Talk:Ipyet/Financial Management in SMEs
Discussions for Financial Management in SMEs will take place here as moderated by Naomi Lintini.
--Victor P. K. Mensah 20:13, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
- [View source↑]
- [History↑]
Contents
| Thread title | Replies | Last modified |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Discipline Among Youth Entrepreneurs | 9 | 06:01, 25 April 2011 |
| Financial Management in SMEs | 20 | 07:07, 21 April 2011 |
| Facilitation considerations in Financial Management Training Delivery | 23 | 09:53, 19 April 2011 |
| «no subject» | 0 | 20:14, 24 February 2011 |
In your view, what are the challenges that youth entrepreneurs face in maintaining financial descipline in their enterprises. In what way can facilitators assist the youth to overcome these challages.--nkl 09:53, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Hello Naomy,
Pressure from Family and Friends who may want credit facilities or free services are some of the challenges youth entrepreneurs face in maintaining financial discipline. Also, poor knowledge of financial management may result in youth entrepreneurs not knowing the difference between funds for business and personal funds.
Facilitators should ensure participants are exposed to practical training experiences that will teach the youth entrepreneur the benefits of financial discipline.
youth entrepreneurs face some challenges like, timing in terms of what has been invested can not be used to raise back the input. the remedy for this would be once investments have been commited to then a lot of consetration towards work must be enfasised. also calculations on issues of costing. The other challenge is inpouse buying, this means buying things that are not budgeted for at the time of purchases. solution to this would be that youths stick to the budgetlines and learn burgaining skills. peer presure is one item, but the youth here is need to be self controlled. as friends never end but once business comes to stop then you are fired! haha.
some youth entrepreneurs luck financial literacy and i think that's one of the major challenges to them.once they have knowledge about finance, i think they are able to maintain financial discipline.
Hi all
What i have captured here is that the main challenges in financial descipline is lack of knowledge and pressure from family and friends, in addition the influence of peers plays a critical role.
Lintini,
While I agree that pressure from other competing needs and influence to (mis)use business finances is a major cause of financial indiscipline in enterprises, poor planning is the root cause of the problem. Of course an enterprenuer must cover personal expenses out of the business, since the goal of any business is to raise the living standards of the enterprenuer, but these should be planned expenses after doing the accounts and determining what the profit is.
The best way that facilitators can assist in this is by making sure that the enterprenuers are capacitated to establish what is "business money", "re-investment money", and "disposable profits"- speaking in lay man's language.
This way, the enterprenuers will know what to use and what to retain as business working capital
Hi Naomy,
Youths and even adults face challenges in maintaining financial discipline due to poor planning and the pressure to live off the profits on a daily basis. A lot of young people don't have a long term perspective to life, so they tend to use business funds indiscriminately. However there are also genuine competing demands like sickness, family needs etc. Facilitators can support them in enlightening them on the need to sustain the business so that it can sustain the same needs in the future.--Smauye 13:32, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
Some of the challenges youth entrepreneurs face in maintaining financial discipline in their enterprises lack of an entrepreneurial culture. Most young people do not appreciate entrepreneurship from a tender age and hence to learn to be disciplined at an older age becomes achallenge.
Facilitators can help by highlighting the consequences of lacjk of discipline, but also by sharing success stories of role models
Hi all, I think peer pressure is a challenge to maintaining financial discipline among youth entrepreneurs. Facilitators should impress upon youth entrepreneurs to remain focus and also cite examples of success stories of entrepreneurs young entrepreneurs.
Hi
One major challenge that faces youth entrepreneurs in as far as financial discipline is concerned is the issue of separating business finances and personal finances. Most youths end up mixing up the two i.e. using business finances to sort out personal financial problems. This results in no proper accounting for the money that is coming in and out of the business with the consequence of no accurate way of measuring the success of the business and - in a worst case scenario - results in the business going bust/bankrupt. Facilitators can assist youths by advising to keep personal finances separate from business finances. Any personal financial issues need to be sorted out without involving the business.
