Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Funding Solutions vs. Funding Skills: The Key to Business Growth

Transcript

Funding Solutions vs. Funding Skills: The Key to Business Growth · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'm out and about South.
• 0:05
  Expect to hear some interruptions in the background
• 0:08
  today on the podcast. I'm going to be speaking in code
• 0:11
  to Wonder Woman. Now, when I say Wonder Woman, I
• 0:14
  don't mean the real Wonder Woman.
• 0:16
  I mean not the DC character and not Gal Gadot who actually
• 0:20
  played Wonder Woman, at least the last iteration of Wonder
• 0:24
  Woman. I'm just doing the same thing
• 0:25
  that I normally do on the podcast.
• 0:27
  I'm going to be speaking in code to a podcast listener.
• 0:31
  I'm not going to use a real name.
• 0:32
  So I'm just going to be calling her Wonder Woman in this episode
• 0:35
  and in the next series of episodes that follow because
• 0:39
  Wonder Woman and I, you know, been chatting about a couple of
• 0:41
  things. And let me just put it this way.
• 0:46
  There's some things that I'd like to say, but I didn't quite
• 0:49
  say. So I'm just going to speak in
• 0:50
  code over here. So Wonder Woman, not the real
• 0:54
  Wonder Woman, of course, if you suspect it's you.
• 0:56
  Yeah, it's actually you. I'm just speaking in code.
• 0:59
  And for the rest of you who are listening, even though this
• 1:03
  episode is addressed to someone in particular, please hang
• 1:06
  around because you're going to hear some things that might
• 1:08
  apply in your business, and also because we're going to address
• 1:11
  some universal questions as well.
• 1:15
  Also, another reason for you to hang out is because I've been
• 1:18
  saying since last year that I'm going to make a podcast episode
• 1:21
  about why if you're a young woman, you shouldn't go into
• 1:23
  business with your boyfriend. And I figured the time has come
• 1:27
  for me to make that podcast episode.
• 1:29
  Well, at least to address that question.
• 1:31
  So Wonder Woman is not in business with her boyfriend, but
• 1:34
  there is some guy who is hanging around who wants to finance the
• 1:37
  business, but she doesn't want to go into business with him
• 1:39
  because of his, you know, some questionable work choices he has
• 1:44
  made or business choices that he has made.
• 1:46
  And so I figured now is the time for me to go ahead and make that
• 1:49
  podcast episode just in case you're a female listener of the
• 1:52
  show and you're like Wonder Woman, trying to do your thing,
• 1:55
  trying to do your hustle. And there's one guy around that
• 1:58
  is kind of cutting out for you. Maybe he is, maybe he is not,
• 2:02
  but he's thinking of dropping money in your business.
• 2:05
  Maybe he is, maybe he's not. You guys go into business
• 2:08
  together. Maybe you do, maybe you don't.
• 2:11
  Yeah, I'm going to finally start addressing some of those issues,
• 2:14
  but it will be in today's episode.
• 2:15
  So you have to hang around, go past today's episode, you know,
• 2:19
  and eventually we'll get to that part of the story.
• 2:21
  So Wonder Woman, again, not the DC character and not Gal Gadot.
• 2:28
  In fact, my wife wouldn't even allow me to see Gaga dot because
• 2:31
  I think Gaga dot. I think she's a fine bee, but I
• 2:34
  think she needs to eat up sharp because I think she's too, she's
• 2:37
  too Bony. She needs to drop off small.
• 2:39
  So if you know any Hollywood person who knows Gaga dot or if
• 2:43
  you know Gaga dot, tell her that she has a friend over here in
• 2:45
  Niger who says that she needs to eat up that she's too.
• 2:48
  She's too Bony. She's too like, but she needs to
• 2:51
  puff up small. So Wonder Woman, the listener of
• 2:55
  the podcast, is a Spotify follower of mine who is based in
• 3:00
  Makudi in Benroy State. So I consider her my home girl.
• 3:03
  Well, of course, she's not from Benroy State.
• 3:07
  She just attends the university which is based there.
• 3:09
  There's a State University there which has been around since the
• 3:15
  Sixties, 60s or 70s, I can't remember.
• 3:17
  Anyway, so she attends that university, She's into catering
• 3:22
  and all fine things, cuisine. She's been in the cooking
• 3:24
  business since 2023. And one of the things that she's
• 3:30
  complained about is that she has had a lack of funds to actualize
• 3:33
  her business. Yeah, I have.
