I started thinking about getting rich
very early on in my life. The trouble was, I didn't know how or what I had to
do to get there. I promised to try anything legal I could find to get rich. As I
mentioned in my previous story, after telling my teacher
that “my profession when I grow up was to be rich”. I ended up
starting 13 different businesses that all went bankrupt. I went through
poverty to riches, then back to poverty, to being broke, to bankrupt, to
poverty until I was heavy in debt. I had
a debt higher than my annual income combined. But I never gave up. As you can tell by now, part of this dismal failure can be credited
to my lack of seriousness and ignorance. Why? I under estimated the process of
getting rich. I thought I needed luck but I was hugely wrong. I fail to take
into account the skills it’d take to become rich.
Before we talk bootstrapping and raising capital. Here's a quick recap of how things unfolded
in my early days. I actually never gave my full attention to any of the businesses
I’d started. I raised money from 36 friends promising to build a conglomerate. Among
others, I started 3 businesses at a go: a cocktail juice retailer, a Subaru Car
sales body and also negotiated to shoot a reality TV show for UBC TV in Uganda.
Before I knew it, all the money got finished and it wasn't enough. My brain had
lied to me. One by one, we run out of business and that's how I ended up in
debt far higher than my annual gross income combined. I thought at least one of
those businesses would make me rich and I’d pay back my creditors. Trust me,
that was the most stupid thing I ever did in business. To tackle so many businesses
all at once. Today, looking back I laugh
at myself.
Ignorance can only last so long. As time
went on I figured things out even though I got burnt in the process. My
youthful curiosity put me in a lot of trouble but it also taught me lots of valuable
lessons. I discovered beside my desire to get rich, I needed other
skills to make it happen – leadership skills, management skills, networking
skills, bootstrapping skills, human resources, financial management skills, etc. Once I discovered this I went all out to align my skills with
more tools to make it work. Now I know, if I'm to kill a mosquito, I will prepare
a gun instead of a slap. Getting rich is hard especially if you come from a
background like mine. So kindly; never, ever under estimate the process of
getting rich. Capital is not always the only challenges for start-ups.
Let’s
Talk Raising Capital, Let’s Talk Bootstrapping
What is bootstrapping? In the context of
business, bootstrapping is the act of starting a business with no money or, at
least, very little money. It means building a business out of very little
or virtually nothing. Boot strappers rely usually on personal income and
savings, sweat equity and lowest possible operating costs. It certainly means
starting a business without the help of venture capitalist firms or significant
investors. It means plowing back into the business the money earned from
customers. "Bootstrapping" comes from the term "pulling yourself
up by your own bootstraps." This is to say do something hard, on your own.
For most entrepreneurs, lack of capital is a common
excuse for failing to start a business. I have never waited or
wished for capital. Whenever it's capital problem, I have always started
instantly. Life taught me to depend mostly on me. When I first started, I knew
no one and no one knew me. I had only two options, make it work or quit. If you
have a dream to be in business and capital is the problem, you still have to
raise capital, even the hard way like I did. it
can be better to start with very little money, since the skills you’ll develop
as you overcome the challenges of growing your business will be invaluable – you’ll
notice your mistakes earlier and adjust faster, which will make for a healthier
company in the long run.
If you don't have capital, you still
must find capital. I was a newbie in my early days. I had to look up to my own
hands for capital. Years later, before I had friends I could turn to, bootstrapping
and starting very small were my only options. This pushed me to what I call the
most important skill there is on earth, “selling skill”. I became a salesman of
anything and any product I could find. During the many downs in my early days, my
street survival came from selling something to anyone. One specific time I
recall was when I was age 24. I never had any money for stock and I was flat
broke. So, I went and borrowed a detergent product brochure that I could keep
showing to anyone promising them to deliver a product as soon as they paid
cash.
Few people agreed to pay a stranger
to deliver but I had no option. If a client agree to pay on delivery, I would
ask my supplier to deliver it with me then we split the profits. It was hard, very-very
hard I must confess. It was hard trying
to sell something to someone without the actual product in hand. Nevertheless, I
kept going. I had no one else to look up to but myself. The words engraved on
my mind were, “if you don't have capital, you still have to find capital”. One
skill that really worked for me in raising capital is sales skill. Trust me,
this is a hard skill to get but one you must if you’re really serious about raising
capital, starting a business aka getting rich. Selling is a hard skill to master, especially
if you're someone who’s shy like me but it never lets you down.
Lack of capital should never be the
reason to give up. Money
is not the sole currency when it comes to starting a business. Drive,
determination, passion and hard work are all free and more valuable than a pot
of cash. Money can only get you so far. If you’re a new entrepreneur
launching your first startup, a big pot of money may only mask problems that
will eventually catch up with you later. So,
start small, look up to your own hands, sell something and you can also seek
funding from friends too.
Starting small is hard, bootstrapping
is hard, giving up is hard but you’ll have to choose your hard. There’s no business
I started without first bootstrapping including this capital intensive venture for
APRIL LOGISTICS LTD we’re currently working on. Bootstrapping for me at many
levels has been about going to sell and market a product to customers I didn't even
have at hand. That’s why its important to have a positive
mindset that keeps you going even when others give up and a willingness to
learn the skills needed to run a business.
From my first experience of failure, I began to
understand just how much I didn’t know about running a business. Even ideas
that I thought couldn’t fail failed with distinctions. And gradually, by making
mistakes over time and learning from them, I hit on what became my key guiding principles.
To choose and focus on one business.
I went through all the businesses I had failed in and
choose one trading business, the one which I had collapsed and
failed into 3 separate times. I picked that business again with one mission – to
make it work. I made a vow and promised myself never to quit even if it’d take
20 years.
This year 2018, before August, I'm
raising at least $130,000 in total for this business (APRIL LOGISTICS) and this
once again reminds me the very problem I’d faced in my early days as an
entrepreneur – the lack of capital. It didn’t stop me then and it won’t stopped
me now. If you don't have capital, you still must find capital.
Let's build Africa together.
I am Mugumya Junior
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I am Nicky Verd, a Prolific Writer, Blogger and Transformational Speaker. I am passionate about inspiring you to Take Ownership of Your Life. Reconnect with your dreams and jump-start your personal transformation.
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