Business Planning and Financial Management

About this ebook

Plan clearly, manage money confidently and make better business decisions.

Understand your numbers, plan with confidence and manage cash, costs and growth like a professional. Written by Ephraim Nyadowa for readers in Zambia and across Africa, this complete eBook has an introduction, 10 full chapters and a conclusion, each chapter ending with key takeaways, action steps and a worksheet you can fill in.

About 27,322 words · 92 pages · instant PDF download after payment.

Who it’s for

Small and medium business owners, managers and start-up founders who want to understand their numbers.

Preview

Walk through any market in Lusaka on a Saturday morning, or down a street in Kitwe lined with small shops, and you will see businesses everywhere. People selling chickens, phone accessories, tailoring services, charcoal, second-hand clothes, building materials, hair and beauty treatments, transport, catering, consultancy. Zambia runs on small and medium businesses. They employ the majority of working people, they keep families fed, they pay school fees, and they quietly hold the economy together even when the headlines are about mines and government budgets.

And yet, if you talk honestly to business owners, a familiar story comes up again and again. The business starts well. There is energy, a good idea, maybe some capital from savings, a cooperative, or a loan from a relative. Sales come in. Things feel busy. Then, somewhere along the way, the owner realises they cannot actually tell you whether the business is making money. There is cash in the drawer one week and nothing the next. Stock disappears without anyone quite knowing where it went. A big order comes in, everyone celebrates, and then the business struggles to pay rent that same month. The owner is working harder than ever, yet feels no closer to financial security.

This is not usually a failure of effort, and it is rarely a failure of business idea. It is a failure of planning and numbers. Many capable, hardworking entrepreneurs never learned how to plan a business properly or how to read what their own figures are telling them. Nobody sat them down and explained the difference between profit and cash, or showe

About the author

Ephraim Nyadowa is the founder and Managing Director of SALE-RITE ENTERPRISE in Lusaka, Zambia. He holds a degree in Computer Science and has spent around six years helping individuals and businesses with technology, digital services and practical skills. He writes and teaches to make useful knowledge simple, local and actionable.