Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Unlocking Growth: Strategies for Interior Designers and Space Managers

Transcript

Unlocking Growth: Strategies for Interior Designers and Space Managers · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. Today we're going to be looking
0:05
at strategies for interior designers and space managers.
0:10
And before I continue, apologies for the background noise because
0:13
this is also another one of those late night recordings.
0:18
So the reason why we're going to be looking at interior designers
0:22
and space managers now is because I had a potential
0:25
client, let's call him ABC Decor.
0:30
Now ABC Decor obviously was into the interior decor business in
0:36
Abuja, Nigeria and also space management for other businesses.
0:41
Now the conversations that I had with ABC Decor didn't things
0:46
didn't progress between both of us.
0:48
But looking back at some of the material that I have from 2024,
0:54
I think that this is good material to explore, looking at
0:59
how good business and good sales practices that would have helped
1:02
ABC the core to do better. Let's see how we can run with
1:07
some of these ideas for people in similar circumstances.
1:11
So that's the reason why I we are going to tackle this
1:14
question right now or the series of questions.
1:17
Now. This is not going to be one of
1:19
those. It's not going to be something
1:21
that we're going to be able to tackle in one episode.
1:23
So this is going to be a series that we used to wrap up the year
1:27
2024. So some of the questions I would
1:30
have liked us to answer, how we had work together would have
1:34
been who should have been the ICP, that's the ideal customer
1:37
profile, the person that ABC Decor should have been running
1:43
after. Because like I keep saying here
1:45
on the podcast time and time again, it's one of the central
1:49
questions that we have to answer.
1:50
Because if we don't decide who it is that we're chasing after
1:53
from the girl go, then we're going to spend a lot of time,
1:56
we're going to waste a lot of money, We're going to waste a
1:58
lot of attention running after people that we have no business
2:01
chasing in the 1st place. So we have to be absolutely
2:04
clear about who it is that we're running after.
2:06
You know, it's the same thing if we're talking about personal
2:11
relationships, for instance. That's for those of you who want
2:13
to get married or be in a significant relationship.
2:16
You have to start off by asking yourself who's my ideal guy,
2:19
who's my ideal girl? And then start going after that
2:23
instead of thinking, well, anybody will do, so I might as
2:26
well chase everybody. We're going to waste a lot of
2:28
time, a lot of effort, a lot of money, a lot of brain space,
2:33
hard space, running after people that you didn't have to be
2:36
chasing in the first place. Then also would have liked us to
2:39
look at prospecting ideas that ABC Decor could have tried out
2:43
in his business. Then I'd also like us to look at
2:47
channel strategies that he could have tried out.
2:50
Now, the whole thing about channel strategies basically is
2:52
just looking at possible collaborators that you can use
2:55
to grow your business. Now, the reason why I wanted
3:00
that to be one of the questions that we'll tackle for ABC Decor
3:04
was because his prospecting was mostly one-on-one.
3:07
And by the way, prospecting just means who might be interested in
3:10
my product or my service, where do they hang out?
3:12
How do I start conversations with them and then the practices
3:15
that you use to start those conversations.
3:18
So of course, ABC Decor had been prospecting one-on-one, but I
3:21
figured that the channel strategy is something that could
3:23
have worked out in Abuja just because, you know, driving
3:28
around Wuxetu, you see lots of all those places, you know, what
3:32
are they called? You know, like departmental
3:33
stores, but they only sell furniture or they only sell
3:37
curtains or, you know, property development outfits and, you
3:41
know, different places like that in Abuja.
3:43
So I figured that it could have been a good strategy to explore.
3:47
And then also I would have wanted us to explore the kind of
3:50
sales objections that he would have faced with potential
3:53
clients and also with channel partners.
3:57
Now an objection is just a reason that somebody gives for
4:00
not wanting to go ahead with the relationship or go ahead with
4:03
the transaction or go ahead with whatever.
