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Hello and welcome to the show. Today is one of those art and about recordings as well. So expect to hear some noise in the background, no cars driving by and people having conversations, stuff like that. Now today what we're going to be looking at is equity as a source of business financing. If this is your first time of listening to the show, don't worry, don't run away. The terms might sound very big, but the ideas behind them are very, very simple.
And as we go on in the episode, you know, teasing out what the main issues are, you see that it's quite easy to understand. Well, if this is your first time of listening to the show, I need to let you in on the context or the background. This is a series of conversations that we've been having over here concerning. The real life. Lady. We're going to call her Wonder Woman. That is not her real name. And I'm calling her Wonder Woman because, well, she's a wonderful lady and she has wonderful aspirations, but I don't have permission to use her real name over here on the podcast.
So we're going to be calling her Wonder Woman. And then I've also made a series of episodes before this, I'm not sure how many, but if you just skip back for like one week, you know, you'll be able to get caught up to speed on all the things we've been talking about. South Wonder Woman is based in Makodi, which is the capital of Benway State, and she's into all fine things, cuisine and catering, and she's a listener of the show.
And the reason why both of us were having a conversation is because she's been Hanford by a lack of finance when it comes to business growth and expansion. So she wants to grow, she wants to expand, There's some new things she wants to put on the menu, you know, some kind peppered meats and things like that, which I think sounds absolutely delicious. And because of that, I'm going to keep 1 old man's contact details so that the next time I'm in Marco Dio, come and taste some of our goodness now.
Yeah. So in our opinion, the thing that is stopping her from expanding the business is lack of finance. And the whole point of the episodes that I've been making up to now is that it's not lack of finance that is killing her business or killing any other business for that matter, but there's a lack of sales skills because you can use skills, sales skills. So I forgive me to solve your financing problems. And so today's episode is a continuation of that whole gist.
And that's the reason why we're looking at equity as a source of financing, because we've looked at how she can use sales skills to bootstrap the business. Bootstrap just means you raise the money, sha, from your savings from whatever you can find in your pocket, your bank account, your, your bag, you know, any which way SHA, you know, that's bootstrapping. It was launching the business for your savings. So I think we've done bootstrapping.
I also think we've done, let me see what else revenue, trying to expand your revenue. And then when you get revenue, you now plow the money back into business. So we've looked at how she can acquire new customers, how she can get old customers to come back and buy again, how she can get old customers to spend more money each time that they come. And also how we can get old customers and new customers to bring their friends, their family members and their associates.
Also to bring their enemies to come and buy from her as well. So all of that is what we explored in previous episodes. So this is your first time listening to the podcast. There's a lot that you have to catch up on after listening this episode. Just go and count one week, you know, 123-4567. Start listening from there. Get caught up to speed. So yeah, that's it. That's what we're going to be looking at today. Now, if you'd love to connect,
the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234 for those of you who are not Nigerian. And yes, that is my WhatsApp number as well. You guys can reach me there. Then also connect with me on socials. I'm on LinkedIn as Tavishima aide. I'm also on YouTube as well. So yeah, equity as a source of business financing. I've given you guys the context, especially those of you who are brand new to the show, and this is the one I promised you guys that I would get into.
Now, the back story is this Wonder Woman, because, you know, I've been talking to you guys since last year about why it's not a good idea to get into business with your boyfriend and blah, blah, blah. That's if you're a young lady. And I said I'd make a podcast about that in the future. So this is going to be one of those podcast episodes episodes. I'm going to touch on this whole issue of, you know, you being in business with your boyfriend,
your toaster, your maybe wannabe Koda Shuda Wuda. Someone is liking me, I'm liking them. My friends think he's cute, I think he's hot, blah, blah, blah, all of those things. So today is going to be the episode where I delve small into it. I might doing full episode later. Now the reason why this thing is coming up is because remember we're talking about equity financing. Equity just means somebody is giving you money and they want to share in your business.
Summary. That's what equity means. Now, in this case, there is a willing financier in Wonder Woman's story, financier is just somebody who's going to drop every, you know, drop money for you. And I asked a couple of questions and she said they're just friends and know her own part. Yeah, I understand that they're just friends, but I'm also not convinced because let's be real, I'm a young man. In fact, when people, people will even say I'm a holy man and even amongst, well, first of all, I don't think I'm holy.