• 3:35
  This is the main thing I wanted to talk about today because
• 3:38
  there are lots of you who are stepping into the new year and
• 3:41
  who are thinking that the reason why our business is not moving
• 3:44
  is because of a lack of funds or thinking, or if only I could
• 3:46
  raise funds, the business would move and blah, blah, blah.
• 3:48
  So that's going to be one of the central questions that I'm going
• 3:51
  to address over here today. So for her, she says a lack of
• 3:55
  funds won't allow her to actualize her business because
• 3:58
  when she says she wants to actualize her business, now pay
• 4:00
  attention to this. She wants to deliver large
• 4:02
  quantities of food. She wants to deliver large
• 4:04
  quantities of soups or rice or peppered meat or pasta, you
• 4:08
  know, all those kind of things. You know, in fact, I think I
• 4:12
  should become good friends with Wonder Woman so that when I am
• 4:14
  in Makudi, I can eat for free because this sounds like a good
• 4:18
  menu. And then so lots of stuff anyway
• 4:20
  that she wants to, that she wants to do.
• 4:23
  And so she needs funds to actualize her business.
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  And that's the reason why I'm tackling this today, because
• 4:27
  there's some of you who want to actualize your business.
• 4:30
  You want to move things to the next level.
• 4:31
  You want to move to the permanent sites.
• 4:33
  You want to know whatever it is you want to do.
• 4:36
  And you think now lack of funds is the problem?
• 4:39
  So the central question for today is, is lack of funds the
• 4:43
  real issue? Some of you will say, yes,
• 4:49
  American universities agree with you because they keep on putting
• 4:52
  out this report year after year after year.
• 4:54
  You know, like Harvard, you know, all those type of schools
• 4:57
  saying that finance and lack of funds is the main reason why
• 4:59
  people go out of business. But the main reason why people
• 5:03
  go out of business is not a lack of funds.
• 5:06
  The main reason why people go out of business is an inability
• 5:09
  to sell. And this if you're not convinced
• 5:15
  anyway, let me just go ahead and explain my thesis.
• 5:17
  So again, yes, Harvard says that the reason why people go out of
• 5:22
  business is because of lack of finance and poor funds.
• 5:25
  Average Nigerians on the street said that the reason why
• 5:27
  businesses fail is because of lack of funds.
• 5:29
  No finance. I say and a couple of other
• 5:32
  people say that the main reason why businesses go out of
• 5:35
  business is because or why they're Hanford from growing is
• 5:39
  because of a lack of sales skills.
• 5:41
  And This is why because if you want to finance your business
• 5:44
  from the beginning of time up until now, that's from the time
• 5:47
  of Cain and Abel. OK, we don't know what Adam and
• 5:51
  Eve did, but at least we know that Cain and Abel, they had
• 5:54
  their own hustle. So Cain was hunting and Abel was
• 5:58
  a farmer. So they're doing their own
• 5:59
  hustle. So since the time of Cain and
• 6:01
  Abel, if you wanted to raise finance for a business, you had
• 6:06
  to do a couple of things. You had to do some
• 6:08
  bootstrapping. Bootstrapping just means you are
• 6:11
  running this business from your savings.
• 6:13
  So when Abel decided that, oh, sorry for those of you who are
• 6:17
  Muslims, I'm sorry, I don't know the Arabic versions of of those
• 6:21
  names, so I can't use the Arabic versions.
• 6:23
  But what I'm referring to, or rather the the names I'm playing
• 6:28
  with basically are just the children of Adam, Adam and Eve.
• 6:32
  So when Abel wanted to start his farming business, he ever had to
• 6:34
  look at his savings, you know, look into his lion cloth and
• 6:38
  say, OK, how many calories shells do I have to go and buy
• 6:42
  land? Or how many calories shells do I
• 6:44
  have to go and buy seedlings, yam seedlings, maize seedlings,
• 6:48
  you know, stuff like that. That is bootstrapping.
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  You check your bank accounts. You look at your pocket.
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  Maybe you even go and talk to Mom.
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  See, Popsy, you know, so Abel would have called Adam his
• 7:00
  father and say, hey, Popsy, how far Now Say I'm good, I'm good.
• 7:03
  Where are you doing? I'm just chilling.
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  Which side? I'm around that Garden of Eden
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  side. OK.
• 7:08
  Are they come? Are they come?
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  And then you go and then have the conversation.
• 7:11
  And I say, look, Pops, I beg. I want to start farming.
• 7:14
  Just raise me some cash. Let me buy land, let me buy
• 7:16
  seedlings, that sort of thing. All that that is bootstrapping.
• 7:19
  You're looking at your savings, look inside your pockets.
