The ability to survive and/or thrive during a period of economic downturn is a function of how creative people can get.
Unfortunately, when things are tough financially, as they tend to be during such periods, most of us tend to focus too much attention on money and our lack (or what we perceive to be our lack) of it.
In other words, I’m saying that a lot of us want to succeed, but the minute we discover that we are limited in our financial means, with regard to achieving our set goals, we tend to get easily demoralized and give up psychologically, leading us to ultimately surrender in physical terms – by quitting.
My message in this maiden issue of my Performance Improvement Ideas (PII) newsletter is therefore that sometimes what you need to succeed is RESOURCEFULNESS and not money.
NB: This PI Squared newsletter will be published weekly, on Mondays, in place of the Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, starting from today – 15th February 2016. I’m reinventing my Monday newsletter content and theme, to accommodate my vision of serving the growing audience of serious minded individuals and organizations reaching out to me, with information, education. news and research findings designed to help them do what they do better.
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PII 047: Sometimes Resourcefulness, NOT MONEY, Is What You Need to Succeed [Hint: A Lack of Ideas Can Hold You Back – A Lack of Money Cannot]
The ability to survive and/or thrive during a period of economic downturn is a function of how creative people can get.
Unfortunately, when things are tough financially, as they tend to be during such periods, most of us tend to focus too much attention on money and our lack (or what we perceive to be our lack) of it.
In other words, I’m saying that a lot of us want to succeed, but the minute we discover that we are limited in our financial means, with regard to achieving our set goals, we tend to get easily demoralized and give up psychologically, leading us to ultimately surrender in physical terms – by quitting.
My message in this maiden issue of my Performance Improvement Ideas (PII) newsletter is therefore that sometimes what you need to succeed is RESOURCEFULNESS and not money.
How are you living your life with regard to achieving your valued goals?
The way you think about the problem you believe you have, especially with regard to achieving your goals using money, will determine how far you can go.
Quite often, you may find it useful to look into historical information available from other societies and cultures outside yours for ideas you can adopt or adapt to suit your unique needs or preferences.
If you keep an open mind, you’ll be shocked to find out that some people from the past you study achieved great success by being resourceful, so that their lack of money could not limit them.
What ideas can you borrow from them?
One big problem I see is that a degree of mis-education is holding many people back. And then there’s some amount of arrogance too, which is always very amusing to me.
I’ve met people who readily conclude the reason why one is emphasizing the need for “resourcefulness” is because you lack money – and not necessarily that you wish to be efficient in your use of money.
What these people do not know is that many wealthy people pay serious attention to making efficient use of their money. They are diligently frugal. Indeed some got wealthy by BEING that way!
That’s why they have wealth that makes them financially independent, such that if they stopped working they could continue living the same lifestyle without worrying about running out of money.
Some people have this mixed up. I’ve heard them say: “But Oga you’re bigger than N100 now. Why don’t you just forget it? No need to insist on collecting that little change.”
So if you insist on having your change, they call you a miser or say that you don’t have money.
I made peace with myself regarding this issue a long time ago, after I read this anecdote about John D. Rockefeller:
One day he made a phone call from a public pay phone after putting several dollar coins into the machine. When he was done, the time he spent indicated the machine was supposed to dispense a one dollar coin ads change, but this did not happen. After trying without success to get the machine to behave, this wealthy man decided to call the operator to file a complaint. But when the operator asked for his name in order to make the entry, it occurred to him that being a millionaire, making this formal complaint about a mere one dollar change would raise many eyebrows and make news he did not need. For that reason, he told her he’d changed his mind and hung up.
The moral of the above story is that if a millionaire of Rockefeller’s stature could be that concerned about keeping the small change, the rest of us have no excuse to be careless in handling such denominations.
So, one way to be resourceful is to spend prudently, in a manner that gets you maximum value for your money.
On the home front, what do you eat or drink? Must you always buy everything? Is it possible for you to make some of your own drinks for instance? What about the snacks you eat?
The drinks in particular cost next to nothing because the major raw material is pineapple peels obtained free from fruit sellers in the neighborhood. The kids love it, as does their grandmother who gets sent bottled units most times we make them.
Every now and then the kids still buy and eat commercial soft drinks, but most times this homemade drink of ours is what they make, and it saves us money even as it is healthy.
The same thinking can be successfully applied to whatever you do in your business.
