Douglas & Rach Management Consultants

Managing personal funds

Do you find yourself borrowing before the end of the month?
Are your debts at the beginning of the month exceeding your salary such that you are not eager to get your salary. Salary is exhausted before it is earned.

If you are one of these people, you need a small budget to help you.

A budget is only a budet when it is followed. Financial discipline brings peace of mind and ultimately happiness. A $200 cleaner at the office will lend a $2,000 staff member a loan of $20. What is wrong? Financial discipline. Eat what you kill. Be planned, save every month, follow your budget, know what you can and cannot afford.

Save your repotation by borrowing $20 when you can be better planned.

Leticia Njowola.

Why are accounting positions the last to be filled in a small business

Most business enterprenuers believe they can do the books on their own.

Accounting records start with the start of the business. When assets are being bought, when rentals are being paid and when salaries are being made. The books need to start then.

This is the time when business owners will also be putting their personal funds and that record need to be put in place. Do not wait till the end of the year when all receipts of purchases are all over the cars and when you cannot remember the money that you have put in.

Engage D&R at affordable fees to do your books on time. You do not need full time accountants for now.

A day without laughter is a day wasted.....Charlie Chaplin

If this is true then this means one should laugh when they are both in bad times and in good times.

One thing I have leant is that as long as one is on planet earth bad and good days will come. It's all about how you will take it. You are better off taking a bad day with a laugh because there is not much you can do.

A smile for a bad day and a smile for a good day will make you live longer.

Forgiveness

So many a times, we use the above word, forgiveness. In the Lord's Prayer, we have it and we say it over and over.

Forgiveness is not forgetting. It is accepting that something has happened and that you have come into terms with it.

Forgiveness is when you no longer feel hatred, pain or disturbance when you see the person who hurt you.

If you are still tracking what is happening to those who hurt you and seeking bad luck or failure on them, you have not forgiven.

True forgiveness comes with Gods aid. It wishes well for those who hurt you. It makes you greet those who hurt you and be able to look them in the eye without any more hurt. This is a special feeling that God gives us as a gift!

Pray for it, forgiveness give true peace and joy which gives you long life!

Is giving for the rich?

So many a times, people believe that giving is for the rich. Did you know that there is no poor or rich in front of God.

All people from all walks of life should give. Giving is just not money. It can be your time, your old clothes, your vegetables in your garden or even your flowers or one bird of chicken at your back yard.
Stop saying, I don't have anything to give, I am a poor man. My sister or brother who has is the one who should give. Don't define having as having money, money is nothing!
Christianity is giving what you have using your heart.

Life has a fare share of cries & laughter

When Jesus says yes, nobody can say no. When you cry, take it as an opportunity to bond more with God. When you laugh just praise God all the more.

All situations are a part of God's cycle and you cannot do anything about it.

Come crying, come laughter! All are mine.

Being poor is spending all your income

Income will always come with expenses. Others are variable costs and others are fixed. A poor man is one who ignores the related expenses. A poor man is one who thinks it will never rain the whole year or one who thinks the sun won't shine the whole year. Hence, he decides not to put a roof on his house nor build a house!

It's easy to be a poor man. Keep spending all your income,clear expenses through borrowings and spare no savings and you will be a good poor man.

Leticia Njowola.

Do you have a financial plan for the month?

It's better to fail a plan than not to have a plan at all.

As the month end is approaching and salaries are coming through did you put a budget together?

A budget will include the lines for your income(s) and just below you will have your expenses. Expenses will include the fixed costs like rentals;portion of school fees; your rates; monthly grocery; wages for your home general staff etc

Amongst your expenses remember to include emergency fund and savings. You can work these out as a percentage of the income say 5% of your income as your emergency fund and 10% as your savings for your project you outlined at the beginning of the year.

Enjoy the month end and remember you are only at peace when your finances are balanced. When extended family asks for help, use the emergency fund!

Complements of Douglas & Rach Accountants.

A business mind is one that sees money when everyone else sees grass and thorns

A friend of mine took me to their farm for a tour when they had just bought it. I was so shocked with the way he was so excited. When I looked at his land, all I could see was grass and wild trees. I really wondered if this guy really knew what he was seeing nd later alone what he needs to put in. All that was in my mind was a failed venture of this forest that you can find anywhere on this planet earth.

Four years later, my friend sent me his 3 year financials for analysis since he wanted to apply for a credit facility. Oh! my goodness, the turnover had hit a million dollars.

I called my friend to inquire how he was moving that growth and he told me to recall what he told me the day he took me for a farm your. "A business mind is one that sees money when everyone else sees grass and thorns."

Colleagues, start to see money in your visions. See beyond the grass ,valley and snakes in the field but see turnover growth over time!

Enjoy your day!
Compliments of Douglas & Rach Accountants.

The power of improvising at work

Improvising is a creative use of alternative materials and methods.

