Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Don't Let Your Budget Dictate Your Dreams: Finding Your Perfect Business Fit

Transcript

Don't Let Your Budget Dictate Your Dreams: Finding Your Perfect Business Fit · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:00
Hello and welcome to the show. I'm recording this at home with
0:04
the kids around because of course, it's the holidays and
0:07
then there's been some light Abuja rain so I expect to hear
0:10
some noise in the background. Now yesterday, Tuesday was the
0:15
day that rather is the day because this happens every
0:19
single Tuesday. That's when I do my radio show.
0:22
That's the business booster show on Radio Maria 91.3 FM and it's
0:29
a call in show. So people get to call in and we
0:31
get to discuss business problems like we get to troubleshoot and
0:35
then a couple of people also call in because they want to
0:37
encourage people because there's someone, some people call in
0:41
with the problem and then somebody calls in later on to
0:43
say, oh, you know what? Back when I was in this stage of
0:46
my business when I had this problem, this is how I solved
0:48
it. You know, things like that.
0:50
So it turns out that the radio show actually is a very
0:54
wonderful business community. I mean, sort of like what we do
0:57
over here on the podcast. It's just that on the radio
0:59
show, it's live. So last week I received a call
1:05
from two people separately, those Regina and Arifa.
1:09
And they both wanted to know business ideas that they could
1:12
start with a certain amount of money.
1:15
And one of them wanted to know what kind of businesses can I
1:17
start with 100K? And the other person wanted to
1:20
know what kind of business can I start with 50K.
1:23
And yesterday I finally tackled the question because last week I
1:27
think we had like 7-8 callers so it's not possible to go through
1:31
every single question. But of course I write everything
1:33
down and I was able to get to Regina and RFR this week.
1:39
So I started off by saying, and I want to share the RFR Regina
1:47
as a case study because I think it's not entirely the right way
1:51
to go about these sorts of things.
1:52
You know, to think, OK, I only have 100K, what kind of business
1:55
can I do with it? I don't think it's the right way
1:57
to start. I mean, some people are trying
1:59
to hedge their risk. And if that's the case, I still
2:02
think it's not even the best way to start because there are other
2:05
factors that go into making a business successful, like
2:11
location, marketing and effort, you know, things I'll talk about
2:14
time and time again. And in fact, some of the things
2:17
that we're going to talk about today, you'll see that they are
2:20
location specific. So there are lots of factors
2:23
that are going to making sure that the business survives and
2:26
thrives. So if you're coming at either
2:28
from a risk mitigation point, it's not entirely the best way
2:31
to think about it. And if you're thinking about it
2:34
from the level of, OK, that's all the money that I have, I
2:37
would understand how you would start thinking, OK, 100K is all
2:40
I have, So what business can I do for 100K?
2:43
But still, I would think that that is the wrong way to go
2:46
about it. Sorry for using that word wrong,
2:48
not the wrong way, but I think there are much more better ways
2:52
that we can go about this. So this is how I answered their
2:55
question. First of all, I gave them the
2:57
answer that they wanted. Then after that, I gave my own
2:59
perspective on how we ought to be thinking about these sorts of
3:02
things. So just like I said, nothing is
3:05
foolproof, nothing is 100%. The factors for business success
3:08
can be many things. It's varied.
3:10
But in this case, a lot of the ideas that we're going to
3:12
discuss are location specific. And then of course, every single
3:17
business, whether it's location specific or not, there's a
3:19
marketing component to it. And then there's also an effort
3:22
component to it. So in other words, it's possible
3:25
that you pick the you pick the right location, but because your
3:29
marketing is crap or because you don't put in enough effort, the
3:32
business is going to fail. Or rather let me say the
3:35
business might fail. You know, because it's possible
3:38
they can have a poor location. Abby, how did I put it?
3:41
Anyway, forgive me, but you get what I'm trying to say.
3:43
Now, there are lots of things that we have to juggle to make
3:45
sure that the business succeeds. So for some of these businesses
3:48
that are location specific, we need the right location, we need
3:52
the right kind of marketing and then we also need to put in the
3:55
right level of effort to make sure that this thing succeeds.
3:59
So let's start off with 100K ideas and I think Nigeria people
4:04
and is it Americans or is that busy Aussies?
4:08
Is that there's some people that use 1100, I mean use the K thing
4:11
different in Nigeria when we say 100K, we mean 100,000.
4:16
OK, So just to make sure we're on the same page.
4:18
But then of course, if you want to know how much money that is,
4:20
let's say you're listening in from Cameroon or listening from
4:23
Bangladesh or America or whatever or China, then just go
4:27
and use the currency calculator. We'll give you a sense of how
4:30
much actually is worth in your own local currency.
4:33
But unfortunately in Nigeria of the day, 2025, excuse me, as at
4:39
the date of this recording because of hyperinflation
4:42
100,000, it just isn't worth much you carry to the open
4:45
market. You know, it's not, it's not
4:49
anything really. So, yeah.
