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The Partnership Playbook: Finding the Right Business Partner · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 0:04
  I'm the host of the podcast and I'm making today's recording at
• 0:07
  home. So I expect to hear some noise
• 0:09
  in the background because it's a holiday kids at home.
• 0:12
  Now, the goal of this podcast is solving business problems,
• 0:16
  especially problems related to sales and marketing.
• 0:19
  Occasionally we talk about struggles in marketing, side
• 0:22
  hustles, career, all the things that are holding your business
• 0:25
  back. If you'd love to subscribe, do
• 0:28
  so on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice.
• 0:32
  And if you want to connect with me, you can do so by calling SMS
• 0:35
  or sending me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 0:43
  Today on the show, I want us to do a listener question because
• 0:46
  it's been a while since I did that.
• 0:48
  And today's question is from ASA Matthew calling in from Karishi
• 0:53
  in Abuja. Of course, you called in on the
• 0:55
  radio show, not on the broadcast.
• 0:58
  So his question, it threw up a number of things around how to
• 1:05
  decide or how to determine who to get into partnership with
• 1:10
  someone. And that's because in Matthew's
• 1:14
  case, Matthew, he's a photographer, like I said, And
• 1:19
  so he's the one coming with the skill and the knowledge.
• 1:23
  So when it comes to shooting, handling the camera, he's the
• 1:27
  one who knows how to do that. When it comes to editing the
• 1:30
  photos, he's the one who knows how to do that.
• 1:33
  When it comes to interacting with the customer, he's the one
• 1:36
  who knows how to do that. Posing the shots, he's the one
• 1:38
  who knows how to do that. Everything needed to be done to
• 1:43
  get a photography business going, Matthew knows how to do.
• 1:48
  The problem is Matthew does not have a camera.
• 1:52
  Now Matthew's friend wants to be his business partner, and
• 1:54
  Matthew's friend is going to bring in the camera and he's
• 1:59
  proposing that they go into business on a 5050 basis.
• 2:02
  So that was the backdrop to the question, and that was the
• 2:05
  question that Matthew had. So at the time, I think the
• 2:11
  question was more of, you know, should I enter into partnership?
• 2:13
  Are these times fair? Now, of course, you know, you
• 2:16
  always have to ask more questions, you know, tease out
• 2:20
  more of the facts before you can give an accurate recommendation
• 2:24
  or accurate advice. And we will get to that at the
• 2:28
  end of the podcast. But it got me thinking, apart
• 2:31
  from the advice that I gave him over on the air, I thought it
• 2:34
  would be a good idea not only to be visited on the radio station
• 2:36
  but also to be visited here because there are some of you
• 2:39
  who are about to start the business or you've been in
• 2:41
  business for a while, you want to expand, you know, whatever.
• 2:44
  And you think now is the time that I need to get the business
• 2:46
  partner? So how can we think through this
• 2:49
  in a very structured, in a very organized way to make sure that
• 2:53
  we don't run into any Yawa in the future?
• 2:56
  So we need to make sure that we think, think things through.
• 3:02
  Sorry, that's the tongue to say there.
• 3:04
  So #1 the thing to consider first of all, you need to define
• 3:08
  your needs because that's what is going to determine who you're
• 3:11
  going to start chasing and what you are chasing after.
• 3:15
  So some people need startup capital or some people need
• 3:17
  resources just to get this thing going.
• 3:19
  Is that the stage you're at? Some people trying to do market
• 3:26
  expansion and so they think they need a partner for that.
• 3:30
  Some people think they need to gain more expertise, you know,
• 3:34
  in house. So just go ahead and partner
• 3:37
  with someone. And it's a good idea generally
• 3:44
  that if you're going to go into partnership with someone, you
• 3:46
  should consider your own strengths and your weaknesses.
• 3:53
  And so you should be bringing someone into the picture who
• 3:55
  complements you. So if you're weak in one area,
• 3:58
  the person should be strong in that area.
