Someone once said, "blacks are Blacks' problem". I disagreed and he explained how an uncle gave him a shirt and shoe worth $4500 when he had earlier requested capital for his business from the same uncle but explained a lack of funds.I smiled and said, your uncle is not your problem, Africans' definition of "capital" is the problem. When we hear the word 'capital' what comes to mind is huge sum.
He looked at me and nodded affirmatively. His uncle said he didn't have "that kind of money". I know many people have received that kind of disappointing response from people. The question is what is "that kind of money" called "capital"?
Start small, grow big.
Many young entrepreneurs prepare business plans with a huge capital base because they want to hit the ground running (start big). I'd rather say, break your business plans into small phases and milestones. For instance, I had a 100 million studio idea, but I broke into phases.
PHASE ONE: mini studio.
I didn't have to start the studio using pro equipment worth millions because the funds were not readily available. A mini-budget for phase 1 made me plan the whole studio around 5 million to 10 million. Then I set a growth plan for Phase two to step up the equipment and space.
Many businesses are still in incubation because of big budgets that are not available. Exploit the phase-by-phase business planning to start small and grow big.
Finally, for those who think capital has to be or is a huge sum of money, it doesn't have to be. Especially for peeps abroad, monetize the value of goodies you buy a home for young entrepreneurs to invest in their phases of business. You can finance a shop rent for them as against buying them $4500 worth of clothing, which is also capital. Capital is anything you put in a business to grow it.
Tayo Okanlawon.
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Business