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Get the Right Loan: Questions That Protect Your Business · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishma Ayede.
• 0:04
  I'm focused on solving sales and marketing challenges through
• 0:07
  business education and I'm making today's recording at
• 0:10
  home. It's a holiday, so the kids are
• 0:13
  home and of course, the neighbors, everybody's home.
• 0:16
  So expect to hear some interruptions in the background.
• 0:18
  Now, if you're impressed by the time you're done listening to
• 0:20
  this episode, please spread the word so that your friends and
• 0:23
  family members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the
• 0:26
  questions that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing
• 0:30
  on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of their choice.
• 0:34
  And if you, dear listener, would love to connect with me, then
• 0:37
  call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
• 0:45
  Now today on the podcast, we're going to look at questions that
• 0:48
  you should ask in case you want to take out a loan from a
• 0:52
  microfinance bank. Now, obviously for me, this is
• 0:56
  like a last case resort, I mean, for most people because there's
• 0:59
  some people who are trying to start big businesses that
• 1:02
  require a lot of capital, like the podcast listener who is
• 1:05
  thinking of setting up a plant that produces or rather that
• 1:11
  refines marine engine oil, that is engine oil that is used on
• 1:15
  things like tankers, boats, speed boats, ships, you know,
• 1:19
  those sorts of things. Now that kind of business is
• 1:21
  capital intensive and usually it's beyond the scope of what
• 1:24
  one person is going to be able to do.
• 1:26
  Like down with a for instance, who is now talking about opening
• 1:30
  a the largest seaport in Africa. I think I'll be in West Africa
• 1:35
  in is it Calabar? I can't remember where he plans
• 1:38
  to do it. So you know, you have the port
• 1:40
  in Lagos and then down with a wants to open another one.
• 1:43
  And of course trying to finance those kinds of things require
• 1:46
  major bar. It's not the kind of thing that
• 1:47
  one person will open your pocket and then finance the whole
• 1:50
  thing. So just like doubt is going to
• 1:52
  have to look at financing options.
• 1:54
  People who want to start off businesses that require big,
• 1:57
  big, big money, you know, plenty of capital investments, you
• 1:59
  know, they're going to have to look for major loans.
• 2:02
  However, a lot of us listening to this podcast and lots of
• 2:05
  people getting into the game are not trying to get into business
• 2:09
  at that level. And that is the reason why I
• 2:12
  keep on saying on the podcast, on my radio show that the best
• 2:16
  way to finance your business actually is to get customers to
• 2:20
  finance the business. Get customers to finance the
• 2:23
  business. What that means is go and look
• 2:25
  for people who want your product or service, get them to pay.
• 2:29
  Make sure that there's a healthy profit margin.
• 2:31
  Go and get more orders. After a while, raise your
• 2:34
  prices, take the extra income, plug it back into your business
• 2:39
  and grow your business that way organically in the beginning.
• 2:42
  For now, a time will come when you can now look for loans from
• 2:47
  banks. Well, however, now lots of
• 2:49
  people who assume that you know, financing is their problem, so
• 2:52
  shall any which are the most get loan.
• 2:54
  So if that's the case, I say, well, you know what microfinance
• 2:58
  banks because at the very least the interest rates are cheaper
• 3:02
  than normal banks. So if you go to microfinance
• 3:05
  bank and you say that they're too expensive, then well, what
• 3:08
  was you or your is your own? It means you won't do anything.
• 3:12
  You just sit down there and keep complaining about finance, which
• 3:15
  is also the main reason why I keep telling people that, look,
• 3:19
  financing business through customers is the best way to
• 3:22
  grow the business. Because those of you who are
• 3:23
  convinced that finance is your problem and nobody can tell you
• 3:27
  otherwise, that finance is your problem.
• 3:29
  When you go out and you try and look for finance and you don't
• 3:31
  get it on any good times, what do you do?
