Whether you are successful or not, you will receive a request to lend money from a family member or relative. The problem with lending relatives or a family member is that they take the loan as a grant and will most likely default on the loan. It is recommended that you always treat the loan as a business transaction. That will increase the likelihood that you will be paid. You are advised to first think hard whether you can afford to lend the money. The basic financial advice is to “always lend what you can afford to lose.” If the…
Common sense finance planning part 1
Many young executives and corporate people tend to think that they know everything. That is great. However, information is not the problem. Failure to take action is. Plus, many people take decisions based on hearsay and not data. And that is why they continue to think that their investment decisions are great, which is wrong. One of the common questions I am often asked is: If I have Ugx. 5m (US $2,300), which top 3 investments would you advise me to invest in Uganda and why? How would you invest? When faced with an investment decision, most people think real…
Want to be highly productive? Be happy at home
There are several reasons why you may not attain peace at your home. 1. You don’t have a clear strategy or model of how to manage family finances. Many of the people in my private mentor-ship program complain about their spouses when it comes to managing family finances. Do you operate a join family bank account, on which both of you are signatories. The question then is how much should each contribute to that account monthly? Do you contribute equally? Do you just combine all your bank accounts and focus on being transparent to each other? How exactly do you…
Risk management; using organizational review approach
In 2012, my firm, Summit Consulting Ltd won a bid to formulate a risk management strategy for a government institution. This is our first assignment. Being the team leader, I had to research extensively as you can imagine — just looking for a process that works. My key questions were: “How and where do I start from?” As a consultant, I am expected to know more. And I had one chance to prove my competences and those of my firm, www.summitcl.com. As the firm leader, we spend thousands upon thousands of dollars finding for a system that works all the…
Sell benefits; not features
People don’t buy your product or service features per see. They are interested in the benefits they get when they use your products and services. Your website, brochures and presentations should error on showing the benefits of your products or services.” Mustapha B Mugisa, 2015 Following on last week’s Guerrilla insights, in this issue we explore guerrilla sales insights #2, how to package your services to your prospects. Here is the #1 sales rule of all: Never sell products – sell benefits. Never sell services, sell benefits. Never sell features, sell benefits. Never sell insurance, sell what? … benefits. Always…
Business insights: technical people complain about lack of resources!
Your business is 80% marketing and sales; and 20% support services”, Mustapha B Mugisa, 2015 After consulting for several startups, the #1 challenge of most small businesses is not the lack of capital. It is the lack of customers. If your business lacks customers, it will suffer from cash flow problem which is critical for survival. At the start, don’t be driven by profits. That should come as a natural expansion of business success. It does not matter how much loan (capital) you have, if you don’t have customers, your capital will still not be enough. So, focus on revenue…
