THE WISE USE OF PEOPLE’S RESOURCES AS A CHANNEL FOR ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

People’s resources are the greatest asset any individual or an organization embarking on economic empowerment venture can have. You need wisdom from above to effectively utilize this asset to your economic advantage, but not at the expense of their legitimate entitlements. Apart from your personal resources, you will need other people’s resources for your economic empowerment.

How do you wisely use people’s resources as a channel for economic empowerment?

i. OPM – Other People’s Monies

ii. OPT – Other People’s Time

iii. OPK – Other People’s Knowledge

iv. OPA – Other People’s Abilities

v. OPG – Other People’s Goodwill

vi. OPE – Other People’s Experience

You can use all the above-mentioned People’s Resources to empower yourself economically. Note however that we are not talking about exploiting people unduly to amass wealth for yourself. Bible frowns on that and you will not go unpunished for that. What I am teaching you is that there are so many people out there with these resources in abundance who do not know how to harness and utilize them for their own economic gain. With wisdom, employ these available resources, and pay them their due remunerations and utilize the resources for a greater economic gain.

Let us consider some case studies for the use of the above

The use of OPM (Other People’s Monies)

How do financial institutions make their wealth? Simply by the principle of OPM, they take your money with the promise of keeping it safe for you and giving it back to you at any time you want it just for a minimal charge. They then invest your money into some viable money market instruments with greater yields and make more money with your money for themselves. How about that? That is financial wisdom for you.

If you happen to meet an excellent opportunity for an investment that can yield you over a hundred percent return with no or minimal risk and you don’t have the money it takes to seize the opportunity, do you fold your arms and sleep? No! You look for somebody with the money who doesn’t know what to do with it and promise him some interest for the use of his money and you are on your way to making big time wealth for yourself. You don’t need to have your own money before you can be economically empowered, but you surely need wisdom for that. So ‘wise up’

The use of OPK (Other People’s Knowledge)

Henry Ford, it is said was a school drop out and a near illiterate but he is credited with the invention of the Ford Car. How did he accomplish that? By the principle of OPK (Other People’s Knowledge), he had a vision and a desire backed by determination, but he had no knowledge to achieve that by himself. He used wisdom to employ OPK to accomplish his dream.

He was once accused of being an ignoramus and in his defense astounded every body by saying: “I don’t need to cram my head with knowledge I can easily get elsewhere at the snap of my fingers” By that statement, It was held that if one knows how to get from elsewhere, the knowledge he should have acquired by himself he cannot be said to be an ignoramus. By that he won the case. This can work for you too. You don’t need all the knowledge in the world to be able to make money. All you need is the wisdom to gather around you people with the knowledge you need.

Consider this success story and get an inspiration that the OPK can work for anybody who has wisdom enough to harness its powers.

Some Senior High School candidates who could not make it in all their papers contacted a young man to help them in some extra classes as they were preparing to rewrite some of their papers. He did help them and they were successful in their exams. The news soon spread in town and many more students started flocking to his house everyday. He was overwhelmed with their numbers and besides, he could not handle all the courses. An idea quickly came to him to create a remedial classes’ centre and employ the services of the graduate teachers in the secondary schools in the town to help him. This he did and today the place has turned into a fulltime remedial and regular school with the young man who has not got a university education as the proprietor and facilitator making his cool money through the use of the OPK (Other People’s Knowledge). You too can try the OPK because it will definitely work for you.

WISE USE OF YOUR TALENTS AND GIFTS FOR ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

Talents and natural giftings are divine endowments for giving means of livelihood to people. Your talent is not a decorative piece; it is your vehicle to economic empowerment. Your only role is to discover, develop, and add economic value to it and you are on your way to earning money from that talent or gift.

Look at the wealth sports stars are making from the wise use of their natural talents all over the world today. Note however, that talents and natural gifts are only raw materials. They only become economically viable when we are able to turn them into marketable skills. No body employs talents or gifts. People are looking for skills to employ, and the more skilful you become in the use of that gift, the more you will be paid for it. There are many talented footballers, singers, actors etc, in the world but only the skilful ones are paid very well.

The wisdom for economic empowerment here is to discover your talents and natural endowments and develop them into economically viable and marketable skills, and you are not far from earning money from them.

THE WISE USE OF YOUR SPARE TIME AS A CHANNEL FOR ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

The secret key to becoming an outstanding successful person in life is the beneficial use of ones spare time. Time is the only universal commodity of nature with the fairest distribution. Everybody has access to access equal amount of time; Twenty-Four hours a day, Seven days a week, Thirty-One days a month and Fifty-Two weeks a year for all, rich or poor, black or white, learned or unlearned, for time and chance happens to them all.

