Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Beyond Plan A: Finding Your Next Business or Career Path with Existing Assets.
Transcript
- 0:00Hello and welcome to the show today.
- 0:03And I am at an undisclosed location for different reasons
- 0:07and I have a few minutes so as let me just make a recording
- 0:09real quick. So there's going to be some
- 0:11interruptions, cars, people, who knows, maybe chickens and cows.
- 0:15If this is your first time listening to the podcast, the
- 0:17goal of this show is free business education.
- 0:20So don't worry, I'm not here to talk about cows and chickens.
- 0:23So if by the time we're done, you get value from this share,
- 0:26promote and talk about it so that your friends and family
- 0:28members and even your enemies in Nigeria and abroad can benefit
- 0:31from the questions that we tackle.
- 0:33Why do you worry about your enemies?
- 0:34Because if your enemies make more money, automatically make
- 0:36money as well. But we can talk about that
- 0:37later. So people can follow by
- 0:40subscribing. Spotify, YouTube, Apple, any
- 0:43player of your choice. And then if you have any sales
- 0:46and marketing questions, dear listener, the person who is
- 0:48listening right now, if you have any questions by the time we're
- 0:50done, bring them to me, call me, SMS me, WhatsApp me on
- 0:5408064662140. Today on the show I want to
- 1:01explore. OK, Another caller who called me
- 1:06on the on the radio, that's on my radio show, Joyce Hilar's
- 1:09based in Guadalajara. She called on 15th of April.
- 1:12And the reason why she called was because she's in the poultry
- 1:14business. But then you know how my
- 1:17inflation now, so cost of everything is now high because
- 1:20of that, people are not buying live chicken like before.
- 1:22You know, in the past, you know me, I've always been a frozen
- 1:26chicken kind of guy. Go and buy the frozen chicken
- 1:28and chop it up. Although Mumsy says that frozen
- 1:30chicken is tasteless. Well, you know me, I don't care.
- 1:32Just go and buy that thing, chop it up, you know, throw some
- 1:34pepper on it, fried that thing. Just, you know, you can't eat it
- 1:38real nice. But my mumsy and my popsy, rest
- 1:41in peace. My dad has been dead for a
- 1:42while, but mumsy was was brought up in the village.
- 1:46Popsy was also brought up in the village.
- 1:47So for them, they prefer the, you know, local chicken, the one
- 1:51that, you know, eats food from the ground and you know, and
- 1:54blah, blah, blah. They said that that thing tastes
- 1:55nice. But to be honest, you know, I'm
- 1:57a modern kid, so I can't tell the difference.
- 1:59Is it local chicken? I will eat it.
- 2:01Is it foreign chicken, I will eat it.
- 2:02Is it frozen chicken? I will eat it.
- 2:05But because of the way hyperinflation is just running
- 2:08rampant in Niger, people are not buying whole chicken again.
- 2:12So Joyce, alas, is saying that, man, this poultry business, you
- 2:15know, too pure again. In fact, she even says that
- 2:18people, because she sells through agents in the market
- 2:20that mark the people in the market are even holding her
- 2:22inventory up to 150 K. That's how much money has been
- 2:26tied. So she can't continue.
- 2:28And she's now thinking that, whoa, let me move on to
- 2:31something new. What other business can I try?
- 2:34So that's the reason why she reached out.
- 2:37Now, I think there's something that we should look over here on
- 2:40the podcast because there are lots of people who you're doing
- 2:43a business, you're doing A also, you're doing a career, that's
- 2:45your plan A. But then something happens and
- 2:48I'm thinking or more I suppose get Plan B, maybe start working
- 2:51on something else. Now the problem is lots of
- 2:54people when they have plan A and I want to do Plan B, then I'll
- 2:57start looking for something fresh, something new, something
- 3:00entirely different, which in itself is not bad.
- 3:04The problem is if you do a Plan B that's not related to your
- 3:07plan A, you're going to invest time.