4:53
So ideas for 100,000 naira, 100 key ideas.
4:57
Now, one that I came up with was POS.
5:00
Now POS just means point of sale.
5:02
Point of sale is, you know, people running around with those
5:05
little machines that you can use to pay for something.
5:10
And because the Nigerian government has this policy now
5:13
of trying to grow us into a cashless economy.
5:15
So successive governments have been trying to make sure that we
5:17
stop carrying money around. It is necessary that we have
5:21
that we need to have more POS devices so that people can do
5:24
cashless transactions. And so because of that, we
5:28
currently have last I heard, the gist I heard was we have over 2
5:33
million registered POS operators in the country and it looks like
5:38
even that is not enough, like we might still need more.
5:40
So because of the policy thrust of the government, it looks like
5:44
this is a good business to go into.
5:45
And you do not need, you don't need huge sums of money to do
5:49
it. You can do with 100K.
5:50
And unfortunately for me, you know, I mentioned that on the
5:54
air and lo and behold, somebody sends me a question.
5:57
They want to know how to start that business with 100K.
6:00
And you know, it just goes to some of the dangers that I'm
6:03
trying to avoid that because 100K is all you have, doesn't
6:07
mean you should be thinking what 100K business should I be going
6:10
into? But anyway, I'll get into the
6:12
dangers of this kind of thinking later on.
6:14
Let me just answer their questions.
6:15
First the 100K and then the 50K. So OK then apart from that, we
6:21
also don't have enough banks or ATMs in this country.
6:26
The gist I heard, please go and verify the figures is that the
6:29
bank branches with ATMs in this country are just over 400,400
6:35
thousand branches in this great big country of ours only
6:39
400,000. That is precisely the reason why
6:43
we have over 2 million POS operators accounting, because
6:47
when people even want access to the cash, for lots of people,
6:52
they would have to go to great lengths to go to a bank to get
6:57
the money. In fact, if you listen to the
6:59
episode that I made last week for the fellows, the Ben Ray
7:03
boys just like me who are trying to look for money to finance
7:07
their business. One of them wants to do SIM
7:09
admin registration and then the other one who wants to do car
7:13
fleet, you know, Bolts, Uber, and that's all those sorts of
7:15
things. If you remember the chap in Ali
7:18
AD the local government in binary state when I was talking
7:21
to him about microfinance, because I know for sure that you
7:23
know, major banks, you know, like Sterling, Zenith, STANBIG,
7:28
IPTC, Access Bank. I know that all those banks are
7:30
not in Ali ADI know for sure because in Pop C's village in in
7:36
Shangivia that's inquiring the local governments, we don't have
7:38
those banks. So I just knew that OK, Ali AD
7:41
the banks will be there. So even microfinance banks are
7:44
not even Ali AD local government.
7:46
So I know that a lot of you listening to this show who are
7:49
in a similar situation like oh, every time we have to go and
7:52
travel home, whether it's Christmas or Easter, once we
7:54
enter Villa, you know, there's no bank.
7:56
If we need cash, we need to load up on cash before we enter
7:59
Villa. So for lots of Nigerians, that
8:01
is the case. So these people who are running
8:03
POS businesses, they actually are serving a vital need because
8:09
even though there's no POS in Ali AD, so even though there's
8:13
no bank in Aliade, even though there's no bank in Shanghai,
8:16
even though there's no bank in, I don't know, Umuahia or
8:19
wherever it is you come from, at least POS operators are
8:22
definitely there. Even if they're not close to
8:25
your house, at least you know that by the time you enter
8:27
general markets in your village, you will see one or two POS
8:31
operators. So those people definitely
8:32
serve, serve a valuable role. So POS business as a business
8:36
that can be done then excuse me, another business that I went
8:41
into that can be done with 100,000 naira or less as a
8:47
mobile hairdressers and mobile barbers.
8:49
Now for some of you, you've never heard of that before and
8:53
to be honest, I didn't know that those things existed until this
8:56
year because I was driving around one day and I got stuff
8:59
in some serious traffic in Abuja.
9:01
Now I know those of you who live in Lagos, you guys will laugh,
9:03
You say which kind of traffic in Abuja I better go and sleep by
9:06
anyway, by Buja standards out serious traffic.
9:09
So I now started entering coral, you know, to see how I can avoid
9:12
the traffic. Enter 1 coral, enter 1 coral.
9:15
So I now bust out in front of one place and I noticed that in
9:18
front of one house there was this big umbrella, like what was
9:24
it called Nikon insurance, that big, big, big, very big
9:27
umbrella, as in bigger than empty and umbrellas.
9:29
So the big umbrella was there and there was a woman sitting
9:31
down in the chair next to her. Was this like a portable sink?
9:35
Like a sink on the stand, you know, the sink that women used
9:37
to wash their hair in salons. You know, when you do permit and
9:42
you need to wash that, relax off your hair.
9:45
So that kind of sink. Then there was another chair,
9:48
then there was a pedicure stool and, you know, some small, small
9:51
things here and there. And I was a man's saloon.
