At one point or another, most corporate professionals have dreamed of leaving their 9-to-5 behind in pursuit of entrepreneurship.

The idea of running your own business is incredibly appealing, especially when stories of people who successfully quit their day jobs seem to be everywhere.

But are you really ready to take the leap?

Like any other major decision, leaving behind a steady paycheck and benefits in favor of startup life is one that must be carefully considered.

Impulsively quitting your job without a solid plan in place is financially and professionally irresponsible, and likely won’t turn out the way you expect.

1. Secure A Financial Runway 

My advice is to have at least six to 12 months of living expenses saved.

You’ll want to jump in and focus on getting it off the ground without stressing about how to pay your mortgage or rent.

If it’s in the incubating stage, I would challenge the person to explore launching the business as a side hustle until it generates enough income for a full-time transition.

2. Learn From The Failures Of Others

Talk to an entrepreneur who has failed and then succeeded. What are the lessons learned?

What mistakes did they make? What did they do differently when they found success? Starting a business is easy.

Getting traction in a market that produces sustainable revenue with growth potential is tough.

If you’re open to continuous learning from the experience of others, you will maximize your chances.

3. Ask Yourself What You’re Willing To Give Up

What in your life right now are you willing to give up?

Starting a business means moving out of the comfort zone — financially, and with regards to time, family, relationships and so on.

If you are willing to give some things up, then great. If you are not, what can you do now to start your business on the side or on a smaller scale first?

In a recent survey, 43% of people didn’t know the salary range of their spouse.

We’ve put together the ten topics you should talk about with your significant other before you get married.

Ideally, you’ll be asking these questions even before you’re engaged, in the natural course of getting to know each other and deepening your relationship.

We know that money is not easy to talk about. Conversations can get emotional and escalate quickly.

Below you’ll see the questions you probably want to ask, but they are not always constructive or can lead to an argument, unless you and your partner are completely comfortable talking about money.

Instead, you’ll also see the questions you should ask and how to have a strong conversation with your partner about finances.

You can walk away from these conversations much happier after having an open and honest conversation, and your relationship will strengthen as you get on the same page.

1. Income and Assets

What You Should Ask:

• How much do you make?

• How much is in your checking, saving, retirement and investing accounts?

• Do you have a trust fund?

• Are you the heir to a fortune?

Your true intentions: The reason you’re wanting to ask these questions is not because you’re a gold digger (hopefully!) but because you know that a serious relationship and especially marriage requires financial transparency.

You need to know what each of you earns, spends and saves. You need to know if and how you each plan financially for the future.

You need to know if there is family money, in case one of you wants a prenup.

Solution: Start a conversation that will uncover you partner’s financial habits – HOW do they save, WHAT are their strategies?

As you talk more about your approach to managing money, you can more naturally ask the questions of HOW MUCH they have. And be ready to share your side too!

So you can ask these instead:

• How have you been approaching saving money?

• Have you started putting away for retirement, and if so, what’s your strategy?

• Do you invest in the market, and if so, what kind of stocks/bonds/mutual funds do you hold? Who manages your investments?

• Has your family provided any financial help to you in recent years?

 2: Credit Card Debt

What You Should Ask:

• Do you live beyond your means?

• Are you knee deep in credit card debt?

• Have you paid mountains of interest?

• Do you expect me to help you pay it off when we’re married, even though I had nothing to do with it?

Your true intentions: You want to start your partnership off with no secrets, but let’s face it – credit card debt is about as fun as a colonoscopy.

If you have credit card debt, you’re probably not that happy about it. If you’re wondering whether your partner has credit card debt, you’re worried the answer is Yes.

It’s a topic that stirs up strong feelings – sometimes shame and embarrassment about getting into debt, sometimes pride about paying it off, sometimes fear of others finding out.

Remember, this is your partner, and you need to tell them honestly about your financial past and find out where they stand.

Solution: Ask questions that hone in on each other’s purchasing habits. By asking WHY questions, you can uncover the reasons for any credit card debt that they have.

There may be more to the story than you realize. You should also find out how active they are in managing their credit score.

