Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Start Your Business Lean: MVP, Compounding, and Multiple Incomes

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Start Your Business Lean: MVP, Compounding, and Multiple Incomes · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:00
Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishma Ayede.
0:04
I'm the host of the podcast. I saw sales and marketing
0:06
challenges and I'm making today's recording at home and
0:09
everyone is around, so expect to hear some noise in the
0:12
background. Now, the goal of this podcast is
0:14
business education. And if you are impressed by the
0:18
time you're done, please spread the word so that your friends
0:21
and family members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the
0:24
questions that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing
0:28
on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of their choice.
0:33
And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call SMS or
0:36
WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I want
0:45
to share some listener comments. And this is a comment or rather
0:51
this was a call in from Eforma, who is in Gariki, Abuja.
0:57
And of course, she didn't call in from the podcast because you
0:59
can't call in from a podcast. She called in during the live
1:02
radio show. And that day had started off the
1:08
radio show trying to set some things in perspective because
1:13
there are lots of people who reach out through the podcast or
1:15
who reach out on the radio show. And they keep on worrying about,
1:21
you know, access to finance, lack of support, you know, these
1:24
sorts of things as the reasons why they've not been able to
1:27
kick off their hustle. I try to help as many people as
1:32
I can, not because Ioffer financial assistance, but I like
1:35
to point people towards helpful resources.
1:39
But it now meant that I was spending a lot of my time trying
1:43
to figure out which grants or which microfinance bank or
1:47
which, you know, whatever is best suited for people's
1:50
business problems. And The thing is, when I started
1:56
the podcast and the radio show, it's it's not the reason.
1:59
This is not what I had in mind. My own core thesis.
2:05
The main purpose behind the podcast and the radio show is
2:09
that the reasons why businesses are not succeeding is because
2:14
people like the know how and the frameworks to be able to
2:20
identify the right customer, acquire the right customer,
2:25
close the sale and build profitable relationships over
2:29
the long term. That is my central thesis of
2:33
this podcast and it's the central thesis of the radio
2:36
show. So if genuinely you think access
2:40
to finance is your problem, then honestly, you know, I can help
2:45
you and then we ChatGPT, to be frank and Gemini, you can just
2:51
go and sit down and run a small search.
2:53
You know, I'm a fashion entrepreneur based in Inugu in
2:57
Nigeria. I specialize in this kind of
2:59
fashion, that kind of fashion, blah, blah, blah.
3:02
I think access to finance is a problem for me.
3:06
Give me a list of grants, bank funded schemes or microfinance
3:14
products that are aimed at giving startup capital to
3:18
Nigerian female entrepreneurs in this space.
3:22
You now hit send. That is your prompt.
3:26
And these things are so good that you actually will give you
3:28
a list of stuff like 5 like 10. Your job now is to sit down,
3:36
print out this list, and then tomorrow, 8:00, start calling
3:41
them or get transport fare and go to the place and start asking
3:46
questions. Start hunting down this finance
3:50
that you're clearly looking for. So with this AI tools, getting
3:57
the idea now is not really the problem.
3:58
Execution is the thing. And that's one funny thing I've
4:01
realized some people who say funding is the problem.
4:04
OK, no problem. Let me take time out of my
4:07
schedule. Let me help you.
4:09
We've drawn up a list of five microfinance banks.
4:12
Oh, yeah. Tomorrow, call them.
4:16
Next. Tomorrow.
4:17
How far? Now, what's up?
4:19
How did it go? And I didn't call them because
4:21
this because it's because that. OK, Well, you call them.
4:24
Yeah, I will call them next week.
4:26
OK, No problem. Next week, How far?
4:30
How do you think go? This thing happened.
4:33
This thing happened. That thing happened.
4:34
This da, da, da. When I'm going to call them, I
4:36
will call them. It's OK.
4:38
No problem. You guys are getting the picture
4:41
here, right from what I'm saying, you're getting the
4:43
picture. I've always had the idea is not
4:47
the problem. Execution is the main problem.
4:50
And I really think a lot of you who say that finances, your
4:52
problem is you are running away from the main thing, which is
4:56
that you really you don't like chasing down customers.
5:05
Sorry, 1 moment. OK, sorry about that.
5:10
I'm back. My youngest son was retching, so
5:13
I went to go and see what was going on there.