The difference therefore in life lies in how we individually utilize this great asset of nature. The beneficial use of one’s spare time is the secret key to becoming an outstanding success in life. What do you do with your spare time? Many people complain that if they had enough time they could do something else to better their financial lives. Time is a highly perishable commodity, and once wasted it is never recoverable.

Let us do some quick mathematics here to see whether we make judicious use of our time or not. There are 24 hours in a day, as we all know. If you are an employee, you work from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm equaling 9 hours of the 24 hours leaving 15 hours for you. Let us also assume you sleep for 8 hours everyday thus leaving 7 hours unaccounted for which we can refer to as your spare time.

What you do with this time is very crucial to your economic success or failure in life. Another way to expand your economic time is to cut down on the hours allotted for sleep. If you sleep for 8 hours everyday, by the time you die you would have slept for one-third of your total life span, which is not a good omen for successful economic life.

Become wise in the use of your time, most especially your spare time. Find something economically viable to do in your spare time, which will give you some financial freedom, instead of depending on your employer to make you rich. No employer has ever made any employee rich. At best, he will only give you what is due you for your labour of service. However, to be economically empowered for financial freedom, you need to redeem the time and make economic use of it.

FINDING THE MONEY YOU NEED

Financing Your Business Start-Up
One key to a successful business start-up and expansion is your ability to obtain and secure appropriate financing. Raising capital is the most basic of all business activities. However, as many new entrepreneurs quickly discover, raising capital may not be easy; in fact, it can be a complex and frustrating process. However, if you are informed and have planned effectively, raising money for your business will not be a painful experience.
This information summary focuses on ways a small business can raise money and explains how to prepare a loan proposal.

Finding the Money You Need

There are several sources to consider when looking for financing. It is important to explore all of your options before making a decision.

1. Salary
"Don't give up your day job." That is the advice commonly given to aspiring actors and musicians, but it is equally applicable to many entrepreneurs who are testing the waters. If you start small enough, you may be able to stay afloat for many months by continuing your full-time job or cutting back to part-time. This steady source of income can reduce your need for turning to others for start-up funds and can help keep you solvent if the business doesn't succeed.

2. Personal Savings
Putting your own money into your business is the simplest way to start or expand your business. You avoid entanglements with others, keep your business affairs private, and avoid possible legal complications.
If your business takes off, you will own business assets, such as inventory, equipment, and furniture, free of debt, making it easier to borrow money later or bring equity investors into the business.

Your money may come from savings that you have carefully accumulated over the years. Alternatively, it may come from a lump sum of money that is available all at once. For example, you may have received an inheritance from a relative or an attractive severance package from a job you have just left. Or, perhaps you've sold your house and will be living in a less expensive one or in rented quarters. Investing this money in your own business may yield a bigger return than you could ever expect to receive by investing it in someone else's business.

3. Credit Cards
You can use your credit cards to help finance your business. Plastic can quickly get you a computer and fax machine, and probably other business equipment and furniture as well. In addition, for expenses such as rent, phone bills, or money to pay employees, you can usually get a cash advance.
Credit cards are a convenient way to arrange for short-term financing because they are so easy to use. Over the long haul, however, they are less attractive, mainly because the interest charges are relatively high, often as much as 20 percent or more per year. If you are going to succeed in business, you will not want to borrow very much for very long at those rates.

4. Buying on Credit
The companies from which you are buying goods or services may offer favorable credit terms to capture your business. Often this will mean you do not have to pay your bill for 30, 60, or more days. Alternatively, you may be able to spread payments for a purchase over a period of several months with no finance charges as long as you pay each installment on time. Moreover, the interest rate that is charged may be substantially lower than that charged by a credit card company.

Do not be discouraged by the fact that the best credit terms usually go to already established businesses and that new businesses typically have to pay up-front. Credit decisions are somewhat subjective, leaving you room to convince the seller that your new business deserves special consideration. Especially, if you will need starting inventory, as in the case of a retail store, call suppliers and ask for help. Show them a copy of your credit history and business plan. If they look good and you are persuasive, you may be able to get a fair amount of your inventory on favourable terms.

5. Leasing
If you need equipment, anything from computers and copiers to forklifts and trucks, consider leasing it. True, leasing doesn't put money directly in your hands, but almost as good from a cash flow point of view, it does reduce the amount of cash you'd have to come up with if you were to instead buy the same equipment. Moreover, many leases offer you the option to acquire the equipment for a nominal amount when the lease period is over. Over the long term, leasing usually costs a bit more than buying, but if the cash flow from your business will be tight for a few years, leasing can be an effective way to get the equipment you need now.

