Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Funding Unlocked: Selling Your Vision for Women-Led SMEs

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Funding Unlocked: Selling Your Vision for Women-Led SMEs · 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 as
• 0:05
  usual, so expect to hear some interruptions in the background
• 0:08
  before we begin Shadow to Emmanuel or Jake Bola, who is a
• 0:14
  graphic and product design specialist who lives in Efe in
• 0:18
  Ocean State. So definitely he's my homeboy
• 0:21
  because that is where I had my undergrad degree from.
• 0:26
  Above me, a World of War University in Ilay, the coolest
• 0:31
  place in Nigeria because the weather is just, the weather is
• 0:35
  just wonderful, really, really wonderful.
• 0:37
  So it's a nice part of the country to go to where at least
• 0:39
  it was a nice part of the country to live in when I was in
• 0:43
  OAU. Some, I don't know, maybe 20
• 0:46
  years ago, I can't remember. I don't know if the town has
• 0:50
  changed, healthy, bad population, all kinds of local
• 0:55
  flora and fauna. So it was real, real nice.
• 0:59
  Anyway, so Emmanuel Logic Bola discovered the show on Spotify,
• 1:03
  reached out to me on LinkedIn. So Emmanuel, the shout out is
• 1:08
  for you. Thank you very much for
• 1:09
  listening to the show. I'm glad that you derive value
• 1:12
  from it. So keep on listening and also
• 1:14
  please share the podcast with other people who are going to
• 1:17
  find value to the show as well. And please share with people,
• 1:23
  share with our brethren and our sistren.
• 1:26
  The Sistren is a word share with our brothers and sisters in
• 1:29
  Olivia so that they can learn and boost their businesses as
• 1:34
  well. Because Olivia is a quiet,
• 1:37
  sleepy town. So it's mostly civil service and
• 1:41
  private enterprise. I say it's kind of like 5050.
• 1:45
  So that's it. That's a shout out for today
• 1:47
  then. Let me see.
• 1:50
  OK, so yesterday we started looking at Wonder Woman from
• 1:54
  Aquity, a wonderful Wonder Woman from Aquity.
• 1:56
  By the way, Wonder Woman is not her real name.
• 1:59
  I'm just using it because I don't have permission for her to
• 2:02
  use her real name. And the podcast episode that I
• 2:06
  made yesterday was just me saying some things to Wonder
• 2:08
  Woman in code, because even though we've been chatting,
• 2:10
  there are some things that I wanted to say directly.
• 2:14
  But anyway, I didn't. So now I'm just saying it in
• 2:17
  code. So if Wonder Woman, if you're
• 2:19
  listening to this show right now and you are thinking, is this
• 2:22
  me? Yes, this episode is definitely
• 2:24
  about you and for you. But I'm still making the episode
• 2:27
  because for other people who are listening, there are some people
• 2:30
  who might have similar circumstances, whether male or
• 2:32
  female, and they'll be able to relate to some of the things
• 2:36
  that we talk about over here on the podcast.
• 2:38
  Now, for Wonder Woman, her challenge was that she wants to
• 2:41
  actualize her business while she can't do that because of a lack
• 2:44
  of funds. So that led to us tackling the
• 2:46
  central question yesterday, yesterday's podcast episode on
• 2:50
  whether lack of funds actually is the main issue for businesses
• 2:55
  to move forward. Or before we continue, if you'd
• 2:57
  love to connect with me, the phone number is 08064662140.
• 3:04
  The country code is lost 234. For those of you who are not
• 3:07
  Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number as well then also connect
• 3:10
  with me on socials. I I'm on LinkedIn establishing
• 3:13
  my IED. You can find me on YouTube
• 3:15
  establishing my IED as well. So lack of funds, yes, it's not
• 3:20
  the main reason why businesses are not moving forward.
• 3:22
  Yeah, American University seem to think that that's the main
• 3:25
  problem. And the average Nigerian
• 3:27
  definitely think that that's the main problem.
• 3:28
  Their business is not growing, is not expanding.
• 3:31
  And and in Wonder Woman's case, the reason why she cannot
• 3:34
  deliver more soups, more meats, more smoothies, more pasta, more
• 3:38
  pounded ya more black soup, more egusi soup, more everything is
• 3:42
  because of lack of funds. Now there are a few people like
• 3:46
  me and some others in the business community, not in the
• 3:49
  academic community. So there wasn't a business
• 3:53
  community who believe that, look, lack of funds is not the
• 3:55
  problem, but rather we have lack of sales and business
• 3:58
  development skills because if you had sales and business
• 4:01
  development skills, you are going to be able to plug all the
• 4:05
  financing and fund acquisition problems.
• 4:08
  And so we looked at some traditional business finance
• 4:10
  options yesterday. We spoke about grants, we spoke
• 4:14
  about bootstrapping, we spoke about sales and revenue equity
• 4:17
  and loans. For those of you who are new to
• 4:20
  the podcast and this is your first episode, yeah, this sounds
• 4:22
  like it's a lot. But after you're done listening
• 4:24
  to this episode, listen to yesterday's episode and you'll
• 4:26
  get called up to speed. You'll understand everything and
• 4:30
  hopefully the examples that I used yesterday would not be too
• 4:34
  confusing. But since some of you might be
• 4:36
  listening to this for the first time, let me just give a small
• 4:38
  rundown. A grant basically is when
• 4:41
  somebody says guy or babe, your business is good, take this
• 4:46
  money, I dash you, you don't have to pay me back.