9:53
So I was like, OK, I just drove by.
9:56
Then later on, I gave my wife the G's.
9:57
My wife was like, oh, standard. It happens all over the place.
10:00
I was like, yeah, really? And then mom, she showed up like
10:02
two days later and then I told mom, see about it.
10:04
Oh, this is what I saw. Can you imagine?
10:06
My mom was like, no, no, this one is standard.
10:08
My people have been doing this since in the end of this by me,
10:11
I never noticed. So there are people who that is
10:15
how they start the hairdressing business.
10:17
You understand the hairdressing business.
10:18
You go and look for the price of the shop.
10:20
The local council people tell you that look, shop is 500 K.
10:23
You think to yourself, I don't have 500K, but you only have
10:26
100K. You go and buy one or two
10:28
things, you put it outside your house and then you start doing
10:30
business. Then if it looks like these
10:33
people, what are they called? The task force.
10:35
If you see task force, you not gather everything and then run
10:37
inside your compound, you know, say that some people that start
10:40
like that, you know, 100K. By the way, I'm not advocating
10:43
that you break the law. That's not what I'm asking you
10:45
people to do. So do not fly out the laws, but
10:50
you know, let me just keep quiet.
10:51
Let nobody quote me saying that I said on a show that I said
10:55
something. So let me just keep quiet.
10:57
So mobile hairdresser, mobile barbers.
10:58
Yeah, that's how people do it. Then laundry service.
11:01
Now it's not hard. You just need bucket water, buy
11:04
a board, buy your iron, make sure you budget for Nepal bills.
11:08
And that's you pretty much. And then you can do it from your
11:11
house. Laundry service.
11:12
Then freelance writing. You can also do it less than
11:14
100K, assuming that you already have your phone or your computer
11:19
so you don't have to go and buy 1.
11:20
So freelance writing, content creation, copywriting, you can
11:23
do that easily from your house. The only money that you're going
11:26
to spend is you're going to pay for some courses, pay for some
11:29
material, pay for certification, your distribute Flyers, do some
11:33
online ads, wash up 100 Ki think you can run it.
11:36
Then there's also home based food delivery.
11:39
All you have to do is buy the raw material.
11:41
Buy your rice, your chicken, your goat meats, everything.
11:43
And then you factor in money to pay the Okada rider that will
11:47
send the money to the house. I say money that will send the
11:49
food to the client's house. By the way, when it comes to
11:53
selecting dispatch drivers, please select somebody that has
11:56
sense because I heard of someone who had a real nasty experience.
11:59
They tried to do this both delivery something and the
12:02
driver must have been driving like crazy because when the food
12:04
got to the other person, the food you know, was now, you
12:07
know, mixed and turned any which doesn't look like.
12:10
So give it to a dispatch rider who has sense because these
12:15
things rub off negatively on you because when you receive the
12:18
food, when they receive the food and they open the food and the
12:22
food looks like you were shot out of a catapult, you know they
12:26
won't think stupid dispatch writer.
12:28
They will think about you that what kind of stupid cateries
12:31
this that look at how this food is.
12:33
Is a human being supposed to eat this food?
12:35
So be careful when selecting a dispatch writer.
12:37
Then mobile phone accessories. That's also a business you can
12:40
start with less than 100 grand. I know this one for a fact
12:43
because OK, let me not say for a fact because I'm guessing to be
12:47
honest, because whenever you know, you go to, you go to the
12:51
motor park, you know, relatives around you drop them back so you
12:54
can take the bus back home. You always see those boys with
12:58
the bag and with the basket and they're selling screen selling
13:03
chargers, they're selling power banks are selling, you know,
13:05
stuff like that. So I think definitely you can
13:08
start that kind of business on the budget also selling screen
13:11
protectors. Then fruit and vegetable sales.
13:13
Yeah, that's also less than 100 grand.
13:15
You know, people, you see them around now, at least in Abuja,
13:18
you see them around in the estate, small table, sell
13:21
watermelon, carrot, green pepper, you know, that kind of
13:24
thing. Then small scale food
13:26
production, you know, snacks and pastries and then what else?
13:31
Then bead making and jewelry. You know, these are small, small
13:36
things that you can start with 100K.
13:38
So like if you're making these things, what are they called
13:42
again? I call them a shallow beads, but
13:44
my sister-in-law says it's not a shallow beads that ileke and
13:47
that's what they're called. But anyway, regardless, you know
13:51
what it what it is I'm talking about.
13:52
So you're making ileke and you're making, you know, the one
13:55
that people wear on their wrists then yeah, you can do that.
13:59
Less than 100 grand. So those were some of the ideas
14:03
that we looked at on the show that's on the radio show on
14:07
Radio Maria, when we're looking at ideas that you can start for
14:09
100K. And of course people called in
14:11
later on to give testimony about, oh, you know what, what
14:14
you're saying is true. I started this business with
14:17
this amount and you know, we're able to agree to this amount and
14:20
blah, blah, blah. So yes, some of the suggestions
14:22
turned out to be true. Then for the second person for
14:26
business ideas on 50K, remember I told you guys that 100K is
14:29
not, is not much because look, let's be honest.