6. Friends, Relatives, and Business Associates
Those close to you can often lend you money or invest in your business. This helps you avoid the hassle of pleading your case to outsiders and enduring extra paperwork and bureaucratic delays. Help from friends, relatives, and business associates can be especially valuable if you have been through bankruptcy or had other credit problems that would make borrowing from a commercial lender difficult or impossible.

Some advantages of borrowing money from people you know well are that; you may be charged a lower interest rate, may be able to delay paying back the money until you are more established, and may be given more flexibility if you get into a jam. Nevertheless, once the loan terms are agreed to, there is one thing that borrowing from friends, relatives, or business associates does not do: It does not legally diminish your obligation to meet those terms.

In addition, borrowing money from relatives and friends can have a big downside. There is always the possibility that if your business does poorly and those close to you end up losing money, you will damage a good personal relationship. So in dealing with friends, relatives, and business associates, be extra careful not only to establish clearly the terms of the deal and put it in writing but also to make an extra effort to explain the risks. In short, it is your job to make sure your helpful friend or relative will not suffer a true hardship if you are unable to meet your financial commitments.

7. Supporters
Many types of businesses have loyal and devoted followers, people who care as much about the business as the owners do. A health-food restaurant, a women's bookstore, an imported cars repair shop, or an art studio, for example, may attract people who are enthusiastic about lending money to or investing in the business because it fits in with their lifestyle or beliefs.
Their decision to participate is driven to some extent by their feelings and is not strictly a business proposition. These people can also be a source of great ideas, ideas that can be as valuable as money, and they will be happy to share these with you at no charge.
The rules for borrowing from friends and relatives apply here as well. Put repayment terms in writing, and don't accept money from people who can't afford to risk it.

8. Banks
Banks are in the money business, so it is natural to look to them for start-up funds. Nevertheless, until your business has established a record of profitability, banks will be reluctant to lend anything substantial, even if you have good
security. Bankers like to speak of the five C's of credit analysis, factors they look at when they evaluate a loan request. When applying to a bank for a loan, be prepared to address the following points:

i. Character: Bankers lend money to borrowers who appear honest and who have a good credit history. Before you apply for a loan, it makes sense to obtain a copy of your credit report and clean up any problems.

ii. Capacity: This is a prediction of the borrower's ability to repay the loan. For a new business, bankers look at the business plan. For an existing business, bankers consider financial statements and industry trends.

iii. Collateral: Bankers generally want a borrower to pledge an asset that can be sold to pay off the loan if the borrower lacks funds.

iv. Capital: Bankers scrutinize a borrower's net worth, the amount by which assets exceed debts.

v. Conditions: Whether bankers give a loan can be influenced by the current economic climate as well as by the amount.

9. Venture Capitalists
There are companies and individuals looking to invest in extraordinary companies that can produce large profits. See if your city has a venture capital club which helps introduce new businesses to venture capitalists. If so, get in contact and find out how you can meet potential investors. Often you will be afforded a chance to make a short presentation that can make an impression on someone with deep pockets. Your local or state chamber of commerce should be able to direct you to the closest club, or you can check with the instructor of a business school that offers courses in entrepreneurship.

10. The Seller of an Existing Business
If you are buying an existing business, you may be able to negotiate favorable payment terms, which can reduce the amount of cash you have to come up with. You have a number of variables to work with. Try to keep the down payment low, and see if the seller will agree to below market interest rates or will even charge no interest for the first year or two.
Try, too, to extend the payments over as many years as possible. As with a bank loan, you can always pay the debt off early if your business prospers.

KEYS TO TOP PERFORMANCE

PRINCIPLES – Your Life’s Boundaries

Principles are personal set of rules one puts in place to serve as checks and balances to his behaviour and actions. Principles are not determined by an external source of force and imposed on a person. Every individual who wants to distinguish him or her self in life must have a set of personal rules and regulations that govern his/her behaviour.

The set of rules though not enforceable in any judicial court may sometimes be more binding on the individual than legislative and judicial laws of the land. This is because the individual who is to obey the laws is lawmaker and law enforcer himself. The only referee or judge here is the individual’s own conscience. The motivation for keeping these rules is therefore not subject to the reward of obedience or the fear of punishment for violating the law. Keeping and living by these principles is a matter of conscience and conviction.

At the root of self-control and self-discipline is personal conviction. You cannot be self-controlled or disciplined without having in place personal set of rules and regulations to govern your behaviour and the way you do things.
The good book says in Proverbs 16:32 that

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

This in simple, literal interpretation would mean that it is far easier to war with physical weapons and military or political power and take territories than it is to exercise restraint in the case of a personal habit or personality trait. You can easily force someone to succumb to you than you can do your own body. If it were not so, people suffering from addictions in our world today would not be struggling to be freed from the grip of these non-living forces.

