Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Funding Your Dream: Crafting the Perfect Business Plan Request

Transcript

Funding Your Dream: Crafting the Perfect Business Plan Request · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to the show today.
• 0:03
  I'm chilling outside Grand Square.
• 0:05
  I'm about to go in and buy some groceries.
• 0:07
  So I said let me just make a quick recording and yeah, update
• 0:12
  you guys about what happened on my radio show yesterday.
• 0:16
  So this is the first time of listening to the podcast.
• 0:19
  Apart from this podcast, I also have a radio show.
• 0:21
  It's called the Business Booster Show.
• 0:22
  It's on Radio Maria, 91.3 FM and and it's also devoted to
• 0:28
  business education, just like this podcast.
• 0:30
  And I take things from a sales and business development
• 0:32
  perspective. So it's a call in show.
• 0:34
  So I like the podcast where you sit down here, you're listening
• 0:36
  to my voice for 3045 minutes, sometimes one hour.
• 0:39
  I think I've done an hour, 15 minutes for the radio show.
• 0:42
  People get to call in after about the 20-30 minute mark and
• 0:46
  then we get to have all kinds of fun discussions and try and
• 0:49
  solve whatever business problems that these people have live and
• 0:52
  on the air. Now there are sometimes that I
• 0:54
  have to have conversations with people in greater detail.
• 0:57
  So those people send me a WhatsApp message.
• 0:59
  And then from there, you know, from the WhatsApp might have a
• 1:04
  phone call, you know, where we try and brainstorm in some
• 1:06
  depth. Because it's not every single
• 1:08
  problem that can be solved or is not every single problem that
• 1:11
  you can give useful perspectives on.
• 1:14
  You know, if you're limited to talking to, you know, 5 to 10
• 1:17
  people on a radio show in about 30 minutes.
• 1:22
  So one of those instances where we had to go do a deep dive was
• 1:27
  when 2 callers in particular, Martins and Victor, they called
• 1:30
  in last week and they had questions around raising
• 1:34
  business, finance, and both of them had business plans.
• 1:37
  Now, Martins, if I remember correctly.
• 1:40
  Yeah, Martins. Oh, and they were both binary
• 1:41
  boys. So it was a coincidence that
• 1:42
  when we sat down to have a chat that, you know, all of us are
• 1:45
  binary boys. So Martins wants to do the
• 1:50
  business of SIN and NIN registration.
• 1:53
  That's your national identity number.
• 1:54
  And then the victor was trying to raise finance for a car
• 1:57
  fleet. He currently has one car, but he
• 1:59
  wants to. His plan actually was to start
• 2:03
  off with a fleet of 20. And so since the both since was
• 2:07
  both around raising finance and they both have business plans.
• 2:09
  You know, I told them on the air that look, you know what, you
• 2:12
  guys send me a WhatsApp message and let's have a chat later on
• 2:15
  so we can go into some more depth.
• 2:17
  So I handled both of their cases together.
• 2:19
  So yesterday was me going back on the show.
• 2:22
  Just let people know that, hey, you remember those two guys that
• 2:24
  called in last week? You know, we hooked up this the
• 2:26
  conversation we had. These are the things that we
• 2:28
  learned and these are the these are the outcomes of the meeting.
• 2:32
  These are the things that we're going to plan, plan on achieving
• 2:36
  basically. So since there are some things
• 2:39
  that could be learned from the interactions that I had with
• 2:41
  Victor and Martins, remember they both had business plans to
• 2:46
  raise finance for SIM and lean registration and then also for
• 2:49
  car fleet business. Let me just hop on air here real
• 2:54
  quick and then I'm sure, OK, No, this is not the air.
• 2:58
  Hop on the podcast and then share some of those insights
• 3:00
  with you guys, some of the discussions.
• 3:03
  Now for those of you who are listening to the show today, who
• 3:05
  would love to be in touch with me, the number to reach me on is
• 3:09
  08064662140. Again, the number is
• 3:14
  08064662140. Country code is +234.
• 3:20
  That's my personal WhatsApp number, not the radio station
• 3:23
  number. So don't worry, you send me a
• 3:25
  message, you'll be coming straight to me.
• 3:27
  Then you can also connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 3:29
  The name to look for is Tavishma Ayede on YouTube, Tarish my IED
• 3:33
  or just check sales for the Nigerian business person and all
• 3:37
  my material is going to come up on YouTube.
• 3:40
  So we ended up having a group call with Martins and Victor.
• 3:44
  The three of us had a small chitchat.
• 3:46
  You know, we been we boys and I told them when I had a look at
• 3:51
  their business plan, the first thing I wanted them to add to it
• 3:54
  was a funding request because what they did was they had
• 3:56
  business plans. And of course they use templates
• 3:59
  that you can find from the Internet.