For instance, how many things are you currently doing with money to promote your business?
One of the things I say all the time is that today, PC and Internet technology puts so much power in people’s hands, but the lack of resourcefulness of people keep holding them back from using it to excel!
Do you understand how to SAVE some of that money by using the web to promote your products/services to your desired target audience?
If you do, how well are you succeeding? What can you do differently to get even better results?
The answers to all those questions relate directly to your ability to be resourceful – not how much money you have, or are willing to throw at your Internet Marketing efforts.
Indeed, zero cost web marketing is a reality that MANY people live everyday – people like ME. So what I’m saying here is not just wishful thinking. I LIVE this stuff – and my resourcefulness is what makes it possible for me, and similar others to do so.
By the way, just in case you’re one of those who think your kind of business cannot be marketed effectively using the web, let me assure you that NOTHING could be further from the truth.
Only you and your willingness to think creatively – or your willingness to be resourceful in making use of the web – can determine your success, or otherwise!
It does not matter if you sell caskets or (what Yoruba’s in Nigeria call) “Ponmo” (i.e. cooked animal hide/skin) – the web is there for you to use to succeed. It is malleable – you can mould it to suit your unique business marketing needs.
Regardless of what kind of business you run or what part of the planet you are operating from. As long as Internet connectivity is accessible, your use of web marketing is bound to benefit your brand greatly.
The key is to KNOW HOW to use it to get the results you need. And that’s where being RESOURCEFUL becomes necessary.
That is the factor that separates those who get useful lasting results from those who don’t. It’s why people with less money, individuals sometimes, achieve superior marketing success for their brands compared to wealthier others – including organizations.
Final Words: A Lack of Ideas Can Hold You Back – A Lack of Money Cannot
I came across it last week and the story about how a lack of money drove people living in those times to think up new creative ways to make foods they loved without needing to spend money like they used to, really resonated with me.
The same situation led to the creation of the Depression Sandwich.
All of this is proof that the key to succeeding is not having money. Instead it’s about being creative, being resourceful, and being an ideas person!
This is the key to succeeding in any area of endeavor, under any economic situation, in any part of the world, in any culture you may have to operate under.
Once again I refer you to history. Read and you will find that some of the most creative ideas that make the world turn today, came through the efforts of some of the most financially deprived people , who had no financial means to pursue their goals with what privileged others would consider basic necessities.
So they had to learn to be resourceful in using what they had to get what they wanted, and to go where they needed to be!
If YOU want to achieve authentic success, for the long term, in spite of any form of adversity, be it economic recession, or depression, YOU WILL need to adopt a similar mindset!
When you’ve got RESOURCEFULNESS, it boosts your ability to attract what you lack (e.g money), or those who have it, and are willing to give it to you. Take it from me: I LIVE THIS STUFF!
Excel-VB Driven Ration Formulator
1. Click here to learn more about this app – watch demo videos etc
2.Click here to watch a 4 part video in which I demonstrate how to use this app to formulate rations using real life data sent to me by an Algerian PhD student.
Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.
Click here to download a detailed PDF user guide and watch 15 screen shot user guide tutorials of the Monthly Poultry Farm Manager that I now offer Farm CEOs.
Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.
Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others.
Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).
He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others.
In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.
On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region.
His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details).
In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.
In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting.
Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc).
When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter.
Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity.
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[IMPORTANT NOTE:====
On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), which hosted his website, was taken over by Aplus.net.
Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build a SUPERIOR “reincarnation” of it the website http://www.tayosolagbade.com.
But updates are still ongoing to URLs bearing the old domain name in most of the over 1,000 web pages, and blog posts
he’s published.
If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.
In this piece, I discuss one very harmful mindset that can hold anyone back, from achieving authentic success.
By this I refer to the habit of avoiding mistakes.
Some people believe in avoiding mistakes at all costs. What they fail to realize is that a time tested way to learning quickly and effectively is by making mistakes – but doing so INTELLIGENTLY.
I call it IMM – Intelligent Mistake Making.
Some of the wisest people you can find are people who take risks to try new things.
People who have experienced the ups and downs of life. People who have made mistakes, learned their lessons/paid the price and moved on to success.
Sometimes they fail, have to get up and try again, and again, until they succeed. Indeed their are times they end up NOT succeeding. But the benefit is rarely ONLY in the final outcome. Quite often it is in the experience – what is learned in the process of trying and failing.