• 4:48
  That's a grant. Grant just means I dash you.
• 4:51
  By the way, in case I haven't figured out, all the definitions
• 4:53
  that we use on this podcast are very everyday simple
• 4:56
  definitions. So my definitions here are not
• 4:58
  technically precise. The reason why I'm not using
• 5:00
  technically precise definitions is because I want to use a
• 5:03
  definition that you guys will just understand and will be able
• 5:07
  to act on immediately. So if I use the technically
• 5:11
  precise definition of a grant, you know, the kind of definition
• 5:14
  they would have taught us when we were in law school back in
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  the day, you might be faced with some opportunities.
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  And then you're wondering, is this a grant?
• 5:22
  IB is not a grant. Is this a grant?
• 5:24
  IB is not a grant. Looking for fine print.
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  But if you understand that grant just means I dash, you go and
• 5:30
  prosper. Then no matter how large the
• 5:34
  document is, once you read it and you understand that, oh,
• 5:38
  this money will come to me, I'm not paying any loan back.
• 5:41
  They're not asking for equity. OK, There's some small, small
• 5:44
  restrictions, but essentially these people are dashing me
• 5:46
  money. You'll be able to know that.
• 5:48
  OK, confidently, yes, this is a grant and then you will apply.
• 5:51
  So that is why I use simple everyday definitions.
• 5:54
  So grants just means I dash you bootstrapping.
• 5:57
  That is when you finance the business because you have some
• 5:59
  small, small savings. You know, you check your purse,
• 6:02
  you check your bank account, you know, grand beg, mumsy and
• 6:06
  popsy, you know where Anyhow, shall I just get out the money?
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  That's what bootstrapping means. Bootstrapping just means I
• 6:12
  gathered the money. So option 1, grant them dash me.
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  Option 2, bootstrapping, I shall gather the money.
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  Then option 3, sales and revenue.
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  That means you go and you sell something.
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  So in one woman's case, you sell some smoothie, some pasta, some
• 6:27
  a goosey, some roast chicken, some roast this and some this
• 6:30
  and this and that and that. You take the profit that you get
• 6:32
  and then you throw it back into the business.
• 6:34
  That's option 3. That's also another way that you
• 6:36
  can finance your business also for is equity.
• 6:40
  That is when somebody will drop money and then the person will
• 6:43
  now be your partner, person will take your share in the business.
• 6:47
  And yesterday, that's what I was hinting at when I said I'm
• 6:50
  finally going to answer this question now.
• 6:52
  For babes, for Nigerian babes and for babes in the similar
• 6:56
  culture, Nigerian babes, Ghanaian babes, Syria alone
• 7:00
  babes, Cameroon babes, what else?
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  South African babes, you know, Indian babes, you know, those of
• 7:09
  us who we have kind of similar cultures.
• 7:12
  Polish babes. Yeah.
• 7:13
  Poland's cause Polish people are basically just Nigerians.
• 7:15
  It's just that they're, they have white skin.
• 7:18
  So Polish babes, Nigerian babes, Indian babes, you know, should
• 7:22
  you enter into business with your boyfriend, with your
• 7:25
  toaster, with somebody who is cutting you eye, with somebody
• 7:28
  who maybe is liking, you know, all those sorts of things.
• 7:32
  So I'm going to tackle those sorts of questions at the end of
• 7:35
  this episode because Wonder Woman has someone and she says
• 7:39
  that they're just friends. But I've been around for a
• 7:42
  while, so I don't believe this because the guy wants to drop
• 7:46
  money in the business. And anyway, she says they're
• 7:49
  just friends. So for the sake of arguments,
• 7:51
  we'll take it that they're just friends, but I don't believe
• 7:54
  that for her. Yeah, I know for for her he's
• 7:57
  just a friend, but for him anyway, let me just leave it
• 8:01
  like that. So that's where equity comes in.
• 8:02
  Somebody drops the money, but then now the person wants to be
• 8:04
  your business partner and you know, we're going to be 5050 or
• 8:07
  going to be 7030 and we'll take a split up the profits and blah,
• 8:11
  blah, blah. So basically I own a share of
• 8:12
  the business. And then loan is when somebody
• 8:15
  drops money and the person doesn't want to share your
• 8:17
  business, but this person says, look, you must pay me back.
• 8:19
  So OK, I'm giving you 500K and you say, oh, thank you very
• 8:23
  much. And he said, no, no, this is no
• 8:24
  matter of thank you is a loan is a loan is now borrowed.
• 8:28
  They borrow you. So I'm giving you 500K now, but
• 8:31
  February next year you have to give me 750K back.
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  So that is a loan. The person gives you 500K next
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  year the person wants 750K, meaning that that 250K is the
• 8:43
  interest that you pay on the loan.
