THE BLESSING IN THE STORM

Do not rue any day or any time.Enjoy the silent beauty of the night; celebrate the darkest day;relish the snow,and the rain,and the bitter winds,and the fog that spills over the hills.

Let the lightning blaze through the sky;and the thunder roar. Let the hail fall hard and cold.For all of these things are part of your life, they are all working together for your good, and each day and every moment of your life is precious.Besides, you will later find that even the worst storms and darkest days held blessings of their own.

 
There is a blessing in the storm! The storm bespeak of any catastrophic occurrence that evidence a tragedy and misfortune. It is a situation that courses pains, humiliation, frustration, grieve and rejection. It is a situation that makes men to mock you. It makes men to question your integrity, righteousness, godliness, purity and sanity. It is a situation that makes you very unhappy and grossly uncomfortable. However as bad as it seems, there is a blessing in the storm.

When I was preparing to write this article, my mind was drawn to some catastrophic experiences of men which proved to be a blessing at the end. But because of space, I am going to share a few with you. I will begin with the catastrophe of June 1^st, 2009. Most of you are familiar with the story; it was aired in major news media. June 1^st, 2009 witnessed the mysterious disappearance of AIR FRANCE 447 flying from Brazil to Paris. All the crew and passengers on board left a location and were going to a destination which they never arrived. The air bus came down four hours out of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) somewhere in a vast area of Atlantic Ocean with 216 passengers and 12 crew who never survived.

You may begin to wonder within you “how beneficial is this tragedy? What is the blessing in this tragedy”? Wait…….wait…….wait a minute! You will soon find out. The good news in this catastrophic occurrence was not the people that died in that plane crash, but the story of the couple who missed that plane because their taxi delayed. They were medical professor Claude Jaffiol and wife Amina. According to report, they tried desperately to get on the plane that was soon to disappear into the Atlantic Ocean. And when they arrived late, though they met the plane, they were not allowed joining the plane because it was already full.

To them this was a grievous disappointment, but to God it was a disappointment with a blessing which the other 228 who died in the plane would have wished to experience. There are times in our lives when the pains, minor setbacks and disappointment we experienced, make us feel God has abandoned us. But if we can calm ourselves and put all these in perspective, and patiently go through the experience, we will discover that it has saved us from more devastating realities. 

What shall we then say to all these? The Bible gave us a clew;  All these go a long way to show us that “All things work for the good of those who love God, and to them who are called according to his purpose”  That statement is so powerful that I will repeat it again. Type it out and paste it where you can always see it. Memorize it and repeat it every time of need and it will keep your heart in perfect peace.

“All things work for the good of those who love God, and to them who are called according to his purpose”  

Disappointment and failure, however severe and frustrating, are God’s dark pencil with which he rewrites biography of the bright destiny of men.

These couple tried everything they could to get into the plane that was destined to destroy all those who entered it. They even got angry when they were not allowed to enter this very plane. Little did they realize that this disappointment was meant for their good; a set up for their deliverance. How many times have we in one way or the other fight a situation, people and instructions that was meant to deliver us from destruction? How many times have we vehemently resisted all effort put together to make life better for us? Think about it! If you have not done it, you may probably have seen people who do.

Friend, there is a blessing in the storm! What do you do when the one you have sacrificed everything to make somebody suddenly turns around and betray your love and confidence? What do you do when those you rescue from death are now the ones plotting your death and digging your grave? What do you do when the one you decide to share your life with turn around and dump you after using you to accomplish his or her dreams? What do you do when the man who promises to give you a major contract falls down and die a day to signing the contract documents? What do you do when after your fasting, praying, paying your tithe, seed faith and offerings, your expectations were not realized as at when needed? What do you do when your present predicament puts you under a condition that makes even your closest friends and family relatives to doubt your integrity? These questions demand your thoughtful attention, because the way we see our situation will inform us on how to behave. It is not what happen to us that matters, but what we do with what happens to us.

Instead of whining and crying, or nagging and shifting blames, lift up your eyes, heart and hands to your creator and be grateful to him for making you worthy of going through this experience. For there is a blessing in the storm. Though you may not see it at the moment, but soon or later you will surely discover that there is a blessing in the storm.

There is another unique example I will like to share with you. That despicable experience happened to somebody very notable in the bible. The character I am looking at this moment is the Hebrew young man named Moses. His story quite reveals the truth that there is a blessing in the storm. The bible records that Moses in his youth decided to help his brothers as a deliverer, but he met with fierce rejection. This rejection produced a betrayal that led him to live as a fugitive for forty years when he was forced to learn the bitter lessons of life.

Nevertheless, he returned in honor as a deliverer and became the leader of those who rejected him. But for the previous rejection, he would not have probably received the proper grooming and spiritual endowment required to function effectively and efficiently in his deliverance ministry. When they rejected him and allowed him to live in a foreign land with sheep for forty years, he must felt very bad. In fact he must have felt greatly distressed and highly betrayed by the actions of those, whom he called his own, but little did he know that single act of rejection and betrayal will produce an opportunity for him to have a divine encounter with God and become highly empowered to carry out his divine assignment.