The minute a human being achieves a fault – or error – free status, I believe s/he needs to relocate to heaven.
There would be NOTHING else to remain on earth for. And that’s why I have little patience with persons who make too much of a big deal of mistakes. No one is ever going to be perfect – or free from defect. It is in fact our imperfect nature, which should give us a sense of purpose, if we wish to make our stay on earth worthwhile.
Nature itself offers lessons that buttress the above point. She demonstrates through our exposure to diseases, that we NEED to get a little dirty every now and then, in order to become stronger or “better”.
Let me explain: Those of use who live in Africa know that our children are born with marked natural immunity to Malaria, especially when compared to children born in places where that disease is not endemic.
Our children get their immunity from parents and also from exposure to malaria via mosquito bites. This same principle applies to the use of vaccines (which are produced using the disease causing organism which the vaccines is meant to act against).
In essence I’m saying that it is NOT beneficial to completely INSULATE ourselves from exposure to germs. Research evidence and real-life experiences confirm that 100% germ free environments may deny us the opportunity to develop some degree of natural resistance (via production of anitbodies in response to exposure) to common disease causing organisms, that we may encounter.
The implication of the above point was captured quite eloquently in a line I picked up from a martial arts movie I recently watched.
The star actor said:
“Water that is too pure, has no fish in it”.
I would put it this way:
“People who do not make mistakes, NEVER really achieve progress.”
And that’s the truth. But some people go through life claiming to be better than others, because no one sees them fail at anything.
Sometimes it’s NOT healthy to be too “clean”.
I argue that ANYONE who is not experiencing periodic failure (temporary defeat), is either NOT taking any risks, or is hiding those failures from others. Whatever the case, s/he stands to lose a lot from living that way.
As you start this new year, I ask you to face up to the challenge of getting yourself a little “dirty” (from failing/falling) as the opportunities present themselves (AND THEY WILL!). Your progress towards achieving self-actualisation will depend greatly on doing this.
On a final note, let me wish you joy, happiness, good health, and success in pursuit of your valued goals in 2017 and beyond.
QUOTES WE LOVE
“Water that is too pure, has no fish in it” -Unknown
Source: Line I picked up from a movie
“If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.” ~ Mary Pickford
“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.” ~ Niels Bohr
“Flops are part of life’s menu. Everyone makes mistakes. High achievers learn by their mistakes. By doing that, an error becomes the raw material out of which future successes are forged. Failure is not a crime. Failure to learn from failure is.”~ Unknown
“Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.”~ Sophia Loren
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” ~ Elbert Hubbard
“If you aren’t making any mistakes, it’s a sure sign you are playing it too safe.” ~ John Maxwell
This article is based on a piece first published in 2012 via spontaneousdevelopment.com (now defunct).
Can you tell me why it is that people of your particular pigmentation, no matter what country they reside in, generally do not quite break through to financial success?
To find out what Dr Myles Munroe’s answer to that VERY potent question was (as well as the Chinese gentleman’s most insightful response), click here to read it…
Buying the book that contains it would NOT be a bad idea too.
If only those of us with that unique pigmentation referred to by the Chinese gentleman would be honest with ourselves, we would be able to do away with the wrong MENTALITY that’s stopping us from making the most of our God-given abilties, like people of other pigmentation have done so well for so long!
Did I mention that I think it would be a good idea for you to get yourself a copy of the above mentioned book??
I am a keen student of human nature, and that makes me go to great lengths to study people, when interacting directly with them or observing from a distance.
My passion for “studying people” derives from a desire I have to be SURE of what to expect from those I interact with. And my desire to be SURE comes from a need to avoid repeats of past painful experiences in which I misjudged people, and the value they had to offer, in a way that caused me major setbacks!
Over the past decade of my journey as an entrepreneur breaking new grounds offering custom spreadsheet software for sale in Nigeria/Africa, this passion of mine has come in quite handy.
For instance, it helped me more accurately evaluate unsolicited advice relentlessly thrown my way, by “concerned” nay-saying others.
In particular I learned to see through the antics of arm chair theorist-types, who always knew all there was to know about anything and everything – even more than me. And this despite the fact that they had little or no hands on experience doing what they saw me trying to do!
These “caring” and relentless advice-givers are to be found everywhere, and they rarely see things they way YOU, doing it, will see it.
