The bigger you go, the better you become and the harder it gets. But here is another truth, the bigger you go, the more Automated you should become. So everything begins to work for you at ease.
I know you don't like the stress you are going through and you don't want to go through it again this time. I came to help you ease the stress and yet make more money than you have ever made. You are wondering why will I say that, I have seen the power that works through automation and it's really mad. I want you to enjoy the same thing.
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With the impact and diversity of technology in today's economy, technology has become a major key player in helping businesses grow and maintain relevance. The dawn of technology has greatly influenced the rate of competition and opportunities for businesses around the world. Also, people are now tech-savvy and connected across the globe. It is therefore important to leverage technology if you must be up-to-date with trends, reach a wider audience, and generally scale your business.

As a business owner, you could use to leverage technology to grow and strengthen your business by:

Moving your business into the cloud: Many small businesses are now embracing the cloud because of its numerous benefits that include data backup, mobile working, flexibility, easy access to files, file storage and information sharing. Using the cloud could help you run your business better with an assurance that your business information is safe, can be easily accessed from any location and can be shared remotely[1].
Prioritising sales opportunities with cloud based CRM tools: Finding the right technology solution is critical for small business owners. You can use a web based CRM (customer relation management) tool to manage your client pipeline. This tool would help you focus on the important tasks that need to be done each day. Using a CRM tool effectively will help prevent profitable business from falling through the cracks[2].
Working virtually: The real benefit of mobile technology is agility and efficiency. Creating a mobile office will allow you work productively from anywhere. You can leverage on the use of your mobile phone by enabling features like email alerts, google alerts, bank alerts, industry monitoring etc would help your business. Also, ensuring that you have a website for your business that is both simplified and responsive offering the same experience across all devices will enable growth in your business[3].
Embracing social media: Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instag

Visit msmehub.org or follow on IG @msmehub for full tips

One crucial attribute for success in entrepreneurship is the ability to sell your business in as little time as possible to the right people. Imagine you got a life-time opportunity to pitch your business to some important investors or partners, how do you get prepared to give a great pitch and make the most of the opportunity? Here are some useful tried and tested tips that will help you prepare for that business pitch meeting.

Do some DD on Your Audience: You must to do some due diligence on the team/organization you are pitching too if you are looking to make the right impression. What is their background? What kind of innovations, ideas or products are they interested in? What investments have they made in the past and why would they be interested in listening to you and your business idea? What type of investment would they be interested in making? Get as much information as possible so that you can appropriately tailor your presentation to their needs, requirements and interests.

Have a Business Plan in Place: It always helps to have a business plan in place. Your plan does not have to be a detailed voluminous document. It just needs to be a roadmap that outlines your goals for your proposed product or service idea and how you plan to achieve these goals. This document will form the source of information for your pitch and act as a reference just in case you are asked to provide much more detailed information.

Tell a Story: What is the challenge your product or service is trying to solve? Was your business idea birthed from a personal story or encounter? What is the gap in the market and what is the unique thing about your idea to bridge this gap? Telling a story about the problem your idea is trying to solve helps to introduce your pitch. Remember that your story has to be short, impactful, straight to the point and relatable. While Investors may be interested in investing in an idea that is feasible and can "profitably" solve a problem, you do not want to spend half of the pitch time telling your story.

Who, what and where is your Market?: One of the most frequent mistakes made during a business pitch is the inability of an entrepreneur to define and properly segment his/her target market. Who is your target market? Who is going to buy your product or service? Why would they pay for your product? Can they pay for your product? Showing a good knowledge of your target market gives potential investors and partners comfort that you know what you are talking about.


Take your product sample with you: This depends on your proposed product. It may help to have samples that display the unique selling features of your product. However, make sure that it works and is as real as possible. If you are using a Power-Point presentation, make sure the details are kept to a bare minimum and relevant to what will be presented during the pitch.

Know Your Numbers: Any serious investor will be focused on the numbers so make sure all the facts and assumptions around your projections are realistic and accurate. You must be able to defend your numbers and be prepared for questions relating to your assumptions particularly regarding your financial projections. What are your sales projections? What is your turn-over figure? When will you break-even? If you are already selling, make sure you have information on historical revenues and expenditure and facts on why the performance has been good or bad. Investors need very strong confidence in your numbers and would not commit to a venture they are not clear in terms of when and how the business will make money.

