Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Escape the Grind: Launching a Weekend Business & Exploring Fish Farming

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Escape the Grind: Launching a Weekend Business & Exploring Fish Farming · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. I'm making today's recording
• 0:04
  from an undisclosed location in Central Area in Abuja.
• 0:08
  So expect to hear the usual interruptions in the background.
• 0:11
  Now, the goal of this show is free business education.
• 0:13
  So this is your first time tuning in.
• 0:15
  Don't worry, you're in the right place.
• 0:17
  This is not about wonderful places to visit in Abuja and if
• 0:21
  by the time you're done with the podcast you find it to be of
• 0:24
  value, please share, promote and talk about the show with your
• 0:26
  friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad so that they
• 0:29
  can benefit from the questions that we tackle.
• 0:32
  They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or
• 0:35
  any player of their choice. And if you in particular have
• 0:37
  any sales and marketing questions, then bring them to
• 0:39
  me. Call SMS or WhatsApp me on
• 0:42
  08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I want
• 0:48
  us to tackle 2 questions that I've already handled on air for
• 0:52
  the radio show. And I remembered these two
• 0:55
  questions in particular because today is Tuesday, so you know
• 0:58
  I'm going to be on the air later on 7:00 PM in the evening on
• 1:03
  Radio Maria. And so we're going to be looking
• 1:06
  at two issues. Let's see.
• 1:08
  OK, One of them is how to get into fisheries because somebody
• 1:11
  had that question. And for those of you who've been
• 1:14
  listening to the podcast for a long time, you remember the
• 1:16
  episode that I did with the fellow who runs, what do you
• 1:21
  call it, an aquaculture training institution.
• 1:25
  I've been, you know, something like that.
• 1:27
  So it's something we've done on the podcast before, So I'll just
• 1:30
  rehash that. Then let's see what else.
• 1:34
  OK, then ideas, good business ideas that can be done on
• 1:38
  weekends only. That's what people who want to
• 1:40
  do. What was it called again?
• 1:45
  What's that thing called side hustle?
• 1:47
  Yeah, for people who want to do side hustles.
• 1:49
  So let's start off with the first one.
• 1:50
  The first one. So Grace from Metama called into
• 1:54
  the radio station. She works full time, but she
• 1:57
  wants to start a business. She wants to do something part
• 1:59
  time, but she's only available on weekends.
• 2:02
  She's available on weekends only.
• 2:04
  Now. Let me see.
• 2:06
  What was that? OK, Well, it's a good question.
• 2:10
  But the problem with some of these, OK, Grace didn't call.
• 2:13
  She sent a text message. Now the problem with some of
• 2:16
  these questions, just in case, you know, dear listener, you're
• 2:20
  currently listening to this podcast because you're thinking,
• 2:22
  I want to do something I understand outside also, you
• 2:24
  know, what should I do? And then, you know, somebody who
• 2:28
  runs a podcast or a radio show or you want to go and talk to
• 2:31
  somebody here and there to get some ideas.
• 2:33
  When you're asking these sorts of questions of people, you
• 2:36
  know, the more details that you have, the better.
• 2:38
  Because the problem with answering questions like this,
• 2:41
  you know, for Grace or any other person is that, you know, really
• 2:43
  we can talk about any number of things and being plausible
• 2:48
  business ideas can go on for days.
• 2:50
  So actually, the more details that you have, the better.
• 2:52
  But I'm going to get back into this later.
• 2:56
  So of course I want, I want to know what she's currently doing,
• 2:59
  you know, because I have ideas about how your Plan B or your
• 3:02
  side hustle should be related to your plan A or what it is that
• 3:05
  you're already doing so that you can take advantage of the
• 3:07
  knowledge and the skill set and the expertise and the reputation
• 3:11
  that you already have to now channel into a side hustle.
• 3:14
  Because when you're starting off from this point using your
• 3:17
  knowledge, your expertise, your credibility, your reputation, it
• 3:20
  makes it easier to sidestep. So let's pretend that I'm not a
• 3:25
  business consultant and I still have this radio show.
• 3:27
  And then one day I say, you know what?
• 3:29
  Radio don't tire me. I want to move off into
• 3:31
  something else. If I am going to start being a
• 3:36
  consultant to help other people get radio shows, you can see
• 3:40
  that that is going to be an easier side hustle and an easier
• 3:43
  step because I'm taking advantage of my skill set in
• 3:47
  radio production, my network based, my relationship capital,
• 3:52
  my social capital that I've built, you know, with other
• 3:55
  radio stations, other show hosts.