Instead, they will most times only see how what you want to do cannot work, or can only work the way THEY tell you it should be done.
Thankfully, I learned my lessons quite early on, after I suffered greatly by following the advice offered by some of them – and I resolved to subsequently follow my own counsel/instincts (But I do give fair consideration to any ideas from others that I consider potentially useful).
The ability to confidently think for yourself, and firmly make up your mind about what to do, in ANY area of endeavor, without out-rightly rejecting useful contributions from others, is a crucial requirement for achieving authentic long term success.
Among other benefits (such as peace of mind) it will equip you to sieve the wheat from the chaff in advice that others may offer you.
I say this because it has worked, and continues to work, for me.
The article linked below discusses “10 Pieces of Horrible Advice Extraordinary Entrepreneurs Ignore” – based on true life experiences shared by 10 extremely successful entrepreneurs. The tips shared in it resonate greatly with me – based on my personal experiences and achievements.
If you want to achieve SUSTAINABLE success, I recommend you read this article to identify those 10 pieces of horrible advice you need to ignore, to avoid derailing!
Preview: Everyone gets bad advice. These entrepreneurs made millions by ignoring it.
Entrepreneurs receive tons of advice from mentors, peers, customers and friends. Some of it’s great. Most of it isn’t. These mega-successful entrepreneurs, who are also members of The Oracles, share the worst advice they’ve ever received—and why you should ignore it.
1. Set reasonable targets.
You should be setting unachievable goals and targets.
One sure sign of a great achiever is the ability to own up to one’s failures, foibles/weaknesses and shortcomings in general. A successful person who never shares stories of when s/he was not fully clued up about things, and was still struggling to get things to work right is likely to be hiding something. Nobody goes from zero to hero without making a few mistakes or struggling at one or more points on the way to success.
Strive Masiyawa continues to impress me with his massive honesty and transparency, with regard to his rise to success. He never hesitates to publish, often in elaborate detail, specific examples from his true life story of when he was far from being “cool” and “smart”. This latest article on his Facebook page provides an excellent case in point.
He uses his story to teach the rest of us about the need to exercise gratitude to the creator for whatever befalls us. More importantly, you learn that it pays to NOT jump to conclusions about anything that happens to you, even if it looks final.
Sometimes there will be behind-the-scenes efforts being made on your behalf, that you may be unaware of. So long as you maintain a Positive Mental Attitude, with faith, things will turn out right for you. Mr. Masiyawa’s story illustrates this perfectly.
Here’s a preview, ending with the link to read the full version of this powerfully insightful piece.
When my business was still very small, I once found myself facing a crushing cash flow crisis. My biggest concern was finding money to meet the payroll, and this one month, it just seemed impossible.
Being a believer, I prayed every day for a miracle as the deadline drew closer. One morning, it came into my spirit to approach a very wealthy businessman whom I knew was also a man of faith, and would hopefully appreciate my situation. I went to his office, and said to him boldly that I believed God wanted him to help me. To my shock and disappointment, he turned me down flat.
I left his office and continued to try and get the money. Eventually an old friend of mine who ran a bank called me out of the blue and helped me out with a small loan. He didn’t even ask me for a guarantee, which surprised me. This same banker friend continued to extend to me little loans whenever I was in trouble, and he never asked for a guarantee of any kind.
Many, many years later, when I was much more successful, the banker friend of mine disclosed to me something very shocking…
In 2002, I quit paid employment to launch my own business providing commercial Excel-VB software development solutions.
The market for this solution was non-existent at the time – in my country, Nigeria. People simply did NOT see what I saw. I got laughed at for YEARS for thinking and daring to SAY I believed I could sell MS Excel workbooks!
The idea sounded ludicrous to them, and quite a number felt they knew as much as I did about Excel, if not more.
But my passion and conviction kept me going, and I carefully identified gaps in the data recording, analysis, report generation fields in various markets, till I narrowed down to those where my solution could make a useful impact people would gladly pay for.
The above proves that acquiring Excel-VB competence is now being seen as a worthwhile investment in this part of the world, that can boost your competitiveness in paid or self-employment as a professional in your field. This has been the case in developed societies across the world for over 2 decades: we in Africa have been left behind for so long!
If you’re self-employed, your spreadsheet automation competence will give you a seriously unfair advantage over your competitors, and help you deliver MORE value to clients in a way that makes them gladly pay you MORE.