• 4:00
  So like, like for me, for instance, not very good with
• 4:04
  numbers at all. So if ever I want to partner
• 4:06
  with someone, it'll be nice to make sure that I'm partnering
• 4:10
  with someone who is good with numbers and who is financially
• 4:13
  literate. So the person understands cash
• 4:17
  flow, how to read profit and loss, how to read account
• 4:23
  statements, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 4:25
  The kind of person that will be able to look at some figures and
• 4:28
  tell us the local boy business is cracking on very well or boy
• 4:34
  business is suffering. Like, yes, we're charging
• 4:36
  million and million, but if you look at this item on the balance
• 4:39
  sheet, you will see that or more we have some serious problem
• 4:43
  that we need to resolve. So in my own case, that's the
• 4:46
  kind of person that it would make sense for me to partner
• 4:49
  with. But you need to start asking
• 4:50
  yourselves all these questions. What do you need?
• 4:53
  Because it is your need that will determine who you will
• 4:56
  chase or that will determine the kind of what I put it, the kind
• 5:02
  of deal that you would accept. Now in this case, Matthew Mafia
• 5:07
  already has the shop down is sorted.
• 5:09
  He has already put down rent for the shop.
• 5:12
  Mafia already has the skills down is noise.
• 5:15
  No problem. He already has an idea about how
• 5:18
  to go after customers. But then all he's lacking now is
• 5:22
  camera. So truly, your camera is the
• 5:26
  only thing he needs. Does that mean he needs to enter
• 5:28
  into partnership with someone on a 5050 basis?
• 5:32
  Think about it. I'll give him our
• 5:33
  recommendations at the end. Then #2 You need to vet your
• 5:37
  partner. Vet your partner just means you
• 5:40
  need to shine your eyes on the person.
• 5:42
  Shine your eyes on them very, very well.
• 5:44
  Open your eyes. So first thing is what's your
• 5:48
  own vision of the company? What is the other person's
• 5:50
  vision of the company? And then is there any alignment
• 5:54
  between the two? Because you, you're thinking,
• 5:58
  you might be thinking how to grow big company multiple
• 6:02
  millionaire valuation floated on Nigerian Stock Exchange.
• 6:06
  The other person might be thinking, look, you know what?
• 6:08
  So long as we can build this thing and at the end of the
• 6:10
  month, each of us is collecting 5500K every single month.
• 6:13
  You only share 500K, my own share 500K.
• 6:16
  I'm all right, I'm all good. If you don't have these sorts of
• 6:21
  conversations, people quarrel in the future because you, you'll
• 6:24
  be saying, guy, we need to expand, we need to expand.
• 6:27
  Let's move, let's move. The other person will be saying
• 6:30
  broadly, why do you rush? Relax where you run into why are
• 6:36
  you recommending all these risky things?
• 6:39
  So sometimes it's not as if when you're trying to partnership,
• 6:42
  your other guy is a bad guy or the babe is a bad babe.
• 6:46
  He's just like who did not discuss more these things before
• 6:49
  you started. You're just thinking I'm a
• 6:51
  friend. She's my friend.
• 6:53
  She's my sister-in-law. He's my brother-in-law.
• 6:55
  This dadada mode, the runner. Let's just enter.
• 7:00
  So what's vision of the company that you guys have?
• 7:02
  The vision of the business? What is your own idea of
• 7:06
  business success? What is that person's idea of
• 7:07
  business success? Some people if they're hitting
• 7:10
  500K every single month, they're OK, they're cool.
• 7:13
  You on the other hand, you might be thinking 500K every single
• 7:16
  month. That means I'm only doing 6 M in
• 7:19
  a year. But some of my classmates are
• 7:22
  doing 23 M in a year. Those my classmates don't have
• 7:25
  any 2 head. How can I be happy with only
• 7:27
  500K per month? You will need to have these
• 7:32
  conversations. Then the skill set, your
• 7:36
  experience, it has to be complementary.
• 7:38
  In fact, there's something I can speak to 1st, my own, like I
• 7:43
  experienced it. So this one is not academic.
• 7:47
  Earlier on in my photography career, I got involved in the
• 7:49
  badmanship with my brother-in-law.
• 7:51
  Not the guy's not a bad guy at all myself, I'm not a bad guy.
• 7:55
  But The thing is, we didn't have any of these preliminary
• 7:57
  discussions and it ended up causing small misunderstanding
• 8:03
  because both of us were coming at it at the complementary skill
• 8:05
  set. I was looking at the fact that
• 8:08
  me, I'm a photographer, camera is my thing.
• 8:13
  Now, my brother-in-law, he's also good on camera.
• 8:15
  But The thing is, he is a wizard at Photoshop.
• 8:20
  I have seen him make somebody taller on Photoshop.