- 3:08You're going to invest resources in learning something new,
- 3:12building new connections, building a new reputation,
- 3:14learning a new market, learning new skills, learning new
- 3:17customers, learning new stakeholders, learning new XYZ
- 3:20and all these things. They take a lot of time and
- 3:23reduces the amount of time that you can start putting money in
- 3:26your pocket. Because for someone who is in
- 3:27Madame Joy situation, actually the goal is to try and see
- 3:31because let's face it, she has inventory in, you know, in
- 3:35stock, then the one that is still outside with the market
- 3:39dealers to the tune of 150 K. So she's in a situation where
- 3:42she actually needs to start making money.
- 3:46No, no, no, not let me go and try something else.
- 3:50Like let's say if she says she wants to do cassava farming, you
- 3:53don't have to Start learning about cassava.
- 3:56You know how to Start learning farming.
- 3:58You don't have to Start learning.
- 4:00Is it raining season or dry season?
- 4:01When are we going to harvest? You don't have to learn
- 4:04processing fertilizer. You know, it's it's a it's a
- 4:09whole lot. But for someone in that
- 4:11situation, the goal is let's try and say we can get some quick
- 4:13Muller now and let's see how we can stop the the money that is
- 4:18bleeding out of the business. Let's say we can slow that down
- 4:20now. Now some of you say this sounds
- 4:22similar. Now, we've discussed this kind
- 4:24of thing before, and yes, we have, but this is just another
- 4:26example about how your Plan B should be related to your plan
- 4:30A. Because if you want to get a
- 4:33Plan B and it's tied into your plan A, you're going to be able
- 4:36to take advantage of your existing knowledge, your
- 4:40existing skills, your existing reputation, your existing
- 4:44connections, your existing network, and then your existing
- 4:47capital. Capital means the things you
- 4:49have already invested on ground because for somebody like Madame
- 4:53Joy, she has already invested things on ground in raising
- 4:56chickens. So for those who listen to the
- 5:00earlier episode where I mentioned her case, you know
- 5:03that somebody called live and say, well, I'm sure what this
- 5:06guy is saying is correct. How about instead of doing
- 5:09poultry for meat, that's a broiler, how about doing poultry
- 5:13for eggs? That is layers.
- 5:15And I said fantastic. That is a very good idea because
- 5:18you can see now for somebody who has existing capital on ground
- 5:23for raising chickens before poultry, you can see that we
- 5:26want all 2 modifications. You can now take advantage of
- 5:30the things that you've invested on ground and now roll it over
- 5:33into doing chickens for. So I was again for late for
- 5:38layers. I mean instead of doing broiler,
- 5:40you now do layers, you know, for eggs.
- 5:43So that's the whole point. So that kind of thing.
- 5:45Now you are not trying to learn a business afresh because if
- 5:50Madam Joe wants to go, like I said, from chickens to cassava
- 5:53is to Start learning new things. This one of the learning that is
- 5:56required is minimal because, you know, chicken is chicken.
- 6:00There are difference in broilers and there's difference in
- 6:02layers. But one that she has to learn is
- 6:04not too much because she's already been in space for
- 6:06several years. The modification that you will
- 6:09make to your building or to whatever is not as big as if you
- 6:13want to now go and start doing maybe.
- 6:16Yeah, yam or cassava business, you know, because the place that
- 6:19you store chickens, I doubt that you can store yam confidently in
- 6:24that place. Because let me see, OK, let me
- 6:27not speculate because to be honest, it's been a while since
- 6:29I even studied a Greek, a Greek economics.
- 6:32I mean, was it a Greek economics?
- 6:34Now, when I secondary school, I can't remember.
- 6:36So that's the whole idea. Now, let your Plan B come from
- 6:40your existing skills, your existing knowledge, your
- 6:42existing capital, your existing reputation, your existing
- 6:45business, your existing career. So I just wanted to talk more
- 6:50details about that conversation with Madam, Madam Joy, what we
- 6:54came up with. So the layers thing, now, at the
- 6:59time it sounded like a good idea, but by the time me and
- 7:01Madame George spoke one-on-one was like, well, you know, the
- 7:04idea makes sense. But they still one or two things
- 7:07because apparently it turns out that broilers and layers, even
- 7:11though you know, chicken are chicken, it turns out that
- 7:14layers require different kind of medication, different kind of
- 7:17diet and different kind of housing.
- 7:19So yes, there's some modifications to be made.