Dear Participants
I welcome you to this discussion on financial management in youth enterprises. As we start our discussion, consider this question. Why should youth entrepreneurs learn about financial management? Share your views on this topic. Tell us about your experiences in delivering this kind of training and any challenges you may have faced while delivering such training. I wish you all a great discussion.--nkl 18:12, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
Thank you Moderator Naomy, Financial management is about planning income and expenditure, and making decisions that will enable one to survive financially. As future leaders who will later take over the mantle of leadership, I feel the youth entrepreneurs should learn about financial management. Some of the advantages the youth entrepreneurs stand to benefit is that, it prepares them to take up highly responsible positions in life and in organisations. As entrepreneurs practicing such a thing, they become role models to the younger ones. It will also make them spend wisely and judiciously.
In my experience as an educationist, I encourage most of my students to open savings accounts at the banks. I continue to encourage their parents to help these students by supporting them with seed money for the opening of an account or register them for any life insurance. The very younger ones are encouraged to put part of their pocket monies into a pigeon bank/box for future use.
Thanks Naomy,
Knowledge about financial management is a key factor for business success, especially for youth entrepreneurs who are about to start a business. Lack of knowledge on financial management may result in young people starting their businesses without consideration of how much they require for funding their business ideas or where to get the funds, then they also may lack knowledge of how to be prudent in management of their resources when the business has started, especially when they may have obtained loans. Eventually the businesses may fail and they end up in debt, even when indicators arising from daily record keeping point to business failure, without knowledge of financial management, the youth entrepreneur may not be able to interpret these indicators and take appropriate action to save the business from failing.
The importance of financial management cannot be overemphasized and so the discussion paper has enlightened us on one of the major factors that may be responsible for young people’s inability to start and mange their businesses. In my own experience, how to source for finance by youth entrepreneurs is a major problem, because the opportunities for the youth is limited, for instance the conditions to access loans from banks are not youth friendly, because the youth are at an age where they have little or no collateral to give to banks and so young people depend on grants from government or other agencies or from family and friends.
Sources for Business Financing for young people are a major challenge, and so it will be helpful, if anyone can share ideas or options on business financing that can guide youth entrepreneurs during training sessions.
Shining star,
I agree with you that sources of youth business funding is a major challenge; this is attributed to the fact that banks and other lending institutions consider the youth as risky borrowers to invest in and find it expensive to administer the small loans to the youth. However, I still believe that with adequate and extensive entrepreneurship training to the youth, they can make very good enterprenuers who have a future in expandng their businesses and of course this would be an attraction to the lenders. What is critical here is equipping the youth with relevant and applicable skills....this means that the buck stops at the trainers, a group that is well represented in this training.
In the same breath, I think governments have a role to play in piloting the youth to be enterprenuers by providing soft loans for starting of youth businesses. A Youth Fund would be a perfect idea if well managed and sustained. The Kenya Youth Fund would be a good example for such an intervention that works well to develope the youth businesses initially such that by the time the youth approaches a bank, the business is self sustaining and the risks involved are minimal
Thanks Marc,
A Youth Development Fund is an excellent idea and i have heared a lot about the Kenyan Youth Development Fund, i met a beneficiary of the fund sometime in the year 2007. My country NIgeria is in the process of developing a Youth Fund and i am sure the Kenyan Experience will be of immense benefit. Hoepfully, i will hear more on the KYF from you at the Face to Face Traning
Thanks For Sharing
Shining Star,
I will really love to share with you about the successes and challenges of the Kenya YEDF. I will try to bring you some publications on the same. You can also access substantial information from the YEDF website
Hello Shining star. I cannot agree with you more. Financial management sometimes becomes a hindrance to even stating a business. Some young girls often distance themselves from business because of fear of managing finances. In delivering financial management training, it is important to make it very practical and relevant to them. It must be based on concrete businesses. The main challenge is always facilitator competence to demystify and simplify the training content. --Smauye 13:38, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
Smauye I totally agree with you that facilitator competence is key in delivering financial training for the you. But we may not require some one with PhD or MBA in finance, but someone that can make it and present in terms and language that can be understood by the youth.
