by Mary Maseko
Everyone uses finance at some point in their lives when they need capital supplied by another. Often, this term is used for the study of economics and how money is controlled. A more general and accepted definition is the control of business plus public sector assets and money. This of course requires the use of specialist trained in money matters often referred to as finance managers.
Managing this involves dealing with the optimization and allocation of funds to various areas either by borrowing or by using those available from internal resources. The term optimization is used to explain the procedure whereby finance is maximized by reducing costs and increasing the return.
Poor finance is the cause of depressed markets caused when managers have not followed the optimization rule which leads to lower production and lower sales globally. It is for this very reason that finance managers are very careful with finance they agree too and where it is funded from.
A well know marketing and management guru Lee Iacocca said that finance managers always looked at the cost involved in a finance deal and not the future return. The big difference between finance managers and sales managers is the direction they are facing; a sales manager is looking forward, towards the future. Many small business owners forget that the business loan they have arranged is not for personal use; a distinction which gets blurred regularly. When money is lent under these circumstances, lenders feel quite aggrieved as they have lost control of where the money is being invested.
Although resisting the tendency to use funds this way may dampen someone’s enthusiasm in the short term, it will focus the attention of the borrower and perhaps instill more discipline in the future. Small businesses can be very flexible, however, and call upon friends, other businesses, family members, even their own bank for finance.
Lenders prefer to use money from elsewhere because it lowers their risk but still allows for a healthy profit to be received by the finance company. Banks have always been known as institutions that prefer to lend money to those that least need it which is why if you are already wealthy and require a loan it is often arranged at a preferential rate of interest.