But I'm just saying that if you are to take Nigerian guys, you know, you line us all up together and you look at angels on one end and demons on the other end. Let's say angels are A10 and demons are a -, 1. Most people I think would put me around maybe four or five. So I'm not that bad. So even among ordinary guys like me who have sense, we don't have diabolical motives. I know that people don't just drop money for your business because of Jesus and God and the good of mankind or just because of purely altruistic motives.
So that's one of the reasons why I'm just not convinced. Maybe some of you might say I'm being overtly cynical, Maybe. But The thing is, financing a restaurant in Makudi is not going to be cheap. In fact, financing a restaurant in any part of the country is not going to be cheap. I'm currently looking for a house right now in Abuja. Agents want to kill me in this place. Everybody is talking about 20% agency fee as in 20% agency as in like for what?
Like what are you guys doing? The place is crappy. You're not going to do anything and you know you want me to provide. The only thing they're not asking me for is my birth certificate and my marriage certificate. Don't want to know everything else and then any small shack in the corner because it's close to the city center. Everybody's calling. 4,000,006 million, 10 million, just million million million. As in for what?
You guys don't even clean these places and maintain them. Well then you know, so rent is crazy in Abuja. So I can imagine that rent is crazy in Lagos, in Port Harcourt, in wherever. OK. When I lived in Kano, rent there was actually sweet cost of living in Kano I think is not bad. But my wife said over her dead body, we're not doing Kano. We had that conversation early in our marriage. So because Kano is not a bad place to stay, I know some of you might disagree, but and then my wife said over her dead body and I don't want her to die anytime soon.
So yeah, we're not in Kano, we're in Abuja. So in Makodi now you want to do restaurant business, even if it's one small space in Makodi in the city center rents they'll be calling like one M for you. 1,000,001.5 OK. Then there's staffing costs, no problem. Then there's utility because you have to pay Nepal bill, you have to pay water and all of that, maybe even by generator because light in Makodi is a crap. I mean Nepal and Makodi is anyhow anyhow.
And if you live in Lagos and Abuja, you won't understand what it is you're enjoying until you go to other parts of the country and see how badly that people suffer. Because like when I was in Kano, I was in city center in Kano, I was off from had Asia Rd. that's where I lived on had Asia Rd. I was quoting with one guy like that Didier. I'm a Cameroonian, nicest guy I've ever met. Just took me in this total stranger. So me and DDA's place was on had Asia Rd. but the place where I
was supposed to serve in Kano was in Rano local government. And then all those local governments that are there, those Rano local government, I think Bunkuri and all those other places. I mean you believe that in Rano. While I was there, I don't know if things have changed, but while I was in Rano local government I think I only saw NEPA like 4 times. I'm not lying. So every single business person in Renault local government, it was standard that you have your generator and you run your generator every single day.
That was just standard. So Cyber Cafe or the person that sells fish or the person that does, I mean, it doesn't matter what your business was. You just had to buy generator. So generator was your main source of light then. NEPA was now the backup if you can put it like that anyway. So in marketing, yes, you have to budget for a generator. Then of course, there's also going to be local government taxes because in marketing it's also the same thing as in Lagos.
And like in Abuja, you want to start up your business, there's going to be food, there's going to be alcohol, You have to pay for alcohol license, you have to pay for health inspection, you have to pay for this, you have to pay for that. Then there's also state taxes. So Wonder Woman, Yeah, you said that you guys are just friends. And yeah, I'm convinced. But to be honest, I'm a guy. So is this guy going to just drop 1.5 on rent money for staffing by generator?
Feel for generator. What else? Water, lights, local local government taxes, everything. Renovation on the renovating the building. I don't know how much is going to add up to. Let's just say that rent is 1.5. Everything else, let's just say is 31.52. Let's just say it's 3 million. So you. Really think that this guy is just going to drop 3 M just like that? Anyway, forgive me if I'm being cynical, but today we're now going to explore the conversations that Wonder Woman should be having with this potential financier.