• 4:00
  What else? The reputation that I already
• 4:02
  have, what the small reputation I have because I've only been in
• 4:04
  the, my radio show is only about 2-3 months old, you know, not
• 4:08
  that much. So you can't really say I have a
• 4:09
  reputation on radio just yet. So you can see that any business
• 4:14
  idea that I'm trying to start by taking advantage of the
• 4:17
  knowledge, the skill set, the capital, the relationships, the
• 4:22
  excuse me, the whatever, the trying to take advantage of all
• 4:28
  these soft stuff and trying to pile it into some other part
• 4:32
  time thing or some Plan B is going to be a whole lot easier
• 4:34
  than saying let me go and start something afresh.
• 4:36
  So if I say radio, don't tie me now, let me go and start selling
• 4:40
  cement. I will have to Start learning
• 4:42
  the cement business. What kind of cement?
• 4:45
  Excuse me? What kind of cement do Nigerian
• 4:47
  people like to buy? What is the best cement?
• 4:49
  Which cement is best for dry season?
• 4:51
  Which cement is best for rainy season?
• 4:53
  Where should I be importing my cement from?
• 4:55
  What is the best place to price my cement?
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  Where can I, how can I build relationships with truckers to
• 5:02
  deliver the cement to my customers?
• 5:04
  Who are the people that need cement?
• 5:06
  Where can I find, you know, it's a whole new host of questions
• 5:08
  that I'm going to be asking myself.
• 5:10
  So as a general idea, I always recommend to people if you're
• 5:13
  looking for a side hustle, you're looking for a Plan B, try
• 5:15
  and make the Plan B, the side hustle related some way to your
• 5:19
  plan A so that you're taking advantage of your knowledge,
• 5:22
  your skill set, your reputation, your expertise, your social
• 5:25
  capital, your networks, your everything.
• 5:28
  You'll make it a whole lot easier to start doing your side
• 5:31
  hustle. Now for Grace's case now I don't
• 5:35
  have any details, so I just had a freestyling so you can do
• 5:38
  freelance someone in Grace's position.
• 5:41
  So excuse me, sorry, my my little one had a cold as usual
• 5:48
  and he has affected me. So I'm trying to sort that out.
• 5:52
  What was I so for Grace now I was just freestyling so she can
• 5:56
  do freelance because you know, writing, editing, design work,
• 5:59
  graphic works, you know, all I kind of think can be done on the
• 6:02
  weekend. So you can entertain one or two
• 6:05
  phone calls or DMS during the week whenever you do all the
• 6:07
  work on the weekend. So that's a good business idea
• 6:10
  that can be done on weekends only.
• 6:12
  Photography and video or event management.
• 6:14
  That was where I started off my business journey from.
• 6:17
  So of course that one is heavily weekend based.
• 6:21
  You can talk to people, answer DMS, maybe visit somebody's
• 6:26
  office, you know, if you need be.
• 6:28
  But then once you close the deal, the actual execution, the
• 6:30
  thing that is going to take time will be on the weekend for
• 6:32
  photo, video and event management.
• 6:35
  Then you can also be a tutor. You can teach people music or
• 6:38
  fitness or whatever. I currently have a music tutor
• 6:42
  for my son. The music teacher in school says
• 6:45
  that my boy has some skills on the keyboard.
• 6:47
  So I say, well, we might as well.
• 6:49
  So we bought the keyboard and now we have a tutor so people
• 6:51
  can do that kind of business on the weekends because of course,
• 6:55
  me and the tutors, you know, when we're talking because I'm
• 6:57
  also thinking of a math tutor because my boy also has some
• 6:59
  math skills and you know, wife, he's thinking about one or two
• 7:02
  things. So we'll get him a math tutor as
• 7:06
  well. So with the tutors, we're
• 7:08
  chatting during the week and the tutor can be doing whatever it
• 7:11
  is they do. Because it's possible that my
• 7:13
  music tutor, maybe he works in NNPC, you know, 96 every day
• 7:18
  when we're trying to hook up this thing where he teaches my
• 7:21
  son on the keyboard, you know, for weekends.
• 7:24
  So it's the kind of thing that that works.
