Building Empires out of Little: Developing Strong Savings Culture

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July 25, 2019

piggybank — Piggybank for saving has enslaved many to online lenders

“Financial peace isn’t in the acquisition of stuff. It’s learning to live on less than you make, so you can give and have more money to invest. You can’t win until you do this.” -Dave Ramsey

In this short piece, I shall make attempt at identifying ways to developing strong savings culture, and more importantly on ways to building something tangible out of your stream(s) of income however little it is. I assume that you earn income either in form of salary and/or from your personal business hustles. For a starter, I do believe that even as an entrepreneur or business owner, you’re supposed to put yourself on regular salary. Your business is an economic entity, separate from you, and it should be treated as such.

To drive home my point, I’m proposing a concept and you should kindly take up the task that comes with it. The concept is called Investment-Income Coefficient. This requires that you come up with an estimate of your income from all sources in the last 10 years or less. And you collate all the ‘Investments’ (landed properties, car(s), cash savings, shares, bonds, amount spent on self-sponsored training and certifications or degrees etc. within the same period). Then, you divide the latter by the former. By a rule of thumb, I posit that if your Investment-Income Coefficient (IIC) is less than 15%, your immediate future might be at risk. This is purely my postulation. It hasn’t been subjected to any scientific review or critique.

Nonetheless, I challenge you to take up the task and assess yourself using the Investment-Income Coefficient concept, imperfect as it might be.

You see, many of us are living in bubbles. If you genuinely carried out the task as requested, you would see that you perhaps had been living a lie until now. No, don’t tell me it’s family bills. Everyone has got family bills to pay. The question should be, what you would have done differently had you the chance to go back in time, and more importantly, what you can do better, moving forward. Generally, I don’t support lamentations over the past. But then, having a clear sense of history gives us a better peep into the future.

Now let’s be honest here. Saving does not guarantee you riches and wealth, but it does come handy in times of troubles and crises. Most smart people I have ever seen engage in intentional savings, even from their ‘little’ income. And let me clarify; I’m not here to teach you how to be rich. I don’t do motivational stuff.

Before going into the specifics, I need to make these few points and I’m sorry if they don’t sit well with anyone.

First. We all should do our best to spend massively on our parents and families. But this is some brutally honest advice. Don’t build your own future or expected old age around hope of children being your pension plan. Given the sophistication of the millennial times, you may not enjoy the same level of privilege our own parents currently enjoy.

Despite the current rat race of professional life, we still struggle to meet our parent and sort out family issues every now and then. Wait for the next 20 to 30 years. Every man shall be for himself. This shall have little to do with home training. Talk about demands of the job. The key point here is, everyone should plan for his/her old age.

Second. It’s myopic to put mind only on a pension plan in old age. Pension in the ordinary sense of it is only meant to cater for your basic need after retirement. It’s not designed to cater for critical family and health emergencies that might arise, except you have a separate comprehensive family health plan or life assurance policy. Smart people take account of all these realities.

Now having said all these, let’s make attempt at identifying ways you can save effectively to cater for the future, notwithstanding your income levels. No, this is not some textbook theory. Few of the points herein have worked for me.

Here we go:

Save x% of your income before spending

No matter how small you earn from your stream(s) of income, save a given percentage of that income. Consistently. This requires extreme discipline, I must admit. When it comes to savings, you must be intentional and stubborn about it. You decide what your ‘x’ is.

Your savings should be kept sacrosanct. It’s not what you dip hands into at will. Now let’s get this. Every smart fellow should save in at least two baskets (One, towards a specific project, and the other, towards emergencies).

By saving, I don’t mean holding cash endlessly in bank accounts. You can be investing the funds in liquid or other physical assets as you move along. The Emergency Savings are advised to be kept in cash or other easily convertible forms (say shares, TBills, bonds etc.).

When you save towards to a particular purpose, let it be one ‘project’ at a time. It can be savings towards obtaining a new degree or certification, or buying a car, or building a housing project. Make it one project at a time. That’s what smart people do. That way, it’s easy to measure progress.

Know your expenses

It is no brainer. Everyone should have a full idea of his/her monthly cost lines. I mean all expenses you incur monthly. People get frustrated easily over mounting bills largely because they seem have no control over their expense profile. You can’t measure what you don’t know. And you can’t you control it ether. To stay off monthly frustration and complaint on easily-zapped earnings, sit back to have clarity around your spending.