In the phone/email based aspect of my one-on-one coaching, I will give you tips and insights you can use to make this happen.
I’m on a mission to empower (with a primary focus on Nigeria/Africa):
1. Job seekers/Employees/Career Persons to attract superior employment opportunities by demonstrating that they can boost productivity in the workplace using unique spreadsheet automation skills.
2. Independent Consultants/Self-Employed Professionals/Experts to win over high profile clients, by demonstrating that they can develop cost-saving, performance enhancing custom spreadsheet automation solutions for agreeable fees.
###NB: Some people are either too busy, value their privacy or learn too fast to be satisfied with learning at the speed of a group of people. That’s why I offer this Confidential One-On-One Coaching/Mentoring###
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge
In 2004 (then my third year as a start-up entrepreneur, since quitting paid employment), the CEO of a small business specializing in providing IT solutions, laughed in my face, after I told him I offered custom MS Excel-Visual Basic Software Development Solutions for a fee.
He said “Huh, who’s going to pay you to do that kind of thing?”
It’s important to note here that his reaction, as one who had been in business, on a formal basis, about 5 years before me, had serious potential impact on my state of mind. Especially with regard to how I thought of myself and what I believed I had to offer my target audience in the marketplace.
By dismissing what I said the way he did, my conviction about my concept was challenged and shaken to the root.
“I have never started a company that, at some point, didn’t cause me to have doubts. This must be a stupid idea because no one else is doing it. Why don’t people get it? Maybe there is nothing there” We all have self doubts, but as entrepreneurs we don’t let these thoughts stop us. It is only a sanity check and is a normal thing.” – Fran Tarkenton (Former Football Star/Millionaire Entrepreneur)
Luckily for me however, my 7 year stay in paid employment as one who rose rapidly to success breaking many boundaries in terms of productivity and age of achievement, gave me something to draw on.
It so happened that a lot of my success was directly related to my ability to convince business users in the company across various departments, that spreadsheet automation could make them more productive.
Over time, I gain major career benefits in various forms due to my efforts. It was the insights I gained from doing all that which convinced me that spreadsheet automation solutions could be profitably provided to a larger audience.
Hence my decision to quit my job and do it for a living.
Today, the growing success I enjoy selling my custom apps to buyers within and outside Africa proves I was right.
But I had to start by believing in myself and rejecting the negative suggestions from naysayers I came across as I worked towards success.
At the risk of stating the obvious, success did not come easily or quickly. Out here in Nigeria/Africa, up till now the spreadsheet automation industry is still very young.
Out here in Nigeria/Africa, I continue to struggle to find experts doing what I’m doing i.e. building and selling custom automated spreadsheet apps, IN ADDITION to providing custom development services to individual and group clients.
My story confirms that success achievement requires not just competence, but a willingness to PERSEVERE or PERSIST until one achieves the desired outcome.
This is the truth.
But it’s NOT a truth that people LEARN in school.
Most “teachers” don’t know this truth, so they are unable to pass it on to those they TEACH.
The result is that too many schooled ADULTS fail to understand that their ability to DEAL with and OVERCOME delays, disappointments, setbacks, failures, and other forms of adversity and unpleasantness in life is THE KEY to achieving sustainable authentic success in any area of endeavor.
One word can be used to describe that ability, and that’s “PERSISTENCE”.
And it is more important than ANY academic credentials they may possess or acquire. Indeed, while lack of formal schooling may NOT often be a fatal handicap, a shortage of PERSISTENCE can sentence a person to a life of perpetual failures.
Proof of this can be seen all around us in form of countless highly successful people, with minimal or no schooling, who just STUBBORNLY kept trying again and again and again, each time they fell, until, making intelligent changes to what they were doing, UNTIL they succeeded.
The quote below underscores what I’ve said above:
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; u1nrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge
I’ve written a few articles (see linked below) on Emotional Intelligence, based on my studies of the works of pioneering experts like Daniel Goleman, as well as my experiences making conscious use of what I learned in the real world.
This article (published on LinkedIn Pulse) offers VERY useful insights into the dangers you may expose yourself to, IF you fail to develop the needed social intelligence to identify, and effectively MANAGE emotionally manipulative people in your life. The ability to assert one’s self is key dimension of being Emotionally Intelligent, Quite often, it can determine how well you can go on to achieve long term, sustainable success.