Yeah. Anyway, we're going to explore conversation that Wonder Woman should be having with this potential financier, this guy who might be dropping like 3M. This is me just guessing by the way. I don't know how much it is that she needs to get the business up and going. And we're going to look at how sales skills can help with equity investors. And that's the reason why I said that even those of you who are married, you're off the market or maybe you're in a situation ship or you know, friendship with benefits, you know,
whatever it is. That's the reason why I said today, you guys should still listen because there's a lot that we can learn from. Because in trying to figure out this problem of whether Wonder Woman should be collecting money from this guy, we have to run through a couple of things that everybody else also has to consider if we should be collecting money from someone. So the same thing that Wonder Woman has to look at before she collects money from this guy is the same thing that I have to look at before I collect money from my rich uncle or from any other person who wants to finance my business.
So let's see. OK, before we continue shout out, today's shout out goes. To Israel. And not the country, Israel, the person. And he owns Icon Homes and properties. He's a podcast listener, listens on Spotify, reached out to me on WhatsApp and he said thanks for the tips, Not for him. The tips are very useful because when he started off his career in real estate. And yes, this podcast has been around for a while. I think it's maybe about five years.
I have to go and check. I can't remember. I'm not sure at least four years anyway, but we have over 1020 episodes so far. So yes, there are some people who've been listening to this podcast since the inception of their businesses. So it's giving him tips on how to meet with clients and how to treat clients, how to handle clients. And so thank you very much, Israel, for listening to the show. Please also share the show in general or podcast episodes that you have found inspiring with other listeners so that they can get some goodness as well.
So now let's get on to equity financing as a source of business. And let's answer the central question. Wonder Woman, should she be collecting money from this guy who is in her class? I say, are you guys dating? She laughs. You say they're just friends. In fact, that's the laughter is the one that even is the one that even maybe not to believe the whole thing in the beginning because it wasn't as if she said our God forbid I will never date somebody like that.
We're just friends. It was laughter. We're just friends. OK, no problem. All right, now, first of all, we have to define what is equity. Like I said, equity just means somebody's giving you money and the person says, look, I'm giving you this 500K and I want to share your business. I want to share your profits. Equity is a business marriage. Equity just means till death do us part that as I've given you this 500K, you and me, we are in business partnership until the day that we wind up this business or this business dies.
So long as this business exists is you and me, we are new together. We wear the same trouser, we wear the same shirt, the same skirt. So equity, that is what equity means. Of course, if you want to look at the technical legal definition or business definition, you know, will be much more fancy. But I'm just trying to say that in actual effect though, this is what equity means. Equity is a long term marriage. If somebody draws money as an equity partner, the person is now your business husband, the person is now your business wife.
You can't run away from it. So Wonder Woman and other young ladies listening to this podcast, Are you ready for a business marriage? Especially when entanglement starts to show up. He's liking me. Maybe he's not liking me. We liked each other and everything was cool, but now he's liking another girl or we were liking each other, but now me, I'm liking somebody else and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, all these things that come up, you know?
So think about it though. Are you ready for a business marriage? Because for all intents and purposes, equity equals business marriage because the person has dropped money and the person now owns a share in your business. Of course you guys are going to excuse me, you guys are going to have those agreements, you know, how much money are you dropping in was the share of the business, you know, and all those sorts of things.
So the things now to consider if you are in so excuse me, Hamatan is still here. So it's destroying my voice. So the things that we have to consider now if you're in Wonder Woman's position and remember I said the same for everybody else. So like me, for instance, if there's one of my rich uncles in the village, maybe he's a billionaire and I need maybe like, you know, 20 M to move my business forward and I'm talking to him.
It's still the same thing. The same conversation that Wonder Woman needs to be having with this a classmate who wants to drop money is the same conversation that I need to be having with my rich uncle. Or maybe we're down with it. Down with it decides that he wants to finance one of my business ideas and but down with it. You're listening, you know, shout out. I give my phone number at the end of every episode. You know how large your boy, you know, be nice for us to to meet,
you know, talk one or two things. You know, bless your brother's life. Yeah, Where were we? So things to consider. So equity now, like I said, equity person is dropping money. The person owns a part of your business. You can't tell the person they're for for at any point, just so you know, and these are some other complications. And if you listen to podcasts or you read books about startups in America and you know, stuff like that, these are some of the things that come up.
