not good. The most important things is how are you doing the business, where do you site the business, what are you doing to beat other competitors in that business? These and many more will determine your future and define your success.

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IMPORTANT KEYS FOR INVESTMENT BEGINNERS.

Investment key

Hundreds of thousands of businesses are formed every year. Many of them are in significant need of capital, presenting opportunities for investors.
While startup investing is not for everyone, those with a high risk tolerance can find it a stimulating and potentially rewarding pastime. The possibility of getting in on the ground floor of the next Uber or Facebook, speculative as that might be, can be compelling.
Suppose you hear about an exciting new company looking for investors. You are aware that a majority of startups end up failing within the first few years, but you think this one could hit it big. What do you do?

1. Check out the Management
You ultimately are investing not just in a product or an idea, but in the people running the company. No matter how innovative or promising the business concept may seem, the enterprise is unlikely to succeed without capable management. You should assess not only the founders, but also those promoting the investment. An initial review often can be done online. In the case of those with professional licenses (such as brokers, accountants, and attorneys), you can check their license status and any disciplinary history. You want the people running or associated with the company to not only have clean backgrounds, but also a record of success in other ventures. Look for qualities such as experience, intelligence, creativity, integrity, discipline, and leadership ability.

2. Determine How the Business Will Make Money
Lots of companies are based on an intriguing concept. But the company must be able to translate that concept into a product or service that it can produce and sell at a profit and in sufficient quantities to generate reasonable cash flow. What is the startup's monetization plan? What is the market demand? Who are the competitors? What is the marketing strategy? Is the business scalable, having the ability to grow rapidly without sacrificing quality or profitability? If the company is unable to provide good answers to these questions, its likelihood of success is dubious.

Beware of These 3 Pervasive Business Lies?

3. Rely on Advisors
If you are buying a used car, it is good practice to hire a mechanic to look the vehicle over to make sure you are not getting a lemon. The same principle applies in evaluating a startup. It is crucial to use qualified professionals, such as an attorney and accountant. Make sure your advisors are familiar with startups-an attorney specializing in personal injury cases probably will not be a good fit. You may also want to consult with experts in the business sector in which the startup operates. Your advisors will provide various insights you would not have on your own. They also will help you command respect from the company

4. Thoroughly Research the Startup
Ask lots of questions and request lots of documents. If the business is concerned about revealing confidential information, it can have you sign a nondisclosure agreement. You and your advisors will want to examine the startup's business plan, offering memorandum, financial statements, budgets, capitalization table, and corporate documents (articles, bylaws, prior investor agreements, etc.) If the documents are shoddy or incomplete, that is a bad sign. Be wary of internal financial statements; statements prepared by an outside CPA have more credibility. Audited financial statements are best, but are less common because of their expense. If your investigation raises red flags, insist on complete explanations.

5. Review the Investment Documents
Your advisors can be of great help here. At the very least, you want to be fully informed as to how the deal is being structured and what rights and obligations you and the company will have. Your attorney can advise you as to what document changes might be in your best interests and help you negotiate with the company. Your accountant can let you know whether the valuation seems reasonable. Do not proceed unless everything is fully documented. You should not invest based on a handshake or mere verbal assurances.
Startup investing requires patience and hard work. Although there are no guarantees, you can reduce the risks and boost the chances of success by following the principles discussed above

By    David Burgess  

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HOW ARE YOU PLANNING FOR YOUR RETIREMENT?

The best financial consultants will always advice people seeking for their advice to start planning and saving for their retirement as soon as they have a stable job. As such, even if it's your first time to work, even if you're just in your early 20s, you should already have a retirement plan and you are already setting aside money monthly for your retirement fund.

Unfortunately, not all people heed this crucial advice. Many employees always find ways to postpone working on their retirement plan. And before they know it, it will only be 10 years before they have to retire. And usually, planning and preparing 10 years before your retirement is usually not enough for anyone to prepare sufficiently.

However, this doesn't mean that you give up preparing for your golden years and simply wing it once you stop earning a fixed monthly income. Below are some helpful tips and pieces of advice for people who are near their retirement age so that they can still live comfortably in their golden years:

Prepare your cash reserves or emergency fund. Financial advisors say that you should have at least three to six months of your normal income in an account that is safe and easily accessible. This means having some money deposited in your savings account for all planned expenses. For example, if you know that you need to replace your roof in a few years' time, you should be setting aside money for that in your savings account.

