AI as Your Partner: How to Start a Business with Just 50,000 Naira

There are lots of self-employed Nigerian people who have really tight incomes. When I say tight, I mean there's not much woogle room, You're not earning a lot. And they have questions, questions about how they can cope, questions about whether they can get into business or not. And that's the reason why I'm making today's episode. So today's episode is not necessarily hardcore sales related per SE. Initially I wasn't even going to make this episode, but I just figured maybe there's someone in the same situation, you know,

maybe you know someone who is in a similar situation. So just basically, I'm just here to share that I had a conversation with someone who's a widow recently and well, anyway, this was just a couple of ideas that we bounced about. So just in case there are other people listening to the show, you find yourself in a very, very tight situation. And yes, there are people who do reach out to me. You want to start a business,

you want to do this, you want to do that, but you know, you're only earning 200 KA month or you're only earning this, you're only earning that, or there's no wiggle room and you're wondering, can I start a business? What kinds of businesses can I start? You know, things like that. So basically that's the reason why I'm making today's episode. Now if you'd like to connect with me just like this particular person, OK, let's just call her mommy because she's a much older woman.

So if you want to connect with me just like mommy did, then you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. If you're interested in the 15 minute sale audit, then WhatsApp me on the same number 08064 662140 and if you want to join my WhatsApp channel, then WhatsApp me on the same number and I will hook you up. So back to the topic for today. So like I said now for those of you who are looking for hardcore sales episodes, you know, you can just go ahead and skip this episode.

So I had a conversation with mommy. I'm calling her mommy because, you know, in this part of the world now, you know, when you're talking to anybody who you know, if you're talking to a woman actually senior, you, you know, far is not out of a place to call her mommy. So yes, I was talking to mommy now and mommy is a, is a widow. She has two kids. Unfortunately for her now her maximum income is 50K. As far as that's all she has every single month, 50K she's self-employed because what she does is cleaning.

Oh, by the way, Mommy called in on my radio show, you know, not not the podcast. So basically she just wanted to know that, OK, starting a business, what can she do? What are the options, basically? So this is what I said in return. Now, for someone who is in this kind of situation now, you know, you're alone. The only income that she has is 50K. And see, by the way, by extrapolation, you know, this is going to apply to those of you who are in really tight situations.

Like let's say you want to start a business, but you know, there's just, you know, there's you and, you know, maybe two or three kids and, you know, your salary is like, you know, 350 and like there's no room because everything is allocated, you know, as in school fees, fuel, you know, there's food, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And things are tight. So the principal is also the same. Now, in her own case, I didn't think it was a good idea to start a business.

Now normally, you guys know that me, I'm very gung ho about, OK, this thing seems like a good idea, let's start a business, you know, let's move, you know, blah, blah. But honestly, people have different risk appetites. And it's something I didn't quite appreciate when I was younger because I remember one time when, oh, sorry, by the way, I'm making today's recording at home and you know, I'm not using my mic and all that.

I'm just recording straight into my phone. So I expect to hear a noise in the background. So I remember one time when I was younger a mumsy because she she worked, I can't remember the organization I should work for at the time, but she always used to do some, some kind of hustle. So one day now she said, Oh, I'm, I'm going out. And I was like, where are you going? She said, you don't need to know that. I'm just, I'm off of My Portfolio.

I have one or two contracts I'm trying to put in place. I said, what is her portfolio? She raised up her suitcase. She said this is her portfolio. I said, and I was like, look, I don't have time to talk. That's why she just left the house. Then eventually she came back and she was happy. I said what happened now? She said I made a killing. It was good. I said how much did you make? She said the profits on this thing will be 800 K.

Now I'm not talking about your 100K now in 2025, I'm talking about 800 K when I was like 131415 as in that was that was good money. I think that money would have paid house rent for one year and you know, change still remain. And I remember then having a conversation with my mom like you woke up in the morning, you went outside, you came back 800K resent this job now just be going outside and coming back 800K800K800K.

And she tried to explain to me that my son is not that simple. But I don't start. Mumsy is lazy. That's honestly that's just what I thought. Like Mumsy is lazy. Like she doesn't want to take risks and things like that. So was not until later on, you know, now that I have my own kids and I kind of understand like, oh, OK, so this woman is in Lagos is high alone. She has five kids. OK. She went to go and do Hazu. She collected 100K good.

