Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Forget Fancy Names, Focus on What Really Matters: Validating Your Business Idea
Transcript
- 0:01Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, apologies
- 0:06because today is a very, very noisy day.
- 0:09And that's because two houses down, my neighbour is trying to
- 0:12get rid of a tree. They have a massive tree at the
- 0:15back of the compound and they have some lumberjacks felling
- 0:19the tree right now and that's where all that buzzing noise is
- 0:22coming from. So don't think it's me farting.
- 0:24It actually is someone with a chainsaw harking down the tree.
- 0:29And it's impressive cause the fellow who is doing the work is
- 0:31real masterful. He's been going, you know, going
- 0:34at it for about a day now. And so far none of the branches
- 0:37have hit the house. And yeah, the guy knows his
- 0:40stuff. Then the usual part issues
- 0:43around the neighborhood. So my neighborhood has a
- 0:46commercial kitchen, you know, his staff are gathered outside
- 0:49and they're doing the usual thing, you know, gossiping,
- 0:51arguing, quarreling, you know, whatever.
- 0:53So that's all the noise that you're going to be hearing
- 0:56basically coming through the recording.
- 0:59So with the apologies out of the way, let's head straight into
- 1:02the question that we're going to tackle today.
- 1:05Now this question is geared at people that have limited
- 1:10business experience and we're going to be looking at practical
- 1:15guidance for first time entrepreneurs basically.
- 1:18So it's one of these long winding questions.
- 1:21So we're looking at people with limited business experience and
- 1:24we're trying to come up with practical guidance for first
- 1:26time entrepreneurs. Now here's some of the stuff
- 1:29that I think those of you who have limited business experience
- 1:32and who are taking a crack at this whole thing, being
- 1:35self-employed, being a business owner, being an entrepreneur, a
- 1:38mompreneur, solopreneur, whatever, preneur afri
- 1:42capitalist, you know, different kind of monikers out there.
- 1:45So whatever it is that you're trying to do, these are a couple
- 1:48of things that I think you should know.
- 1:51And this list of things that I'm going to explore right now are
- 1:55by no means exhaustive. So basically what I'm saying is
- 1:58I might list out these things now, but as the podcasts ensue,
- 2:04because in typical fashion, we're not going to finish
- 2:06everything today. So I'll list out a bunch or
- 2:09we'll treat one or two and then move the rest off to the next
- 2:12episode. So it's possible that I might
- 2:14start off with this list. I have about 5 or 6, maybe 7,
- 2:19but as we go on and on and on, it's possible that some of those
- 2:21things might be added onto it. So expect this to be a fairly
- 2:25long treatment. So these are the things I think
- 2:28people with limited business experience and who are looking
- 2:30for practical guidance, these are some of the things that they
- 2:32needed to know. So #1 your business name is not
- 2:36as important as you think, so don't spend too much time on it.
- 2:40Let me repeat #1 your business name is not as important as you
- 2:44think, so don't spend too much time on it.
- 2:47I am going to explore in some more details in future episodes,
- 2:52so don't worry if some of these things sound counter intuitive
- 2:55or if they sound blasphemous. I'm going to be able to explain
- 2:58power some of these things in more detail in the future #2.
- 3:02Your branding is not as important as you think, so don't
- 3:05spend too much time on that. I'll repeat, your branding is
- 3:09not as important as you think, so don't spend too much time on
- 3:11that. For those of you branding
- 3:14pundits out there, before you guys crucify me, just wait.
- 3:17We will get to the episode and you will hear about my ideas in
- 3:20more nuance #3 your business idea is not as important as you
- 3:25think it is, so stop spending time hiding it or trying to
- 3:29protect it. Let me repeat, your business
- 3:32idea is not as important as you think.
- 3:34Stop spending time hiding it or trying to protect it.
- 3:38This is one that I have to put out there.
- 3:40Oh, by the way, apologies to my legal community.
- 3:43Yes, my professional background, or rather my academic background
- 3:47is in law. I only practice law for two
- 3:49years. So yeah, my academic background
- 3:51is in law. So I know that those of my
- 3:53colleagues right now who are in the intellectual property space,
- 3:58intellectual property protection space, might be chomping at the
- 4:02bits right now, really fuming. Now, how can I give this kind of
- 4:05advice, especially someone who is learned in the law.
- 4:08But like I have told the other two people, the branding people
- 4:11and the business name people, just relax.