• 3:33
  You go back and you sit at home and then you say, well, at least
• 3:37
  I tried. But really, have you tried
• 3:41
  anyway? So for today's our podcast
• 3:43
  episode is for those people who insist I must carry a loan.
• 3:46
  I must get a loan. All right, no problem.
• 3:48
  So you must get a loan. Of course, no one.
• 3:54
  Commercial banks, that'll be a problem.
• 3:55
  Microfinance banks might be an easier way to go.
• 3:58
  At least you need to have a couple of questions ready.
• 4:01
  So that's the reason why I'm making today's podcast episode,
• 4:05
  particularly because of one radio show listener who thinks
• 4:08
  that the only option available for her and her business is to
• 4:12
  borrow me. I disagree, but The thing is,
• 4:15
  you know, I can't force you to do what it is that you don't
• 4:18
  want to do. If you have said you must
• 4:20
  borrow, OK, no problem, let's look at how you must borrow with
• 4:25
  through microfinance banks. Now my recommendation is this.
• 4:29
  If you're going to go in through a microfinance bank or any bank
• 4:32
  or any other formal institution to look for a loan, you have to
• 4:35
  go in prepared with your own questions.
• 4:37
  Because lots of people just go in and they say I want to raise
• 4:40
  loan and then they sit down and and you know, whatever it is
• 4:44
  that the sales or marketing person says, you know, that's
• 4:46
  all that they listen to. And that's not how to make a
• 4:52
  good decision. So before you go into the office
• 4:57
  of the microfinance bank, prepare some questions on your
• 5:00
  own. Don't just prepare it in your
• 5:02
  head. Write the thing down so that you
• 5:05
  remember to ask because it happens lots of times that
• 5:08
  you're going in for a business meeting or you want to go on.
• 5:11
  I mean you understand now like even normal something like you,
• 5:14
  let's say you go to Lanza registry in Abuja or in your
• 5:18
  state because you want to inquire about something.
• 5:20
  You know, mom sees land, pop sees land and then you go there
• 5:23
  you think is a good meeting by the time you get home.
• 5:25
  You now remember I didn't ask about Disney, I didn't ask about
• 5:28
  that thing. These things happen.
• 5:29
  So write it down. If you don't prepare ahead of
• 5:34
  time and if you don't write things down, you just go in and
• 5:36
  listen to a sales speech. And to be honest, the sales
• 5:39
  speech is just going to sound like white noise because the
• 5:43
  people in the sales and marketing departments of any
• 5:46
  institution have been trained on some standard sales pitch
• 5:50
  pictures of the company. And these people can vomit these
• 5:53
  things in their sleep. As in, if a sales and marketing
• 5:57
  staff of, let's say, Access Bank is sleeping and you're going to
• 5:59
  slap them. So yeah, give me sales pitch,
• 6:02
  they will just vomit everything. Access Bank founded in this that
• 6:06
  offer products of this blah blah, blah, blah, blah, interest
• 6:08
  rate also blah blah blah. We've contributed this to the
• 6:11
  social economy of Nigeria. Board of directors is that they
• 6:14
  will vomit everything instantly because they've been taught to
• 6:18
  cram nothing and unfortunately all that vomiting that over meet
• 6:23
  on you, you won't be able to now pick out the important thing
• 6:26
  that you need to decide whether you're going to get a loan or
• 6:32
  not. So compile a list of questions.
• 6:35
  Now, apart from that, some people make the mistake of just,
• 6:38
  you know, there's a microfinance bank at the beginning of my
• 6:40
  estate to go and check that one. And then from there they will
• 6:43
  decide, OK, loan is not for me or loan is too expensive.
• 6:47
  Now, how do you know you only went to one place and you only
• 6:50
  went to the place that was closest to your house?
• 6:53
  If you're sure is about this thing, sit down, come up with a
• 6:55
  list or maybe ask around, you know some other traders in your
• 6:59
  estate or some other traders in the market, Ask them.