• 7:25
  And it's possible that let's say my son's math tutor or he's the
• 7:29
  one that is going to be the math tutor, the one that we're
• 7:31
  looking at. It's possible that maybe he
• 7:33
  works in Ministry of Health, for instance, and he's there from 95
• 7:38
  when we're trying to hook up these things on weekends or
• 7:40
  after working hours, he can come and tutor my son in math.
• 7:44
  So you can see that this thing works.
• 7:45
  Then of course, there's handmade crafts, you know, you make your
• 7:48
  beads, you make your elected, you make your whatever.
• 7:51
  For those of you who are not Yoruba elected, is those those
• 7:56
  beads that women wear on their waist?
• 7:58
  You know, I call them ashy beads, you know, and of course
• 8:01
  it's obvious why I call them ashy beads because they're
• 8:03
  supposed to, you know, You understand, So you can be making
• 8:07
  your like AD your crafts, your beads, your whatever.
• 8:11
  So, and The thing is, honestly, there are lots of things you can
• 8:14
  do that depend on that I weekend only kind of business.
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  So it depends on you, who are you?
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  What's your interest, what's your skill set?
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  What are your personal circumstances?
• 8:23
  So it depends. So if you ever want to ask
• 8:25
  someone this kind of question, please, the more details that
• 8:27
  you can come with someone, the better.
• 8:30
  So if you come and say I work full time because I'm a
• 8:32
  radiologist, I want to start a business that can only do on
• 8:35
  weekends. I am interested in I'm
• 8:40
  interested in business ideas that can be done from the cost,
• 8:43
  the comfort of my home, sitting behind on the computer.
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  And I am not good in writing or graphic design.
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  You know, what kind of business ideas, you know, can we can we
• 8:53
  come up with, you know, see that kind of thing that is very
• 8:55
  specific. And with that kind of thing,
• 8:58
  we'll now know that. OK, writing, freelance editing,
• 9:01
  all of that is out of the question.
• 9:04
  You know, maybe tutoring is an option about the more details
• 9:07
  that you give someone, the better.
• 9:09
  So if you're going to shoot me a question or if you're going to
• 9:12
  go to your neighbor or your pastor in church because you
• 9:16
  want to discuss business ideas, the more details that you give,
• 9:18
  the better. But then I also have a framework
• 9:21
  for starting a business, which I mentioned on the air, which I'm
• 9:24
  going to mention right now, which is that you want to make
• 9:26
  sure that you tackle 3 main things.
• 9:28
  Number one, make sure you have the right idea #2 make sure that
• 9:32
  the business idea is profitable and #3 make sure that you can
• 9:36
  build a selling framework around the idea.
• 9:38
  Now, right idea, that is when we're focused about your
• 9:41
  interests, your skill sets, your passion, or maybe problems in
• 9:46
  the market. That is how we figure out the
• 9:48
  right idea. So the right idea is just
• 9:50
  something that you have a passion for, that you're
• 9:52
  interested in, you have a skill set you already dedicate some
• 9:54
  effort to, or maybe there's some obvious gaps in the market.
• 9:58
  So like I mentioned in my estate, for instance, the other
• 10:01
  residents have been complaining since that, you know, the trash
• 10:04
  you're just piling up and nobody's getting rid of the the
• 10:06
  trash. So if you live in that kind of
• 10:10
  estate and let's say you have some idle trucks lying around,
• 10:15
  maybe used to be in construction or something, or maybe you're
• 10:18
  currently in construction where you have some idle trucks lying
• 10:20
  around, who knows, maybe that might be a way of setting up
• 10:23
  your Plan B now, OK, on the weekends, maybe we're not doing
• 10:25
  construction work, you know, you use the trucks and we'll pick up
• 10:28
  trash or something like that. But either way, that's the
• 10:30
  framework for the right idea. What are you passionate about?
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  What are you interested in? What is your skill set?
• 10:35
  What are you already putting effort towards?
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  And then what are the gaps are in the market?
• 10:41
  What are the needs in the market?
• 10:43
  So I think that that's a better way to focus on this whole thing
• 10:46
  of I want to do a business, what business can I do?
• 10:50
  So like I said, I'm repeating the more details the better.
• 10:54
  But apart from that, let me be frank with you guys.
• 10:57
  We are currently in 2025 or in 2025.
• 11:03
  There's absolutely no reason why in my own opinion, you should be
• 11:07
  asking somebody this kind of question.
• 11:08
  Because we have Google and because we have ChatGPT, we have
• 11:14
  Google Gemini, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 11:16
  You can easily prompt these sorts of things.
