One of the biggest challenges faced by many is determining where to invest their money or which businesses to go into. This is common when the person in question has many options but lacks enough funds to sponsor them all. At a time like this, what such a person needs is meeting with the right persons, who will give him insight on which of the options to go for or, in some cases, better ones that he might need to consider. Of course, in this case, talking to the wrong people could lead to the loss of funds. Hence, the investor should be mindful of whom he receives advice from.

Four Persons to Consult before Taking a Business/Investment Decision

A Lawyer: Some businesses require legal procedures and knowledge. Some might need lawyers to help you to set up. Before you invest in that business, consider talking to a lawyer to understand what and what is involved, legally. You might also wish to find out the legality of the business in your country or state. If you go ahead without seeking legal advice and end up infringing or investing in another person’s business that has infringed or is about to commit one, you may wish you had done the needful beforehand. So, find a competent lawyer that will help you to avoid those mistakes.

An Entrepreneur: Whether you are about to start a business or invest in an already running one, you need some pieces of advice from a neutral entrepreneur that is into that same business. The essence of this is that the entrepreneur will tell you the ups and downs of the business. He can forecast the profitability of the business within the period of investment and help you decide whether you should go in for it or stall for some time. Remember to go for an entrepreneur that will not treat you as a competitor. Of course, you won’t think of speaking to the person you are about to invest your money with.

A Banker: There is something about bankers many people haven’t noticed: they have information on the types of entrepreneurs that are favoured by the economy. If you are looking for a business idea, go to a banker friend and he will tell you the customers that pay in millions of naira daily from their sales. Apart from that, some of the bank marketers visit customers in their offices and take time to survey how their businesses are run. Many bankers are walking business consultants that have a lot of information on business types in the country, how they thrive, how to set them up, and, above all, how risky they are. So, speak to that banker you know and see what information he has on your business and investment interests.

A Law Enforcer: This is one person people overlook while investigating their business and/or investment options. You will only understand the importance of people in this field if you consider the number of business-related cases reported to police stations every day. Some businesses always take the business owners and customers to the police station (e.g. estate agents) while some don’t. Some maintain close collaborations with law enforcers as a way of checking crimes and abuses. For instance, a man that wanted to establish a car dealership shop casually announced his intention to his friend, a police officer, and realised he needs to collaborate with some enforcement agencies, including EFCC. According to this policeman, car dealers provide details of buyers to law enforcers as a way of checking internet scams and other frauds. This was about three years ago, anyway, it may no longer be obtainable today. However, a person needs to know if the business or investment of his interest is the one that will cause him ceaseless police cases or not.

Note that talking to these people does not mean you should not consult with other experts. These are actually the people you should meet by the side, informally. They will help you with the basic information you need to make a decision. However, when you decide what you wanted, reach out to consultants to continue from there.

This is a question posted on our digital board. I think many will find value in my response to the member.

Question: “On the issue of testing capability, must an entrepreneur know the practical aspect of a trade? does it mean a vision can not be executed until the carrier knows the skills of execution?”

My Response: You do not need to know the practical aspect of a trade before you can build a business in it. What you need to do is to have capital, a factor of production, to acquire any capability you do not have. So, that capital can hire labour (here, someone who understands that trade).

Yet, as we have seen, since the time of Adam Smith economics, knowledge has become extremely important in business. While you may not have a practical knowhow on a trade, it is important you have knowledge about that trade if you want to thrive. The wisdom in a book – The Richest Man in Babylon –  comes into play: use experts to run things but you must also have knowledge to know who is an expert!

Aliko Dangote may not understand a refinery technical systems but he has knowledge to hire people who do, using the capital under his disposal. In the Week 1 of our program, I have a detailed video, explaining these five steps.

Welcome to Tekedia Institute.

Comment on LinkedIn Feed

Comment #1: Impressive one right there!

Robert Kiyosaki made a clear distinction between entrepreneurs and professionals, and I think it makes sense; entrepreneurs are much concerned with breath, they know ‘little’ about many things. Professionals on the other hand, are more about depth, they know so much about little things.

As an entrepreneur, what you need most is the domain knowledge, understand the fundamentals of every piece that makes up the business system; domain technicalities; business analytics; sales and marketing; accounting and finance; human resources; and other necessary parts as regarding the sector of interest. Then hire the best of the best in each subset of the system, those who are better than you, to run the show.

Just know as much as needed to understand the fundamentals and be able to speak their language, and step out of their way, so they can take care of the rest.

That’s business leadership!

Comment #2: Good response. You can be a visionary, manager or expert, you just need to be great at one, not three of them. With that, you bring in the other capabilities, the final outcome is a well run conglomerate.

1.2 – Five Phases of Building Great Companies

From all of us at Tekedia Institute, we want to welcome AtYourService Technologies for months-long co-learning on business innovation, operational execution and growth. AtYourService connects organizations to the best African talents who have the right skills they need to achieve their business goals.

It focuses on matching and managing professionals for these organizations, based on their unique needs, thus helping them succeed in the short and long runs. It does all via two broad services: People Recruitment (Full-time, Freelance & Secondment) and Project Management (Outsourcing). The firm is led by Uchenna Okezie

Great companies are sending their team members to Tekedia Mini-MBA, Tekedia Advanced Diploma and Tekedia Corporate programs. I want to welcome yours! BEGIN here.

Jerome Powell, the U.S Fed Reserve Chairman, spoke on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, among others. Here are excerpts. The full video below.

“Since we are the world’s reserve currency, we actually think we need to get this right, and we don’t feel an urge or need to be first,” he said. “We effectively already have a first-mover advantage, because we’re the reserve currency.”

“We’ve been very focused… on potential regulatory answers for global stablecoins, in particular,” said Powell in response to a question about CBDCs, or central bank digital currencies.

“So that’s been a high-level focus, and that will continue to be a high-level focus because they could become systemically important overnight and we don’t begin to have, you know, our arms around the potential risks and how to manage those risks, and the public will expect we do and has every right to expect that… It’s a very high priority.”

One of the best decisions I made while in Diamond Bank (since merged with Access Bank Plc) was asking the Head of IT to allow me to spend time in the bank’s Administration Unit. I had wanted to understand how companies are managed, administratively – tenders, invoices, payment, etc. Luckily, he approved it as I made it a win-win: if you allow me, I will return back to IT to help build software for Admin! A key component of that experience was Procurement Management. How do you execute an efficient procurement regime in your firm? Not an easy call.

Tekedia Institute is proud to announce that Harold Nwariaku FCIPS has joined our Faculty. He is developing a course on Procurement Management. He was formerly the Procurement Portfolio Manager, Guinness Nigeria Plc; Senior Manager Procurement, MTN Nigeria; Senior Purchases Manager W/Africa, Procter & Gamble; and today the Lead Consultant at Harold & Co Consulting.

Mr. Nwariaku is a graduate of University of Nigeria Nsukka (BSc Accountancy) and Cranfield University (MSc Logistics & Supply Chain Management).

In markets, it is all about demand and supply, managed through allocation of factors of production. Procurement is a very critical part of that system. This course will help innovators, project champions, CEOs, members, etc run an efficient procurement process within their supply chain systems.

Registration continues for Tekedia Mini-MBA here.