The article linked below offers potentially useful insights you can explore.
Telltale Signs You’re Dealing With an Emotional Manipulator
We all know what it feels like to be emotionally manipulated. It can be extremely effective, which is why some unscrupulous individuals do it so much.
A few years ago, Facebook, in conjunction with researchers from Cornell and the University of California, conducted an experiment in which they intentionally played with the emotions of 689,000 users by manipulating their feeds so that some users only saw negative stories while others only saw positive stories. Sure enough, when these people posted their own updates, they were greatly influenced by the mood of the posts they’d been shown.
One of wisest tips on business I ever came across was contained in the quote below:
“Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only these two – basic functions: Marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results, all the rest are ‘costs’.” – Peter Drucker, described as the Grandfather of Modern Marketing (and in my opinion Management)
In this article I offer a FREE copy of a new Excel-VD driven app that I created, to solve a data handling and reporting challenge I had, in reconciling certain financial transactions details with 2 different clients, using an MS Excel bank statement downloaded from my bank’s website.
The thought occured to me that others who use online banking platforms similar to mine, especially in the Nigerian market, are likely to find this app useful.
NB: This PI Squared newsletter will be published weekly, on Mondays, in place of the Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, starting from today – 15th February 2016. I’m reinventing my Monday newsletter content and theme, to accommodate my vision of serving the growing audience of serious minded individuals and organizations reaching out to me, with information, education. news and research findings designed to help them do what they do better.
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PII 045: Learn Spreadsheet Programming to Auto-generate Reports from Your E-Bank Statement [FREE App You Can Use]
One of wisest tips on business I ever came across was contained in the quote below:
“Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only these two – basic functions: Marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results, all the rest are ‘costs’.” – Peter Drucker, described as the Grandfather of Modern Marketing (and in my opinion Management)
In this article I offer a FREE copy of a new Excel-VB driven app that I created, to solve a data handling and reporting challenge I had, in reconciling certain financial transactions details with 2 different clients, using an MS Excel bank statement downloaded from my bank’s website.
The thought occurred to me that others who use online banking platforms similar to mine, especially in the Nigerian market, are likely to find this app useful.
So I resolved to use it for my annual year end mix of innovation and marketing to hit the ground running in 2017, with regard to my Excel Visual Basic Solutions Development.
Below: The 5 minute demonstration video I recorded for this app. Click here to watch it in my Youtube Channel.
Below: Screenshot of the single sheet workbook file downloaded from my GTBank online banking platform.
Below: This was modified from what was originally in the downloaded Excel worksheet bank statement downloaded via a query I did in my accounts interface on the bank’s website.
Like I mentioned in yesterday’s preview, I was trying to make some sense of the transactions in my bank statement which I generated from my online banking interface.
I actually wanted a copy of the statement because I needed to review certain entries based on some repeat clients I had transactions with via online banking.
A need arose to trace some particular transactions for two such clients, and there was a bit of confusion and delays in finding the information because each of them had at some point done transfers to me through a 3rd party.
But the 3rd parties had not taken the pains to enter descriptions mentioning who they were making payments on behalf of.
As a result, there were some payments that I could not trace for each client since their names were not linked to them.
To get started, what you need to do is simply click the IMPORT BANK STATEMENT button. In the case of this copy of the app, I’ve configured it to check for and import ONLY the workbook downloaded from the online banking interface.
This works well and is a safe strategy because typically, the online banking interface query will generate a statement that is saved using your account number as a unique filename identifier.
That means I only have to change the filename it refers to (with path modifications as needed), for this app to work with your own MS Excel based statement downloaded from THIS bank’s website.
If you use any other bank, modifications will simply be made to accommodate whatever differences exist in the data table layout/format, as well as the corresponding reports to be generated.
TIP: For those of you who take up the offer I’m making, you’ll get this app FREE to use for life, with 100% FREE support and upgrades, if you purchase ONE year membership of my Excel-VB club for N5k instead of N13k on or before Midnight of Saturday 31st December 2016.
Back to using the app…
Clicking the IMPORT BANK STATEMENT button loads a prompt informing you the app will first of all delete all existing data in the table, before it commences importation of data from the downloaded workbook.