- 4:13We will get to the episode where I'm going to expand on my ideas
- 4:18much more clearly about why the business idea is not that
- 4:22important and why some people are spending too much time
- 4:25trying to hide what they're doing or trying to protect their
- 4:28business idea. Then #4 there is no business
- 4:33idea that is so great that it will sell itself.
- 4:37Let me repeat, there is no business idea that is so great
- 4:40that it will sell itself. People keep on talking about
- 4:43this guy, what's his name? iPhone person Jobs.
- 4:47People keep on talking about Jobs and the iPhone.
- 4:50When we get to that episode, you will see how the iPhone is not
- 4:55selling itself. Other people are selling the
- 4:58iPhone. In fact, there's lots of great
- 5:00salesmanship and showmanship that is responsible for selling
- 5:05the iPhone. The iPhone is not selling
- 5:08itself. So you people please stop
- 5:10propagating that myth. There is no business idea,
- 5:14product or service that sells itself.
- 5:18So but more details in the future.
- 5:20Then another thing I think that those of you guys with limited
- 5:24business experience need to know, especially those of you
- 5:26who are first time entrepreneurs.
- 5:28Business is a team sport. Even if what you want to do is a
- 5:32lifestyle business. You know if you want to be a
- 5:34lifestyle business owner, just realize that business is a team
- 5:38sport. So realize that and start
- 5:40anticipating and start planning ahead for what your team is
- 5:44going to look like. The reason why I mention this is
- 5:46because some people say, look, I don't want this thing to be big.
- 5:48I don't want it to grow beyond me.
- 5:52So like, let's say somebody selling catfish at the back of
- 5:54Mom C's house. I want this to be a lifestyle
- 5:56thing. I'll push it as big as it can
- 5:58go, but it's only going to be me.
- 6:00If it's only me and I'm able to take you to the level where it's
- 6:03giving me three M every year, no problem, let me be happy with
- 6:06the three M. If I push it to 50 M but it's
- 6:08only me, then be happy with the 50 M.
- 6:10So that's the whole idea about lifestyle business.
- 6:13You're not thinking about putting reputable systems, well
- 6:18tested frameworks, standard operating procedures.
- 6:22You're not trying to build anything beyond yourself, but
- 6:25still just realize that business is a team sport even for people
- 6:29who want to do this lifestyle thing.
- 6:31So we will explore some of that in the future.
- 6:35So these are the five things that I want those of you with
- 6:38limited business experience to know your business name.
- 6:41It's not that important. Stop wasting time.
- 6:43Your branding is not as important as you think.
- 6:46Stop spending too much time on that.
- 6:48Your business idea is not as important as you think.
- 6:51So stop trying to hide and stop trying to protect this, your
- 6:54business idea. Then there's no business idea
- 6:57that would tell yourself, so stop looking for that massive
- 7:00mega super whatever thing that once you touch the thing will
- 7:04sell itself and then you become a millionaire.
- 7:05Stop session for that thing. And then realize that business
- 7:08is a team sport. Even if it's just going to be
- 7:11you and only you. We're still need a team around
- 7:15us. And I'm going to explore some of
- 7:17these things in future episodes. So like I said, these are too
- 7:19many items to go over in one episodes we're going to tackle.
- 7:22Let's see if I can do 2IN each episode so I can get this whole
- 7:28series done in maybe three recordings or so.
- 7:32But like I said, while I'm recording, if anything else pops
- 7:35to mind, I might add something on the list.
- 7:37So let me go to the first one, and that's about the business
- 7:40name. So I've said it, I think I've
- 7:43said it four or five times already.
- 7:45I'll say it again. Your business name is not as
- 7:47important as you think. So don't spend too much time on
- 7:50it. The reason why I'm starting off
- 7:53with this is because too many people waste time when it comes
- 7:55to this whole thing of business names.
- 7:58Some people say, should you name yourself the business after you
- 8:02or should you pick a corporate sounding name?
- 8:04Now these are debates that I'm well familiar with because even
- 8:08though my academic background is in law, in fact, let me continue
- 8:12with that, my academic background is in law.
- 8:14I did corporate practice, sorry legal and practice for a while.
- 8:17And then after that I did wedding photography.
- 8:20So in these spaces, these are things that people talk about
- 8:23all the time. Should you name your law firm
- 8:25Baba Lakin Co? If you name it Baba Lakin, that
- 8:29means you might not be able to build an international brand.
