SEC-S20W2 | My Business Ideas |Capital Management

Capital is an important part of business that gives flexibility to a business owner to operate, grow, attend stability and succeed. Capital must be managed properly in order to help the business maintain good financial health.

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As an entrepreneur, I believe in taking a baby-step when starting and I like skillful business too which was why I invested in my skill first before gathering capital to start up from my personal savings.

In business, you must be strategic to suit your resources at hand. While in the process of learning hair business skill, I started getting products and tools one after the other. Few months later, I was able to get the basic tools and products for my business. Since it's a small business, I never had to worry about the shop rent, business registration and advertisement. I also believe that with time, I will get there. I went directly to set up by purchasing the raw materials and rendering my services.

My photo: A view of products/ tools store

Below table is showing my initial investment value in my local currency, steem and in US$ and how I managed it;

Business Items	Price in Naira	Price in Steem	Price in US$
Mannequin (big and small	#8, 000	31	4.85
Hair Products (for treatment and styling)	#35,000	134.7	21.22
Hair Tools	#64,000	246.2	38.78
Customer's bags/ gifts	#15,000	58	9
Total	#122,000	469.3	73.93

Please note that those are not the current prices for the items listed, I used the actual amount to when I started my business a year ago. Prices of hair products and tools are double now compared to when I started.

In order to determine whether my business made profit or loss, I make sure to keep records of the total monthly income. At the end of the month, I will then calculate the total revenue and expenses for each services;

• Numbers of hairs revamped and styled in a month
• Numbers of closure and frontal ventilated
• Numbers of wigged hairs
• Numbers of repaired hairs

After tracking this record, I can accurately know if my business made profit or losses during a particular period of time. Every business owner prays to make profits but sometimes, when there is no profit, mistakes can be corrected. I planned to expand my business more to become successful in future so I always try my best to reinvest in the business by purchasing new set of hair products and tools.

Did You Take any Loans or Working Capital for Your Business from any Financial Institute?

I know the importance of taking loan for business and how fast it will help in growing the business but it has disadvantages as well. I prefer to use personal capital and would advise those that intend to start up business to do same. I have lived to understand the benefits of this which was why I used my personal savings to start up mine. Yes, this has given me the safe ground to build and grow peacefully without pressure.

My photo

Collateral security is simply a form of assets/ properties given to the loan lender as security; it can be a land property, house, business equipments, cars, savings account or jewelries ( gold and diamonds). I do not have any plans of seeking for loan from any financial institute. Collateral loan will never give a business owner his/ her dream stability on time, the business might be growing but in real sense, you might be building to clear debt instead of moving forward. Life can happen to anyone, I am not against the act of getting business loan but it's just my personal decision for not finding loan as the best solution especially from financial institute. Although, seeking help from close friends and family seems like the best option to me.

From people's shared experience, I see collateral security as risky decision but I won't also denied the fact that loan is helpful.

I will invite @anasuleidy, @eliany and @josepha to join the business class. Thank you!