If she now resigns, what will happen is the steady flow of income that is coming in every single month. The one will just end all hope will now rest on this Hazu that she's going to go and do outside. And now that I'm on the other end as a parent and I can see that the, the risk profile or the risk reward ratio was a little bit different. So I understood and actually it was kind of like, I think maybe like 2 years. And I actually call Mumsy when she was in Abuja, I said, look,

mommy, you know, there's conversation that we had when I was younger that I need to apologize about. And she was like, here you come again. What is it? So I now narrated the story to her. By the time I finished, you know, she nodded her head and she said, now you understand, I'll be I said yes, and I'm sorry that I thought you know that way about it. She said, no, it's OK, you are young. And then we just you know, we just let it be.

So we've we've made-up on now on. So normally I'm a very where now let's go, let's move. You want to start a business where let's go. What's the next step? You know, how can we move forward? But honestly, there are some people where that are like, you know, in some situations, look, the risk reward ratio, your risk profile, risk appetite, as in the risks are just just one kind. So perhaps it's not a good move. So I told her that for mommy,

not my own mom. Now, you know, the older the, the widow that I was talking to, I said, look, mommy, you starting a business now it's not something I recommend because every single business has risk. So there's nothing that you see this one is just any 50K. So you take it over that 50K because you want to start business, let's say it's even provisions or something. But then if you don't buy the right kind of provisions or if you don't stock up the right kind of inventory that people need in the neighborhood or stuff like that, or maybe you even buy the provisions, you make the kiosk.

And then maybe at night, you know, these boys in the neighborhood, now they come and crash, you know, come and destroy this thing and steal everything, you know, like this risk. So however she's going to be able to squeeze from that 50K and as she puts in a business, it's it's going to, there's a risk that whatever capital she's been able to squeeze out, she might lose it. It's just one of those risks in business. We lose our capital, we lose our time that we've invested into enterprises and things like that.

So given her own situation, I figure, man, it's probably probably not a good idea because there's risk involved. And even for people who are well off, better off, maybe let's say you're earning 500K every single month, but out of that 500K things are tight, as in there's no room to allocate anywhere. I also wouldn't recommend you going and investing. I mean trying to start a business because there's risk as involved. Except if you're comfortable that whichever amount of capital you squeezed out to put in the business, you're comfortable with losing it.

Like if you lose it and you won't die, life will go on. If it's that case, OK, no problem. Well, things are tight then. I don't think you should. If things are this tight, starting a business, I don't, I don't think so. And by the way, for those of you who are younger listening to this podcast, you know the 20 year olds, the 18 year olds, the 2425 year olds who reach out to me, hope you can see the reason why I keep pushing that.

Now is the time. You are still in uni, Mumsy and Popsy are supporting you. You know you're getting subsidy. Now is the time to try something because you try something now and you mess up. It's not that much of a big deal. You are not disappointing a spouse. You are not disappointing your kids. Your parents wants was bad for you best for you. So your parents will even be happy that are only done they also they will even be happy.

So you're young now is the time house rent. You don't have to worry kids. You don't have spouse. You know, your wife won't be angry. Your boyfriend, you know, like now is the time risk reward ratio, risk profile, balancing risk versus return profile is different. So those of you who are younger, honestly, now is the time. You're an 18 year old. You've been thinking about one or two things. You've been listening to this podcast for six months, 10

months, 12 months, two years. What are you waiting for? Now is the time. As you grow older, things get a little bit much more complicated. So those of you younger ones, you're staying at home, Popsy's house or Mumsy's house, you know, Mumsy, they front you Internet, you know, fuel you can use Popsy's car and things like that. Now is the time. And so back to home, you know, so too much risk. Then also The thing is even when businesses take off, it's not as if your capital, the income you're going to get will come back immediately.

So you start a business. Sorry, forgive me, sorry about that. You know, I told you guys I'm at home, so my neighbor is doing some kind construction work. So that's all, all that noise you can hear in the background. So it's not as if the income is going to come back immediately you start. So the example I gave was let's say I started showing my Business Today. Let's say I started on the 1st of January. It's not as if second or February I want to start seeing money back on my show, on my business because there's a period of, you know, gestation,

you pay rent for the space, you buy the meats, you print flyer, you hire staff. You know, it will take a while before money will start coming back. So because of the risk and the delayed income, I just thought it was not a good idea for mommy to go ahead. So a practical option for mommy or anybody in that situation. You know you want to do something even if you're anyone below every month, but you're in a situation where this money is tight.