4:05
So channel partners, if we decided to use channel partners
4:10
as part of the strategy and was going to go and talk to, let me
4:14
see what these people called. There's this shop in Abuja
4:18
called for you. Now for you is one of these
4:21
Lebanese, I think it's a Lebanese outfit and it's right
4:24
next to another business that sells furniture.
4:27
I can't remember that business's name anyway, but you Abuja
4:29
people, you know the business I'm talking about.
4:32
So let's say he decided to get into business with those people
4:34
as channel partners and they said, look, we don't work with
4:39
Nigerian distributors or whatever.
4:40
You know, that is an objection or yes, that's an objection, a
4:46
reason for not wanting to go ahead with this proposal.
4:49
Go ahead with this agenda, go ahead with this idea.
4:52
Although when faced with potential clients, that's retail
4:56
people, one-on-one people, you know, like me, Let's say if I
4:59
approach him as a client to say ABC Decor senior stuff on
5:02
Instagram, how much would it be for you to come and hook up my
5:05
house? And then he gives the price, You
5:08
know, he says like 5 M and then I'm like, oh, you're too
5:11
expensive. That is also an objection.
5:14
So two different kinds of objections, two different kinds
5:17
of contexts. One, you're dealing with a
5:18
potential client, retail client and then the person says you're
5:22
too expensive. That's an objection.
5:24
The reason that I'm giving for not going ahead for both of us
5:28
not working together is because you are too expensive.
5:30
And then for channel partners, if they said, OK, look ABC, the
5:35
core, your stuff is all right, but we do not work with Nigerian
5:39
resellers, Nigerian distributors, Nigerian,
5:42
whatever, you know for XYZ reasons, that is also an
5:45
objection. So those are the things that I
5:48
wanted, I would have loved to tackle if we had gone ahead
5:51
working with ABC Decor. So once again, the main
5:54
questions, who is the ICP? Who is the ideal customer
5:58
profile? Who is the ideal customer?
6:00
Who is the customer avatar? Who is the best customer?
6:03
Who is the target customer? Who is the whatever time it is
6:06
that you want to call it? Because we need to know who it
6:08
is that we're chasing from the gecko.
6:09
So we don't waste time, we don't waste money, we don't waste
6:12
attention running after people that will end up, you know,
6:16
messing up our business or messing up our mojo.
6:19
Because sometimes you collect good money from people, but then
6:21
they mess up your mojo, you know, they mess up your mental
6:23
mindspace and all that. And, you know, messes with your
6:27
motivation and the ability to do business every single day.
6:32
If I have some horror stories about that.
6:34
So, you know, I'll share some more of that as we go into
6:39
details in the podcast. So that's the first question.
6:43
Who's their deal customer? Who are we chasing?
6:45
Who are we pursuing then #2 what prospecting ideas should we try
6:49
out? Number three, channel strategy,
6:52
you guys, some of you ought to consider it.
6:55
Coming into business as a wedding photographer is
6:57
definitely one of the strategies that I explored.
7:02
In fact, it was an obvious strategy because that's what we
7:04
were doing back then. We young photographers in Abuja
7:07
and even those of us who were in Lagos back then, it's something
7:10
that we, we were all doing anyway.
7:12
So look, you're new in the business, who is a wedding
7:14
planner that you can partner with, you know, blah, blah,
7:16
blah, that sort of thing. Or wedding event hall.
7:19
Tried the event hall thing, didn't work too well.
7:22
But anyway, that's the beauty about sales.
7:27
I mean, you come up with an idea, you try it.
7:29
If it works, you keep on doing it.
7:31
If it doesn't work, you stop. Or you, what's that word?
7:35
Reiterate, make it better, take feedback, make it better.
7:39
Then the final question, what are the sales objections that
7:43
people will give you? What are the reasons that people
7:45
are going to give you for not wanting to go ahead doing
7:47
business with you? So those are the questions that
7:49
I wanted us to tackle with ABC Decor.
7:52
Again, not the real business name, just using it because I
7:56
don't have the fellows permission to talk about these
7:59
things publicly. So if you'd love to connect and
8:02
explore opportunities with me then call me or message me.