5:16
And this is one of the fun things you should look forward
5:19
to. That's for those of you who
5:20
don't have kids, You know, children are always up to
5:22
mischief. So it's impressive the ways that
5:25
they, it's impressive how they figure out ways to land in
5:30
trouble or land in some kind of adventure.
5:33
Anyway, that is that so is even good an interruption I have
5:38
himself because I think as we need to go too long and long and
5:40
long about the this whole thing. But basically on that particular
5:43
day, I now showed up on the radio station and I was now
5:47
telling people that look, this radio station Radio Maria does
5:50
not give financial aid. Me Tavi Shimmer, I do not give
5:54
financial aid. However, if you really think
5:59
financial aid is your problem, or if you really think that, you
6:03
know, access to credit or whatever is your problem, here
6:06
are a list of resources. And I spent like 15 minutes
6:11
listing out every single resource that I have come across
6:17
that solves these problems. If you think training is the
6:20
reason why you can't start your business, here is access to
6:23
training. Oh, by the way, I was only
6:24
listing Catholic Charities because, well, you know, Radio
6:28
Maria is majority owned Catholic radio station.
6:34
So I just thought it'd be fitting for me to just stick to
6:37
Catholic Charities. So I listed out Catholic
6:39
Charities that anybody who's Catholic should have easy access
6:42
to. Your training is your problem.
6:45
This is the charity you should go to if you want to start an
6:48
agricultural business and you think you need training in agro
6:52
related something. This is the charity.
6:55
If you think access to finance is the problem and you want to
6:59
be involved in baking or something, this is the kind of
7:02
charity that will help you lend you money on a parish level.
7:06
If you're running into financial difficulty, these are the
7:09
organizations within the church that you should approach.
7:12
These are the people that give training.
7:14
These are the people that will give funding.
7:15
These are the people that will give financing.
7:17
These are the people that will give grants and enlisted every
7:21
single resource that I've come across.
7:24
And I kept up by saying again that financial assistance, I do
7:29
not do financial assistance. I don't give financial
7:32
assistance. And to be frank, if I had that
7:34
kind of paper, I would not even give financial assistance.
7:38
I won't because I think that is not the root of the problem.
7:44
That's for business people. So as I finish my 15 minute rant
7:49
on the air now that's how we go on caller.
7:55
I signal the producer I should put her through.
7:59
And lady said her name is the former Ingerkey.
8:02
I say former. Thank you very much for calling.
8:06
How can I help? She said no, that's not as if
8:09
she has a problem. She just wants to know whether
8:11
she can make contribution on the radio show.
8:13
And I said, yeah, sure you can't.
8:16
That is the whole point of the show.
8:18
You know, I give my own perspective.
8:20
I'll try and help, but then it's also welcome for people to call
8:24
once in a while to say I faced this problem.
8:26
This is how I overcame the problem.
8:29
You know, his business education is all good.
8:31
So if I went into her story, First off, she spoke about how
8:35
all this access money, money, money that people are looking
8:38
for big, big, big money to start and you don't need big money.
8:41
Please, I'm not making this stuff up.
8:43
What I'm saying, I'm not making this stuff up because I guess it
8:48
is radio show somebody called with an even bigger testimony in
8:53
quote, let's just call it testimony.
8:55
So the former says that there's no problem with starting small
8:59
because for her she started in Tiger not business.
9:02
Now usually I ask people questions and I dig in, but The
9:05
thing is, by the moment she started, I was so overwhelmed
9:08
with joy. Then I forgot to ask her.
9:09
Oh, OK, Tiger not business. Is it that you process and
9:12
package and sell or what? You know, I even forgot because
9:16
I was just overwhelmed with joy. She said she started her
9:20
business a year ago with 3000 naira in capital.
9:26
I didn't say 30,000, I didn't say 300,000.
9:31
I didn't say 3,000,000. I didn't say 30 million.
9:35
I said she started with 3000 naira.
9:40
For those of you listening in America or UK, you might not
9:43
have a sense of you know how small that is, but in in the
9:46
Nigerian context that is small. I know you hear 1000 thousand so
9:50
you think is big because you know, in America 3000 lbs is
9:53
something in the UK, 3000 lbs is something.