Like there is no room, no room at all. That if you squeeze even one couple, everything will fall apart. Watching you do actually is a better job so you can earn more and then live within your means. Or if you're self-employed like mommy is, they have to look for more hours. So mommy is making 50K every single month cleaning for one person. She's not cleaning every single day. So it's tough because cleaning work is hard.

But sorry 1 moment. OK sorry a notification came in on my phone. So cleaning work is hard but how for do? How for do? Honestly SO50K cleaning for one person? If she's cleaning two times a week and any 50K. If she's able to find another person on the same terms then well it's rough but at least situation has improved. We'll go from 50K to 100K just by looking at a better job or getting more hours. Now there's some other options,

financial assistance and then this skill acquisition. So the idea behind skill acquisition is this. Currently you have a skill, it's earning a certain amount, that amount is not enough for you. Therefore you go up skill, you learn one or two things and that decreases your earning potential. So just look at my own family, for instance. So wifey is a lawyer just like me. Wifey is interested in finance, unlike me. Wifey wants a career in finance,

unlike me. Eventually she's going to go into consulting, just like me. And then we're going to combine our skills and we're going to have a powerhouse of a business with my expertise in sales and my expertise in finance. But so how did I get here? OK, so you are you are a lawyer, you're earning X amount, you want to earn more if you go and learn other skills like my wife now skills in finance, she's writing Level 3 of the CFA,

that's the Chartered Financial Analyst exam. So by upskilling, by acquiring a new skill, you increase your earning potential. So some other lawyers will be outside saying that this woman is lucky. Meanwhile he's not lucky. It's hard work and some planning. I'm a lawyer in this context. This is how my own potential is limited. If I take my legal skills and I blend it with skills in finance, then it opens up other opportunities in this and this and that and that.

So skill acquisition, of course, obviously that kind of skill acquisition doesn't apply to Mummy, but still we were able to look at a couple of options. So on the whole thing of a better job, I told her that it's about talking to people. We just have to start talking to people because there's also another person who called in from the radio show. My radio show is the business booster show on Radio Maria. And the guy was the driver looking for a walk and and I

told the guy to send me his CV. To be honest, the CV was not promising at all at all, at all at all. Bosha, I told him the same sort of thing that I tell those of you who listen to the podcast. You know how I always keep talking about you need a prospecting listening business. A prospecting list just means you're about to start in business and you start thinking about who your potential customers might be, who might have a want, who might have a need, who might be interested in your product or services.

You write it down. The reason why I say you write down the names on your prospecting, this is because if you don't write it down and you're working from your brain, you're working from idea, you will forget or you only work on this that you have motivation. But if you write down on your prospecting list that these are 50 people, 100 people, 15 people, 76 people who might be interested in my product or my service, and then you can come up with a plan.

Every single day I will talk to three people. You know, it's a plan. I have a list of 76 people. I want to talk to three people every day until I get to the bottom. Know how know how by the time you get to the end, honestly speaking, no matter how bad you are, one or two things should have kicked. So I told him it was the same thing. You need to start talking to people. Write it down, come up with a list just like you spoke to me.

You need to start talking to other people. Oh boy, how far are they fine work. This is the kind of work I'm looking for. You start talking to people and so somebody mommy situation, that's what you need to do. By the way, that driver, even though his job was 100K, eventually I was able to move to another job that was 150. He was updating on the progress. Then a month again, he moved to another job and he said that the pay is fantastic.

He didn't tell me, but I noticed that he has gone back to school now he's doing some postgraduate something in I think it's National State University. I can't remember. Well, I'm thinking, oh, OK, for a driver to even be going back to school, I said, OK, the pay must be must be all right. And if I you can see what he's doing, he's that's skill acquisition, upskilling. He's tired of doing driving work. He's going back to go and do PGD

postgraduate diploma to open up some new doors. But the journey began because I was able to get him to start talking to more people. How far I define work, I define work, I define work. So just like with sales, who might be interested in my product or my service, this is my solution. This is what I can do. This is how I might help you. You're talking to people the same thing. So mommy, she needs to start talking to more people.

