How Entreprenuers Save Costs Instead of Making money

“Many entrepreneurs reject outsourcing because of the extra cost. However, they fail to calculate the value of opportunities lost because they sank too much time into energy-sapping tasks best left to others. Simply put, they save money but they do not make money”. Jeff Shore

You don’t have to be…
You don’t have to be a Nutritionist to have a healthy meal
You don’t have to be a Barber to have a shave
You don’t have to be a Hairdresser to have your hair done
You don’t have to be a Tailor to have clothes
You don’t have to be a Teacher to have education
You don’t have to be an Accountant to have an accounting system in place

But you have to…..
Find Knowledge about what constitutes a healthy meal
Find a barber to give you a good shave
Find a Hairdresser to adorn a great hairdo
Find a Tailor to tailor-make something uniquely for you
Find a School where you can be taught
Find an Accountant who can set up an accounting system for you

Do not trust your banker! Bank responsibly

Almost went to jail

A friend was held at CPS (Central Police Station) for more than 3 days because a transaction (that he was neither part of nor aware of) went through his account. Since he had no regularly income, he was not keeping an eye on his bank account and it stayed dormant for a long while. There was a fraud in one of the big banks and big chunk of the money was passed through his dormant account and withdrawn. In the process of fraud investigation, he was taken to CPS for questioning as the owner of the account. Unfortunately he was treated as though he was and had to prove his innocence.

Almost had a party
I once went to the ATM to withdraw and as usual I requested for a receipt. Out of habit, I looked at the balance to verify with my mentally calculated balance. Well, if I had taken part in a lottery I would have had a party! The balance was much much more than I expected. Just that weekend, I had done my personal bank reconciliation and therefore knew what I had in the account. So I calculated the difference between what the balance reflected on the receipt and the one I knew I should have. The resultant difference was a figure that rang a bell. It was exactly equal to my net salary the previous year with a previous employer.

You don't need money to do business!

Welcome to 2015 and may good tidings come your way every single day!
As the year begins, it is common to have cash constrains either at a personal or business level or both. I would like you to consider an alternative to hard currency – some form of a barter trade.

Dissatisfied with the URA tax assessment?

“Death, taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them.” ― Margaret Mitchell,

Are you eligible to file the returns?

If you are employed and you also have a business or rentals, or if you are purely a business owner or are self-employed, you are required to file your individual tax returns for yourself and or a non-individual tax return for your business. If you are an individual, you are required to have furnished URA with your provisional return for the year of income 1st July 2014 to 30th June 2015. If you haven’t, then you will receive a letter like the one below (refer to Sample Income Tax Notice for Assessment).

Dissatisfied with the URA tax assessment?

Many people fret when they receive such a notice of assessment especially when URA asses you for ridiculous amounts of tax payable. The good news is in the last paragraph of the letter which advises you on what to do 'If you are dissatisfied with this administrative estimated assessment'. However, to be able to make reasonable estimates, you need to have a reliable basis of making the estimate. This comes back to the basics, in order to get accurate and timely information about your business, you need to have proper books of accounts.

The greatest secret to success

I was privileged to be part of his audience on the 9th October 2013 where he spoke in a business forum under the theme “business leadership in the 21st century’”. In celebrating Dr. Miles Munroe’s life, I share my bullet point notes

The key to wealth

• Think beyond your JOB. There is no future in any JOB; the future is in the one who holds the JOB
• Create your business in your JOB. Make yourself disciplined in your WORK
• Never confuse your WORK to be your JOB
• Your JOB is what you were trained to do; your WORK is what you were born to do
• Your JOB is your career; your WORK is your life assignment
• Your JOB is your skill; your WORK is your gift
• You can retire from your JOB; you can never retire from your WORK
• JOBs prepare you for your WORK
• JOBs are temporary; WORK is permanent
• You can be fired from your JOB; but you can never be fired from you WORK
• You can retire from your JOB; but you can never retire from your WORK
• Your WORK protects you from your JOB
• Your WORK is your seed
• It is God who gives you the ability to produce wealth. God does not give bread but seed

Check those Inflated Expenses: Small Business Survival Strategy #2

In an online business advisory session last week, a business owner asked me how she can know whether her business is viable or not. After discussing some of the factors that may make a business viable or not, we dwelt a bit on business profitability. Her concern was that she was making losses and she couldn’t figure out why. In under an hour of talking she realized exactly what she was doing wrong and excitedly came up with action points to what she was going to work on.

A Small Business Challenge: False profits due to hidden costs in

Research indicates that 9 out of 10 businesses do not celebrate their 1st anniversary. One of the key factors that contribute to this high mortality rate is lack of systems and founder syndrome. Many small and medium enterprises are setup with founders who have no holistic business management skills.

It is reported that the typical owner or managers of small businesses develop their own approach to management, through a process of trial and error. As a result their management style is likely to be more intuitive than analytical, more concerned with day-to-day operations than long-term issues, and more opportunistic than strategic in its concept. One of the areas of challenges I have seen is in Accounting and Financial Management. I do business mentoring for a number of MSMEs in Uganda and so I decided to start writing a series about some of these challenges and among them is False profits due to hidden expenses in MSMEs. 

7 ways to improve your financial situation

I prefer reading books that have principles that I can apply in my life for personal development. Coming across such books is far between and having time to read them is another matter all together. When I get time to read a good book, I tend too write the key principles that I think are worth passing on to others or making reference to at a later stage.

Some years back, I read the book ‘The Richest Man in Babylon’ by George Samuel Clason which dispenses financial advice through a collection of parables set in ancient Babylon. This financial self help book is a good read and provides practical advise that would guide one to good and time tested their financial management principles. The principles I gleaned from this book could be summarized as:

• Save at least 10% of your income

• Have a Budget to spent not more than 90% of your income

• Have diversified revenue streams

• Invest savings to earn interest

• Own a home

• Have a retirement plan & Insurance

• Ensure continuous professional or skills development

A simple way to measure personal financial fitness

One thing that is common with both Accountants and non-Accountants is that we all have a relationship with money, whether it is for better or for worse is another matter altogether. At the end of the day we all need to take stock of our money in order to:

1. Know where our money comes from
2. Know where our money goes
3. Know our current status

There is a useful site that helps with the third one but also help with thinking about the first and the second by taking a 'Financial Fitness Quiz'. http://njaes.rutgers.edu/money/ffquiz/

A friend gave me a simpler version of the quiz and I thought it is worth sharing. She called it 'The Personal Finance Scoring Quiz'. Do you want to know your status in less than 5 minutes? take the Quiz below:)