9:56
In fact, while I worked in the UK, my own monthly salary was
9:59
about 1000 too. So back then 3000 lbs would have
10:03
been double my monthly salary by Nigeria. 3000 naira is is
10:08
nothing. You can't be using a buy a car
10:11
in my small household or 4. If you use 3000 Naira and buy a
10:14
car, you know by the time I go and buff and come out, everybody
10:18
has finished eating their car. That's how small 3000 Naira is.
10:22
So that is what she used. If a man used to start her
10:24
business, at the time she was calling in, she had not done
10:28
proper accounting, but she thinks she has done anything
10:32
between 700,000 Naira and a million in revenue.
10:38
Let me repeat, she started off with 3000 Naira Tiger Knot
10:45
business. A year later at the time of her
10:48
calling in to the radio station, she has done anything in between
10:52
700,000 to 1,000,000 in revenue. The essence of our testimonials,
11:04
you don't need big money to start, you can start small, it
11:07
is doable. Or you finance is my problem,
11:11
Finance is my problem. You can start small.
11:14
It is doable. Now I keep saying that there are
11:18
some industries that are capital intensive, so you will have to
11:21
borrow. Dangote is opening another port.
11:24
I think I mentioned it in the last podcast, whether in OGU or
11:28
is it Calaba or something? I think it's Calaba also.
11:31
Anyway, just go and check that kind of thing.
11:35
He will have to borrow because a port is a big deal.
11:39
It's not something you will open your pocket and finance
11:41
yourself. So if you want to open a port,
11:43
yes, you need money. If you want to get into
11:47
logistics business, if you need money, you can't do logistics
11:50
with just one bus. Now, well, you can start with
11:52
one bus, but even that one bus with the way cars are expensive
11:55
now that Toyota Corolla, you know my own spec, the one that I
12:00
drive, the current model second hand, I checked, you know, 14M.
12:10
So I can imagine that if you want to do logistics and you
12:12
want to buy a bus, you know how much you have to drop.
12:17
So aside from people who are starting big, big, big, big
12:22
capital and intensive businesses, the rest of us, we
12:26
actually can start with something quite small like
12:28
Informer did with 3K3000 Naira Capital.
12:33
And that is precisely what we mean in the business development
12:39
space when we say that if you are starting a business, you
12:43
need to start off with an MVP. The MVP is the minimum viable
12:48
product. It's the smallest version of
12:51
your product or your service that you can introduce to the
12:54
market or that you can sell to one person or get two or three
12:57
people to buy. The goal of the MVP is you take
13:01
this small idea, you put it out into the market.
13:03
You're trying to validate the business idea.
13:06
You're trying to figure out is there a demand for this product
13:09
or service? Do people even like this product
13:11
or service? It is only when you get a green
13:14
light. Maybe approach 20 people and
13:17
then you know 11 buy from you or 12 buy from you.
13:21
You now know that OK, it's time for me to start putting more and
13:24
more money behind it. That is the rationale.
13:28
You can start small. For a lot of you, finance really
13:31
is not the problem. Then if I'm also spoke about
13:38
compounding a business and that's something that people
13:41
don't take advantage of because she said that at 700K it did not
13:45
come one day. It is small, small, small.
13:49
You get 1 customer, you get 2, you get 6, you get 10, you get
13:53
12. Then of course, over time you're
13:56
raising your prices. In the beginning, you're selling
13:58
for 2/5, then you sell for two, eight, then you sell for 3/2,
14:02
then you sell for 5/1. And then over time, people are
14:07
referring you. All those things are
14:09
compounding. The number of your customers is
14:11
increasing, the number of referrals is increasing, the
14:14
price that you're paying is increasing.
14:16
And so The thing is compounding. And so I had to stress it on the
14:19
air. I'm stressing here on the
14:21
podcast that a lot of you are costing yourselves future
14:24
progress by not starting today. If you did not start with 3K
14:30
last year, she wouldn't have several 100 grand in revenues
14:34
this year. So the fact that you're in a bad
14:38
spot today is because you didn't take action last year.
14:44
You want to be in a good spot next year, then take action
14:48
today. By delaying these things, you
14:51
are costing yourself future progress.
14:55
So for all these people who say finance, finance, finance, OK,
14:58
here's a list of microfinance banks.
14:59
Here's a list of the questions. Go and ask.
15:03
We have the meeting on Friday, Monday morning, how far, oh,
15:06
this happened, this happened, this happened.