Some mental strains are completely avoidable. For emphasis, you need to create that time to deeply look at you bills and set yourself free.

Have a personal finance budget

Everyone should have a documented personal budget. No, keeping such details in your head will not work. You need a well-documented schedule (maybe an Excel file) that speaks to your income expectations over a period of twelve months and how such income is to be spent. What smart people do is, they ensure that any bill outside the schedule will have to wait for other unplanned income too. You may want to ask, “what if it’s medical emergency?” Well, everyone should save towards emergencies anyway. And that should be part of your monthly cost line. I can send you a template, if you need one.

Keep tab of your spending

Benjamin Franklin said, “Beware of little expenses; a small leak sinks a great ship”. As you spend, be sure you track things. Be wary of impulse purchases. Buy only what you need. You can only plan towards a sustainable future when you embrace the concept of deferred gratification. Be visionary. Look brightly into your desired future and save towards it. Be willing to bear the pain of ‘NOW’ in exchange of the glory of the future.

Don’t borrow to fund a lifestyle

Well, this is a matter of choice. Everyone should choose what works him/her. But it’s never the practice of people who are bullish about their future to live bogus life funded by credit cards and soft loans. If you are blessed with more, it’s fine to live up to your standard. Very fine!

Don’t incur expenses over a futuristic income. Don’t commit yourself to certain spending or donation over an expected income. It is a stupid thing to do. Even Dangote once noted this fact in one interview.

Stay off relationship that drains you

If all you do with people in your circle of influence is planning on the next party attires and birthday parties etc., I’m sorry, you need a new set of friends. You should have friends that encourage you with cooperatives and other investment opportunities. You should have friends whose investment adventure provoke you to take positive action about your future. Friends help each other grow in wealth, career and exposure. It is not a bad idea if you belong to cooperative society with colleagues and friend that commits you to regular saving.

Final point. Financial literacy is not the preserve of only the Finance people. Please make effort to learn few things about investment opportunities and options around you and make a difference about your future.

Show up. Be counted. Take the lead.

By

Sikiru Salami

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July 25, 2019

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If you ever cared to observe, back in schools, most Class Reps or Class Governors or even Assignment Team Leads don’t get elected through voting process. We just chose them. Mostly, we chose (and perhaps still do) not those who are desperate, but those who show up to solve a class-related problem; those who organize class tutorials; those who were quick to serve as bridge between us and lecturers. This tells a big story.

Let me ask a rhetorical question. You entered a public convenience to free your bowel (that’s being less offensive) and you observed that the person who last used the place ‘forgot’ to flush things off. What would you do? Do you put things right and keep the place clean nonetheless (not minding whether you still choose to use it or not), or you simply dash out in anger lamenting and looking for whose fault it is? Your inner response to this tells a big story about your readiness or capacity for leadership roles. That you are not the cause of a problem doesn’t absolve you of responsibility to fix it.

If you’re a business owner and your customer raises concerns about your employee’s mistakes or poor service offerings, you need to take full responsibility for the issue raised and fix it rather find ways to extricate yourself or the company of blame.

Same applies if you’re a team lead or departmental head. If your subordinate messes up on an official assignment, you need to first take responsibility for the error and fix the problem rather find ways to extricate yourself of the blame. Leaders don’t lament. Leaders don’t scape-goat. They are leaders because they take responsibility for the entire spectrum of activities under their purview. They take the blame but share the glory.

If there’s a general project at your workplace requiring volunteer efforts from employees, be among the few people to first show interest. Learn to show up when it matters.
If your employer is in trouble, be among the first to show interest, and contribute ideas on how to how to get him/her out of the quagmire. Show up, when you’re most needed.
The interesting bit about life is, if everyone is unwilling to fix a problem; no one will. And everybody will ultimately pay dearly for it.
When organizations have departmental or team leadership roles to urgently fill, employees that are visible at problem-solving sessions have better chances of being considered first. Show up, when it matters.
In staff meetings, seminars, conferences, don’t be shy to stand up and share your viewpoints on a matter in discourse. Show up when it matters.
Showing up to help fix problems (even if unsolicited) doesn’t necessarily amount to desperation. Oh I understand your concerns. “Won’t they say I’m an overzealous attention-seeker? Won’t they say I’m over-reaching my boundaries?”