• 7:03
  But I'm have you taking loan. What kind of loan and from
• 7:06
  where? Write down, compile a list of
• 7:09
  five or six. Then you go and visit all of
• 7:13
  them, call up all of them, ask them these questions.
• 7:15
  From there you can now decide whether OK, it's too expensive
• 7:19
  or it's not too expensive. Maybe the one that's at the
• 7:21
  beginning of your estate, the rate is too high.
• 7:24
  Did you go and check another place that even if the rate is
• 7:28
  high, other things are more favorable.
• 7:31
  So you never know. So compile a list of questions,
• 7:34
  then compiled a list of banks. Because if this is your first
• 7:39
  time getting a loan from any formal institution, whether
• 7:44
  microfinance bank or not, The thing is most likely it's your
• 7:47
  first time, so you have nothing to compare to.
• 7:51
  That's the reason why you need to come up with a list of banks.
• 7:54
  So you can't compare them then. OK, on the bond house, I talk
• 7:59
  about how the sales skills that we need when we're interacting
• 8:04
  with customers, you know, asking customers questions, you know,
• 8:06
  things like that. I mentioned that it comes in in
• 8:08
  handy in other aspects of our lives, like when we're dealing
• 8:10
  with our spouses, for instance. I mean, Lord knows my wife says
• 8:13
  I have a God complex and I don't listen to her.
• 8:16
  Funny thing is mom, she also says the same thing.
• 8:18
  My brother says the same thing. So I guess I need to tap it
• 8:21
  down. I stop feeling as if I'm God.
• 8:23
  So I need to be taking my own advice and asking people much
• 8:26
  more questions and trying to listen more when I'm at home
• 8:29
  and, you know, when I'm with family.
• 8:32
  So where was I before I started confessing my sins?
• 8:37
  OK, so these skills that we talk about over here on the podcast,
• 8:41
  listening and asking questions, come in very handy in other
• 8:44
  aspects of life. And this is one of those
• 8:45
  aspects. So normally we are the ones who
• 8:48
  are trying to sell something to someone, but there comes a time
• 8:50
  when we want to go and buy something or want to go and
• 8:52
  apply for loan. Knowing how to ask questions,
• 8:56
  what kind of questions to ask and being able to listen and
• 8:59
  separate the wheat from the shark will also come in handy.
• 9:02
  And this is one of those situations.
• 9:04
  So if you've been listening to this podcast for a very long
• 9:06
  time and you want to go and talk to members of staff in the
• 9:09
  microfinance bank or any other kind of formal financial
• 9:13
  institution, you already have the skills that you're going to
• 9:16
  use and they'll be able to help you to get get along.
• 9:20
  So the group, the questions that we're going to ask, I came up
• 9:22
  with a couple. Let me see, this is 1234.
• 9:27
  OK, I came up with four groups of questions.
• 9:30
  So we're going to come up with questions on sorry, one moment.
• 9:35
  I'm looking at the questions again.
• 9:36
  OK, So we're going to ask questions about the loan itself.
• 9:40
  Also going to ask questions about how you qualify the loan,
• 9:43
  how you how you qualify for the loan and how you're going to
• 9:45
  apply for the loan. Then we should also ask
• 9:48
  questions about collateral for the loan or security for the
• 9:52
  loan. And then we also have questions
• 9:53
  around payment and support. So again, the questions that we
• 9:56
  should prepare before we go to talk to the bank, questions
• 9:59
  about the loan itself, What kind of loan is this?
• 10:02
  Questions about how to qualify and apply.
• 10:05
  Do I qualify? If so, how do I actually apply?
• 10:09
  Then questions around repayment and support.
• 10:12
  Are you going to give me an extra support?
• 10:14
  What if I have trouble paying? What's going to happen then?