• 8:23
  He has made people shorter, he has made people thicker, he has
• 8:28
  made people slimmer. Women that are straight, he has
• 8:32
  given them waste. Men that are straight, he has
• 8:35
  given them V shape picture that was shot in Lagos.
• 8:41
  He has photoshopped them to New York.
• 8:44
  As in that kind of good wizard Photoshop.
• 8:48
  So we talked about partnering together.
• 8:50
  Now in my mind I was thinking correct, I know camera you, you
• 8:54
  know Photoshop. So in my mind, that's how
• 8:57
  everything was going to go, but he didn't think so.
• 9:02
  Now, of course, when quarrel comes up, as it will, in that
• 9:08
  case, you can see there is no matter of somebody's wicked,
• 9:11
  somebody's bad. No, people just didn't discuss.
• 9:15
  Because for me, at some point I was not wondering, how does it
• 9:17
  all make sense now? I'm a photographer, you're a
• 9:20
  photographer. Why should two of us be in the
• 9:21
  field? Now it makes more sense that one
• 9:24
  person is in the field, one person is in the studio editing
• 9:27
  all these things. So you can see that this kind of
• 9:29
  quarrel, this kind of quarrel is, is normal.
• 9:33
  It can happen with anybody in different circumstances just
• 9:39
  because we fail to have some very simple conversations.
• 9:42
  So your skill set, your experience, make sure it's
• 9:45
  complementary. So if you're a fashion designer,
• 9:49
  you know, 2 of you have design skills, you know, doesn't make
• 9:51
  sense. But if it's that you, you have
• 9:54
  design skills, the other person has construction skills, that is
• 9:57
  making sense. Somebody can be designing a
• 10:00
  cloth, another person is is in the shop with the tailors making
• 10:06
  sure that everything is properly sewn together.
• 10:11
  Or somebody has all the technical expertise, another
• 10:14
  person has the business expertise.
• 10:16
  This is how we do merchandising, this is how we sell.
• 10:19
  This is how we put our our things in different shops.
• 10:22
  Just make sure that you have complementary skill sets.
• 10:25
  Then another one I used to call squirrel is work ethic and
• 10:30
  commitment. Again, is not as if one person
• 10:34
  is good, one person is bad. It's just different
• 10:38
  understandings. There are some people that will
• 10:40
  say, look, we're in business together, so 7:30 AM sharp, we
• 10:45
  must be in the office. Another person will say I asked
• 10:48
  7:30 AM sharp like for what the reason why I left paid
• 10:52
  employment was so I can relax a bit.
• 10:55
  For me I want to be coming in at 12:30 everyday sharp.
• 11:01
  Now in our case does not say one person is good, one person is
• 11:04
  bad, another person is wicked, another person is holy.
• 11:07
  No, they just have different expectations.
• 11:10
  One person is like look 7:30 AM we mean business sharp 7:30 to
• 11:16
  6:00. Another person is saying 12:30
• 11:19
  to 6:00, if you don't have these conversations ahead of time,
• 11:22
  there will be quarrel because you enter into partnership on a
• 11:26
  5050 basis at the end of the year, business is good.
• 11:30
  Maybe we'll generate it like 40 M.
• 11:32
  You are now splitting in 5050. You'll now be thinking what the
• 11:35
  hell? I've been coming here 7:30 every
• 11:38
  day. This guy just casual 12/30,
• 11:41
  he'll just strolling here. Why should they seem to be 5050?
• 11:45
  You see, quarrel will now start then communication style and
• 11:49
  conflict resolution. You guys need to talk about
• 11:52
  these things as well. Some people have different
• 11:54
  communication styles. Now after several years in
• 11:57
  business, I've become very, very direct, especially now that my
• 12:03
  skill set and my specialty in in sales and business development
• 12:06
  is growing. So now I'm not afraid of saying,
• 12:09
  look, this and these and these are the issues.
• 12:11
  In my own opinion, I think these are ramifications and I really
• 12:14
  think we should sit down to solve these things.
• 12:17
  So what do you think about 123456?
• 12:20
  I propose we do like this. Now, I can have these
• 12:22
  conversations very, very frank. But early on in business, I
• 12:28
  wasn't that way. Like take for instance this
• 12:31
  photography thing. You know, it was my
• 12:34
  brother-in-law that was my sister's husband.
• 12:36
  So, you know, I was my younger sister's husband.