Lastly, I want to mention the story of a highly disciplined youth named Joseph Jacobs. The bible records that Joseph one the twelve sons of Jacob met with the greatest shock of his life when he was asked to check on his brothers who were tending their fathers flock in the field. He went to see how his brothers were fairing in the field. He went with love, but his brothers greeted him with wickedness. Instead of sharing brotherly love experience, they demonstrated to him how deeply they hated him. They striped him off of his beautiful coat of many colors, they threw him into a pit and finally sold him into slavery, and they celebrated his downfall and fabricated leis to cover up their evil act. They made him to suffer many things in the prison of the Egyptians for crime he knew nothing about. But God who knows how to use what the enemy meant for evil as a raw material with which he manufactures a blessing for those who bear his mark of excellence and approval.God remembered him and rescued him from the prison and made him second in command in entire land of Egypt. In the end he became the sustainer of those who planned to kill him so that his dreams will not materialize.

Whatever was done to bring great pain and affliction upon these two heroes became what God used to bring them to their enviable position of relevance. Indeed, all who will be great must face seasons of disappointment, rejection, frustration, pains, humiliation, persecution, confrontations, betrayal and some sort of misfortune, but in the end, the same things that brought them pain will be the same things that God will strategically use to give them gain. Your misfortunes are raw material in the hands of the Almighty and caring God to create a blissful reality of significance and relevance. 

Friend, there is a blessing in the storm. Do not fret your self when evil seem to prosper in the court of men. Do not become discourage when you fail to see the manifestation of your expectation. It may not come when you need it, but I assure you it will definitely come. You will see it! You will touch it and enjoy the blissfulness that your expectation carries. There is a God up there who cares so dearly for you because he loves you dearly, and will not be contented to see you suffer and be deprived for ever. After a while, he will inevitably make everything beautiful so that all that see it will know that this is the finger of God.

I do not know who you are, and I also do not know the peculiar problem that is confronting you right now, but I am convinced in the spirit that you will not live this site remaining the same way you came. You have just had an encounter with the positive power of transformation. Go in this strength and your life will never remain the same; your life will make more meaning even in the midst of despicable experience. Do not look at the size of your pain, problems, but look at a loving father who is not only able, but he is willing to give you a life of abundance and relevance. Tell him everything you are going through and trust him to make smile all through.

The worth of a man’s soul is not measured by his or her bank account or the volume of applause he evokes, but by his humanity, compassion and the courage to sail on with his dreams amidst the broken pieces of his or her life. Behind the cloud there is a silver lining. Failure and pains goes a long way to teach us that though we fail at one thing or several things, it does not bespeak that we are failures, but it is a pruning exercise to make us a better person at the end.

Friend, I want to conclude by saying that what ever happens to man, no matter how hurtful or unfair, is ultimately less important than what is about to happen in him or her. Every allowed pain, disappointment, rejection, betrayal, mockery catastrophe despite all efforts will work out at last for the good of all concerned. Sweet and blissful blessings are hidden in shells coated with the pills of pain and tragedy.

There is a blessing in the storm. After the storm will come sunshine of a blissful blessings that will forever silence the mouth of your mockers, confuse and frustrate all the expectations of your betrayers, stoppers, spoilers, and adversary. All those who thought you will not manifest will definitely see your manifestation in grand style.

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The principles of Extra Ordinary Achievers

The principles of Extra Ordinary Achievers gave birth to past and present leaders, and the future cannot be celebrated in relevance where there is a conscious or unconscious deviation from these fundamental truth.

The principles of extra ordinary achievers are a fundamental philosophy of major importance in the pursuit of excellence and significance. Great height achieved and maintained by the great were not attained by mere wishes, but by dogged determination in the pursuit of purposes and excellence. While their mates were sleeping and enjoying the comfort and misery of mediocrity, they were burning candles and making research to discover what set them apart. Today they are the world celebrated, but many forgot that behind their glory is a story of pain and agony, a story of rejection and frustration, a story of sleepless nights and gloomy days.

However, these men became extra ordinary achievers in their designated field of endeavors because they were guided by certain beliefs which set them apart and rewarded them with greatness. Now who are extra ordinary achievers? Extra ordinary achievers are ordinary men like you me who resolve to plant their feet indelibly on the success sand of time. They are the go getters, the doers, the self starters, the high fliers, and the hard workers. They are men and women who refuse to remain in the common place of un achievement. They are men who refuse to follow the crowd. They are those who set the pace for others to follow. They are the men and women of history who refuse to be pitied; they confronted dogmatic norms and traditions of men. They broke records to set their own standard. Frustrating situations met them and gave them the freedom of passage because they could not be stopped. There is a fire that is burning in the inside of them; a fire that does not recognize  'no' for an answer. A fire that continued to burn like shinning stars and a blazing light till they achieved the object of their desires.

It is my commitment in this article to expose these principles to you. I am convinced that if you understand and apply them, you too will be reckoned as an extra ordinary achiever one day. These principles are informed by my undulating search for truth. During my research I came across many great men and women of proven track record of success. As I study their works and lives, I begin to see certain exceptional qualities which the average man does not have. Here are my discoveries:

1.     Lack of know-how serves as a spring board to greater achievement for extra ordinary achievers. They are not those who know everything, but they talk and act as though they know everything because they are surrounded by a collection of resources on various dimensions of life.

2.     Extra ordinary achievers surround themselves with people who are better than themselves. Upon these people they draw knowledge, wisdom, influence, and affluence, technical and financial resources with which they attain excellence.