Like some people say the reason why this guy who started, what's his name, Uber Travis. Is it Travis? I'll be Travis something the guy who started Uber. So some people say that that's how he got screwed out of his company, that he started this company, He needed money, he took equity, he agreed to some terms when things were getting kind of rough. And then people were saying that Travis was abusive. I can't remember what kind of abuse, you know, whether it's,
you know, psychological abuse or sexual abuse. I can't remember Sharp. But, you know, those talk about abusive world culture and in the business and stuff like that. And that's how he lost control of the business. And that's how they voted him out. And then they brought somebody else in because of terms that he signed. Earlier on when he was looking for equity, you collect equity money, the person becomes a part owner.
You cannot tell the person F of. In fact, depending on what you signed, it might be the person I even tell you F of. Get out of here. Useless board. So be careful. So that's one thing to consider part ownership. Another thing to consider is this. Please my Nigerian brothers and sisters listening to this, especially for those of you who consider yourself to be artists, please listen very, very, very well. People who drop money for equity typically are looking for very high returns.
If you go and collect money from mumsy popsy uncle, you know, classmates, whatever, and you say I beg lend me 500 Ki can pay you back next year 600K. You know that one is different. Equity investors, when they drop money, they're not looking for small change like that. They're not looking for I drop 500, you give me 600 K back. That's not what they're looking for. They are looking for big returns. So when somebody says that he wants to drop money in your business and own a share of the business, this person wants to cash out on a big level.
The good news is the person thinks that your business idea is solid and there's lots of money to be made. So that's good news. The thing is, you now have to think, Are you sure you can't match the level of returns that people are looking? For. Now, the reason why I say, you know, like Wonder Woman, you know, catering, I started off as a wedding photographer. You know, you're an artist, you're whatever. Are these the kind of businesses that are even good to be collecting equity in the first place in the 1st place?
Restaurant business, photography business, art business, I don't know, shower my business, is it kind of thing should be collecting equity money because people are looking for good big, big, big, big money. And in fact, early on, before I even started my career as a consultant, back when I was still a wedding photographer, there was one of my guys in Abuja that some people approached him. You know, young man, you're sharp, you know, blah, blah,
blah. Or from the same place. We believe in you. This, that is how much we drop. We can make this team blow, you know, equity partnership, this and this and that. A guy came and met me. What do you think? And I told him that guy with the amount of money that these people are dropping, and especially since they're looking at being equity investors, these guys are going to want something back in return. And the way I'm reading these,
these guys, they're going to want their money back quick, quick, quick. Not even like five years or seven years, 10 years, like by next year does you know, they're going to start harassing you. But anyway, I think he's on his own opinion at the time was like, what is, you know, like what is business without risk, you know, that kind of thing. So he went ahead equity no problem, collected money, went to go and rent a solid apartment, decked it out with photography equipment, got himself marketing stuff.
As in everything was tight, branding on point. I will I even miss up. I was jealous. I was like OK maybe I should have collected this money. I know. Like things were going OK for a while until what I said started to happen. Things are not growing fast enough. Business is not making enough returns. I know these are some of the conversations that I was having with this friend of mine. You know, photography business is not the kind of business that, you know, you invest 3,000,000 today in January, and then, you know, by December, you know that 3,000,000 is now worth 12 million or something.
You know, it's not like that. It's small, small, small, small, small. But The thing is, when people hear photography, they just hear that you cover the wedding 500K and in their mind they're thinking, wow, OK, 500K, if I'm doing two people a month, that is one M, over the course of a year that is 12 M, you know, this and this, that and that. So that's just simple math that people do in their head. But unfortunately it's not that.
It's not that simple. So of course there was quarrel and of course there was problem. Now this my guy, he's a very decent fellow and he doesn't like any kind of biggie and he likes to be an honourable fellow. So he made sure that everybody was good, he liquidated everything, he made sure that everybody got their money back, even to the extent of selling his own personal camera, his own personal gear, his own personal everything.
He sold everything just so that everybody would get back their money. Then my guy now became morose when he do some kind depression and next thing he faded back to Lagos to go and be with his folks. And in the photography community in Abuja, we haven't seen him since. Of course, he's now off to a new career in Lagos. And yeah, he's, he's, he's doing OK. But I can imagine, I know some of you will say, you know, like, oh, how much is it?
