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Protect Yourself: Essential Contract Clauses · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show and here's wishing you guys a
• 0:04
  wonderful new year as well. In fact, apologies for the noise
• 0:07
  in the background because I've done my best to noise proof my
• 0:12
  audio booth. But The thing is, boys are still
• 0:15
  going crazy, at least in this part of Abuja anyway.
• 0:19
  So fireworks, bangers and stuff like that.
• 0:22
  So I'm not sure how much of that is going to bleed in into the
• 0:25
  recording. But if you hear that, don't
• 0:27
  worry. My house is not being robbed.
• 0:30
  It's not gunshots. It's just boys going crazy.
• 0:33
  Fireworks have been popping off since last night.
• 0:37
  And I thought fireworks were illegal in Nigeria.
• 0:40
  So I'm surprised that people have access to these sorts of
• 0:42
  things. And so that's what the noise is
• 0:44
  in the background. Now what we're going to do is
• 0:48
  there's a brief detour, but recently I had to look at
• 0:51
  someone's employment contract. So I figured, let me just make a
• 0:54
  quick episode about how to evaluate your employment
• 0:57
  contract. Now the reason why I'm going to
• 0:59
  do that is because those of us who are self-employed or who are
• 1:02
  in the SME space, small and medium scale enterprise, Oregon
• 1:06
  micro enterprise, Oregon Nano enterprise.
• 1:08
  The thing is when we're trying to run our hostel, build our
• 1:11
  businesses, we get to acquire some skills, some easily
• 1:14
  acquired and transferable skills that apply to other facets of
• 1:19
  life and business. And so because of that, people
• 1:22
  find us to be valuable resources as those of us who are
• 1:25
  self-employed or who run SM ES. So people want to pay us for our
• 1:29
  skills that we have gained in running our businesses or our
• 1:33
  small businesses. And people try to pay us for
• 1:35
  those services, either to become employees or contractors or, you
• 1:40
  know, those sorts of things. So it's not a surprise to find
• 1:44
  people often reaching out to people like you and me wanting
• 1:48
  to pay for copywriting skills, sales skills, community
• 1:51
  management skills, lead generation skills, marketing
• 1:55
  skills, strategy skills, you know, all those sorts of things.
• 1:58
  And so that's what we're going to look at in today's episode.
• 2:01
  So if you've been self-employed for a while or if you've been
• 2:04
  running your SME, your Nano or your micro, small and medium
• 2:08
  skilled enterprise and somebody wants to pay you for copywriting
• 2:12
  or for sales or for marketing or for strategy or for Facebook ads
• 2:16
  or whatever, what are the sorts of things that we should be
• 2:18
  looking at and paying attention to in our employment contract?
• 2:22
  So if you'd love to connect with me to explore opportunities, the
• 2:26
  phone number is 08064662140. The country code is lost 234.
• 2:33
  For those of you who are not Nigerian, then you can connect
• 2:36
  with me on socials. I am on LinkedIn as Tavishma
• 2:39
  aide. I'm really shutting down all the
• 2:41
  other socials so don't bother looking me looking for me
• 2:44
  anyplace else. So like I said, today's episode
• 2:48
  is born out of a real life case study because I've spoken to a
• 2:51
  real person, but I don't have her permission to share these
• 2:54
  details. So I'm just going to call her
• 2:56
  Rapunzel. Now Rapunzel is considering
• 3:00
  unemployment contract is from a Nigerian company based in the UK
• 3:06
  that they are in the cosmetic space.
• 3:07
  And these are the terms of engagement that you know the
• 3:09
  things that the company wants a Rapunzel to do.
• 3:13
  So the company wants Rapunzel to do content creation in a two
• 3:17
  week rotation schedule. They also want Rapunzel to do
• 3:21
  lead generation and they want Rapunzel to do community
• 3:23
  building. Now, let me define those terms
• 3:26
  for those of you who are new listening to the podcast, this
• 3:28
  is the first time that you're hearing these terms.
• 3:30
  Now, content creation just means putting out stuff over the
• 3:34
  Internet, whether it's text, whether it's audio, whether it's
• 3:37
  video. So photographs, infographics,
• 3:40
  podcast episodes, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels,
• 3:46
  PowerPoint, whatever. Anything that you can put up on
• 3:50
  the Internet that is going to expose people to who you are as
• 3:54
  a business, the products or the products or services that you
• 3:57
  offer, the problems that you solve, those sorts of things.