Hello Participants,
Financial Management will help Youth Entrepreneur as follows; -To acquire accurate financial information to help them make good business decision -To understand the basic financial processes in an enterprise and using available information to determine finances which is require to start a business and to develop financial statement
The difficilties is how to source for loan to the youth and how committed they will be in the business to pay back the loan. However, i do encourage the youth to do savings by having account in the bank or do local contribution with a cooperative group
Thanks for your postings on importance of financial management for youth entrepreneurs. Most importantly the youths are in the most vulnerable position in mentaning the financial discipline. Therefore, beside the actual financial training, as a youth Entrepreneurship development facilitators we need to include a regular counselling on financial discipline as well . Another aspect is financial behaviours of youth which also can play significant role on proper financial management Yes, encouraging youth entrepreneurs to open regular saving accounts or group saving is another good strategy
Dear Ekanath
I agree with you that any financial management training for the youth must include follow up sessions in form of counselling and mentorship. This is beacuse some time the youth will feel discouraged by circumstances after they leave the training environment. Mentorship and counselling by role models can therefore help them to remain focused on achieving their goals
Hi Na'omi,
I have never delivered this type of training before, but your presentation is quite an eye opener.
However, financial management is valuable to the youth entrepreneurs as it enables them to keep track of the progress or otherwise of their businesses. It also encourages the habit of good planning , monitoring and evaluation of their enterprises and other aspects of their lives.Financial Management techniques are the pillars of any successful business.
Hi
Financial management is very important for any entrepreneur, including youth entrepreneurs who tend to have little or no experience in running an enterprise. Many youth have innovative ideas of what businesses to undertake but struggle to identify sources capital. This is particularly true in rural areas. My experience with most youth entrpreneurs is that they are not aware of the various funding opportunities or they may be aware of the opportnuties do not have detailed information and/or capacity to apply.
Learning about financial management enables youth entrepreneurs to develop some traits necessary for managing a business such as separating the business from family issues
Dear participants, This has been a very lively discussion. What I draw from your dicussions and contributions is that knowledge about financial management and the ability to apply this knowledge is key to the success of youth entrepreneurship.
What has also come out from this dicussion is that the youth usually have insufficient knowledge about financial management to enable them effectively source for business finance.
All these issues can form component of a financial management training. As stated in the discussion paper, training in financial managment must include guiding the youth to understand among other things the basic financial statements and their uses in an enterprise.
Hi Naomi,
Business is there to survive, grow and make profit. Knowledge of financial management is crucial for youth entrepreneurs as without it, there would be no way to judge the “financial health” of a business.
For youth entrepreneurs running two businesses, it would impossible to know which business is having a positive/adverse effect on the other if financial skills are lacking.
Ultimately, business is about making profit and as such gaining the necessary financial management know-how brings this objective to reality.
Naomi[edit]
I think before any youth, or any other enterprenuer, starts a business venture, a lesson on managing finances is a critical success factor. Business is not just about binging in money and taking it out in terms of overheads; its about doing these activities in a systematic manner with the goal of maximizing income and minimizing expenses. IT IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE THAT MONEY IS TEMPTING. A training on managing finances instils discipline to controlling money in and money out to ensure that the business grows. When young enterprenuers take financial management lessons, it enables the youth to plan business finances and facilitate the growth of the business since financial management encourages ploughing back profits. --Marcosmburu 16:17, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
hi everyone,youth entrepreneurs should learn about financial management in order for them to know how to manage their businesses financially and to be able to know what is really involved in financial management so that one does not make a mistake by misusing money.
HI everyone, it is of crucial importance for young entrepreneurs to learn about financial management because it would enable their businesses effectively. It will enable them to plan for their business in respect to knowing how much they need to expand. I have not had experience in delivering this training but I have had the opportunity to receive this training as a young entrepreneur. It has enabled me to effectively plan and see how I can improve my business and how I would be able to handle more finances when I business expands. Farai-Zambia
Financial management is the bedrock of every business. Getting it right and recognising the importance of the subject in entrepreneurship is key for survival. Financial management is even more important for youth entrepreneurship because peer pressure can be a strong force working agaist prudent financial management in youth entrepreneurship.
Finance is at the heart of business running, growth and survival. So the entrepreneur at all times should be planning where money would be coming from, what cost is involved in obtaining money even if he is retaining some of the profit. What is the cost of putting back the profit into the business? Financial management is about how to use money in the business wisely.
In fact another important issue of great importance is the issue of financial discipline among entrepreneurs. To me it is all about once ability to forgo certain lavishing expenditure and grow the business till it is grown, matured and ripped to be harvested.Some business fail in their early stage because owners harvest at an immature stage, which affects the firm's financial position. so financial discipline is important.