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  So traditionally this is how you finance business.
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  So the first part I want I'm going to do now when we're
• 8:53
  talking about Wonder Woman is just to show how if you try and
• 8:56
  develop some sales and business development skills, you see how
• 9:00
  you can use those skills to overcome these challenges.
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  So I'm just trying to show how the lack of the money is not the
• 9:06
  problem. The problem is the lack of the
• 9:08
  skills that you need to go and chase that money.
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  So skill up first, then it'll be easier to get the money.
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  By the way, realistic expectations, because I'm saying
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  everything is sounding smooth and sounding simple does not
• 9:22
  mean that when you try to do this thing, it will be smooth
• 9:25
  and simple. There's nothing that works 100%
• 9:28
  of the time, and there's nothing that works the first time.
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  Like we're going to look at grants now.
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  I know some people who have got business grants but who have
• 9:37
  tried 567 times. I also was at the Smeden event
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  where one of the heads of Smeden was talking about business
• 9:44
  grants and there was a woman in the crowd, not even myself as a
• 9:47
  small girl and where is he person And she gave testimony.
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  I think by then she had gotten Smeden loans, I think close to
• 9:53
  like 10 M for her businesses. She was serving in Ocean State.
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  I think she was based based lives in Laguarde, was serving
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  in Ocean and she had gotten loans close to 10 M and the lady
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  was applying for the very first time.
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  So, you know, I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but it
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  happens. There are people who apply, they
• 10:16
  won and then back the thing will click.
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  And then there's some people that will apply in, you know,
• 10:22
  2001 zero, 2002 zero, 2003 zero, maybe 2010, something will
• 10:29
  click. So these things happen.
• 10:31
  So I'm not saying it's going to be easy.
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  What's your skill up and take action any which way it falls,
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  you know, without God if it takes you 7 years without God,
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  seven years is better than is better than nothing.
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  If it takes you one year, you know without God.
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  If you apply the very first day they answer you in three weeks.
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  You know either way we thank God and then you do the best that
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  you can do. So like I said, today we're
• 10:54
  going to look at how sales and business development skills can
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  help Wonder Woman or any other person in Wonder Woman
• 11:00
  situation. You have this small business
• 11:03
  you're trying to run, you're going to cuisine, you're going
• 11:05
  to catering, you do snacks, soup, pounded yam, roasted meat,
• 11:13
  peppered antelope, what else? Pasta kunu, all the nice good
• 11:21
  stuff. And you think your business is
• 11:24
  not moving because the lack of funds, What are you going to do?
• 11:27
  So with the traditional options that we've laid out now option
• 11:29
  one like I said, is grant. Now remember my definition of
• 11:33
  grants just means they dash you, they've given you money.
• 11:40
  There's no need to pay me back. Remember, this is not the
• 11:44
  correct technical definition of the term.
• 11:46
  I just want a very simple definition.
• 11:48
  So grant is I dash you. There's no need to pay me back
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  now, even though grants means I dash you and there's no need to
• 11:56
  pay me back. Excuse me?
• 11:58
  Usually there will be some conditions that you have to
• 12:01
  qualify because people who are doing grants, they usually have
• 12:05
  some mission or some special thing that is at the back of
• 12:08
  their mind that they are trying to promote.
• 12:12
  Luckily, Wonder Woman, I mean from the name that I selected,
• 12:16
  is obviously a woman. And the good thing is these
• 12:20
  days, it is a whole lot easier to find grants that are aimed at
• 12:25
  promoting women owned businesses.
• 12:28
  So there are some grants that the money they're dropping is
• 12:33
  this money is supposed to help young women living between Lagos
• 12:38
  and Ocean between the ages of so, so, so and so, so that they
• 12:42
  can build their farming business.
• 12:46
  So in that case, if you're a woman, yes, but you are based in
• 12:49
  Zamfara and maybe your business is construction, OK, you will
• 12:53
  not be able to get the loan because the person that is
• 12:55
  dropping the money from the loan for the grant for whatever
• 12:59
  reason, do you think that is behind their heart is I want
• 13:03
  girls who are in the farming industry to be able to build
• 13:06
  their agricultural businesses. So that is just it.
• 13:10
  People who come up with grants, usually they have some spiritual
• 13:12
  mission that they're trying to achieve.
• 13:14
  So because of that, there'll be some conditions that you either
• 13:17
  meet or you will not meet. So that's just the catch.
• 13:22
  The money is free. It is dash.
• 13:25
  There's no need to pay back, but we have to meet whatever the
• 13:28
  qualifications are before they dash you that money.
• 13:31
  Oh, and then of course, they also want to make sure that when
• 13:33
  they dash you that money that you use for intended purpose.
• 13:36
  So if let me see. OK.
• 13:41
  So if like if you're a young man and there's a grant for
• 13:43
  instance, that is aimed at young men in agriculture in maybe
• 13:49
  Plateau State, for instance. If you take the grant and
• 13:53
  instead of using that money to go and do agricultural business,
• 13:57
  use that money to go and marry 5 wives, what you have done is you
• 14:00
  have run foul of the terms of the grant.