15:07
OK, No problem. Thursday, how far this happened,
15:11
This happened, this happened. OK, Next week Monday, it's not
15:15
me you're suffering, it is yourself.
15:17
You're suffering. You are costing yourself
15:19
progress by not taking action today on this thing.
15:23
Take action today. Let the things start to compound
15:26
so that next year you are the one who have the testimony to
15:31
say that last year this is all I had.
15:33
This year this is what I have. By the grace of God, next year
15:37
this is where I will be. You will should stop costing
15:45
yourself future progress. If I did not start this podcast
15:48
five years ago today, you would not be listening to me.
15:52
It's that simple. You're listening to me today
15:54
because five years ago I started.
15:58
I hope there's somebody listening to this thing now and
16:00
it's making a connection. The thing is clicking in your
16:03
head. You're costing yourself progress
16:06
by saying tomorrow, you know what?
16:09
Next week I don't really feel like it.
16:12
Like it. I'll do it next month.
16:14
The children are giving me headache.
16:16
I beg, let me go and sleep. You are costing yourself
16:19
progress. Then Ejama also, sorry Ephoma.
16:23
She also spoke about multiple income sources because she's
16:29
getting income from two or three places because even though she's
16:33
doing, she thinks it's between 701 and one M in revenue.
16:38
See, it's normal when we start in the beginning, you know, not
16:41
everybody gets an accountant. So you know, it's OK.
16:44
Well, eventually we all should get accountants so that we know
16:48
or or so we know accountants. What do you call them
16:52
accountants or what are they called again, bookkeepers.
16:58
So you can say exactly to the Kobo, this is how much we've
17:01
made. So she's still piercing together
17:08
income from one or two sources. And I and I, I had to 2nd that
17:12
like yes, multiple income sources and I gave a good
17:18
resource on that. And that is Robert Kiyosaki,
17:21
rich dad, poor dad. It's a very old book because my
17:23
father gave it to me back when I was in secondary school.
17:28
And even then when he gave it to me, the book was not brand new.
17:31
So now I know some people will be saying what the hell am I
17:34
going to do looking at a book that is like 40 years old
17:38
already or like him from that book.
17:41
Don't worry about how old the book is.
17:45
Interact with the ideas expressed in the book and try
17:48
and figure out is this idea valid or not, Is this idea
17:50
workable or not, is it practical or not, Is it true or not?
17:54
That's all you need to know. Forget about the age of the
17:57
book. Which is the reason why I have
17:59
no problem telling you guys to go and listen to Brian Tracy
18:01
stuff of 1970 whatever, because the fact that it was done in
18:05
1970 doesn't mean it's rubbish. Or Tom Hopkins of 1976 or what's
18:14
her name? I can't remember.
18:17
Anyway, I've forgotten the person's name, Shawn.
18:21
So forget the age. Read this thing doesn't make
18:24
sense. What is the one that I can apply
18:27
tomorrow? Tomorrow, wake up, apply.
18:31
So Robert Kiyosaki, rich dad thought that he talks about
18:35
something called an income quadrant.
18:37
And this is the idea behind the income quadrant, that whoever
18:40
you are in this world, in this life, whether you're a Dangote
18:43
or you're a church rat, you're going to make money from four
18:47
sources. One is you will earn salary.
18:51
You'll be an employee. That is the first quadrant #2 is
18:55
you will do self-employed. self-employed is you are doing
18:59
hosu. You're not collecting salary,
19:01
you're doing Hosu. Work of your sweat, work of your
19:04
intellect, work of your hand that is self-employed.
19:07
From there you would do a business owner.
19:11
The hoso has paid, you have hired one or two people, you put
19:14
systems in place. You are now on orga business
19:17
owner and then investor. Business is paying well or side
19:22
hustle is paying well or employee.
19:24
Whatever is paying well. You now take that money and you
19:27
throw it into investments. Everybody you love and admire in
19:30
the world today has passed through these 4 quadrants.
19:34
By the way, you see why I say don't focus on how old the book
19:36
is, digest this thing. Does it make sense or not?
19:40
Is it correct or not? Is it applicable or not?
19:45
So everybody you like, everybody you know has touched at least
19:49
one of these quadrants, employee, self-employed business
19:54
owner, investor. And I told people on the show,
19:57
this is how you look at it. Make sure you touch any of these
20:04
quadrants. In fact, Kiyosaki says most
20:06
people. We flow through the quadrants.