Resolve your outstanding credit card debt, medical bills, and loans. You should reduce and eventually eliminate all these debts and loans so that your income can be channeled into your personal saving and investment funds which you can use once you retire. Consider checking the interest rates on your credit cards and other loans to see if you can find lower rates as well.

If you have kids, make sure you have already started saving for their college tuition funds. Financial advisers actually say that you should start saving as early as possible after your kids are born, even if you can save only a small amount. As your income rises, you can increase the amount you save for their college funds.

Make sure you already have a retirement plan. Finally, aside from the retirement funds you can expect from work or from the government, consider making the maximum allowable contributions to an individual retirement account. You can get more details about these retirement funds that you can still contribute to from your local financial advisors since different countries, banks, and financial institutions usually offer different schemes or programs regarding retirement funds.

Robertson Jones 

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Factors That Determine Success.

 The success race in life is a journey which every individuals will partake. However, the position which one can find him/her self is determined by how serious and hardworking such a person embark on the journey. Some people get tired where he or she need to add little efforts to his or her previous one while they got overtaken by the more serious-minded ones. Let us take a look at some reason why some people are not successful.


 1.   Opportunities: Life is all about getting opportunities. To be a successful one there is need to get opportunities. If you are a university graduate, you need a place to practice your profession that will earn you good income. Even if you want to start a business you need an opportunity of getting enough capital and the exact Business ideas. Connections at-times bring about much wealth. Permit me to say your level of success can be determined by how connected are you. People with high connection get the latest chance to be  wealthy.

2. Getting Definition of Success:
Some people may never be successful because they have the wrong idea of what success is. Some people feel like success is measured by money or materialistic things. Some people don't realize that they are already successful. For example, if they are living, if they have their health, if they have a family they love and adore, if they have food in the refrigerator, then they are already successful, and the list goes on and on. When we focus on the things in our lives that are priceless, that is true success. Now there is nothing wrong with wanting things, but it is important to remember that things don't equal success.

3. Background:  People from a poor background find it difficult to be successful than people that are born with a silver spoon. They are less privileged and less opportuned. Their chance to succeed is very narrow and it only take strong focus and hard working to get there.

4. Education: Education has been a strong and mostly used weapon to succeed in life. At-times one's level of education determine his or her success. It also help to get to a top level of the ladder. For instance, a person that started working with a master degree will earn much more higher than a person that started with Primary six or no certificate. Remember the higher you earn, the wealthier you you become.

5.  Believing In Oneself:
To many people success simply means being better than they were 5 years ago or 10 years ago. But some people don't believe that they deserve better, or they don't feel like a better life can happen for them. One of the greatest levels of success that I have ever achieved was when I started believing in myself. That brought me inner peace, happiness, and joy. When you believe in yourself it opens the door for success to flow into your life.

 6. Thinking Positively:
Before any level of success shows up in our lives, it has to be present in our minds first. We have to think successful thoughts. We can't think thoughts that are not in alignment with what we want to achieve. Whatever we continue to think about will manifest in our lives. Successful thinkers are successful. Non-successful thinkers are blocking their success path. And it is extremely hard to manifest success when the access portal is clogged up.

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Beware of These 3 Pervasive Business Lies?

Nowadays, the online business method are becoming great and numerous. Thanks to technology. But this system has been misused by many gurus. Remember I published a post on How To Stop Spams.

Here I saw this article by MaryEllen Tribby and found it useful.  I therefore decided to share it.

My presentation was called "Perception vs. Reality: Year One in Business." My goal was to share with the audience the reality of starting (and running) your own information publishing business while eliminating the pervasive business lies that set fledgling entrepreneurs off on the wrong track… and even put their success in jeopardy.

Let's start with the biggest falsehood of all.