I put in that procedure in anticipation of instances when you may be importing a new body of downloaded data that’s smaller than the one you just finished working with (For instance you download a 2013 to 2016 statement, after viewing a 2016 statement like I did).
The app imports the statement into the table and leaves the bank statement single sheet web page style workbook open in a separate window, which you can easily switch to, and compare data from.
Notice that even the worksheet tab for the database worksheet bears the same label as the filename.
Now, one of the things I wanted to be able to do, was to find information relating to a series of transactions with some specific individuals, for reconciliation purposes.
To make this easy, I got the app to generate a list of names from the “FROM” and “TO” columns in the data table – eliminating duplicates.
So, you simply click on a name from the drop list, that you want to query and review transactions for, and the app would filter the table’s contents, displaying only those matching your query, and hiding the others.
You then have the option to further query the table using month and year parameters, via drop menus provided.
So if someone tells me there was a transaction in 2014 March for a certain amount, I can use the above menu driven query items to easily locate relevant references to him/her.
Worst case scenario – if the information s/he supplies does not turn up matching records, I can simply do a blanket search with his/her name from the menu, and ALL records linked to it will appear, from which we can then review and decide the way forward.
At any point during your query based review, you have the option to click the PREVIEW button to see the pre-print view of the filtered table contents.
If you have a PDF creator installed, like I do, you will be able to generate PDF versions of your final table version – if you do not wish to print on paper. This PDF option may come in handy should you wish to send the scenario generated to a 3rd party without having to share the entire bank statement’s contents with him/her.
Another thing to note is that the totals for DEBIT and CREDIT columns are updated dynamically using functions that recalculate to reflect the displayed contents.
This is quite useful because it saves you from worrying about recalculating the totals for the scenario you generated. Watch the way the totals change as the various menu items are clicked in the video demonstration.
When you’re done with querying the table, clicking the SHOW ALL button will return the table to its default display state, with all data visible.
Now, clicking the MENU button loads the floating Main Navigation Menu button.
On the Main Menu’s left 4-tabbed panel, the 2 middle tabs allow you to access 2 key summary dynamic reports generating interfaces.
The Single Year Scenario: Allows you to generate a table of summaries with corresponding charts in bar and line formats. I created this interface to review trends on a month by month basis for a chosen year. Again, a PDF version of each scenario generated can be created and emailed to a 3rd party without needing to share the entire body of data.
Tip: Notice the auto-generated headers inserted into the print-ready page by the app, which personalizes the report with the owner’s name and other details
The Single Month Scenario: Here you want to drill down through the data for a particular month of a particular year, on a daily basis. My purpose here was to see if I could establish any useful trends and relationships between the periods reviewed, towards making useful decisions or deductions.
What I’ve done is to put in dummy data, to protect privacy of myself and those I transacted with. So what you see in the video and screenshots are NOT real values.
Tip: Now one of the things I had to do in this table was to cater for differences in numbers of days for some of the months, like February (Which has 28 or 29 days depending the year), and other months like November, September, June and April, which have 30 days, unlike the rest with 31 days.
The table’s TOTALS dynamically hide and display the last few rows for EACH month, as the month name changes, so that when February is clicked, no data from March appears in the table, regardless of the number of days it has, in that year.
This is a major time end effort saving format.
***The AUTO FIT button is used when a cell has generated entries are displayed as hash (####) signs due to inadequate cell width. Clicking in any cell in the column and clicking the AUTO FIT button will activate the auto size function, resizing the cell to allow proper display of the contents.
It goes without saying that what I have done with this app was simply basic level data handling for report generation. Nothing complex in terms of real financial analysis.
And that’s because my immediate need for basic information drove this app’s creation. But that’s why I want to bring others on board, especially financial experts and other serious business users, so they can learn Excel-VB coding as they use the app. I can help (and/or coach them) to do a LOT more.
Over the past decade, serving as an Excel-VB Solutions Developer, I have worked with many CEOs and financial consultants in various markets/industries, and I know they all have various tasks they use MS Excel to manually carry out on their business financial data – especially those found in their bank statements.
Indeed virtually any income earning adult in today’s society makes use of a bank account and is therefore likely to understand the potential benefits of being able to relate to his/her financial data using MS Excel, in the manner I have demonstrated with this app.
My vision is to empower interested business and other users of MS Excel, with Excel-VB coding competence to enable them do what I have done here, in terms of solving a data handling, analysis and report generation problem, to meet their peculiar individual needs.