Financial management training must always engage participants in exercises and assignments that help to develop skills for immediate practical application.
What do you think are the key considerations that facilitators must take into account as they deliver such training. Do you agree with the statement above. What is are your views?
The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies.
Since training is an activity leading to skilled behaviour, it is not what you dream of doing, but it is about having the knowledge to do it and more of a vision. The best way to acquire these vision and competencies can be through hands on activities. During financial management trainings, participants will find exercises and assignments very interesting if activities are participant-centred through role-plays, model financial management scenarios and general interactivity among facilitators and participants.
During training sessions, facilitators may also consider smaller group work for participants, such sessions must be followed by group presentations. Group work will give participants the opportunity to share their experiences both in the smaller group and in the entire class. There may be various exercises to develop skills for immediate practical application but for now this is what I have to say. --Kafuiaheto 21:44, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
Dear Kauiaheto, You have raise raised important points that are cardinal to successfully delivery of training content to trainee and particularly within the financial managment senario. In any training set up, there must be a transfer of both knowledge and skills. And learning by doing provides one the most effective ways of achieving this.
As facilitators we must avoid a trainer focused approach to content delivery. In other words as little lecturing as possible. Practice on real life situation also gives participants a good challenge of finding solutions to real problems.
Have you been involved in delivering financial management training to youth entrepreneurs in you country?
Delivering financial management training to youth entrepreneurs? This is something I may not have been doing formally. Informally, I realize myself "teaching" financial management to young people I mentor. After this trainers of trainers workshop, I will fully be equipped to formalize financial management training to young people and youth entrepreneurs for that matter.--Kafuiaheto 18:32, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
Hello, am Rodgers and am late for the class, how ever I have so far gone through my fellow participants views, my views is that in most cases practicals are needed, my suggestions would be to:
- During training there is need for the trainer to form groups
- These groups become companies or enterprises with different business set ups
- then these do practical activities related to Financial management and for example, one enterprise sales furniture, one sales timber to the one selling furniture, one gives services maybe training to both and all related transactions be entered or managed practically.
- Also follow-up and Monitoring on how the youths are doing in real work that is after trainings.
Hello Rodgers
Welcome to the discussion. Your inputs are enriching the discussion. Refer to my input above--nkl 09:55, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
Dear participants, It is indeed important that the practicality of financial management training goes beyond the class room situation. Engaging the youth in real enterprise practice even at project level is one of the best ways of facilitating long lasting learning among the youth. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has a very useful training package called EMPRETEC which requires participants to run and close an enteprise within the six days training period. It is most ideal for the youth wishing to start their own Businesses. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) also has a training package called Improve Your Business (IYB) which assists entrepreneurs to understand and apply the basic principles in financial management. The IYB training package has a very exciting business game which allows entrepreneurs to practice enterprise in a simulated environment. More about this during the face to face training!--nkl 10:05, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
Hi Naomi & Hi participants, My name is Susiku Nasinda. Financial management is at the heart of any successful business. It is almost impossible make it in business without establishing sound systems of Financial management. Finance involves selection and application of funding for a particular project, ie are going to use borrowed funds and at what rate of interest? or are we going to use savings? etc. Taking time to manage funds well is therefore key as it could contribute to the success or failure of a business.
Without doubt, FM training must be included in entrepreneurship training.
Naomi, am happy that this topic is brought up first online and then the most interesting one is to finish it on a face to face training. am being enriched by this discussion, as I have planned to integrate our training programmes with FM and Bookkeeping for students who just want start their own business as well as those who are already in business but do not have the required skills. thanks for sharing the packages. are the packages for free?
Thanks Naomy,
I am looking forward to learning more at the Face to Face Training
It is great to hear that the United Nations (UN) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) have platforms to help train the youth. I personally give a thumbs up to these international organisations. Like Shining Star said, we cannot wait to be part of the face-to-face, our appetites are very wet. --Kafuiaheto 18:48, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
Hey NAOMI, imissed the session on the UN enterprenuership yestaday, when is the next one coming. I need to participate also. Thank you
Hello Issac
You can participate in the discussions at any time. As you are aware, the discussion on the topic financial management in SMEs will wind up by end of day today. Until then you are free to contribute to the discussion--nkl 12:33, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Hello Everyone,
Knowledge of Financial Management is very important for business success and all discussions have revealed this fact. The importance of Financial Management to the success of the youth entrepreneur should guide the facilitator in the delivery of the entrepreneurship training. Consideration in my own opinion should first be given to time allocation. The facilitator should ensure that enough time is given for the delivery of the session on Financial Management.