• 4:00
  And by the way, I have absolutely no problem with
• 4:02
  templates, use templates, but just remember to personalize the
• 4:05
  templates, you know, as much as possible, make it sound less
• 4:10
  template. Because The thing is, if you're
• 4:12
  writing a business plan and using templates and everybody
• 4:15
  else is using templates, the person who is going to assess
• 4:17
  the business plan, they can kind of tell that, you know what
• 4:20
  everybody shared. They just, they send me
• 4:22
  templates and it's, it's not a good feel, it's not a good look.
• 4:25
  So yes, use the templates, but templates are supposed to be a
• 4:29
  guide. So for those of us who studied
• 4:31
  law, our first background in law, it's something we're
• 4:33
  already familiar with. We have boilerplate contracts,
• 4:37
  standard plate contact contracts, template contracts
• 4:40
  and documents and all those sorts of things, but almost
• 4:43
  always have to take it and personalize it to the client
• 4:45
  that we're working with. So it's the same thing.
• 4:47
  You have a business plan, take the template, no problem,
• 4:50
  personalize it. But one thing that is missing in
• 4:53
  all these business plan templates that you find on the
• 4:56
  Internet is they do not have any paragraph, any section there
• 5:00
  that deals with the funding request.
• 5:02
  Now the funding request is where you guess, ask the person
• 5:05
  specifically that this is how much money I need.
• 5:09
  I'm asking you for this amount with the templates that are out
• 5:12
  there. You know the number SHA will be
• 5:14
  squeezed into the document somehow.
• 5:16
  So it's left to the person to infer how much we need.
• 5:20
  But no, it's not good sales practice.
• 5:22
  It is good. It is best sales practice when
• 5:24
  we are very specific about our ask or about what we want the
• 5:28
  person to do next. So whenever we're having
• 5:31
  interactions with people, it should be very clear, this is
• 5:34
  what I am asking of you or this is what I would like you to do
• 5:37
  next. If you're going to send a
• 5:38
  document, the document should also be clear.
• 5:41
  This is what I'm asking of you. This is what I would like you to
• 5:44
  do next, or this is what both of us need to do to make sure that
• 5:48
  we achieve our goals. So you need to have a paragraph
• 5:51
  that is a funding request. Whatever it is you're going to
• 5:53
  call that paragraph, you know, is up to you or you know, we'll
• 5:56
  figure it out. But there has to be some funding
• 5:58
  requests that will say this is the amount that I need.
• 6:02
  I'm trying to raise 2,000,000 for my business.
• 6:05
  It's also going to show the allocation, the two million that
• 6:08
  you give me, if you give me, we will use X amount to buy SIM
• 6:12
  card, X amounts to buy machine, X amounts to buy camera, X
• 6:17
  amounts to buy biometrics and X amount for shop rent.
• 6:22
  That is the allocation portion. What am I going to use the money
• 6:24
  for? Then there's also has to be a
• 6:27
  section that is going to be devoted to ROIROI is just return
• 6:32
  on investment. In return on investment just
• 6:34
  means this somebody gives you money to invest into the
• 6:36
  business, you throw the money into the business, you know,
• 6:38
  allocate the money by the time the money has gone undone is
• 6:41
  work, some money is supposed to come back.
• 6:45
  That is the return part, return on investment.
• 6:47
  So if I take this money and I throw it in and the money does
• 6:50
  what it's supposed to and everything works out, right, How
• 6:53
  much money are we going to be expecting to come back?
• 6:55
  That is the ROI. Then a section that says that
• 6:59
  includes the repayment plan. So how much am I going to pay?
• 7:03
  How what is the plan for paying you back your money?
• 7:06
  So let me repeat, in the funding request section, you have to
• 7:09
  talk about a couple of things. This is how much exactly I'm
• 7:13
  asking of you when you give me this money, this is how I am
• 7:16
  going to use the money. I will allocate it to this and
• 7:19
  this and this and this and that. And if we do that and everything
• 7:22
  works out OK, we expect that the 2 million that you have dropped
• 7:26
  should come back as 2.4 M or as 2.5 M, We will still need to
• 7:32
  reinvest it into the business. So based on that repayment plan
• 7:35
  is we're going to be paying you 200 K every single month until
• 7:39
  we finish paying everything in full.
• 7:40
  You know, something like that. This is just a rough sketch.
• 7:43
  OK. Then of course, Martins, who was
• 7:47
  doing the car registration, sorry, car feed business.
• 7:50
  When we say car feed, we mean, you know, like Bolt and Uber.
• 7:54
  So Martin's his own concerns was that he wanted the figures to be
• 7:57
  accurate and this specific. And I was like, yes, the figure
• 8:02
  should be accurate and should be specific, but you know, nothing
• 8:04
  like life is perfect. But the most important thing is
• 8:08
  when we're creating this document, it's more about the
• 8:10
  thought process and it's more about contingency planning.
• 8:13
  When somebody's collecting money, Abby, no, not collecting.