3.     Extra ordinary achievers live by high moral standards. They do not compromise their beliefs. They prefer to stand out instead of blending in.

4.     Extra ordinary achievers are lovers of information. They read and attend seminars that will improve them in one way or the other. They are not contented with what they have already known. They constantly update their knowledge.

5.     Extra ordinary achievers are great listeners and passionately romantic.

6.     Extra ordinary achievers are good time keepers and managers.

7.     Extra ordinary achievers complement always and reframe from brutal criticism.

8.     Extra ordinary achievers remove the limits of limited resources. Where there are no resources to accomplish their task they make themselves the required resources for the task. They do this by accurately assessing their resources, wisely allocating them, and expanding them by recruiting outside resources from qualified quarters.

9.     Extra ordinary achievers are lovers of God and humanity. This is demonstrated in their humanitarian services and close affiliation with religious ministers and missionary works.

10.                        Extra ordinary achievers are brave and courageous in an intelligent manner.

To be great you have to follow in the footsteps of those who have achieve greatness. I believe that you too can become great irrespective of your present situation, if you can only apply what you have read so far. They are simple principles but these are the secretes that made the great truly great indeed.

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THE DANGER OF LAYING TOO MUCH WEIGHT ON A BUSINESS

Laying too much weight on a business is one of the most deadliest cause of business failure all over the world.

Many businesses fail because of the financial burden on the business. The money that the business makes cannot be ploughed back into business because of the commitment to fulfill other financial obligations. Any serious business man must be prepared to offend many people, and most especially members of his household and friends who now see him as a stream of income for their constant withdrawal. This does not mean that you will not make your self available to help when the need be, but you should not use your business money as a token of esteem to seek a good name before them.

Listen, those who wants to call you bad brother and bad friend will always do even if you sacrifice your business money to make them happy. The respect they are giving to you today is because you are sacrificing the success of your business to give them momentary pleasure. If you become in-capable of responding to their incessant demands as a result of your failed business, they will be the first to mock you, insult you and desert you.

Take care of your extended family, but not at the expense of your business and your happiness. How can your business succeed when all the money that comes out of it is channeled into the bank that takes care of people’s needs and not yours? Everybody in your family now sees you as a financial tree that they can come and eat from any time they deemed fit. They do not even put into consideration if this is affecting your business or not. You bring your brother from the village to stay with you and assist in running your business and he sees that as an opportunity to make a fortune for himself, and you are seating down looking at him and watching your business fall without remedy. For how long shall you continue in this mess and gross foolishness?

Stop this madness! Put aside every weight and Mal-practices that is destroying the foundation of your business, and your business will grow profitably. Do not invite too much financial burden to your business, and you will have enough to save and run your business profitably. Teach everybody around you how to fish instead of giving them fish to eat all the time. Broom out of your life any friend or relations that refuses to be financially independent. Keep them afar before they help to destroy your life.

Remember, laying too much financial weight on your business is a sure pathway to failure. Every wise entrepreneur who had pursued and achieved success in business, made it a point of daily necessity to passionately avoid anything that forces undue financial weight on their business. 

Do not forget to post a comment on this article. I want to see your view on this article. Share your opinion and let others find solution to their needs through you comments.

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Leaning on your own understanding:

My son do not rely solely on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge the Lord and he shall direct your path and prosper you undertakings!

Nobody is an island of knowledge; we all need creative and innovative input from others to succeed. This is also applicable in the world of business. Too many businesses fail because the owners were relying solely on their expertise, intelligence and judgments. This is a foolish pride. We all know in part; whatever you think you know is only an aspect of the whole. A combination of inputs will make you see the true picture of the reality. As a business man, you need to consult with others in your chosen field of endeavors, you need a mentor. The place of effective mentorship is imperative for the success of any business or career excellence. Every successful business man I have met or head of has a mentor. There are people who have passed through were you are going to now, and an access into their insight can eliminate many years of fruitless efforts.

Do not imitate your mentors, but learn from them, listen to them, devour their books and put into practical use their counsel and your business will know no equal. Do not say you know it all for no man knows it all. There are people God has put in strategic position to help you. Do not argue with them, but try your best to co-operate with them. You may not completely approve of certain aspect of their lives, but because they have what you need to get to your next level, humble yourself and learn of them, and it shall be well with you.

Similarly, I want to encourage you to look up to God in everything that you do in your business, and he shall direct your path. The steps of the man who trust in the Lord are ordered by him and whatever he does prospers because divinity instructs and directs him in the way he should go. There will be times in your life when everything you know seems to be wrong, and people around you seem not to have the answer to what you seek because your issue seems too complicated and demanding for them to handle. Instead of giving up hope, lift your eyes up to your creator, remain still before him in an attitude of reverence and absolute dependence and he will lead you in the way you should go. This is the only power I know that does not fail, and if you key into it you shall receive strength to carry you through to your stardom.

In my days of pain and anguish, when I considered dying more profitable than living; the days when tragedy and my labor celebrate a cordial union; a time when all I knew seems to be totally wrong; the moment when I realized that being alone is more profitable than being in the company of those who only love you because they are using you to achieve their business objectives; a time when betrayal heated me like a mighty tornado. That was when I realize that some one who cares has been monitoring my movement all along, and when I turned to him for help he gave me strength that led me to the discovery of what gave me a glimpse of my purpose. Today, I have achieved what I labored in futility to achieve in the past fifteen years. He made it possible in one year.