14:33
See, like today, for instance, my fan belt cut is just one of
14:36
those things actually cut last night.
14:38
I got the mechanic to come this morning, so wanted to buy a good
14:44
quality belt then plus Okada and you know, to go and get the belt
14:49
out to come and everything. That's how 25K just miss
14:52
straight. Then of course electrician was
14:55
over at the house because you know, when we moved in, the
14:58
sockets that we had here we're not really good quality.
15:01
So I wanted to change it. The sockets for the fridge, the
15:04
socket for the for the air conditioner and the socket for
15:09
the deep freezer. So you know, materials this
15:13
that, that that that and that's how you know close like 20 K
15:16
just miss. So you can see that in the space
15:19
of one morning like that for a very simple ordinary Nigerian,
15:24
just like you and me, you can see that, you know, they just
15:27
break already 50K don't miss and not on anything substantial,
15:32
nothing serious. So like I didn't enter market,
15:37
you know, nothing substantial. That's how money just makes like
15:40
that. So 100K not worth much then?
15:44
Well, of course if you dash ME100K now you know, by all
15:46
means I'll take it because I could use it for something most
15:49
def. But in actual purchase times not
15:52
worth much. So if it's a challenge coming up
15:54
with ideas for 100K, then even 50K the challenge gets even
16:00
harder. But of course, like I mentioned
16:02
on the show that sometimes we sit and we brainstorm, sometimes
16:06
we pick up our phones, we check Google, sometimes we check
16:09
ChatGPT, we check Gemini, and we should be able to come up with
16:12
some ideas. Some ideas will make sense, some
16:14
ideas will not. For those that don't make sense,
16:16
discard. For those that make sense, give
16:18
it a try. But still, I think there's a
16:20
better way to think about these sorts of things the fundamental
16:24
way when it comes to getting into business.
16:27
So for business idea for 50K now same considerations.
16:31
Apply location marketing effort for those ones that are location
16:35
dependent. Make sure you get your location
16:38
tight. Like for the lady who is doing
16:39
mobile hair dressing. If you set up your mobile hair
16:43
umbrella in the wrong place then I'm sorry for you.
16:46
You will not get any business. I'm assuming you want it in a
16:52
residential space where there's plenty of foot traffic.
16:55
Foot traffic just means people, they walk up and down or people
16:58
are driving left and right or people are taking Okada here and
17:01
there. That is when somebody will see
17:03
you and the person will think, you know what I need to do?
17:07
Wash. I set sharply.
17:08
Let me just do it here. Or these braids.
17:12
I want to loosen these braids. But if I go home now and I call
17:17
my daughters, my daughters will send me or my daughters might
17:20
not be at home. So let me just stay here and
17:21
loosen my braids. Sharp, sharp, you know that kind
17:23
of thing. So location dependent.
17:25
So you're thinking about this sort of thing.
17:28
Mobile hairdresser. Excuse me mobile Baba then
17:33
sorry, excuse me, you need a place that has lots of food
17:36
traffic. Sorry about that.
17:37
My voice is kind of tired because yes it was a busy day.
17:43
Apart from the radio show, I also did 2 coaching sessions and
17:47
I can tell you guys now that there is no occupation that
17:52
doesn't have its hazards. Let me just put it that way
17:54
because I remember back in my event days, you know, when
17:56
you're doing events, you're standing for like 12 hours
17:58
straight and I used to think, oh boy, isn't that an easier way to
18:01
make money? It just turns out that no matter
18:04
which way of picking, no matter which way of making money that
18:07
you pick, it has its own hazards.
18:08
So as a matter of pick your poison.
18:10
So if you're doing a lot of sitting for a living, it has its
18:15
hazard, backache, shoulder ache, and you're doing lots of
18:17
standing for a living, it has its hazards.
18:19
If you're doing lots of manual labor for a living, it has its
18:22
hazards. If you're doing lots of talking
18:23
for a living, it has its hazards.
18:25
But I guess some hazards are better than other.
18:28
I mean, I'd rather talk for a living than do manual label.
18:30
Anyway, let me get back to the to the point.
18:36
So for 50K now, one idea that I was able to find was perfume,
18:41
perfume oil sales. Now when we say perfume oil, we
18:43
don't mean Isimiaki, we don't mean Calvin Klein.
18:46
And yes, some of you will start laughing at me saying isimiaki.
18:48
What year were you born? Calvin Klein.
18:51
Ha ha ha. Do people still use Calvin
18:53
Klein? Well I'm sorry I'm not a very
18:55
fashionable guy so I do not know what perfumes are raining
18:58
nowadays, but back when I was in school, if you had Isimiaki,
19:02
perfumes were a big boy. Well to be honest, I can't even
19:05
remember if Isimiaki is a perfume self, but I know sure
19:07
that we used to do isimiaki. What else?