• 8:16
  When somebody's giving you money, the person just wants to
• 8:19
  see your thought process and to see that you are thinking
• 8:22
  through things clearly because there are situations where some
• 8:26
  figures don't add up. All the personal do point.
• 8:28
  I would say, oh, sorry, I'm confused.
• 8:30
  On Page 1, you said this. On page 2, you said this and
• 8:32
  then you say, oh, I'm sorry, Sir, is the number on page three
• 8:35
  that's actually accurate? Sorry, forgive me.
• 8:37
  And then you go and amend it. So if you make a mistake,
• 8:39
  actually it's it's no, it's no big deal.
• 8:42
  But people just want to see that you're thinking about this thing
• 8:45
  clearly and you are not just manufacturing numbers up and
• 8:48
  down. So that's the most important
• 8:49
  thing. Show your work, show the thought
• 8:52
  process and show that you're thinking about contingencies.
• 8:54
  If this happens is what we're going to do this.
• 8:56
  If this happens is what how we're going to do that.
• 8:58
  We plan on doing this, you know, that sort of thing.
• 9:01
  Then another reason why I want to have a conversation with them
• 9:04
  and why I'm sharing this over here now is because some of you
• 9:06
  are trying to raise finance and you guys have not realized that
• 9:09
  investor toasting or trying to raise finance is also a sale.
• 9:15
  Let me repeat, trying to raise finance is also a sale.
• 9:20
  If you have a, if you have a bakery, you're selling cake.
• 9:26
  Everybody knows that one. You're selling cake, You're
• 9:28
  selling meat pie, you're selling cupcakes.
• 9:30
  Everybody knows that one. We're a fashion designer.
• 9:33
  You're selling clothes. Everybody knows that one.
• 9:35
  Or for some reason people think when you're raising finance, you
• 9:37
  don't realize that it's also a sale.
• 9:38
  You're selling. You're selling yourself, Please
• 9:41
  give me money. You're selling the business
• 9:44
  idea. This business idea is tapped.
• 9:46
  This business idea is tight. This business idea is you know
• 9:51
  The thing is going to blow, right?
• 9:53
  So you are selling yourself, you're selling the idea, you're
• 9:56
  selling the opportunity. So it is a sale now because
• 10:00
  investor toasting or trying to raise finances a sale, we also
• 10:03
  have to follow the stages that we'll do if we're also trying to
• 10:07
  sell anything. So OK Baker.
• 10:11
  So for Baker now cake and me pie, this is the process that we
• 10:15
  have to go through for cake and meat pie prospecting.
• 10:21
  That's number one qualification and discovery #2 proposal or
• 10:24
  presentation #3 close #4 I'll be the essay for RV5 anyway. close
• 10:31
  And then after that relationship building because we are trying
• 10:35
  to get repeat business and referrals.
• 10:38
  So I repeat the status that you're going to run through,
• 10:41
  whether it's number one to five, wonder whether it's number one
• 10:43
  to six. You start prospecting, then you
• 10:45
  do qualification and discovery, then proposal and presentation,
• 10:49
  then you close the deal and then you do relationship building or
• 10:52
  relationship nurturing. Because we're trying to get
• 10:54
  people to come back. We're trying to get them to stay
• 10:56
  in good standing. So that's what we do for cake
• 10:58
  and meat pie. Now prospecting stage is for
• 11:02
  cake and meat pie. Who might be interested in my
• 11:05
  birthday cakes and who might be interested in my meat pie?
• 11:09
  Who is interested? You're trying to figure out who
• 11:11
  they are, where they hang out, because the next thing is we're
• 11:15
  trying to start conversations with these people, whether in
• 11:18
  real life or whether on Instagram or whatever.
• 11:21
  So for cake and meat pie, eventually we get to
• 11:23
  qualification stage where we try to figure out what do they like?
• 11:26
  Do they like meat pie with meat or meat pie with potato?
• 11:30
  Or do they like meat pie with what was this one, this
• 11:34
  vegetarian option? I can't remember what it's
• 11:36
  called. So if you're doing small chops,
• 11:39
  you know you need to figure out what they like so you know what
• 11:41
  it is that you are going to sell.
• 11:42
  It's the same thing with the cake birthday cake.
• 11:44
  Do they like fondant icing? Do they like butter icing?
• 11:49
  Or do they like sugar craft? You know the one where you use a
• 11:52
  sugar and make all kinds of sculptures, maybe like you
• 11:55
  sculpted a swan or something like that as a real fancy stuff,
• 11:58
  as in the things you cake bakers do nowadays.
• 12:00
  Like I carry mumble for you guys.
• 12:02
  Like you guys are legit as a Nigerian cake bakers, they're on
• 12:07
  another level. So that's the qualification
• 12:10
  stage where we're having conversations.
• 12:12
  What does this person like about cake?
• 12:14
  What does this person like about meat pie?