• 14:04
  You have not done right by the person who issued the grant, by
• 14:09
  the organization that issued the grant.
• 14:11
  So they are concerned to make sure that the money is spent on
• 14:15
  the purposes that they intended it for.
• 14:18
  So those of you young men who go and collect grant and they use
• 14:21
  the grant to build house, that's a problem.
• 14:24
  If the grant said it is to promote young men to enter into
• 14:28
  the catfish industry, then use the money for catfish.
• 14:30
  Don't take the money and build house.
• 14:33
  If the grant is for young women so that they can succeed in
• 14:37
  their agricultural business, don't take the grant and then
• 14:41
  give it as a loan to your husband for his own business.
• 14:44
  That is not what the grant is for.
• 14:47
  So use grants for the purposes that they were intended.
• 14:52
  Now, what are the sales skills that are needed to help Wonder
• 14:55
  Woman lock in this grant or anybody lock in this grant?
• 15:01
  So you're going to need a couple of sales skills.
• 15:03
  Number one is prospecting. Prospecting in sales just means
• 15:06
  who might be interested in my product or my service, who is my
• 15:10
  ideal customer, you know, blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of
• 15:12
  things. So in this case, prospecting,
• 15:15
  now if you're thinking about grants, is basically just
• 15:18
  researching grant options. Who are the people out there who
• 15:22
  are looking to dash money to people like me?
• 15:25
  That is a sales skill because we wake up every day and we're
• 15:29
  trying to figure out, I guess make some money.
• 15:32
  Where can I make my money? Where will I get this money
• 15:35
  from? So if you're waking up and
• 15:37
  you're thinking about getting a grant, it's also a sales skill.
• 15:40
  So we're going to have to do some research.
• 15:43
  Now for the research, you can look at local Ng, OS, non
• 15:46
  governmental organizations. You can check their websites,
• 15:49
  just do a Google search, be able to find some sort, some things.
• 15:52
  Then there's some bodies that have grants like the UNDP that
• 15:55
  is the United Nations Development, IB Development
• 16:00
  Program or something like that. Please, for I haven't been in
• 16:06
  school for a while so if I'm giving the wrong definition of
• 16:08
  UNDP, I beg Novaks. But you can go and check it on
• 16:11
  Google UNDP, I think it's United Nations Development Program.
• 16:14
  Then there's also the IFC, the International Finance
• 16:16
  Corporation. Yeah, International Finance
• 16:19
  Corporation. They also have some grants that
• 16:21
  they give out. Then a World Bank.
• 16:24
  I hear that people in Abuja cashing out on World Bank grants
• 16:28
  and loans and things like that. No, that is what I that's what I
• 16:31
  hear. I have not seen what I've heard.
• 16:34
  Eyes have not seen and yes, I've not heard, but, and they don't
• 16:37
  mind me. That's a Christian joke.
• 16:39
  If you're not born again, you won't catch that one.
• 16:41
  So I was like, so World Bank. Then I also spoke about the
• 16:47
  Smedan events that I was at where the, what do you call him
• 16:54
  Smedan? Is it president, ABI, chairman
• 16:55
  or any of the heads or Smedan was there and they're talking
• 16:59
  about some of their grants and somebody in the crowd gave
• 17:01
  testimony. And so Smedan, yes, they also
• 17:04
  give out grants as well. So that's also something you can
• 17:06
  research, you can start from Google.
• 17:08
  And for Smedan, they have a, they have OK spread as per there
• 17:15
  in a couple of states in the federation.
• 17:17
  So that spread is, is OK. They're not in all 36 states of
• 17:20
  the federation, but you should be able to reach one with some
• 17:26
  with some effort, you should be able to reach 1.
• 17:28
  I think they have an office in marketing.
• 17:30
  So Wonder Woman can actually go in there because one of mine is
• 17:33
  based in marketing. So she can actually go into that
• 17:36
  middle office and then see how far.
• 17:37
  So they have in Lagos, they have marketing they have in Abuja,
• 17:41
  I'm not sure where else, but I know that they they try to be in
• 17:44
  every single region of the federation, even if they're not
• 17:47
  in any every single state. Then Bank of Industry, BOI, they
• 17:53
  also have women focused funds as well.
• 17:56
  For those of us who watch local TV, pay attention to channels.
• 17:59
  TVAITV know those sorts of stations, Smedan and BOI, they
• 18:04
  usually run programs usually in the evening, maybe like after
• 18:08
  news, OK, let's say night time, maybe like after news, like
• 18:11
  around that kind of 10. Also, they always do programs
• 18:15
  about their successful projects that they've been involved in
• 18:19
  and things like that. So you should be able to get
• 18:21
  more education and also get more contact details on who to on
• 18:27
  which office to approach. Then you can also pay attention
• 18:31
  to churches because you'd be surprised that your local church
• 18:33
  might also have a grant. I mean, casing in in question is
• 18:39
  my former church, That's when I was based in Lagos, Saint Leo's
• 18:43
  Church in Ikeja. Now, I am not telling those of
• 18:46
  you who are in Lagos to rush to Saint Leo's.
• 18:48
  I'm going to ask about business grant.
