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There are some advanced techniques that can be used to grow your business, and a lot of them involve all the mental head trash, if I can put it that way. All those things about motivation, believing in yourself, alignment and all that stuff. I'm sure for those of you who've been listening to the podcast for a while, you've seen that I don't talk too highly about those things. And the reason why is not because they are.
It's not as if these things are not important, they actually are. It's just that those are advanced techniques and lots of Nigerian people, you're not at that level yet. You actually are at the point where you don't know the next thing to do in your business. So instead of worrying about mental issues, spiritual alignment, and, you know, all these sorts of grand sounding things, you know, you're better paying attention to the more practical, the much more fundamental issues.
You know, what do I need to do today? What do I need to do tomorrow? What do I need to do next week? What do I need to do next month to move your business forward? And these are some of the things I'm going to talk about today because I actually have come across an individual where perhaps, you know, in his own case, he actually is at that, you know, advanced stage, or rather he's going to need some of that advanced help to actually push him through.
So what should we call him? OK, let's call him Solomon. Not his real name, so let's call him Solomon. But just in case you're listening, Solomon and you think like, OK, this sounds like you then. Yeah, it actually is you. So Solomon is based in Lakes and he's running a luxury car rental business, and he's doing it with a couple of tweaks. But because of that, Solomon is convinced that his business is unique. And because his business is unique, he has certain kinds of challenges that are new and have never been seen before.
And these are the reasons why he's stuck in his business. Now. Of course, I told him the first time we spoke that, you know, guy, everybody thinks that business is unique, but it's not. Because no matter what business it is that you have, no matter what business it is that you have started, someone else thought of it before you. Someone else has probably started it, a few people somewhere already executing on it. You might be coming at it from a different angle, but there is no business that is new under the sun.
Now there are some people that you start something and it's totally brand new, but this is the problem. You're going to show that this thing works. Other people are going to sniff that there's room for growth here, that there's room for profit here. And then people are going to pile in. People are going to rush in and before you know it, yes, in the beginning there was just you, but you're going to look up and you're going to see that you have tons of competition.
But sure, let us stop tricking ourselves that we are in a unique business and that our challenges are unique. And my own situation is different than everybody else because the problem with this is when we start thinking this way, unfortunately, it forces us to think, or rather it allows us to think that we are justified in being stuck where we are. Because really, if this thing is brand new, we've never seen it before.
Nobody has tackled these problems before, Then you kind of feel justified in staying where you're staying. The problem with this is Solomon, again, not his real name, the first time we spoke over a year ago. What is your story? The story is I'm doing the luxury car rental business. I'm doing this unique twist because of that, my situation is unique. OK, no problem. I talked to him over a year later because I still keep in touch with people every once in a while because we're listeners of the podcast and people who call in for free advice or even people who pay for my services.
I still like to keep in touch with people. What's up? How you been? How's the business? I hope you're making progress. Nothing that was a comma before. Hope we've gotten past it. The thing that was a key leg before. I hope you're moving forward. Nothing that was an impediment before. I hope we've broken down and we move to the next level because anybody who passes my path, I want to be sure that you're making progress and that you're moving on.
So over you over a year later and the guy is still saying my business is unique. My challenges are unique. So that's the reason why I'm making today's broadcast episode. Please. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what it is that you do. Your business is not unique. This is light twist. Yes, it's a 5% twist or a 10% twist or whatever. By the end of the day, your business idea has already been done by somebody.
If you take a step back and look at it from a holistic point of view, you will see that there are some fundamental things that you need to pay attention to that will help you move your business forward. You have fallen into this problem of navel gazing now. Navel gazing, it's a term that's back when I still used to play guitar when I was in Scotland because I liked Blues and improvisational jazz, you know, Blues, rock and things like that.
So navel gazers, you know, you're just there. You just play your guitar. You play guitar, you know, it's just you. It's just you, you know, but you're not really interacting with the world out there. You're not really interacting with the audience, you know, so in guitar speak, it's kind of a negative thing because like you're doing what you want to do and you're not paying attention to whether the audience is following you or not, whether you're making progress or not.
Now we can get into a certain kind of navel gazing and always me in business, you wake up today. Oh, my situation is unique. Oh, who is me? Oh the economy, Oh my unique challenges. Oh my, this, Oh my that, oh who is me? I'm suffering. And then you wake up tomorrow and it's the same thing and it's the same thing. And even though I said on this podcast, some of you think I'm joking, but I see this all the time. This is somebody over a year ago.