• 12:16
  Proposal and presentation. That's the stage where we say
• 12:18
  this is what I can do for you. So say Olga, since you like meat
• 12:23
  pie, but since you are meat intolerant, since you are
• 12:26
  allergic to meat and your wife is also a vegetarian, what we
• 12:29
  can do is that for your birthday party, for the meat pie and the
• 12:32
  small chops, we can do a tofu. The meat pie can contain tofu
• 12:39
  and fish supplements. You know something any you know
• 12:46
  Sha, the meat power contained tofu.
• 12:48
  Something, something, something, something.
• 12:50
  And we'll meet with your dietary requirements and your wife's
• 12:52
  vegetarian preferences. And so that's the whole proposal
• 12:55
  presentation. And so say this is OK and
• 12:57
  everything looks OK. Then what we need is we need a
• 13:01
  deposit of XYZ amount so that we can confirm your order.
• 13:04
  That is the close the same thing with a birthday cake also.
• 13:08
  OK Madam. So since you want your cake to
• 13:10
  be one in town, you're about to turn 50.
• 13:12
  You want something that nobody has seen before.
• 13:14
  What we're going to do is we will not do fondant.
• 13:16
  People have been doing fondant icing in Nigeria since 1960.
• 13:20
  We will not do butter cream. People have been doing butter
• 13:22
  cream icing in Nigeria since 2010.
• 13:27
  What we're going to do is we're going to make a custom bespoke
• 13:31
  sugar ice sculpture and we will sculpt it in you.
• 13:34
  We will sculpt it like you. That particular picture that you
• 13:37
  like, that is what we will sculpt and we'll paint it.
• 13:39
  And then that is how your birthday cake is going to look
• 13:42
  like. She will say wow, you can do
• 13:43
  that. So yes ma'am, we can.
• 13:45
  And if you love that, we will need to.
• 13:49
  This particular project, we'll need like 3 weeks to do it.
• 13:52
  And so for us to do that, mommy, we actually need the deposit now
• 13:56
  of 1.2 M so that we can start work and you pay the balance on
• 14:00
  so, so so and so, so that is the close stage.
• 14:02
  So I hope you guys see how it's going.
• 14:04
  We started from prospecting. Well, now we're closed then
• 14:07
  relationship building, relationship nurturing.
• 14:10
  Sir, did you like the small shops at your party?
• 14:12
  Mommy, did you like the cake up was one in town, you know, blah,
• 14:15
  blah, blah. This that because the whole goal
• 14:17
  is to see how mommy can come back later on and buy another
• 14:20
  cake next year or for mommy to refer friends and family members
• 14:24
  to come and do business with you this year or next year.
• 14:29
  So you see, this is how it works for cake and for meatpie.
• 14:33
  Now let us take you to investors prospecting stage.
• 14:37
  Who might be interested in giving me money for my same and
• 14:42
  in registration business. Who might be interested in
• 14:46
  giving me money for my same and in registration business, who
• 14:49
  might be interested in giving me money for my car fleet.
• 14:51
  It's a very, very pivotal question because it would
• 14:53
  determine where we should look. This is a common sense activity
• 14:57
  because like for Martin's when I asked him who might be
• 15:00
  interested, he gave me a very common sense answer.
• 15:02
  He said look to be raising to discuss with people.
• 15:05
  What I've been doing is I have been going to places where I see
• 15:08
  a congregation of cars or where I see a congregation of people
• 15:12
  around cars. And for me, that makes perfect
• 15:15
  sense. So one of the places where he
• 15:16
  has been going to is he has been going to car dealers and the
• 15:19
  scope is, do you have idle inventory here?
• 15:22
  These cars have been sitting in your car lot.
• 15:24
  Nothing has been happening. Do you know, I have this
• 15:26
  business opportunity, My company does this car fleet.
• 15:29
  You can give these cars to me on this, whatever.
• 15:32
  This is how we take care of the car.
• 15:34
  This will be your share. This is the amount I'm giving
• 15:36
  Uber. I mean, this is the amount I'm
• 15:37
  going to keep. And then he starts the
• 15:39
  conversation. So far he hasn't closed the deal
• 15:42
  that way, but he found somebody who was willing to give him 20
• 15:45
  cars, but they were not able to agree on the unique economics,
• 15:49
  unable to agree on the price, what the person was asking for.
• 15:53
  His own court would put Martins in a loss.
• 15:56
  But you can see how we always have to start at this stage
• 16:00
  prospecting who might be interested in giving me money
• 16:04
  for this kind of business. It was a very common sense
• 16:07
  approach. So who is interested?
• 16:10
  Then the next thing is qualification and discovery.
• 16:13
  This person that I'm talking to now, what do they like?
• 16:17
  Because the thing that they like is, is what will determine what
• 16:20
  it is that you're going to stress?
