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Howard is in his mid-40s, and lives with his wife and two children on the East Rand, Gauteng. Howard is a disciplined saver and managed to accumulate R100 000, which he used to start a successful rooms-to-let business.
However, he needs to look at how to manage the debt he has incurred while creating the business, as well as how to handle the cash flow from the rental income. He wants to build up an emergency fund and pay off the personal loans he used to renovate the properties.
The big dream:
Howard’s dream is to pay off his personal loans and then expand his rooms-to-let business using his own cash.
Worst financial mistake:
“My biggest financial mistake was running a business without doing any market research or a risk assessment. I lost more than R100 000, which came from my retrenchment package,” says Howard.
He acknowledges that, even with his current business, he could have done better research on where to buy building materials.
His adviser:
Elton Govender works with business banking at Absa. He is an entrepreneur and is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground.
“My first priority for Howard is to help him restructure the loans he took for the properties. There are far more cost-effective ways to finance them.”
