Having your own money as a growing young woman can save you from a lot of embarrassment, frustration, and poor decisions. Many relationships that some girls find themselves in today are based on monetary benefits, which shouldn't be the case.
I'm not the kind of person who can easily ask someone for help, especially financial help. I don’t even like the idea because most people help others with intentions, which can make you feel indebted to them in one way or another. I love the feeling of spending the money I worked for.
One lady once disagreed with me, saying that as a girl, you should be ready to receive, ask for, and accept gifts. But is it that easy? Isn't it safer to be more of a giver than a receiver?
So, I started browsing the internet and asking older friends for business ideas. I made some connections and decided to go with a clothing business. Along the way, I faced a lot of challenges and experienced so many losses that it wiped out all my savings. Most of these losses were caused by people I trusted; they scammed me, and before I knew it, I was back to square one. All my savings were gone in my pursuit of investment. I even went into debt because I had to refund the people who paid for some goods that were never delivered.
I learned many lessons from this experience, and the first one I want to highlight is desperation. I was desperate to start a business and to multiply my savings. I realized that anyone desperate for something is likely to make poor decisions and fall victim to dubious people.
The second lesson on my list is the importance of doing research and seeking mentorship.
I unknowingly skipped many steps that I should have taken as someone who had never done business before, especially since my parents aren't in the business world either.
I had zero knowledge of how business works, yet I went ahead and tried to establish one. I should have focused on the basics, which include research, business coaching, and financial coaching. I'm not clueless about finance, but I shouldn't have overlooked these essential steps. Unfortunately, no one pointed these out to me as a necessity.
So far, I've learned many life lessons, but this experience brought to me the most recent and important ones:
- to avoid being desperate for something or, worse, acting out of desperation.
- We need to protect our savings, conduct research, and seek knowledge from experts or experienced individuals when we want to invest or start a business, knowing that one wrong investment decision can set us back to square one.
- Lastly, it is advisable to pursue what we are passionate about because even if you find yourself back at square one, you'll have the perseverance to try again.
I would love to conclude by saying that it is important to maintain a positive mindset toward failure and understand that it's okay to try different things until we discover what we do best. It was my first attempt at a business, and while I failed, I don't regret it, even though I still feel the pain because I'm yet to recover all that I lost.
Starting your own business isn’t an easy task and we are all bound to make some bad decisions along the line.
I equally made some bad decisions when I started my business also but all these experiences are lessons for me today.
I love seeing young ladies striving to do better. Keep pushing on, your breakthrough is near.🤝❤️
I'm glad you made it, that is very encouraging.
Thank you for your nice words, Nhaji.