- 7:22So, you know, it's a pity because I'm trying to come up
- 7:24with ideas. I should be able to move with,
- 7:25you know, sharp, sharp, sharp and pivot to something new.
- 7:29So well. But you know, what I said is
- 7:32still correct Because yes, even though the modifications are now
- 7:35going to amount to more money than I thought, at least it's
- 7:39not the same kind of stress as saying I'm going to go and learn
- 7:41an entirely new business and get an entirely new kind of
- 7:45warehouse because I want to start doing yam or start doing
- 7:47cassava or start doing snail or start doing something like that.
- 7:51So it still holds. It's just a pity that I wasn't
- 7:54able to like that thing wasn't as straightforward as I thought.
- 8:00Then let's see, let's see, let's see.
- 8:03OK. I also told her that some things
- 8:04that she could do, she could also do training and consultancy
- 8:07because you remember the Madame Joy episode, she did have some
- 8:10medical difficulties, medical conditions that are now causing
- 8:13small complication. So she's not as mobile as she
- 8:16used to be. You know, unfortunately, this is
- 8:19the reason why we should always support and pray for each other
- 8:22because business can be hard and then sometimes people fall into
- 8:25one or two personal or something, something that makes
- 8:28it difficult to continue with business.
- 8:30So I've also looked at how she could do training or consultancy
- 8:34because there are people who want to start poultry farms and
- 8:36this one has been in the business for a very long time.
- 8:38She actually can guide somebody. OK, you want to go into poultry?
- 8:41OK, no problem. Start up capital, be looking
- 8:43like this choice of building, be looking at this area.
- 8:46Should you buy land? Should you rent land?
- 8:48How many heads of chicken should you start off with?
- 8:50What kind of medication do you need?
- 8:52Where are the good and reputable veterinary doctors in Abuja?
- 8:55You know, stuff like that. All those questions, she'll be
- 8:58able to do that sort of thing. So that's one option and you can
- 9:01see now that it is tied into Plan A because Plan A is she's
- 9:05already in the chicken business and she's already doing these
- 9:07things and selling it through agents in the open market.
- 9:10But you can see that a Plan B training and consultancy that is
- 9:13related, she doesn't have to learn much.
- 9:16The only thing she will not have to learn as a trainer or a
- 9:19consultant is she will not have to learn how to haggle, how to
- 9:22negotiate because people like to in Nigeria, we price everything.
- 9:26Sure, but people price more when it's services.
- 9:28If you say 1.2, they say 1.2. For what?
- 9:31Are we not just talking? Calm down, you know, I don't
- 9:33want to start pricing you. So she'll have to learn how to
- 9:36price the haggle and negotiate when it comes to services.
- 9:39She also learned how to position herself differently because
- 9:41where you position yourself when you so poultry and stuff like
- 9:47that, the positioning of a consultant is somewhat
- 9:49different. Then she also have to learn how
- 9:52to start looking for new kinds of customers because for selling
- 9:55poultry, she's going to the open market and approaching agents
- 9:58and you know, stuff like that. So the ICP is now different, but
- 10:02you can see that at least since she has knowledge base, at least
- 10:07she won't have that thing where where people are new to the
- 10:09consulting space. You know that your mouth to be
- 10:10shaking when you're talking to somebody.
- 10:12I mean, for her, she has lived the life of chickens.
- 10:14She has lived that chicken life, so she might be nervous when it
- 10:18comes to pricing, but at least if it's the chicken knowledge
- 10:20she knows and not just theory because she did the theory and
- 10:24she has been doing the practice. So now it's different then Let's
- 10:29see. OK.
- 10:29Then one that I didn't mention over the air first morning to
- 10:33discuss with hers, I found out that there's a business called a
- 10:40business, some business practices, basically it's called
- 10:42PBM. Now PBM is an initial of course,
- 10:46and it just stands for poultry by product meal.
- 10:50So what these people do is they will come and they will buy your
- 10:52chicken, especially the chicken parts that you don't eat and
- 10:55stuff like that, and then they take it and then they process
- 10:59it. The processing is technical.