Take any feelings of insecurity or judgment out of it. Stay open-minded and supportive.

So you can ask these instead:

• How do you prefer to pay for purchases (credit / debit / cash), and why?

• Do you ever carry a balance on your credit card(s)? Why or why not?

• If you have credit card debt, how are you tackling it?

• Do you keep track of your credit score? Do you know what your score is?

3: Student Loans

What You Should Ask:

• How much debt did you rack up by getting your college / masters / PhD degree?

• Will you make any money once you graduate?

• Do you expect me to help you pay off $50,000 in student loans when we’re married, even though we didn’t know each other when you made the decision to go back to school?

Your true intentions: It’s normal to be apprehensive about paying off your own loans, and it’s normal to wonder about your partner’s student loan situation.

You want a plan to pay off your debt, and you want to know how your partner is planning to attack their debt.

You want to discuss if you will attack the debt together or separately. Most higher education carries a heavy price tag.

If you have a college degree or higher but no student loans, you’ve been very fortunate. Perhaps your family helped, perhaps you saved up enough money on your own to pay for school, perhaps you got scholarship money, perhaps your employer paid for your degree.

Unfortunately, most people have to take out some amount of student loans to pay for school. A lot of people have to take out tens of thousands of dollars, or even over a hundred thousand.

Solution: Talk tactically about how you, your partner, or you together, can pay off your debt. Ask questions that help you form a plan.

Many financial experts will say that you are responsible for the debt you bring into a relationship, but many couples choose to attack the debt together.

Remember that student loans are different from credit card debt.

You’re making an investment in your future when you get a degree, since you expect to earn a higher income and higher level job position as a result of your additional education.

While credit card debt can set off red flags – and you should understand what caused it – student debt can be viewed in a more positive light.

So you can ask these instead:

• Did you have to take out any student loans?

• How do you feel about your student debt?

• Do you know what interest rate your student loans are at?

• What’s your approach to paying off your student loans?

 4. Money Management

What You Should Ask:

• Are you on top of your money or a hot mess?

• I don’t enjoy managing money. Can you do everything, please?

Your true intentions: You and your partner may approach the management of your finances very differently or very similarly, but you won’t know if you don’t talk about it.

You want to understand each other’s habits and what you each enjoy about money management.

You may be someone who keeps very close track of your finances and know exactly how much you’re spending in each life category;

you have an Excel spreadsheet projecting out your monthly budget for the next 12 months; you monitor your net worth and get a rush when you see it inch up each month.

Your partner may be the complete opposite – they don’t track their spending categories or savings rate; they don’t keep a budget; they don’t think about their net worth.

However, this doesn’t mean they’re “bad” with money.

Solution: Have a conversation about your habits – HOW do you keep track, WHY don’t you keep track.

Find out what each of you like and dislike about day to day money management. Tell each other about what you’ve found works well for you. Don’t judge!

So you can ask these instead:

• How do you keep track of how much you spend and save and also how your accounts fluctuate over time?

• How often do you check your accounts?

• Do you keep a budget? Why or why not?

• Are there certain things that you like or dislike doing when it comes to money management?

• Why are your tried and true tips?

5. Upbringing

What You Should Ask:

• Did growing up poor / rich mess you up?

• Were you raised by wolves and that’s why you don’t know anything about managing money?
• Why do you sound like your mother / father every time we argue about money?

Your true intentions: You see that you and your partner were raised differently. You’re worried that you come from different worlds but need to find a common language.

Maybe one family was well-off and the other struggled financially but were “rich in love.”

Maybe your parents taught you how money works from an early age by paying you to mow the lawn, and your partner didn’t get any financial education from their parents.

Maybe your parents taught you that talking about money is impolite but you partner and their parents talk about it all the time and it makes you uncomfortable.

Solution: Find out where your partner is coming from so you can truly understand what they act the way they do when it comes to managing money.

Our financial upbringing has a big impact on how we function with money as adults. Think about the financial acumen of the people who raised you (parents or other), the way that money was discussed – or never mentioned – in your house when you were growing up.

