Ideation256

The Knowledge Factor

Knowledge Based Economy

Over the course of the school cycle, the phrase ‘Knowledge is Power’ was used to emphasise Knowledge as an important factor in building and polishing a learner.

The statement carries even greater significance in the perspective of a company with the offset of the modern information age.

During the traditional industrial age, production was key to success with the largest producer getting the biggest piece of the economic pie. However, a knowledge-based economy has emerged in the recent decades that is built around the creation & conveyance of accurate information to validate & conduct transactions. The tide has therefore turned towards firms with the most relevant & valid bodies of knowledge.

Knowledge?

Knowledge refers to a body of information gathered by a firm/company to inform its resource allocation & decision making, improve awareness of the firm, package its offerings & effectively market its goods & services in an economy of informed consumers.

Information is therefore the currency of this new age with a modern firm required to continuously build a strong body of knowledge.

A company should not limit itself to a narrow scope. It should embark on generating diverse & unique forms of knowledge to fully tap into the enhanced marketability & decision-making ability of knowledge in the information age. A few examples of knowledge in the context of a company include;

Company accounts & financials	Product descriptions
Project reports	Case study
Proposals & Bids	Annual report
Industry Certification	Newsletter
Company Profile	Blog Articles

Outcomes

A strong body of business knowledge provides the following positive outcomes;

A “Smarter” firm.
A firm is smarter through better & informed decision making from financial, sales & marketing information.
An “Articulate” firm
A firm articulates itself better through well defined & accurate information on a firm’s offerings & core abilities. This greatly improves sales & marketing cycles.

The Book Keeping Measure

Measure_Thy_Business an article by Ideation256

Measure your Money

Money is the fulcrum of any business operation. Like a ruler, it provides a scale to measure the business operations through the expenditure on operations, purchase of inputs for production, incentives to workers through wages, acquisition of assets & the income that pays for all these expenses with the difference that remains for the entrepreneur as profit. This gives the accurate dimensions & measure of a business operation.

Book Keeping provides the perfect tools for measuring the business. It allows for the documentation of inflows & outflows of money that are helpful for the business in accounting, controlling & planning purposes.

Forms of Book Keeping

Book keeping takes many forms. We intend to explore the simplest forms of book keeping applicable to small business records.

A Cash Book
This is the mandatory book keeping tool required by any business. It involves partitioning a book in two with one half allocated to incomes & the other to expenditures. Entries are made on a day to day basis to populate the cash book with data on the monetary activity of the business. The data is handed to an accountant to develop standard accounting documentation like income statements & balance sheets to better measure the business operation.

A Receipt Book
A receipt is a proof of payment for goods or services purchased from a business. This also plays a role of documenting all cash received by the business for goods & services sold. It provides reference for book keeping purposes and additional information like customer name, date of transaction & amounts received. This too is availed to the company accountant for review & documentation to create accounting statements. All information from the receipt should be transferred to the cash book.

Voucher
A voucher is issued for payments made by the business to outside parties like wages & purchases of inputs. Payments made by the company are properly documented & tracked with additional information like supplier & employee names. All information in the voucher should be transferred to the cash book.

A Journal
A journal provides the most convenient mode of data capture. It can take form in a diary or notebook that can easily be carried around. All financial activity is documented on a day to day basis like incomes & expenditures which are then transferred to the cash book & other relevant documents.

Outcomes

An effective book keeping culture provides the following outcomes;

Compliance with tax authorities
A measure for the business & its performance
Better accounting, planning & controlling framework for the business.
Improved understanding of the business & its operations
A step into formal business structures & a step away from informal business practice

Success is Software

Software & Process

Any business is a set of processes comprising of activities that create value.

Value is determined in quality, timeliness, relevance to need & so much more. In delivering a high level of customer value through defined processes & activities lies the factor of software.

Software are computer programs that run business processes in a quicker & more refined way. It provides the biggest source of competitive advantage for a company through streamlining business processes, improving process times, reducing labour costs & so much more.

Writing & storing each business document by hand is far less efficient, poor in quality & time consuming. Microsoft Word addresses this & offers the simplest example of software that improves the business process of documenting.

A company is therefore as good/efficient as its underlying software. As an entrepreneur, we encourage you to constantly (inexpensively) seek out software & technology that improves identified business processes of your company. This will help create a strong edge on your competition & create high value for your customers.

Process improvement

We have identified a few simple business processes & software that streamlines them to give you an insight of the business value of software. We suggest you find software specific to your industry as these are general business process software programs.

Business Process	Software
Documentation	Microsoft Word
Accounts & Book Keeping	Microsoft Excel
Presentation of Ideas & Concepts	Microsoft PowerPoint
Marketing & Advertising	Facebook, Instagram
Communication	WhatsApp
Accounting	QuickBooks

Outcomes

Improvement in business process (a lot more achieved in less time)
Reduced costs of labour (software substitutes labour)
Improved customer value through better quality of output & efficiency

Thank You for Reading

Growth is Life’s Essence

One fact of life remains constant; Growth. The positive & the negative come with it depending on how we choose to observe this unshakable life phenomenon. The 5^th day of August is my birth date & represents a major milestone in my seemingly slow growth cycle.

Over the years (that seem to fly by), I have laboured with tasks & activities on a day to day basis in pursuit of this elusive growth. Not a day goes by without me thinking of where I could, can or should be. With only my ambition & dream to cheer me on, sacrifices in the social sphere, middle class luxuries & self-fulfilling pursuits have been a tough price to pay for pursuit of growth of this child I named Ideation256. Despite the sleepless nights, conflicting mood, rain-soaked feet & long street walks, the thought of my precious child spreading her full-grown wings & flying the skies keeps me alive.

As I mark yet another year in this school of life, I rally you not to grow old but get better through positive Growth & relentlessly pursue your life’s purpose regardless of the obstacles faced along this long hard journey.

Let’s Grow Together.

Thank you for reading.

The Business Journal

The Art of Journaling

Journaling is a fruitful habit to adopt for your business management. This helps with the record keeping process & gives a convenient mode of capturing data of the business operation as it comes for future reference. A journal can take form in a simple Diary or notebook.
I started journaling in 2016 as a small casual habit. Every other day after work, I would write how my day went & narrate the standout moments & experiences. The habit gradually manifested into my business operations with the capture of data like expenses & incomes from my printer (transferred to my cash book thereafter) & tasks done over the course of day. These transcended to cash balance, inventory, weekly plans, sales calls made, orders received & money withdrawn. The small journal had become a small system that helped run my business & acted as a de facto personal assistant that oversaw the day to day running of my business.
Over the years, I’ve stuck to the habit & has grown to be a strong base for my operation. The data captured has availed a body of knowledge to understand my business through a rich set of raw usable data for analysis in the Microsoft Excel application. It has also provided a reference of experiences & ordeals I went through over the course of my business journey. It’s my hope that all entrepreneurs far & wide adopt a journaling culture to harness the power of personally generated knowledge to form strong understanding of business operations & document the amazing journey of an Entrepreneur.

Small Tips

Writing is at the heart of successful journaling. Start by honing your writing skills by patiently dedicating 20 minutes a day to writing about a topic.
Develop a habit of capturing incomes & expenditures over the course of your day & stay conscious of every one of them. This builds your financial consciousness.
You ought to enjoy the journaling process for it to have any degree of success.

Outcomes

A strong base of data that can be converted into knowledge that can be studied to understand the business.
An enjoyable accountable entrepreneurial journey.
Improved financial consciousness (understanding where your money is spent).

Thank you for Reading.

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