- 11:01Shall you take it, you boil it, you grind it, you do all kinds
- 11:03of things. But by the time they are done,
- 11:05you produce something that you can use to feed pigs, you can
- 11:09use to feed cattle, you can use to feed cats and dogs and things
- 11:12like that. And I was shocked because I
- 11:14thought, you know, this is only Weibo stuff.
- 11:16I didn't know that the Nigerian businesses that do that.
- 11:18So yeah, they actually are Nigerian companies that do this.
- 11:21And the whole industry is called PBM Poultry by Product.
- 11:25So just in case you're curious and you only get involved, just
- 11:28know that the people that are doing it and I found companies.
- 11:30I'm not going to give out the addresses here because I'm not
- 11:32trying to endorse anybody. But I mentioned it to her, you
- 11:35know, in our private conversation and then I gave her
- 11:38some phone numbers. But I found companies in Ibadan,
- 11:42I found companies in Kalaba, I found a company in Abuja and I
- 11:47found companies in Kaduna and Kwara that this is what they do,
- 11:51PBM business. And in a way, it's kind of
- 11:54making sense now because you know, you enter shopping malls
- 11:57in Abuja, you see a whole aisle that is devoted to dog food.
- 12:01I'm like, when did this one start?
- 12:03As in a whole section that is devoted to dog food?
- 12:05Like do Nigerians love dogs that much?
- 12:08Because we had dogs and I was like, well, not dogs, just one.
- 12:11She was a German shepherd. So I know German Shepherd, Abby
- 12:14and Alsatian. I'm not sure if Abby is the same
- 12:16breed and an Alsatian, very lovely, beautiful dog.
- 12:20We called her Bianca. I know, but Bianca is no longer
- 12:22with us and unfortunately my wife doesn't like dogs.
- 12:25So you know, nothing for me. I can't get another dog.
- 12:28So that's it. I've been dog less since my
- 12:30youth, but back when we had Bianca, now Bianca used to eat
- 12:33everything that we ate. You know, if you eat Amala,
- 12:35Amala is remaining. You just throw it in a plate and
- 12:37I give it to Bianca and, you know, she'll eat.
- 12:40And some of the neighbors are like, hi, people serve.
- 12:41You're spoiling this dog because, you know, we used to
- 12:43put Bianca's food in a plate because a lot of people do just
- 12:45throw their dog food on the ground and the dog would just
- 12:48eat, you know, But I hear that nowadays that there's some dogs
- 12:50that if you throw the food on the floor, that dog would just
- 12:53be looking at you. The dog would be like, you know,
- 12:55who's going to eat that? Like a beg get my dog dish.
- 12:57So yeah, things have changed. Your last podcast episode I
- 13:02recorded at Grand Square, walking to Ground Square, they
- 13:05have a section where they have dog food, only dog food.
- 13:09You see aisles, sacks, some of them like 25 KG dog food anyway.
- 13:14So that's how these dog food people, this is how they're
- 13:17getting some of their ingredients.
- 13:18So it's from the PBM, poultry by product meal, Abby poultry by
- 13:24product meal. And if you just Google PBM, you
- 13:26see it coming up. So like I said, there are
- 13:29companies that do this thing in Ibadan.
- 13:30So those are doing Lagos. Want to enter the hustle?
- 13:33Ibadan companies are close to you.
- 13:35There are companies in Kalaba, companies in Abuja, in Kaduna
- 13:39and Quara again, PBM, Ibadan, Kalaba, Abuja, Kaduna, Quara.
- 13:46So I told her, yeah, she's based in Gwags, so in Gwala, Abuja, so
- 13:51she could reach out to the Abuja companies in Central area or
- 13:56maybe the companies in Kaduna because I'm not sure which part
- 14:00of Guwala that she lives in. So you know, because Guwala that
- 14:03is kind of far from main town. So well anyway, so that's it.
- 14:11One of the things I discussed with her.
- 14:13But you can see that now entering this space, entering
- 14:16the PBM space, at least she has been in the chicken world for a
- 14:21while, you know, so she knows buying, rearing, slaughtering,
- 14:27like she knows. So transition to the PBM.