Critical Business Lie #1: You can make millions instantly.
Have you ever heard the following?
"I just made $5 million this week on my killer launch. So now I am going to hop in my Lamborghini, drive down to the pier, board my yacht, cruise down to the Island, and bury my money."
~ Infamous Internet Marketer
This is not real life or real business. This example, unfortunately, is from one Internet Marketer who took his results from the first 10 minutes of a launch and extrapolated them over 12 months. Most of these numbers are exaggerated in order to get inexperienced entrepreneurs excited… and ready to spend money.
In fact, most of these numbers are distorted… or they're straight-out untruths. This is simply irresponsible behavior.
I call this IMM or Internet Marketer Math.
Reality #1: You can NOT run your business with IMM. You must run your business with real math. Real dollars in the door minus expenses/items like:

• Refunds
• Affiliate payouts
• Copywriting advances and royalties
• Product hard costs
• Content development
• Employees' salaries
• Heath benefits
• Travel expenses
• Consulting fees
• Office rent and utilities
• Etc.

Bottom line: You do not put IMM in the bank. You do not even put gross revenue in the bank. You put profits in the bank and invest them back into your business. And when planning and launching your business, this is more important than ever.
The Planning Stage of Business
 
Critical Business Lie #2: Planning a business begins the second you decide to start a business.
Most of the entrepreneurs I know didn't get their start in Internet marketing. I sure didn't! But if you think that the planning stage begins with simply waking up one day and saying, "Well, I guess I'll start a business today!"… you're dead wrong.
Reality #2: The planning stage of business begins long before you ever dream of starting your own business. Years before "entrepreneurship" is even a part of your vocabulary. And this stage lasts every single day of your professional career.
Because the planning stage of business is also known as the…
"Relationship and reputation building, competitive intelligence gathering, industry knowledge gaining, technology learning, and humble-lization phase."
Every relationship you make… Every client you meet… Every project you undertake… All of it affects your business even before your business exists.
This means that everything you do counts. And I mean everything!

• Every email
• Every phone conversation
• Every missed deadline
• Every deadline made
• Every rude remark
• Every insightful comment
• Every time you dismiss someone as not as important as you
• Every act of respect
• Everything you do!

I have written about how relationships are your most important asset in business and how relationship building is the most important skill you can master in business (and in every other area of your life).
Yet many people fail to see how a small action now can affect a partnership or investment in the future. It repeatedly surprises me that so many entrepreneurs are so unconcerned about burning bridges. This is particularly upsetting because not only is relationship building the foundation of your business, it really is one of the easiest (not to mention most fun) parts of your business.
At the end of the day, business is so much easier when you have people who want to help you - people who have excellent contacts and dependable resources. And you want these people to be glad to offer to help.
This was a tremendous asset to me when starting Working Moms Only. I had built my Braggable Network long before I ever dreamed of starting Working Moms Only. And I built it by becoming a braggable asset to my network.

What Is a Braggable Network?
Critical Business Lie #3: All it takes to have a Braggable Network is meeting or speaking with the industry Big Guns. Period.
Reality #3: A Braggable Network does not develop because you meet someone at a conference, take a photo with that person, and post that photo on Facebook. It does not develop because you attend a teleseminar and ask an expert a question on the phone. Nor does it develop when you send an expert an email praising her work.

When people claim that an expert they met once or spoke to in passing is part of their network… it drives me crazy! This practice is no different than name-dropping: Using someone's accomplishments for your own gain without EVER delivering value to that person. Because at that point all you have done is gained an introduction to that person. You have not delivered value at any level.

A Braggable Network is a group of people for whom you have CONSISTENTLY supplied extraordinary results. These are the people who talk about you when they talk about greatness. The people you'd gladly speak to anytime, night or day.

Your goal every single day is to add to your Braggable Network. The easiest place to start is simply by operating from a place of respect. Then strive to deliver extraordinary results.
Sometimes people are scared off when I speak of extraordinary results. But here's the deal…

Ninety-five percent of people are ordinary. If you're trying to be ordinary, you've got a lot of competition. But when you strive for extraordinary, you actually have less competition. This gives you the opportunity to not only achieve better results, but to stand out and become recognized for your contribution.

You should take action immediately to form a Braggable Network. Keep a journal of who you have/would like to have in your Braggable Network and what you did/can do to gain that person's trust and admiration. You will find over time that your actions will bring you extraordinary results.

Take a look at the Critical Business Lies we've uncovered today. You'll notice that all of them have something in common: The lies make success as an Internet entrepreneur seem effortless.
The reality is that you must expend effort to succeed.

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