Also, ‘Practice makes perfect’ and so I agree that the participants will learn better when they are given opportunities for practical experience. Therefore, the need to incorporate practical lessons in training sessions should also be considered by facilitators. Field visits to established and new businesses will be of benefit to the trainees. In addition, facilitators can also introduce a role play with the active participation of the trainees, especially when it may not be possible to embark on field trips.
Hi Participants,
This session is proving to be very interesting even to participants like me who have not handled such a training before; a lot is being put in perspective.
I agree with the above statement since practical learning especially for the youth is most effective. I want to tie financial management with bookkeeping since these are twins. When the learners are lectured on how to maintain, say a cash book, it may not sink in as clearly as when a sample cash book is made and entries are made. This clears many queries that may be have been unclear since some learner may fear making mistakes on these documents and the simplest way out is usually to avoid the in toto--Marcosmburu 16:49, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
Hi Naomy,
Good to know about the programme by ILO (IYB) for youth and everybody that wants to go into business as an entrepreneur. I am a trained teacher, in teaching as a profession there is what is known as teaching practice which shows the aspect of practice for perfection. However, learning is the acquisition of knowledge,skills etc, therefore engaging participants in excercise and assignment for practice into perfection in financial management training is the best. I totally agree with the concept
Dear participants,
Thanks you for all these insightful contributions. It is my hope and expectation that we are all drawing lessons from these dicussions which we can apply or adapt for our youth entrepreneurship activities in our various countries. Note that where there is limited opportunties for formal employment, Self employment or enterprise is the only viable option for the youth to achieve financial independency from their guardians. In this context, effective financial management is a key factor towards achieving success. Now as we wind up this discussion of facilitation considerations, I refer you to yet another discussion below on the challenges the youth face in maintaining financial discipline.--nkl 10:07, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Dear participants,
Thanks you for all these insightful contributions. It is my hope and expectation that we are all drawing lessons from these dicussions which we can apply or adapt for our youth entrepreneurship activities in our various countries. Note that where there is limited opportunities for formal employment, Self employment or enterprise is the only viable option for the youth to achieve financial independency from their guardians. In this context, effective financial management is a key factor towards achieving success. Now as we wind up this discussion of facilitation considerations, I refer you to yet another discussion above on the challenges the youth face in maintaining financial discipline.--nkl 10:20, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Hi All, the key considerations in financial management are: The educational level of participants, the kind of business they are engaged in, the size of their business, the age of the business. this will greatly affect the understanding of the subject.
Dear Participants,
I take this opportunity to thank you all for your contributions to the discussions on book keeping and financial management for youth entrepreneurs. I am sure that you have all enhanced your understanding of how best to deliver these topics to the youth.
I hope to met you all in Siavonga, Zambia for the Face to Face training.--nkl 15:17, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Thank you Naomi for seeing us through this module to a successful end. Hope we shall soon meet by God's grace and mercies.
First and foremost, the ability groups of participants must be taken into account.Educational level is also another thing to continue whiles individual needs in terms of what the participants do in their businesses. --Kafuiaheto 16:19, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Hi Everyone, Facilitators need to be aware of the differences in knowledge and exposure of young people, use practical and relevant excercises to ensure skill transfer.--Smauye 13:48, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
Like any other training, financial management training should indeed engage participants in exercises and assignments. Some of the key considerations facilitators must take into account are: the background of the partcipants, education levels, experience and even gender.
I agree perfectly with the suggestion above. Engagihg participants in exercises and assignments will help themp to develop hands-on skills for practical and immediate application. Facilitators must bear in mind that the success or otherwise of the entrepreneurship venture will largely depend on how effective they deliver the module.
Financial Management is important as it helps one analyze and make sound and objectively inclined decisions. If we have sound financial management system which involves sound financial controls the organization or youth organization will be able to avoid unnecessary avoidable financial regularities thereby sustaining their organization expenditure with respect to their liquid. In monitoring and evaluation finance is regarded as input and input is the first stage to planning. Thus financial management help us young people plan prudently.