• 16:21
  Because there are some people that you're trying to raise
• 16:23
  money for your fleet business and you know, they think it's a
• 16:27
  good opportunity. But for them, they're worried
• 16:29
  about the safety of the car because they want the car back
• 16:33
  in good condition so that maybe in five months or six months,
• 16:35
  they should still be able to sell it as a second hand Niger
• 16:38
  used. That will determine what it is
• 16:42
  that you are going to stress in the presentation.
• 16:45
  Some other person might not be particularly bothered there who
• 16:48
  might be take the car, use it as a fleet.
• 16:50
  But as you're using it as fleets, I want you to buy it at
• 16:53
  the end of XYZ. As in I don't want this
• 16:55
  inventory to return to me as this inventory is leaving this
• 16:58
  car lot. I expect that at the end of the
• 17:01
  day, apart from me getting my money back, you will even buy
• 17:04
  this car itself. That will determine what your
• 17:07
  proposal or presentation is going to be.
• 17:09
  So this whole thing of figuring out what does the person like,
• 17:12
  it will determine how it is that we're going to do these
• 17:14
  conversations later on. So qualification and discovery
• 17:17
  very, very important and I hope you guys are beginning to see
• 17:19
  how it's all the same, whether it's cake and meat pie or
• 17:22
  whether we are raising money for Cafe business.
• 17:25
  Can you see it's all the same, It's all a sale.
• 17:28
  Then the close is where you get the person to take action.
• 17:31
  Now the relationship building part, the only difference now is
• 17:34
  that when we're talking about raising money, we do investor or
• 17:38
  stakeholder, Sorry, investor or stakeholder management.
• 17:40
  That's what we do now. Because if there is no stage in
• 17:45
  the process where from time to time we call up the investor,
• 17:48
  like let's say you raise money from Auntie Monica for your
• 17:50
  business. If there's no stage where you
• 17:52
  call Auntie Monica and say Auntie Monica, how now?
• 17:54
  So, Oh my son, how are you, Auntie?
• 17:56
  I'm very fine though. I just I should call and greet
• 17:58
  you and give you some updates about that our business, say,
• 18:01
  oh, that our business. Oh, yes, Auntie.
• 18:02
  Now you know, you gave me 5:00 AM.
• 18:03
  So OK, OK, OK. And so my son, what has been
• 18:06
  happening? Oh, yes, Auntie, we're able to
• 18:08
  buy this number of cars and this that that The thing is moving
• 18:11
  like this. We have some problems.
• 18:13
  We have to buy spare tires, we have to do mechanic, blah, blah,
• 18:15
  blah. But Auntie so far is looking
• 18:17
  like we're going to be able to meet our goals that for July of
• 18:21
  this year. So congratulations to my son.
• 18:23
  I knew I was. I was.
• 18:27
  I knew I could. I could trust you.
• 18:29
  Since we're a young boy. You've always been.
• 18:31
  You've always done things the right way.
• 18:32
  You've always made our family proud.
• 18:34
  Oh, thank you very much, Auntie. Thank you very much, Auntie.
• 18:36
  So I just said I should update you.
• 18:37
  So anyway, since we're supposed to talk again in July, by July,
• 18:40
  I should let you know again. We'll talk and I'll know which
• 18:44
  account I'm sending the first payment back to.
• 18:46
  Oh, thank you very much, my son. God bless you.
• 18:49
  OK. Greet your wife and your
• 18:50
  children. Bye.
• 18:50
  Bye. You see that kind of meeting,
• 18:53
  investor stakeholder management, you go and see them, you pick up
• 18:56
  the phone call and you have the conversation.
• 18:58
  Since I took the money, this is what we've been up to, this is
• 19:00
  what we've done. This is what we've achieved.
• 19:03
  These are the successes. These are areas where we had
• 19:06
  small problems or maybe this is the area where I need some more
• 19:09
  help or you know something. But if we're having this
• 19:11
  conversation from time to time, then investors and stakeholders
• 19:15
  in our business should be fine and should be OK with dealing
• 19:19
  with us. But it is only when you collect
• 19:21
  money from somebody, collect 2M from somebody in January,
• 19:24
  February, you didn't boss them much.
• 19:26
  You didn't boss them. April didn't see you and is now
• 19:30
  entering July. They've not heard from you.
• 19:32
  You can see how those start. You know, people start catching
• 19:35
  feelings that people start getting angry and all kinds of
• 19:37
  things. So you, you're honestly trying
• 19:38
  to do good business. But then do you think that this
• 19:41
  boy is, is sharp? This boy is a fraudster.
• 19:43
  This boy, this boy is that is because you have left out the
• 19:47
  pot in sales, which would normally be relationship
• 19:50
  nurturing and relationship building.
• 19:53
  In this case now since it's we're dealing with investors,
• 19:55
  investors and stakeholder management.