Typically, any self-employed professional, marketing experts, HR Executives, and financial experts in paid or self-employment, and indeed any business owner or working adult with a need to use MS Excel, will find learning a little MS Excel-VB automation quite a handy skill to possess.
But if you cannot spare the time, maybe someone you know, or who works for you can learn it and then help you with it.
That is why I offer YOU this app, with FREE lifetime support to use it for your own purposes, if you sign up for ONE year membership of my Excel-VB Automation club.
All you need do is pay the promo signup fee of N5k, and I will send you the app, with details of your membership benefits, including the 50% discount you get on ALL my products and services as a member.
This offer remains valid until Midnight of Saturday 31st December 2016, when the fee will revert to N13k, the Standard membership fee.
NB: Current club members interested in getting a FREE copy of this app can do so by paying the N5k fee, instead of the standard N13k fee, to renew their membership for another year.
1. Click here to learn more about this app – watch demo videos etc
2.Click here to watch a 4 part video in which I demonstrate how to use this app to formulate rations using real life data sent to me by an Algerian PhD student.
Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.
Click here to download a detailed PDF user guide and watch 15 screen shot user guide tutorials of the Monthly Poultry Farm Manager that I now offer Farm CEOs.
Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.
Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others.
Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).
He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others.
In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.
On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region.
His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details).
In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.
In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting.
Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc).
When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter.
Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity.
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[IMPORTANT NOTE:====
On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), which hosted his website, was taken over by Aplus.net.
Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build a SUPERIOR “reincarnation” of it the website http://www.tayosolagbade.com.
But updates are still ongoing to URLs bearing the old domain name in most of the over 1,000 web pages, and blog posts
he’s published.
If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.
On the 31st day of this month (December 2016), it will be exactly 14 years since I quit my high paying job as Technical Training and Development Manager with Guinness Nigeria, to (among other goals), pursue my dream of developing custom automated spreadsheet software for a living.
Each time a New Year approaches, I always work hard to hit the ground running with a new and different concept, product or soliution.
This time around what I’ve come up with happened really by accident. A problem I had making sense of the MS Excel based bank statement I downloaded from the online banking interface for one of my accounts.
Below: Screenshot of online banking interface, with download of MS Excel statement in progress.
The data was in too basic a format for me to find the information I needed, and trend it to arrive at useful deductions.
Below: Screenshot of downloaded copy of January to December MS Excel based statement I generated from my online banking interface on 15th December 2016.
Today I generated one covering 1st January 2012 till date, which I successfully used to test the new app I built. It worked superbly. Details, including screenshot of generated table and chart based summaries in tomorrow’s issue of my PII newsletter.
It was while I was crawling around in confusion in the downloaded spreadsheet version of my statement for 2016, that I remembered I possessed MS Excel-VB automation skills.
And that meant I could do something about the problem I had with the data I was looking at!
My desire to use the data for my planned purposes drove me to build an app to do what I want with the statement.
Then when I began using the finished app, it occurred to me that others who also use online banking interfaces to generate their bank statements would probably find this app useful.
So, I decided I would use it as my new “product” going into the new year.
Below is the description of the app, that I’ve put in its about window.
This Custom Automated Excel VB Driven Entreprise Information System(EIS) was built by Tayo K. Solagbade, for SDAc’s Creative Business Solutions(CB Solutions) arm, using MS Excel® Visual Basic. It allows even a PC novice quickly and effortlessly import bank statement data from an MS Excel based workbook downloaded from his/her bank’s Internet Banking platform. Using in-built cystom automation tools the user is then able to generate tabulated and charted reports.
Tomorrow, the Monday issue of my weekly Performance Improvement Ideas (PII) newsletter, will go out.
In it, I will provide detailed descriptions and screenshots, as well as a step-by-step video demonstration of how the app works.
Then I will end with an introductory promotional offer of the app. Members of my Excel Visual Basic Automation Club will get a heftier discount.
Stay tuned – in a few hours, the details will be LIVE.
Below: Screenshot of the data auto-imported from the MS Excel-based bank statement downloaded from my online banking interface
[PS: This post is a precursor to tomorrow’s special issue of my Performance Improvement Ideas (PII) newsletter, which will feature full details of this new product to be announced via a special promo offer]
…a multi-disciplinary blog for people passionate about reaching their goals!
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