20:09
You will start as an employee. One day your guy will shout on
20:13
you and you say what the hell on top what this man is shouting at
20:17
me that he's a bastard. You now submit resignation and
20:21
that's how you now transition into self-employed.
20:23
You now transition into Hosu because you said, look, I can't
20:27
take this anymore. And then from there you sweat it
20:32
out. You build a successful business
20:35
and then you now have extra cash to be investing here and there
20:38
and partnering with other people and doing other things.
20:41
So Kiyosaki says excuse me for most people and that's how you
20:46
flow into the whole thing. So we now looked at the former's
20:49
example. The former is collecting,
20:52
teaching salary that is employed, step one.
20:56
Then Step 2 is self-employed or hazu.
21:00
She is doing tiger nut business and then she also sells bed
21:06
sheets online on Instagram. I deserve a that is also the
21:11
next step for my now is business owner.
21:15
And I shared with people on the air that this is what it takes
21:18
to migrate to business owner. You need systems, you need
21:20
processes, you need frameworks, systems, processes, framework.
21:27
So step one is you need people, you need a sales team.
21:31
My own opinion, I think that'll be the first thing for her.
21:33
She will need a sales team to be selling on her behalf.
21:39
Later on. She will need a proper
21:40
management team, you know, and everything.
21:42
That's as the business grows. But for now, two or three people
21:45
to sell with her. It doesn't have to be fancy.
21:49
You can start with something organic.
21:51
University is on strike. Your small sister is at home and
21:54
you say, sis, you will come and sell for me.
21:56
That's how it begins. Or your cousin is just passing
22:00
through. I will say, little bro, come.
22:04
You will sell for me. That's how it starts.
22:08
Or you tell your spouse that, look, my dear, I need support in
22:12
this business. When you're going to work
22:14
tomorrow, you'll carry 10 containers of tiger knots to the
22:17
office. Go and sell for me.
22:19
Support your loving wife. That is how you will start
22:22
getting people and expanding. Small, small.
22:26
One day she'll have a formal sales team.
22:28
She will need people, then she will need processes.
22:32
Processes just means the written frameworks that you use to train
22:37
other people and to make sure that everything is in check.
22:40
So like regarding the sales team, you need to have a
22:43
standard operating procedure. Sorry, 1 moment.
22:48
OK, I'm back. Sorry about that.
22:50
I was one of my boys again. Where was I?
22:53
I have processes now. So let's say she now has a sales
22:57
team, team of 3 or 4. She needs to be able to put down
23:01
things on paper. This is our ideal client.
23:03
These are ideal customers. This is how we figure out who
23:06
they are. This is how we go after them.
23:09
That is the first part in training your sales team.
23:12
Your sales team needs to know that it needs to be written out
23:14
on paper or stored in a Google document.
23:17
The reason why is if it is not where the sales team can find
23:20
it, they will have to wake you up at two, 2:00 PM at night when
23:23
there's a problem when you're trying to sleep.
23:26
I say 2 PM, 2:00 AM when you're trying to sleep at night.
23:30
So it needs to be written out in a place that is easily
23:34
accessible so that they can refer to it.
23:38
So there'll be Sops for sales, for marketing, for management,
23:42
for accounting, for, you know, everything.
23:44
Organisations need those sorts of things.
23:49
Then technology in her own case, you know, in the beginning when
23:53
you start processing, you'll be processing on a small scale.
23:55
You know, you just buy one entry level machine that is helping
23:59
you or some of these machines can be manual machine like this
24:03
one business in ground square where they do sugar cane juice,
24:07
tiger nuts and all not and everything is very manual.
24:10
In fact I think that is even part of the appeal of the whole
24:13
thing that you go and sit down and you watch them live.
24:16
They do the thing for you because you know it's Grand
24:19
Square. So I know Grand Square Steady,
24:22
Steady Plaza in Abuja, those places are expensive.
24:25
So I know for sure that the woman that owns the shop, OK, I
24:28
just assumed this woman, the man or the woman that owns the shop,
24:30
I know that they have money to get fancy machine to just do it
24:33
shop, shop behind the scenes. So it's part of the whole
24:36
business experience. So in the beginning, I'm sure
24:41
you buy, you know that one. They now be turning it by hand
24:44
and nothing looks laborious. So eventually she's going to
24:47
have to, you know, get the machines, you know, up
24:50
production, you know, stuff like that.
