Trees, crops, and children: what do these three have in common? For one thing, we expect them to grow. Saplings develop into mature trees that may provide shade, lumber, or fruit. We expect it. Crops grow and produce a harvest for consumption. If they don’t yield, something is wrong. If a child doesn’t grow, we become greatly concerned and take step to discover the cause. We naturally expect living things to grow.
Christians are to be characterized by growth; too, God calls believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:18). God created you to have dominion over everything He created, so you are blessed, determine to move forward and say no to poverty by starting your own business.
If you have considered self-employed as the most viable option to get you out of the unemployment queue, then it is wise to listen to the following of the bootstarpper’s useful bits of advice.
After you have carried out the nitty-gritty of choosing the business you want to go into, and have done the necessary market research and prepared your feasibility report or business plan as the case may be, then you are well advised to do the following things to strengthen your management muscle. They are:
He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and set the standard for modern philanthropy.
He was a devout Christian who taught in Sunday school and supported many church – based projects throughout his life. Rockefeller was quoted as saying “God gave me money”, and he did not apologies for it. He followed John Wesley’s principle of “gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.” From his very first paycheck, Rockefeller tithed ten percent of his earnings to his church. As Rockefeller’s wealth grew, his giving also increased, with most of his giving towards educational and public health causes, as well as basic science and the art.
He became the world’s richest man and the first American worth more than a billion dollars. After taking into account inflation, he is often regarded as being the richest person in modern history.
Mary Kay Ash retired in 1963 after being passed over for a promotion in favor of a man that she had trained. She intended to write a book to help women in business. The book soon turned into a business plan, and in 1963, Mary Kay Ash began Mary Kay cosmetics with a $5,000 investment.
The founding principle of Mary Kay Cosmetics was known as the “Golden Rule”, upon which the company’s marketing plan was developed to allow women to advance by helping others to succeed. She advocated “praising people to success” and her slogan “God first, family second, career third” expressed her belief that the women in her company should keep their lives in the right balance.
Mary Kay was honored as the number 1 leading female entrepreneur in American history.
Within a few years, Tyler Perry went from being homeless to selling out theatres. Tyler Perry is an outspoken Christian who credits his success to god. In 2006, He established Tyler Perry Studios and in 2008 it moved to its current location – a 200,000 square foot studio facility situated in Southwest Atlanta, USA.
Henry Heinz was a nineteen century Christian businessman who founded the Heinz Company in 1869; Heinz based his business on Christian principles and proclaimed that his success was a direct result of his faith in God. Heinz was committed to bringing out the best in people and his company was credited for its fair treatment of worker and for pioneering safe and clean food preparation.
Today, the Heinz Company is worth around $12 billion. It’s most famous product is tomato ketchup, with 650 million bottle of ketchup being sold every year.
Sam Walton was an American businessman and entrepreneur, best known for founding the Wal-Mart retail store. With his strong Christian background based on ethics and hard work, Walton excelled in school, college, and business. Early in his career, he worked as a management trainee for J. c. Penney.
In 1998, Walton was included in Time’s list of 100 most influential people of the 20th Century and Forbes ranked him as the richest man in the United States from 1982 to 1988. Interestingly, Bill Gates only top in the list for the first time in 1992. The year Walton dead.
Cher Wang is a Taiwanese entrepreneur who co-founded smart phone maker, HTC Corporation and VIA Technologies. Her late father was Wang Yung-chin, who was one of the richest individuals in Taiwan. Wang is a devoted Christian who was quoted as saying that the Bible is “the best book about management practice”.
One of the most important things she has learned from the Bible is that a person must have a vision; otherwise he or she will be destroyed. The vision for HTC Corporation came during career whilst Wang was working in first international Computer. As she dragged bulky, heavy computers to client offices, she knew there must be a better way of designing a computer that could fit in the palm of your hand. In 1997 she acted on that vision and HTC Corporation was born. In May 2011, Forbes ranked her and her husband Wen Chin Chen as the richest people in Taiwan. Following some challenges with HTC’s sales dropping in recent months, Forbes ranked her and her husband’s as Taiwan’s 13th richest people with a combined net worth of US$2.5 billion in 2013.
Alakija started out her professional career in the mid 70s as a secretary at the now defunct International Merchant bank of Nigeria, one of the country’s earliest investment banks. In the early 80s, Alakija quit her job and went to study fashion design in England, returning to Nigeria shortly afterwards to start Supreme Stitches, a premium Nigerian fashion label which catered exclusively to upscale clientele. The business thrived, and Alakija quickly made a tidy fortune selling high-end Nigerian clothing to fashionable wives of military bigwigs and society women. In May 1993 Alakija applied for an allocation of an oil Prospecting License OPL. The license to explore for oil on a 617,000 acre block now referred to as OPL 216 was granted to Alakija’s company, Famfa Limited. The block is located approximately 220 miles south East of Lagos and offshore Nigeria in the central Niger Delta. This was in 1993. Many wealthy Nigerian businessmen and military bigwigs who had been allocated oil block by the military administration at the time had no clue as to the technicalities in operating an oil block, so many of them typically acquired OPL’s, and then flipped them off to international oil companies for substantial profits but Alakija was intelligent. She had no experience in running an oil field, but she decided not to sell off her license. In September 1996, she entered into joint venture agreement with Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Texaco) and appointed the company as a technical adviser for the exploration of the license, transferring 40 percent of her 100 percent stake to Star Deep. Subsequently, Star Deep sold off 8 percent of its stake in OPL 216 to Petrobas, a Brazilian company. Folorunsho Alakija and her family owned 60 percent. After a lengthy court battle which lasted for several years with the federal government of Nigeria, the Supreme Court voided the government’s acquisition of a 50 percent stake in OML 127 and subsequently transferred the 50 percent stake to Famfa Oil which saw the little known oil company Famfa owing a 60 percent in OML 127, one of Nigeria’s most prolific oil blocks in may 2012. Folorunsho Alakija is the founder of the Rose of Sharon foundation; a Christian based charity which gives out small grants to widows. In 2013, she replaced Oprah Winfrey to become the richest black woman in the world with a $1.88b net-worth.