See, but The thing is for young men and we, I'm still young. So you can imagine that even then we were younger. So for a young man, you're just starting off life. If you have basic of like, you know, 57 million over your head, it actually feels very, very heavy. I know for someone like Dangote, you know, 5 million is not is, you know, is, is nothing like why you're harassing me. I'll pay you back. It's only 5 M. But even now self having done with it, no, for me actually is,
is is is something. So yeah, it was a big deal. And and then that's how that whole thing ended. So just to let you know, Wonder Woman or anybody in Wonder Woman situation, anybody who is dropping money on equity, the person is thinking, man, there are big returns here. We want to cash out. You guys need to have those conversations and you guys need to have the right level of expectations. Now, since this is part ownership and you can't tell them the F off.
In fact, if you don't read the contract properly, they're the ones that are able to tell you the F off and get out. You should have those conversations about control, you know, who is controlling what and how. Of course they might have the level of control depending on the percentage that they drop in the business, but you guys need to have that conversation. You guys also need to have conversations about the guy's expertise because sometimes when people drop equities because they have expertise that can help move the business forward.
So, you know, is it just money they're dropping or they're going to do mentorship and let me see business connections and all those kinds of things. And if I ask the business model that I'm going to do in a couple of years, you know, when, you know, when I'm standing well, when my legs are solid, you know, this is actually the sort of thing that I want to get involved in private equity, the equity model. Because I have sales skills.
And I know that for some people, all we have to do is tweak the sales process here, treat the sales process. They're tidy this thing up here, tidy this thing up here, and we can build a convincing business out of this thing. So for me, you will not just be dropping money, but also dropping my expertise so that we can grow the value of this company together. So yes, I'm going to be involved in equity later on, you know,
when I grow up and I become a big boy. So how are we going to use sales skills now as Wonder Woman or as anybody who is looking for, excuse me, equity financing? How are sales is going to help you now in securing equity financing? Luckily, if you've been listening to the show for the last maybe two few weeks, remember that we read a book called How to Sell like a spy lessons in something something espionage. I can't remember.
The author is Jeremy Hurwitz, so just Google Jeremy. Jeremy is Jeremy. I'm spelling it just in case there's a tea person listening. I think, you know, I said that Zeremu, it's not Zeremu, it's Jeremy because you know, anyway, that's a tea joke. You won't get it. So Jeremy Hurwitz here, which is hi, how's it now? HUREWITZI think so we're just any just put out there and put some like aspire thing will come up. So we're talking about the book and how the author was talking about elicitation as a means of getting information from people.
Elicitation does meaning getting people to talk calmly, getting people to talk freely, get people to talk, relax, you know, so you get to know what's on the person's mind. It's important to know that as a spy. So that will determine your course of action. You need to know that as a diplomat, so you know how you will advise your president when you go back to your country. And as a business person, you need this skill so that you know how to plot your next motion.
Now, OK, this guy's thinking like this. This guy's thinking that like that. So maybe I should move like this. Maybe I should move like that. So that is elicitation. So these are the sales skills that you need when it comes to helping out with equity financial financing. So Jeremy Hurwitz, he calls it elicitation on this podcast. I use traditional term, which is discovery and qualification where you ask ask questions and you engage in conversations around the person, who is this person?
Who is this person? What are they about, you know, blah, blah, blah. And then about the opportunity, what is the problem that they're trying to solve here, you know, and you know, all these sorts of things. So the traditional sales terms is discovery and qualification. There are some other people, business writers, who call this phase investigation. You know, when you're talking to people, you're trying to size each other up, you're trying to figure out what's going on.
Some people call this investigation, other people just call it business conversation. But whether we call it elicitation or business conversation or investigation or discovery and qualification, we're all talking about the same thing. And sales skills come in handy there. So the conversation point that Wonder Woman needs to be having with this guy who's a classmate who might be dropping money for the restaurant. And also if you are trying to raise money to find a restaurant, you know, talking to your rich uncle or rich auntie concession, you need to be having a, if you find out their investment preferences, you need to figure out the industry they're coming from or the industries that they like, what stage of businesses they like to invest in, what size and all these kinds of things.