My situation is unique. OK, no problem. Today, Hong Kong, my situation is unique. In between, what progress did you make? My situation is unique. This is how it happens. This is how it happens. So please, in case you are falling into this thing, just know that there's nobody whose business situation is unique. Whatever business challenges it is that you are facing, somebody has faced this challenge before. Somebody has overcome these challenges somehow.
Ask around, talk to people, do some research, staying at home or in your office and saying that my business is unique and saying that always me. You will not make progress. You will not make progress. Anyway, before we continue, if you'd like to connect with me just like Solomon did, all you have to do is to call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. And if you're interested, I run 15 minute sale audits.
In fact, I had one this morning. So you can WhatsApp me on the same number, 08064662140. And then if you want to join my WhatsApp channel, just send me a text message on the very same WhatsApp number and I'll get you hooked up so that you can see updates, previous episodes, or you know, if there's anything cool that I'm working on that you'd like to take advantage of. So back to Solomon. My business is unique. That attitude is not going to help you.
Like I said, your business is not unique. But even if for the sake of argument, we see your business is unique, this is what you need to do in your unique situation. You need to pay attention to your deal flow because there's no way that a business is going to grow without deal flow because a business is a living Organism. But businesses don't need red blood cells. They don't need white blood cells. What businesses need is money.
You have to be talking to people. You have to be making deals. Money needs to be coming into the account. Money always leads the account, whether we like it or not. You have to pay for fuel, you have to pay for Internet, you have to pay for food, you have to pay for this, you have to pay for that. So money will always be going out, but money, gas be coming into the system or as the business is going to die. So whether your situation is unique or not and Mr. Solomon or any other person in this situation, I insist your business is not unique.
What you need to do is you need to be paying attention to deal flow. So you need to wake up every day and not focus on the fact that woe is me, my business is unique. You need to wake up every day and you need to start thinking where are my prospects? The prospect is somebody who might be interested in your product or service. Now at this level, at this stage, when you say who are my prospect now, guess what we did do all right, educated guess work.
You just woke up and think, OK, where, who, you know, who might need my products, who might need my service. So for someone in his own case, Solomon's case, which is why I expected to see some progress. He's in the luxury car rental space, no problem. Some of the years that we talked about over a year ago, approaching brides, OK, that one has its own unique challenges, approaching people who are doing OMB, doing party, doing things like that.
He's based in Lagos, by the way. You know, different customer segments and all, but The thing is when you're thinking about prospects at this stage, don't worry about whether your answer is right or wrong. This is the early stage. What we are doing is educated guesswork. Anybody under the sun who might be interested in your product or service, write that thing down. If there are specific people, write them name by name down.
If you think oh Bio Ajala might be interested, write it down. Mustafa Adeju, write it down. Chukudi here, natural write it down. Washa need to come up with a list who might be interested in my product or my service. Now when we think on a very general level, who might be interested in my product or service? Brides in Lagos, people who do weekend or one day in Lagos, no problem. That's step one. The next thing we're trying to do now is we need to find a way of generating some contacts.
A contact just means you now have specific details. You have a name, you have a phone number, you have an e-mail address, you have an office address, you have a house address, you have somewhere or something that you can use to initiate contact. Because it's not enough to be thinking about things in a general, general. If you're thinking in a general, OK, brides who live in Lagos, but then you never take it beyond that.
Brides who live in Lagos but we don't have a way of getting contact details. You are stuck, which is why back when I was in the event space, you know, I started off in law. Now I'm a business consultant in between did export and did weddings. That's the reason why I love bridal shows because for bridal shows, the floor was full of Single Ladies that they have proposed to. You go and talk to them. You pull the people back to your, to your, to your, what's it called?
I can't remember what is called, you know, your own part of the, your own part of the hall. You get them back to your booth, You get them back to your trade booth. You get some contact details. You know, we now have something that we can use to begin the selling process. I have people that have been proposed to and you know they're in love with the law of life and they're hoping to get married in the next 3456 months.
I have some contacts. There's somebody I can chase. There is someone something that I can initiate with and engage contact and get this thing moving. So we start from first educated guesswork who might be interested in my product or my service right down the groups. After that, we need to come up with a plan. We need to get some contact details because we don't close sales in abstract. We close sales when we have contacts.
Then after that, for the contacts that we have, we need to be able to narrow it down. Who are the leads here? A lead is someone who has done something over it or someone who has revealed something in conversation to show that they actually are interested in your product or your service. Doing something over just means, OK, how will I put it now? OK, So like for those of you in the online space, somebody downloads your, your PDF.
