Here is the transcript:
Ryan: [Our guest today is] Ruth Agbolosoo, who is going to share with us how to build a debt free business. So, Ruth, you have the floor.
Ruth: And there was that whole technology thing, I will start talking without unmuting. I’ve done that a few times.
Ruth: Thank you everybody, I’m going to share my screen just now and at the end I will also share in the chat all of my contact details.
Ruth: Actually, is it OK if I just share it, put it In there now, right.
Ruth: So give me one second, let me just do that now before I forget. OK, that’s not the way to do it. Ryan, I think we need to talk about those simple things, that people struggle with.
Ruth: OK, so there it is.
Bill: You’re getting close to that language you were talking about, Ryan.
Ruth: OK, there we go.
Ruth: So, I’m going to go ahead and pull up my screen and then share my screen so everyone can see it.
Ruth: And please let me know if you’re able to view it.
Ryan: Hey, there it is yeah.
Ruth: Yay, OK. Here we go.
Ruth: According to MarketWatch, there was a study done and it showed that 43% of small businesses say they’ll be forced to close permanently if they don’t get help soon.
Ruth: Hello, my name is Ruth Agbolosoo and I’m a Financial Empowerment Coach and today I want to present to you some ways that you can run a business debt free.
Ruth: So first a little bit about my story, as a financial literacy, as a financial empowerment coach, I decided to start a YouTube channel as part of my business and one of my challenges when I first started out is not having adequate equipment.
Ruth: I mean, I had an Android phone that was kind of shaky. It took subpar pictures and the videos were well yeah, kinda rough as well and I found that it kept telling me it didn’t have storage space.
Ruth: I don’t know why. But I had a hard time rectifying that. I had to Jimmy up some lights because I didn’t have the money available to spend towards lighting, so I jimmied up some lights so that I could have halfway decent lighting for my first few videos.
Ruth: So if you want to laugh at me, go ahead and check out my earliest videos on YouTube and have a great laugh, because yeah, they’re a little bit laughable.
Ruth: Uhm, I also had an old Mac book Pro.
Ruth: So the Mac Book Pro was the type that I’ve had for about 13 years and I would wait and go make coffee or a drink or a meal and still not have things load.
Ruth: So yeah, really, really basic. Really, really old stuff. As having, what came along with having an old laptop is also outdated software that could not be updated because my system was too old. So I had to wait for a sale in order to get some new equipment.
Ruth: Now why am I telling you this.
Ruth: It wasn’t easy dealing with some of the, you know, drawbacks of having old equipment, but my determination was that I didn’t want to go in debt to start this business. I didn’t want to get into a situation where I had to owe someone, and I felt like even though no one would know, but I wanted to lead by example.
Ruth: Now before I go into the details of my next slide, I just wanted to say also that during that time there was a lot of buzz about, so I’ll just go back a second, there was a lot of buzz about business credit and maybe some of you have heard a lot about business credit, how to get business credit and things like that and.
Ruth: I thought it was awesome. Looked into some of it and I had this thought that a lot of new businesses want to have this business credit, but unfortunately their personal credit really, really was not in a good place, and so that’s another thing that I kept in the back of my mind.
Ruth: So here are some benefits to having a debt free business. Of course, whatever capital you have, you can use it towards your day-to-day management of your business as well as expanding your business instead of spending all your money on payments, because as you know, when you have debt it also can come with interest and then you’re just paying and paying and paying.
Ruth: So instead your money gets to go towards the things that you want it to go towards.
Ruth: You also can make decisions for your business based on your business plan rather than out of desperation.
Ruth: Here are some risks of having a business that is in debt. There’s always a temptation to spend more when you’re used to having debt. Believe it or not, it makes you want to have more debt because you’re used to, you know, getting a loan or using a credit card, and it’s like, OK, I have to just make this purchase, so let me just select the card or what have you.
