 |
 |
|
|||||
|
Issue 00492 |
October 27 - November 2, 2007 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
||||
|
|||||||||||
|
Breaking Barriers |
GEORGE, an executive business Coach, author and speaker lives in Arusha.
Resource Mobilization and Your Business
So many business owners usually have sleepless nights as demands on their ventures increase abnormally in very unstable economies while the competition heats up to unbearable heights. We shall share here the tips for mobilizing resources, that have been untapped, to strengthen the capacity of your business so that you can deliver more benefits to your community. These tips include diverse methods for mobilizing resources starting with preparing to raise seed capital or expansion funds, assessing and using community strengths, and soliciting other funding sources since money is very crucial to the successful running of your business. We have all heard the saying. “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” It’s true, and that’s one of the serious side effects of competing in the dog-eat-dog field of entrepreneurship.
How can an organization raise the expenses needed to carry out its business? Where are the required resources? How do you sustain your enterprise and work even if it’s an NGO and donor-dependent? These are the key questions confronting businesses and organizations when they consider how to maintain their business and strengthen organizational sustainability. It is important to develop a plan or strategy for resource mobilization which can lead to creative efforts in using your own local assets to gain the much needed support for your business or organization. While not putting all your eggs in the same basket, multiple sources of income can increase your independence and flexibility to maneuver. In non-profit work, employing this strategy will ultimately reduce your reliance on external (or foreign) funding especially when the belt becomes tight and with increased competition for scarce grant resources, thinking of, and creating options for new, diverse, and multiple funding streams will help your organization manage its programs.
Many people out there will be glad if the bank manager will just make it easy for them to have access to money either to start own business or expand a rather struggling enterprise but we all know that things are more complex these days than that. Maybe the thing to do now is to look beyond money as the only and ultimate resource for success in business. However, some very important key elements will help to strengthen your case in mobilizing much needed resources that will make life easier for you to run your systems. Principal among them is your clear sense and commitment to your vision and mission -- who you are, where you are going, and how your mission relates to the service you deliver to your clients. Even when you’re still struggling to grow, there must be an evidence that you’re involved in running a system that will yield results and showing evidence to anyone who cares of past accomplishments no matter how insignificant you might think it is but with an effective management and leadership by your team members and staff who will ensure the accountability and transparency of the organization. You bet, when the opportunity comes these are the issues that will bail you out.
Equally important is the putting in place a financial system that will safeguard the resources raised, including adequate financial controls that demonstrate good management and one that builds trust. On top of that is the kind of solid reputation, credibility, and positive image that you project. Every keen investor, including your bank manager wants to see all these attributes in you and your business so that they can be convinced of your ability to attract, create, and sustain new, resources, especially based in your local community.
Now, despite the resource constraints you be facing right now, I am still asking you to believe in the beauty of your dreams. I want you to make a wish concerning your business: all the good things that are lacking right now that you know will make things work better for you. Then start dreaming about those scarce resources because dreams are one of the most powerful success tools you have. Whatever you dream about you can achieve. Try and ask most successful people around you and they will tell you about the power of their dreams when they were struggling like you a few years ago. This is because your dreams are the fuel that fire desire to acquire the resources you need for life and business. Art Williams puts it in a hard way, that “If you don’t have a big dream, you’re dead.” Like Art, I want you also to believe that it’s impossible to do or have anything great without a big dream. So, if you don’t have a big dream, you’re dead. Not physically, of course, but your opportunity to “be somebody” is dead.
Finally, don’t cry that you’re lacking in resources. Don’t cry over split milk when you have lost an opportunity despite the saying that opportunity once lost cannot be regained. Sit down and rework your plan by doing your research all over again, put on your thinking cap and think strategically, conduct a market analysis and then develop a financial and operating plan. That type of plan could be used to obtain funds and resources that you desperately need from outside sources including your friends and banks or serve as a guide for your internal guide and use. Yes, a business venture can be profitable, but it can also be risky but heavens help those who help themselves too. C’mon, mobilize yourself first and the resources you need will be mobilized.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