- 8:33And yes, Baba Lakin is the name of one of a Nigerian son.
- 8:36And then there are some people that say no name your, give your
- 8:39business name something corporate sounding.
- 8:41So there's a firm called Alex that's a ELEX.
- 8:45So like Alex. Yeah, that sounds international.
- 8:47It sounds corporate. It gives room for the business
- 8:50to grow. So there are these sorts of
- 8:51debates. As a lawyer, should you name it
- 8:53Okichuko and Sons, Babalaki, Anko, Abdul Kareem and Sons?
- 8:59Or should you give it a fancy name like Alex?
- 9:04Let's see, what else? Aurora Legal Practitioners or
- 9:09Interstellar Solicitors Limited, you know, so those debates, the
- 9:14rage, they are bound all the time.
- 9:16Then you move out to the wedding space and then there are people
- 9:18who have these debates. It still continues till today.
- 9:22Should you call yourself Tereshima and son's wedding
- 9:24photography or should you call yourself?
- 9:28There was there was a team that I knew it was the husband and
- 9:31the wife. I'm not going to use their real
- 9:32names, but it was husband and wife.
- 9:34So it was kind of like James and Juliet wedding photography or
- 9:39should you get something corporate sounding?
- 9:43So there are all these debates that keep raging.
- 9:46And I can assure you that if they are there in legal and
- 9:50they're there in the wedding and the event space, I'm sure it
- 9:54applies in engineering and architecture, in lab, practice,
- 10:00fashion, whatever. So my own take on this thing is
- 10:06this, it is your aspirations that determine the kind of
- 10:09business that you build and not the name.
- 10:13So those of you who are engaging in this debate here and there,
- 10:15you're wasting time and you're confusing people because there's
- 10:18somebody who is genuinely thinking right now, should I
- 10:21call this thing Alisa wedding photography or should I call it
- 10:29Aurora Lights wedding photography?
- 10:32And the poor young girl is wasting too much time thinking
- 10:35about the perfect name. It's not about the name.
- 10:38It's not the aspiration that will determine the kind of
- 10:40business that you build. Now, let me give an example.
- 10:44Nigerians, we know of Dangote. Dangote is the man's name.
- 10:48It's not even the family name. It is that one man.
- 10:52It is his name. But nobody denies that what we
- 10:56have is an international conglomerate.
- 10:59It's Nigeria, what else? You know African countries for
- 11:04now. But there's, you know, Dangote
- 11:07is still a young man. I mean, youngish compared to
- 11:11those of you who's fathers are still alive.
- 11:14You say that, OK, he's a youngish fellow.
- 11:17So there's still time. I'm sure that we're going to see
- 11:21the expansion of the Dangote Empire over time.
- 11:24But the business is named after him.
- 11:27But clearly he has international aspirations, and he has an
- 11:31international conglomerate. So whether he named it Dangote
- 11:37or whether he named it Interstellar was not the
- 11:40important thing. His aspirations were the main
- 11:43thing. So the fact that he named it
- 11:45after himself, not even the family, has not been a limiting
- 11:49factor. Then we also have Warner
- 11:52Brothers. I mean, how basic can that be?
- 11:57You get into business with your brother and then you decide to
- 12:00call it the Okechuku brothers. It's that sort of thing.
- 12:03So Warner Brothers, but they are into international movie
- 12:08distribution. The same thing with Walt Disney.
- 12:12Disney is the man's name. OK, you can say the surname, the
- 12:16family name, but it's the same thing, international movie
- 12:19distribution. So you can see that in this
- 12:22case, the fact that these people name their businesses after
- 12:26themselves or after the family did not limit the scope, did not
- 12:31limit the scope of the growth of their businesses.
- 12:34Let me give another example. In Lagos, there's this school,
- 12:37Laura and Flora, I think it's Laura and Flora.
- 12:40International School. It is called Laura and Flora, it
- 12:43is called International School. But even though it's called
- 12:48international, it's based in Lagos only.
- 12:50They don't have Abuja branch, They don't have, they don't have
- 12:57what Inugu branch, you know. But international is in the
- 12:59name. So it's not about whether you
- 13:01put international in the name or not, it's about whether you have
- 13:04international aspirations or not.
- 13:07Sony Music, named after the man. Well, currently international
- 13:11movie distribution, international music
- 13:14distribution, international electronics distribution.
- 13:17So we can go on and on and on and on and on.