• 18:50
  I'm just telling you that while I was there a very, very, very
• 18:55
  long time ago, I know that there was a while where they give out
• 18:58
  some business grants. Although the church, the grants
• 19:02
  that they give out now, I think I'm much more education based.
• 19:06
  So I dash you this money, but this money is meant to go for
• 19:09
  school fees for people in tertiary institutions.
• 19:13
  And then of course, you're not going to pay back that money.
• 19:15
  But you can see what I was saying that the church you're
• 19:19
  giving out this money, the thing that is at the back of their
• 19:22
  chest is no people to go to school.
• 19:23
  So if you're a young man, you go there and you collect the grant
• 19:26
  and you now use it to marry wife.
• 19:28
  That's not that's not the grant is made for.
• 19:30
  So take the grant is what it is. So those are sources of grants
• 19:35
  that are available to people like Wonder Woman in my Cody
• 19:39
  assuming that they want to cure their business financing
• 19:42
  problems by using a grant. Now I went online and I did some
• 19:48
  small research and it's a very sexy research because it has
• 19:51
  turned out some really good stuff.
• 19:52
  So I'm going to share this with you guys, particularly people
• 19:56
  who are Wonder Woman's situation as per you're a woman, you're
• 20:00
  trying to build your business and then you're looking for a
• 20:04
  grant. So I was able to find two really
• 20:08
  exciting, really interesting programs that I'm going to share
• 20:12
  here right now. So women listening, get your pen
• 20:15
  and your paper. The first one is the Brave Women
• 20:19
  project that is one of those. So she's been one of those women
• 20:24
  entrepreneur. It's a woman entrepreneurs
• 20:26
  finance initiative. They have an office in Abuja.
• 20:30
  So those of you who are in Nasawa in Abuja, you know,
• 20:34
  Plateau, where else, you know, Niger, you can, you can rush
• 20:40
  down here and well, check the website first anyway.
• 20:43
  And the phone number is there, you know, make a phone call, you
• 20:45
  know, be sure that it's going to be worth your while before you
• 20:47
  spend your TP coming all the way from Niger stating to Abuja only
• 20:50
  to find out that you know nothing for you.
• 20:52
  So now office in Abuja, the website is bravewomenng.com with
• 21:00
  no space. So brave is BRAVE then
• 21:04
  womenng.com. In fact, BRAVE is an acronym for
• 21:07
  something. I didn't write it down because
• 21:08
  it was plenty, you know, business resilience or something
• 21:11
  and something, something, something, you know, long shot
• 21:13
  but real cool. So they like I said is a woman,
• 21:19
  woman entrepreneur finance initiative.
• 21:21
  All they're trying to do is women with MD, all women
• 21:25
  involved in business with MD, let's give them money and I
• 21:29
  think that that's really, really cool initiative so brave
• 21:32
  womenng.com go have a look at it and remember what I said please,
• 21:38
  please people who are giving grants have some spiritual
• 21:41
  mission that they're trying to fulfill use the money for its
• 21:44
  purpose. Nigerians would like to abuse
• 21:46
  things. If you young women go and you
• 21:50
  take this thing and you abuse it, these people will close shop
• 21:52
  and then do, I don't know, move to another country or something
• 21:56
  or stop paying attention to other things.
• 21:58
  So please, young women don't want to take this money and then
• 22:02
  give it to your boyfriend to start his business or don't want
• 22:05
  to take it and use it to buy a house or to pay rent or
• 22:07
  whatever. The money is meant for financing
• 22:11
  business. In fact, the name of the group
• 22:13
  is the Woman Entrepreneur Finance Initiative.
• 22:16
  Need I say anymore? It's about financing businesses.
• 22:21
  So brave womenng.com. Then there's another one,
• 22:25
  Flourish Africa. In fact, that one, the amount of
• 22:28
  money that they have to give out is a 1 billion naira.
• 22:31
  That's how much do they have to give the grant.
• 22:33
  But don't let your idea, it's not as if they will give you a
• 22:36
  loan 1 billion. It's just that the whole money,
• 22:38
  the cycle of money that they have is 1 billion.
• 22:41
  So I don't know how they're going to share it, but I do be
• 22:43
  giving everybody one hundred 100K or two 200K or five 500K or
• 22:47
  whatever. But the total cost is 1 billion.
• 22:50
  That's how much they have. And they're also going to
• 22:55
  finance female entrepreneurs. Now they have offices in Abuja,
• 22:59
  Lagos and Port Harcourt. So yeah, Abuja people, Nassara
• 23:05
  people, Plateau people. OK Benoit said as far as away
• 23:09
  Beni, you can, you know, book your bus ticket and calm down.
• 23:12
  Niger people. Yeah, you can do it.
• 23:14
  They have offices in Lagos. So if you're in Ibadan, you know
• 23:17
  you can't get there. If you're in Alicia, you can get
• 23:19
  there. Yeah, no problem.
• 23:21
  Then they also have places in pH.
• 23:24
  Never been to pH. I don't know that part of the
• 23:26
  world. So, you know, if you're around
• 23:28
  pH, then you should be able to get there.