19:11
Christian Dior, CK, Calvin Klein, what else?
19:16
And even even Tommy, like Tommy Hilfiger.
19:18
There's one Tommy Hilfiger perfume that actually ran back
19:20
then back when we were in school when I was in Greg's white
19:25
bottle like this with the Tommy Hilfiger flag on it.
19:28
So, so I'm not talking about those kinds of perfumes because
19:31
I hear now I had some guys discussing, I won't say who they
19:36
are, but if you haven't listened to the episode, yes, I'm talking
19:39
about you and we're talking about perfume.
19:41
And they say, oh, they want to buy 20ML and the bottle IS300K.
19:45
And in my mind, my brain just went like mad.
19:48
Like I exploded. Like what the hell, They want to
19:51
spend 300 grand on perfume. Like you don't have any other
19:54
priorities as in grown man 300K perfume by saying let me keep
20:00
quiet because when I talk like that, my wife just says beef now
20:03
because I don't have 300 K to throw around on what I consider
20:07
to be trivialities. So let me just leave it.
20:09
So yes, I'm not talking about those kind of perfume that you
20:11
know, 300K500K, just one bottle. But it is possible that you can
20:17
go and buy perfumes, bulk, bulk purchase.
20:21
This is more like local perfumes and local body oils.
20:24
You can go to the market, buy them in bulk purchase and then
20:27
repackage them in small, small bottles like 100 hundred meals,
20:30
you know, 120 meals, 150 meals, you know that kind of thing.
20:33
And you'll be selling them small, small, small.
20:35
Now, that was the one that somebody gave me testimony.
20:38
The fellow called and was like, look, that he can be a testimony
20:40
to the fact that his perfume business, he didn't move.
20:43
I was like, yeah, really. He said, yes, of course.
20:46
Now when my girlfriend was still in school, if I went again and
20:48
said my girlfriend, I was like, hey, my director will square him
20:52
now because Radio Maria, it's it's not a Catholic radio
20:58
station. But to be honest, it is founded
21:01
upon Catholic principles. So I know for sure that when the
21:04
guys say my girlfriend can imagine that the program's
21:09
director was I've been squirming in his in his seat by anyway, so
21:13
I had to guess it. So while my girlfriend was in
21:14
university now she was thinking of what to do blah, blah, blah.
21:19
So I gave her 25K. Let's do this perfume business.
21:22
I said within one week she made over 50 Ki was like seriously.
21:25
So yes, yes, yes. So that was the testimony.
21:28
So all that testimonies came in like that.
21:30
So some of these things might sound far fetched or strange or
21:34
beneath you or whatever, but just know there are people who
21:39
are doing this. And somebody called in live and
21:43
direct to say that he gave his girlfriend 25K and within one
21:47
week she made that 25 K 50K. Then let's see what else.
21:53
OK, VTU, virtual top up. Virtual top up.
21:56
That's what we used to do back in the good old days.
21:59
That's in Obasanje era when GSM first came into Niger.
22:03
So now you buy credit on your apps and stuff like that.
22:08
You know, you buy on your apps what else?
22:11
You buy on your banking apps, you buy on mobile apps, maybe
22:15
you buy on OPA, you know, stuff like that.
22:17
That's how people buy credit nowadays.
22:19
But back in the day when emptying was fresh, you actually
22:22
had to go to somebody in the store that was branded with MTN
22:26
or Econet or Glow. And you tell the person, give me
22:30
1000 credits. The person will say no problem.
22:32
He will collect 1000 from you. The person will give you a card.
22:35
You will now scratch that card and behind that card there will
22:38
be a code like star, 333 star something, something hash, you
22:42
know, send. You type that in, you send it to
22:45
your phone. And that's how we loaded up our
22:46
phones in a good old days. Then after a while, the scratch
22:50
card was replaced with paper and you just go and buy paper.
22:54
Now I thought those things were dead and gone, but surprise
22:58
surprise, those people are still with us today.
23:00
That's the VTU people. And I know that because one day
23:03
now if I steal this fan belt issue because the fan belt
23:07
actually caught like 2 weeks back, I called the mechanic, he
23:10
brought two options. We picked the one that he said
23:14
was trusted, of course was the more expensive one and you know
23:18
that's the same one I caught now and then the idiot you know
23:20
shows up and anyway, that's a long story.
23:22
Let me just leave the whole thing.
23:23
So that was when the fan belt just caught the first time now.
23:26
So now to pay for this thing now as when it is a lot and glue and
23:30
everybody decided to do me a shaggy.
23:32
I was not able to get Internet access at all to transfer money.
23:38
And then of course I was low on cash.
23:41
So I said let me just try my luck.
23:44
I tracked down to the junction. I saw one guy you know, selling
23:46
watermelon and you know all these kind of things.
