Tips for Managing your Finances and Investments

How to take care and manage your hard earned capital..

• Be careful with money. "Money is in some respects life's fire; it is very excellent servant, but a terrible master."

     -P.T. Barnum, circus show pioneer

• Pay your debts on time. "Through thick and thin, even in times of economic crises. I never failed to pay my obligations on time."

     -Tom Viray, president of Orient Integrated Commercials Inc,. who enforced a strict rein on his finances so he could pay back his loan amortization as they fell due.

• Create some wiggle room in your financial planning. "I have simple rule of thumb for that. Based on your business plan and financial forecast, determine hoe much money you will need to grow your start-up company to cash-flow positive level, then double that amount to brace yourself for contingencies and other unforeseen expenses. That is how much in capital investments you should try to raise."

     -Joey Gurango, managing editor for Philippine, Singapore and Australia of Gurango Software Corp.,

• Build with your own resources. "I used the profits from the first salon to put up the branch. In fact, I never borrowed capital for all of other branches I opened after that. This no-borrowing philosophy became my mantra in growing Orange Blush."

     -Joby Linsangan-Moreno, founder of Orange Blush Salon, which started in Cabanatuan City

• Put your money where your mouth is. "Here in the Philippines, it's all about credibility. If you are in Greenmeadows doing high end buildings and building 31 executive town homes at a cost of P10 million, you are perceived as a contractor for a completely different system."

     -Mark Taylor, founder of Sterling Construction and Development Corp., about taking the risk of co-financing a housing project with the bank RCBC to expose SCDC's technology to a high-end market

• Price your product right. "I guess what made me decide to change as low as P40 for my tutoring service was a mixture of wanting to corner the market and of being afraid that there might be no takers if  I made the pay any higher . in any case, that pricing strategy worked.  Just two months later, I already have more than a dozen of students. This gave me enough courage to raise my tutorial fee to P45."

     -Merie Subiron Alferez, founder MSA Academic Advancement Institute

• Don't tie up your cash in big ticket items unless it's necessary. "We choose not to put up a factory as a business strategy because aside from not having to put up a large investment, we wanted to be flexible in the products that we would carry."

     -Grace Perez and Cecille Bernabese, co-owner of Grace-Cel Fashion House

• Business is about trading. "Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that is exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop me business is not financial science; it's about trading; buying and selling."

     -Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop

• Reinvest your money. "I have a problem with too much money. i can't reinvest it fast enough, and because I reinvest it. yes, the rich do get richer."

     -Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad

• Not all investment should be made. "Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make."

     -Donald Trump, real state mogul

Source: Entrepreneur Magazine