• 23:30
  So, well, like I said, check the website first.
• 23:33
  Have a look at it, see what kinds of the businesses that
• 23:37
  they are trying to fund and then there'll be a phone number
• 23:41
  there, they'll be e-mail addresses, you know, call and
• 23:43
  e-mail and all those things to be sure that there's something
• 23:46
  in new for you before you waste your TP and come all the way.
• 23:50
  Because last time I checked, I think for some, you know all
• 23:53
  these cool bus companies where you go in Sienna.
• 23:57
  I think as a December Sienna prices was like A12K to come to
• 24:00
  Abuja. That's from Bengal estate.
• 24:03
  Yeah. So before you get your 2524 K
• 24:07
  plus accommodation, you know to come to Abuja, 12K here, 12K
• 24:11
  back. Please call make sure it's worth
• 24:13
  your while. So the website
• 24:15
  isflourishafrica.com. In fact, that one looked the
• 24:21
  most attractive because they had actual pictures and of women
• 24:25
  that they have financed before. And they were even looking like
• 24:28
  women in the age range of, excuse me, the age range of
• 24:35
  Wonder Woman. That's the not Wonder Woman, the
• 24:38
  comic characters and Wonder Woman, the person that I'm
• 24:40
  talking to who's trying to build a catering business in
• 24:43
  marketing. So, yeah, two delicious websites
• 24:47
  to look at if you are a woman and you're wondering where can I
• 24:51
  get money for my business? And I'm looking for grants.
• 24:53
  I'm looking for somebody that would say, young girl, we
• 24:56
  believe in your mission, we believe in your vision.
• 24:58
  Take this money, I dash you. No need to pay me back.
• 25:01
  So it's brave womenng.com then flourish africa.com again, no
• 25:08
  space, no capital, no under score, no nothing, just one
• 25:11
  word. And like I pointed out earlier
• 25:15
  in the episode, they're going to be some typical conditions that
• 25:17
  go with this grant since OK, ownership is one because you
• 25:22
  know, these are women based initiatives.
• 25:24
  So definitely once they look at the form and they see Tavishima
• 25:27
  George, I had on the form, those I know this is a guy council,
• 25:30
  they will now throw me away. It's not a violation of
• 25:33
  fundamental human rights or my constitutional rights.
• 25:35
  You know, they just want to finance women businesses.
• 25:37
  So if you're a guy, nothing for you.
• 25:39
  I am not sure about the status of the trans community in
• 25:42
  Nigeria when it comes to these things.
• 25:44
  So I don't, my guess is you probably can't qualify by
• 25:47
  saying, Oh, my name is no longer Tavishima George, my name is now
• 25:52
  Georgina, I'm now trans and you're gonna collect money.
• 25:56
  Then let's see what else? OK.
• 25:58
  Sometimes the conditions are around certain business types
• 26:01
  and sectors. Like I said, some people want to
• 26:03
  finance only agriculture, some people want to finance only
• 26:05
  manufacturing, some people want to finance only textiles.
• 26:08
  So check that out. And sometimes it covers
• 26:11
  location. Both of these organizations that
• 26:13
  I spoke about were obviously limited to Nigeria, so my
• 26:17
  Guinean sisters listening and my Cameroonian sisters listening.
• 26:22
  My where else? So my sister's another country.
• 26:27
  Yeah. This probably doesn't apply to
• 26:28
  you. Then some of them also focus on
• 26:31
  the business stage, you know. Are you at the ideation stage?
• 26:33
  Ideation is where I'm thinking this is a good idea.
• 26:36
  I haven't started yet. That is ideation.
• 26:38
  There's some people who give grants at that stage you want to
• 26:42
  enter business, you've not decided you have one or three
• 26:45
  good ideas, one or two good ideas come forward.
• 26:47
  Let's get the idea. OK, this one sounds good while
• 26:49
  back. So take like 400 pounds, $400.00
• 26:53
  so you can start that business. Then there are some people who
• 26:57
  focus on businesses that have achieved product market fit.
• 27:00
  Product market fit just means that you've gone into the market
• 27:03
  and you found out that there's a demand and people like this your
• 27:06
  idea. So some people say, well, take
• 27:08
  this money, take 10,000 lbs or take $10,000 where go and grow
• 27:13
  the business now that there's demand and there's some other
• 27:15
  people that try to the businesses that they're looking
• 27:19
  at these people who have achieved some traction.
• 27:21
  So like, OK, you already have like 100 customers every month.
• 27:24
  The goal is now to get 150 customers every month.
• 27:27
  And then some people just give you granted.
• 27:29
  So I go, well, I take this $200 per month, use it and acquire
• 27:33
  more customers. So, you know, on and on.
• 27:35
  And then there's some people who have built the business and they
• 27:37
  just want to scale. For instance, OK, like in Abuja,
• 27:43
  I know a couple of, there's one lady I know in particular who I
• 27:47
  think is soap. So she has been making soaps,
• 27:50
  hand wash soap, you know, different kinds of soaps.
• 27:54
  And she's already in some stores in Abuja.