Nothing beats Positivity: This filters through in your passion and the way you talk about your business idea. Your audience also needs

Courtesy

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Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that unemployment rate increased to 18.8% in the third quarter of 2017 from 16.2% in the second quarter of 2017.

Unemployment rate in Nigeria averaged 10.63% from 2006 until 2017 - it reached an all-time high of 19.7% in the fourth quarter of 2009 and a record low of 5.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010.

This alarming statistics further reinforces the need to promote entrepreneurial skills among young graduates. Instead of searching for white collar jobs which are not available, they can be job creators and entrepreneurs.

Why the loan facility is important
The Bank of Industry (BOI) in fulfilling its mandate of providing financial assistance for the establishment of large, medium and small projects, as well as their expansion, came up with a loan scheme for young graduates and serving corps member with profitable business ideas.

The Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) scheme was launched in October, 2015 and implemented by the bank in partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) directorate. The initiative is specifically targeted at youths undergoing the mandatory 1 year national service program.

The Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund Program was birthed to address the worrisome phenomenon of unemployment and youth restiveness in the country and also change the mindsets of Nigerian youths to self-reliance by encouraging them to develop skills for self-employment and contribute to the growth of the economy.

Key things to note:
The loan facility is targeted at fresh graduates/serving corps members.
One can access a loan of up to N2million with 0% interest rate for any bankable business plan.
Tenor of the loan is between 3-5 years.
How applicants are selected
The loan facility is available to serving NYSC members that have successfully passed through the following stages:

Screening process to ascertain their suitability for the loan.
Attend the capacity building program developed specifically for the prospects under GEF.
Submit a bankable business plan in respect of any of the bank's identified 40 SME clusters. The clusters are listed on the bank's website; applicants must have a detailed business plan showing details of cash-flow and expected returns.
How to start the process
Applicants must participate in the online business plan competition (which is available on the bank's website) where the most promising business ideas are selected from the list.

A 3-day intensive entrepreneurship capacity building program is organized by the bank to equip successful applicants with skills and increase their capacities. Location for the training is spread across the 6 geo-political zones of the country.

At the end of the program, successful applicants with lucrative business ideas will be provided with a loan facility of N2million with tenors ranging from 3-5 years inclusive of 6-12 months moratorium period.

Documents applicants must present
Undertaking by the NYSC directorate not to release the discharge certificate until the loan is liquidated.
1 external guarantor acceptable to BOI who must belong to any of the following categories:
I. Senior Civil Servants (level 7 and above).

II. Bankers (not below the level of banking officer) who must have been confirmed by current employers

III. Professionals: medical doctors, lawyers, acc for complete information visit www.msmehub.org

Visit www.msmehub.org for more of this information

Social media listening simply involves following conversations on social media that are relevant to you, the business you run or your brand. To start with, you should have a list of keywords, terms or hashtags that are peculiar to your business and customers (potential or existing).

What do they type when they are looking for a business like yours on the various online search platforms? What is being said about your brand?

How to listen:

Search for popular industry terms e.g. farming, agro, investment, agriculture in Nigeria, etc., and see conversations people are already having about the industry. Many times, you are able to jump into such conversations and promote your business' products and services. Do not feel like you are being forward when you do this, or be scared that the person might be annoyed at you for entering his or her conversation. The individual will actually be happy to find more information or a solution to his problem.
Make your business name one of your daily search words. Search out what your current customers are saying about you. Many times, people write about companies and forget to tag or mention them. This exercise helps you view honest feedback on your products and services at no cost. It can also help you find testimonials which can be used in your marketing activities
Search out complaints about your competitors. As a serious business, you must know what your competition is saying, doing and what people are saying about them. Think of your top 3 competitors. They probably act as alternatives to your business. Listen to what their crowd and customers are saying about them on social media. It could be complaints about their services, inquiries, testimonials, etc. After getting this information, you feed it back to the necessary department in the organization so that your company is one step ahead of other competitors and can preempt what customers need.
Listen for the type of content your followers want. What inquiries are coming into the email much too often? Do you need to create a short company e-brochure on the topic? Creating an e-brochure based on such information you got from social media listening will automatically draw those who have this need to you! Listening to your social media analytics is part of this. Listen to the numbers. Are your followers more interested in videos than audios? Do they prefer live videos to recorded ones? Listen and put more time into giving them what they want, not WHAT YOU THINK THEY WANT.
Note: 'Listening' should be done regularly. Not just once. It keeps you in sync with your market's needs

COURTESY www.msmehub.org

Social media listening simply involves following conversations on social media that are relevant to you, the business you run or your brand. To start with, you should have a list of keywords, terms or hashtags that are peculiar to your business and customers (potential or existing).