24:52
So she would need people, she will need processes and she will
24:56
need technology. Now the difference, some people
25:01
wonder what's the difference between self-employed and
25:03
business person? Because for me, I thought they
25:04
were the same thing. And that's one of the beautiful
25:07
things about reading Robert Kiyosaki's book.
25:10
Because as a small boy, if you open my eyes, I realize that
25:14
there's a difference between self-employed and business
25:16
person because lots of people run around saying I'm a
25:18
businessman, I'm a businessman. Meanwhile, you're a business
25:21
nothing, you're self-employed, you're doing hazu, you're not a
25:24
businessman. And this is the difference.
25:26
A businessman or a businesswoman has built an asset outside of
25:32
them that operates outside of them.
25:35
And so they are not personally tied to the business.
25:37
A businessman can say I want to go our flex in Ghana for two
25:43
months with my family and take off.
25:45
The business will not die. A lot of us listening to this
25:49
podcast, we are not business people yet.
25:53
We cannot take a two-month holiday yet because if we take a
25:56
two-month holiday, everything will collapse because too many
25:59
things depend on us. That is the difference between
26:03
self-employed or hosu and business.
26:07
A businessman, A businesswoman has systems in place.
26:11
More Abudu can decide that. You know what?
26:15
I'm tired of Ebony live TV. I want to go to France and I
26:18
want to flex for three months. She will go to France and she
26:21
will come back. Ebony life, her business will
26:23
still be running. That is businesswoman Oprah
26:29
Winfrey can say I need a mental health day.
26:32
Let me travel to Switzerland for 21 days and then I'll come back.
26:38
By the time Oprah comes back, Oprah Winfrey Network will still
26:42
be running. That is businesswoman.
26:47
A lot was listening to this podcast.
26:49
Now in my own opinion, we should stop running around saying I'm a
26:52
businessman, I'm a businesswoman.
26:54
You are not there yet. Stop declaring what you are not.
26:57
Recognize the fact that you are still at self-employed.
27:01
You are still at Hozu. Own it and then start aspiring
27:08
and putting the plan in place to make sure that you're ready to
27:11
transition to the next stage. But stop calling yourself what
27:15
you're not because you're deceiving yourself.
27:19
So where was I Sorry you? It's like today is a rant
27:25
episode, not a practical advance episode.
27:30
Anyway, those are just more of the things that I wanted to
27:32
share. But to be honest, I was really
27:34
happy that the former called and that she said everything that
27:37
she said because inside me there was plenty of stuff that was
27:40
boiling. And you know, this is a podcast,
27:43
so, you know, it's just you and me.
27:45
So I can speak real speak my mind.
27:49
That's that's OK because that's the level of the contract
27:52
between you and me. But you know, when you're on the
27:54
air, you got to be professional. You have to be objective, you
27:58
have to be subtle. So I couldn't just show up and
28:02
then just vomit on the air like that.
28:04
So when she called and it was a perfect example, I was very,
28:07
very happy. Anyway, another person called,
28:13
also another interesting story. They started in 2015.
28:17
They started with 19,000 startup capital.
28:19
The person did not say what they do is plantain ships.
28:22
The person did not say how much profit that they're making, but
28:25
he said that they're responsible for staff salaries of over
28:31
1,000,000 every single month. Let me repeat, I will share more
28:37
on those other persons experience later on.
28:39
They started the business with 19,000 naira in 2015.
28:44
Well, you know, because of hyper inflation and stuff, 19,000
28:47
naira must have been quite must have been something sizable back
28:52
then, but Seed Capital 19,000 currently now they're doing
29:01
enough revenues that covers them to pay staff salaries of over
29:05
1,000,000 naira. Also, the reason why he called
29:10
is because somebody was stealing from the business.
29:12
But you know, we'll talk about that later on, the kind of
29:14
controls you need to implement in your business to make sure
29:16
that these sorts of things are not happening happening.
29:20
So obviously they have a profitable enterprise because
29:23
they're making payroll, they're supporting their lifestyle and
29:28
somebody was even still stealing on top of it.