• 12:40
  So our, you know, there are some things I didn't want to.
• 12:45
  So the way I handled it, it could have been better.
• 12:50
  In fact, I own it. It is my own fault that
• 12:54
  everything went the way it did because some people now come as
• 12:56
  how far now. I thought you and Patrick were
• 12:58
  partners. What happened?
• 13:01
  You know, back then my communication style, I just was
• 13:05
  not on the assertive and direct wavelength at the time.
• 13:12
  But we need to have this communication, sorry, this
• 13:14
  conversation. So it's not as if one person is
• 13:17
  good, one person is bad. We just didn't have these
• 13:20
  conversations. So it happens.
• 13:23
  You have business with someone. The other person likes to shout.
• 13:26
  Any small thing, the person will shout, shout, shout.
• 13:28
  Or from their own point of view, the fact that they're shouting
• 13:30
  doesn't mean anything. That's just how they are.
• 13:33
  Some people are just loud. Trust me.
• 13:35
  Some people are just loud, like if you come around my family
• 13:41
  where everybody's around my cousins and you know, you notice
• 13:44
  that me and my brother were cool.
• 13:47
  You know, we know they shout. You know, you say you're only
• 13:50
  keep quiet. You know what, man?
• 13:53
  My cousins, especially the females kind, they are loud.
• 13:57
  Like after three hours, like I have a headache.
• 14:00
  Like I need to rule myself from the situation.
• 14:02
  And then sometimes it's contextual because when I met my
• 14:04
  babe, my wife, then my babe, I was like, correct girl, very
• 14:09
  calm girl, very, you know, level headed, very everything.
• 14:13
  That was when, you know, we were out of the country in in
• 14:18
  Scotland away from family dynamics.
• 14:22
  By the time we came back to Nigeria, I realized that or more
• 14:25
  my wife can be loud as well, because when my wife is now my
• 14:28
  female cousins, the volume as in all of them just loud together.
• 14:32
  So I remember the first I was like, really, is this the baby I
• 14:38
  married? You know?
• 14:40
  So some of it is contextual. You're seeing somebody in one
• 14:43
  light. You don't know that in the
• 14:45
  different contexts things are going to be different way.
• 14:48
  So you have some of these conversations, you know,
• 14:50
  people's communication style. Because if you're somebody who
• 14:53
  likes to shout and quarrel, quarrel, quarrel, quarrel,
• 14:55
  you're on the quiet and every day you'll just be chopping by
• 15:00
  shopping, by shopping resentment, shopping resentment.
• 15:05
  And then one day YouTube will now explode and dissolve the
• 15:08
  whole thing. Your business might not be
• 15:11
  wondering where is all this coming from?
• 15:14
  Because you, you're normally on the quiet side.
• 15:15
  You're not, you've not been saying what's on your mind.
• 15:18
  The other person likes to vomit everything that is on their
• 15:20
  chest. So any small thing will just be
• 15:21
  shouting. Just power up and down anyhow.
• 15:25
  So these are these conversations, our communication
• 15:29
  styles and conflict resolutions. When there's problem, I'm going
• 15:32
  to solve this problem. When it's time to make
• 15:36
  decisions, how are we going to decide, OK, we're in partnership
• 15:38
  only on a 5050 basis, but how are we going to be deciding what
• 15:42
  to do or however want to make website?
• 15:44
  How do we break the impasse? You say it's a good idea, it's a
• 15:47
  bad idea. In my own experience, in my own
• 15:50
  experience in being in partnership, my brother-in-law
• 15:54
  was one of those things. He thought let's do website.
• 15:58
  I thought website, what the hell, we don't need it.
• 16:01
  Let's go out and look for customer.
• 16:04
  How do you resolve that kind of dispute?
• 16:08
  Anyway, what happened is since my brother-in-law was really
• 16:11
  good at computers, he just went ahead and made the website
• 16:13
  anyway. And then he now showed me the
• 16:16
  vision and when I saw it I was like oh OK bro, you know what, I
• 16:20
  see what you mean. And then we now started
• 16:22
  collaborating on the website. But we have to think about it,
• 16:28
  how are we going to make decisions?
• 16:30
  Is everything 5050? How are we going to make
• 16:33
  decisions? Is it according to somebody's
• 16:35
  speciality? OK, you, you're the one whose
• 16:38
  speciality is websites. So whether we have a website or
• 16:41
  not is up to you. I'll be your own specialities,
• 16:44
  accounting and stuff like that. When it comes to financial
• 16:47
  decisions that have to be made, that everything is up to you.