8:06
The phone number is 08064662140. Also connect with me on
8:11
LinkedIn. The name to look for is
8:13
Establishing my AEDE. Now, when we go into details in
8:20
the episode, just remember that the answers that we're going to
8:23
give or the answers that we're going to explore, the
8:26
opportunities that we're going to explore are going to be rough
8:28
answers to the question. Not necessarily the best answer.
8:32
It's just the most probable or the most likely answers that
8:35
were based that are based on who it is that I'm talking to.
8:39
In other words, the suggestions that I'm going to come up with
8:41
are suggestions that seem to make sense for that chap for ABC
8:46
Decor, but you could be in his business or a different business
8:50
and the suggestions will be different.
8:52
The course of action will be different because you are
8:55
different. The way you want to build the
8:57
business is different, your preferences are different and
9:01
your ambitions are different. So these are the things that
9:04
determine the option, the options.
9:07
So when I start exploring particular things here, just
9:11
bear in mind throughout the series that I'm not saying this
9:13
is the best way to go about it. For instance, when it came to
9:17
ideal customer profile for ABC, the Core, we narrowed it down to
9:23
businesses and individuals. Of course, that's not narrow,
9:25
that's customer segments. That's broad.
9:27
And of course, we've already done a podcast episode about
9:31
trying to select your ideal customer profile and how you can
9:34
break things down into segments before you now break things down
9:37
into specific customer profiles. So we broke it down.
9:44
It could be dealing with other businesses as clients, or he
9:47
could be dealing with individuals, you know, people
9:49
like you and me who say, look, come and hook up my house or
9:52
come and hook up my office. Then for businesses, we looked
9:56
at corporate offices and then we looked at hotels.
9:58
When we say corporate offices, you know, I'm thinking, yeah,
10:01
the same place I call all the time, Zenith Bank, Zenith Bank,
10:05
Access Bank, you know, those sorts of places.
10:07
Corporate offices. Of course, it doesn't have to be
10:10
a bank. I'm just, you know, for some
10:11
reason that just comes to mind whenever I'm thinking corporate.
10:16
So corporate offices and then hotels.
10:18
In fact, that's How I Met this fellow.
10:20
ABC Decor was back from my photography days when he used to
10:25
work with someone in the short stay space.
10:29
By the way, short stay is not the same as short time.
10:31
You know, short stay is nice and classy.
10:34
Short time is something else altogether.
10:38
So where was I? So, yeah, so that's How I Met
10:41
this individual. And we got talking again later
10:44
on when I was in business consultancy And when we first
10:48
met, that was the sort of thing that he and his employer used to
10:52
do. They used to hook up hotels and
10:55
short stay spaces. So, you know, go and do the
11:00
designs for the hotels. Then, of course, we looked at
11:04
individuals, home owners. That's people like you and me.
11:07
OK, well, no home owners. Well, because I'm a renter, OK?
11:11
Yeah, that was true. Homeowners, because people who
11:13
rent typically are not going to lavish a huge amount of money
11:17
when it comes to doing your styling and interior decor.
11:21
Then real estate developers and then property managers.
11:25
So that's how we broke it down. But like I said, this was based
11:29
on the conversation that I had with him, what his own personal
11:32
appetites were, the kind of business he's trying to grow and
11:35
his own preferences. So I could be having this
11:38
conversation with you. You're also into the decor
11:41
space, but then you might decide to just flashy individuals all
11:47
together. You know, as in home owners,
11:50
real estate developers, we're going to hook you up with people
11:53
who are home owners, things like that.
11:55
You might decide to skip that all together and just focus
11:57
entirely on corporate. So it all depends.
12:00
So there's no best answer here, there's no correct answer here,
12:04
there's only the most expedient answer or the most appropriate
12:08
answer based on who you are, your context, your industry,
12:13
your preferences, your ambitions.