- 13:20What matters is not the name. I mean Amazon.
- 13:23What is Amazon anyway? Is it the warrior or is it the
- 13:27reference to the rainforest? Some people say it's the
- 13:30rainforest. Whether it's the rainforest or
- 13:32whether is the Amazon, the female warriors or Greek myth or
- 13:40of the Republic of Bennett myth because they had Amazons as
- 13:43well. So what about the rationale?
- 13:45You can see that Bezos has built a company and it's national
- 13:49company that is not tied to whatever associations that the
- 13:52name might have for you or or for me.
- 13:56So the name is not that important.
- 14:00Forget about whether it is a family name, whether it is your
- 14:02name, whether it is corporate sounding or whatever.
- 14:05What are the aspirations of the business that you are trying to
- 14:08build? Oh yeah, I forgot one.
- 14:09Lehman Brothers. Yeah, I think Lehman Brothers, I
- 14:11think those are the ones that were the Jewish boys that behind
- 14:17the international bank, you know some Jewish boys and eventually
- 14:20becomes a big banking family. So that one is even like family
- 14:24business, like the kind of thing that happens in Nigeria, like a
- 14:27man has a business idea and starts it and then he says, oh,
- 14:30I have five sons and you five sons, you are going to inherit
- 14:35this business after me and continue to grow this thing.
- 14:37So it is that kind of thing. It's a very nice I think.
- 14:40But then today is Lehman Brothers family business or an
- 14:43international business. So those of you that's some of
- 14:46you that are just spending too much time on this name issue.
- 14:49So the name is not that important.
- 14:53It's how quickly that you can take action and validate the
- 14:56idea. So for Lehman Brothers, I can't
- 15:00remember the whole, you know, the whole scope of the whole
- 15:03thing. But because of their interests
- 15:05and things like that, they're able to prove that there is a
- 15:10need for international banking, cross-border finance, you know,
- 15:14those sorts of things as like there was a need for the idea.
- 15:17So of course the thing took off, whether the thing was named
- 15:20Lehman Brothers or whether the thing was named Zion.
- 15:23OK, no, if they named it Zion International, maybe that would
- 15:26have been a different thing because you know, this whole
- 15:28thing with anti-Semitism, so they named it Zion Brothers
- 15:31International that that might have been a problem.
- 15:33OK, well so there are some situations where some names
- 15:36might be problematic, but you guys get the gist of what it is
- 15:39I'm trying to say. So the business idea, so that's
- 15:44the most important. It's about how quickly you take
- 15:48action and validate the idea. So stop taking weeks to get the
- 15:51perfect name because there's some people that take weeks,
- 15:54maybe months to get the perfect name and then they realize that
- 15:57there is no demand for the business idea.
- 16:00Then they shut the whole thing down.
- 16:02I mean, you've wasted time. You take like three or four
- 16:04months, select the perfect name, come with the branding and
- 16:07everything and then like there's no, there's no room here for
- 16:10business growth name, shut it down.
- 16:12So instead of using weeks to select the name, try and use a
- 16:15couple of days or weeks to validate the business idea and
- 16:18show that there is demand for the idea in the 1st place.
- 16:22After that, you can come up with the name and then do
- 16:24incorporation and all those things after you have validated
- 16:28the business idea. Now, if you're new to this
- 16:31podcast, some of you are going to ask how do you validate the
- 16:34business idea? It's too long to go into
- 16:36details. I've done previous episodes on
- 16:38that because we have over 865 episodes of the podcast so far.
- 16:43So if you are using services like what's it called?
- 16:50There are some podcasts catchers that allow you to search within
- 16:54the podcast. So if you're using one of those,
- 16:56then just search within the podcast.
- 16:57Just try validate validation, demand, you know, things like
- 17:04that. Then the older episodes that
- 17:06I've made about these sorts of things will will come up and
- 17:11then you can learn in detail how to validate your business idea.
- 17:14But summary, to validate the business idea, you have to be
- 17:17engaged in some form of sales actions, sales motions that will
- 17:22show whether there's demand for the idea or not.
- 17:26In other words, summary, what I'm saying is you want to
- 17:28validate the business idea, go out and try to sell something.
- 17:32If people buy, that's a sign. How quickly people buy is a
- 17:36sign. How much people are willing to
- 17:39pay is also a sign. Those are the things that you're
- 17:41paying attention to. So if nobody buys, sometimes it
- 17:45might be a sign that you're just crappy at sales, you know, So
- 17:49there's, there's some art and some science to the whole thing.