And then because of that, you think, oh, this person is a lead. You know, they're not really a lead because people download sometimes because they're curious, not because they're necessarily interested in buying your, your, your product or your service, but at least the person has done something that you can see. OK, let me go back to the example that I, I give about the guy who was dropping Flyers outside my son's school.
So he hands Flyers outside the school. Some parents take it. He's the guy that stores, he's one of those back to school stores, you know, shoes, textbooks, what else? Water bottles, you know, things like that. So somebody who collects the flyer and who calls him to say, oh, I saw you outside my son's school. I collected the flyer. That's the reason why I'm calling. OK, good. Now this person has done something over it to show that he or she might be interested.
This person is a lead. OK, so first we got some contact details. Now we have some leads. Somebody has done something to show them might be interested, or you're having conversation with the person and the person has revealed that maybe they have a timeline, they have a project that they're working towards, You know something. Now we know that this person might be interested. So now we're dealing with the lead. So after we have leads, we're trying to put a few deals on the table.
A deal on the table just means we have made a proposal to this person and this person is considering your proposal. Good. So now we have a couple of deals that we're pursuing or pursuing. Sorry. Then as we did pursue, now we close a couple of them. So back to what I said, is your business unique? No, there's no certain thing as a unique business because whatever it is that you're thinking of, I can assure you somebody else already working on that idea, which is the reason why Zuckerberg and the Winkle Balls twins, you know, they were arguing back and forth and then they shout and they went to court and everything because I
heard you, you say you want to do social media, but that doesn't mean any other person. No, they do social media as in it just happens. Ideas just pop up like that as they pop for your head now, so they pop for another person's head. So your idea is not unique at all. But even if your idea is unique, nobody has faced your challenge. Oh, you are suffering. Oh, always me, always me, always me. If you don't break past this war is me thing, you're not going to make progress.
Now, unfortunately, all those advanced techniques of when somebody stuck mentally, how do you get them moving forward, blah, blah, blah. You know, I'm not a mentalist, I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a so, you know, I don't know that advanced stuff. But honestly speaking, the only way you're going to make progress is if you focus on the fundamentals, the basic things, the tactics that you need to get moving forward. So if you like, stay there, your war with me.
But the better thing you need to do is to wake up every single day and every single week and say, oh, yeah, what's the plan? Who are the prospects with MD? With MD, who might be interested after that? OK, these kind of people, these kind of people might be interested. Oh, yeah. How we will get contacts. Now, what's the plan? You talk to your team. What's the plan? Let's say we can get contacts. OK, good. We have some contacts, Good.
Let's initiate contact. If it is office, let's go to the office or get them to come to our office or studio. If his phone number, let's call them or let's do stuff to make people call us. If his e-mail or let's e-mail them or try and do things to get people to e-mail us. Let's start talking to people from there. Let's get some leads. Some people have said something to show that they're interested, Good. Or fire, double down and then we'll put some deals on the table, put some proposals on the table.
From there, we'll try and close a few things. So if you wake up with that mindset, eventually over time, in a year's time, you'll see that you have made progress. But if you want to sit down there and say my problem is unique, my situation is unique. Nobody has seen my challenge before. Very, very early I say on TV, one year will pass and you will still be in the same place. I'm not being wicked. That is just human life.
That's just how it is. You don't realize how time is passing, but you just wake up and you see that two years have passed. You've not made any significant progress. You're still in the same place that you were two years ago. In fact, you're even in the war situation because we all know that one year ago the economy was not as harsh as it is now. You understand? So if you're stuck in the same place, but the economy is becoming harsher and harsher,
can you see that you're not even in the same place? You're moving backwards. Hyperinflation. The value of money is going down, the cost of living is going up. The number of customers you had is still the same as you had a year ago. Or the lack of customers. Anyway, let me know what flog this thing. Look, all the principles that we talk about over here on the podcast. I understand that applying these things can be tricky.
So if you need me to look at your particular circumstance, just call me, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. And like I said, 15 minute sale audits, business audits. If you just WhatsApp me on the same number, 08064662140, I'll be more than happy to chat with you and see how we can help you, you know, move forward, make progress. If you just want to be connected, connected to me but you don't want to talk to me for now, that's not a problem.