23:49
And then I just asked him, you know, bro, I beg go fee buy
23:52
credit. And then he pointed behind him
23:54
and see that guy, see that guy with the back and say, oh, OK, I
23:57
went to go and meet him. I said, bro, I bet glue 500 so
24:01
sure, no problem. And then he brought out the
24:03
sheet of paper and then I did the star something, something
24:07
star whatever, whatever, whatever hash sent.
24:10
And then also I was able to load up, load up my glow line and
24:17
then I'll get glow data since my other data was misbehaving, get
24:21
glow data to now be able to do everything.
24:24
But for good measure, I also bought Abby.
24:28
OK, anyway, that's how I got glow data basically.
24:30
So summary what I'm trying to say is that those people still
24:33
exist, the VTU people. So if you're ever in the pinch,
24:36
just look around. If you see, you know, I want
24:39
junction, maybe somebody selling one time alone, somebody selling
24:42
biscuits, somebody selling into me, just go there and ask, you
24:45
know, I beg, I want to buy credit.
24:47
No point. You and those guys still exist.
24:49
And that's a business that you can start with less than 50K.
24:53
Because when I tried that business many years ago, just
24:56
when I was when I knew you got married, me and the guy that
24:59
were partnering together, we started off with 20,000.
25:02
That's how much I dropped. I can't remember how much he
25:04
dropped, but yeah, we definitely started with less than 50K.
25:08
Then of course, freelance digital services, I mentioned
25:10
that graphical design, I think graphic design, social media
25:13
management and all those sorts of things, assuming that you
25:16
already have your own computer and you have your own mobile
25:21
phone and stuff like that. So those were the ideas that we
25:25
looked at for businesses that you can start for under 100K and
25:31
for under 50K. So that's how I settled Regina
25:35
and that's how I settled what's the second lady's name?
25:40
Can't believe I've forgotten it, but that's how I settled them.
25:42
And another person called in to say, OK, this POS business that
25:48
you've mentioned, how can I start this POS business now?
25:50
So I'll tackle that question next week.
25:55
But the proper way that we should be thinking about this
25:59
thing is it's not a matter of a half 100K.
26:04
What is 100K business I should start?
26:06
No, the proper way, the more systematic way, the more
26:12
fundamentally sound way of getting into a business is a
26:16
three prong framework that I talk about a lot on this
26:19
podcast. That is number one.
26:21
We need to find the right idea. The right idea is contextual and
26:26
depends on you, your age, where do you live, what's the
26:31
environment like? What is your interest?
26:33
What is your skill set, what is your passion?
26:35
So the right business idea for me might not be the same
26:38
business idea for you because there's somebody who is making
26:43
millions of naira in the sheet parking business.
26:46
When we first moved to Lagos, I was surprised.
26:48
I saw the billboards everywhere and I was like so sheet parking
26:51
is business and I had that actually is very, very good
26:52
business. But to be honest, maybe any, I
26:56
don't know. To be honest, I, I don't think I
26:58
can do sheet parking business. I don't think so, even though
27:01
I'll have to pay some other people to handle the crap.
27:05
Literally speaking, I don't think that's the business for
27:08
me. So we need to find the right
27:10
idea is contextual to who you are and a bunch of other stuff.
27:15
We now need to ask ourselves, is this a profitable market to
27:19
enter? Is there market demand for this
27:22
idea? Do people value?
27:25
Do people desire, do people want, do people chase these
27:28
things that I'm about to invest money in?
27:30
We need to ask ourselves that question because if it's the
27:33
right idea but people don't want to pay money for it, wala.
27:37
If it is the right idea but people want to pay money for it
27:40
but not enough people so that we can build a, a profitable
27:44
business, then wala. If it is a business and we have,
27:48
if it's a good idea, that is good for me.
27:51
And you know, 99.9% of the people we run into want to pay
27:56
for it, but they don't want to pay enough for me to be able to
28:00
run the business or to have a sustainable living, then wala.
28:04
So that #2 important. Then the final question, can we
28:08
develop selling frameworks around these things, this idea?
28:12
Can we develop marketing systems around this idea?
28:16
Can we come up with selling channels?
28:17
Can we sell the damn thing? Shah, those are the three main
28:20
things you should ask. So you don't wake up and say
28:23
only have 500 K in my account, which business can I start with
28:26
500K? We start off by saying what is
28:29
the right idea? OK, these ideas are found.
28:33
Are they profitable? OK, it's profitable.
28:38
Is there significant market demand?
28:40
And then we're not asked, OK, is this the kind of thing that I
28:43
can sell? Because it might be the right
28:46
idea and they're enough people and they're willing to pay for
28:49
the amount. But you don't have the skill
28:51
sets to sell this thing or you don't have the interest in
28:54
selling this thing. You're not motivated in selling
28:56
this thing, and you don't know how to partner with some other
28:58
person who can sell this sort of thing.
29:02
Take my snails and catfish, I hear it is very possible, but
29:07
there are some people who have no idea about how to go about
29:12
selling catfish. You have no idea about what kind
29:16
of networking you need to do to sell catfish, what kind of
29:19
associations that you have to join to sell catfish or take
29:25
human hair. If I were to sell human hair, to
29:28
be honest, well, I can give it a go, but you know, I'm not fancy,
29:33
I'm not fashionable. I don't know that world.