12:16
Then some of the prospecting ideas that I would have loved
12:19
for us to explore with ABC The Core would have included
12:22
networking events. Let's see, because in Abuja,
12:27
there are conferences, real estate Expos, you know, blah,
12:29
blah, blah, things like that. I can help you connect with
12:33
potential clients and also partners.
12:35
You know, since we're looking at a channel strategy, that is
12:38
where real estate developers and property managers come in
12:42
because, OK, wait, let me take a step back.
12:45
When we say channel strategy, this is what we mean.
12:49
When you're for most people, when you get into a business,
12:52
you'll find that your potential customer or client has to do use
12:56
a bunch of services or products before they get to you.
12:59
And sometimes they have to use some products or services when
13:02
they leave you. The channel strategy just means
13:04
you hook up with people who are in those ancillary businesses,
13:08
those related businesses to your left and to your right so that
13:11
you guys can be sending customers back and forth.
13:13
So back to the wedding photography thing, because I
13:16
told you that that was the first time I gave the channel strategy
13:20
a shot. So your wedding photographer,
13:22
you end up doing business with brides and grooms.
13:25
If you partner with a wedding planner, wedding planners also
13:28
do business with brides and grooms.
13:30
So you guys can now be referring business back and then forth.
13:35
Now as a wedding photographer, when people hook up with you
13:38
after that, they're typically looking for somebody who does
13:40
wedding video. So you see how that works.
13:44
To your right, Abby, to your left, you have the wedding
13:47
planner. People sometimes hook up with a
13:49
wedding planner. First you, the photographer,
13:51
you're in the middle and then to the right hand side there's the
13:55
wedding video person. And then so if you have
13:58
agreements, you have relationships, you have, you
14:01
know, an understanding with wedding planners and with
14:05
wedding videographers, you guys can refer clients back and
14:10
forth. So that is just what the channel
14:12
strategy means. You guys are typically going
14:15
after the same sort of customers.
14:16
Why not send business to each other before customers do
14:20
business with you? They're going to talk to some
14:21
people. Why not partner up with those
14:23
people? After customers do business with
14:25
you, they are going to end up buying some products or some
14:34
services. You might as well partner with
14:37
those other people. So, OK, OK, let me see.
14:40
OK. I think in the last couple of
14:41
episodes I spoke about my experiences with the builders
14:45
market here in Abuja, the builders market in Gudu, that's
14:49
in Apple, in Gherki. OK, that's a good one.
14:53
So when I went to buy the roofing materials that we needed
14:59
to sort out Mumsy's house, we needed people, a crew from Abuja
15:06
who would be willing to work in Makudi.
15:11
Of course we're looking for good rates, but we're looking for
15:13
expertise because rightly or wrongly, there is this feeling
15:18
that anyway, for some reason we just felt like markedly people
15:27
can do the job. But we probably would be able to
15:29
get better or I say better talent if we came to a much more
15:38
cosmopolitan area like getting a crew from Abuja or maybe getting
15:42
a crew from, you know, like a Noogu around that side.
15:45
So that was the thinking I'm at the time.
15:47
So of course it made sense for us to get the referral for the
15:51
crew through the people who sold us the roofing panels,
15:56
especially since that was part of the warranty package.
15:58
Like, look, we're selling you these roofing sheets, here comes
16:02
the XYZ years number of warranty.
16:05
And if you use this crew, yeah, we know them, we know how they
16:09
work. We're willing to honour this
16:11
warranty and honour this guarantee, especially if you go
16:13
through these crews. So you see how a channel
16:15
strategy works. So as a roofer, you're
16:17
partnering up with people who sell roofing panels.
16:21
That's just an example. Where was I?
16:26
So that was some of the prospecting ideas that we're
16:28
looking at now using. OK, I was just explaining
16:35
channel, the channel strategy. How did I come to channel
16:38
strategy? Yeah, I was talking about
16:40
networking, that if you attend industry events, that's if
16:43
you're into decor, like ABC Decor, and you're attending
16:47
networking events, that gives you an opportunity to connect
16:50
with not just potential customers, but also people who
16:53
can become channel partners later on.