• 16:49
  But we have to decide upon all these things before we enter
• 16:52
  into a partnership with anyone. Then we also have to do
• 16:56
  financial and legal due diligence.
• 16:59
  That means we're trying to make sure that everything is adding
• 17:03
  up. We need to make sure that 1 + 1
• 17:04
  is 2, not that 1 + 1 equals to greater than or less than -3 We
• 17:13
  need to make sure that everything is on point.
• 17:17
  Look at that person's personal history.
• 17:20
  Ask around, ask people questions.
• 17:23
  I'm thinking of getting into business with Kilichi.
• 17:25
  What do you think some people say?
• 17:27
  I call it she. You know, good guy.
• 17:28
  Blast. Kalichi.
• 17:30
  Yeah. Are you sure?
• 17:32
  You now say calm now, like, OK. What do you mean?
• 17:35
  Are you sure? Say no, I'm not saying anything.
• 17:36
  But it's the same Kalichi that I'm saying.
• 17:40
  Yes, It's the same Kalichi. Like, Are you sure?
• 17:42
  Calm now. You did something.
• 17:43
  Tell me. Say no, no, no.
• 17:44
  I'm not telling you anything. When you start hearing things
• 17:47
  like that, you download that. OK.
• 17:49
  Maybe there's cause for concern over this Kalichi fellow.
• 17:51
  Ask around this personal history, financial history too,
• 17:57
  where you can figure out those sorts of things.
• 18:01
  You know, there's some people who have been involved in
• 18:03
  partnerships with let's say 5 people before and each of those
• 18:06
  partnerships he ended because of money matter.
• 18:10
  It'll be nice to know some of these things before you agree
• 18:12
  that OK Kilichi, you and me, let's go and be in partnership.
• 18:16
  Then the level of financial involvement or level of
• 18:18
  financial expectation. This is also one thing I we
• 18:21
  definitely did not discuss in the beginning, not only when I
• 18:24
  was in partnership with my brother-in-law, but also when I
• 18:26
  was in partnership with my brother.
• 18:28
  It's just that, you know, when you guys are brothers, at least
• 18:30
  in my family, when you guys are brothers, it's a lot easier to
• 18:33
  handle some things or 5050 you drop your own, drop my own.
• 18:38
  You know, if there was a problem, you call me and say,
• 18:40
  look, this, this, that now say no one, no problem, I trust you.
• 18:44
  So that was different. And then also on some other
• 18:48
  dealings, it sometimes will be the other way around.
• 18:51
  Sometimes it'll be that I'm the one who fell into the busy and I
• 18:53
  don't have to call him and say, look, bro, you know what, that
• 18:56
  money, this and this and this happened.
• 18:57
  And he say, OK, no problem, these things happen, I trust
• 18:59
  you. So at least in our family, you
• 19:01
  know, that was kind of easier to handle.
• 19:03
  But ideally we should be discussing all these things.
• 19:05
  What is people's level of financial involvement?
• 19:08
  How much are we dropping first then every week or every month?
• 19:11
  How much are we going to be dropping on certain kinds of
• 19:14
  projects? How are we going to be financing
• 19:16
  these things? You need to define your roles
• 19:19
  and responsibilities very, very clearly.
• 19:21
  Who is responsible for what? Who is going to be doing what.
• 19:26
  Then it will also help if you have an exit clause or
• 19:29
  termination clause or termination strategy, which is
• 19:32
  the answer to the question, this partnership, how will this
• 19:35
  partnership stop? That's one of the things I call
• 19:39
  Squirrel. We didn't decide in the
• 19:41
  beginning. So eventually somebody leaves
• 19:45
  the partnership and is as if this person's departure was
• 19:48
  premature and I think causes problem.
• 19:51
  Profit sharing, how we're going to be sharing the profit
• 19:55
  partnership agreement is unnecessary.
• 19:59
  Some people say yes, by all means get a lawyer.
• 20:01
  But The thing is, whether you get a lawyer or not, so long as
• 20:04
  you are having all these conversations and reducing it to
• 20:06
  some written memo, you're better than people that have not
• 20:10
  discussed at all. And The thing is, if you have
• 20:13
  all these conversations ahead of time, by the time you now
• 20:17
  decide, OK, let's have a lawyer, you will have a very fruitful
• 20:20
  conversation with a lawyer because the lawyer will already
• 20:23
  have answers to all these big, big, big questions.