And this one is not a matter of CV as in conversation, conversations, physical conversations with people. Then on the hour of getting more hours, I said that mummy would have to try and get referrals. The person she's currently cleaning for, she can ask, you know, any neighbor, any church person, any whatever who's also looking for a cleaner as well. Moshe is a matter of conversations, talking to people, talking to people,

talking to people. So when I give this kind of advice, it's not as if I'm lazy. But honestly, remember, there's a communications hierarchy and face to face communication is the most effective form of communication for now, in fact, for any foreseeable length of time is the best way to move an agenda forward. So when you have an agenda that you want to move forward, you need a job or you have a business, you have products you want to sell, you have market,

you want to move. Honestly speaking face to face, face to face, just like what do you have to lose? Things are already rough the way that it is with you. Just go on, talk to people. Then financial assistance, OK, this one will not apply to lots of you because mommy is Catholic, not my mom, you know, the other lady. So we discussed a couple of options. I told her about Saint Vincent de Paul. Those people, they, they try and deal with people's sustenance needs, you know, like you know,

you know, our chop, those kind of things like you need food, you need clothes, Saint Vincent de Paul. Then I spoke about JDPC, that's the Justice Development and Peace Commission. That is one of the ministries within the Catholic Church, well most parishes anyway. Just the JDPC used to be the thing about lawyers helping people who cannot afford legal, legal counsel. So by the way, assuming you're listening to this now, you have some business basic that you are in and you are not able to, you know, extricate yourself, but you're Catholic.

Go and talk to your parish priest and tell him that look, this is my situation. If there's JDPC in your parish and you go there, the lawyers will help sort you out. That's what the whole thing is for. Back when I was in in my undergraduate doing my undergraduate program in OAUI used to volunteer there. So this is also another way that if you have some legal issues in your business and honestly speaking, you're stranded, you don't know where to go.

If you're Catholic, talk to your parish priest. If there's JDPC, you know, just go there. But the reason why I mentioned JDPC to mommy is because. Initially it started off as lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, but then I noticed that different JDPC, All I say now should I say branches, I'll be chapters in different states. Started doing this skill acquisition thing like the lawyers will go and organize somebody to come and train people.

This is how you make soap. This is how you make biscuits. This is how you do hand wash. This is how you bake cake. This is how you do this. This is how you make perfume. This is how you do that. So decided doing all the skill acquisition stuff. So I told mommy that you know, skill, skill acquisition options, you know, they're there, especially with the JDPC, at least back when I used to work with the one in my local chapter in Lagos, when I lived in Lagos, it was, it was a free something you didn't, you didn't have to pay anything at all.

Then we also discussed them scholarship options for the children through the PPC. That's the parish pastoral council, by the way. If you're not Catholic, my assumption is that whatever church you attend should have something similar. I think except if you're one of these, a member of this, what are they called? You know, these big, big prosperity gospel type churches, you know, in those kind of churches, you know, they not send you.

They only just drop your tight and then, you know, manifest your destiny. They not send you. But if you're in different Christian traditions, you know, just go and talk to your pastor, Some of these options are available. So we spoke about stuff like that because honestly speaking, I don't even know how somebody's paying school fees for two kids on 50 KA month. I honestly don't don't know how that's possible in 2026. But sure, even if there's somebody that can just take school fees off the table because of scholarships for the kids, that would be all that would be breathing, breathing space, honestly, plenty of breathing space.

So these are some of the options. There are some of the things I discussed with mommy. Again, apologies that this is not a hardcore sales episode today. It's just that honestly speaking, this conversation really touched me. So, so let me just come and share in case there are people listening and you know, one or two mummies or aunties who are going through some rough patches. You know, these are some ideas that they can try.

But then again, for those of us who are earning higher earning, well, you know, monthly you're earning, I don't know, 500K700K1M whatever, but giving your cost of living, things are really, really tight. You know, these things also apply better job. You can live within your means, get a better job or you're self-employed, get more hours, look for more clients. Financial assistance options are available. Although I think if you're, if you're earning big money like that, you'll be too proud to beg.

So let's just leave that one. Skill acquisition is always an option for there's always an option for us. So yeah, I'll say, I'll say that's just it or before I leave. Then next thing. It LED because of the conversation I was having with mommy on the air. It led to some really, really interesting conversations. That's how somebody called to say that he wants to start a business, but the only thing he has is 50K. So I now turned that and in fact, I got a call from someone after the show saying that he thought what I did was brilliant, but I was just inspired.

This is the second time I've done it. Actually the first time what I did was I went and did the research, then came and told people on air that this is what my research turned up. But I just told people that look, walk with me, walk with me. Now let's let's be moving together. So as the guy, the guy said he has an Android phone. I say you have data. The guy said he has data. I say, OK, no problem. So ended the call and then live on the air.

What I did was because I had my Bluetooth keyboard with me, I just started prompting into my phone and directed people. You know, this is these, this is where you download Google Gemini. This is what it looks like now that you're done, this is how you're going to prompt. And then we came up with a prompt. Of course, I gave them my simple rules for creating a prompt, which is you say a little bit about yourself, you say a little bit about the context or the problem, and then you ask the question.