16:55
Then we also looked at referrals.
16:58
I always like people to key into referrals because a lot of
17:03
people that end up talking to have been in business for a
17:06
couple of years anyway. So The thing is, they've already
17:09
run a few things. They already know a few people
17:11
who are already happy. You've done business, you know,
17:13
like so 510 clients. It's not a bad way to go back
17:16
and say, look, I appreciate the business that we did together.
17:20
I hope you're still happy. Thank you very much for
17:22
supporting the business. I'd really appreciate it if you
17:25
could give me names and numbers of anybody in your situation
17:29
who's looking to get this, this, this and that and that so we can
17:32
take care of them as well. So that's how you set up that
17:36
whole referral game pretty much. Then I also want to look at with
17:41
ABC the core would have looked at social media marketing
17:45
because for him and his previous boss, the really big into the
17:51
whole social media thing, specifically Instagram and
17:55
Facebook. Well, obviously you guys know
17:59
about my love hate relationship with Facebook.
18:01
I mean, never could crack it for business purposes and they've
18:06
tried to hack me like 3 times this month.
18:09
Someone who shut down the whole thing anyway.
18:11
But yeah, social media marketing, something would have
18:13
looked at for ABC Decor, Instagram, Facebook, that's what
18:17
they used primarily. We might have explored the
18:19
question, you know, any other place.
18:21
LinkedIn perhaps then also would have looked at the content
18:25
marketing strategy that's just around creating valuable content
18:29
that your potential customers might find interesting.
18:32
So blog posts, podcasts, articles, videos, whatever it is
18:38
that you put out on the on the Internet that is supposed to get
18:41
you organic traffic. That's people just organically
18:45
looking at your stuff. When we say organic, we mean not
18:47
paid. So the way that you promote your
18:50
content on social media is twofold.
18:53
There's organic and then there's paid traffic.
18:55
Paid traffic is when you're advertising.
18:58
That's when you tell Zuckerberg, look, Zuckerberg, I'm going to
19:00
pay you XYZ and, and I want you to guarantee that you're going
19:04
to show this particular post to 5000 people living in Abuja
19:07
between the ages of 18 and 25. So that is advertising that is
19:13
paid. Then organic is just you create
19:15
the thing, you put it up on Facebook and you know, it is
19:18
what it is. If people like it, they like it.
19:20
If they don't like it, they don't like it.
19:22
You know, we let the algorithm determine and we let whether
19:26
people's taste and people's likes determine whether the
19:28
thing will reach a wider audience or not.
19:33
So for content marketing, yeah, that's it.
19:36
We're thinking, is it going to be organic?
19:38
Sorry, content marketing is organic by definition.
19:42
But then my own, what I like to advise people to do is based on
19:47
what works well organically. That is what you can now use to
19:51
inform the kind of advertising that you're going to do on the
19:57
platform. So don't just start off saying
20:00
we're going to create video content and start boosting the
20:03
video or advertising to the video.
20:05
I mean, run organic first. You might be surprised that even
20:09
though it looks like video is working well, you might be
20:11
surprised that for your particular business or for the
20:13
kind of content you produce, it actually is your photographs,
20:17
your stills that are getting a lot of organic content.
20:19
Now you now know that OK, for your business and for your own
20:21
context, it will make more sense to actually pay money to boost
20:26
the photographs. Or to create an advertisement
20:29
that is going to be a photograph or is going to be a still.
20:32
So that's those are some ideas around content marketing.
20:36
OK. I'd already spoken about channel
20:38
strategy. So some of the things that would
20:41
have wanted us to explore with ABC, the core channel partners.
20:45
So architects and other interior designers.
20:48
I mean, some people are not the fan of that, but you know, it
20:51
does happen that you have a particular kind of specialty,
20:55
like one of my guys, Doctor Mike, actually my ophthal,
21:02
whatever, whatever, what are they called?