• 11:19
  Lots of people are thinking that the problem is the business
• 11:22
  idea. The problem is not the idea.
• 11:23
  The problem is the execution. The problem is that lots of us
• 11:27
  don't well, when we even come up with the idea, we're not
• 11:29
  executing on gang, we're not executing on nothing, We're not
• 11:32
  executing Shishi. So take advantage of Google and
• 11:37
  start Googling some ideas. Some things will come up.
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  The ones that don't make sense, disregard the one that look like
• 11:42
  is workable, then try go and execute.
• 11:44
  It's only then that will now know that OK, this is working,
• 11:47
  this what's up. This one is good, this one is
• 11:49
  rubbish, this one is trash. That's the only way that will
• 11:51
  make progress. So you really don't have to be
• 11:53
  asking people these kind of questions in 2025.
• 11:56
  I understand the business. What should I be doing?
• 11:57
  You obviously don't. You can just Google the thing or
• 12:02
  we ChatGPT, come up with a prompt, nice prompt, flesh it
• 12:06
  out and you get some good results.
• 12:09
  So in this case, you just get the ChatGPT.
• 12:12
  You say I'm an XYZ because you have to give me some context.
• 12:16
  You know I'm an XYZ. OK?
• 12:17
  I'm a student living in Abiokuta.
• 12:21
  I have a a part time hostel working in the ministry of Greek
• 12:28
  as an admin officer. I'm interested in blah, blah,
• 12:30
  blah, blah, blah and and I'm looking for a possible business
• 12:34
  that I can do as a side hustle on the weekend.
• 12:38
  Give me and give me possible ideas.
• 12:42
  The give me possible ideas that I can start for a side hustle
• 12:45
  that I can start for a business that only require me to work on
• 12:48
  weekends and then back. And they send you'll be shocked,
• 12:52
  but Jeremy and I will come out with some things that make
• 12:54
  sense. Tragedy to come out with some
• 12:55
  things that make sense. Copilot will come up with some
• 12:57
  things that make sense. The ones that make sense, just
• 12:59
  isolate them right now, like 3 or 4 of them.
• 13:02
  And then you just said, OK, 2025, let me try out these ideas
• 13:05
  and see, see what can happen. So the main thing is not the
• 13:09
  idea. You should stop feeling as if I
• 13:11
  don't have idea. I don't have idea, I don't have
• 13:13
  it. Like we're in 2025, we have
• 13:14
  passed that stage. For our parents, yes, they would
• 13:18
  have to go and sit with a business coach or go and sit
• 13:20
  with a pastor or go and ask your friend or go and ask a guidance
• 13:22
  counselor or something. But for us, we can sit down with
• 13:27
  our phone or our laptop and you know, back, back about one hour,
• 13:31
  we have two or three ideas that we can try.
• 13:35
  And then the main thing now is you try and see, OK, is this
• 13:37
  thing profitable? Is there money here?
• 13:40
  Can I sell this thing? So please, idea should not be
• 13:44
  holding any back in 2025. Idea should not, especially with
• 13:49
  Google, especially with ChatGPT, especially with all the AI tools
• 13:52
  that we have, Idea should not be holding you back.
• 13:55
  Just sit down, do this thing backward back, come up with some
• 13:57
  three ideas, 3 or 4 ideas, and then start validating.
• 14:01
  In fact, in my own opinion, you're better off saying I went
• 14:05
  to charge a BTI, went to Germany, I went to Google, I did
• 14:08
  some research. This is what I found, you know,
• 14:11
  and I like ideas 4-5 and nine. How do I start a business in 4-5
• 14:17
  and nine? You're better off asking that
• 14:19
  kind of question and saying what kind of idea should I have for
• 14:22
  my business? No, we're going to sit down.
• 14:24
  We all have phones. We all have computers.
• 14:26
  Sit down, do some small research.
• 14:28
  Then if you're going to now go and talk to your pastor, you're
• 14:31
  better off going to your pastor. Oh, pastor, I'm thinking of
• 14:33
  starting chicken business. I'm thinking of starting poultry
• 14:35
  business. I'm thinking of starting of
• 14:37
  selling mattress, but I'm lost. I don't know how to get into
• 14:42
  this kind of business. So do you know anybody who's
• 14:44
  involved in this kind of business that can tutor me or
• 14:47
  that can mentor me? That is a much more fruitful
• 14:49
  conversation to have than to roll up on somebody and say,
• 14:52
  hey, mommy, I want to start a business.