• 20:27
  And then based on that, we'll now be able to give you guys the
• 20:30
  best legal advice, at least because you have been having
• 20:33
  some of these conversations. Some partnerships have operating
• 20:38
  agreements. That would be a good idea as
• 20:40
  well. So there are lots of things that
• 20:43
  people have to look forward as they look forward that people
• 20:46
  have to look at and discuss with the other party or the other
• 20:50
  parties before you decide to get into partnership with someone
• 20:53
  else. But these are some things to
• 20:56
  watch out for. This is my own personal, you
• 21:00
  know, just as per my own experience.
• 21:02
  And then looking at, you know, classmates, family members.
• 21:05
  So things to watch out for #1 narcissism and then #2 risk
• 21:10
  appetite. I repeat #1 narcissism #2 risk
• 21:15
  appetite narcissists. I don't know the correct
• 21:20
  psychological definition, but let me just put it this way.
• 21:22
  There are some people who believe that they didn't know
• 21:24
  everything. They are correct on everything.
• 21:30
  Avoid those people. You can't be in partnership with
• 21:32
  that kind of person. The person who thinks everything
• 21:36
  he says or everything she says is correct, she can never make
• 21:39
  mistake. He's always correct.
• 21:41
  Those kind of people avoid them because it's rough.
• 21:45
  Business is hard. It's hard enough as it is.
• 21:50
  Trying to look for customer, trying to start conversations
• 21:53
  with the customer, trying to figure out their needs, trying
• 21:56
  to negotiate the pricing up and down after a bull price, trying
• 22:00
  to deliver, trying to make sure that they're happy, trying to
• 22:03
  gain referrals, trying to get recommendations.
• 22:10
  All that is hard enough as it is.
• 22:12
  You don't want to go into business with a narcissist and
• 22:15
  every day you're busy massaging somebody's ego.
• 22:18
  I kind of life is is hard. So you feel as if you're dealing
• 22:22
  with a narcissist this you know he likes himself too much, she
• 22:25
  likes herself too much. They know everything they never
• 22:28
  make mistakes. Just leave those people.
• 22:34
  There's some personality types that can deal with narcissist,
• 22:36
  but look, we're in business to make money while annoying
• 22:40
  business to play psychological games.
• 22:42
  So narcissist just leave them, leave them, leave them, let them
• 22:45
  go and partner with somebody else, jump and pass, then risk
• 22:51
  appetite. That was also really, really
• 22:54
  important. You know, like me, I become
• 22:57
  person. I cannot be in partnership with
• 23:00
  somebody who is, you know, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's
• 23:03
  get this money. Let's go.
• 23:04
  Let me like, I like this money and I'm chasing this money, but
• 23:08
  not on a very GRA GRA, GRA, GRA level.
• 23:11
  I'd like to understand where we're going.
• 23:13
  Let's come up with a plan. Let's execute this thing, put
• 23:16
  some consistency in the mix and then let's make some money for
• 23:19
  sure over time. So like with the podcast,
• 23:22
  somebody who is let's go, let's go, let's go.
• 23:24
  The person will never make a podcast.
• 23:25
  The person will be like, what the hell are you doing here
• 23:27
  using sitting down microphone? Like how is this still getting
• 23:29
  us money? Let's go, let's go, let's go,
• 23:31
  let's get this money, man, let's get this money.
• 23:35
  You know, but for me, maybe because of my background, I knew
• 23:39
  content marketing very, very important for lead generation if
• 23:45
  it's something you're able to do.
• 23:46
  And so I came up with a plan and I've been executing.
• 23:50
  And then by the time we got to year three or let's say 3 1/2, I
• 23:54
  started getting paid consultations from the podcast.
• 24:00
  But from year zero to year 3, to be honest, 0, no income from the
• 24:05
  podcast at all. 0 naira 00.000 Cobo from the podcast, but
• 24:13
  wasn't a waste because at least I used to use the podcast to
• 24:17
  leverage and get speaking engagements.
• 24:20
  So whenever, OK, like that first Smedan event that I did, if
• 24:25
  you're talking to organizers and then it comes out in
• 24:28
  conversation, oh, by the way, you have this podcast, you've
• 24:30
  done like 250 episodes. Like, oh, OK, the boy Sharp, the
• 24:35
  boy knows what's up. So that's how you should
• 24:37
  leverage the podcast early on, but now it does both.