• 19:57
  Because you've left out investors and stakeholder
• 19:59
  management, people now be angry and people now be looking at
• 20:01
  you. Somehow the relationship will
• 20:02
  now begin to get sour. It will affect the way you're
• 20:06
  working on this business and best believe that if things
• 20:09
  became sour on this business, there is no how that even if you
• 20:12
  have a greater opportunity in five or six years they can come
• 20:15
  back and meet this person and collect more money.
• 20:17
  Because what do we remember is the negative experiences that
• 20:19
  they had the first time of working with you.
• 20:21
  So investors, stakeholder management, really, really
• 20:23
  important. So I hope you guys can see now
• 20:26
  how even though we're going to raise money from investors, it
• 20:28
  is also a sale. So we also have to go through
• 20:30
  this process. We'll sit down with a pen and a
• 20:33
  paper or with our phone and start writing who might be
• 20:35
  interested in giving me money for XYZ?
• 20:39
  Well, Please remember that when you're talking to people, it has
• 20:42
  to be tailor made to whatever it is that they're interested in.
• 20:45
  So that's what this whole thing of what do they like is what
• 20:47
  it's about. Excuse me.
• 20:49
  So like I told my folks on the air now or Radio Marriott that
• 20:53
  let's say you're raising this money because you want to do
• 20:55
  crypto business, but anti Monica made her millions from buying
• 21:00
  and selling yam and cassava. And maybe anti Monica didn't
• 21:03
  finish secondary school. It might be a tough sell to
• 21:06
  start talking to anti Monica about cryptocurrency.
• 21:09
  It might. So I mean, A-Team woman who made
• 21:14
  millions from selling yam and cassava, she didn't finish
• 21:17
  secondary school. And maybe she was born in, you
• 21:20
  know, 1943 or OK, no, 43 is too much, let's say 1953 and she was
• 21:24
  born in 1953, you know, telling her auntie, come and give me 10
• 21:29
  M for crypto business. Like, how do you want to begin
• 21:32
  to start explaining the whole thing?
• 21:34
  So you're better off having crypto conversations with
• 21:39
  potential investors who already understand and like in the
• 21:42
  crypto space, just like if somebody is in the crypto space,
• 21:49
  OK, let's say like Uncle Tony Nokia, Uncle Tony is not in
• 21:52
  crypto. Uncle Tony Antonio Lumelu was in
• 21:55
  in sales, then he started a bank, then they now bought
• 21:58
  Hilton Hotel and what else? OK, He also has shares I think
• 22:02
  in transmission company. That Uncle Tony man, that boy is
• 22:06
  going to go foul that that man. Sorry, before he hears the
• 22:08
  podcast on Cotonia Lumia is going to go very, very far.
• 22:12
  I mean, he now has a stick and transmission company.
• 22:14
  And then this guy or Tedola, I think what Tedola is also trying
• 22:18
  to invest money in power infrastructure.
• 22:21
  I mean those people, they're, they can't see the way forward.
• 22:23
  They're owning the key infrastructure that we need in
• 22:26
  this country that everybody needs.
• 22:28
  So where was I? So what I was trying to say
• 22:32
  basically is there are some surface case, some investors
• 22:34
  that are too sophisticated so that let's say you're raising
• 22:37
  money because you want to sell Yammer, you want to sell
• 22:39
  charcoal, maybe there's some investors that are too
• 22:42
  sophisticated for that kind of thing.
• 22:43
  So, but bottom line is between prospect and qualification,
• 22:49
  those are the questions you'll be asking yourself.
• 22:50
  Who might be interested? What might this person be
• 22:53
  interested in? Then, you know, start having the
• 22:54
  conversations. What do they actually like?
• 22:56
  What is their background? You know, stuff like that then.
• 23:02
  OK, so yes, investing is a sale. So just remember that getting
• 23:06
  money from investors is a sale. Then for prospecting ideas, some
• 23:10
  of the ideas that we raised about how to get people, the
• 23:14
  people who might be interested, we looked at friends, family and
• 23:16
  associates. Good thing.
• 23:18
  Is that really been trying that Victor also, I've been mixing up
• 23:21
  the names. Victor is the one who wants to
• 23:22
  do coffee business. So Victor was able to get one
• 23:27
  car from a family member. So you see that friends, family
• 23:31
  and associates is a useful place to start.
• 23:34
  The goal is 20 cars, but from friends, family and associates
• 23:37
  he has already gotten 1. So now we have 19 to go.
• 23:40
  And then for Martins, he had me talking to some of his
• 23:42
  classmates who are more all I put it now more buoyant.
• 23:46
  Let me put it that way, more afloat to raise funds where you
• 23:51
  can see that looking around friends, family and associates,
• 23:53
  we can start those conversations.
• 23:55
  The only thing is we just need to be very clear on what those
• 23:57
  conversations are. This money that I'm asking, is
• 24:00
  it dash? Is it borrow?
• 24:03
  I giving it to me just because of, you know, love of Jesus
• 24:06
  Christ. And so you want to help out your
• 24:07
  brother. If it is a loan, when am I
• 24:12
  paying back? You know, we have to be very,
• 24:14
  very clear about these conversations and I've made a
• 24:16
  podcast episode about that. So I'm not going to overflog it.
