“Global Prosperity Team Motivates Entrepreneurs to Focus on Impactful Services and Products”

The Global Prosperity team created by the well-remembered doctor and financial coach Eduardo Palacios recently published a motivational message to entrepreneurs.

It invites people not to focus only on the money they can get, but on developing or selling a service or product that achieves a great impact when starting a business.

So it is essential that the ideas are innovative. They could focus on solving a problem in a better way or making it something different from everything that exists; a response to existing or newly emerging needs is offered; solve difficulties; satisfy a taste or desire; make a task less burdensome or make something more pleasant, to give some suggestions that have given life to successful businesses.

A central point to start walking in the venture is to know where the money will come from to do it. Although the answers are multiple, the experts talk about previous steps or some preparation to encourage themselves to start something of their own.

Specialist in your own finances

Alex Gudiel, director of Zona Cero, says that in Guatemala entrepreneurship is part of the country’s culture because we are always looking to go further.

In itself, the birth of a venture has different scenarios. Sometimes it is because the idea has been formed and you have a job that allows you an income to save, or when in addition to work you create an additional income that you work on to start taking off with the project. On the other hand, some people are left without a job and that is where they take the step to be creators and undertake because there is a great need.

The ideal is to achieve healthy personal finances before starting a business because this will also be reflected in the business. Otherwise, the problems that the person has will be reflected and could put at risk from the smallest investment to one that represents thousands of quetzales.

Gudiel expresses that what is recommended is in daily life keep a budget y a cash flow to meet responsibilities of the different commitments. Some people who do not manage these basics when they have money or make loans, do not have a clear system and touch working capital to pay off credit card debt, buy a car or other inappropriate activities that lead to starting debt. .

It might interest you: 4 questions to achieve “financial independence” according to an entrepreneur who retired at age 30 with more than US$1 million

The recommended cycle is for the person to start generating extra income and in this dynamic make the difference between personal money and extra income and make the latter grow. This would be a kind of experimentation to learn and that when the time comes to take the step of “faith” towards entrepreneurship, they manage to establish it in the best way.added Gudiel.

In the end, that extra income would be destined so that the investment does not represent a strong blow to the personal and family economy.

Read more: Webinar: How deep a debt must be to consider an intervention

“We all have the capacity to generate extra income. We were designed to have a single income from work, but we are trained to do more and it is a chance to prove ourselves and find other ways to develop”, says Gudiel.

looking for support

There are different sources of financing for the projects to be developed. As mentioned, a healthy part is having a certain amount available for Start with your own capital.

In general the investment of families, friends and acquaintances is one of the most used forms in the country.

In the system there is also the consignment, that is, that third-party products are sold. For this, consignment contracts are signed and, depending on the type of agreement, it is possible to return what is not sold.

there is also the financing by bank credits. It is important to read all the conditions and quote the interest rates.

Technology has brought entrepreneurs closer to other sources of financing on platforms where people from all over the world are looking for innovative projects to invest. This is known as crowdfunding and it deals with several people giving their investment, a group that works for certain projects in particular. It is also known as micromecenazgo.

There are also contests in which it is possible to participate and be selected with capital to give rise to the project. One cannot fail to mention the business incubators which are organizations that support innovative ventures and some government programs, among others.

figures

According to the results of the report for Guatemala of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2021-2022presented by the Francisco Marroquín University (UFM), through the Kirzner Entrepreneurship Center, 42.4% of the ventures in general started with an investment of less than Q5 thousand.

It is observed that more than half of the early ventures, TEA, (52.3%) and 2 out of 3 established ventures (67.5%) were financed exclusively with the entrepreneur’s own funds. Which would explain why the initial investment amounts were low.

Of the total number of entrepreneurs who did not contribute entirely with their own funds, 44.3% of the established entrepreneurs obtained the resources through their relatives, this was also the case of 54.5% of the early entrepreneurs. Overall, only 11.5% of established startups and 13.6% of early startups were financed through loans from financial institutions.