How much money your family had compared to your peers and how that made you feel, what your parents taught you about money directly or indirectly.

These all affect you today, and your partner may be affected in a completely different way by the circumstances of their financial upbringing.

So you can ask these instead:

• How did your parents manage money when you were growing up? For example, did they split responsibilities, did they keep track of expenses, did they have a monthly meeting to discuss their money, did they use a financial advisor?

• Do you remember if your parents ever argued about money?

• How did you feel about your family’s money situation when you were growing up?

• What did you learn from your parents about money?

• How did the way you grew up impact the way you manage money as an adult?

6: Merging Accounts

What You Should Ask:

• If we combine our money into a joint account, am I going to regret it one day?

• Why should we combine our money when I’ve saved five times as much as you?

• How can you possibly think that having separate accounts is healthy in a marriage?

Your true intentions: You’re not sure if combing your money, keeping it separate, or a combination of both is the right approach for you and your partner.

Maybe you’re trying to be realistic that divorce rates are high and you never know what could happen.

You’ve heard stories of crazy people who bail town with their spouse’s cash.

Maybe you don’t feel right about merging your hard-earned savings with the relatively low savings of your partner.

Solution: It’s not advisable to merge checking, savings, and investment accounts until you’ve built a SIGNIFICANT level of trust in the relationship.

Hopefully, by the time you’re engaged or about to get married, you’re at that level.

Many successfully married couples can’t imagine having separate accounts – they join all their assets and never think about yours, mine or ours.

On the other hand, there are successfully married couples who keep their money separate and each contribute a certain share to the household.

They think this system works well for them, particularly if they can’t agree on a way to manage their money together or if one of them comes from significantly more wealth than the other.

Many happy couples have a hybrid system where they have one or more joint accounts from which to pay their household expenses, but they also keep their own “fun money” accounts for gifts for each other and treats for themselves.

So you can ask these instead:

• Did your parents combine their money or keep it separate and did it work for them?

• Which arrangement – joint, separate or hybrid – makes you most comfortable and why?

• Can we try the separate or hybrid approach on a trial basis and then make a decision about joining everything?

 7.  Respectful Spending

What You Should Ask:

• Why did you buy that expensive drone without talking to me first?

• Why do you always get annoyed when I spend money that I work hard to earn on things that make me happy?

Your true intentions: You notice that one or both of you makes significant purchases without consulting the other, which can lead to hurt feelings and arguments.

You want to figure out a way to make both of you happy.

There could be complications – for example, your partner makes a lot more than you and you feel uncomfortable asking them to curb their spending when you’re contributing much less to the household.

Solution: Sit down together and define “significant purchase.”

You should literally agree on a dollar amount that will be your spend threshold at which you want your partner to check in with you before they spend that much.

Is it $200? $100? $50? Perhaps surprisingly, the answer does not depend on your income or savings.

We’ve seen well-off couples answer “$50” and couples in debt who answer “$150.”

The trouble starts when you have different views on what a significant purchase is – different spend threshold numbers – but you don’t realize this or don’t communicate about this.

One of you doesn’t think twice about spending $100 without consulting your partner, while the other thinks that anything over $50 should be discussed.

You argue because you haven’t figured out the simple fact that you have a fundamental misalignment in your views.

So you can ask these instead:

• What’s your spend threshold number – the dollar amount at which you want me to check in with you before buying something? You should both say your number at the same time.
• Our numbers are different, so do you want to meet in the middle or agree to respect each other’s number?

 8. Goals

What You Should Ask:

• The business your started after quitting your job isn’t earning any money – what are you doing to me?

• I don’t want to live in a small apartment our entire life so why aren’t you helping me save more for a house?

Your true intentions: You have a vision for your life, dreams and goals. Perhaps you want to retire at 45, or buy a farm and leave the city, or have your own business.

You thought your partner wanted the same things but the way they’re spending their time today is not helping to reach those goals.

You may be really worried about the state of affairs, which can lead you to lash out and pick fights with your partner.

Solution: Being emotional or worrying isn’t going to solve anything. Talk about your life vision – what are your big goals?