I take improvising as a skill. In the developing worlds, improvising is a way of life. One can train themselves to improvise. If one has problem to solve at work, always tell yourself that there are so many ways to kill a cat. There are definitely so may ways to climb a mountain.

Always understand the goal or the end product. When you have understood the end product, you will know the different ways that can be used to achieve the goal. Think in other terms and you will be a great achiever.
As employees, do not be in the habit of giving excuses of not completing your work. Surprise your boss by completing the work using alternatives!

How to chair an effective meeting,

As you go up the ladder, you will spend more time in meetings. Instead of attending you will also get to chair meetings. Here are some tips to look out for an effective meeting:

1. Only invite relevant people for your meeting
2. Be specific about what is going to be discussed, eg meeting to increase salaries for production staff
3. Set out agenda items and send them on time to the relevant members
4. Allocate time for each agenda item

More importantly,
1. Start meetings on time
2. Prevent unnecessary discussions
3. Manage outbursts and constructive questions
4. Summarise outcomes and proposed actions

Well managed meetings increase commitment and productivity.

Leticia Mberikwazvo Njowola

Budgeting

I have always asked myself a question, on wether money is ever enough. I have asked so many people and I have never come across anyone saying they have enough money. Instead all I hear are complains that I do not have money or my money is too little or I wish I was someone else who has more money.

If money is never enough, then it is a scarce resource. A scarce resource should be guarded jealously and should be maintained well.

A parent, a student, a politician even a child needs to know the values of budgeting. Budgeting helps you determine the type of life you should live, the type of school that you can afford and even the pledges you should make. If you do not run a budget before you have your moneyyowling won't know what you can afford and what you cannot afford.

Budgets helps one to plan, make right and complete decisions that are unique, helps to save and afford expensive things that can't be bought at once.

The newsletter for the month of September details a budget for a minimum wage in Zambia. Decisions that can be made by one using the little that is available.

Leticia Njowola

What destructs you from performing...

I would like to separate destructions into two categories. There are the man made and real distractions. Real distrunction should be emergencies such as fire or floods.

Man made destructions are time outs for gossip,daydreaming,Internet surfing, phone chats e.t.c
These man made destructions gets you side tracking. You find yourself having done 20% or less of the items on your to do list.

It is always good to set a target for yourself. Set your output and it's deadline. After achieving this then you can reward yourself with a timed timeout.

Discipline yourself against man made distractions and check the rate of your output and commitment to achievement.It will definitely be high.

Leticia Mberikwazvo Njowola

Quick wins first...

Tip of the day..

Each morning before I start my work. I write down a list of what I intend to do. Most a time the list goes beyond a page. After listing I realize that I have a lot to do and I am only one person.

To motivate myself I go for the quick wins. I choose the most easy tasks and tackle on those. If I manage them i pat myself on the back. After my cup of tea or a bottle of water, I then tackle a mixture of the hard and middle tasks. By the end of the day, when I rate my output, I always discover that I have covered at least 80percent of my to do list.

Quick wins motivate. Be in the habit of breaking down work and ticking off work. When carrying over work from the previous day, let it not be too much or else you get rated a non performer. You can even be embarrassed with yourself if you discover that you did not even do a small tasks which can be picking up a phone and calling a debtor.

So may a times, our tasks are not all hard, so go for your tasks with intelligence and vision.

Leticia Mberikwazvo Njowola

Quality output

John Ruskin once wrote, quality is never an accident, it is always the result of intelligent effort. This quate reminds me my favorite sport, soccer. In soccer it is always said, class is permanent. Inconsistency of a player or consinsent out of form of a player makes him an ordinary player.

In whatever one does, one should set quality measures. Quality measures mean the output you set to do comes out perfect. In every job one sets as a CEO, one should look ahead and say what would be my quality measure?

Consinsently producing reports that make the board make reliable decisions as a finance director is a sign of a top class output for the organization.

Go on and be a consistent top performer!

Leticia Mberikwazvo Njowola

Excellent academic qualifications without passion...

Have you ever wondered why many businessmen are not really the most educated?

There is a gap between qualifications and being successful in the industry. A distance between past school glory and delivery at the workplace. The gap according to my understanding is only bridged by PASSION

With passion, one can achieve. With passion, one does not look at their clock if it's time to go home. With passion,a weeks task is achieved in a day. Proper accountants fail to sleep trying to balance out a balance sheet that is off by 5 united states dollars. I am sure you have seen one of those people. When they finally find the 5 unites astates dollars, they rejoice. Do you do the same in your filed?

It's good to have a passion over what you do. It does not matter what field it is. It can be working in the sales department, as a builder, a data captured, system developer or even a domestic worker. True passion drives mountains from one place to the other!

Apart form the academic qualification, I have seen so many people fail to be good Acccountants due to lack of passion. Have true passion plus your theoretical qualification, work will be enjoyed,one will learn more and no supervision and monitoring will be required.

Remember, Acccountants have a policy of , timely, speed and accuracy. You cannot achieve the above three without passion.