What do they type when they are looking for a business like yours on the various online search platforms? What is being said about your brand?

How to listen:

Search for popular industry terms e.g. farming, agro, investment, agriculture in Nigeria, etc., and see conversations people are already having about the industry. Many times, you are able to jump into such conversations and promote your business' products and services. Do not feel like you are being forward when you do this, or be scared that the person might be annoyed at you for entering his or her conversation. The individual will actually be happy to find more information or a solution to his problem.
Make your business name one of your daily search words. Search out what your current customers are saying about you. Many times, people write about companies and forget to tag or mention them. This exercise helps you view honest feedback on your products and services at no cost. It can also help you find testimonials which can be used in your marketing activities
Search out complaints about your competitors. As a serious business, you must know what your competition is saying, doing and what people are saying about them. Think of your top 3 competitors. They probably act as alternatives to your business. Listen to what their crowd and customers are saying about them on social media. It could be complaints about their services, inquiries, testimonials, etc. After getting this information, you feed it back to the necessary department in the organization so that your company is one step ahead of other competitors and can preempt what customers need.
Listen for the type of content your followers want. What inquiries are coming into the email much too often? Do you need to create a short company e-brochure on the topic? Creating an e-brochure based on such information you got from social media listening will automatically draw those who have this need to you! Listening to your social media analytics is part of this. Listen to the numbers. Are your followers more interested in videos than audios? Do they prefer live videos to recorded ones? Listen and put more time into giving them what they want, not WHAT YOU THINK THEY WANT.
Note: 'Listening' should be done regularly. Not just once. It keeps you in sync with your market's needs

COURTESY www.msmehub.org

He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened." - Lao Tzu

Starting a business and keeping it sustainable is a really huge responsibility especially in Nigeria, where the environment doesn't seem economically friendly for small and medium enterprises. However, so many business owners and startup entrepreneurs are so busy trying to grow their organization that they often forget how important it is for them to grow themselves.

At the root of every successful business or person in the world today and in the past, is a burning desire to become better by the day or to be the best at whatever they do. They constantly seek to empower themselves by consciously investing in human resources as much as they do in the material resources. This is from the understanding that you cannot maximize a resource beyond the level of your knowledge.

But as an entrepreneur, do you know that the understanding of your personality and that of those around you can influence the growth of your business?

It's somewhat easy for any coach or consultant to identify the problem of your business but recommending a personalized solution is not a common thing for many of these professionals. Oftentimes they give generalized one-fits-all solutions to peculiar problems. But as Segun Awosanya, a brand strategist, human right activist, and one of the conveners of the #EndSARS campaign recently shared in a closed-group meeting that every killer brand strategy begins with Competitive Analysis. That is, identifying your key competitors, what you can learn from them, and what it takes to outperform them, so also, every personal/organizational success begins with Personality Development.

Jared Lewis, a professor of history and philosophy shared that "the type of business personality you have can affect the way that you run your company. It can give you an advantage to know this personality type so you can assess how you make your business decisions." When you, as the business owner, fully understand your personality, you will be able to determine your need for any role in the business. As a business owner, you always want to hire for your weaknesses more than you do for your strength, and knowing this information about yourself will help you when making strategic hiring decisions. A good understanding about temperaments will give you clarity on who can manage people more and the type who can manage products more.

The understanding of personality is, however, not limited in capacity to affect only your immediate working environment as a business owner but also has the power to influence your target market and the approach needed for success. Everyone is not your ideal customer, especially if you are offering professional services. When you understand the nature and need for your business, you will be clear about what you can offer potential clients and ensure that you attract the clientele you can serve best. For instance, if you are providing health services, you know which personalities are the best fit for the business and how to target them.

If you're however searching for ways to take your business to a higher level, you may not need to consider increasing your staff base or market and advertising budget. There are myriad of challenges that many business owners face regularly for not understanding the personalities of people working with them which leads to workers inefficiency and short-term exit from the organization. If you don't already have a personality development program, now is a good time to find one, otherwise, you'd be limiting your business growth and minimizing the potential of your human resources. In fact, investing in personal-development programs is among the biggest ROI's you'll find on anything.