And I dare ask, who cares?

I do think you should be worried only if you help people purely for public attention, validation or admiration. Clarity of purpose is key. The purpose of life, they say, is a life of purpose. Sincerity of purpose beats all pre-conceived notions of ill-will. Just be sincere. What people say doesn’t matter.

When you try to be hard working, do so because of the bigger future ahead of you, not for people’s validation or CEO’s praise. I’m saying this lest you get disappointed.

It doesn’t matter if your effort is appreciated. Exploring the best of your potentials in service to others is not a weakness. It is not a stupid move. No, you’re preparing for the future. When that future comes, your past ‘un-rewarded’ hardwork and sweat will pay off.

Take tomorrow. See the bigger picture.

Now talking of leadership, I must clear your doubts on this. Leadership is not defined by age. You can be Departmental Head, CFO, CMD, Chief Engineer, CTO, COO at an age less than 30. If you have a leadership opportunity, take it.
If you have opportunity to lead a team or lead the entire firm or opportunity to do what no one has ever done before, take it.
Self-doubt is a killer of dreams. Junk that inner voice that says “you can’t do it. You’re too young for this. You must be 40 before you can do it”. Shut that voice down!
Don’t be discouraged, cocooned or marooned by your young age or short work experience. Don’t be desperate either. Be open to learning. And be patient.

Mental maturity is key. Deep technical competence is a must. Emotional intelligence is important. Right attitude to work beats all.

These skills are developed through deliberate efforts, hardwork, consistent and intentional learning, and not age.

Take tomorrow.

Show up and be counted, when it matters.

Take the lead.

A Comprehensive Demographic Exercise is Vital to Nigeria’s Economic Development

By

Oko Ebuka

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July 24, 2019

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When the earth was created according to the Bible (book of Genesis Chapter 1), God the creator, saw the importance of human being to inhibit the earth and take charge of everything already in creation. Man was a vital tool in earth’s management and this modus operandi has been on for ages. The importance of man and his mission on earth can be clearly seen on the command by God to go to the earth and biologically multiply. The Bible also recorded a demographic exercise comprehensively conducted by the Jewish authorities to enable the government to strategize on the way forward for the teeming population, a tradition that is highly sacrosanct (Luke 2:1-5). Man’s population in the world started expanding from miraculous two at Garden of Eden to billions spread in the world’s 7 Continents.

The world population is becoming mind-blowing with estimation of 7.7 billion people according to worldometers (2019). People come into the world every minute of the day. As at the time of this research, the population growth for a day was above 137,000 while death rate for the day was a little above 99,000. You can now see the difference.

Nigeria is among the world’s top ten countries with highest population growth as they occupy the 7th position with over 201.2 million people. According to world population review report on Nigeria, the total surface area of the country is approximately 923,768 square kilometers, which shows that in combination with the nearly 200 million people, the density of Nigeria is around 212.04 individuals per square kilometers.

This population is becoming alarming as the economic activities has not being adequately distributed in order to meet the basic economic needs of the people to avert hunger, homelessness, constant electricity supply, poor education and inadequate accessibility to clean water. The previous demographic exercises have been more of political bargains than humanitarian considerations. The consciousness of various six geo-political zones whose agenda is to augment their population for mere reasons of federal allocation claims were nothing but highly erroneous to the entire human race especially on the exact objective of carrying out the head counting.

Let me paint this picture, while growing up, before we cook any food for the day, my mother or any of my sisters who will grace the kitchen will take note of everybody’s whereabouts and make sure the meal gets to the reach of every family member within the house at that moment and small portion will remain as contingency. The day she omitted to count, there was chaos because I ate a portion of the meal without considering the others. It was not totally my fault as the portion I ate was exactly the portion I normally get. The problem was in the wrong counting of the people that supposed to partake in that meal. It was a great lesson for all of us. This proves that any country without the record of the exact number of people whom they should plan for annually is just planning with guess and guess works are usually adjudged as nothing but colossal failure to the existing promises meant to be delivered.