Now, work backwards and talk about the concrete steps you need to take today and over the coming weeks, months and years in order to achieve your dreams.

The focus here is specifically on money. For example, if you want to retire at 50, how much money will you need and what does that say about how much you need to start saving and investing today in order to get there?

If you want to have your own business, are you going to quit your job and start working on your idea or will you work on your idea nights and weekends, until you’ve reached enough success to quit your day job?

If you want to travel to 30 countries by the time you’re 30, how many trips per year will you do and how much money do you need to have for each trip?

Life goals are intrinsically tied with the way you manage your money. You want to have a plan, and to have a plan, you need to be on the same page about your life vision.

So you can ask these instead:

• What are your short term and long term goals in life? Make these specific by naming specific dollar amounts, the age you want to be when you reach that goal, or any other concrete metric.

• What do we need to do today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year to achieve these goals? Again, be specific with concrete steps, dollar amounts, timelines and metrics.

9. How Much Is Enough

What You Should Ask:

• I know you’re making bank, but don’t you care that we never see each other because you’re working 14 hour days?

• How can you possibly be satisfied with your current income and title?

• Why do you always fight me on buying the nice things that others have?

Your true intentions: Maybe you’ve noticed that you and your partner seem to be on different pages about work and life balance.

Or how much money is enough to live on, or how much you want to be making in five years.

Perhaps you always compare yourself to others and are feeling insecure about your household money when you see your friends’ house and cars.

Solution: It’s easy to find things to argue or worry about, or to get a case of “keeping up with the Joneses.”

The work-driven culture certainly tells us that we must work, work, work, so that we can make more money and rise up though the ranks, or start your own business so you can become a millionaire.

It’s easy to get caught up in the cycle of work, eat, sleep and forget to ask the question of whether working toward more money is what the two of you want.

On the other hand, let’s say that you are struggling financially and dream of getting to a point where you don’t have to worry about money anymore.

Do you know what your magic number is in terms of annual income?

A good use of your time is to have a conversation about this question, “How much is enough?”

How much annual income is enough for the kind of lifestyle you want for yourselves today and in the future?

So you can ask these instead:

• What kind of lifestyle do you want to have in 5, 10 and 20 years?

• How much do we need to earn annually in order to have that lifestyle?
• Will you or I prioritize work in the short term, over quality time with the family, so that we can reach our lifestyle goals in the long term?

10. Kids and Bread Winner Status

What You Should Ask:

• You honestly expect me to stay home with our future kids even though I have a masters degree?

• Do you think you have more say in our financial decisions just because you make more than me?

• Why can’t you see that it’s better for one of us to stay home with the kids since we lose less money that way than paying for child care?

Your true intentions: Perhaps you’ve always imagined that you would have a dual income household, or maybe you always expected one of you to stay home to raise the kids or to work part-time when the kids are young.

You come into a relationship with certain preconceived notions, and so does your partner. When you don’t see eye to eye, or don’t discuss it, you can fall into arguments driven by your underlying concerns.

Solution: Ok, so “bread winner” is kind of an old-fashioned term, but it’s still very relevant in the 21st century.

For many women, having a career is very important, especially once they’ve invested time and money in higher education, and they resent a man’s expectation that they will be a stay-at-home mom.

Other women – and men, for that matter – are happy to take on the responsibilities of a stay-at-home parent on a part-time or full-time basis while their partner takes on the responsibilities of earning the majority of the household income.

Many couples decide that one of them will stay home to raise the kids for a few years or longer, even when the parent that stays at home has a masters degree or even a PhD.

Other couples prioritize both partners’ careers and carve out money for day care or a nanny.

Some people are surprised when they discover their priorities change after having kids, and they need to adjust their plans, perhaps stopping work or working more than they expected they would want to do.

It’s important to remember that just because you contribute differently to the household if one of you stays home, you are still equals.

So you can ask these instead:

• When you imagine the future with kids, do you expect one of us to stay home?

• How do you feel about one of us making all the money or a lot more money than the other?

• If we both want to work full time, how much will child care cost and how much do we need to start saving for it now?