• 4:00
  So anything that you're putting up on the Internet, regardless
• 4:03
  of the format, let's just call that content.
• 4:05
  So this company wants Rapunzel to create content for them.
• 4:08
  Then there is lead generation. Now, lead generation as I define
• 4:13
  it and as you should define it because it's a very simple
• 4:15
  definition. A lead is just anybody who puts
• 4:19
  up their hand or who does something to show that they
• 4:21
  might be interested in your product or your service.
• 4:24
  This is how I explained it to my wife because my wife overheard
• 4:26
  while I was talking to. I'm Rapunzel.
• 4:29
  And then my wife is like, babe, what's lead generation?
• 4:32
  And then I said, oh, yeah, that's easy.
• 4:33
  Lead generation is. And then she replied in a very
• 4:37
  funny way, how to generate a lead, you know, And of course,
• 4:39
  we laughed over that. But this is the way I explained
• 4:42
  it to her. I was like, hey, babe, remember
• 4:43
  how when we're looking at Instagram earlier and we're
• 4:46
  trying to look at places to take the kids this morning because
• 4:48
  it's New Year's Day as of the time of this recording, And my
• 4:52
  wife was like, look, yeah, we're back.
• 4:54
  We spent a bunch of money in Marcudi, and yes, times are
• 4:57
  hard, but we can't just stay happy looking at ourselves like
• 5:00
  this. Let's take the kids out.
• 5:02
  Yeah, things are rough. But Shah, let's go out.
• 5:04
  Let's do something. So I told my wife, remember this
• 5:07
  morning how we're looking at Instagram handles, trying to
• 5:09
  figure out where it is that we're going to go.
• 5:11
  And you are complaining that, look, this place looks nice, but
• 5:14
  the last time these people posted was in 2021.
• 5:17
  I'm not willing to check it. They're not serious business.
• 5:20
  And these people, there's also other places that have posted
• 5:24
  and posted recently, but they didn't have any menus there, any
• 5:30
  price options, any offers, you know, nothing like that.
• 5:33
  And so she didn't consider all those people.
• 5:35
  I was like, OK, baby, remember all that?
• 5:37
  She said, yes, what does it have to do with lead generation?
• 5:40
  And I said, this is what lead generation is.
• 5:43
  If those people had put up some sort of content that made you
• 5:46
  think this is interesting and then you may be liked or shared
• 5:51
  or send them Adm to say how far are you guys open, how much do
• 5:55
  you cater to kids, blah, blah, blah, you know, all these sorts
• 5:57
  of things. She said yeah.
• 5:59
  And I said, OK, Now that process is what we call lead generation.
• 6:03
  You just do something online or do something offline that gets
• 6:07
  people to take some sort of action that shows that they
• 6:10
  might be interested. Because if you put up a menu and
• 6:15
  a wifey or her mumsy looks at the sort of thing as she slides
• 6:18
  into your DM, it is not a guarantee that she's going to
• 6:21
  end up being your customer. But The thing is, at least that
• 6:24
  mumsy, that wifey, that girlfriend, that whoever has
• 6:28
  done something to show that they might be interested in your
• 6:32
  product or your service. Now that is lead generation.
• 6:35
  When you do something in real life or you do something online
• 6:37
  that gets people to take some sort of action that shows that
• 6:41
  they might be interested. And of course, if they might be
• 6:44
  interested and they take the right kind of action.
• 6:46
  It's implied that we have permission to connect and to try
• 6:50
  and sell. So if Wi-Fi has slid into
• 6:52
  somebody's DM, of course there is implied permission that
• 6:56
  whoever it is that responds, it's OK for the person to try
• 6:59
  and sell Wi-Fi on something or to try and convince Wi-Fi on
• 7:02
  something. Why we should try this menu, why
• 7:04
  we should try this or why we should try this or why we
• 7:06
  shouldn't try that. So that is what lead generation
• 7:08
  is about. And I think the oldest example
• 7:11
  that I've used over here on the podcast for lead generation is
• 7:14
  that young man who came to my son's school and who was handing
• 7:17
  out Flyers. So you hand out Flyers to
• 7:19
  people. If somebody calls you from that
• 7:21
  flyer, that is lead generation because the person has done
• 7:25
  something to show that he might be interested in the products or
• 7:28
  the service that you offer. So that is lead generation.