My friend, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge God, and he will direct your path.

Do not lean on your own understanding, for your knowledge alone can not guarantee your success in the world of business. You need input from men, and you need divine guidance from God. These two are very imperative to the success of your business.

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The importance of book keeping and record keeping in business Enterprise

The imperative of business records cannot be overemphasized. Every serious entrepreneur must as a matter of fact be able to maintain proper records of his or her business transactions. Proper book keeping is important to sustaining and expanding a business. Without it, the entrepreneur run the risk of hitting cash flow crunches, wasting money, and missing out on opportunities to expand his business. When you keep proper records of your business transactions, you will be properly positioned to carry out proper business evaluation and see how your business is fairing.  

The purpose of book keeping is to help you manage your business and also to enable tax agencies to evaluate your business activity. As long as your book keeping achieves both of these objectives, you are in the right direction. Any financial institution who wants to do business with you must demand for your business records. Your ability to produce it means you are serious about your business.




Business records are important because it prevents theft and keeps things organized. The practice of keeping accurate record of your inventory makes it easier to reorder products and also to enable you see whats selling and those that are not selling. It is important to keep business records because without them you would not know how to break even, or even how much each different product is really making you. Effective and efficient record keeping practices secures your business internal thief and dishonest employees.Additionally, tracking the transfer of money is important so that the wise business owner can know who received money, how much they currently have or if there are any inconsistency that need to be investigated or corrected. Keeping accurate records is highly fundamental for a successfull business to stay organized and profitable.

Many small business owners choose to use business software to keep track of various aspects of their business, while others do it manually. The key to taking full advantage of book keeping software is to determine if it saves you time and frees you up to concentrate on running your business. In many cases it will, but be careful not to fall into the trap of wasting time setting up computer book keeping that could be more efficiently handled on paper. Some book keeping functions are best relegated to an accountant. While it is essential for you to retain a thorough knowledge of your business by reviewing your books frequently, an accountant or book keeper should be hired to handle it so that you can concentrate on expanding your business.

Here are the basic records you should keep:

REVENUE AND EXPENSES

Every business needs a Revenue or Expense Journal or a Ledger to keep track of how much money is going out, where it is going, and what is coming in.

A Revenue and Expense Journal is used by most small businesses and is single-entry accounting - recording receipts and expenditures only.

Double entry accounting involves a ledger and necessitates that each activity be recorded as a debit and a credit on your books. In the past it was thought that all businesses needed to use the more cumbersome method of double-entry, but the single entry system is now used for many small business owners. Single-entry accounting can be kept on paper or computer. Programs that perform single-entry accounting include Quicken by Intuit and Microsoft Money among many others.

A ledger is used to record every transaction twice based on the idea that each transaction has two halves that affect your business. For example, if you sell an item, your books would reflect a decrease in inventory (a credit) and an inflow of payment (debit). If you use double-entry accounting you may want to use a computer program or a book keeper to keep your ledger up to date. If you allow anyone else to keep your books be sure you review them regularly. You may want to use a program to do your double entry, here are some useful ones: M.Y.O.B by Teleware, Peachtree Accounting by Peachtree Software, and Quick books by Intuit.

Consult with your accountant to know which type of record keeping you should choose. Also consult your tax adviser about whether you should use a cash or accrual-based bookkeeping system. 

CASH EXPENDITURE

The cash spent in your business needs to be accounted for if you want to record all business expenses in a given year. This will enable you to calculate how profitable your business has been over the year. There are at least two ways to do this:

• Write yourself reimbursable checks

• Keep a petty cash record.

If you choose to pay yourself back with a check, simply keep track of all cash receipts and total them weekly, biweekly or monthly, depending on your volume of expenses. Keep a log of each category of expense, for tax purposes and write yourself a check for the total. Write cash reimbursable in your check register to differentiate this from taxable income. Alternatively, you can keep a petty cash record by writing a check to petty cash and keeping a log of each expense paid out of petty cash.

INVENTORY RECORDS

Proper inventory records will enable you to keep inventory holdings to a minimum, track buying trends, and prevent pilferage among other things.

If you sell a large number of small-ticket items -- for example, as in a stationary store -- you might want to use a computer system to track inventory or tie your computer system into your sales by having a POS (point of sale) inventory system. If you sell larger ticket items you may be able to do it yourself on paper.The crucial inventory information you need to capture is: date purchased, stock number of item purchased, purchase price, date sold, and sale price.

ACCOUNT RECEIVABLE

If your products or services are paid for at time of delivery, you will not need an accounts receivable tracking system. However, if you provide services or products for which people do not pay you immediately, but pay at a later date, accounts receivable records will help you to keep track of what is owed to you. You can monitor accounts receivable by holding on to a copy of all invoices sent out or by keeping an accounts receivable record. Either way, the information you need to capture includes: invoice date, invoice number, invoice amount, terms, date paid, amount paid, and the name of the entity being billed.