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  Go and talk to mom, see talk to your brother, talk to your
• 7:24
  sister, talk to your cousins, all that.
• 7:26
  All that is bootstrapping. So from time immemorial up to
• 7:29
  now, that is one way that you finance your business.
• 7:32
  Go on bootstrap. Then the second way is by sales
• 7:39
  or revenue. This is what sales or revenue
• 7:43
  means. It means you actually go out and
• 7:45
  try and sell something to someone.
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  The goal is that when you sell something to someone, you make a
• 7:50
  small profit. You take that small profit and
• 7:53
  throw it back into the business. You're trying to achieve
• 7:56
  positive cash flow, and then from there you'll be growing
• 7:59
  your business small small. This week you sell one unit, you
• 8:02
  make 2 Nair profits. Next week you sell 2 units, You
• 8:05
  make 4 naira profits next month. Maybe by then you started
• 8:08
  selling 50 units and now you're making 50 * 2.
• 8:13
  It was 100 naira profit if my math is correct.
• 8:17
  And then that's how it goes on and on and on and on.
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  So that's an opportunity that was also open to Abel.
• 8:24
  You know, you managed to bootstrap, get one small piece
• 8:28
  of land and maybe to buy like 5 heads of yam.
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  You plant the yam, the yam grows, you harvested, maybe the
• 8:36
  yam grows 10 tubers, You sell the 10 tubers, You sell each
• 8:41
  tubers for 6 calorie shells or something.
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  You use 4, four or three calories shells to eat the
• 8:47
  remaining 2 reinvested back into the business.
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  They're doing positive cash flows.
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  So that is sales and revenue. We're aiming for positive cash
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  flows. So that's number two.
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  Number one, bootstrapping, saving the money #2 sales.
• 9:02
  Sell something, take the profit, throw it back, grow that way.
• 9:06
  Then another way to grow to finance the business is equity.
• 9:13
  Equity just means you go and meet somebody, collect money
• 9:17
  from the person. The money that you collect for
• 9:20
  the person, the person now wants a share in your business.
• 9:24
  In other words, the person is investing in you and investing
• 9:27
  in the future of the business. So that you guys are now
• 9:30
  partners whether 5050 or 7030 more from now until the business
• 9:34
  dies, any money you make, you be sharing with that person.
• 9:38
  That is equity. Now let me switch to Kane.
• 9:41
  So let's say Kane on the other hand decides to go to his mumsy
• 9:45
  and says, ah Eve, I beg, I want to do animal husbandry but I
• 9:51
  need some help. And then Eve says sure, no
• 9:53
  problem, I'll give you the money.
• 9:55
  But this money that I'm giving you, we have to be partners 5050
• 9:58
  in this business. And then Kane says mommy now are
• 10:04
  you not my mommy? And you know that whole
• 10:06
  emotional blackmail and everything and then maybe you
• 10:08
  says OK, OK, no problem. I'll give you the I'll give you
• 10:11
  the carry shows. But then I will now own 20% of
• 10:14
  the business and it's OK, no problem.
• 10:16
  They shake hands, deal is done. That is equity.
• 10:22
  So Eve now owns 20% of the business that her son Kane has
• 10:27
  started for Animal Husbandry. And of course they have agreed
• 10:31
  on what the distributions are going to be and you know, stuff
• 10:34
  like that. So that is equity.
• 10:36
  You collected money from someone, they now own a share in
• 10:39
  your business. Then after equity is a loan.
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  A loan is when you want to meet somebody, the person gives you
• 10:48
  the money, but then the person says this money or I'm giving
• 10:52
  you 6 calories shells, you're going to pay me back 8 calories
• 10:55
  shells. So 2 calories shells is
• 10:56
  interest. So in this case, OK, back to the
• 10:59
  beginning, we say Abel approached the Adam for for
• 11:03
  money. So in the first example that I
• 11:06
  gave, I just assumed that Adam will give the money to Abel as
• 11:09
  per you know, you're my son, you So just take now dash, I dash,
• 11:12
  I'm just dashing you. That one is a grant.
• 11:15
  That's also another opportunity to get somebody to dash your
• 11:17
  money. Well, let's pretend now that
• 11:19
  Adam didn't dash him and Adam said was a loan.
• 11:22
  So the loan will now be that, look, I'm giving you this money,
• 11:26
  but you know me, I'm near retirement age.