Courtesy www.msmehub.org

One crucial attribute for success in entrepreneurship is the ability to sell your business in as little time as possible to the right people. Imagine you got a life-time opportunity to pitch your business to some important investors or partners, how do you get prepared to give a great pitch and make the most of the opportunity? Here are some useful tried and tested tips that will help you prepare for that business pitch meeting.

]Do some DD on Your Audience: You must to do some due diligence on the team/organization you are pitching too if you are looking to make the right impression. What is their background? What kind of innovations, ideas or products are they interested in? What investments have they made in the past and why would they be interested in listening to you and your business idea? What type of investment would they be interested in making? Get as much information as possible so that you can appropriately tailor your presentation to their needs, requirements and interests.

Have a Business Plan in Place: It always helps to have a business plan in place. Your plan does not have to be a detailed voluminous document. It just needs to be a roadmap that outlines your goals for your proposed product or service idea and how you plan to achieve these goals. This document will form the source of information for your pitch and act as a reference just in case you are asked to provide much more detailed information.

[b]Tell a Story: [/b]What is the challenge your product or service is trying to solve? Was your business idea birthed from a personal story or encounter? What is the gap in the market Visit www.msmehub.org to continue reading 

Visit www.msmehub.org for more information.

One crucial attribute for success in entrepreneurship is the ability to sell your business in as little time as possible to the right people. Imagine you got a life-time opportunity to pitch your business to some important investors or partners, how do you get prepared to give a great pitch and make the most of the opportunity? Here are some useful tried and tested tips that will help you prepare for that business pitch meeting.

]Do some DD on Your Audience: You must to do some due diligence on the team/organization you are pitching too if you are looking to make the right impression. What is their background? What kind of innovations, ideas or products are they interested in? What investments have they made in the past and why would they be interested in listening to you and your business idea? What type of investment would they be interested in making? Get as much information as possible so that you can appropriately tailor your presentation to their needs, requirements and interests.

Have a Business Plan in Place: It always helps to have a business plan in place. Your plan does not have to be a detailed voluminous document. It just needs to be a roadmap that outlines your goals for your proposed product or service idea and how you plan to achieve these goals. This document will form the source of information for your pitch and act as a reference just in case you are asked to provide much more detailed information.

[b]Tell a Story: [/b]What is the challenge your product or service is trying to solve? Was your business idea birthed from a personal story or encounter? What is the gap in the market Visit www.msmehub.org to continue reading

Visit www.msmehub.org for more information.

One crucial attribute for success in entrepreneurship is the ability to sell your business in as little time as possible to the right people. Imagine you got a life-time opportunity to pitch your business to some important investors or partners, how do you get prepared to give a great pitch and make the most of the opportunity? Here are some useful tried and tested tips that will help you prepare for that business pitch meeting.

[b]Do some DD on Your Audience: [/b]You must to do some due diligence on the team/organization you are pitching too if you are looking to make the right impression. What is their background? What kind of innovations, ideas or products are they interested in? What investments have they made in the past and why would they be interested in listening to you and your business idea? What type of investment would they be interested in making? Get as much information as possible so that you can appropriately tailor your presentation to their needs, requirements and interests.[b]
Have a Business Plan in Place: [/b]It always helps to have a business plan in place. Your plan does not have to be a detailed voluminous document. It just needs to be a roadmap that outlines your goals for your proposed product or service idea and how you plan to achieve these goals. This document will form the source of information for your pitch and act as a reference just in case you are asked to provide much more detailed information.

[b]Tell a Story: [/b]What is the challenge your product or service is trying to solve? Was your business idea birthed from a personal story or encounter? What is the gap in the market Visit www.msmehub.org to continue reading

Visit www.msmehub.org for more information.

Brand loyalty happens when there is an established pattern of repeat purchases. It's always the delight of every brand owner and custodian to have consumers become loyalists who have more or less become addicted to their brand and will keep coming back again and again to patronize them.

Brand Loyalty is desirable as it helps to ensure continuous patronage and has a direct positive impact on the bottom-line. Moreover, it has been established that it's a lot cheaper and takes a lot less effort to keep existing customers than to recruit new ones.