You can join my WhatsApp channel. So just WhatsApp me on the same number and we'll be cool. But before I wrap up, I'd like to say shout out to my brother from Ebony. His name is Natachi. That's one of the coolest things about this podcast because I get to meet Nigerians from different walks of life and I have never heard that name before Natachi. And when I told him, he said yeah, that he gets that a lot. So like I said, my brother,
welcome to the club. Those of us who have strange names. Well, because where I come from, my name, Tavi Schuma actually is very popular. But every week I meet somebody who says I've never heard that name before. So there a couple of us like that. So Natachi from Ebony but not based in Ebony when he based again. So did I write it down? Lagos here, based out of Lagos. Now his business is called My Food Bank. And what they do is they sell non perishable foods.
It's a subscription service, soybeans, Gary rice, spaghetti, you know, stuff like that. By the way, I'm not advertising this guy's business. So I'm not advertising his business at all. I'm just giving him a shout out and I'm not asking that, you know, if you're listening, you know, let's go check out his business, you know, holler the guy, you know, give him some support, you know, because once in a while we all need encouragement as we're going through woes in our in our business.
So we just had a good 15 minute chat, like I said, 15 minute sale audits, We did a business audit. I tried to figure out a couple of things only to figure out his conversion rates because it's really, really important to know how well you're doing in sales. And unfortunately we didn't have figures to delve into that conversation. So part of his assignment going forward is he needs to get enough figures so that we can track what his conversion rates are.
Then we have some conversations on his margins because we need healthy margins so that our business can grow. Because for those of you who've been listening for a while, remember that I keep talking about unit economics. If the unit economics of your business are off, your business is going to fail. Now luckily for him, he plans his business causes food now is a matter of scale. So he doesn't need to make. Profits, you know plenty,
plenty, you know on the Moodle of beans, on the Moodle of carry on the Moodle of rice. But the small profit that he's going to make, you know, the 100 hundred naira to 200 naira is a matter of scale. You know if he has 1000 people or 50,000 people or 100,000 people, you know that's where the money will come from. So to 200 naira profits multiplied by you know 50,000 customers. So that's how businesses like that work. But whether you're in his own kind of business that involves volume, that involves scale or whether you are in in a business like let's say fashion where you're trying to recover good margins on one particular clot.
But we need to make sure that our unit economics makes sense. How much do we use to produce this good? When we sell this good, how much are we going to sell it for so that when the money comes in, the money is enough for to pay salary, the money is enough to pay Internet, the money is enough for tax, the money is enough for this, money is enough for that. It's not as if one item will pay for the whole thing or I'm just saying on aggregate.
So these are things that we need to work out when we go into business. So yeah, we had that conversation as well. Then, of course, like most businesses, you know, they have marketing campaigns and advertising campaigns that they want to do to jumpstart orders, especially since we're heading into the Easter week. So that's also another thing that he might have to, he might need to have a look at. So shout out to my brother from Ebony.
Shout out to Natachi from my food bank. Thank you very much for listening to the podcast. Remember to share the podcast with other people who might find it interesting as well. And yeah, it was nice having a chat with you this morning. So that's it for today. And if you got value from today's episode and you'd love to connect with me, remember just call me on 08064662140. That is what Natachi did. You can send me a text message or WhatsApp message on the same number if you're interested in the 15 minute sale audit, just like we have with Natachi.
It's no obligation. So don't worry, you're not dropping money. If you want us to delve in and start solving issues, then yes, you will drop money. Then call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message again, 08064662140 or you can join my WhatsApp channel, send me a message to the same number and I'll send you the details. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you on the next episode. But the main reason who I'm in today's episode is because the teenage vex, my spirit honestly that I'm meeting too many of you who think your business is unique.
And because of that, that's the reason why you're going to stay stuck. The challenge is very simple. Do you want to be right or do you want to make money? It's very, very simple. Do you want to be right or do you want to make money? You can stay there and insist that your business is unique. OK, you're correct. Good. We're not making money. You're not making progress. You're not getting sign ups, you're not getting customers,
you're not getting revenue. But you are correct. OK, that's fine for you. No problem. Stay where you are. Do you want to be right or do you want to make revenue? If you want to get revenue, then the challenge is very simple. Wake up and ask yourself who are the prospects? OK, these are the prospects. Where will I get contact details? OK, I've gotten contact details. Let me initiate contact. Good, I've initiated contact.
Who are the serious people? OK, these are the serious people. OK, those ones are leads. Both the pursue. These ones are serious people. Let's leave them by the side. Good for the serious people. No problem. We'll put some proposal, make some presentation or put some deals on the table and then fire, try and close the couple. And then you take feedback from the process. You learn, you reiterate and then you do it again.
That is how you make progress from one year to another. Not by staying in your office under the cool AC and saying that my business is unique, my business is unique. Alright, so that's it. I'll catch you all some other time.