Conquest and self-control within are better than conquest of enemies without. Many conquerors have subdued nations and yet have been slaves to their own passions. Alexander conquered the world, but was a slave to intemperate anger. In a fit of anger, he slew Clytus, his best and most loved friend, and regretted it afterwards.

The habit-forming nature of the human body coupled with the strong self-will of the Soul makes self-control and self-discipline almost a Herculean task for many people. This is the reason why we need personal principles in life, which will guard against being entangled with some of these destiny choking habits and lifestyles.

As mentioned above, principles are a matter of conscience and personal conviction, which means, sometimes principles may not necessarily deal with issues of legality or morality. They normally go beyond what is generally accepted as legally or morally right. You go beyond obeying laws and become a law to yourself.
When you have a high calling in life, you simply decide you are not going to live your life just as every other person does. You may then have to decide you are not going to do certain things anymore, and you are not going to go to some places anymore, you are not going to keep certain companies anymore, not because they are illegal or immoral, but simply because you want to have a standard you want to attain in life.

The Apostle Paul puts it in a more graphical picture for us when he said
1 Cor. 6:12
All things are LAWFUL unto me, but all things are not EXPEDIENT: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

1 Cor. 10:23
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

For example, there is nothing unlawful or immoral about watching television from morning until evening, but how will that be of benefit to a man or woman with a destiny who knows he/she is on a high-level assignment on earth and time is short. Such a person would have to choose between watching television and pursuing purpose and destiny.

Daniel and his three Hebrew friends, in their Babylonian captivity were entitled to royal dishes by the edict of the king, but by conviction of who they were and the destiny they had, chose rather to settle for herbage and dietary meals to avoid contaminating their spirits and souls with the rather sumptuous and palatable but pagan food of the palace.

Men and women of this generation including us, the so called men and women of God are busy polluting our spirits and souls with such abandoned recklessness and unrestrained alacrity with all sorts of lifestyles and habits all in the name of breakthrough and modernism. To be a top performer in whatever endeavour of life you are called to, you need to be self-disciplined. This however, does not come through cheap talk, because it is not a matter of mouth talk but an issue of strong personal conviction and personal principles.

There are things I cannot do again with my life and my time because of the path I have chosen to walk in, even if nobody is there to see or reprimand me. It is a matter of personal decision and choice.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS

To launch a new venture successfully, you have to be the right sort of person, your business idea must be right for the market, and your timing must be right. The world of business failures is full of products that are ahead of their time.
The entrepreneur is frequently seen as someone who is always bursting with new ideas, highly enthusiastic, hyperactive, and insatiably curious. However, the more you try to create a picture of the typical entrepreneur, the more elusive it becomes.
Having said that, there are certain characteristics that successful newcomers to business do have in common, and you should emphasize these with respect to yourself in the business plan.



1. Self-Confident All-Around Performers
Entrepreneurs are rarely geniuses. There are nearly always people in their business who have more competence, in one field, than they could ever aspire to. Nevertheless, they have a wide range of abilities and a willingness to turn their hands to anything that has to be done to make the venture succeed. They can usually make the product, market it, and count the money, but above all, they have self-confidence that lets them move comfortably through uncharted waters.

2. The Ability to Bounce Back
Rising from the ashes of former disasters is also a common feature of many successful entrepreneurs. In life generally, only a few people are able to stage a come back after a downslide in any endeavour. Many well meaning people embark on business ventures and when they are met with temporary failure, they embrace it as a dead-end road and give up ever trying again. Nevertheless, a typical entrepreneur will always gather momentum and keep bouncing back until success succumbs to him/her.

3. Innovative Skills
Almost by definition, entrepreneurs are innovators who either tackle the unknown or do old things in new ways. It is this inventive streak, which allows them to carve out a new niche, often invisible to others.


4. Results Oriented
Successful people set themselves goals and get pleasure out of trying to achieve them. Once a goal has been reached, they have to get the next target in view as quickly as possible. This restlessness is very characteristic of a typical entrepreneur.

5. Professional Risk Taker
The high failure rate shows that small businesses are faced with many dangers. An essential characteristic of someone starting a business is the willingness to make decisions and to take risks. This does not mean gambling on hunches. It means carefully calculating the odds and deciding which risks to take and when to take them.