Many software programs are available to help you generate invoices and track hours and expenses incurred for each client. These programs can save hours of time for a business owner and create professional-looking invoices. However, I will still advice that compliment technology with the common sense of maintaining a hard copy. According to Ed Slott, author of "Your Tax Questions Answered", (Plymouth Press) keeping your accounts receivable on computer is sensible if it enables you to collect payment more quickly or get a better handle on where your money comes from. Otherwise a paper system is very effective.”

Software programs that will create invoices or track hours include: Quick Invoice by Intuit software; Time slips and Win Invoice by Good Software; and PerForm Pro Plus from Delrina.

In addition to using a computer to track all your accounts, I will advice that you have a back up and a printed hard copy for the sake of data integrity. If all your transactions are store on your computer had drive, you may lose them in the case of technical malfunction of you hard disk. In the event of hard disk crash, you will lose everything if you do not have a printed hard copy or a back up.

ACCOUNT PAYABLE

Accounts payable are debts owed by your company for goods and services, and or other financial debt like business loans. Keeping track of what you owe and when it is due will enable you to establish good credit and hold onto your money as long as possible.

Some business owners with few accounts payable items use accordion file folders labeled with dates to keep track. Other small firms simply pay bills twice per month and keep all bills in a "To Pay" folder. Larger companies use accounts payable paper records organized by creditor. Regardless of the system you choose, you should retain the following information about accounts payable: invoice date, invoice number, invoice amount, terms, date paid, amount paid, balance (if applicable), and clients names and address.

From the above it is evident that the keeping of financial records is importance for effective management of a business enterprise. No business man can effectively evaluate, appraise and manage his business whether small or big without a proper book keeping and record keeping system.

Thanks very much for taking out time to lean this simple book keeping truth. Try your best to implement what you have in your business and you will for ever be grateful for having effective financial record system in place. If this article make sense to you kindly share it with your friends. I will also appreciate your comment and or contribution to this content.


Wishing you the best in your business endeavors!


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Spiritual interference

One of the most tragic and mysterious cause of business failure is spiritual interference. This can either be satanic or divine. The only cause of business failure that requires proper restitution and adequate divine intervention is spiritual interference. When a business is under the controlling forces of invisible spirits, all efforts employed to make the business grow will prove abortive. Prayers may be offered in vain until the root cause is know and adequately addressed.ess comes into divine curse when the owners of such business forms the habits of eating up what they are suppose to pay as tithes to the house of God so that the ministers of God can live well. When you refuse to pay your tithe, it means you want the ministers of God to go hungry, and God will not take it likely with you. This will now place your business under a cause. You can agree with me that anything under a curse cannot do well because there is an invisible power that is inhibiting the growth of that business. God said, ‘bring all the tithes into my store house so that there will be meat in my house, and prove me with this if I will not open the windows of heaven and poor you a blessing that you not have room enough for it’.

On the same premises, a business can come under divine cause where the owner of that business sheats a servants of God or falsefully deprives an employee of his legitimate wage. If such an employee in hanger and pain cries to God and pronounce a curse on that business, it will surely fail unless justice is carried out immediately.

Satanic influence is one of the strong forces that are responsible for the failure of many businesses today. These can be self induced or supper imposed. A business comes under self induced satanic forces when the owner of the business fails to fulfill the demands of the promises he or she made on strange satanic alters; witch and native doctors, and false prophets alters before setting up their business. So many business men in their quest for quick financial freedom make certain promises on satanic alters- alters of false prophets, marine demons, occult, ancestral alters, and witch doctors temples. The powers behind these alters will surely inflict the business if there is a violation in the terms of contracts. When this happens, the business premises become paraded with demons that drive away customers.

In most cases a business comes under the influence of strange spirits which interferes with its profitability if the business is under satanic causes inflicted on it or its owners by his enemies. There are people who do not appreciate the fact that you are succeeding, and such people can go to any length to hire false prophets to place a curse on your business. And if you are not spiritually strong enough to confront and subdue the effects of those curses through the power of God’s word, then your business will fail within a short period of time. But if through prayers you can adequately confront and subdue them, your business will soar to greater heights even in the midst of your enemies.

Still on the same premises, I want to state clearly here that the grounds on which your business stands matters. If the ground is cursed nothing on it will ever make progress. Therefore, if a business man is doing everything right, and yet there is no meaningful progress he should change location. If location was the cause of his failure, he will definitely succeed in a land that is not under a curse.

Friend, I have elaborated some hidden reasons behind business failure so that you can put them under control and achieve success in your business endeavors. Take a look at your business or where you are working, does it make enough profit compared to your competitors? What share of the market do you have? A thorough evaluation may reveal one or a combination of all the aforementioned factors. If this is your findings, do not be afraid, you can win if you decide to win. For the fact that others are failing or that you are failing does not mean that you cannot turn things around. Determine today to succeed and you will eventually succeed as you commit to the effort that is required to bring your success. Put in effort daily to correct your errors and your business will become profitable again. Read business books, attend business seminars, workshops and associate with positive minds. When you do this continuously, no power can stop you from succeeding. Commit your business into God’s hands and rely on his inner guidance, and your business will succeed brilliantly.

See you at the top!