• 24:41
  If I need a speaking engagement, like there's the Nigerian
• 24:44
  Innovation Society, I'll be Nigerian innovation.
• 24:48
  Something I can't remember. We are talking about the
• 24:52
  conference that should be coming up in September.
• 24:56
  I'll be October. I can't remember.
• 24:58
  But anyway, when we finalize everything, I'll let you guys
• 25:00
  know the details here, especially if it makes sense and
• 25:03
  I'm going to be in Lagos, I'll let you guys know.
• 25:05
  So those of you listeners who are based in Lagos will be nice
• 25:07
  to meet you guys at the event. You know, even if you don't want
• 25:11
  to be at the event, at least knowing that I'm going to be
• 25:13
  there, you know, who knows, you can time it so that if you come
• 25:16
  when the event closes, you know, maybe we can all just say what's
• 25:20
  up. Will be nice to meet those of
• 25:22
  you who listen to the podcast. So that's the way that I prefer
• 25:28
  the run business. So somebody else with different
• 25:32
  risk appetite or you know, the thing who doesn't work, somebody
• 25:39
  who's looking for much more aggressive risky.
• 25:41
  Because like there's some of you who reach out to me on the
• 25:43
  podcast and you say, oh, you're doing crypto, you're doing this,
• 25:46
  you're doing this in my mind, I'm thinking, where are you
• 25:48
  running to now? Where are you running to relax.
• 25:51
  Especially those of you who reach out to me, you're like
• 25:54
  1718. I'm really thinking like, where
• 25:56
  are you running to crypto today, blockchain tomorrow?
• 26:04
  And you know, there's always one thing, one thing and for some
• 26:07
  reason always the very, very risky things.
• 26:09
  And I mind I'm thinking if you take all these hustle, you just
• 26:12
  calm down, look for something that is less risky.
• 26:14
  Come up with a simple plan, be executing this plan every day.
• 26:18
  Yeah, it might take, you know, two years or a year, but at
• 26:20
  least you'd be set instead of this whole thing of today.
• 26:24
  No risk, no reward. That's what some people say.
• 26:27
  No risk, no reward. You go and get 600K, no risk, no
• 26:32
  reward, and then you throw everything into crypto and then
• 26:37
  what happened? And you know, I forget that
• 26:39
  thing now. Multi level marketing anyway.
• 26:43
  So yeah, just know people's risk appetite.
• 26:49
  Just basically just know. Just know where you're running
• 26:53
  to and where you're running from.
• 26:54
  You know, some of you are running from different things or
• 26:57
  some of you are running to different places.
• 26:59
  You just know that you can't make this thing work.
• 27:02
  And then what else? Oh, yeah.
• 27:05
  Then also lack of complementary skills like me and my
• 27:09
  brother-in-law, the whole shooting versus editing thing.
• 27:12
  So I think if you avoid these big three, narcissism got
• 27:16
  complex. I know everything.
• 27:18
  Avoid those people. Risk appetite.
• 27:20
  People are running at the same pace and then you will have
• 27:23
  complementary skills. It should work out.
• 27:27
  All right. Now back to Matthew's question.
• 27:29
  How should Matthew enter into a business partnership with this
• 27:35
  person on a 5050 basis? My own opinion actually was, no,
• 27:39
  you've already got the shop. I've already paid one year.
• 27:42
  Congratulations, that's pretty good.
• 27:45
  Everything else that you need, you already have.
• 27:48
  The one that isn't going to be doing the work all this other
• 27:50
  person is bringing is the camera.
• 27:52
  Enter 5050. Because of what?
• 27:55
  In the beginning you will say OK, but by the time you've been
• 27:57
  running the business for like 3 months and let's say every
• 27:59
  single month you're bringing in. Every single month you're
• 28:03
  bringing let's say 200K. And then you're giving this guy,
• 28:06
  OK, after expenses, you're giving him 5050.
• 28:09
  After a while you'll be thinking like, I'm giving him all this
• 28:11
  money because what? Because I'm using his camera.
• 28:15
  There are other ways to finance your business, especially in the
• 28:19
  photography space. There are lots of people, my
• 28:22
  contemporaries who got into the game by renting.