• 14:53
  I don't know what to do. That's to anyhow anyhow.
• 14:58
  But then if you're going, if you're going to have this
• 15:00
  conversation with Popsy and say, oh, Popsy, I'm thinking of
• 15:02
  starting a business. I understand.
• 15:04
  I want to become a cobbler. I want to be making shoes Popsy.
• 15:08
  What do you think? That's a different conversation.
• 15:09
  That's a much more fruitful conversation I have.
• 15:11
  So please, by 2025, nobody should be saying I don't know
• 15:17
  what idea is there, if anything, with the amount of resources
• 15:21
  that we have, we have the Internet and stuff.
• 15:24
  Anyway, let me let me overflow this issue.
• 15:26
  So that's the first question. So second question.
• 15:30
  Oh, by the way, don't worry, I didn't scored over the radio.
• 15:32
  No, if I, if I do that, they'll chase me off of the do chase me
• 15:36
  off of the airwaves. So the question, the second
• 15:38
  question we're going to tackle is OK, Another caller, Maria,
• 15:42
  she intends to get into fisheries.
• 15:44
  We are for her. It was a phone call.
• 15:46
  Of course. I told her that, oh, you know
• 15:47
  what a bad idea. Give me some time.
• 15:49
  Let me take this thing. Let me come back because I had
• 15:53
  interviewed somebody in the past for the podcast about these
• 15:56
  sorts of things. So now let's look into how to
• 15:59
  get into fish farming. In case there's anybody who's
• 16:00
  listening to this podcast who wants to get into fish farming,
• 16:05
  Of course, I have mentioned that my framework for starting a
• 16:08
  business is we want to have the right idea.
• 16:10
  We want to make sure that the business idea is profitable or
• 16:12
  that they demand for this thing. And we want to make sure that we
• 16:15
  can come up with the selling framework.
• 16:16
  So the reason why I say it is because I'm going to make a very
• 16:19
  cardinal assumption here. And my assumption is that Maria
• 16:23
  is interested in fish or that Maria is passionate about fish,
• 16:29
  or that Maria has some skill set when it comes to fish, or that
• 16:33
  Maria has been doing some small, small things, just putting some
• 16:35
  effort here and there when it comes to fish or fisheries or
• 16:39
  aquaculture or aquatic agriculture, you know, whatever
• 16:43
  it is that people call it. So that is 1 assumption that I'm
• 16:46
  making. So let's get off the table now
• 16:49
  assuming that that assumption is correct.
• 16:51
  The next question now is, is this business profitable and is
• 16:54
  there demand for this thing? Now in her own case, for Maria,
• 16:57
  this involves understanding the local market in Abuja and the
• 17:01
  customer base in Abuja. Is there a market for this kind
• 17:05
  of fish that I want to do? Do households buy plenty of
• 17:08
  fish? What about hotel and garden?
• 17:10
  Because in Abuja, hotel and garden is everywhere.
• 17:13
  Everywhere you come out of your estate, you look to the left,
• 17:16
  you see garden, you look to the right, you see garden.
• 17:18
  In fact, my uncle in law is currently visiting Abuja.
• 17:22
  And so one of his boys came, I'd come and see him aspire.
• 17:25
  It's been a long while. So they say they will go
• 17:27
  somewhere and they just take like, you know, one or two
• 17:29
  bottles. So that's how they entered the
• 17:31
  garden. They came out of the estates.
• 17:32
  You just looked at the left, you see one guy in the enter.
• 17:35
  So as night time fell now and there was just, you know,
• 17:37
  knocking back the beer and enjoying themselves because my
• 17:40
  uncle's friend came with his wife.
• 17:42
  That's how the wife now say Jesus.
• 17:44
  And then he said what is it? They say look over there.
• 17:46
  And also that was some young girls on the stage, you know,
• 17:48
  winding and grinding scantily, cloud and everything.
• 17:51
  Jesus, let's move, let's move, let's move.
• 17:53
  You know, they didn't know that the place that they had entered
• 17:55
  is not only a garden where you can go and take pepper soup and
• 17:59
  drink stout and or not, but then they also have a strippers
• 18:02
  there. And so my uncle came back now
• 18:04
  was giving us just like everybody knows now there are
• 18:06
  strippers in that place is like I say, yes, uncle now is a is a
• 18:09
  big business. Yeah, is is normal is in Abuja.