POSITIVE ATTITUDES FOR SUCCESSFUL LIVING

It is my pleasure to share with you today some vital positive attitudes of successful living. Success is essential to the survival and significance of any human being, but as good as it is, it will not be achieved at the platter of gold. Too many people are looking at the wrong place when they encounter failure or momentary difficulty. They blame their pastor, friends, wife, husband, brother, neighbors, sisters, witches, and the devil, when in the real sense they are the major enemy standing against their own success. There are attitude every success minded individual should imbibe. Here, I am going to talk briefly on ten vital positive attitudes of successful living. These attitudes are not developed easily, but it is something that is worthwhile. Anyone who has them in abundance shall surely be successful, but he that lacks them walks a frustrating lane. These attitudes are as follows.

1. Honesty: Success requires sincerity. In whatsoever you do try to be honest. Dishonesty will may give you some money at the moment, but it will rub you of true friendship and ultimately in the future. And this will happen when you truly need the helping hand of those whom you have cheated in the past.

2. Open Mindedness: You need to maintain an open mind if you truly desire to succeed. You do not know everything; therefore do not play Mr. Know-it-all. Listen to others as they share with you. Any man who believes only in what he knows shall be grossly limited in life, and any man who thinks he does not need the counsel of others shall utterly be destroyed without remedy.

3. Trust: You need to demonstrate some level of trust in those whom you maintain cordial contact. When you trust them to do what they need to do in the right way, you will become duplicated to function appropriately at your optimal best. The more we can be trusted in what we have the more we can be entrusted.

4. Genuineness: He who has resolved to succeed cannot afford the luxury of being fake. Let people know you for who you are, and also for what you stand for. You need to be real in everything you do; wherever you are to everybody you come in contact with. In so doing, you will be able to maintain an indisputable disposition to quality lifestyle.

5. Curiosity: You must maintain an attitude of inquisitiveness. This will help you to see things in better perspective. And you will also be able to see the bigger picture that will guide the way you behave.

6. Readiness to learn: The day you stop to learn, that day you start to die. Every successful man is he who is always a student of some noble education. It does not matter the position you occupy in life, what you do not know is above you, and can plaque you in some way. Therefore, if you want to succeed you must take what is good in others, and add it to your own. When you add the good in others to the good in you, you inevitably make your life better. Irrespective of who has the knowledge, if you require it to move to the next level in life, you must humble your self to learn so that you can succeed.

7. Generosity: There is he that scatters library and yet increases, but there is he that withholds without a legitimate course and yet has nothing to show for all his years of hard labor.

8. Adventurous Ability: A coward dies many times before his death, but the brave die but once. Friend, success is not going to be delivered to you on the platter of gold; you have to contend for it. There are many things to deprive you from pursuing the object of your heart desire, you need to be brave else you never be able to succeed.

9. Majoring in Majors: 80% of what we do is just killing time. It is majoring in minus. If you can take the time out to find out those things that take your time, but produce no tangible evidence, making the required efforts to weed them out of your life, you will inevitably have more time to devote to those things that can actually help you to be intelligently fulfilled.

10. Unconditional love: You must love yourself, love others, love God and love what he has given you the talent to do.

Success is inherent in every one of us, but the number one thing that is standing between us and success is our attitude. You cannot expect to succeed if your attitude is inviting failure. If we can endeavor to put on the right mental attitude that is aligned with success we will discover that it was already there. These ten vital positive mental attitudes for successful living will help you to position your life to enjoy a better lifestyle.

Ask your self, ‘I am I displaying attitudes that are working for my success or that which is working against my successes?’ Your answer to this question will help you to apply your heart to wisdom, and when wisdom is in charge of your life, foolishness will have no choice but to leave. If you discover that your attitude is working against your success, take the necessary steps to begin a journey of self development and improvement. Make a daily commitment to practice these vital attitude for successful living, and your life will never remain the same. This will go a long way to make you a better person.

Take your time to explore this site and get the best benefits for your time. If this article has been a blessing to you, pass it on to your friends, help make the world a better place. Please, feel free to write me and let me know how this site has been of a blessing to you. If you have any contribution to make, please feel free to post your comment on the space provided below.

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May the good Lord give you double grace for a new season.

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Cordially Yours,

Precious Ogholaja.

PERSONNEL INTELLIGENCE

As I mentioned earlier in the article, ‘Reason why business fail’, the people you employ will either make or mar your business. Your employees are your greatest assets – not your products, services, brand, technology, business name, company name or logo. Your company personnel are the ones who make your products, services, and they are the one who find your customers, convince them, sell to them and also do everything that makes your business a functional entity. Business is all about people. When you understand them, you will be able to utilize every of their potentials to your greatest advantage and their overall wellbeing. If you look after your employee, your business will look after itself.

The ability to hire the right people to work with you in your business empire to achieve harmonious coordination of products and services to achieve organizational goal, integrity and profitability is called personnel intelligence, and no man can truly succeed in the world of business who does not crave to understand, master and major in this intelligence.

No matter how unique and beneficial your products and services are, no matter the sophistication of your employed technology to effectively and efficiently do business, your entire business depends on the people you have employed to create, produce, package, market, attend and deliver them to your customers. In this process many things do go, but it is the skills, carefulness and intelligence of your employees that helps to co-ordinate things in the proper way and gives your company a competitive edge. If your employees are carefree, careless, obnoxious, unskillful, unmotivated, sloppy, dishonest and disloyal, this will inevitably be evidence in the way and manner they deliver your products or services, and also in the way they interact and treat your customer.