• 24:19
  That's the one that I made about Wonder Woman, the catering
• 24:22
  Benoit State and and the things that I said she she has to pay
• 24:27
  attention to when you're raising equity finance, when somebody
• 24:31
  wants to drop money so they can be a co-owner in your business.
• 24:33
  So I can't remember the title of that episode, but maybe just
• 24:38
  search within the podcast and put equity and anything that has
• 24:42
  equity in it should have those sorts of conversations.
• 24:47
  So friends, family members and associates.
• 24:49
  We also explored microfinance banks based on what is they're
• 24:52
  trying to do because proper banks, the the loan would just
• 24:55
  be too much. OK, it turns out location is
• 24:59
  important in these sorts of things because for Martins
• 25:03
  Martins, you know, he's a tea boy just like me and he's based
• 25:06
  in LEADLEAD. And I know Ali AD is, is not
• 25:11
  too, you understand, it's not too modern.
• 25:13
  Let me just put it that way. So that's how far now I know
• 25:16
  banks are not being Ali AD, but at least microfinance bank will
• 25:19
  be there. He said, Oh no, no, no, he has
• 25:20
  tried it, that all the microfinance banks have closed
• 25:22
  and left LED. So he has to come to Makudi,
• 25:25
  that's the state capital to have these sorts of conversations.
• 25:29
  But anyway, I told him that if I was able to check NDIC
• 25:31
  resources, that's the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation,
• 25:35
  they might be able to find names and addresses, you know, lists
• 25:39
  of microfinance banks that are available within the state,
• 25:43
  within Benue State, because I tried Google and I didn't see
• 25:46
  anything. So yeah, NDIC might be a good
• 25:50
  resource to check for him. Then we also explored Islamic or
• 25:54
  non interest finance. I've also made an episode on
• 25:57
  that, but that was a long time ago when I first started this
• 26:00
  podcast. So now that postcard episode
• 26:03
  must be like maybe like four years back, five years back.
• 26:07
  So the banks in question that we looked at was Sterling Bank,
• 26:12
  Jaise Bank and Taj Bank. So yes, Sterling Bank also
• 26:15
  offers non interest financing or Islamic financing.
• 26:18
  But for now, let's just say non interest finance.
• 26:21
  Now some of you are just saying about this for the first time.
• 26:24
  Islamic finance or non interest finance just means people are
• 26:26
  giving you money, but they're not charging you interest.
• 26:28
  Don't ask me how that works. I'm not a banker, I don't know.
• 26:32
  But the truth of matter is I found it appealing when I was
• 26:34
  trying to raise money a while back.
• 26:35
  And so I went into Sterling Bank to go and ask because some
• 26:39
  people told me that Sterling Bank does Islamic banking.
• 26:41
  And I was like, Sterling Bank, Sterling Bank is not an Islamic
• 26:45
  bank now. But anyway, I took it on good
• 26:47
  authority and I went and surprisingly, what I was told
• 26:50
  was accurate. I went there and I asked and
• 26:52
  they said, oh, yes, we do offer Islamic banking.
• 26:55
  And I said, OK, can I speak to somebody in the sales or
• 26:57
  marketing department, please? And they said, sure, just go
• 27:00
  upstairs, go here, turn left. It was the office that is next
• 27:03
  to the Parole Cathedral in Abuja.
• 27:07
  Oh, by the way, like I said, this was maybe like some four or
• 27:10
  five years back. So I don't know if Sterling Bank
• 27:12
  still offers those products. And by the way, whenever I talk
• 27:15
  about some of these products on the podcast, I'm not affiliated
• 27:17
  to any of these people. They're not giving me money.
• 27:19
  So please go and do your own due diligence.
• 27:21
  Go and do your own research. Go and cross check.
• 27:23
  Not everything that I say is factually correct when it comes
• 27:26
  to sales principles. Yes, I can say confidently with
• 27:29
  my food chest that I'm pointing you in the right direction.
• 27:31
  When it comes down to matters of fact like this, like which
• 27:34
  particular bank or which particular banking product,
• 27:36
  Please go and do your own research.
• 27:38
  They are. I'm not affiliated with any of
• 27:40
  these institutions. So now the reason why I brought
• 27:45
  non interest finance up for Martins and for Victor is
• 27:48
  because when I went to Sterling Bank, the products that they
• 27:51
  showed me was similar to hire purchase agreements.
• 27:57
  So this was how I was going to work with Sterling Bank.
• 27:59
  Sterling Bank was going to raise the money and Sterling Bank was
• 28:04
  going to buy the lighting equipment, the lighting and the
• 28:07
  sound equipment that I liked. However, Sterling Bank was going
• 28:12
  to own the equipment and then selling Bank was going to lease
• 28:17
  the equipment to me. I'll now be paying them
• 28:20
  something small, small every month.