- 17:52But bottom line is until you go out and try to sell something,
- 17:56you are not going to know whether this is a, a viable
- 18:00business idea or not. So it's not about the name.
- 18:03Try and validate the business idea and get this thing going
- 18:06sharp, sharp. So there are going to be, there
- 18:09are some of you who listen who are listening to this episode
- 18:11right now that they are not convinced.
- 18:14It doesn't matter what I say. It doesn't matter who says it,
- 18:18they're not going to be convinced.
- 18:19They still want to come up with their name 1st and they still
- 18:22want to do business registration first before doing anything.
- 18:25All right, Noah Allah, no problem.
- 18:28In the past, when I gave this sort of advice, I didn't have
- 18:31any good alternatives for you. For those of you who say you
- 18:34must do business name, now we have a game changer.
- 18:38Things have changed. You can use artificial
- 18:40intelligence and come up with a name in a day or two.
- 18:44Coming up with a good name does not need to take three weeks, 4
- 18:48weeks, one month again, you don't need to now pay a branding
- 18:52specialist and all that to get the perfect name anymore because
- 18:55artificial intelligence can help with that.
- 18:58And then besides, I say this time and time again, you can
- 19:02always change business names later.
- 19:03So it's not that important. Facebook became Meta, Google
- 19:07became Alphabet and we know Nigerian businesses that have
- 19:10started off as one thing and then eventually change name to
- 19:13something else. So business name can always
- 19:15change. So it's, it's not a problem.
- 19:18Now for those of you who doubt that looking for a business name
- 19:22can be done pretty quickly in a a day or two, in fact, not even
- 19:27a day, I will say in minutes, you can come up with names now
- 19:30in minutes, Max, let me say hours.
- 19:34Let's look at the case study. And this is something I did
- 19:36myself just to prove it to you guys.
- 19:39And you can run the experiment. You can run the experiment as
- 19:42well. So the case study is this
- 19:45fictionary. This is a fictional scenario.
- 19:47I'm a 26 year old guy living in Lagos, Nigeria and I want to
- 19:51start a business. I want it to be a bar that sells
- 19:55peppered and grilled catfish. Why am I going on about this
- 19:58catfish? For those of you who listen to
- 20:00the show for any length of time, you know that I don't eat fish.
- 20:04But I come from a family that loves fish.
- 20:07My wife, my family, my mom. See my siblings apart from my
- 20:12brother, they all love fish. So this is their thing.
- 20:15You know, grilled fish. Smoked fish, filet mignon fish,
- 20:23any kind of fish. If it's fishy, they eat it.
- 20:26But I don't. So that's why I keep going on
- 20:31about the catfish thing. OK, so I want to start a bar
- 20:33that sells peppered catfish, grilled catfish, and we're only
- 20:37going to serve it with energy drinks and we're going to serve
- 20:40it with vaping. You know, this alternative to
- 20:44cigar cigarettes, Yeah. So we're going to do some vaping
- 20:48in the bar. So it's going to be catfish and
- 20:50energy drink drinks only, no alcohol.
- 20:53Then we're going to have vaping, vaping, you know, different
- 20:57flavours, maybe have some shisha.
- 21:00And it's going to be like a lounge kind of setting.
- 21:02And then we're going to have 24 hours connection to UEFA League,
- 21:06other sporting events, things like that.
- 21:08Now this business, the target is going to be men between the ages
- 21:11of 23 to 34 and the vibe that we're going for is something
- 21:15masculine as in, you know, you get like rugged boys only and
- 21:21because I wanted to be a hangout exclusively for men during the
- 21:23week. So I took this whole story that
- 21:27I've given you now I typed it up and I threw it into Gemini.
- 21:30Gemini is my AI of choice just because I'm an Android user.
- 21:34So I have access to Gemini. No need to create account and
- 21:37blah, blah, blah. But you can do the same thing
- 21:39with CHA GPT or with what's this other one?
- 21:45OK, I can't remember, but you know that there are plenty of
- 21:47them. Sure, plenty.
- 21:49And they keep inventing new ones every every five or six months.
- 21:54So I threw it into Gemini. You can do the same thing for
- 21:57charity BT or for Bing or for whatever it is that you'd like
- 21:59to use. And I told Gemini, come up with
- 22:02some good names for this kind of business, for this kind of
- 22:05establishment that I'm trying to create.