21:03
Ophthal Eye Doctor Shah, you know, people who work with your
21:06
eyes. So my guy, Doctor Mike, his wife
21:09
is also in the business, but then she doesn't like handling
21:13
the call for Northern clients because she says that the
21:15
Northern aesthetic is too gaudy for her, that Northern has like
21:20
too much gold and shiny, shiny, shiny stuff for her.
21:23
That's too gaudy. It's too is is garish.
21:26
It's she doesn't think it's it's tasteful.
21:31
So she has a different sense of aesthetic.
21:33
The colors are different, more muted designs are not as bold,
21:40
simple lines, more modern. It's almost like Auk kind of
21:46
feel the way that that Doctor doctor Mike's wife handles her
21:49
own stuff. So now if you excuse me, so if
21:54
you're an interior designer now, like Doctor Mike's wife and you
21:58
don't like doing the northern the northern thing, you can have
22:05
partnerships, channel agreements, things hooked up
22:09
with other designers who like doing that kind of work.
22:13
And the agreement is just like, look, every time I have a
22:15
northerner come through, I will send him to you.
22:19
And if you have someone who, whether the person is a
22:22
northerner or not, they seem to like the much more modern UK
22:27
kind of aesthetic, you send them to me and that's how you guys
22:32
switch traffic. So actually you can be an
22:36
interior designer, an interior decor person, and have as your
22:40
channel partners another interior designer or another
22:44
interior decor person. So don't just say because I'm a
22:47
fashion designer, I can't partner with other fashion
22:50
designers. It can work so long as both of
22:53
you are not doing the same thing.
22:56
So as a fashion designer, if you're designing for young girls
22:59
between the ages of 12 to 18, because there's one of wifey's
23:05
colleagues who has, I think he has five daughters and, and a
23:10
son. And the girls, you know,
23:13
secondary school, they do prom. Oh, by the way, I didn't know
23:15
that prom is not a thing in Niger, but apparently it is.
23:20
So they go and get their prom dresses made and you don't have
23:23
to buy them. You'd have to ship in your prom
23:25
dresses from from Obudu. You don't have to buy from UK or
23:30
America because there are designers that make prom dresses
23:34
here in Nigeria. Well, in Abuja, there are people
23:38
that make them. I don't know about Lagos or the
23:40
East. Well, that's your promising
23:41
thing in the East. I'll be surprised if in my place
23:44
in Benoit State, in in, you know, Benoit State and environs,
23:48
Benway, Tarraba, Nasawa, you know, I'll be surprised if prom
23:53
is a thing, you know, these days you never know.
23:56
So, yeah, if you're a fashion person and that is what you do
24:01
12 to 18 designing prom dresses, because these prom dresses are
24:04
really expensive and it's a unique market because
24:08
essentially the, you know, your customer is buying something
24:11
that the baby's only going to wear once because it's not, you
24:14
can't take your prom dress and then wear to church.
24:17
So any interesting market, interesting times, interesting
24:20
trends going on in Niger. So if that's your market, 12 to
24:26
18 prom dresses, you can't do channel referral, partner with
24:32
another person who is also doing dresses of young girls 12 to 18.
24:40
So if you're a prom person 12 to 18, you can partner with someone
24:44
who does female dresses aged let's say 45 to 60 because
24:51
maybe, OK, no, 45 to 60, that's too old, maybe 35 to 50.
24:57
Because maybe that is the kind of person a woman who is aged 35
25:00
to 50 is the kind of person who might have a daughter that is
25:04
aged 12 to 18 and is going to do prom.
25:07
So that's how you guys can be switching business back and
25:08
forth. Anybody who is older than that
25:11
comes to you, you send it to your friend because your friend
25:14
is the one who does women age 25 to 50.