It is better to employ a secondary school leaver with a smiling face than to employ a PhD holder with a sober face. A glamorous office is useless if the staffs attending to customers there do not know how to courteously treat your customers in a pleasing and dignified way. On the contrary, if your employees are full of life, enthusiasm, motivation, have total focus, are courteous and dedicated to serving your customer in a pleasing manner, you will always be ahead of all your competitors. This is because your competitors will never be able to copy the effect of your staff who takes pride in their work, who have fun with customers and who actually care about the customers. Even if your competitors try to imitate you or and try to steal your employees they will fail because you have treated your employees in a way that has impacted positively on their lives. This impact has now made them to pledge their undulating loyalty to you for life. No matter what your competitors try to do, they cannot create such an atmosphere. Every unique working atmosphere is peculiar and personalized to the creator alone.

Recruiting the best employee is one of the most difficult tasks in business. It is equally the most valuable because it puts you and your business far above your competitors, and enables you to attain and sustain relevance and superiority. Employing workers is easy, but employing the right one is intelligence. The workers you employ are the ones who create your business-its quality, culture, services, reputation, and its ultimate profit. For the sake of emphasis, I want to repeat what I said above. “The ability to hire the right people to work with you in your business empire to achieve harmonious coordination of products and services to achieve organizational goal, integrity and profitability is called personnel intelligence, and no man can truly succeed in the world of business who does not crave to master and major in this intelligence”

If you employ someone great, you become great and your life will become easier. If however, you employ the wrong person you undermine your lifestyle and inevitably sacrifice the value of your business.

It is my recommendation to anyone who wants to overcome competition to employee workers with better skills and bigger vision relevant to their area of specialization and focus so that they can be able to accommodate your growth. Devote your entire life to learning how to select the right personnel, how to keep them and how to make them produce at their maximum capacity. Be quick to fire when it becomes necessary, and be slow to employ when it is important.

See you at the top!

Lack of proper saving culture

Many business owners have a poor saving culture. Every money they make in their business is consumed, and in most cases the money are spent on things that will not bring any increase to the business. Because they spend all the money of the business on things that are not in line with the mandates of the business, the business is sure to fail. Materials and other business consumables for the smooth running of the business cannot be bought because adequate provisions were not made for it.

The lack of proper saving culture among business men is a major factor to be highly discouraged if we must make meaningful progress in business. Working capital should always be made available if the business must survive. A business man that has no reserve cannot succeed in business, because when opportunities for his business advancement arrive he will not be able to quickly seize it. And in most cases where he is able to secure a loan to make good use of a profitable business opportunity, the interest rates and the amount he is expected to remit as an install mental payment of the loan facility will drain him of adequate liquidity to run the business.

I was passing through this dilemma before in my business. I make money but the moneys were going to settle my indebtedness. I was barely able to keep my business going. Many times I thought the business will fail, but suddenly God will create a way of escape for me and I will survive that stage. That was how I was struggling with my business, until I was able to develop a strong saving culture. I decided one day to keep part of what I made solely for the running of the business. I decided to pay my self and the business first before paying anybody. With this in place I was able to save enough to embark on other profitable business ideas.

If you want your business to succeed, part of what you earn is yours to keep. Part of what you keep should be invested so that it helps to labor vigorously for you and for your business. It is only in this shall you be able to save your business from failing.

Limiting business to one location

Limiting business to one location is a fundamental cause of business failure all over the world. Majority of business fails because the owners limited the business to their location only. They refuse to look at the other side of the road to see other potential market. When you limit your business to one location, you will only get patronage from that location only, but if your business is spread across many markets you will not only be a brand in the market place but you will generate more profit that will help keep your business floating even in the midst of economic downtown.

Take for example, if you have a business in one location that pulls in $500,000 monthly revenue and you decided to duplicate your self in five more strategic locations that equally generate $500,000 monthly revenue each, it will be more profitable because your customer base will increase. You will be able to locate potential customers whose patronage can help to catapult you to higher heights in your business endeavors. It is not the quantity of the customers you have that makes your business grows, but how many quality customers you have, and how you are able to convert them to loyal customers. And you cannot get a handful of quality customers if you remain in one location.

Now let us do a simple mathematics:

Numbers of business outfits:       6

Monthly Revenue:                      $500,000

Total monthly Revenue:              6x500, 000

Total Monthly Turnover   =        $3,000,000

With this monthly turnover, your business is now more profitable compared to monthly revenue of $500,000 from only one business location. More so, you are able to capture more markets, offer more products and services to your targeted market. This means you will meet with more potential customers whose patronage can help greatly in catapulting your business to higher heights. I want to re-emphasize a fundamental truth: It is not the quantity of customers you have that makes your business profitable, but it is the quality of loyal customers that patronizes your business that makes it profitable. A man with customer base of 1000 simple customers who only buys products of $20 once a month cannot be compared to a man who has 500 quality customer bases that make regular patronage of $500 trice a month. Where the former make only $20,000 monthly, the later makes huge sales of $750,000 monthly. That is the power of quality customers.

