Asher's Blog

The purpose of starting a business is to remain in business.

That may sound obvious, but many founders behave, consciously or unconsciously, as if survival is optional. It isn’t. You have a responsibility to ensure your business does not die and you can be tactical about this. You can be disciplined, and most importantly, you can choose not to let your business die.

Here are some lessons I believe are non-negotiable if you want your business to stay alive long enough to matter.

Have a Co-Founder (But Don’t Force It)

It helps to have someone you are accountable to, someone competent enough to build with you, challenge you, and share the burden. That said, do not force a co-founder relationship.

Good partnerships are a privilege, not a guarantee, and friendship alone is not enough, you must think long-term. What you should do is project yourself into a future where the business is highly successful and ask hard questions: Will this friendship survive success? When pressure comes, will the business come before personal comfort? Can we disagree productively without destroying trust?

It seems to me that there may be no “correct” answer, only what is right for you. But never choose a co-founder out of fear, loneliness, or external pressure.

If you do have co-founders, keep it simple. Two founders is often ideal. Three can work, but complexity rises quickly. Each founder should have clearly separate responsibilities, and there must be absolute clarity on who the CEO is and why. Ambiguity and resentment at the top always leaks into failed execution.

Most importantly, sign a proper co-founders agreement. This helps you to spell out seasons, equity vesting, exits, disagreements, decision rights, and worst-case scenarios. These conversations feel uncomfortable early on but they are far less painful than having them when emotions are high and stakes are real.

Prioritise Goals Ruthlessly

Your time is limited, and so is your energy. You must learn to conserve one and maximise the other.

In business, you will always have competing goals and an endless list of tasks. The discipline is learning to identify the wildly important goal, the one goal that disproportionately affects other outcomes, and you must choose to shift your focusing there first.

Some goals are personal but foundational, like building habits that shape character. Others are commercial, like improving cashflow or distribution. Sometimes you’ll have multiple initiatives aimed at the same objective, two or three marketing experiments, for example, but you must still start with one.

Progress doesn’t come from doing everything. It comes from choosing one thing, doing it well, and then moving to the next.

Preserve Cash Like Your Life Depends on It (Because It Does)

Cash is oxygen. Run out of it, and nothing else matters. Find creative ways not to burn cash unnecessarily. Create a budget and respect it. If you’ve raised money, be especially careful, funding has a way of making founders believe money can solve every problem; it can’t. Throwing money at issues rarely fixes them; it often just delays the truth.

I’ve had to consciously rewire my mindset. So, today, for every kobo I spend, I ask how it will return at least two. This shift, from an expenditure mindset to a revenue mindset, changed everything. Even “necessary” spending must prove its value.

Prioritising cash also gives you leverage because you’re not forced to sign bad deals out of desperation. You can walk away, and that freedom is priceless.

If you haven’t raised money, especially in Africa, raising a small friends-and-family (FF) round can help. But be honest to your FF, don’t promise heaven. Tell them clearly that the money could disappear, and returns are not guaranteed. But also share the vision of an upside. I did this early on. One of my uncles gave me ₦500k monthly for three months, ₦1.5m total. By the end of that period, the business was able to sustain itself through other deals.

Which brings me to another point: find alternative cash sources. Consulting, special projects, or services can fund your core product just like Amazon did consulting work in its early days. This is normal. If you’re a founder without funding, your cash will come from savings, salary, side projects, or family. Whatever the source, do not run out of cash.

Pray, Listen, and Be Patient

This one is deeply personal.

I’ve faced many difficult seasons building Eazipay, seasons I wouldn’t have survived without complete reliance on God. At one point, I realised I had made a poor leadership decision that should have been addressed two years earlier. The consequences caught up with us, and the guilt was heavy. I felt ashamed, responsible and overwhelmed.

I ran back to God, not with explanations, but with repentance and honesty. It wasn’t just one bad decision; I had also followed poor examples for a while. The weight of that realisation was intense.

But in that season, God showed Himself to me as a Father. He taught me how to walk free from guilt, shame, and fear. I prayed; I fasted; I studied. I declared truth over my mind, and I expected a fast miracle, but instead, after about 6 months, God showed me what to do. That instruction changed everything.

One thing I’ve learned is to crave personal revelation from God. For every major goal, I wait for His word. This year, I have ten big goals, and I’m still waiting on clarity for some of them. Once I receive a word, something shifts: I become energised, joyful, and settled. External circumstances lose their power because God has spoken to me, and I have received it. After receiving it, my role is simple: it is to remain thankful, to work with excellence, and to stay attentive in case there are further instructions.

God is faithful, my friends! That’s His nature. So I encourage you: pray, listen carefully, act patiently, and do your work well. There’s more I could say about this, but I’ll save that for another post.

Ciao.