WHAT TO DO WITH THE CASH YOU HAVE NOW!

I had the privilege of being one of the panelists at the #BNIOnline Business Leadership Session discussing Key Financial Considerations for your Business during this #CoronaVirus #COVID19 season.

Both my #MTN Mifi and #Airtel internet connections were not stable, I had to oscillate between the two and am now getting a 3rd internet service provider as a backup of the backup 😀. This is quite frustrating for us who #Zoom almost everyday! Anyway below is a summary of my presentation.

As fuel is to a car so is cash to a business. You can have a very posh or luxurious car, but without fuel how far can it take you? Nowhere

A business can be very profitable but without cash it's operations may come to a standstill.

Practically, we don't open our fuel tanks to check the fuel levels, we look at the fuel gauge..... unless it's a faulty gauge of course

Managing Business Finances Beyond #COVID19

Do you have a dashboard to help you navigate the current terrain?

Some of these basic #Financial #Management principles will help #smallbusinesses, #Startups and #Entrepreneurs beyond the #COVID19 challenge.

Financial Management Basics #SmallBusinesses & #Startups

The broke but profitable business ‪- #CashFlow Lessons

Is it possible to run a broke but a profitable business?

Here is a scenario: A retail business buys stock of Ugx400, 000 and sells it on credit for Ugx600, 000. Although this transaction has made a Ugx200,000 profit, unless the credit is paid, the business will have a negative net cash flow of Ugx400,000.
If this kind of a scenario goes on for a while, the business will not be able to meet its obligations as they fall due and the small business may go out of business.

The Art of Budgeting for a stress Free Life

The 2nd habit in Stephen Covey’s popular book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is to ‘Begin with the End in Mind: Envision what you want in the future so you can work and plan towards it'. We all look forward to time to go and recharge…a holiday that is. But how can we enjoy a stress free one?

Let's Learn from the ‪#‎GreeceCrisis‬ it is not Greek!

“Thank you for banking with us, based on your account, you qualify for a loan of xxx amount. I will also give you a very good interest rate” the caller said. You may have received such calls from the banks. I remember asking one of them what I would do with the loans and he said I could renovate my house, furnish the house or start a business. “Do you have a business idea I could start with?” Of course he had none! If one is not careful, one could get into a #GreeceCrisis. Let us learn Greek, the lessons that is:

#SMEs: Lack of Finance is not the Challenge!

One of the challenges businesses claim to face is access to finance. Sometimes this may not be the challenge because options and opportunities to access financing keep on coming. Many a times the challenge is the business is not adequately prepared to take advantage of the opportunities available to them.

For instance, on the 18th May 2015 I posted about the funding opportunity that was available to the tune of US100,000 by Matching Grant Facility (MGF) under the Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project (CEDP) with The Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU). Some entrepreneurs were not able to put in their proposal on time because they couldn’t put together all the documents required to meet the timeline given of15th June 2015. They didn’t have even some of the basics handy.

Tax Burden Reduced on Small Businesses

Depending on whether you see the glass as half-full or half-empty, the Uganda budget for 2015/2016 gives a section of small business owners a reason to celebrate. The increasing of the VAT registration threshold is a welcome to many SMEs. This brings with it amendments of The Value Added Tax (VAT) and The Income Tax Act (ITA). This is in line with Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) aim of reducing the administrative burden of small businesses.‪

A business without financial statements is like a car without a dashboard

Imagine driving around, completely unaware of how fast you’re going or how much fuel you have left. If you ignore the financial dashboard of your business, you could lose your entire business.
In this video, I spoke about this and more on managing business finances at a business conference for small businesses. Watch this video and watch out!      

Make Money with Idle Money

Do you have a sum of money ‘lying-idle’ in a bank account waiting for a future date for it to be used? You can use it to earn you more money as you wait, other wise idle money in your savings accounts make the banks rich.


For instance you may not need the money for another 3 months or so but you cannot afford to lose it, this means that you need a risk free investment. There are probably very few investments that can be classified as safe and risk free. This is what makes investing in government securities (Treasury Bills and Bonds) a very attractive prospect, especially for conservative investors.Currently the yields (interest) ranges between 12% to 16%. You can get updates on the Bank of Uganda website for those investing in Uganda.

16 Ways to Finance Your Start-up

As I walked out of the meeting with some young entrepreneurs, one came to me and said, “all I need is Ugx500,000 and I am sorted!”. I knew she was trained in area that the rest of the incubatees weren't and would value her advise. She would have offered her advisory services for a small fee and start saving up for the money she needed.

The challenge is that most businesses want expert advise for free. Of course there is a place for probono services but not all the time. We have to appreciate that the same way we take time to nurture our businesses is the same way the experts take time to acquire knowledge and continuous professional development (CPD). Time is money and the CPDs have to be paid for as well.

I went away from the meeting thinking of how many start-ups have not yet taken off because of lack of capital as it were. I have therefore read about and made an attempt to put down some sources of funding that one may consider:

For Every Business Owner Without An Accountant

 “I am told you can create financial statements for my business?” the client asked “No I can’t” was my response.
I said no because he had no records for the period for which he wanted the financial statements produced. Accountants are meant to help you organise your existing records in order to produce financial statements and not to conjure up figures. This means that you have to get into the habits of keeping records. If you cannot write them down somewhere then at least keep the source documents (receipts, vouchers, invoices, bills etc.) and someone can help you organise these into a report.

This client wanted the financial statement in order to file income tax returns. What one should know is that whatever you file with the revenue authority should be kept available to them for a period of at least five (5) years. When they come to audit you, they will need documentary evidence of how the financial statements were arrived at.