Nkechi Alade: I Don’t Have Enough Money

I guess we have all heard or said this at one point or the other. Whenever I meet people with great potentials to succeed if they take on their talent as a business and ask them what they are waiting for, I get the same “no money” answer.

This is a valid excuse no doubt, as money has become quite difficult to come by these days; however, this excuse has led to the death of what could have turned out to be highly successful businesses.

The fact that you do not have enough money doesn’t mean you can’t start your own empire.

No matter what line of business you go into, you will need startup capital to get your business going, so money is important. Do you know what’s also important? Passion, Drive, Determination, Purpose and a whole lot more.

Finding the money is not particularly easy, but it can be done.

Get a Microloan
Accessing a regular bank loan may be difficult because you are new into the borrowing market and lack a credit history or the necessary collateral. You can, however, apply for a small business loan from micro-finance banks or other financial institutions (not necessarily banks).

Many of these institutions offer smaller loan sizes, usually require less documentation than banks, and often apply more flexible underwriting criteria. There are many of such institutions springing up in Nigeria nowadays, making it easier for you to compare and choose the one that best suits you.

Raise money from family and friends
This is quite a tricky one, so you need to be very careful about it… because it can lead to soured relationships – if not handled well. Nothing can strain a relationship like money, however, who is in the best position to support your venture if not them?

Hitting up family and friends is the most common way to finance a startup; however it should be done right. It is important that you treat whatever transaction you have with family and friends as formal as possible, not bypassing any legality because you are quite close.

Are you offering equity? Or will this be a loan? If necessary you also need to emphasize the risks involved to aid their decision making process. Offer up a strong business plan and supply formal financial projections. This shows that you take them seriously and care about what happens to their funds.

Crowd funding
Though not really common in this part of the world, crowd funding is a highly creative way to use the power of the Internet to find a crowd of like-minded people, with small amounts each, to back your efforts.

It is a relatively new and increasingly popular option people are using to fund business ideas that that require low capital. Many times, entrepreneurs use sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter to raise money from the crowd in return for incentives like a prerelease product or even equity in their companies.

These sites cut out professional investors by putting funding in the hands of regular folks. It is however important for you to read the fine print of different crowd funding sites before signing up as some have payment-processing fees and other requirements.

There are so many other options to raise funding for your business, all you need to do is have a passion and sound business plan, in due time it will all come together, even better than you imagined. Go forth and excel!

Photo Credit: Denisismagilov | Dreamstime