Source http://sagecouple.com/10-money-topics-to-talk-about-before-getting-married/

Pictures @google

American based Nigerian gospel artiste was the guest on The Praise O’Clock Show with TOLA via the phone as he shared about the inspiration behind his single “Chinedum” and a lot more. “Chinedum” is now available across digital stores.

Press play and relive this amazing chat experience with Yucee.

1. Secure a Financial Runaway

You must ensure that you have enough backup cash that can meet all your needs and pay your bills in case the business fails.

2.  Learn from the Experiences of Others

It is important that you ask questions from individuals who have been able to establish stable businesses and observe how they build their franchises and ensure that you learn from their errors.

3. Ask Yourself what You are Willing to Give Up

Count the cost of what you would need to give up to ensure that your business gets to the level it needs in order to grow. Sometimes you would need to give up your time, sleep, relationships, savings, etc. Make the necessary sacrifices now in order to enjoy later.

 4. Know Your Target Market

A target market, or target audience, is a group of people that you want your customers to be. It defines who you’re marketing to, and influences the way you advertise. You must do some research to have an idea of who would be buying your products, learn about the people in the area and specify the products that will meet their needs.

5. Have a Plan

You need to have a business plan, this shows that you are willing to do the essential work. It makes your business more tangible. This plan will primarily describe your customers, the problem, your solution and how you’ll reach those customers.

 6. Begin with a Side Hustle

This helps you to flow easily into your main business. It also helps you develop your skills and your capacity. It helps you to remain relevant while making plans towards the main business you have in mind, it also keeps you on your toes.

It’s no news that Chevelle Franklyn, a popular Jamaican Gospel Artiste featured in an interview with TOLA A.K.A ‘spice On the mic‘ on Praiseworld Radio’s breakfast show The Praise O’Clock Show last Tuesday, 13th June.

During the phone interview, Chevelle Franklyn shared about her love for Nigeria and how she considers herself a Nig-Jamaican. She talked about Nigerian food, music, fashion and stated that Nigerians have a high level of swag.

“To me everything about Nigeria is great. I love the food, i love the fashion, the melody, the music the people. Their swag is very high and they have great personalities. When Nigerians are good they’re very good and when they’re bad they’re very bad.”

She went to talk about her love for Nigerian songs, stating how they bring peace to her life and how she has learnt a number of them over the years. According her, Nigeria is one of her favorite countries and the Nigerian culture is very close to the Jamaican culture.

“They’re products of excellence. The simple songs that they sing brings peace to my life. There are so many of them that I have learnt over the years that has brought peace into my spirit.

I have always loved Nigerian songs. Nigeria is actually one of my favorite cultures and it’s also a bit close to the Jamaican culture. They have PIDGIN and we have our PATUA and sometimes the words are very similar. There are so many things in Nigeria that remind me of home. I usually tell people i’m a Nig-Jamaican.”

She then went on to give a list of her favorite Nigerian foods, ranging from Jollof Rice to Pepper soup.

“Ahh I love Jollof rice and I love Egusi soup and i love my Pepper soup! Oh my god! I am Nigerian to the bone’

When asked to describe her relationship with Nigerian Gospel Artist; Onos Ariyo she stated that they had met at ‘The Experience’ 2 years ago, where they performed a song together and then they just connected as sisters. They have kept in contact since then and when Onos reached out to her about featuring in her single she agreed.

“I met Onos 2 years ago at the experience, I have actually been coming to the experience for quite some time and we just connected as sisters. We also ended up doing a song at the experience together and we just clicked.

We kept in contact and few years later she was working on an album and I said okay, send the track and i’m glad everybody loved it.”

Chevelle Franklyn recently released two new singles and one of them ‘I Have A Father’ happens to be a combination of popular Nigerian Praise songs which reveals the in-depth love she has for Nigeria. The song features American Gospel Music Minister; Donnie McClurkin.

She began her singing career at the age of fourteen. She moved to Kingston where she released her first single ‘Here I Am’. She started off in the secular scene where she released songs like: ‘Mr Lover Man’, ‘Thank You’ and ‘Nice and Naughty’ which is popularly known as her hit single.