• 28:26
  So they learn how to shoot, you know, with other people's
• 28:31
  cameras. And then when they have an
• 28:33
  actual job, they go and borrow like do some of those guys it I
• 28:37
  wish my what's up? They have a job for.
• 28:38
  So no, I don't have guy big borrow me on camera.
• 28:41
  That happens or you go and pay somebody, please borrow me on
• 28:47
  camera, I will pay you at the rate of, you know, 20,000 per
• 28:50
  day, 30,000 per day. That also happens.
• 28:54
  That is one way that you get access to the equipment that you
• 28:56
  need without having to get involved in a 5050 partnership.
• 29:00
  Then if you follow the advice that I'd like to give, which is
• 29:03
  make sure you finance your business organically by using
• 29:08
  positive cash flows, by bootstrapping.
• 29:11
  So you work Buffy comes in, remove small to flex, remove
• 29:16
  small to invest inside the business and then keep some
• 29:18
  again, you know, to to save up for other expenses that you
• 29:24
  need. You know you can do that.
• 29:27
  Like the guy that I partnered with for producing the
• 29:30
  documentaries that we currently produce.
• 29:34
  The last time we're out in the field doing a subject interview,
• 29:37
  the guy had one sweet microphone.
• 29:39
  I was like wow, this microphone is correct is bad.
• 29:42
  Like how much is this in cost? The guy told me 650 Ki say 650K1
• 29:47
  microphone say yeah and you have 4.
• 29:49
  He say yeah. I say how did you how did you do
• 29:53
  this? He said I know her boss.
• 29:56
  I didn't just buy it 1. So now I've been saving, saving,
• 29:59
  saving small, small, small, small, small.
• 30:02
  So you don't need to raise because it's 650K.
• 30:09
  You want 4 microphones 65650 that is 1.31.3 that is 2.6.
• 30:15
  You don't need to go and get 2.6 million from somebody and say
• 30:18
  people in partnership on a 5050 basis.
• 30:21
  You actually can be, can be gathering the money, small,
• 30:24
  small, small and do hire purchase on the car, purchase on
• 30:30
  the equipment or you know, small, small, small and then
• 30:34
  just be depositing because there's one guy in Abuja who
• 30:36
  used to sell camera equipment that way.
• 30:40
  So you want to come and buy flash studio lighting from him.
• 30:44
  The studio lighting costs maybe 350K, but right now you don't
• 30:48
  have 350K. He was saying no problem, how
• 30:50
  much do you have? You have 200, you say no
• 30:53
  problem, drop the 200 and this particular model, I'll keep it
• 30:57
  for you. Nobody can buy it as you're
• 31:00
  raising the money. Just be dropping and dropping
• 31:02
  and dropping. When the money is complete, come
• 31:03
  and carry it and go. If you change your mind, you
• 31:07
  come back. I'll give you your cash.
• 31:08
  So the guy used to do that. So that's the way that people
• 31:11
  used to buy stuff through him. So anyway, I didn't think it
• 31:18
  made sense for Matthew to get into partnership with this guy
• 31:21
  on a 5050 basis because they'll be quarreling in the future.
• 31:24
  He will think I'm not doing all the work.
• 31:26
  This guy is passive, All he has done is just give me a camera
• 31:29
  and right now I can't even afford to buy multiple cameras
• 31:32
  myself. So why am I still in this
• 31:34
  partnership? Then quarrel will start, and
• 31:37
  then the other guy will now start calling him Ingrid.
• 31:39
  Now look at this guy Matthew. In the beginning, where were
• 31:44
  you? Who were you?
• 31:46
  What did you have I made you? You are an Ingrid.
• 31:50
  Is it not me? If not because of me, where will
• 31:53
  you be today? And then a perfectly good
• 31:55
  friendship is going to get, it's going to get destroyed just
• 32:01
  because we didn't have clear conversations about these sorts
• 32:04
  of things. So those are some of my own
• 32:07
  random ideas. Excuse me, random ideas about
• 32:10
  how to get into partnership with people or the factors that we
• 32:14
  need to consider before we get into a partnership with someone.
• 32:18
  So that's it and that's all. Remember, if you'd love to
• 32:21
  connect, you can call, you can SMS or send me a WhatsApp
• 32:24
  message on 08064662140. Thanks for your time and
• 32:31
  attention. I'll catch you next time.
• 32:33
  Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.