• 7:32
  Then the last thing that the company wants Rapunzel to do is
• 7:37
  community building. Now, lots of Nigerian
• 7:40
  businesses, they get this thing twisted, they think that
• 7:42
  community building is automatically going to lead to
• 7:44
  business growth. Well, not necessarily case
• 7:46
  because community building is not you talking at people.
• 7:49
  Community building is when you facilitate the space and then
• 7:52
  people start talking to each other.
• 7:54
  Now those of you who are in the graphic design space, you will
• 7:57
  know what community building is because there are some of you
• 8:01
  that use Adobe Suite for all the stuff.
• 8:03
  You do use Adobe audio editing stuff, you use Adobe video
• 8:07
  editing stuff, graphics editing, you know, all those sorts of
• 8:10
  things. And there are different kind of
• 8:12
  forums that exist on the Internet where those of you who
• 8:14
  are graphic artists talk to one another.
• 8:17
  That is community building. So Adobe doesn't own the space
• 8:22
  and there are things that Adobe does to facilitate these kinds
• 8:25
  of conversations. But essentially community
• 8:27
  building is you people who use Adobe, you guys are talking to
• 8:31
  each other. It's not about Adobe talking to
• 8:33
  you. So when Nigerian businesses
• 8:35
  think community building, they're thinking about places
• 8:37
  that you own, that you're talking to people, broadcasting
• 8:40
  to people. So they think WhatsApp is
• 8:42
  community building and they think Facebook group is
• 8:45
  community building. But unfortunately, that's not
• 8:47
  the case. That is just you talking at
• 8:50
  other people, not necessarily people talking to themselves.
• 8:53
  And the value in community comes from people coming together,
• 8:56
  robbing minds. And that is how it now has
• 9:02
  outsized returns for the business.
• 9:04
  So you Adobe people, the more you guys get together, the more
• 9:07
  you guys discuss and the more you guys share techniques like,
• 9:10
  oh, no, no, no, for audio editing, do it like this, do it
• 9:12
  like this. For Photoshop, do it like this,
• 9:14
  do it like this. Then the more it reinforces
• 9:17
  people using Adobe Suite as the premier solution for audio
• 9:23
  design, video design, graphics design, that sort of thing.
• 9:27
  So these are the sorts of things that Rapunzel, sorry that the
• 9:30
  company wanted Rapunzel to do for them create content, create
• 9:34
  leads, and then handle community building.
• 9:37
  I hope you guys are paying attention.
• 9:40
  This is what they want one person to do.
• 9:43
  They want one person to create content, one person to do lead
• 9:47
  generation, one person to handle community building.
• 9:50
  Take note. Then the company also wanted
• 9:54
  Rapunzel to adhere strictly to an SOPSOP Just means standard
• 9:59
  operating procedure, and it makes perfect sense.
• 10:02
  The standard operation procedure is just that document that you
• 10:04
  have to make sure that everybody's doing things the
• 10:08
  same way in a manner that you can track so that if there's a
• 10:11
  problem, we know where to fix it.
• 10:13
  And of course, they have SO PS around messaging because they
• 10:16
  want to make sure that all the employees are talking the right
• 10:19
  way, using the right words, using the right slang, you know,
• 10:22
  stuff like that, being professional.
• 10:24
  Then they also have SO PS around aesthetics because they want to
• 10:27
  make sure that everything looks all right because you can't just
• 10:29
  come in and start making the kind of content that you would
• 10:33
  like, but it has to be the kind of content that the business
• 10:36
  owner likes and that the business owner finds that it
• 10:39
  resonates with their own audience.
• 10:41
  So standard operating procedures based on aesthetic and then
• 10:44
  other platform specific requirements, like obviously the
• 10:48
  contents that you're going to create and the kind of words
• 10:50
  that you're going to use for TikTok is going to be different
• 10:53
  from the kind of content that you're going to create.
• 10:55
  If you're creating things on, let me see, LinkedIn, yes,
• 11:00
  that's good. So the kind of things you do on
• 11:02
  LinkedIn are different from the kinds of things that you're
• 11:04
  going to do on TikTok. So I want you to actually adhere
• 11:06
  to the standard operating procedure.