In 1988 she announced her transition to Gospel Music at a concert where she was supposed to perform ‘Dancehall Queen‘ but instead sang Kirk Franklin’s ‘Silver and Gold’. And then in 2001 she released her first Gospel album ‘Joy‘.

With many awards to her name, Chevelle has continued to tread upon international grounds, having performed at ‘The Experience‘ in Lagos Nigeria and is known to have worked with Isreal Houghton in a song tagged ‘Surely Goodness’.

Eloho makes a stunning comeback with her latest single titled Praise Jam featuring Sunkey – off the still trending musical project – Unrestrained, which was released earlier this year and has continued to bless, edify and uplift our Spirit man and that of every other listener.

“Praise Jam” is World Fusion – a cocktail of a contemporary rhythm meshed with African percussive elements. A periodical intermission of Jazz with the horns section and an ever constant melodic rhythm of acoustic guitars.

As the title goes is expected to usher you into newer realms of praise and worship, at the same time creating within the listener a heart filled with gratitude to God for His grace and mercies.

Borne from a grateful heart, Eloho and Sunkey teams up to create a masterpiece that will in no time become a favorite on the playlist of every lover of good Gospel music.

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Praiseworld Radio celebrates UK Based Singer, songwriter “Eloho Efemuai” as she Celebrates her birthday today by thrilling us all with her new single- “Speechless” Happy Birthday Eloho!!! Excited- In her words:

“Woohoo! The long anticipated birthday single of 2015 is here ladies and gentlemen, and I trust you’re pumped with excitement.”

Eloho Efemuai of the famous Amata family – A family of top class movie makers, is a Gospel music artiste and worship pastor whom has gracefully combined the art of being a wife, mother, event host/planner, blogger (itestifyblog.blogspot.com) and music promoter with no part of it falling short of excellence. Her charming stage presence is considered a gift from God. Recently she was nominated by Crystal Awards 2015 in the category of“Best Female Artiste in Diaspora”. Her debut album titled – “Arise” album is indeed still blessing lives everywhere.

Her latest birthday offering titled – “Speechless” is borne out of deep sense of gratitude to God for all He has ever done and in her words, “God’s love is so amazing and sometimes if not most times, He does things for us and in us that just completely blows us awwaay”. It is strongly anticipated that this single would inspire all listeners and ignite the passion for God in their hearts. “Speechless” is a build up towards her sophomore album.

The soft rock tune was genuinely crafted and interpreted by the award winning singer and music production maestro, the “unrestricted” FLOROCKA of ROCKANATION. 

DOWNLOAD

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Connect with Eloho – 

Twitter: @elohoefemuai 

Instagram: elohoefemuai 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/elohosmusic

Website: www.elohoefemuai.co.uk

http://bit.ly/Speechless_By_ELOHO

Port Harcourt, NIG — Here is a brand new track from a 17 year old rapper Mehanim titled “Addiction”. He raps with the wisdom of a sage way beyond his age. He also raps with such mastery and impeccable delivery that clearly defies his age.

People struggle with addictions everyday. Ever struggled with one? Are you still struggling with some?

There’s good news. You can break free from it all.

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Mehanim is not new to music. He’s been recording songs as far back as when he was 14years old. One remarkable thing about him is that he puts money together on his own to go to the studio to record the songs he has released so far.

Mehanim is passionate about Christ – it shows in his music. He is passionate about reaching teens and older people with the gospel. His uncanny delivery and dedication to recording songs that are above average has earned him a place in the hearts of those who listen to him and yes, it has gotten him invited to minister on several platforms and courted by some platforms that want to sign him up.

Going further with the gospel is what’s on this young rapper’s mind. He is currently with the ministry managerial imprint of one of gospel music’s visibility experts.

He previously released a song called SUICIDE and today, we officially unveil Mehanim’s brand new and very much awaited single, ADDICTIONS. We have the lyrics here too…. Let’s get free from addictions!

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Stay tuned to Praiseworld Radio to listen to this song and other exclusive gospel tunes all day every day.