Ruth: You kind of get into a cycle that is hard to break because you’re just so used to it. And even though you know you’re in debt, but it’s like you don’t have the cash freed up to be able to even make the purchases that you need to. Excuse me, a lot of businesses end up in bankruptcy as a result, and other things.
Ruth: So these are just some of the risks.
Ruth: Also, you tend to make decisions, not because you really want to make those decisions for your business, but you make those decisions out of desperation, such as firing some of your key people that you can’t afford to pay any longer, or closing your doors and having to work from home.
Ruth: If that’s not really what you want to do, and there are other decisions that you may have to make out of desperation.
Ruth: So I wanted to offer you some tips on how to run a business debt free because a lot of people think it’s impossible.
Ruth: We live in a consumerism society. People are always spending and sometimes it seems as though you’re bound to be in debt, you have to be in debt, but I’m here to tell you, you don’t have to be in debt in order to run a thriving business.
Ruth: So the first thing you’ll want to do is you want to make sure you take a look at all of your business expenses.
Ruth: If you’re a brick and mortar, yes, that includes your toilet paper or whatever it is. You’re lighting, your lights, whatever your expenses are, you want to take a look at all of them and you want to make sure what every one is – don’t leave out anything at all.
Ruth: Then you want to see, for each of them, you know, is there a way that you can cut costs? Sometimes the brand of toilet paper and I hate to harp on toilet paper, but I think that was the buzzword for 2020.
Ruth: Sometimes the toilet paper that you may have chosen maybe the top of the line toilet paper, and maybe you can scale it back a little bit and maybe go with [a cheaper brand], if you can go that far, but anyway.
Ruth: So you may want to cut costs on those little things, and even there are some bigger things that you may be able to cut costs with and not spend as much, but also not sacrifice the quality that you’re giving to your customers.
Ruth: You want to set a budget for your business. Yes, budget is not a bad word, a lot of people think it’s a bad word, but it isn’t.
Ruth: I like to think of a budget as your way of getting what you really want down the line so you’re cutting back on certain things, you’re getting that control of your money so that you can achieve the things that you want to financially. That’s how I look at budgets.
Ruth: It’s your, it’s a control tool.
Ruth: So you set your budget for your business. Whatever for each aspect of your business, know how much you’re going to be spending in that area and actually stick to it, so you may have to make some hard decisions where you’ll have to say no about certain things, but that is totally fine.
Ruth: It is good practice to be able to discipline yourself and say no because at the end you’re actually saying yes to your business.
Ruth: And you might think to yourself, well, hey, I have large purchases that I have to make, I have to use a credit card for those, but I’m here to tell you, you may not have to.
Ruth: I want to just stop and say I’m not anti credit. I’m not saying that you can’t use a credit card at all, but if you are already in debt, there’s no point in keep stacking onto that debt, and if you don’t have the capital to pay off that debt right away, it’s probably better that you avoid using credit cards.
Ruth: So here are some tips for those large purchases – save up for upgrades and pay cash, which is definitely what I did, which I shared with you my story before.
Ruth: And honestly, you probably don’t have to start as low as I did because it was kind of laughable, but you can do it. You can save up when you know that someone that something is going to be on sale or what have you, or you can get it from a supplier that’s a little bit more reasonably priced and pay cash.
Ruth: Also, you can buy used instead of new. A lot of people don’t think about that. You don’t always have to go with new equipment, but then again, any, every industry has to figure out what is best for their situation.
Ruth: But in general, I would say you don’t always have to buy new. You can go it used and then save a lot doing that, even when it comes to computers and such, you can buy refurb, refurbished computers phones, what have you, and you can also rent or borrow equipment until you’re able to afford it so you don’t have to rush out sometimes, and by these high-cost items there are stores that might be able to rent it to you or even other business owners.
Ruth: You can develop those relationships in which you can borrow for, you know, however you want to work out the details of that. But think outside the box.
Ruth: You know you want your business to thrive, but without that ankle bracelet of debt attached to it. Also, you may want to outsource aspects of your business that you don’t own equipment for, so it says on equipment there, but you know what I mean.
