What is bootstrapping? In business, bootstrapping is the art of self-reliance. It means growing your business without relying on external funding, loans, or investors. Bootstrapping isn’t just a financial strategy. It is a mindset that champions creativity, resilience, flexibility and strategic focus. It combines a commitment to increased profits with a dedication to efficiency and

Today, I want to talk about how to do the best possible preparation for a loan application. You will need to have a good business plan and good financial records. You also need to know how much money the bank may be willing to lend to you. And you should be aware of the  additional

In a previous post, I showed you how banks calculate what they are willing to lend to you. I also showed your how how to do your own calculations so you can have an idea of how much money you will be able to borrow. There are also other factors that determine if a bank

When they are deciding whether to give you a loan, there are 2 main things banks want to know: Does your business have enough cash flow to repay the loan every month? Will you be able to do repayments on time? In a previous post, I gave you an overview of the various sources of

Banks are not the only place to get money. Today, I will discuss 12 sources of funding. I will start with those that are of interest to small businesses and finish with those that are of interest to larger businesses. In another post, I will explain how banks decide how much money to lend to

In previous posts, I talked about the official and the alternative approach you can follow to start a business with limited funding. There is one more topic I want to cover at this time. I want to give you examples of businesses that do not require a lot of funding to start. This list can

In a previous post, I wrote about one way to start a business when you have limited money available. That approach, the official way, consists of the following steps: Find out the gap in the market Look for a business that does not require much money to start and operate Maximise your sales and give

First of all, I just want to say: WOW! I am overwhelmed to see almost 1000 people responding to Guide My Growth asking for advice in just a few days. Thank you for your trust in me. Many of you are asking me how to start a business with limited funding or how to get

Many businesses in Africa are focused 100% on getting funders to invest in their business. Their thinking is, “If I can manage to get this funder to give me money, man, my business will take off! Getting this money will solve my problems!”. But like everything in life, there is good and bad. In Liberia,

The business plan is the point of departure for any funding application. It is very important that the business plan should cover all the issues that a funder considers to be important. This means that you need to know what funders are looking for, and why they want that information. It is also important to