• 18:12
  You find these places all the time.
• 18:14
  And you know, he was shocked because uncle in law hasn't been
• 18:16
  in the country for a while. So he's shocked to see that we
• 18:19
  have, you know, advanced in quotes, you know, to that level.
• 18:21
  By the way, what I'm trying to say is that this, you know,
• 18:25
  hotel business, garden business, you know, everywhere in Abuja,
• 18:28
  I'm not sure about Lagos. So Maria has to do her research
• 18:34
  in the hotels, in the gardens. Are they doing fish?
• 18:37
  What kind of fish are they buying?
• 18:38
  Is there good demand? Because if you have the
• 18:43
  interest, the passion, the skill set, the effort, the whatever
• 18:47
  you've been doing Dublin, small, small, but there is no demand.
• 18:50
  You're starting off at 0, absolute zero.
• 18:54
  There is an entrepreneur that I spoke to a very long time ago.
• 18:58
  They were trying to think of some alternatives to cement
• 19:00
  because people are doing building projects all over the
• 19:03
  world and not everybody's having to use cement.
• 19:06
  And so the person was trying to start a business around this.
• 19:09
  And for me, that was one of my primary questions, like, OK,
• 19:12
  this is a solid idea. OK, yeah.
• 19:14
  In Brazil, in this place, in this place, this thing is
• 19:16
  catching on. But currently right now, I mean,
• 19:19
  are Nigerians demanding any other thing apart from cement,
• 19:25
  especially since Dangote is here, Dangote is producing
• 19:28
  cement and we also have other alternatives of cement that are
• 19:32
  imported. So are Nigerians looking for
• 19:34
  anything apart from cement? It can be a wonderful idea, it
• 19:39
  can be a groundbreaking idea, it can be a revolutionary idea, but
• 19:43
  if there is no demand for this thing and if you don't have a
• 19:46
  plan to try and kick start some demand or try and get some
• 19:50
  product market fit, then you are dead on arrival.
• 19:53
  The thing will not fly. So the next question is really
• 19:59
  important. Is this thing profitable?
• 20:00
  Is there any demand for it? So that's the next stage for
• 20:03
  Maria. So if you want to get into the
• 20:04
  future business, you know, these are questions you should be
• 20:06
  asking yourself. Then next will be what specie as
• 20:10
  my biology teacher used to say. What specie or fish are you
• 20:13
  going to do? The fellow that I spoke to
• 20:16
  interviewed for the podcast, he said that basically when you
• 20:19
  talk about fish on, you know, on this part of the continent, you
• 20:24
  know, West Africa and then up, you know, West Africa all the
• 20:27
  way to, you know, like that kind of Sudan, Egypt, you know, all
• 20:30
  these places. He said basically I might be,
• 20:33
  I'm assuming that he has given me correct information because
• 20:37
  he actually did study aquaculture.
• 20:38
  I think he studied aquaculture in FUTA.
• 20:41
  Is it FUTA or photo? I can't remember which of the
• 20:45
  universities of technology he's either a photo a photo grad.
• 20:48
  And this is what he studied aquaculture and then he has also
• 20:51
  spent some time in other African countries, you know, studying
• 20:55
  this kind of thing. So I'm assuming that guys give
• 20:57
  me correct gist. But if you're in aquaculture
• 21:00
  space and you say like your boy, you know, he's not feeding you
• 21:02
  correct information. And please let me know so I can
• 21:04
  come on the podcast and let people know that, Oh, you know
• 21:06
  that podcast episode where I said for fisheries, not like
• 21:09
  this, not like this, you know that.
• 21:10
  No, actually the information that I got was known point.
• 21:14
  So based on my guy told me now when it comes to fish farming in
• 21:19
  sub-Saharan Africa, basically you're looking at that catfish
• 21:23
  or tilapia straight up the other species, but you're looking at
• 21:29
  catfish or tilapia catfish because catfish is resilient.
• 21:32
  If they say catfish is a stubborn fish, the thing refuses
• 21:34
  to die, the thing catches disease and it continues going.
• 21:37
  So it's very resilient and that's the reason why people do
• 21:40
  catfish. Apart from that, there's a
• 21:42
  demand for it. And well, in Abuja, in Makudi,
• 21:45
  it looks like there's a demand for it because everywhere I
• 21:47
  turn, you turn to the left, somebody's grilling catfish, you
• 21:50
  turn to the right, somebody's doing pepper soup, catfish, you
• 21:54
  know, all these sorts of things. So catfish then he said tilapia.