29:35
I don't even know where what I will begin to start selling
29:38
human hair. I have no idea.
29:40
And if you would give me the challenge, I'm sure if I sit
29:42
down, I give myself like two or three days, I might, I might be
29:47
able to give it a go. But bottom line, what I was
29:49
trying to say is that there's one thing being a good idea and
29:52
a profitable idea. There's another thing, whether
29:54
you can sell the thing or you know how to partner with someone
29:58
that can sell the thing. So those are the main things
30:02
that we should be looking at, not just how much money is in
30:04
our bank account. So when it comes to the right
30:07
idea, are you passionate about this thing?
30:09
I don't like businesses that are founded on passion because if
30:12
you found a business on passion, you're going to get very
30:14
heartbroken because baking a cake for fun is nice.
30:18
But when a bride has given you money and she's calling you to
30:22
say, look, this wedding is 3 days away, where is my damn cake
30:26
is a different thing entirely. The first time when you're
30:29
baking for fun, the thing we give you joy.
30:31
When an angry bride is shouting on you that where's my cake?
30:35
The thing that's supposed to give you joy is now giving you
30:37
plenty of heartache and giving you plenty of axed.
30:39
So that's why I don't like passion LED businesses.
30:42
However, passion is important because it keeps you going when
30:44
the time gets tough. So passion, yeah, it's a good
30:48
thing to look at. So the business idea, are you
30:53
passionate about this thing? Have you been putting any kind
30:57
of effort or any practice behind it?
30:58
Do you have a skill set here? Do you have any affinity for the
31:01
thing or have you looked at gaps in the market?
31:05
Because it's a conversation that I had with my son 2 days ago
31:08
while talking about business opportunities.
31:11
And I pointed out to him how in Nigeria, we have lots of solar
31:15
power companies. I mean, companies are selling
31:17
solar power drive into any estate.
31:21
You will see that on the big, big houses, you see them 8 solar
31:24
panels, 1216. I even saw one house just I
31:28
didn't have enough time to count.
31:29
But Omar was being to look like they had like up to like 30
31:33
something panels. And I was wondering man, like
31:35
what are you powering inside that house?
31:38
But I was when I was in what's this place in kind of Utako,
31:45
past Utako. It's one of the more affluent
31:48
parts of Abuja, very modern houses, very sweet looking
31:52
houses, nice designs, ultra modern designs and stuff.
31:56
So the roofs are on different sides of the house.
32:00
Anyway, let me not bore you. The bottom line.
32:02
What I'm trying to say is that yes, in Nigeria, there's a need
32:06
for solar businesses because in this particular environment,
32:09
NEPA is crap. If you're going to rely on NEPA,
32:12
you're going to be heartbroken a lot of the times.
32:14
So it makes sense that if you can afford it, you buy solar.
32:17
But then I pointed out to my son that while his mom and I lived
32:22
and worked in the UK, we did not see a single solar panel.
32:26
Nowhere. Because, OK, well, they don't
32:31
have sunshine, yes, that's a problem.
32:32
But minus that, we didn't see solar panels, we didn't see wind
32:35
turbines, we didn't see any alternative energy.
32:38
Whatever. Because in Scotland, Nepal works
32:42
fantastic. Except for the time when there
32:45
was that famous tornado off the coast of Scotland.
32:48
We think not our power in the city.
32:50
And I was confused because I was confused because, you know, I
32:55
never expected it because, you know, in this part of the world,
32:58
in Nigeria, you know, we make it look as if in America and other
33:01
parts of the world never don't take lights.
33:02
But The thing is, never takes light everywhere.
33:04
It's just that in Nigeria never takes light daily.
33:07
In other parts of the world when NEPA takes lights is an extreme
33:09
occurrence. Like when they had that issue in
33:12
Texas and then they didn't have power for two weeks or three
33:16
weeks or something. So Napa takes like everywhere.
33:18
It's just that in other places it's more of an extreme weather
33:21
event. For some people.
33:22
It's a once in a lifetime thing. So when I was confused now when
33:26
the light went off, I was like, hey, even in the UK, by 5
33:30
minutes later, life was back. And then life was back.
33:32
And then life continued just as normal.
33:36
So where was I? Market gaps?
33:42
Yes, gaps in the market, gaps in the environment.
33:43
So in Nigeria solar business, good idea.
33:46
If you want to sell solar and generator in Scotland, you're
33:48
wasting your time because quite frankly, there is no need for
33:53
it. Let's see then, is the market
33:59
profitable? Is there any market demand?
34:03
Try and sell a few things. That's where this whole thing of
34:05
MVP comes up. MVP is just a minimum viable
34:07
product. The minimum viable product is
34:09
the smallest version of your idea that you can use to test
34:12
whether this thing is profitable and you can do an MVP in most
34:15
businesses. So for this lady now that
34:20
started the mobile hair thing that I saw on the coral when I
34:25
was trying to avoid traffic, it's easy to see how she
34:29
probably went to go and make inquiries.