- 14:30She just has to learn a new thing, some new things about new
- 14:33stakeholders, how to talk to them, figure out what they want,
- 14:36how to negotiate with them, how to establish relationship with
- 14:38these companies, you know, but the learning is not, it's not
- 14:41that much. It's not like learning something
- 14:43entirely new. Then we also explored about how
- 14:47she can start selling processed meat instead of selling the raw
- 14:51chicken that people will now go and kill in the market through
- 14:54the agents. She cannot start doing the
- 14:56processing the chicken by herself.
- 14:59It's just a matter of training the boys to say, look, boys,
- 15:02before this, what we've been doing, we've been selling this
- 15:03chicken hole. They go and slaughter it over
- 15:05there. Now we're going to slaughter
- 15:06this thing in house. So she'll buy the freezer and
- 15:09she'll train the boys that look, this how you slaughter chicken
- 15:12when you slaughter this how you caught it when you caught it.
- 15:14This how you bag it when you bag it, this how you store it and
- 15:17then start selling the processed parts.
- 15:20Because the last time my wife sent me to the market, they said
- 15:23go and buy a chicken kilo. I noticed that when I got there,
- 15:25the guy opened the deep freezer and he pulled out the bag That
- 15:28was, was that, is it hermetically sealed?
- 15:31I'll be hermetically sealed. You know, you know that fancy
- 15:34ceiling now where it's in, it's been packaged and it's like the
- 15:38air has been sucked out of it. But it looks, it looks kind of
- 15:44professional and put it that way.
- 15:45So I noticed that that's the kind of bag he brought it out
- 15:47from me. He tore it and I said how many
- 15:48kilos? And then we measured the thing
- 15:50and then I bought the chicken. So people have started doing
- 15:54that kind of business in Niger as well.
- 15:55So it's like, well, you know, you can do that as well.
- 15:57So just train up your boys. You buy the equipment, you buy
- 16:01the deep freezer and you know, you have to learn some new
- 16:05stuff. But still it's kind of tied in
- 16:08to her existing knowledge in chickens, her existing skills in
- 16:11chicken re. I'll be chicken husbandry, the
- 16:14existing capital that she has, because she already has the
- 16:17coup, she already has the land, and then she already has the
- 16:20reputation of being the chicken woman.
- 16:22So it's not a matter of learning something new, you know,
- 16:24because, oh, they've always known.
- 16:26Everybody knows that when you see joy, you see chickens.
- 16:28So if it's no longer live chicken is now chicken parts,
- 16:32you can see that it is a smooth transition or a smoother
- 16:36transition is the same market. Everybody knows her, everybody
- 16:39already trusts her. So it's a matter of look, I'm
- 16:41not doing that live chicken thing anymore, I'm doing chicken
- 16:44parts. She will now be talking to
- 16:45people in the in the, is it the abattoir?
- 16:48No, not abattoir, the frozen, the frozen section of the
- 16:51market. I'm talking about open markets
- 16:53now, not like malls. So she'll now be in the open
- 16:56market section talking to this other people so she can sell her
- 16:59cut up package chicken portions. So the only thing now is just
- 17:03label. So she will now be paying the
- 17:05boys more because the boys work is now harder.
- 17:08She will have to go and talk to Amak.
- 17:10Amak is the Abuja Municipal Area Council because the local
- 17:15councils, local governments, they have certain health
- 17:18certifications that are needed for people who are engaged in
- 17:22this business. Some of you will laugh and say
- 17:23which kind of certification, Yes, I know, I understand
- 17:26because let's be honest, you go down, you pay these jokers,
- 17:28they're supposed to do give you certificate of clean health and
- 17:31certificate of whatever. And you know, what do they know?
- 17:34If you just go down, bribe them, you will get the certificate
- 17:37anyway. So yeah, I understand, but at
- 17:39least on paper, you still have to go and see them.
- 17:42So if you're based in Lagos, I want to be doing this kind of
- 17:44business. You know, you still have to go
- 17:46and see the boys and allows her and we have to go and talk to
- 17:49them and get your license. What are you going to pay or
- 17:51what are you going to bribe? You know, that's between you and
- 17:53them, but you need that certification.
- 17:55So she'll have to talk to people in our Mac.
- 17:57Those of you who are in Lagos, you have to go and talk to
- 17:59people and allows her or equal you or whichever local
- 18:02government that you're based in. Then I think NAFDAQ, I'm not
- 18:07sure if NAFDAQ has a role in this.