• 21:58
  Now the reason why tilapia is good is because of the profit
• 22:01
  margin. So tilapia you'll be making more
• 22:04
  money per head of tilapia. The problem is tilapia is very
• 22:09
  very tilapia and a jabo fish. You know they say that tilapia
• 22:12
  gets sick very easily. Any small thing to tilapia will
• 22:15
  just die. And he said that tilapia is
• 22:19
  mostly like an the like the Egyptians, you know, the people
• 22:23
  up, up, up that side. You know, when you say
• 22:24
  sub-Saharan Africa, the people who are up, up, you know, not
• 22:27
  those of us who are downtown, not Nigeria, Ghana, Cote
• 22:31
  d'Ivoire, you know, So when you go up, up, up, you know, close
• 22:33
  to the Arabs. So they're the ones that have
• 22:35
  cornered that that market. But essentially that's what
• 22:38
  you're looking at catfish or tilapia beside on the species.
• 22:43
  Then you also have to think about what it takes, you know,
• 22:46
  the operations. You have to be ready for that.
• 22:49
  You're going to have to, you need land because you're going
• 22:52
  to do it at the back of your house.
• 22:53
  I can tell you from experience because I've lived in one of
• 22:57
  those places where somebody decides to erect a catfish pond
• 23:02
  and the man the this smell as in all of us who are suffering
• 23:07
  seriously because the smell is on another is on another level.
• 23:10
  So you need land for sure. It's not something you can come
• 23:14
  and do at the well. If you want to be a wicked
• 23:16
  neighbor, you can go and do it at the back of your house anyway
• 23:18
  and tell the rest of your neighbors that they should go
• 23:19
  and F off. But you need land because you're
• 23:23
  going to have to erect a pond and because you also have to do
• 23:26
  drainage. If you don't do the drainage,
• 23:28
  the smell will be on another level.
• 23:31
  Think about it. You have a pond.
• 23:33
  You have like 500 catfish inside the catfish when they want to
• 23:36
  pee, where do they pee in the water.
• 23:38
  When they want to poop, where do they poop?
• 23:40
  In the water. Some of them will die.
• 23:42
  Whether they die in the water, man, that's a nasty smell.
• 23:46
  So operations, you need to figure that out.
• 23:48
  Need some land, then finance. You need to start up capital.
• 23:51
  It's not something you start small, small because you have to
• 23:53
  go and buy the the guppies. That's the baby fish you buy the
• 23:58
  guppies you buy for water. Buy water.
• 24:01
  OK, maybe you're connected to water board, but you have to buy
• 24:03
  feed. You also have to buy medicine.
• 24:07
  You have to pay for veterinary services.
• 24:11
  What again? So you definitely need some
• 24:13
  startup capital. This is not something that you
• 24:15
  just start a podcast and then you're in business.
• 24:17
  Then there's also the management things that you have to worry
• 24:19
  about cleaning, admin, accounting really, really
• 24:22
  important. Are you the one that's going to
• 24:23
  be waking up every day to be cleaning up?
• 24:26
  You know that all that poop and pee in the pond?
• 24:29
  Because I've seen this thing happen.
• 24:31
  Like I said, my neighbors doing this thing.
• 24:33
  So you see that today do flush out water and they put new water
• 24:38
  two or three days. Now the water has just turned
• 24:39
  green and it's slimy. So who's going to be doing all
• 24:42
  that cleaning every day? Who's going to be doing all that
• 24:44
  work then? Let's see.
• 24:47
  So these are some of the things you need to talk about
• 24:50
  operations wise. Then if you want to get into
• 24:52
  fisheries, then in fact for fisheries in particular, fish
• 24:58
  and chicken, because all I put it, there's some kind of
• 25:04
  businesses like fish and chicken and these sorts of things that
• 25:07
  if you don't do adequate training, if you don't know
• 25:10
  what's up, you won't know anything about disease
• 25:13
  prevention, about proper feeding and about water quality, air
• 25:16
  quality, these kind of things. You know, the one I'm trying to
• 25:18
  say is that you can say, let me get into catfish business or
• 25:21
  into chicken business and let me just drop like 300K worth of
• 25:24
  capital, but then you're not adequately trained because of
• 25:27
  that overnight all your chicken will just die or your fish will
• 25:30
  just die. And that's how you've lost
• 25:31
  money. These things happen.