• 10:18
  What else? OK, questions about collateral
• 10:21
  or security. This loan that you're going to
• 10:24
  give me, are you going to hold something just in case I can't
• 10:28
  pay back? And what is it that you want to
• 10:30
  hold? These questions are very, very
• 10:31
  important because I have family members who want to go and take
• 10:35
  one guy particularly, I want to go and take a loan from One
• 10:38
  Financial institution and any he didn't read the fine print, they
• 10:42
  didn't collect any collateral. But The thing is they got access
• 10:45
  to his phone book. And so every single time that is
• 10:48
  my dear brother, not my blood brother anyway.
• 10:50
  But you know how he is now has in in Niger, you know anybody
• 10:55
  from your village is your brother.
• 10:56
  So, so anytime this my dear brother misses a payment, they
• 10:59
  just send text message to everybody with him.
• 11:02
  So unfortunately now my brother, everybody in his life knows that
• 11:08
  he has carried loan and that he hasn't paid and this is how much
• 11:11
  like he's owing. So anyway, you know, I've been
• 11:16
  out of law for a while, so I'm not sure how legal these tactics
• 11:20
  are. But you know, sometimes you go
• 11:23
  and take a loan, you don't read the fine print properly and you
• 11:25
  don't realize that oh, OK, this thing, you actually signed off
• 11:27
  for it. So anyway, so ask questions.
• 11:33
  All right, so let's begin questions.
• 11:37
  OK, about the loan. So since this woman now who
• 11:41
  wants the loan, she's an Agri business, you need to ask them
• 11:44
  what kind of loans do you offer? You hear what they will say.
• 11:47
  Do you have any loans that are tailored to people in the Agri
• 11:49
  business? And they hear what you have to
• 11:51
  say. Because sometimes people go and
• 11:54
  they take a loan that is more suited for one type of product
• 11:57
  or one type of business and then they try and use it to finance
• 12:00
  something else. Doesn't work that way.
• 12:02
  Go and ask. He'd be surprised.
• 12:04
  Like back when I was a an imperial in secondary school,
• 12:09
  Mumsy needed to take some loans. I think I can't remember the
• 12:13
  name of the bank anyway, that were offering some loans amongst
• 12:16
  you want to apply. But unfortunately the loans that
• 12:18
  were being offered were not offered for business purposes.
• 12:22
  They were offered for mostly, you know, cosmetic stuff like
• 12:25
  buy car or finance travel or things like that.
• 12:28
  And I remember my mum was very upset for a while.
• 12:32
  And in fact, we think of some controversy not because of my
• 12:35
  mum, but because of other people she was written about in this
• 12:38
  day and some other national newspapers at the time.
• 12:40
  So basically they were saying, now look, this bank, you can't
• 12:45
  say you want to support women to grow their businesses, But then
• 12:50
  when women come to take loan from you, you say no, only give
• 12:54
  you a loan to buy a car. I only give you a loan so you
• 12:57
  can travel abroad. Is that what you're saying?
• 12:59
  Women are, the women are only concerned about travelling
• 13:02
  abroad and buy a brand new car, you know, anyway.
• 13:05
  But I'm just trying to say is that when banks make these loans
• 13:08
  available, they really make it for specific products, even if
• 13:12
  it's just we're only giving women money so they can buy
• 13:15
  clothes, they can travel abroad and they can buy a car, even
• 13:18
  though that whole thing was ill advised.
• 13:22
  But you should ask, in this case, the woman should ask what
• 13:25
  kind of loans do you offer agricultural businesses?
• 13:27
  Do you offer loans for agricultural businesses?
• 13:30
  OK, this is my own particular agricultural business.
• 13:33
  This is exactly what I do. Do you have any products that
• 13:37
  tie into this situation? Then the woman is a new
• 13:41
  business. She also should ask, do you give
• 13:42
  loans to new businesses? Something should ask because if
• 13:45
  they don't give loans to new businesses, there's no point in
• 13:47
  you sitting down for 30 minutes and listening to the sales
• 13:50
  pitch. Ask them, do you give loans to
• 13:51
  new businesses? No, we only give loans to
• 13:53
  business people who have been in business for three years.