So in this case it was, I am a Nigerian living in Abuja, FCTI used to be a farmer but I've since lost my job. I have 50,000 naira for capital and I want to use it to invest in business. What kind of business ideas would be good for me? So that was the prompt basically something like that. I hit send and then came up with some really interesting ideas. Gemini said this guy used to be a lawyer. No problem. So take advantage of your existing knowledge capital.

So I had to explain that part to the audience. Knowledge capital just means things that you know that most people don't typically. So I as a consultant for instance, especially a sales coach and business development consultant, there's a bunch of stuff I know that lots of people don't know. That's my knowledge capital. Now he being a farmer, there's some stuff he knows that a whole bunch of people don't know. So we would have and I said take advantage of your existing knowledge capital and with 50K

capital that's capital investments to now start the business. It spoke about some simple things like backyard farming, plot farming, especially vegetables. It was impressive. It gave a plan about how you can farm Oogu and farm Waterleaf. I know some of you will be short like those do AI tools, no Oogu and Waterleaf and bitter leaf and yes, apparently these things do you know, they're trained on knowledge on the Internet.

So so long as people have been talking about Google and water leaf and bitter leaf on the Internet, then yes, these tools know about that. It even came up with a budget about how you need to invest X amount in containers, X amount in seeds, X amount in nylon bags, X amount in it was it wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. And I did this live on the air. So apart from OGU and water leaf, you came up with five ideas. I think another idea was dried catfish and it showed how with I

think 20K to get 5 also 5 heads. I'll be 6 heads. That 20 K will give you 5 or 6 heads for the fish, then for the spices, then the the oven. Not that oven, nothing that you use to that charcoal open thing that they use. I think it budgeted 15K for that. But we came up with an also an impressive plan for how you can start with just six heads of catfish and how you can start in the business. And like I said, he gave about 5

or 6 ideas, but I thought it was pretty impressive. Pretty, pretty impressive. Not bad, not bad at all. The reason why I did that was because I wanted listeners of the show to know exactly what I've been saying on this podcast for a very, very long time. That nowadays ideas are not the excuse anymore. In 2026, nobody should say you have not started because you did not have idea. That excuse does not work anymore. It does not fly because in our pockets, in every single person's pocket, you have a computer in your pocket.

Use this thing to generate idea ideas. People who say AI tools are not perfect, like I don't care about perfection. Yes, they might not be perfect for different kinds of things, but when it comes to coming up with ideas, you want brainstorm. These tools are fine. Really, they're fine. One prompt, 5 ideas. Are you trying to tell me all these five ideas? The guy cannot try one or two nowadays. 2026 or whenever you're listening to this podcast.

If you're listening in 2052, idea is not the problem. Again, if you're listening in the year 3001, idea is not the problem. Again, use these tools, come up with ideas. The problem now is execution. Are you executing well? Learn how to execute. And that's the reason why my podcast exists, so that when people are executing, you're trying to put two on two together. From a sales perspective, you want to make sure that everything blend.

You're talking to the right people, you're using the right scripts, you're using the right frameworks, you're trying to build a relationship the right way, you're trying to close the deal. That's the whole point of this podcast that you're executing from a sales perspective, you execute well. So anyway, Nancy, let me just end it here because some of you will be upset that, you know, today I didn't make it a hardcore sales episode.

Well, for those of you who stuck through, thanks anyway for listening. Now, applying these principles can be tricky, but if you need me to look at your own particular circumstances, reach out to me, call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. You're interested in the 15 minutes you'll audit WhatsApp me on the same number 08064662140. If you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel, then WhatsApp me on the same number and I'll do my best to hook you up.

So that's it for today. If you've gotten value from the episode, connect with me. I've given the contact details. So yeah, that's it. Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you some other time. And please, as we are growing and progressing in our businesses and in our careers, let's take time out to help people who are economically less fortunate than we are. So, you know, if it's advice we can give them, let's give.

If it's money we can help with, you know, let's help. If it's a skill acquisition that we can help with, you know, let's, let's, let's help. So just like in the days of our grandfathers, you know, our grandfathers and our grandmothers, you know, back then was about, you know, if you if you come up, you go pull like one or two people up and those one or two also should pull other people. So like that let's just be pulling ourselves small, small,

small, so we can all elevate ourselves out of this situation that we find ourselves in in this country. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys some other time.