- 22:08Oh, by the way, please, ladies Novex, don't be offended though.
- 22:11I'm not saying that ladies are less than.
- 22:13I'm just looking for the most outlandish scenarios possible to
- 22:17show you that whatever it is, you can come up with business
- 22:20names. That's the reason why I'm saying
- 22:21this thing is going to be exclusively male and we're not
- 22:24even going to sell, sell alcohol because, you know, usually this
- 22:27kind of establishment, you know, alcohol must be.
- 22:29And in fact, alcohol is going to be where most of the profits
- 22:32will come from. So I'm saying now that OK won't
- 22:34even sell alcohol, will serve energy drinks, will do vaping
- 22:36and then we'll do shisha and then it will be men exclusively
- 22:40as per like we don't even want babes, no babes allowed.
- 22:43So I'm not saying women are less than.
- 22:45I'm just coming up with an outline this example now Google
- 22:49Gemini gave me some interesting ideas.
- 22:52And so let's let's see what Gemini came up with.
- 22:56So it broke into different categories.
- 22:59Gemini came up with names that have a masculine vibe.
- 23:02One was the gents quarters. Gents as in gentlemen, you know
- 23:06for short. The gents quarters.
- 23:08You see the idea there is a space for men.
- 23:11Another one that he came up with was Ironside Lounge is trying to
- 23:16evoke a sense of strength or masculinity.
- 23:19Then it also came up with another name, the Bullpen.
- 23:23This is supposed to be like a relaxed hangout for guys.
- 23:27Another one of the locker room that is at a sports oriented
- 23:32atmosphere. Also a masculine feel.
- 23:34Another name, the Den, you know the den who hangs out in dens,
- 23:40you know lions, you guys are catching the drift.
- 23:43So you can see that this masculine vibe.
- 23:44You can see that these names are not bad.
- 23:46Gents quarters, Ironside lounge, the bullpen, the locker room,
- 23:49the den. If I take any of these ones and
- 23:52I start just running this business because I want to see
- 23:54is there on demand, you can see there is not bad.
- 23:57I can start with the locker room and then later on like this
- 24:00locker room self like OK, this business is here, but I think
- 24:03this name is holding me back and then I can switch and then call
- 24:06it. Then it also gave some
- 24:09suggestions about names that highlight the catfish and the
- 24:12sports, and these are some of the options.
- 24:15The catfish corner offside catfish half time grill the
- 24:22penalty box and grill the catfish tackle.
- 24:28So you can see that these ones are not as bad, are not bad,
- 24:30although I prefer the first one, the whole masculine vibes thing.
- 24:33But this one is not bad. In fact, this name, the penalty
- 24:36box and grill, you know, I like that thing and that's a cool
- 24:38name. Can imagine some guys, you know,
- 24:39you finish from the bank and say, oh boy, how far now they go
- 24:44Penalty boxer say where they go now you know, it's I think it's
- 24:47catchy. It's good enough.
- 24:49Then it also came up with suggestions about names with the
- 24:52Lagos influence. So there was Eco Catfish Club,
- 24:56Lagos Catfish corner, the Island grill.
- 25:00That's if we locate the bar on the island 3rd mainland catfish,
- 25:05if the place is near 3rd mainland bridge and even came
- 25:09out one interesting name like you know, Fella's corner that's
- 25:12referencing, of course, the famous Afrobeat musician fella
- 25:15has a name with local significance, assuming that it
- 25:19blends with all thing because you you know, that fella used to
- 25:22he used to light up. He used to split up.
- 25:25So since we're going to be doing shisha and vaping in this place,
- 25:30so I guess it's OK fellas corner.
- 25:32Then it also came up with names that focus on energy drinks and
- 25:37vaping. So the buzz bar, I like buzz
- 25:39bar. That's nice.
- 25:41Cloud 9 lounge. That's also a good one.
- 25:43You know, cloud 9 now, like you know, when you light up now,
- 25:46when you hit that, when you hit your blunt, you know, you you
- 25:50understand now and your brain will open up and you just you
- 25:54know, you go to the you get to that.
- 25:58You know, your brain is opening up and you're making some divine
- 26:00connections you connect with when you're connecting all kinds
- 26:04of spiritual levels to the universe.
- 26:05You know, that's cloud 9. So Cloud 9 lounge, that's good.
- 26:08There was one here. I don't think it's workable.