• 25:34
  I've not seen, but I've had gist that somebody buys, you know, X
• 25:38
  number of fish today and then next week every single thing
• 25:42
  have died. This is how.
• 25:44
  So you need adequate training. Now in Nigeria, we have the
• 25:47
  National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries, that is
• 25:50
  the NIFFR. You know, trust me, Nigerians no
• 25:53
  longer acronyms. So you go there, you can get
• 25:55
  training on aquaculture. Then there's also the Africa
• 25:59
  projects development, something I can't remember but the
• 26:02
  initiatives are, I say initiatives.
• 26:04
  The initials are APDC and now it is based in Abuja.
• 26:07
  So that's why I got now for Maria.
• 26:09
  And then they have training in Agri business and aquaculture.
• 26:13
  Aquaculture means we are learning how to be farming the
• 26:16
  fish. Agri business means not only
• 26:21
  have we learned the aquaculture, how to farm the fish, but we're
• 26:25
  also learning the business side. How do we find customers?
• 26:28
  How do we sell the fish? How do we negotiate?
• 26:30
  How do we haggle? How do we export, How do we
• 26:33
  import? So if you want to get through
• 26:35
  the fish farming business, it is my recommendation that actually
• 26:39
  you should be looking at things from these two sides of the
• 26:41
  equation. Don't don't only go and learn
• 26:44
  the aquaculture, how do we farm the fish, but also learn the
• 26:47
  Agri business side, how do we sell the fish?
• 26:50
  Growing the fish is one thing, selling the fish is something
• 26:53
  entirely. Now, like I said, the reason why
• 26:56
  all this training is important is because if you F up on
• 27:00
  disease prevention and proper feeding and water quality and
• 27:04
  air quality and living space and everything, all your fish, all
• 27:08
  your chicken, they will just die one time.
• 27:12
  One disease will come and wipe out everything because these
• 27:15
  things live in close quarters. If you're farming catfish, you
• 27:18
  know all 500 of them, they're the same pool.
• 27:20
  If one of them catches HIV, all the rest of the all the rest of
• 27:25
  the catfish rockets HIV, as if fishes can catch HIV and all of
• 27:29
  them would die. If all your chicks, chickens are
• 27:33
  in one coop and one of them catches bad flu, I mean, they're
• 27:36
  there, one who sneeze on another, the other who sneeze on
• 27:38
  another and overnight all of them will get sick and all of
• 27:41
  them will die. So adequate training please, so
• 27:46
  that we can stop hearing these horror stories because we still
• 27:49
  hate that somebody dropped 500 K to start this thing January 1st
• 27:54
  and then by, you know, January 14th what happened?
• 27:57
  Everything just died. So please, adequate training,
• 28:01
  very, very important. I stressed it for Maria and I'm
• 28:03
  stressing it for anybody who's listening.
• 28:05
  If you want to get involved in fish farming or aquaculture or
• 28:08
  Agri this or you know, whatever it is.
• 28:10
  So that's all for today folks. If you have any sales and
• 28:13
  marketing questions, like I said, bring them to me.
• 28:16
  Call SMS, WhatsApp on 08064662140.
• 28:22
  But please, we are in 2025, you know, don't hit me up asking
• 28:24
  some questions like, oh, what kind of business should I start?
• 28:27
  No, we, we have, we have gone past that, that stage.
• 28:29
  You know a few things about yourself.
• 28:31
  You know a few things about the Internet.
• 28:32
  We're better off searching one or two things and then you come
• 28:36
  to somebody saying I am thinking of starting business of either
• 28:39
  selling cars or opening salon. I'm not sure which one to start.
• 28:43
  What do you think that one is a much more fruitful conversation
• 28:45
  that just come in blanket coming open like that and just saying
• 28:51
  bold how to start a business? What kind of business should I
• 28:53
  start? Because honestly, if you come
• 28:55
  without any details, without any any prior research, what kind of
• 28:58
  business should I start? The answer is it can be anything
• 29:00
  under the sun. You can sell car, you can open
• 29:02
  restaurant, you can cell phone, you can fry a Cara.
• 29:05
  You can be a consultant, you can be a music coach, you can it can
• 29:09
  be anything. So thank you very much for your
• 29:11
  time and attention. I will catch you, dear
• 29:13
  listeners, at the next episode.