• 13:55
  So OK, sorry, in that case, let me leave.
• 13:57
  My business is only six months, so I ask then interest rate.
• 14:04
  That's the one woman is afraid of, actually.
• 14:05
  But you can't be staying in your house and be afraid of interest
• 14:09
  rates when you've not asked. Go out and ask.
• 14:12
  Now you're surprised. It might not be as bad as you
• 14:15
  think, but that too many people in the business fair who are
• 14:19
  afraid about something and they stay at home and they're
• 14:22
  hindered by that fear. Go and ask first.
• 14:25
  You might hear that is not as bad as you think, or you might
• 14:29
  hear that is as bad as you think, but there's support.
• 14:33
  So you can rough it. You can pull things through.
• 14:36
  So for those of you who are thinking, excuse me, financing
• 14:39
  is my problem, I don't know how to get a loan.
• 14:42
  Stop staying in the house and saying high interest rate, high
• 14:45
  interest rate, high interest rate.
• 14:47
  Then if anybody asks you which bank do you go to, say I didn't
• 14:50
  go and visit any bank. You didn't visit any bank, so
• 14:52
  why are you shouting high interest rate?
• 14:53
  Go and call up a few people first, then the tenor of the
• 14:57
  loan. How long are you going to give
• 14:58
  this loan for? And then grace period really,
• 15:01
  really important because that's the one that causes serious
• 15:04
  problem. I've seen it when selling
• 15:07
  financial products because like for insurance, you're supposed
• 15:10
  to pay your premiums on time and there's a grace period of, and I
• 15:15
  can't remember, depends on the product, but you know, you need
• 15:19
  to know that OK, if I'm supposed to pay on the 1st of every
• 15:23
  month, but I can't pay on the 1st, what I'm able to pay on the
• 15:27
  3rd, on the 4th, is that OK? You need to ask that question so
• 15:31
  that won't cause a quarrel in the future.
• 15:33
  Then apart from grace period, you need to ask about the
• 15:36
  repayment schedule. Am I going to be dropping money
• 15:38
  weekly? Is it going to be monthly?
• 15:40
  Is it going to be quarterly? You know, also very, very, very
• 15:43
  important. Like for the financial products
• 15:45
  that I just mentioned, there are some that had to be paid monthly
• 15:51
  and some quarterly. But then there was some products
• 15:54
  that would allow you to just say, you know what, let me just
• 15:57
  pay this thing annually, you know, in advance.
• 16:00
  So instead of paying quarterlies every 3-3 months, I mean every
• 16:05
  4-4 months, instead of paying every three months, every 4-4
• 16:07
  months, once we finish December and we're entering January, just
• 16:11
  calculate from January to December how much and let me
• 16:13
  just pay one time back. Let me just pay annual.
• 16:16
  So some things that some financial products that let you
• 16:20
  do that, then of course you need to ask, do you need me to write
• 16:23
  a business plan? Quite frankly, you know, to be
• 16:26
  honest, I haven't confirmed from microfinance banks that that is
• 16:30
  the case. But as a general rule, if you're
• 16:32
  going to a formal institution, you have to put something on pen
• 16:36
  and paper as a general rule. So your uncle can give you money
• 16:40
  based on recognition, Popsy can give you money based on you're
• 16:43
  my son, your friends can give you money based on you're my
• 16:46
  guy. But once you're going to an
• 16:48
  outsider and it's a formal institution, then expect to put
• 16:52
  something down on paper. Then ask questions about the
• 16:55
  collateral for the loan. What are you dropping as
• 16:57
  security? And then if they don't collect
• 17:01
  security, what are the options? Like this, my cousin who go into
• 17:05
  trouble not knowing that even though didn't collect, collect
• 17:08
  their collateral, they were going to use your social capital
• 17:12
  and disgrace the hell out of you, even if you're late by one
• 17:15
  day. Yeah, just message everybody
• 17:18
  now, all your brothers and sisters, all your cousins, all
• 17:21
  your uncles, all your aunties, all your ex girlfriends,
• 17:23
  everybody now knows that you're owing money.