• 11:09
  Makes perfect sense. Well, by the way, this UK, Niger
• 11:12
  based UK company did not tell Rapunzel or did not show
• 11:16
  Rapunzel what the standard operating procedures are.
• 11:20
  So let me repeat, they want Rapunzel one person to do
• 11:23
  content creation, to do lead generation and to do community
• 11:27
  building. They want Rapunzel to stick to
• 11:30
  an SOP, but they have not shown Rapunzel the SOP.
• 11:34
  Take note. Now let me move on Then the
• 11:36
  company also says we're going to give you performance based
• 11:38
  incentives, but they didn't spell out what kind of
• 11:42
  incentives are in place or whether the yardstick for the
• 11:47
  incentives. Are we going to be measuring
• 11:48
  sales? Are we going to compensate you
• 11:50
  based on leads, Even on leads? Is it closing organic leads or
• 11:54
  is it leads that are coming from here or from there?
• 11:57
  They didn't figure out, they didn't say, the paperwork didn't
• 12:01
  say clearly, all these sorts of things.
• 12:05
  Then the document also has some things there about how community
• 12:08
  management is good for brand and reputation management wants
• 12:13
  Rapunzel to also do organic follower growth.
• 12:16
  And I hope you guys can see that the job description is very,
• 12:20
  very, very unwieldy. Content creation, lead
• 12:25
  generation, community building, incentivized performance, brand
• 12:31
  management, reputation management, organic follower
• 12:33
  growth. It's very, very unwieldy.
• 12:36
  But the job role is social, social and media content
• 12:41
  executive. Now, there's one part in the
• 12:43
  contract that I found really, really questionable somehow, and
• 12:47
  there's a section there that says that the roles and the
• 12:50
  duties and the assignment of Rapunzel can be changed at any
• 12:54
  time at the discretion of the employer.
• 12:58
  So he's saying that Rapunzel, this is the job that you're
• 12:59
  going to do. But by the way, if a guy thinks
• 13:02
  we need to change your job role, we will change it.
• 13:06
  So these are my thoughts about the employment contract.
• 13:08
  And I think some of you ought to consider when you're looking at
• 13:10
  some of these things, the company was not clear on the
• 13:15
  need or on the scope of work from the beginning.
• 13:19
  And because of that, in my own opinion, no one can be
• 13:22
  successful here because of such vague terms of reference.
• 13:26
  And of course, I'm going to put Rapunzel under a, what's it
• 13:30
  called, probation for three months.
• 13:33
  And I told her, look, you take this job.
• 13:35
  This is what is going to happen in three weeks.
• 13:37
  You guys are going to quarrel because it's not clear what it
• 13:39
  is you're supposed to do. You're supposed to do everything
• 13:41
  under the sun and there's no how you can juggle everything.
• 13:44
  No. So my advice to that was simple.
• 13:47
  And my advice to you guys is simple.
• 13:48
  If you're looking at this sort of employment contract, you need
• 13:51
  to have an honest conversation with the business owner so that
• 13:55
  you guys can have a precise scope of work.
• 13:58
  You would have to decide whether this is a good fit or not
• 14:02
  because there's going to be quarrel.
• 14:04
  And in my own opinion, I keep telling you guys on the podcast,
• 14:07
  whether it's with employers or whether it's customers, you are
• 14:10
  better off quarrelling now and you don't start the relationship
• 14:13
  then. You start the relationship now
• 14:15
  and then two weeks quarrel will now enter.
• 14:18
  It is better to quarrel now and not to start this marriage than
• 14:22
  to say, you know what, you just enter the marriage and then next
• 14:26
  year you start quarrelling. By the way, when I say marriage,
• 14:28
  I mean business marriage or employment marriage.
• 14:30
  I'm not talking about real life marriage because you know,
• 14:33
  relationships, real life marriage, marriage once you've
• 14:35
  entered, you've entered. Well, anyway, let me let me not
• 14:39
  approach that topic because you have strong opinions about when
• 14:42
  it is that you can get divorced and get separated and things
• 14:45
  like that. So where was I?
• 14:48
  So you guys need to have an honest conversation.