- 18:09I should have checked, but I'm guessing maybe you might have to
- 18:11see NAFDAQ people as well. Then you'll also have to invest
- 18:14in cold storage and then transportation, adequate
- 18:18transportation because you know the way that the country is hot
- 18:23as in the weather is really, really hot.
- 18:26Because I was talking to this guy that came to deliver chicken
- 18:28to the house. It's just a pure coincidence.
- 18:30And because wife ordered chicken, wheat, other things to
- 18:32eat only chicken when all that rich.
- 18:35So yeah, so just having a chat with him, you know, if you don't
- 18:38use the right kind of Okada, the right kind of casing and
- 18:40everything, and you carry frozen food and put in it, by the time
- 18:43you drive from here to here, you find out that the chicken has
- 18:45defrosted and the thing as they even started smelling.
- 18:48So you need certain kinds of Okada containers and certain
- 18:51kinds of containers that you put in the car.
- 18:54But anyway, you have to invest in all of that.
- 18:57So bottom line, what I'm trying to say is this, whether she
- 19:00decides to move into layers or she decides to do training and
- 19:06consultancy or she decides to enter this PBM hustle or she
- 19:10decides to start doing processed chicken products, she will have
- 19:12to learn something new. But the thing that she's
- 19:15learning you new is not going to be too much.
- 19:18It's not going to be too onerous.
- 19:19It's not going to be too difficult because it is tied in
- 19:22to her existing knowledge in chicken Ree, her existing skills
- 19:26in chicken Ring, her existing connections in chicken
- 19:29husbandry, her existing capital and investments in chickens, and
- 19:33her existing reputation. In fact, the reputation of
- 19:35myself, that's one that is even most important to me because the
- 19:39sliding will be so smooth because everybody who knows that
- 19:42when you see Joy, you see chickens.
- 19:44So if before it was live chickens, but now joy is doing
- 19:47processed chickens, it's not a problem.
- 19:49It's our girl. It's joy do just flow then let's
- 19:53see what else. OK, Of course we had those
- 19:54conversations about looking for new partners, you know, talking
- 19:57to hotels because I know these are some hotels.
- 19:59I mean, the last time I ate at, there's a long, long, long,
- 20:02long, long time ago. I don't eat in hotels.
- 20:04You know, I'm not a big boy like that.
- 20:06What's this place called? This is hotel in Zone 7 next to
- 20:09the Bridge Connect, Zone 7 and Zone 1.
- 20:12I can't remember. I used to go to the gym there.
- 20:16So I noticed that their chicken there was like the live chicken
- 20:19they used to do the frozen chicken.
- 20:21So hotels joints, all these pami joints, catfish joints, because
- 20:25they also do things that like grilled chicken and all these
- 20:28things. So yeah, we had that
- 20:30conversation about her talking to those source of
- 20:33establishments as well. Also about that no exhaustive
- 20:35trailer driving my Yeah. So that's it.
- 20:39So that's the summary of what I wanted to discuss today.
- 20:42So for those of you who have a plan A plan, plan A No2 pure
- 20:46plan A, no two sets, you know, is looking kind of shaky and
- 20:50looking for a Plan B, It actually helps if your Plan B is
- 20:55related to your plan A. It will be a smoother
- 20:58transition. So eventually you can say I'm
- 21:01tired of chicken ring and I want to do forex and I want to do
- 21:04crypto. Yes, eventually you can move out
- 21:06of chicken eventually. But instead of going straight
- 21:09from chicken to crypto, you know, go from chicken to some of
- 21:13these other ideas that we've discussed while you're now
- 21:15lending crypto on the side. And then one day you can say,
- 21:17OK, bye. Bye chickens.
- 21:18I'm now a crypto trader. So yeah, so that's it.
- 21:23Let's see. Let me have a look at my list.
- 21:26Yeah, that's all for today. So if you have any sales and
- 21:29marketing questions, bring them to me.
- 21:30Call SMS or WhatsApp on 08064662140.
- 21:35Thank you for your time and attention.
- 21:36I'll catch you, dear listener, at the next episode.