• 27:57
  She has done quite well. So for somebody like her, she
• 28:01
  has gone past ideation, gone past product market feed,
• 28:03
  there's some traction. So for her and just a matter of
• 28:05
  scale. So currently, let's say she's in
• 28:08
  five stores, She now wants to enter 10 stores or 20 stores.
• 28:12
  There are some people who can give grants to say, oh, OK,
• 28:14
  you're doing my sister, my daughter, you're doing very,
• 28:17
  very well. So in order to grow or take this
• 28:21
  $10,000 and see how you can do some more than what other kind
• 28:27
  of restrictions are there going to be?
• 28:29
  OK. They're usually restrictions
• 28:31
  around usage. So sometimes the grant is take
• 28:34
  this money and expand the business.
• 28:36
  Some people, the grant is only for working capital, use it and
• 28:39
  pay salary, pay rent, put fuel in the generator, manage
• 28:43
  inventory, those sorts of things, so on and on and on.
• 28:46
  You know, there are plenty. That's why I said check the
• 28:48
  website first, see whether the thing makes sense for you and
• 28:51
  your situation. Before you send e-mail, call up
• 28:54
  the people and before you enter bus and come all the way down to
• 28:57
  Abuja, Lagos or Port Argot. Then I was like, so remember,
• 29:04
  they want you to spend the money on the mission.
• 29:06
  So some of them are going to have regular updates.
• 29:10
  So every two, two months, every 3, three months, everyone one
• 29:13
  year, send us e-mail, send us pictures, send us videos, show
• 29:16
  us progress. You know, we're going to be
• 29:18
  monitoring you or send financial statements or take pictures of
• 29:22
  the projects you have accomplished.
• 29:24
  Or let's look for a way to measure the social impact, you
• 29:27
  know, blah, blah, blah, all that sort of thing.
• 29:30
  So all those sorts of restrictions are there.
• 29:33
  Please don't let this thing scare you.
• 29:35
  All these conditions and restrictions.
• 29:37
  It's still is a good idea because this one is is as in
• 29:42
  grant is dash like they dash you.
• 29:45
  They didn't ask for a stake in your business and they didn't
• 29:47
  say you should pay back the loan.
• 29:49
  It's just, you know, some of these small, small requirements
• 29:53
  here and there. And then let me just leave it at
• 29:57
  that. So the sales skills that you
• 29:59
  will require to make these things happen, like we've spoken
• 30:02
  about prospecting skills, which is going out and looking for
• 30:04
  this money in the 1st place. And then #2 is you're also going
• 30:08
  to need good presentation skills, good rapport building
• 30:12
  skills, good reporting skills, you know, blah, blah, all those
• 30:17
  sorts of things. That's more the sales skills
• 30:18
  that you need. If you're curious about what
• 30:21
  these things are, just search within the podcast or search on
• 30:25
  YouTube. Use my name and you'll find
• 30:27
  podcast episodes where I have made episodes around
• 30:31
  presentation and proposals, presentations, writing
• 30:37
  proposals, all those sorts of things.
• 30:39
  Then another skill, sales skill that you're going to need is a
• 30:41
  BMABM is just acronym for account based marketing.
• 30:46
  What that means basically is you're trying to penetrate an
• 30:50
  enterprise because let's face it, if you're trying to get a
• 30:53
  grant from Brave or from Flourish Africa, it's not like
• 30:57
  going to your local church to go and access a a grant or coming
• 31:02
  to me one-on-one to get a grant because some of these
• 31:07
  organizations are huge. It's going to feel like it's
• 31:10
  just you against the multinational or something.
• 31:12
  So don't worry if they feel or sound that big.
• 31:16
  There are strategies and there are tips and tricks for
• 31:19
  penetrating such large organisations, for going in
• 31:22
  there, gaining advocates within the organisations for
• 31:25
  multithreading. Multithreading is just when you
• 31:27
  have multiple different contacts within an organization.
• 31:31
  Because if you try to do business with an organization,
• 31:34
  but you only know one person, then you know you're on your own
• 31:38
  as an oil for you because anything can happen.
• 31:40
  And I've given an example on the podcast where I got into one
• 31:43
  organization and I noticed that the CEO was a team guy.
• 31:49
  So, you know, I figured out correct.
• 31:51
  Yeah, you know, I'm set as in I'm chief.
• 31:53
  The guy is also team. And you know, we team boys, when
• 31:55
  we see ourselves, were very excited because we don't see too
• 31:59
  many of ourselves out in the wild.
• 32:00
  So it's like, correct, no problem.
• 32:02
  So I became very good friends with the CEO because he's a team
• 32:04
  guy. I got very good friends with the
• 32:07
  operations guy because he went to OAU.
• 32:11
  And then I also became good friends with one of the program
• 32:15
  officers who was there no rapport anyway, but you could,
• 32:19
  you know, I, I knew three people there.
• 32:22
  And then a wonderful thing happened the CEO Japan to Japan.
• 32:28
  I say, hey, then I started trying to call program officer
• 32:31
  and I found out that program officer too has jackpot.