• 14:51
  And the way that I got Rapunzel about it was this just call up
• 14:55
  these people. By the way, this is the reason
• 14:59
  why I say we should have people's phone numbers and stuff
• 15:04
  like that because this is not an easy conversation to have over
• 15:06
  e-mail, but over the phone you can have this as a sharp
• 15:08
  conversation. So thank you very much, Ma.
• 15:10
  I appreciate the employment contract.
• 15:12
  I just had a look at it. But to be honest, Ma, if I end
• 15:16
  up working for you, I would love to be very, very effective at
• 15:19
  the job. And in my honest, my honest and
• 15:22
  professional opinion, someone who has done this job for other
• 15:25
  businesses for the last five years, the terms of engagement
• 15:30
  are too wieldy because you want me to handle content creation,
• 15:34
  you want me to handle lead generation, and you want me to
• 15:36
  handle community building. And you want me to be doing this
• 15:39
  in two weekly cycles. Madam, in my honest opinion,
• 15:43
  there is nobody that is going to be effective at doing this with
• 15:47
  such a wieldy terms of engagement.
• 15:50
  So you and I need to have an honest conversation and figure
• 15:52
  out where exactly is the business bleeding?
• 15:56
  What is the biggest problem that you're trying to solve?
• 15:58
  Ma, Let's just have a conversation about that and then
• 16:01
  we can come up with a, with a workable proposal and see how I
• 16:04
  can help you grow your organization.
• 16:06
  So is it content creation that is the main thing or is it lead
• 16:09
  generation that you want us to pay attention to?
• 16:11
  Let's say we can boost sales or is it a community building And
• 16:14
  we say community building itself.
• 16:16
  Ma, what do you mean or what are you hoping to achieve?
• 16:18
  And then you keep quiet and then you hear what Madam has to say.
• 16:22
  Now, when Madame responds, it will now give you a sense of
• 16:25
  what it is that she needs to do, what you need to prioritize.
• 16:28
  And you can now come back with a much more realistic terms of
• 16:33
  engagement before you go ahead and you collect money.
• 16:36
  Oh, OK, sorry. No, this is not.
• 16:39
  This is for employment. OK, so don't give me money.
• 16:41
  You will agree. Now.
• 16:42
  Then you start the work, and then she's supposed to pay you
• 16:46
  in four weeks. But then both of you quarrel 2
• 16:48
  weeks into it. And then now there's a huge
• 16:50
  problem because you are now quarrelling. 2 weeks in and
• 16:54
  she's now thinking how can I even pay you?
• 16:56
  What have you done? And then in your own term, in
• 16:58
  your own point of view, rightly think and rightly so, you're
• 17:02
  thinking, look Madam, I just invested 2 weeks of my life on
• 17:05
  this project. Can you please pay?
• 17:06
  Pay me my money, even if it's half, give me the money, let me
• 17:09
  go anyway. So you see why I say let's have
• 17:12
  honest conversation 1st and decide whether we should move
• 17:15
  ahead or not instead of entering into the marriage and then
• 17:17
  quarrelling later. So quarrel now and decide
• 17:20
  whether this is a good marriage to enter into or not.
• 17:24
  So that was my recommendation to Rapunzel.
• 17:28
  Call Madam up and tell her, look, the terms of engagement is
• 17:31
  too wide. I've been able to figure out
• 17:33
  three things that you're trying to achieve.
• 17:34
  Content creation, lead generation and community
• 17:36
  building, which is your most, which is your top priority right
• 17:40
  now? What are you trying to solve
• 17:42
  with the business or what kind of problems it is you're trying
• 17:44
  to solve? Let's figure out what it is that
• 17:47
  needs to be done. Because Ma, the way you set up
• 17:49
  this employment contract now, in my own professional opinion,
• 17:52
  I've been doing this job five years.
• 17:53
  Right now. There's nobody that can be
• 17:55
  successful under these terms. So Madam, it's not even about me
• 17:59
  because to be honest, you use me.
• 18:00
  You don't use me. Noah Hala But The thing is, at
• 18:03
  least if we can narrow down these terms of engagement and
• 18:05
  make it much more realistic, it'll even be better off for you
• 18:09
  to make sure that you will have someone at the end of the day
• 18:12
  that stands a chance at being successful to help you grow your
• 18:15
  business. So that's how you handle the
• 18:16
  conversation. But there are a couple of things
• 18:21
  I should be looking out for in an employment contract.