• 11:27
  So I need to be able to, I need to be able to live off of
• 11:32
  something. So this money that I'm giving
• 11:34
  you, I want it back in one year. You have to pay me back those
• 11:37
  interest. So I'm giving you the 6 calories
• 11:38
  shells to one start your business, but you have to pay me
• 11:41
  back next year. You have to pay me back 8
• 11:45
  calories shells so that at least I can support myself in old age
• 11:49
  because I know that you and your brother you will marry and
• 11:52
  people will move far away. So I need to take care of myself
• 11:55
  in my old age, me and my wife. So that is a loan.
• 11:58
  The person gives you money you have to pay back.
• 12:01
  You have to pay with interest but the person does not own a
• 12:03
  share in your business. So that is a loan.
• 12:09
  Now the bad news about a loan is that you have to pay the loan
• 12:12
  back any which way. If the business succeeds, you
• 12:15
  pay the loan back. If the business fails, you pay
• 12:17
  the loan back equity. Now forgive me because I've been
• 12:20
  in legal practice for a very long time, but in actual
• 12:22
  practice is beginning to look as if equity everything just messes
• 12:26
  up. Everybody would just ally put
• 12:29
  it, you know, to attend to Israel.
• 12:31
  OK, the thing didn't work, the thing didn't work.
• 12:33
  And then everybody goes goes a separate ways.
• 12:36
  But if it's a loan, you must pay that money.
• 12:39
  And if you've taken a loan from a Nigerian bank before or a
• 12:42
  Nigerian loan shark or whatever, you know for sure that if you
• 12:45
  take a loan, you must pay that money.
• 12:48
  In fact, loan shacks, they will do that, as in they will harass
• 12:52
  the life out of you. I've received those messages
• 12:54
  before to say that social social took a loan of social amount he
• 12:58
  has not paid, you know, basically trying to harass you
• 13:01
  by sending messages to everybody in your in your social network
• 13:06
  just to embarrass you to pay the money.
• 13:08
  So if it's a loan, you must pay the money.
• 13:10
  So this is how business has been financed from the beginning of
• 13:12
  the world up until now. Grant Yes, the first one I
• 13:18
  didn't add. Grant let's get somebody to dash
• 13:20
  your money and #2 bootstrapping, save your own money #3 go out
• 13:26
  and sell something, take the revenue and then throw it back
• 13:29
  trying to get positive cash flows.
• 13:30
  So that's sales #3 #4 equity. Collect money from somebody,
• 13:35
  give them a share in your business.
• 13:36
  The person is investing in you #5 go out and take a loan,
• 13:40
  collect money from someone. The person gives you the money,
• 13:42
  but the person says you must pay back with interest at so so so
• 13:46
  so time. So if you are like Wonder Woman,
• 13:51
  you want to actualize your business as she says you want to
• 13:54
  start increasing the large audit quantities of soups or rice or
• 13:57
  peppered meats or pasta or peppered goat of pounded yam of
• 14:03
  fisherman soup of you know everything.
• 14:06
  These are the options that are available to you.
• 14:08
  Go and look for a grant or bootstrap increase sales.
• 14:14
  Go and get equity or go and get a loan.
• 14:17
  Those are the options available to you.
• 14:20
  Unfortunately for you, sales skills are involved in doing
• 14:26
  every single thing here. If you want a grant, you need
• 14:31
  sales skills. If you want to bootstrap, OK,
• 14:34
  now you don't need sales skills. You know you're fine, but you
• 14:37
  need sales skills to grow the business.
• 14:38
  But let's just remove bootstrapping there.
• 14:41
  If you want to grow revenue, you need sales skills.
• 14:44
  If you want to attract equity, you need sales skills.
• 14:47
  If you want to get a loan, you need sales skills.
• 14:51
  Some of you are going to ask what is the correlation?
• 14:53
  No problem, we will get to that. Tomorrow we'll start seeing how
• 14:58
  sales skills can help you solve all these problems and hope you
• 15:00
  guys are beginning to see the connection that lack of finance
• 15:03
  now is not really the problem. Because OK, look, for the sake
• 15:10
  of argument, yes, let me admit, yes, there are some people that
• 15:13
  are so down on their luck or not sophisticated enough or not
• 15:16
  educated enough or have the wrong connections or whatever,
• 15:19
  or maybe the devil is against them.
• 15:22
  So they will not be able to attract a grant.
• 15:24
  They will not be able to get do not be able to bootstrap, they
• 15:27
  will not be able to increase revenue.
• 15:29
  They will not be able to secure equity.
• 15:30
  They will not be able to get a loan.
• 15:32
  So yes, for the sake of argument, yes, that is possible.
• 15:35
  But now let me just assume that we're talking about the average
• 15:39
  person now you know, average Nigeria.
