Get Your Wallet Ready For A Start-Up

There are many factors that will undermine your foray into entrepreneurial land. Just be careful not to let your personal finance be one of the hurdles you can not overcome. As a business owner in Nigeria, one of the things that is certain is the uncertainty. No matter how well you think your business is going to be, you have to be ready for your income to be irregular. In cases where you were in a paid position prior to takin the 'big' leap, you are likely to find yourself taking a pay cut as well. This scenario should not be the reason why you decide not to start your business. There are certain things that can be done to buffer your wallet against the financial dilemma of entrepreneurship. Some of the steps you take now will help you when you become an entrepreneur.

Things to do

1. Get in the habit of tracking your day-to-day spending. Most likely than not, you are using a smartphone so it will be easy for you to take notes of your spending. When you track your spending, you are able to see how your spending is divided into the needs and wants categories. It is important that if you are spending heavily on wants, that you rein in this behaviour. Also, are you spending impulsively? This another behaviour that needs to be checked. 
2. Have a look at your big ticket items spending. Are you living in a 4 bedroom house when 3 or 2 bedroom apartment would suffice? Or can you get the same size of house in a different locale for cheaper? Do you eat out often at work?  Does your car keep developing expensive faults? In Nigeria, bigger is better and spending lavishly is seen as a sign of success. Downgrading may seem like the beginning of a social downfall. However, a businessman or businesswoman has to get in the habit of being prudent. So downgrade, downgrade, downgrade where possible. 
3. Are you married? If you are a man and you have a spouse, now is the time to have the conversation on financial responsibility. In a lot of relationships in Nigeria, the man is expected to provide for his wife and bear the majority of the financial burden. It is likely that as you start in business, your wife may have to bear more of the financial responsibility. Is this doable? As a woman, you may find yourself with reduced income or no income for a while, it is important to find out if your husband is willing to provide financial support over the tough period.
4. If you have children, now is the time to do a financial calculation of your likely expenditure for the next couple of years on things like their schools and clothes. Now is the time to start saving up for these costs. 
5. Save! Save! Save! You should have a formula for dividing up the money you are saving. All of the money you are saving should not be earmarked for capital. The money should be budgeted towards your day-to-day spending until you get a regular income flow from your business. You should have some of it earmarked for emergency spending, both personal and business, as well.  I am also of the opinion that you should save for a vacation. The vacation may not be in the grand tradition of going to London but you should aim to go away to place closer and cheaper like Ghana or Cotonou. 

I am sure I am missing out some valuable advise for getting personal finance ready for the journey into business ownership. If you have suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comment section of this post.