In whatever work you do, have a passion. Most businessmen, sail on passion, they don't sleep, they are committed and they continue to learn about their industry to be successful.

The qualifications you have are not good enough without the passion. Cement the two and bridge the gap and you will be successful in your respective field.

Leticia Mberikwazvo Njowola

Business tip on a Friday......

Often our bosses give us instrunctions that are vague. This may not appear as a problem at first but when you lose time trying to figure out what the boss meant and wanted that's when you know you are not clever. More often than not we are eager to leave our boss's office than getting the clear instrunctions. Have you ever sat to analyze how costly unclear instrunctions are both to yourself and to the company?

Wherever possible, get a written instrunctions of any particular job you are given. As you write, I noted that you will be able to ask questions over the grey areas.

I also found out asking questions about the job you are given helpful. Try and get answers for questions such as;
Is my job feeding into another bigger job?
Is my final product required as draft or as a final document?
Who is the final user of my report?
What is the deadline for my job

As the questions in the above paragraph are getting answered, the job will be getting clearer.

Do it right the first time said the Japanese. Time is money. Do not waste it over unclear instrunctions and things that are within your control.

Efficient and effective Acccountants get clear instrunctions about their job. They deal with finances and a vague instrunctions acted upon can be a disaster for their job or career. It can be as simple as,'deposit money in the bank' This statement is not clear about the source of the funds, the actual bank to receive the money, the type of acccount in question, even the urgency of the transaction. Fellow accountants and employees, have lost their sources of livelihood after receiving and acting on vague instrunctions. Watch out for this and be the best in time saving and getting clear instrunctions.

By Leticia Mberikwazvo Njowola

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Talk of the week! Entrepreneurs

When small businesses start, they start with the business owner. The business owner assumes and executes different key roles in the organization. He assumes amongst the key roles that of the CEO, the Human Capital executive, the finance director and operations director. All these roles will be executed by one person.

As the business grows, when should the owner relinquish these responsibilities to capable and well trained executives? Power and control is sweet, so they say. Jack of all trades and master of none, others say.

As the business grows, the world is full of the capable and well trained staff. As the founder, remain doing what you are best at and give accounting work to acccountants, human resource issues to the 'people's people' and operations to the engineers who failed to sleep studying your manufacturing industry.

Try that recipe and just ask for progress reports from the key people and see how your business grow. Don't get caught up in the disease of many who are Jack of all trades and Masters of nothing!

This cut off point has had businesses fail to take off to higher heights. Some businesses have remained small businesses and have even become smaller businesses!

Compliments from the Managing partner of Douglas & Rach management Accountants ( Leticia Mberikwazvo Njowola)

www.drachconsult.com

drachconsult.com Douglas & Rach management Consultants (D&R) is a vibrant and growing consulting firm. D&R has dedicated experienced and skilful staff ready to do your job. We have both local and international experience, having done work in Africa and out of Africa. Our products are so diverse but complete to turna...

Are you thinking of a business idea, do you have a business that is starting or are you struggling to grow your business. Have you had your business systems analysed for weaknesses or bottlenecks. We can assist you move from one level to another as Douglas & Rach Accountants. Many small businesses remain small and even go under because of poor systems and poor business decisions. Small enterprises (SMEs) are our focus for the month of August and September. Watch this space for more. Any consultations and any direct contact you can visit our website,www.drachconsult.com

Happy Monday morning.
The tip of the day is knowing the KISS. This is a mnemonic standing for Keep It Short and Simple. As you do your work today, no matter how tough the work is there is absolutely a simple way of doing it. If your work is like a mountain or an elephant, my previous boss always asked, how can we cut the elephant into smaller chunks. Do we start by cutting the legs, the tail, or the trunk...... That way the elephant will be cut down. Break down your work and kill off the smaller chunks and you will be an achiever.

Would you rather put your trust in someone who was created than in someone who created? I would go for the CREATOR, there I will never be wrong!

If you want to be efficient, plan for the output and not the activity....

My shot of the day, When God says Yes no man on planet earth can say No! How majestic.....

How does one keep a body clock?

It's simple, keep a diary of your levels of success. If I wake up to read for an exam or to prepare for a presentation, just know that thats a disaster for me. I will spend the whole day with a headache. If i sleep late preparing for an exam and I know i will make it.

When do you do you prepare for your serious task? If you have an answer then that forms part of your body clock.

The body clock is your best guide in doing work. When I was at school I used to wonder how other people used to pass as I never got a chance to see them reading. It was only after I started socializing that I realized that each person has a body clock.

You should always ask yourself if you are a morning, afternoon or a night owl person. You should monitor yourself as to when your full spark is. Not all of us are the same, as a manager, superviser,CEO or student the best way to get things done is to identify when your body has the best energy to fulfill different tasks...

Have hou ever wondered why businesses start without an accountant? There are so many answers that business owners can come up with. What are your thoughts?

Have a nice weekend... D&R

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