6. Having Total Commitment
You will need complete faith in your idea. How else will you convince all the doubters you are bound to meet that it is a worthwhile venture? You will also need single-mindedness, energy, and a lot of hard work to get things started; working 18-hour days is common. This can put a strain on other relationships, particularly within your family, so they too have to be involved and committed if you are to succeed.

All too often budding entrepreneurs believe themselves to be the right sort of person to set up a business. Unfortunately, the capacity for self-deception is enormous. When a random sample of male adults were asked recently to rank themselves on leadership ability, 70 percent rated themselves in the top 25 percent; only 2 percent felt they were below average as leaders. In an area in which self-deception ought to be difficult, 60 percent said they were well above average in athletic ability, and only 6 percent said they were below.
A common mistake made in assessing entrepreneurial talent is to assume that success in big business management will automatically guarantee success in a small business.

INTRODUCTION TO PROPOSAL WRITING

INTRODUCTION TO PROPOSAL WRITING

The general purpose of any proposal is to persuade the readers to do something.
It may to persuade a potential customer to purchase goods and/or services, or to persuade a funding organization to fund a project or to implement a program that you would like to launch.

Any proposal offers a plan to fill a need, and your reader will evaluate your plan according to how well your written presentation answers questions about:

a. WHAT you are proposing,
b. HOW you plan to do it,
c. WHEN you plan to do it, and
d. HOW MUCH it is going to cost.

To do this you must ascertain the level of knowledge that your audience possesses and take the positions of all your readers into account. You must also discern whether your readers will be members of your technical community, of your technical discourse community, or of both, and then use the appropriate materials and language to appeal to both. You might provide, for those outside of your specific area of expertise, an executive summary written in non-technical (easily accessible) language, or you might include a glossary of terms that explains technical language used in the body of the proposal, and/ or attach appendices that explain technical information in generally understood language.
The most basic composition of a proposal, as with any other written document, is simple; it needs a beginning (the Introduction), a middle (the Body of material to be presented) and an end (the Conclusion/Recommendation).
The INTRODUCTION presents and summarizes the problem you intend to solve and your solution to that problem, including the benefits the reader/group will receive from the solution and the cost of that solution.
The BODY of the proposal should explain the complete details of the solution: how the job will be done, broken into separate tasks; what method will be used to do it, including the equipment, material, and personnel that would be required; when the work will begin; and, when the job will be completed. It should also present a detailed cost breakdown for the entire job.
The CONCLUSION should emphasize the benefits that the reader will realize from your solution to the problem and should urge the reader to action. It should be encouraging, confident, and assertive in tone.
Proposals are informative and persuasive writing because they attempt to educate the reader and to convince that reader to do something. The goal of the writer is not only to persuade the reader to do what is being requested, but also to make the reader believe that the solution is practical and appropriate. In persuasive proposal writing, the case is built by the demonstration of logic and reason in the approach taken in the solution.
Facts must lead logically and inevitably to the conclusion and/or the solution presented. Evidence should be given in a descending order of importance, beginning with the most important evidence and ending with the least important.
Any questions that the reader might pose should be anticipated and answered in a way that reflects the stated position of your proposal. It is important that the writer, also, consider all sides of the argument providing other alternative solutions to the problem, but showing how the one chosen is superior to the others included.

WEALTH MULTIPLICATION THROUGH VISION AND OBEDIENCE

INTRODUCTION:
Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Where there is no vision or sense of responsibility to keep the law, the people perish for lack of its enforcement; but the one who keeps the law in such times is blessed and happy.

What is a Vision?
A vision is a divinely initiated mental picture of a desired future state or condition.

A vision is created by the power of imagination in the word of God, which is prophetically driven and subject to future divine fulfilment.

If you want to have a vision, you must know the purpose of God for your life. Your purpose or assignment in life gives birth to your vision.

Your vision is the mental picture of what you want to achieve or become in future.
Without vision leadership accomplishes nothing. Without a vision the people perish, wander aimlessly, the people dwell carelessly.


What Is the Power of Vision in Wealth Multiplication?
Your vision is the force that drives you when every one else gives up on you.

Your vision gives you something to want to live for when all hope for living is lost. “If they are willing...” it is your vision that gives you the will power to want to live and become an achiever in life.

Your vision gives you a sense of direction in life to focus your time, skills and finances in order to multiply your wealth.

Your vision will draw people into your life to want to help you, and the more people you get to help you the more you will multiply.

Your vision is what attracts the resources of heaven in to your life and business


What Is the Power of Obedience in Wealth Multiplication?

Isaiah 1:19
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

Acts 6:7
And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Job 36:11-12

If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. [12] But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.

2 Chron. 26:5
And he (King Uzziah) sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.