- 26:11The ohm zone, Ohm as in Ohm. I don't think that's going to
- 26:17work in the Niger context. The voltage lounge lounge as far
- 26:22the energy drink thing. And then there was another name,
- 26:24the full charge bar. So you can see that I just typed
- 26:29out this whole thing and this thing gave me responses like
- 26:31that sharply. It didn't take time typing this
- 26:35case study, throwing it into Gemini Gemini giving me
- 26:39responses those whole exercise. This thing didn't take me 10
- 26:43minutes and I got some good names.
- 26:45I like Ironside lounge. It's cool.
- 26:48I like penalty box and grill. That's a nice one there.
- 26:53What else? What else?
- 26:54What else? What else?
- 26:56Climb 9 lounge. I like that one see can see that
- 26:59these names are not bad. I can take any of the three.
- 27:01I'll start this my business. Most important thing is I'm
- 27:05trying to validate that this is an idea that might work because
- 27:08people might go there for the catfish and they might complain
- 27:11that my boy, like, what's up with you now?
- 27:13What's with all these energy drinks?
- 27:14Like, where's the alcohol? Like give us alcohol.
- 27:18So if that's the market feedback, then of course I have
- 27:19to change my whole business, whatever that, you know, boys
- 27:22are loving the catfish, but they care nothing about the energy
- 27:25drinks. And it might be that people
- 27:28don't even want vaping, the only place where they can't smoke the
- 27:31real cigar itself. Or maybe they might want Igbo or
- 27:34something else. Igbo is who are non Nigerian.
- 27:39Igbo is what's that one Mary Jane, Indian hemp.
- 27:43Yeah, hemp. So it might that people might,
- 27:46might not want the vaping thing and be like vaping is for
- 27:48children, like give us the real thing.
- 27:51So this is what I mean about the most important thing is not the
- 27:54name. Just start and then try and
- 27:55validate the business idea. You will see that some things
- 27:59are moving, there's demand or some stuff.
- 28:01Some things are not moving, there's no demand.
- 28:03So you now be changing and tweaking the business idea as
- 28:06you go along. Anyway, summary, what I'm trying
- 28:08to say is don't let name hang ups stop you.
- 28:12Just choose a name today and start work immediately.
- 28:16The problem isn't the name. The problem is whether you can
- 28:18validate the business idea, whether you can show that
- 28:21there's market demand, whether you can achieve product market
- 28:24fit, whether you can create a profitable customer base.
- 28:27And I'm sure you guys, you get where I'm heading at.
- 28:30So let this name thing stop tripping you up.
- 28:32But if you insist I must have a name or before I start, then no
- 28:35problem. This exercise, I did it on
- 28:40Gemini, so it's available. No need to create account.
- 28:43You're an Android user. Whip out your phone, just do the
- 28:46same thing. If you're wondering about how
- 28:48you get the best responses from these sorts of things, they need
- 28:53to know how to prompt. I did a podcast episode where I
- 28:56was talking about using AI and prompting and things like that.
- 28:59So if you're using a podcast catcher that allows you to
- 29:01search within the app within the podcast, then search there, use,
- 29:09gosh, what did I call it? And it just put AI.
- 29:12Let's, let's see what comes up. Prompting, put AI, put prompting
- 29:16or put a prompt. I think there's something about
- 29:19the anatomy of a prompt. Try the anatomy of a prompt and
- 29:21then see what comes up. You have my podcast episodes
- 29:24there where I described or how to come up with the right prompt
- 29:27so you can get the good business name for you.
- 29:30OK, it's ready. 30 minutes. So I failed.
- 29:32I can't do two in one episode. So let me just wrap it up here.
- 29:35So please connect with me on WhatsApp.
- 29:36The number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
- 29:43For those of you who are not Nigerian, then connect with me
- 29:46on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
- 29:48I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of
- 29:51my name and the e-mail address from the link.
- 29:53We're currently listening to this episode.
- 29:55Thank you very much for your time and attention.
- 29:56I'll catch you guys at the next recording, where we will move on
- 30:00to. Sorry.
- 30:01Let me look at my notes. The second one was OK.
- 30:04A branding. Yeah.
- 30:05I always like quarreling with you branding boys and girls.
- 30:07So tomorrow I will open the argument with you branding boys
- 30:11and girls. Tomorrow we're going to why your
- 30:13branding is not as important as you think.
- 30:15So yeah, I'll catch you guys then.