• 18:25
  And I think we'll just go over that in maybe 5 minutes and then
• 18:28
  we'll wrap it up because we're currently at 18 minutes.
• 18:31
  And remember, if you'd love to connect with me, the phone
• 18:33
  number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 18:39
  For those of you who are not Nigerian and then connect with
• 18:42
  me on LinkedIn, the name to look for is Tave Shima Agede.
• 18:46
  So looking at your employment contracts, the thing we should
• 18:49
  be paying attention to, number one, I've spent 18 minutes
• 18:52
  saying it. The scope of work should be
• 18:55
  clear. That is for those of you who are
• 18:58
  looking at, you know, some social media management,
• 19:00
  something, something, something, something, but whatever it is,
• 19:02
  scope of work should be absolutely clear.
• 19:05
  What is the format? What are the platforms?
• 19:07
  What is the cadence? Daily, weekly, whatever.
• 19:10
  How are we going to handle the analytics?
• 19:11
  What are we measuring? What is the reporting
• 19:13
  obligations, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 19:15
  This thing should be clear. First of all.
• 19:17
  The next thing that should be clear should be compensation and
• 19:20
  benefits. Is it going to be salary or is
• 19:22
  it going to be salary plus Commission and therefore the
• 19:25
  Commission? What's the formula for arriving
• 19:27
  at the Commission? These are the two big things you
• 19:30
  need to make sure are clear first before you start looking
• 19:35
  at the other things. If you call me up and you say
• 19:40
  bro, I beg, I'm looking at an employment contract, help me
• 19:43
  sort this thing out and you start showing me other terms.
• 19:46
  All those other terms are not important yet.
• 19:49
  If the scope of work is not clear and the compensation, our
• 19:52
  benefits are not clear, then what are we looking at?
• 19:54
  Because yes, there are other legal things we should be paying
• 19:56
  attention to like health insurance, we should be paying
• 19:59
  attention to that time off. We should be paying attention to
• 20:01
  that retirement plan. We should be paying attention to
• 20:04
  that because Nigeria right now, they are private pension
• 20:08
  schemes. I've been seeing information
• 20:11
  floating about on the Internet and also on billboards that
• 20:13
  people like us, you know, self-employed people, those of
• 20:15
  us who run SMEs. We should be able to have our
• 20:18
  own pension schemes. You know, I'll do some research
• 20:20
  and talk about that in the future.
• 20:23
  Then stock options, because there's some people who say come
• 20:25
  and work for us, we give you 50% of the company, blah, blah, blah
• 20:29
  over time. When is work?
• 20:30
  Is it 9:00 to 5:00? When am I going to get
• 20:32
  compensated if I work until 12 midnight?
• 20:36
  IP intellectual property, That one is also important.
• 20:39
  Ownership of work. If I create your logo, who owns
• 20:42
  the logo? Is it you people or is it me?
• 20:44
  If I create a website, who owns the website?
• 20:47
  Is it your business or is it me? Confidentiality.
• 20:51
  Can I talk to people about the work that I'm doing with you
• 20:53
  guys so that when I'm trying to find another job, can I use your
• 20:58
  stuff as testimonial or as a samples?
• 21:02
  What else? Termination and severance.
• 21:04
  If you're going to sack me, how much are you giving me?
• 21:06
  Dispute resolution. If we're quarrelling, how are we
• 21:09
  going to solve the quarrel? Now, some of you, especially
• 21:12
  those you who have legal background, will say all these
• 21:14
  things are important and yes, they are.
• 21:15
  But The thing is, if I don't even know what the scope of work
• 21:18
  is, and I don't even know what the compensation is, why am I
• 21:22
  wasting my time looking at time off and termination and dispute
• 21:26
  and all of that? All these things are important.
• 21:29
  But the first thing, do you even understand the scope of work?
• 21:32
  If you don't understand the scope of work, stop reviewing
• 21:34
  this document, call the person up and have that conversation.
• 21:38
  You know, Madam, I've looked at it and I'm not quite clear what
• 21:40
  the scope of work is. You know, what exactly do you
• 21:42
  want me to do? I've looked at the documents.
• 21:45
  I'm thinking maybe you're supposed to do AB and C.
