Hello!
Thursday, July 26th, 2007Hello!
I have chased money since 1998. The dream was to start a small company and make it big. Then sell it to a larger company and laugh all the way to the bank. So I bought the ‘Maids To Order’ franchise to start a cleaning business in Dubai.
Guess what. It did not happen that way. I forgot that I had to make a profit first, and instead focused on growth in sales and what was required to continue to grow.
So when I started running out of cash I chased the next thing. Trading in Steel. Then coal and timber. Then Real Estate investment. Then distribution of cosmetics and DVD players. Always focusing on how to generate growth, but now with atleast one eye on generating cash.
When my latest investor pulled out I was a wreck. Not because I was worried about investors - by God’s grace, investors some how appear to help me - but because I had to focus on making a profit and not worry about growth!
I have succesfully done this in Varal Logistics LLC where we are making a profit in the first year because we have not invested in growth, and also the clinic where we went from losing thousands of dirhams every month to a profitable, low cost operation.
Now it is time for me to learn to stay with a business till it dies, and become an expert at it. This is difficult. I am an ADD character with a low interest span!
Working on it!