We are in an age where so many brands are jostling for shares of the consumers' pockets and will stop at nothing to outdo one another. It's becoming increasingly difficult to keep customers as loyalists in the face of desperate rate cutting, stiff price war, continuous value addition, counter offers and so on. The current situation in the Nigerian CSD (Carbonated Soft Drinks) market segment where major players have been forced to change bottle sizes as well as reduce prices in the face of brand switching by hitherto loyal consumers comes to mind.

It has therefore become necessary for any brand that wants to build strong brand loyalty to go the extra mile. These are some tips for achieving it:

1. Factor convenience into the buying process: make it as easy as possible for consumers to make purchases; offer delivery services where possible; let them be able to make.... Visit www.msmehub.org to finish up

Visit www.msmehub.org TODAY for more information.

Brand loyalty happens when there is an established pattern of repeat purchases. It's always the delight of every brand owner and custodian to have consumers become loyalists who have more or less become addicted to their brand and will keep coming back again and again to patronize them.

Brand Loyalty is desirable as it helps to ensure continuous patronage and has a direct positive impact on the bottom-line. Moreover, it has been established that it's a lot cheaper and takes a lot less effort to keep existing customers than to recruit new ones.

We are in an age where so many brands are jostling for shares of the consumers' pockets and will stop at nothing to outdo one another. It's becoming increasingly difficult to keep customers as loyalists in the face of desperate rate cutting, stiff price war, continuous value addition, counter offers and so on. The current situation in the Nigerian CSD (Carbonated Soft Drinks) market segment where major players have been forced to change bottle sizes as well as reduce prices in the face of brand switching by hitherto loyal consumers comes to mind.

It has therefore become necessary for any brand that wants to build strong brand loyalty to go the extra mile. These are some tips for achieving it:

1. Factor convenience into the buying process: make it as easy as possible for consumers to make purchases; offer delivery services where possible; let them be able to make..... VISIT www.msmehub.org

Visit www.msmehub.org for more information

A business plan is a very fundamental document that will remain useful throughout the course of your business journey. This is because your business plan can help take your business from its present state to its desired destination or future by guiding you one step at a time. In simple terms, a business plan is an essential road map for business success that projects 3-5 years ahead and outlines the route a company intends to take to grow its revenue base. 

Having a business plan is not just for the startup stage of a business but a continuous process as it helps to keep you organized and on track. Also, in Nigeria, like with most places in the world, most interested investors and institutional partners would typically request for your business plan before engaging in any meaningful discussion. 

Now that we know the importance of a business plan, the question that follows is "how do I write my business plan". Here are 10 tips to guide you:

Conduct a Thorough Research. The very first  is to have a good understanding of the business space you are venturing into through a good market research. Ensure you gather sufficient knowledge and you understand your market, your to continue reading visit www.msmehub.org

Visit www.msmehub.org

A business plan is a very fundamental document that will remain useful throughout the course of your business journey. This is because your business plan can help take your business from its present state to its desired destination or future by guiding you one step at a time. In simple terms, a business plan is an essential road map for business success that projects 3-5 years ahead and outlines the route a company intends to take to grow its revenue base.

Having a business plan is not just for the startup stage of a business but a continuous process as it helps to keep you organized and on track. Also, in Nigeria, like with most places in the world, most interested investors and institutional partners would typically request for your business plan before engaging in any meaningful discussion.

Now that we know the importance of a business plan, the question that follows is "how do I write my business plan". Here are 10 tips to guide you:

Conduct a Thorough Research. The very first is to have a good understanding of the business space you are venturing into through a good market research. Ensure you gather sufficient knowledge and you understand your market, your to continue visit www.msmehub.org

A business plan is a very fundamental document that will remain useful throughout the course of your business journey. This is because your business plan can help take your business from its present state to its desired destination or future by guiding you one step at a time. In simple terms, a business plan is an essential road map for business success that projects 3-5 years ahead and outlines the route a company intends to take to grow its revenue base.

Having a business plan is not just for the startup stage of a business but a continuous process as it helps to keep you organized and on track. Also, in Nigeria, like with most places in the world, most interested investors and institutional partners would typically request for your business plan before engaging in any meaningful discussion.

Now that we know the importance of a business plan, the question that follows is "how do I write my business plan". Here are 10 tips to guide you:

Conduct a Thorough Research. The very first is to have a good understanding of the business space you are venturing into through a good market research. Ensure you gather sufficient knowledge and you understand your market, your

So you are a fresh graduate from a prestigious university, with a nice degree for that dream course. You proceed to serve your fatherland feeling very enthusiastic about the future. Now you are done with NYSC, and you are asking yourself that million dollar question "What can i do now?"