And in hindsight, that's how I knew my friend was in in, in trouble because these people are dropping money. They are coming from a different industry and used to dealing with businesses at a different size. But photography is different, you know, it's smaller. The money sounds big. Yes, 305 hundred per client, The money sounds big, but different industry, different states, different size. That's the beginning of me knowing that.
OK, look, the expectations are just off because these guys, yes, they have the money, but they're coming from a high level. They're used to playing at a certain stage. They don't know that photography business is a small stage. So on Norman, you should be having conversations with this. Your classmate, maybe he's used to dropping money for other kinds of businesses and seeing returns, you know, sharp, sharp, sharp. You guys need to have that conversation so that, you know,
whether it's a good match, OK? He's used to dropping money for maybe buying and selling cars. Let's say the guys paid up. And so he drops money for his boys in Lagos to buy cars in Lagos and then ship the cars down to Michael and Abuja and then they sell the cars. So that's what they used to. You guys need to have the conversation, you know, OK. Is the level of investment the same? Is the level of returns the same? Is the timing of returns the same?
You guys need to have that conversation. Then you also guys need to have conversations over participation and control. So on Norman, you need to have a conversation with all your classmates. Who's paid up? How much money is he dropping? How much control does he expects? Does he want an office in the complex? Is he going to be coming in every day or just Monday and Friday? This is all just be looking at finances. Or are you guys going to be having board meeting every one or two weeks?
And by the way, if you're having board meeting, please let the board meeting be nice and official. Go to an office, sit down and have a board meeting. Don't go to the flat and have a board meeting. And he should not, he should not come to your flat and have a board meeting. Please, let's keep this professional. So you need to have those conversations over expectations, participation and control. Then you guys need to have those conversations over documentation and legal because equity by word of mouth is a capital.
Neve. R Capital NO, never no, don't do it. No one collect money from somebody for equity participation. And you know you will now start saying and what I said and oh, he said they said if you check this e-mail date, if you check this WhatsApp message, you now start acting WhatsApp message. Start looking at Instagram DM. No, no, no, no, no, no, no don't do it. If this thing is equity, please, we are going to have some kind documentation no matter how small.
If you don't have a lawyer, want to talk to your brother or your cousin or your sister who just finished law school like 2 years back. It's not ideal, but at least it is something. Ideally you should go and have a lawyer, but you know, it's better than just people doing things by word of mouth. So this is a capital NO. If it is equity, if you're going to go and talk to Popsy and Momsy and Popsy says I have no problem, I give you 500 K next year, give me back 600.
That's a different thing. Is Popsy your family, you know each other, you know, it's a simple thing. It won't get too complicated. The only thing is just that, you know, Popsy might be angry if he gave you the money in January and then January 26th, 2026 comes around, you don't say anything and it's March and he didn't say anything. You know, then now he will start getting angry. But it's it's simpler then you also need to have this conversation, Wonder Woman with this, your classmate who is paid up about the investor, what his role is as an investor is the only money that you're dropping.
OK, Are you dropping money and invest with some mentorship because the guy has been involved in some businesses before. I don't want to say what the businesses are on air. Well, she doesn't agree with the business choice, but let's pretend by now for now that it's a buying and importing cars and then selling in Lagos and Abuja. So, yeah, is it mentorship? What kind of mentorship can he bring to the game with his years of experience in buying and selling cars Or, you know, does he have a network access that he can bring to the business so that this business will blow, so that this business will grow?
We need to have the conversation around investor role, investor roles. Now, if you like watching business TV, there's one reason why I'm watching Dragons Den is a good idea because you see things like this playing out live and direct on the screen because the drivers are not just dropping money. Some of them have connects, some of them have industry hookups, some of them have different sales channels, you know, to help me move the business forward.
So when you're trying to consider equity investment from people, it's not always just how much are they dropping. You know, sometimes you might be looking at two people. One person is saying I will drop one M, Another person is saying I will drop 2M. Sometimes the person who is saying I will drop 1M, but I have these access, I have access to these connections to that. Sometimes that one M might be better than connecting the two M
where the person says, no, I'm giving you money only figure it figure it out by yourself. So one woman be having conversations with your classmates on his role as an investor. Then of course, one woman, you guys to be doing some background checks on your own. Do some information gathering. Talk to people who knows this guy who has done business with him. Remember that book Sell Like a Spy? You know the conversation techniques that this guy was talking about information gathering.