29:32
But I'm glad you found my called.
29:35
And even though you guys didn't hear it, you should be glad she
29:40
called too. Because if I'm A and then the
29:42
second guy, Laulu, if some of us say it, you say we're being
29:49
academic. So I'm glad that it's real
29:53
people who are talking. If you notice, I don't even use
29:55
my own exam. That was the thing that was even
29:58
like painting me like I can't use my own example because I
30:02
schooled abroad, I didn't have any fancy hobbies.
30:06
So when I saw a camera that was £200, I was like, let me just
30:09
close my eyes and buy it. And then of course later on, OK,
30:16
I need to upgrade and you know, save some money.
30:20
And then I harassed Mumsy and then as I got my second advanced
30:25
camera. So that's one reason why I don't
30:28
give my own example because I know people will say, oh, you
30:31
are born with a silver spoon. By the way, I was not.
30:34
But as I do say, and now you're born with a silver spoon, you
30:36
have a rich momsey. By the way, I don't have a rich
30:38
momsey, but I just know that these are the things people will
30:41
say. So that's why for a while I've
30:42
been biting my tongue like I can't say this is how you start
30:46
small using my own example. But now the form has called,
30:53
Laulu has called, people are starting with 3000 naira, people
30:57
are starting with 19,000 naira, and they're making it.
31:03
Honestly, finance is really, really, really, really, really
31:08
not your problem. Except if you're starting in the
31:10
capital intensive business. Finance is not your problem.
31:14
Attracting customers is your problem.
31:18
Building profitable relationships is your problem.
31:21
There's another person who called in on the show.
31:24
He's a caterer. He says he needs finance.
31:27
Sorry, he's a security guard. He said he needs finance and we
31:31
started talking about financing options.
31:33
Later on I told him that you know what, you should go and
31:37
learn under somebody. And he said, and he's not as if
31:40
he's completely fresh. He now started sending me
31:42
pictures. Oh boy, I was impressed for a
31:45
security guard and somebody who can put together 2 sentences in
31:48
English, he's making what do you call these things?
31:51
Casserole and this and this and that and that.
31:53
Casseroles, small shops different.
31:56
I'm wondering like where did guy like from?
31:59
From where? Because when I say security
32:01
guard I say I mean security guard.
32:03
Like he even sounds like a security guard and he says these
32:07
are some of the things that I've done.
32:08
You have to tell him that guy finance is not your problem or
32:12
sales is your problem. If you have been doing things
32:14
like this before and you have actually sold some of these
32:18
things, the problem is that you've not been able to attract
32:21
get other customers so that you can sell more and be making
32:24
small, small, small revenues so that this side hustle can you
32:28
know peak. So you can now resign security
32:30
job and then focus on this thing fully.
32:33
Now, finance is not your problem and like I told you guys in a
32:36
couple of episodes before, if you go and raise finance when in
32:41
this situation, the problem is that you are poor at sales.
32:45
You're only making five steps forward and you now go 7 steps
32:48
backwards. You get all this fancy, you get
32:50
all this money, you buy all the fancy equipment, you will open
32:53
up a shop, you will go and pay for branding, you'll pay for
32:56
website, you pay for signage, you'll pay for everything.
33:00
But since you're bad at sales, guess what will happen?
33:02
You will have the beautiful shop, you will have the
33:04
equipment, you will have the branding, you have the website,
33:07
you have the everything. But you will not have any
33:09
customers. You will still be dying anyway.
33:13
Let me stop. I guess this is the longest rant
33:15
I've I've ever done, so let me just stop there.
33:20
Hopefully somebody has been able to pull some sense out of it.
33:24
But for most of you guys, I beg. I really don't think finance is
33:30
your problem. And if some of us, you think
33:33
we're born with a silver spoon, that is our excuse, you really
33:36
have to come up with a good excuse for, I mean, what's the
33:40
excuse now for a former or 3K? And the excuse for Fola at 19 K
33:45
was, I mean, like, what excuse are you going to come up with
33:49
anyway? Next podcast episode, I'll try
33:51
not to rant. I'll try and get back to
33:52
something practical and tactical so that we can come up with
33:57
specific things that we have to do to move our business forward
34:01
the next day. So that's all for today.
34:04
Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, you can
34:06
SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
34:12
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
34:14
I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or
34:18
in your speakers.