• 17:25
  Terrible, very, very terrible. Then let's see.
• 17:30
  OK, Group guarantees. Now I don't know how whether
• 17:33
  this will work with microfinance banks, but with what are they
• 17:37
  called? I can't remember the the, these
• 17:39
  sorts of banks. There was this bank in in Asia,
• 17:44
  Grameen Bank, I think in India, they were supposed to give micro
• 17:49
  credit and it was supposed to be for women only.
• 17:54
  And I think in agricultural space, you know, just give women
• 17:58
  small credit. Let the woman be able to buy
• 18:00
  maybe one cow or one goat, you know, from there should be able
• 18:03
  to enter animal husbandry, small, small like that.
• 18:07
  And they didn't have collateral because in those places in
• 18:10
  India, for instance, where women don't have more any property of
• 18:13
  their own anyway, you can't say give me landed document because
• 18:17
  like, which land does a woman have?
• 18:19
  So they used to give group collaterals.
• 18:21
  So maybe, maybe like women in like my mom sees local
• 18:25
  government. Now all of them can come
• 18:27
  together and say, you know, the daughters of you know, so, so,
• 18:31
  so and so, you know, like I'm also people, people say, oh,
• 18:33
  mwada, something, something. All of them come together and
• 18:36
  apply for a loan and then the bank gives the money to the
• 18:39
  Omwada on the sorry evil people. I'm sure.
• 18:43
  I don't think I pronounced it correctly, but I know you guys
• 18:46
  know what I mean. So the idea is the loan is being
• 18:50
  given to the group as a whole and then you people are now
• 18:53
  policing each other to make sure that everybody pays.
• 18:56
  Because if you don't pay, you will rub off poorly on all of
• 19:00
  you and it will affect the ability of the group to collect
• 19:04
  a loan in the future. So that way when it's now my own
• 19:06
  turn to pay everybody in the group who's intervention?
• 19:09
  How far have you paid? Have you paid a big go and pay,
• 19:11
  go and pay. Don't rubbish us, don't rubbish
• 19:13
  us. Go and pay.
• 19:14
  So they take some banks, they do take advantage of group dynamics
• 19:20
  like that to, to, to give loans. But as far as I know, that is
• 19:25
  just when it comes to microcredit for banks like
• 19:28
  Grameen Bank. But Grameen, I don't think
• 19:30
  they're in Niger. As far as I know, it's an, it's
• 19:32
  an, it's mostly an Asian thing. And I think I've heard some
• 19:38
  people say it would be a good idea to start those kinds of
• 19:41
  microcredit initiatives in Niger.
• 19:45
  Excuse me. But like I said, I've been out
• 19:47
  of the formal sector for a very long time.
• 19:50
  So I really don't know how things are moving on that front.
• 19:53
  But yeah, you can ask about collateral then, OK, payment and
• 19:58
  support, we ask them upfront. Look, if we start and then I
• 20:03
  start struggling, how far was what's going to happen?
• 20:07
  What's the worst that's going to happen?
• 20:10
  Because often see some unforeseen sorry circumstances
• 20:13
  happen. Woman is in agric, woman who is
• 20:16
  talking about the loan. I know sometimes, you know, low
• 20:19
  rainfall, not, you know, poor harvest, market fluctuation,
• 20:22
  blah, blah, blah. So are there flexible repayment
• 20:25
  options? Can we restructure the debt?
• 20:28
  You know, things like that? What are the penalties for late
• 20:29
  payment? And then support, Yes, support.
• 20:34
  Really, really important, especially for microfinance
• 20:36
  banks because I know that there's some that offer support.
• 20:38
  So there's some microfinance banks that offer financial
• 20:41
  literacy training or they give business advisory services to
• 20:44
  people who take loans from them. So in other words, OK, no
• 20:46
  problem, we'll give you the loan And just to make sure that your
• 20:50
  business succeed so that it's not basic for all of us, we will
• 20:53
  now provide you free legal services.