You know he's also sales as well because you need to figure out what has his experience been with other founders. It might look like a sweet deal, but if you discover that he has done this business with six other chicks before and he quarrelled with five of them, maybe that's a red flag. Maybe he's not even chicks. Maybe he has financed other people's business before. He has dropped money for eight businesses and he ended up quarrelling with 12 people.
Now it's definitely a red flag if I even quarreled with more than the people that he finance. So boy, you need to be asking people, you need to know who this guy is. You know, what's his background? Where is he coming from? Where's the money coming from? Is he legit? Not legit. How does he decide where to drop money? The people that he has dropped money before invested money before. How did he pan out? What what level of benefit did he bring to those people?
You know, stuff like that. So all these soft, soft conversations, all of this is sales skills as well, and also covering in the book that we did, which was sell like a spy. Jeremy Heurits. So now how do you have these conversations? Because I'm sure some of you realize that. OK, yeah, you've given us some good pointers, things to talk about. And Please remember, this is not just for Wonder Woman. Like I said, you want to raise money from your rich uncle or your rich auntie, or we want your pastor to be an equity investor is the same thing.
These are the conversations you should be having with pastor as well. Then how to have these conversations? The conversations have to be open-ended. That means you should be asking questions that to answer the question the person has to give you a story. If you just ask questions that can be answered with yes or no, then that is a terrible idea. That's a bad idea. So you need to ask open-ended questions who, why, what, where,
when, how and that is going to give you all the information that you. Need. So like, let me see, let me see, let me look at what did I say? OK, investor rule now capital only. So he's not just asking him, OK, so bro, you want to be invested in the business? Is it just a dropping capital? Only he can say yes or he can say no. I mean, that is not good. If he says yes, that's too flat. If he says no, you can ask for a lot of questions, but you can now say, OK, so who, why, what,
where, when, how? OK, What is your typical level of involvement with the businesses that you invest in? Yes, yeah, let's go with that for now. What is your typical level of involvement for the businesses that you are involved in when you're asking these questions? You don't have to. You don't have to sound formal like me. I'm on the formal end, but you can be on the casual end. It's not a problem. It's not really who you are or how you sound.
It's the kind of information that you elicit. So asking that kind of question now that what is your typical kind of involvement? The person has to tell me a story like, well, usually in the past, this is how I used to be investing my money and blah, blah, blah. But with you, you know, I like your mind, I like your heart. God has shown me that you're a nice person, blah, blah, blah. So between you and I to be like this would be like that blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah. So the person has to tell you a story to answer the conversation. So that's what we mean when we said the conversation should be open-ended. Just start off the conversations with who, why, what, where, how, when. So those sorts of things, basic stuff that they taught us in primary school in Niger. The other ways of keeping conversations open-ended, but let's just leave it like this for now. Then you should be question LED.
That means you should be asking a whole bunch of questions. So Wonder Woman, when you're having this conversation with fine boyfriend and Sia, you should be asking him questions. All right, please keep these questions in a nice business setting. If if you're having this conversation, you go to his room, you guys are chilling, you know, there's nice music in the background. He brings out some drinks and you guys are having this conversation and it's not pure.
Also, if he comes to your flat, you know, you cook some fine food and everything. There's music, there's drinks, you know, there's Netflix. You ain't gonna cut it after lectures, stay behind in the in the class, you know, tell your friends you see them later. Sit down in the class and have these conversations or have a proper business date. Go to Co working space, Yvonne Yvonne incubation hub. They market. They have a Co working space.
So their Co working spaces and market. Go to Co working space. There's no expensive. Pay 2/5 for an hour or something and then sit down there. You guys have this conversation. So the conversation should be open-ended. The conversation should be question LED. You should be asking a lot of the questions and then you also need to structure the conversations and stagger them one theme at a time, one conversation at a time, because all of this is plenty.