Ruth: It’s own equipment. I mean, it’s that little detail, but such as printing and collating. I mean, if you really don’t print things on a regular basis, do you really need a high-powered printer just sitting there every single day in your shop.
Ruth: Probably not.
Ruth: You can probably save a lot of money by having someone else print your printer items.
Ruth: Again, collating is another thing, so you print and collate. You can get that done somewhere else and save some money.
Ruth: My number one recommendation if you want to be debt free, if you want to run your business debt free is to pay attention to your personal credit and your money management.
Ruth: A lot of people will tell you, oh, your personal credit has nothing to do with your business credit, but I’m here to tell you it does have to do with it, because if you’re on a regular basis, not taking charge of your finances and you are just letting things pile up on you and get out of control and you don’t know where your money is.
Ruth: Then trust me, it will happen with your business as well, so you want to make sure that your personal finances are being taken care of and you develop those habits that will transfer over into your business as far as spending, as far as budgeting, as far as just making those wise decisions with your money, because especially with COVID and the pandemic you see, sorry, not the pandemic, but COVID and the lock down a lot of people lost their jobs or had reduced hours and a lot of businesses had to close, even if it was just temporary, temporarily because of this and they really suffered because personally they didn’t have their finances together and then they weren’t able to support their business without having government help, unfortunately.
Ruth: So that’s my number one recommendation is to make sure that you are financially OK yourself.
Ruth: In summary, there are several benefits to having a debt free business.
Ruth: I only listed a couple, but it’s really important to have a debt free business if at all possible, or you can also opt for having very low debt, but at the end of the day I can tell you this much if you have debt and then you’re not able to work in your business for a period of time for some reason, just as during the lockdown, you won’t have the money to pay off the debt, and that’s why being debt free is so important.
Ruth: A business in debt is a risky business, so if you wanna not be in risk, you definitely want to eliminate debt and it’s doable.
Ruth: I’ve shared with you just a few tips on how you can run a business without debt, but there are some other things too and also sitting with a financial coach and working out the details of your finances, what your goals are and things like that can really be helpful even with your business.
Ruth: So like I said, it’s doable. I don’t believe it’s impossible, even though some people may try to make you feel as though it’s impossible.
Ruth: Also, you can avoid piling on more debt, so just keep that in mind.
Ruth: Even though you may have debt right now and you may feel like it’s kind of overwhelming.
Ruth: You need to get a plan in place to pay off that debt so that you no longer have to deal with that situation and risk losing your business.
Ruth: So that is the end of my presentation.
Ruth: If you have any questions or comments, you know, feel free to, you know, feel free.
Ryan: So Ruth, I’d like to ask you a question, when someone starting out of, when they’re first starting out and they think the first thing that comes to mind is how do they, how do they get the money to get themselves up and running? What advice could you offer to a potential business owner before they even get started how to, how to establish a firm footing.
Ruth: OK, yeah, that is a very good question.
Ruth: First of all, it would be good if you have some money saved up before you start a business.
Ruth: Sometimes it’s not a whole heap of money, like in my case it wasn’t a whole huge amount of money, so I, but I did have money, so I was able to put towards some of the events that I did and pay for Zoom and other platforms and things like that, so it’s good to have some money saved, but there’s also a lot of programs out there that you can reach out to that have money for startups, definitely do your research and see if you can get you know grants and whatnot that you don’t have to pay back because again, you know if you get a loan and you don’t, you don’t make the kind of business that you think you’re gonna make, you’re not going to be able to pay it off.
Ruth: The other thing that I feel is very helpful when you’re starting out is, have a business plan. Know exactly what your money is going to go towards.
Ruth: You know what your expenses, what your proposed expenses are going to be, how much money you believe you’re going to make based on whatever actions you’re going to do.
Ruth: You really want to sit down and really hash it out because that’s why they say, I think in the first one to five years, you know, businesses, small businesses fail, a lot of small businesses fail because they don’t have that solid plan in place.