• 28:22
  After a point, I would have paid off everything.
• 28:24
  Then Sterling Bank will now give me the equipment that OK here
• 28:28
  take your lighting equipment, take your sound equipment, take
• 28:32
  your smoke and whatever equipment it is all yours.
• 28:35
  So that's how it works. Sterling Bank would buy the
• 28:39
  equipment and they will hold it in ownership and security.
• 28:44
  I would now be leasing and paying them money until I paid
• 28:48
  everything off. Anything would not become mine.
• 28:50
  So that was the kind of financing product that they had,
• 28:53
  but was for acquiring products. And of course, Martins and
• 28:57
  Victor, they need physical products, physical inventory for
• 29:01
  their business. Victor needs to get cars, he
• 29:05
  needs 19. Martins has already sorted out
• 29:09
  house rent for the business. I say house rent, shop rent for
• 29:12
  the business. So Martins needs money for what
• 29:18
  do you call this thing again? Biometrics.
• 29:20
  And they think that will scan your eye and scan your
• 29:22
  fingerprints and scan your palms and everything.
• 29:25
  Then they would also need camera and then same and then same
• 29:30
  registration machine and computers and then stuff like
• 29:33
  that. So this was the sort of thing
• 29:37
  that in my own opinion it would be, it would work, it would be
• 29:42
  covered. But I told them, of course, go
• 29:46
  and talk to the marketing department and you know, they
• 29:48
  would, they'll put you up to speed.
• 29:51
  So what was that? So Islamic banking, non interest
• 29:57
  banking. Yeah, that can work.
• 29:59
  So Sterling Bank, Jaise Bank, Taj Bank, those are some names
• 30:03
  that three of us came up with. If you do your own research, I'm
• 30:05
  sure you're going to be able to find more just in case you're
• 30:07
  running a business where you need to acquire physical
• 30:11
  inventory, you need to acquire machines, you know, things like
• 30:13
  that. You know, this is an option.
• 30:15
  And by the way, at least when I went to Sterling Bank anyway
• 30:18
  because I told them, look, I'm Catholic.
• 30:20
  Is this a problem? So no, not a problem.
• 30:22
  We do business with Catholics all the time.
• 30:24
  You don't have to be a Muslim. So yes, even though you're a
• 30:27
  Catholic or you're redeemed, Yeah, go ahead, have a chat with
• 30:30
  them. People in sales and marketing
• 30:32
  departments are very, very helpful.
• 30:33
  They have a quota to hit, so they're always looking for new
• 30:35
  people to talk to anyway. So if you go, you will find
• 30:38
  somebody who will be able to answer all your questions and
• 30:40
  help point you in the right direction.
• 30:43
  So that was one of the options that we explored for
• 30:46
  prospecting, but of course we didn't explore any more things
• 30:50
  because to be honest, my conversation with them was
• 30:52
  already close to like one hour anyway.
• 30:54
  And then I had to the other things that I had to go and do
• 30:57
  because, you know, like I say, I prioritize my paid client work
• 31:01
  because I am running a business. So I am looking for speaking,
• 31:05
  coaching, consulting opportunities and I have to pay
• 31:07
  attention to people who have already paid me.
• 31:09
  Well, of course, that doesn't mean I can't spare 1530 minutes
• 31:12
  to talk to a fellow brother or sister who is in need.
• 31:17
  So pretty much that was an update on all the discussions
• 31:21
  that we had with Martins and Victor.
• 31:22
  And that's the reason why I'm making this podcast, so I can
• 31:25
  share some of the goodness that came out of it.
• 31:28
  But I guess what I'm trying to aim at today's just know that
• 31:33
  every single problem has a solution.
• 31:36
  Sometimes when you're looking at the program, the problem
• 31:38
  overall, everything seems big, big, big, big, big.
• 31:40
  But if you just slow down, breathe a little, say your
• 31:43
  prayers, and you don't start talking small, small, small, you
• 31:45
  can see that you can be making progress 1 by 1 by 1.
• 31:48
  So if you take it like this, OK, this thing is also a sale.
• 31:51
  It can be broken down into the stages.
• 31:53
  Let me start with stage 1. You can see that you can make
• 31:56
  some progress small, small, small.
• 31:59
  So let me see, was there anything else that we discussed?
• 32:04
  OK, there are some other things that we discussed, but I've
• 32:06
  already done more than 30 minutes.
• 32:07
  So let me just bring it to a close here.
• 32:09
  So thank you very much for your time and your attention.
• 32:14
  If you'd like to get in touch with me for a consultation
• 32:17
  session for you have questions that you want me to answer or
• 32:21
  you want to run a strategy or a business audit, the number to
• 32:26
  reach me on is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 32:34
  That's my WhatsApp number. So thanks for your time and
• 32:36
  attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 32:37
  episode.