• 21:47
  So is my understanding correct? I don't hear what she has to
• 21:50
  say. And then after that,
• 21:52
  compensation. Also, I'm not clear on the
• 21:54
  compensation, blah, blah, blah. Once you have solved those two
• 21:57
  big ones, scope of work and then compensation, you can now start
• 22:02
  looking at those other things. OK, Is it 85 or is it 96?
• 22:07
  You know, do I have Christmas off or do I have Valentine's Day
• 22:11
  off? Then those other things become
• 22:12
  important. So essentially, that's just my
• 22:16
  tip for you guys today. If you're looking at your
• 22:19
  employment contract, make sure the scope of work is clear, mix
• 22:23
  of compensation is clear. Once you understand those two,
• 22:26
  you now know whether it's worth looking at all the other small,
• 22:28
  small stuff. Let's see now, do you need a
• 22:31
  lawyer? Because we've spoken of some
• 22:34
  technical stuff here. The answer is ideally, yes, you
• 22:39
  need a lawyer. Unfortunately, things are not
• 22:43
  always ideal. So if you have a cousin, or if
• 22:46
  you have an ex-girlfriend, or an ex-boyfriend, or your younger
• 22:49
  brother's friend, or your younger brother just finished
• 22:51
  law school, or your younger sister finished law school last
• 22:54
  year. For now, it's good enough.
• 22:56
  Just show your younger sister your ex-girlfriend.
• 23:00
  Well, if you're in a relationship now and you want to
• 23:02
  be sharing this thing with your ex-girlfriend, it's going to be
• 23:04
  tricky. So just convince your wife or
• 23:06
  convince your current girlfriend that it's necessary for you to
• 23:10
  still be in touch with your ex. But anyway, that's the topic for
• 23:13
  another episode, where was I? So I'm saying, do you need a
• 23:17
  lawyer? Yes, ideally.
• 23:19
  But if you don't have a lawyer, don't worry.
• 23:22
  All these people that we have around you that just finished
• 23:24
  law school, you know, last year, getting their own opinion on
• 23:27
  these sorts of things before we sign the dotted line is not a
• 23:31
  bad idea. So this is not a bad way to
• 23:34
  evaluate your employment contract.
• 23:35
  And it's something that you guys should be consider, everyone
• 23:38
  should consider because once in a while, you know, we're doing
• 23:40
  this self-employment thing. It doesn't need to be working
• 23:43
  too bad or too good. And then somebody says, hey,
• 23:47
  come and handle this thing for me.
• 23:48
  I'll be paying you 700K every month and you think 700 K every
• 23:52
  month? OK, if I pipe low and I do this
• 23:55
  thing for three months, that would give me 2.1 M OK, no
• 23:59
  problem. Let me just close my eyes.
• 24:00
  Let me do this in sharp, sharp three months, collect 2.1.
• 24:03
  So these are the sort of things that you have to consider for
• 24:07
  the employment contract, for the retainership, for the whatever,
• 24:10
  but just make sure that the overriding consideration is make
• 24:12
  sure that the scope of work is clear.
• 24:13
  You understand what it is they're asking you to do.
• 24:16
  Make sure compensation is clear. Once those two are clear, yes,
• 24:19
  then time off, probation, stock option, overtime, intellectual
• 24:23
  property, all those things. Yeah, you can solve all of those
• 24:27
  later. So thank you very much for your
• 24:29
  time and attention. Remember, if you'd love to
• 24:31
  connect, the phone number is 08064662140, country code is
• 24:37
  +234. That's my WhatsApp number as
• 24:39
  well. Also, you can connect with me on
• 24:41
  LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my IED.
• 24:44
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 24:46
  I'm glad that we're all here. 11 healthy in 2025.
• 24:49
  Looking forward to a prosperous year for us all.
• 24:52
  And yeah, just looking forward to good things.
• 24:55
  Essentially. Remember to share the podcast or
• 24:58
  share any particular episodes that you guys find useful.
• 25:01
  Let's post the gospel. Let's let other people know that
• 25:04
  we have wonderful podcasts like this around sales, marketing and
• 25:09
  business. Sometimes career development,
• 25:11
  although mostly I'm talking to people who are self-employed or
• 25:15
  business people. Just let people know we have
• 25:17
  podcasts like this in Nigeria, Home grown, not just the gossipy
• 25:24
  stuff. So thanks for your time and
• 25:25
  attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 25:27
  episode.