Ruth: And I also utilized the SCORE program, which was a free counseling program that and one of the best things about them is that they asked me tons of questions. They asked me hard questions like they actually things that I was like. What? I didn’t think of that like oh really and like I they really blew my mind because even though yeah I provide financial literacy and all this thing, but there were things about business, running a business that I really didn’t think about, so it’s good to sit down and have a full look at what it means to do the business that you are going to do and have a honest talk with yourself..
Ruth: Am I ready yet? Am I in a position? Because rushing to start something, you could be rushing to the end.
Ruth: I’m not trying to sound negative or anything, but that’s what happens a lot of times. You may have a brilliant idea, but if you don’t execute it the right way then you’re just doing yourself a disservice.
Ruth: So definitely plan well in the beginning. Ask questions, research people that are in your field. You know just you just want to make sure you know as best as possible what you’re getting into.
Ruth: Good question, Ryan.
Ryan: Does anyone else have questions for Ruth.
Speaker: I do I have a question, I’m sorry. I do have a question. So I hear you talking about doing stuff like flat out and not getting credit. So I have a lot of emails coming from a place called Dun and Bar and then I have other emails.
Speaker: Do you recommend any of those places linking with as far as establishing for your business or no? What do you think.
Ruth: That is a very good question.
Ruth: I feel like I do know a little bit of information about them because I’ve heard all the spiels and all of that, and I know people that have used them. My thing is OK, if the bank is not willing to give me that business credit and I go with these companies, I’m purchasing things from them that I may not even need.
Ruth: So it’s kind of why like, OK, yeah, I might be building up the business credit, but I’m purchasing things that I don’t really need so that I can get the business credit. And so you have to assess for yourself what are your long-term goals. So they might be able to help you get your business credit established, and I don’t know the rate of speed at which that happensor all the ins and outs of it.
Ruth: But just consider, you know, sit down and ask questions like write down a bunch of questions and ask them, you know, ask them.
Speaker: OK.
Ruth: You know how does this work, you know and make sure you understand fully what you’re getting. What you’re giving up and what you’re getting ’cause there’s always a give up. There’s never, like there’s hardly anything that’s like free so there’s always, like, something that you’re giving up to get something else. And this is what I always tell my clients, who are you know, primarily women.
Ruth: I say you have to know what you’re getting into. Don’t just accept what people are giving you as law and you just take it. Read the fine print and if you don’t understand it, it’s not the end of the world, there’s somebody else that understands it.
Ruth: So, get with your business group or what have you and ask questions and say what does this mean I don’t understand this.
Ruth: Make sure you find out before you get into it, because after you’ve gotten into it, sometimes it can really mess you up and what you think you’re going to get you really don’t get.
Ruth: So, hopefully that’s helpful.
Speaker: Yeah, that was thank you so much.
Ruth: You’re welcome.
Ruth: And I’ve put my information in the chat.
Ruth: If anybody has any more questions or wants to get in touch with me, my website is down because I’m doing a whole new branding because I’m also working as a consultant, but I do have my YouTube channel listed. What else do I have in there.
Ruth: I have, UM, OK so I have my YouTube channel listing.
Ruth: Thank you, thank you Chaster.
Ruth: My email address, my book that’s coming out, which by the way has nothing to do with finances, but you know, I’m a writer.
Ruth: And also the name of my company so you can look me up on Facebook. Oh, and the link to the private Facebook group for women only is also in the chat, so there’s different ways to get in touch with me. I am on Instagram as well. Women Financial Empowerment Group but without the OU.
Ruth: Because there’s a character limitation. And yes, they’ve told me people have told me, oh, you need to have, uh, a shorter one, but maybe one day, but right now I like that one.
Ruth: So thanks for having me everyone.
Speaker: You’re welcome, thank you.
Ryan: All right, well everyone, let’s give Ruth a hand for her presentation today.