• 20:56
  So maybe at the end of every two, two months or you can come
• 21:00
  and take advantage of legal clinic.
• 21:01
  You come and sit down, listen to a lecture from lawyer, and then
• 21:04
  the lawyer will also stay behind after the meeting and give free
• 21:09
  advice for all of you so that there's no problem.
• 21:11
  So that might some microfinance banks that do those sorts of
• 21:14
  things, business advisory services.
• 21:16
  So once in a while, come and learn some legal, you know,
• 21:19
  lawyer will help you once in a while, come and learn some
• 21:21
  accounting. You know why I will help you
• 21:23
  something like that. If you can get, in my opinion,
• 21:27
  sha, if you can get a microfinance bank that offers
• 21:30
  these kinds of business advisory support.
• 21:35
  For me, I think it's pure, I think it shows that the bank is
• 21:38
  invested in you people's success.
• 21:41
  And I think it's a good, is a good resource to take advantage
• 21:43
  of. Because I'll put it, you know,
• 21:47
  some people say, oh, the lawyer that will come and give that
• 21:50
  kind of thing is not the best lawyer or whatever.
• 21:52
  See, I'm not going to wade into that debate.
• 21:56
  But The thing is at least that kind of lawyer who has been
• 21:58
  vetted by the bank and who is here, at least he's a resource
• 22:02
  that you did not have before. So I mean, what are we talking?
• 22:08
  I really think it's a good thing.
• 22:09
  At least there's another person that you can call, you can SMS,
• 22:12
  you can what's up to say? This is my situation.
• 22:15
  You know how far the lawyer of course, who has been vetted by
• 22:19
  the microfinance bank, he already knows, you know, all of
• 22:23
  you in a way, if you understand what I'm saying, he won't be
• 22:26
  looking at you to be charging millions and millions because
• 22:29
  you know he understands that well is our people.
• 22:32
  So even if he's charging you, you use one kind I and charge
• 22:36
  you won't be shouldn't be too much anyway, reading between the
• 22:40
  lines. So if the bank offers that kind
• 22:43
  of business advisory support and stuff like that, I think it's
• 22:46
  good. So for now, I would say that's
• 22:49
  it and that's all. If you have insisted that you
• 22:52
  must take a loan, at the very least, I push people towards
• 22:55
  microfinance banks because they're cheaper than commercial
• 22:59
  banks. But Please remember, I keep
• 23:04
  saying it time and time again. If you must finance your
• 23:07
  business, the best way to finance your business in the
• 23:10
  beginning is through customers. Let me repeat, the best way to
• 23:14
  finance your business is through customers.
• 23:16
  Let me say one more time in case there's somebody who hasn't
• 23:19
  gotten it, The best way in the beginning to finance your
• 23:22
  business is through customers. We will all get to the stage
• 23:27
  where we need to get big, big money and big, big loans to
• 23:30
  finance our business. But in the beginning, it is
• 23:33
  through customers. Get more customers, get more
• 23:37
  people to buy. See, when it comes to business
• 23:40
  growth, traditionally in sales, they say we have 3 levels.
• 23:43
  Number one is get more customers.
• 23:48
  If you only have one customer per week, you'll cover a
• 23:52
  multitude of sins. If you're able to grow to 2
• 23:54
  customers per week and then three customers per week, so
• 23:58
  that is level 1, add more customers.
• 24:00
  Level #2 is the people that you get.
• 24:04
  Get them to increase average order value.
• 24:08
  Let them be buying more and more things from you.
• 24:11
  Level #2 level #3 is customer lifetime value.
• 24:15
  Get them to stay with you for as long as possible.
• 24:21
  That way you're going to be able to, well, you have to give
• 24:23
  value, will be able to extract more value from the situation.
• 24:26
  So that's level #3 what else? OK, some people say there's 4
• 24:30
  levels. Level #4 is raise your prices.