25:17
If there's anything less than that, your friend will send it
25:19
to you then. So for ABC to call would have
25:23
looked at architects, interior designers, real estate agents,
25:27
construction companies, furniture and lighting suppliers
25:31
because we have loads of them in Abuja, especially Wusso to if
25:35
you're just driving through, especially at night, I mean they
25:37
have beautiful showrooms. They just light up the whole
25:40
place when I see them. I think that these guys must
25:43
spend their fortune on Nepal bills because it's just
25:47
different kind of bulbs, different kind of chandeliers,
25:50
different kind of light stands as an exquisite stuff.
25:52
Like I can't wait to make some good money so I can have nice
25:56
well lit house with all those fancy, fancy stuff, especially
25:59
when the children are grown because now that there are
26:02
Rugrats running all over the place, even if I had the money
26:05
and I put those things in the house, that's how today, now
26:08
crash. You break the chandelier, you
26:10
break this one, you break that one.
26:12
What can you do? Just look at them and you shout,
26:15
but you can't kill them. Where was I So furniture and
26:20
lighting suppliers then also would have considered
26:24
collaboration ideas where you can do joint marketing campaigns
26:27
with different partners, what they can do cross promotions by
26:34
offering joint promos or do Co branded events.
26:38
Let's see what else. So those are the things honestly
26:41
across ABC Decor pretty much and with potential sales objections
26:46
that he would have faced in the business.
26:48
Well, the usual budget constraints when people say,
26:50
look, you're too expensive, that one who will always be there,
26:54
especially in this business, interior decor business.
26:56
Because look, let me be honest, for me, I've never even
27:01
considered the prospects of an interior decor person because
27:04
every single time we're moving. So excuse me, how much time the
27:09
quote. So every single time we're
27:11
moving like we're going to have to move soon.
27:15
Well, we just as soon as we get into 2025 in January.
27:20
For me, wifey is the decor person.
27:22
So I just leave it up to her. What are we painting?
27:25
What are we painting? What's the new curtain going to
27:28
look like? Do we have to replace the
27:29
chairs? What kind of new chairs, you
27:31
know? And so far, her sense of
27:33
aesthetics has not failed. It always looks nice and it
27:37
comes together quite good, looks real cohesive, ties together in
27:42
a very nice, stylish way. So for me, I've never considered
27:46
an interior decor person. So I'm sure that interior decor
27:49
people, they get to hear that all the time, like you're too
27:52
expensive. Because I'm sure the guy will be
27:54
thinking, what, why the hell will I be paying you?
27:56
You know, 3M or 5M or 10M when I can just give the assignment to
28:01
wifey and you know, wifey will sort out the whole thing.
28:07
And I'm not trying to be sexist, I'm just saying sometimes
28:10
that's, that's just how it is. It's rare, Well in my own
28:13
experience is rare anyway, that you find that the husband is the
28:16
one who is the more style oriented 1 when it comes to
28:21
styling the house, matching the paint with the furniture and
28:26
matching the drapes with the textures and things like that.
28:30
So and it is what it is. And yeah, so those are the sorts
28:35
of things I wanted to look at if we ended up working with ABC
28:39
Decor, just focusing on areas that ABC Decor could have used
28:43
to improve his business. So business practice, good sales
28:46
practice to attract more clients.
28:48
So like I said, this is a whole lot to talk about.
28:52
We can exhaust it in one episode.
28:54
We've already done 28 meeting, I'm sorry, 28 minutes.
28:57
It's like 29 minutes just doing this intro.
29:00
So what we're going to do is in the future episodes, we're going
29:04
to flesh out all of these options that we've discussed.
29:07
We're going to flesh the man in some details, and then we're
29:09
going to use this particular question to wrap up.
29:12
We're going to use this particular series to wrap up
29:15
2024 and then we'll use this to ease ourself into 2025 because
29:20
at the date of this recording, we're already halfway through
29:23
December of 2024. Now as we're heading over into
29:27
new year and of course, wrapping up this year, I'm still looking
29:31
forward to meeting and getting to know more listeners of the
29:35
show because it looks like on average, for now, on average, it
29:40
looks like I'm adding at least 300 new subscribers every single
29:47
week. So you guys keep growing and
29:49
growing and growing. And that's just on Spotify.