• 32:33
  I say hey, and then the female. So I head of operations, yes,
• 32:41
  also jackpot. And I'll try calling the, the
• 32:44
  programs officer, the, the young lady only to find out she has
• 32:47
  now left this organization. She's now working with another
• 32:50
  organization. And that's how I found myself
• 32:52
  back at zero. I thought I was cool because
• 32:56
  CEO, no problem, we're relating. Head of operations, we're
• 33:00
  operating. We, you know, we're relating
• 33:03
  programs officer, we are relating.
• 33:04
  I figured like, yes, no problem. I have 3 contacts here.
• 33:07
  My, my entrance into this organization is strong.
• 33:10
  We'll be able to do some good business in 2023.
• 33:13
  That was in 2023, by the way. So I said yes, I was watching
• 33:17
  2023. I'm going to do good business
• 33:18
  with these people. I already started dreaming of
• 33:20
  the millions and millions that they'll pay me only for this
• 33:23
  jackpot thing to happen. And there everybody that I knew,
• 33:27
  OK, well, I didn't know too many people just disappeared.
• 33:29
  So that's what multithreading is.
• 33:31
  You can't just go there and know only one person.
• 33:34
  If you're only one person, no more is a risky proposition.
• 33:38
  And you've seen what happened to me.
• 33:40
  I knew three people and still it was a risky proposition.
• 33:43
  So that is multi threading. You know, one or two, three or
• 33:46
  four people can, you know, it helps you to pull these deals
• 33:51
  through. So you're also going to need ABM
• 33:53
  skills, multi threading skills when you're trying to get to
• 33:57
  Brave or Flourish Africa. So if you go there, you get to
• 34:02
  brave, you meet the receptionist, you talk to her,
• 34:04
  you be real nice, you know, blah, blah, blah, everything,
• 34:07
  you know, pay a compliment as you're leaving, collect
• 34:09
  receptionist number as you enter inside, you talk to case
• 34:13
  officer, you talk to this person built on my problem, blah, blah,
• 34:16
  blah. Collect phone number.
• 34:17
  The next person you're going to the same thing, collect e-mail
• 34:20
  address on and on and on and on. You know, so that by the time
• 34:24
  you leave there and you go back to Bennett states back to
• 34:27
  marketing. Yes, you spent 12,000 coming
• 34:32
  12,000 going maybe 10,000. OK, no, let's know 10,000
• 34:36
  accommodation is let's say 30,000 accommodation.
• 34:40
  So let's say you spend maybe like a 60K at least you come
• 34:43
  back to Marco D, you have like 5-6 phone numbers so that by the
• 34:46
  time you're doing a follow up and everything will be a whole
• 34:48
  lot easier because you have, you know, 5 or 6 phone numbers, one
• 34:52
  or two e-mail addresses and maybe you became, you know,
• 34:56
  party with one or two of them. So you know, it helps following
• 34:59
  up at the end of the day. So bottom line, what I'm trying
• 35:03
  to say is if you're a Wonder Woman situation, you want to
• 35:08
  actualize your business. I should put it, you want to
• 35:11
  start delivering more, start producing more.
• 35:14
  Our problem is not lack of finance.
• 35:15
  The problem is you don't you don't have the skills that are
• 35:17
  necessary to acquire the finance.
• 35:19
  So with some sales skills and with some sales mindset, you can
• 35:24
  overcome the challenge of finding grants.
• 35:29
  If you'd love to connect with me, the number is 08064662140.
• 35:35
  Country code is +234. For those of you who are not
• 35:38
  Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number.
• 35:40
  Also connect with me on socials, I'm on LinkedIn, Tavishima, IED,
• 35:44
  you'll find me on YouTube same name as well.
• 35:47
  Then let's see tomorrow since we've already done close to 40
• 35:53
  minutes tomorrow. OK, let me see bootstrapping.
• 35:55
  Now I think we will ignore bootstrapping and then we'll do
• 36:00
  tomorrow, we should do sales. There's sales, there's equity,
• 36:03
  there's loans. OK, tomorrow let's do sales.
• 36:06
  Let's ignore bootstrapping because you don't necessarily
• 36:10
  need sales skills to bootstrap. All you have to do is just open
• 36:13
  your bank account, open your wallet, look at your pocket and
• 36:15
  see how many coins are inside and then gather them together.
• 36:18
  So you don't need sales skills for that.
• 36:20
  So yeah, that's what we'll look at tomorrow.
• 36:21
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 36:23
  Again, shout out to Emmanuel Ejacola.
• 36:26
  Yeah, big ups to the rest of you in here.
• 36:29
  Please share the show with our brothers and sisters in iffair,
• 36:31
  because if I remember correctly, I think you're the first person
• 36:34
  from Olivia who is contacting me.
• 36:36
  And that's such a shame. You know, I'm, I'm a product of
• 36:39
  you guys. Now you people should show me
• 36:40
  some love. I've heard from everywhere.
• 36:42
  I've heard from Uniben, I've heard from UI, I've heard from
• 36:46
  A/B U A/B U Zaria. I've heard from even
• 36:49
  universities in the UK. So you have people show your
• 36:52
  boss some love. So I'll catch you guys at the
• 36:54
  next episode.