Therefore, a wise business owner will not limit his business to only one location. He will put in effort to spread his business across many potential markets in order to capture more quality customers. I have heard people say you can put all your business in one place and let the public know what you are doing and where you are located; they will find you. From experience, I have come to realize a fundamental truth that people tend to patronize the man whom they can easily access than the man whom they have to go through certain difficulties to locate. Why put your targeted market through pains and difficulty to do business with you when you can actually take your business to where they are and spare yourself the effort involved in paying huge sum of money to advertise your business. It is more profitable to take your business near the market that needs your products and services than to try to call and persuade them to come to you. Refusal to recognize and comply with the above truth is a fundamental reason of major importance why many businesses fails. And he who can avoid it would have taken a sure step in the right direction of building a solid foundation for the success of his business.

If this article has been of benefits to you in one way or the other, please kindly post a comment to let me know how you feel. Feel free to also make useful contributions to this post by making use of the post a comments section.

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Making no effort to improve

Making no effort to improve is a major factor for business failure.  Many businesses fail because the entrepreneurs behind them were too confident of the superiority of their skills. This over confidence blinded their eyes to the little business improvement effort they needed to make to stand out. Business is dynamic, therefore, to succeed in the world of business you need to be dynamic; you need to learn the new skills of trade, understand and acquire the required technology that will help you to continue to maintain your relevance in the market place. When you fail to do this, get ready to be left behind.

Even if you cannot buy sophisticated technology, try to improve on your service delivery and spend some money to pick one or two technology that will help you to satisfy your customers. Do not expect to experience meaningful changes in your business if you continue to do the same thing over and over again. This is what I call business insanity. To prevent your business from failing, you need to put in your effort to completely eradicate this insanity.

Read more articles and publications on your line of business; attend seminars and workshops that are business oriented. Break loose from your comfort zone and step into the realm of positive interaction with people in your industry; most especially people that are doing better than your self. Do not copy them, but learn from them and apply what you learn with little enhancement to make your business more unique and profitable. Engage your customers in conversation to find out ways on which you can serve them better. Listen carefully as they talk, and you will be able gather enough information that you can work on to make your service and business more unique and leverage able.

Do not be contented with what you are offering now in your business, make the effort to improve no matter how little it is. When you do this your business will attract more customers that will help to boost your financial performance. This will make more money available for you to embrace more profitable opportunities for growth. Your effort for improvement will pay off if you continue to commit all you have to it. Do not say, “There is not much I can do”. There is so much you can do! You have not discovered it because you have not tried. Get up and dust your self, look up to sunshine and commit your mind to make a little business improvement, you will be amazed what you can do.

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Faulty Financial System

Faulty Financial System is one of the deadliest causes of business failure. Finance is a major factor to the survival of any business venture. Where there is no adequate finance to fund your business as at when due, business opportunities are missed and the business soon fails. In the light of the above, it is expedient that every entrepreneur knows how and where to source for cheap funds to finance or run his business. However, as essential as this, it is not always easy in most cases because of our faulty financial systems. This system comprises of the structures and policies of financial institutions. In most cases our financial institutions make it very difficult for those who truly desire financial assistance to assess it as at when due. This is as result of their strict and selfish policies which only favors those with good financial standing.

In Nigeria for instance, business loans are given out with strict conditions that will frustrates the survival of any business. They give out loans with no considerable time frame of repayment. For instance, where a bank lends N100, 000:00 to an entrepreneur at a going interest rate of 3% per month, to start a business and expect him or her to make payment monthly to offset his debt within six months, in my own opinion is putting too much weight on the business. When you remove about N20, 000:00 monthly to pay your debt, what will you use to run the business and embrace other lucrative opportunities that may help to sail you to business success? How can you even manage to pay back this loan completely if you do not have enough to run the business? This will lead to business failure if the entrepreneur has no other means of sourcing for funds to run his business.

The bank can make life easier for business owners if they can prolong their loan repayment period. This will prove mutually beneficial to both the bank and the business owner because the entrepreneur will now be able to spread the loan over a flexible time frame and the bank will equally make more money because the more time the money stays with entrepreneur, the more it labored vigorously for the bank. But because the banks are selfishly positioned for quick money, they are paying deaf ears to the pains of the sector they were set up to look after. Instead of helping the small and medium scale enterprises, they are diverting the money to run their privately owned business, and also to lend only to the rich. Thinking that this will solve their problems, it has plunged them into more problems. You cannot solve problems with problems. The rich borrowed huge sum of money to invest in business ventures which never deliver on the intended terms. Now, when these banks go to collect their money from these so called rich people, they are greeted with sophisticated lawyers who use the law to protect the rich and their corporation from litigation.

Some times these loans are given without collateral. Nigerian banks can afford to give loans to the rich without collateral, but will refuse to lend small amount of money to a business owner with viable business concept, but has no collateral. Even when the small business entrepreneur offers pragmatic reasons to support his ability to repay back, he will be turned down because has no connections and can not afford to bribe his or her way through.

A friend of mine who run a school business needed about N1, 000,000: 00 to add to what he had to purchase a piece of land to build a permanent structure for his school. He approached his bank to advance him the loan, but they refuse because he has no collateral. He even told them to buy the land in their name, and transfer ownership to him when payment is complete, but they still refuse. This makes me to wonder what the problem is with these banks. The school fees for a session, was able to pay for this loan. Though, the bank knew this because all his transactions were done through the bank, but they still refuse to help him.

The limiting role of our faulty financial system cannot be overemphasized. Whenever our financial system fails to live up to their mandate, the business that depends on them for sustainability will eventually fail.


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