• 24:33
  So as you're doing all of these things together, your business
• 24:35
  is growing. So let's say on average, you're
• 24:38
  having 22 customers per month, 22 customers per month.
• 24:41
  The goal is, should be to grow to, you know, from 2:00 to 3:00,
• 24:45
  from 3 to 4, from 4 to 5, from 5:00 to 8:00.
• 24:48
  Be doing that per month. As you're doing that, your
• 24:50
  business is growing, revenue is growing.
• 24:53
  Then get those people to stay long.
• 24:55
  Instead of somebody buying from you January, February, and then
• 24:57
  the person disappears, try and get the person to stay January,
• 25:00
  February all the way through to, you know, November, December or
• 25:04
  maybe even March of next year. Your business is growing, you
• 25:07
  get more revenue. Then you can also be increasing
• 25:10
  the price. The price increase doesn't even
• 25:11
  have to be massive because after a while, OK, it's like my kids
• 25:17
  school after you know, this whole fuel price, whatever and
• 25:20
  then they raise school fees. I think they raised it by I
• 25:24
  think at first they raised it by like maybe like 150 per head.
• 25:29
  You know, even me, I wanted to shout like 150.
• 25:31
  You guys want to kill me. Like me, I have two kids and you
• 25:34
  know, there's some some families there that had like 6 children
• 25:37
  in that school. I look at them and I want to
• 25:39
  walk up them and say Bros like hi, how you doing it?
• 25:42
  Let me only have two kids and you know any time they say
• 25:46
  school fees my legs will begin to shake and you have 5 like how
• 25:49
  you guys doing? Anyway, so The thing is you
• 25:55
  raise it 100K150K per head. It is small, but then if you
• 26:03
  look at the fact that in Abuja, you know the average school has
• 26:05
  like maybe 2003 thousand children, you can see that just
• 26:08
  that small thing, you add 50K on top everybody per head.
• 26:12
  But The thing is the 2000 kids there, so it's 50K times 2000.
• 26:17
  You can see a small increase, big money.
• 26:20
  It's the same thing with price increases.
• 26:23
  It doesn't always have to be huge.
• 26:25
  You don't always have to double your price.
• 26:27
  It can be small, small, small, small.
• 26:30
  In fact, there are some people that that's how I recommend they
• 26:33
  do the thing. Like the fellow who's doing CV,
• 26:38
  he wants to go from, he said he's going to go from three,
• 26:41
  five to five. And that's like perfect, very
• 26:43
  good. It's not too big to rock a boat.
• 26:47
  And then it is noticeable because that extra 35 to five
• 26:51
  that is that's one five, that extra 1/5.
• 26:54
  By the time you multiply that by, you know, the number of
• 26:57
  clients that he has, you know, it's something.
• 26:59
  But then you come increasing small, small from three five you
• 27:01
  get to 5 from 5 you get to 7 five from 75 you go to 8 from 8
• 27:07
  you go to 9 from 9 you go to 11. You know, small, small, small,
• 27:11
  small, small, small. So that's I just before it like
• 27:14
  that. But anyway, summary what I've
• 27:18
  been saying the best way traditionally for newbies, for
• 27:22
  new people coming into the game is to get more customers.
• 27:27
  We get more customers by becoming good in sales and
• 27:32
  becoming good in marketing. But for those of you who have
• 27:35
  insisted that finance is your problem like this, my friend
• 27:41
  here who I said that's how she's going to grow her every
• 27:44
  business, then OK, Microfinance Bank and today's episode, we
• 27:47
  have looked at a number of things, a number of questions
• 27:50
  that you should ask these people before you go and get that loan
• 27:53
  so you don't fall into unnecessary busy at the end of
• 27:56
  the day. So that's it and that's all.
• 27:58
  Remember if you'd love to connect with me then call SMS or
• 28:01
  WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 28:07
  time and attention. I'll catch you next time.
• 28:10
  Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.