In developed countries like the United States of America, Canada, Australia, and Other top European countries, birth and death registration are never relegated in the chronicle of their demographic plans. Electronically, the records have been made easier, so simplified that there are full details of every single soul, living or dead. Also, the biometric registration has devised a way of curbing societal crimes and ensuring proper security and safety management.

Adequately, Nigeria can become a desert today if her inhabitants automatically go into extinction. This analogy above has proved that the relationship between human and environment has been so symbiotic and reflects on the betterment of the natural endowments under his care.

The 2018 trajectory report published in Vanguard Newspaper proved Nigeria as “the extreme poverty capital of the world”, with a whopping 75 million people swimming in the deep black ocean of poverty. It is a shameful and degrading way of addressing the largest Black Country in the world, it is an obnoxious remark, but the truth is clearly undeniable as regard to the level of poverty in the land.

My argument is thus; you can’t plan for people you don’t statistically account for. There is need for clear, critical and objective demographic exercise to enable the country’s budget meet with the citizen’s demands per head. The N8.92 trillion budgeted for 2019 is nothing but shooting directly to the moon hence there is no proper record of the exact number of people you are budgeting for?

In Nigeria, the demographic exercise is being carried out every decade. The last official demographic exercise practically carried out by the government was in 2006 which was a manual head to head count. It could become better especially in this digital age. It is now 13 good years after the last manual exercise. Therefore, we need to overcome the stupid trend of assumption and develop a classical and comprehensive way of taking notes of every soul within the shores of this country. It could even make it swifter and assist the country in identifying her real citizens. On this note, we should have a head count duly simplified under the auspices of the 77 Local Government Authorities.

The popular democratic adage, “Power belongs to the people” should be revisited and properly placed in a way that really portray that people should be in rightful possession of both socio-economic, political and cultural powers as indicated in the words of democratic ideologists.

Nigerian Stock Exchange Should Emulate Shanghai’s STAR for Tech Startups Exchange

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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July 24, 2019

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China has created a tech-focused stock exchange. The Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Science and Technology Innovation board, popularly called STAR, launched this week with 25 companies. The companies surged on average of 140% with one (Anji Microelectronics Technology) hitting 400%. Through STAR, China has created a small equivalent of NASDAQ, a U.S.-based stock exchange that is largely dominated by technology companies. Possibly, through this experiment, China can keep its leading tech companies like Alibaba (which trades in U.S.) to list at home.

Beijing hopes STAR, which has strong backing from Chinese president Xi Jinping, will emulate—and eventually compete with—the Nasdaq in fostering innovative startups. It has long been a source of irritation to China’s leaders that the nation’s hottest tech companies—including Alibaba Group, Tencent, Baidu, and smartphone maker Xiaomi—have opted to float shares in the United States or Hong Kong and largely ignored exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

One reason for STAR’s giddy opening: regulators exempted it from a rule that limits first-day gains on exchanges in Shenzhen and Shanghai to no more than 44%, although after the first five days of trading, daily price changes will be limited to no more than 20% up or down. STAR’s intraday circuit-breakers are wider, as well. Even so, several companies triggered them within minutes of Monday’s opening.

Yet, the most important thing about STAR is not creating an equivalent for local companies but making it easier for these companies to trade. So, China which would not have typically allowed unprofitable companies like Lyft and Uber to trade would accommodate them via STAR; the Shenzhen and Shanghai exchanges admit only profitable entities. Of course, in this age where market share is strategic, many digital companies sacrifice profitability for growth. When they assume that pole position under the winner-takes-all network effect, they can then map the profitability roadmap.

Other STAR market rules are meant to make it easier for tech companies to raise capital for growth and investment. Unlike exchanges in Shenzhen and Shanghai, STAR doesn’t bar unprofitable companies, nor does it require companies to receive government approval to be listed. Moreover, the new market imposes no limit on the ratio of a share price to a company’s earnings at the time of listing. For some STAR companies, price-to-earnings ratios exceed 150.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange needs something that will be designed for promising technology companies in Nigeria. We want to see the likes of Paystack, Kobo360, Flutterwave and others list, at least their Nigerian entities, in Nigeria, within a new bourse that will accommodate their peculiarities. Simply, NSE needs Nigeria’s equivalent of STAR.