34:30
How can I get a shop in this market?
34:32
And then they told her, look Madam, your bill is 800 K and
34:36
that's why she probably started out of her house, you know,
34:39
minimum viable product. What is the smallest version of
34:41
this thing that I can start with?
34:43
Eventually I would like to have a shop where I have 10 girls
34:48
manning 18 chairs, where we do haircut, hair dye, dreadlocks,
34:55
relaxing, retouching and breeds. But until then, right now we'll
35:00
start with one umbrella and two chairs and one sink and one foot
35:06
massage thing. So that's MVP, minimum viable
35:10
product, the smallest version of your idea that you can use to
35:14
test whether there's market demand.
35:16
Then the whole thing of whether we can create a selling
35:18
framework around it or that we can create marketing systems
35:21
around it. But what you're trying to figure
35:22
out, can I sell myself? Should I partner with someone
35:26
else who's going to sell? Are we going to try certain
35:29
kinds of selling, selling channels online for instance, or
35:33
are we going to try and look for selling channels offline, maybe
35:35
looking for distributors, you know, things like that.
35:38
What kind of sales scripts or frameworks are we going to use?
35:41
What kind of SO PS, are we going to come up with SOP, standard
35:44
operating procedure? What's the SOP, What's the
35:46
training framework for the sales boys and the sales girls that
35:50
we're going to use to sell that we're going to use to train them
35:54
so they can sell on our behalf? Sorry, apologies.
35:56
Nowadays sales boy, sales girl is considered derogatory, is
36:00
considered an insult. So I guess I should be saying
36:04
sales associate. So what standard operating
36:06
procedures are we going to use to train our sales associates?
36:09
So those are all the questions you need to ask yourself.
36:12
So in my own opinion, for a business to succeed, you're
36:14
better off waking up and asking yourself these questions.
36:18
What is the right idea for me? Is this thing profitable?
36:22
I think enough people who demand this thing and can I come up
36:25
with a plan to sell it? If you answer all those
36:26
questions in the affirmative, you answer them good, good,
36:30
good. Tick mark, tick mark, tick mark,
36:32
green light, green, light, green light.
36:34
The chances of business being doing good are high when you
36:37
start off with, oh, what can I do with 100K?
36:39
It's kind of arbitrary because the 100K idea might work, but
36:44
The thing is, it's an idea that you don't have passion for, you
36:47
don't have the skill set for. And maybe there's no gap in the
36:50
market. And maybe the thing might not be
36:54
profitable or maybe there's no demand, but it might be
36:56
profitable. But because you have no passion
36:58
for it, you have no skill set, no affinity for it, You have no
37:02
idea how you to go about selling the thing.
37:06
So those are the things that I think we should be thinking of
37:08
and not just how much capital do we have.
37:13
So that's it. Then next week when I talk with
37:17
that guy about starting POS business, I'll come over here
37:21
and then give you guys the low down because to be honest, I've
37:26
not done POS business before. So off the top of my head, I
37:28
can't tell you this is how you appears business.
37:30
So I'll have to go and do some research because I know that POS
37:34
people, there is some regulatory compliance that you guys have to
37:38
meet with. POS people have to be registered
37:41
with central bank. I'm not sure if it's central
37:44
bank or commercial bank, but I know that there's some
37:46
registrations that need to be there.
37:48
Then also I also have to do some research.
37:49
You know, how much does the, what's it called, that actual
37:53
card reader itself, how much of that thing cost and things like
37:56
that. So I'll do my research and get
37:57
back to you guys over here. But Please remember, just in
38:01
case you heard anything here and you thought that makes sense.
38:03
I have 100 key, I can start it. Please remember to factor in the
38:07
other things. Right idea.
38:08
Is the thing profitable? Can I build a selling framework
38:11
around it? So thank you very much for your
38:12
time and attention. And if you would love to get in
38:16
touch for a strategy session for a business audit or you have
38:19
questions you'd like for me to answer, the number to reach me
38:22
on is 08066. Sorry, 08064662140 again.
38:33
The number is 080. 64662140 the country code is +234.
38:41
That is my WhatsApp number or you can connect with me on
38:44
LinkedIn. The reason why I forgot my phone
38:47
number was because I was about to slow down and say the thing.
38:50
And to be honest, the the phone number for the radio station was
38:55
what popped into my head, not my own actual phone number because
38:59
on the podcast I just say my number like that.
39:01
You know, 64662140, I just say quick before the radio, we have
39:05
to slow it down so that people write the number.
39:09
So thanks for your time and attention.
39:10
I'll catch you guys at the next episode.
39:13
And for those of you who resumed work today because Salah
39:16
holidays was yesterday, Tuesday and the day before Monday, all
39:20
of you guys have resumed work and everybody's hearty and
39:24
healthy. I'll catch you guys at the next
39:26
episode.