We all have that family member or friend that promised to provide a nice job with a big paycheck immediately you conclude NYSC but not everyone keeps that promise. The feeling that comes with being unemployed after NYSC can be somewhat frustrating but the emergence of franchising in Nigeria has proven to create more employment opportunities in the country. Below is a dairy of a young Nigerian graduate and we hope this inspires more Nigerians to tackle and reduce the unemployment rate in the country.

Diary of a Nigerian Graduate that Created an Income Stream for herself

"My name is Evelyn, a graduate of Business Administration from a prestigious University. I proceeded to serve my fatherland in Oyo State. While I was in the state, I heard about a very popular Amala Spot.
Continue to read @ www.msmehub.org

It is the dream of every entrepreneur to birth and nurture a business that can be either sold at a premium or handed down to future generations. However, experts put the failure rate of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and startups within the first five years of their existence at 50% or more. One of the top reasons for such business failure is lack of adequate capital or poor management of available ones. As I stated in Effective Cash Flow Management: The lifeblood of any business, if your business does not have sufficient cash to meet its obligations as they fall due, the business is heading for collapse. Considering the fact that most entrepreneurs in Nigeria go into business with capital drawn from personal savings or assistance from family and friends, which is often not enough, I have decided to put together this piece as a guide to entrepreneur seeking to scale up their businesses with bank loans.

Though business owners can grow their businesses organically from retained earnings or further injection of equity, this route is usually unnecessarily slow, making it difficult for such businesses to keep pace with industry trends. This is of course with exception to big corporations that are capable of making and retaining so much profits that can be ploughed back into the business or easily go to the capital market to raise funds. Ordinarily, for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and startups, the banks should be the bridge between the entrepreneur's ideas and business reality. However, in Nigeria, there has been accusations and counter-accusations by both parties. Entrepreneurs usually would say Nigerian banks do not support ideas and small businesses. The banks on the other hand always put up a defence that most MSMEs and startups do not meet their minimum risk acceptance criteria, and a large percentage of those they took chances on almost certainly default in repayment in the long run.

Nevertheless, I can boldly tell you that Nigeria banks still fund small businesses. For instance, Guaranty Trust Bank alone has rolled out a number of MSME specific loans in the last few months. These include: Fashion Credit (for operators in the fashion industry), Food and Drinks Credits (for entrepreneurs in the food industry), Cash Flow Credit (for businesses in the education and healthcare sectors, for now), among others. Interestingly, the aforementioned loans are without collateral as you know it. That is, you are not required to pledge a landed property with a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) as one of the conditions for accessing the loan. Loan extension to MSMEs in Nigeria may not have gotten to the desired level but it is getting better, thanks to several CBN intervention funds and adoption of the Bank Verification Number (BVN).

In order to access MSME loans without hassles, below are some of the things you need to know:

Register your business properly from the onset: Give your business a proper identity right from the start. Get your business registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and/or the appropriate regulatory authorities saddled with such responsibilities in your chosen sector(s). This is one of the basic requirements to establish a banking relationship.
Open an account for your business on time: For your business to enjoy any sort of assistance by way of loan from any bank, there must be an existing banking relationship. For example, to qualify for the Guaranty Trust Bank's MSME loans listed above, you must have been operating your account with the bank for at least one year (twelve months), and what you will get as loan is largely dependent on your account turnover. Therefore, the need to open your business account on time and effectively operate it cannot be overemphasized.
Show yourself and business credit worthy: Again, using the Guaranty Trust Bank's MSME loans as example, if for any reason your account is in debit (either with the bank or any other financial institution) or if you have any returned cheque within the last twelve months under review, you will not be able to access the loan. In other words, you should try as much as possible to meet your obligations as they fall due.
Discuss with your bank before you need the loan: Experience has shown that most business owners wait till they have a crisis situation before approaching the bank for assistance. Most often than not, at such a crisis, they may not be able to meet the bank's conditions. However, proper planning and continuous engagement with your bankers and other financial and management experts can solve the problem.
Once you follow the above steps, you will discover that accessing a bank loan to scale up your business is not an uphill task as you must have been made to believe before now. All you need to do is, make hay while the sun shines.

An extract from www.msmehub.org. You should check for more b business news