Identifying and Tracking the Metrics that Drive Business Impact on Digital

By

Rukevwe Toka MBA

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July 24, 2019

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For the longest time, businesses have traditionally taken a spray and pray approach to marketing but in this digital age, enough data is already being generated to empower marketing leaders to make well-informed decisions.

In this article, I argue that brands and businesses take a deeper data-driven approach to their digital initiatives, rather than aiming for quick wins by cutting corners. A strong focus on analysing and interpreting data generated from digital marketing programs goes a long way in optimizing the marketing budget for maximum business returns.

Did you know that digital marketing is the most measurable form of marketing? Digital marketing analytics takes the guesswork out of determining whether your marketing is actually working. By measuring your digital marketing campaigns in real-time, you can see which tactics are working and which are not.

There are a plethora of metrics to track – clicks, bounce rates, conversion rates, page views, website visitors, likes, shares etc., however, it is important to note that not all metrics might matter to your business at the same point in time.

While some metrics are just good to have, others are must-know and at a glance, these metrics can help you make decisions that will in turn help improve the impact of your overall marketing campaign.

This brings us to identifying and tracking the metrics that drive impact on digital. At this juncture, it is important to note that in order to identify the right metrics, you must have a clear goal and a picture of success in mind.

You must clearly articulate exactly what you’re aiming for and let your digital marketing expert translate that into trackable metrics on digital.

For example, an FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) brand aiming for awareness is better off tracking reach, viewable impressions and brand lift rather than clicks for its awareness campaign.

A professional services firm aiming for more business leads is better off tracking the rate at which their contact form is filled out and submitted rather than the total number of website visitors.

This is not to say clicks are not important for the FMCG brand or that total website visitors are not important for the professional services firm, but that the metrics that drive impact goes beyond what we tend to see on the surface level.

The metrics that will drive impact for Brand A may not necessarily drive impact for Brand B, hence I recommend that in order to identify the metrics that matter the most to your brand or business, consult with a specialized agency partner or digital marketing expert with a track record of excellence.

However, on a general note, let’s take a look at 3 of the most popular surface-level metrics and their accompanying impact metrics. I highly recommend these metrics for brands and businesses. If you are involved in execution, learn more about these and if not, request a report showing your performance on these and other identified metrics from your agency partner.

From Community Size to Reach

Gone are the days when having 1 million Facebook fans meant you could freely reach all 1 million of them organically on a daily basis.

With Facebook’s latest algorithm change to the newsfeed, many pages are reaching less than 20% of their fans and this same trend applies to Twitter and Instagram.

So my question is, what’s more important? Tracking month on month growth/decline in community size or month on month growth/decline in total reach on social? Think about it.

From Video Views to Video Retention

Your 60 seconds TVC (an audio-visual advertisement aired on free or subscription TV stations) has been published on Facebook and YouTube.

A lot of money has been invested in media buying and you report 1.5 million views to the business and the team celebrates the achievement.

On the flip side, consumers viewed the TVC for the first 5 seconds on average whereas the key message of the TVC was revealed in the 40th second of the video.

Video retention matters more than ever before because of shorter and shorter attention spans.

Begin measuring the duration of your videos that consumers actually watch and let the learnings drive your video content strategy.

From Impressions to Viewable Impressions

I remember when I ran my first google display campaign.

Impressions were rising like magic. In a single day, I would report up to 10 million impressions but this was not making any difference to the business.

I soon realized that an impression is counted each time my ad is shown and this could be a fraction of a second.

So how can you tell if people are actually noticing your Ad? Consider tracking viewable impressions.

An ad is counted as “viewable” when 50% of your ad shows on screen for one second or longer for Display Ads and two seconds or longer for Video Ads.

Ensure your agency partner does not report only impressions but drills down to viewable impressions where applicable.

The above list is by no means exhaustive. The focus for a fast-moving consumer goods business differs from that of a professional services firm which in turn differs from the focus of a technology startup and so on. At the end of the day, value for money invested in digital is what matters most.

Your ability to identify the strategies and tactics that drive revenue or desired results for your business or brand depends on your willingness to test, measure and do more of what works.

Consider an orchestra, one instrument is never sufficient on its own to create the effect that orchestras are well known for.

Same applies to digital marketing. It’s not enough to have your creative and copy on point, measurement matters just as much as execution.

Identifying the right metrics to track is a step you should take if marketing success is your end goal.