All of this story that I'm telling you now, you can't ask this thing in one conversation. You miss lots of stuff. So it's best to fix some time and sit down today and in your own head, you know that, OK, what you're trying to figure out now is his investment preferences. And then you guys have the conversation. Be surprised at that alone, you know, his background, his preferences, what he's looking for, expectations. I'm surprised that that kind of conversation might take like one hour.
After one hour you guys are tired. It's OK, I no problem yeah, you said lots of stuff. I need to think about it. I still have a few more questions regarding other things like participation and control, like, you know, blah, blah, blah, this and this and that and that. But it's OK if we do that at at another time, you know, so you fix the meeting for the next date, but stagger these conversations out because you can't have this conversation and finish everything in one day.
So structure it, stagger it 1 theme at a time. You can't finish this in one day. And if you look at how all the big boys and girls that you like, you know, Zuckerberg, them and all the people in America, you know, you don't finish these conversations in one day. You know, phone call today, meeting tomorrow, investor page next tomorrow, you send over time sheet, look at time sheet, you know, another meeting. Clarify this, clarify that, you know, it takes a while.
It's not just one sitting. So yeah, that's that's just it. So of course you've been listening to this show for any length of time. You know my point of view on this, that you're a young girl. He's a young boy. It's not as if you're ugly. You know him too, you know, As if he looks like a lizard. You know anything can happen. So my own opinion, don't be, don't, don't, don't do business with this guy. My own opinion, not knowing more.
Some of you might differ, but that's just my own opinion. If it's a potential toaster, a potential liker, maybe. I'm liking him. My friend thinks he's cute. His friends say I'm cute, he is whatever, whatever, whatever. For me, Capital. NO, except if you guys have had very clear business conversations, especially when this level of business involvement is going to be at the level of equity, because when it comes to equity, it's a long term marriage.
So let's just keep it safe because you enter into this long term business marriage and then entanglements start to happen. It's unnecessary. Emotional, also called business is hard enough. You know, we don't need the emotional angst and the, the how would I even say this itself? You know, the turbulence, the look, it's, it's, it's tough enough. I'm sure you guys understand what this is I'm trying to say, especially for those of you who are trying to start up these things in school.
You know, you're chasing your GPA. Your GPA is probably not doing too good. You're worried about your work with God. You're trying to do this business and then, you know, next thing entanglement is now entering the issue and a big distress is just much. So it's easier to have these sorts of conversations with your husband, in my own opinion. But even then again, there are people who will tell you that, yes, even when the person is your husband, these conversations will still be hard enough.
But that's my point exactly. So left to me, Wonder Woman, you said that you guys are just friends and I believe you, but you said it with a smile. And so I'm just saying these things to you in code just in case there's something I have not heard or just in case there's something that financier Boy has not said. These are my full opinions on the matter. And so for those of you who are happily married or no entanglements, no relationship status, no whatever, it's still the same thing.
You are looking for an equity financier. These are the kinds of conversations that you should be having with them because it's going to be a long term marriage and you can't tell them therefore. And if you end up like a boy, what's his name again? I think his name is Travis. I'm not sure. You can check later. Oh, shout out to a KTS. He fact checked me on something when I was talking about Corin. He said Corin is the council.
Of registered engineers in Nigeria. So thank you very much, Corinne for thank you very much a KTS for pointing that out. So like I said on the podcast, you know, I'm not perfect. I don't know any everything. So whenever I make mistakes, I mean you guys can point that out. You just send me a message and let me say it over here on the group so that we can all be educated together. So what was I saying now? I lost my train of thought, OK,
and it maybe wasn't important. So yeah, that's it. So if you'd love to connect with me, the phone number is 08064662140. Country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number as well. Now connect with me on socials, the name to look for establishing my IED on LinkedIn and I'm tablishing my IED on YouTube as well. Unfortunately, I can't find the lists where I wrote down all these financing options, so I'm running off of memory here.
Now that we have done equity, I think the next thing on the list should be loan. I think you should be loan. Please, any listener of the show, you've been taking notes and if you remember the master plan, what the master plan is supposed to be, just send me a message. My contact details are are here so that we can get back on track because I'm not sure what happened. You know, maybe my little son, you know, tore it up or something.
So next will be loan so that we can see how Wonder Woman can use scale sales skills to cure the sourcing financing problem. If I was going to take a loan. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.