• 15:42
  Now I'm not talking about those people who are sleeping under
• 15:45
  the bridge because those people are here.
• 15:47
  It's unfortunate, but they are amongst us, the those of us who
• 15:53
  those of the pond downtrodden. But let me just assume now that
• 15:56
  we're talking of typical average person because Wonder Woman,
• 15:59
  she's in school, so you can afford to pay school fees.
• 16:02
  She doesn't live in Markudy, so she comes from someplace else.
• 16:05
  Your parents can afford to pay out of state accommodation, pay
• 16:08
  for transport, you know, pay for, you know, stuff like that.
• 16:10
  And obviously she uses a nice Android phone.
• 16:13
  In fact, based on the screenshot she sent me, the phone that she
• 16:16
  uses is one of those Folds types, you know, the ones that
• 16:19
  open up real nice. So if you can afford the phone
• 16:21
  that is, you know, one point, something million.
• 16:24
  I really think you're not one of these people who cannot get a
• 16:28
  grant, cannot bootstrap, cannot grow revenue, cannot get equity
• 16:34
  or cannot get a loan. So in tomorrow's episode and
• 16:37
  beyond, we will now look into how sales skills can help you
• 16:41
  raise finance through these channels.
• 16:43
  And hopefully by the time we're done, all you'll be able to see
• 16:46
  that is not actually lack of finance that is causing
• 16:48
  businesses to businesses to die. So in a sense, yes, lack of
• 16:54
  finance is the problem, but the problem is because there is a
• 16:58
  dearth, there is a lack of a fundamental skill which is
• 17:02
  needed to secure that financing. So it's after we have done all
• 17:07
  this fundamental stuff that I'll now enter into the Part B of the
• 17:10
  story, which is why if you're a young woman in 2024 in Nigeria,
• 17:17
  so this advice doesn't apply to those of you in the UK and
• 17:20
  America and whatever, because, you know, cultural dynamics can
• 17:22
  be different. But you're a young woman in 2025
• 17:25
  in Nigeria, in Ghana, in Cameroon.
• 17:29
  Let me see what else? OK, Well, those people are
• 17:32
  Nigerian enough. South Africa, all I can speak
• 17:35
  about Gabon and Sudan and Algeria and all those other
• 17:39
  countries. I'm not sure what the cultural
• 17:41
  makeup is like. Liberia, yes.
• 17:44
  So Niger, Ghana, Liberia, South Africa, Yeah.
• 17:49
  After that, after we have looked at these fundamental issues,
• 17:51
  we're now going to why if you're a young woman starting a
• 17:53
  business in 2025 or whatever year you're starting this
• 17:56
  business, you're listening to this podcast in 3057, OK, maybe
• 18:00
  in 3057 things have changed. You know, I don't know.
• 18:03
  But the reason why you should not go into business with your
• 18:07
  boyfriend or if you're going to go into business with your
• 18:09
  boyfriend or you're maybe toaster, maybe not toaster,
• 18:13
  maybe he likes me, maybe he doesn't like me.
• 18:16
  We'll look at the circumstances under which you should go into
• 18:19
  business with this person or not.
• 18:23
  And even for those of us who are married, it's still going to be
• 18:25
  an OK episode to listen to because in order to decide
• 18:29
  whether you should go into business with someone under
• 18:32
  these circumstances enough or not, at the end of the day, it
• 18:35
  all boils down to what the business terms are, what the
• 18:38
  partnership terms are and how clear the partnership terms are.
• 18:42
  So only if you're not, you know, in any emotional entanglement
• 18:45
  and maybe you're trying to get a loan from Access Bank or
• 18:48
  something or be in partnership with, you know, your rich uncle
• 18:51
  or rich auntie, you know, there are going to be some business
• 18:56
  lessons there that still apply. So that's it for today.
• 19:00
  If you'd love to connect with me, the phone number to reach me
• 19:03
  on is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 19:10
  For those of you who are not Nigerian and it's my WhatsApp
• 19:13
  number, you can reach me there. Then connect with me on socials.
• 19:16
  I'm on YouTube and I am on LinkedIn.
• 19:19
  The name to look for is Tavi Shima Aidi.
• 19:22
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 19:24
  And remember that this episode is just me speaking in code, so
• 19:29
  it's not an actual conversation. I'm just trying to stylishly
• 19:32
  pass across a message so that the Wonder Woman listens to the
• 19:34
  episode. She's going to learn a couple of
• 19:36
  things apart from the things that we've really been chatting
• 19:38
  about. So thank you very much for your
• 19:40
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys tomorrow.