29:50
I don't know how to track the number of subscribers that I'm
29:55
getting on iTunes or on other platforms.
29:58
So, you know, people reach out, especially the people that I've
30:02
been shouting out, but not everybody does.
30:05
So I'm looking forward to meeting you guys, getting to
30:08
know more listeners of the show. And then I'm also praying for
30:12
journey mercies for those of us and those of you who are going
30:15
to be travelling to Villa because you know, this is the
30:19
time where there are some people travel home, you know, you
30:22
finally get annual leave, you stack it into December so you
30:25
can travel. And then also for those of us
30:28
who happen to be Nigerians in Diaspora, you know, people
30:30
abroad while coming back into Niger for December holidays.
30:34
I didn't know that that was a thing.
30:35
But when I did some work with Magnesi, so excuse me, it's my
30:41
cold. So Magnesi, that's the lady that
30:43
does bags, custom made leather bags in Abuja.
30:48
So for her this period actually is a profitable period.
30:51
And I was surprised, you know, 'cause Nigerians were coming
30:56
back from diaspora, coming home, you know, they're actually
31:00
looking for these sorts of things because you're going to
31:02
buy the equivalent. The, I don't know why are they
31:07
called Balenciaga or Ferragamo or whatever.
31:09
You know, I'm not a bag person, I'm not a fashion person.
31:11
But you know, you fashion people, you know what's up so
31:14
you can come in and pick up some of these things at a bargain
31:17
comparable quality. So she ends up doing good
31:20
business around this time of the year.
31:22
So yes, there are Nigerians who are booking their tickets like,
31:26
OK, it's halfway through December, let's come home, Dirty
31:30
December, you know, flex shop, what else?
31:35
Even medical tourism are surprised because apparently the
31:39
NHS in the UK, that's and also in Canada, the subsidized
31:46
government medical services, I mean, it takes forever.
31:49
In fact, in the UK you have to be dying before a doctor will
31:51
see you. If you're not dying, we'll just
31:54
patch you up, give you medicine so it's not an emergency.
31:57
Go home, go and wait. When we have vacancy, we'll call
32:00
you. So there are some people who
32:02
say, look, you know what, this problem I've been having, let me
32:04
just come to Nigeria and let me do the surgery.
32:07
I'm shocked. I never thought I would see the
32:08
day that people will say I'm based in America.
32:12
But you know what, for this, my surgery, let me come and do it
32:14
in Nigeria instead. I never thought I'd, I never
32:17
thought I'd see that happen. Where was I?
32:22
OK, Basically what I'm just trying to say is, you know, my
32:24
prayers is joining message for everybody, for those of us
32:27
travelling to Villa, joining mercies for those of you who are
32:30
in America or wherever. Oh, we have Nigerians in Cuba
32:34
when I had some medical issues and the doctor I saw in Niger
32:38
studied in Cuba. So we have a Nigerian community
32:40
in Cuba. So those of you coming back, you
32:42
know, America, UK, Cuba, Jordan, wherever you're coming from, you
32:49
know, journey message coming in. And it's also my prayer that
32:53
we're going to round up 2024 real smooth and start off 2025
32:59
real strong. So if you're ready to get
33:01
actionable strategies to grow your business, you can book,
33:04
excuse me book at no cost audit by calling me or messaging me on
33:08
08064662140 or connect with me on LinkedIn.
33:14
The name to look for is Tavi Shima Aide.
33:17
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
33:18
Remember, this is going to be a series we're going to be looking
33:21
at strategies to help people in the interior design and the core
33:27
space and space managers. Now the whole idea is using
33:32
these people as a case study, you should be able to find one
33:34
or two ideas that you fancy or that you find practical,
33:38
practical or that you find usable for your own business and
33:41
will inspire you to take action and do something today to set up
33:47
yourself nicely so that once we enter 2025, we just pick up and
33:51
just keep rolling smoothly. So thanks for your time and
33:54
attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
33:56
episode.