Capital Solutions for Female Entrepreneurs: Kelly's Catering Case Study

Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'm chilling at the car wash. Well, of course the car is getting washed so expect to hear some noise in the background. Let's see. OK, so today I want us to look for ideas for raising capital. And the reason why is because on my radio show, someone called in her name is Kelly from Coolje, and she had a business in the catering space. Imagine it's quite a coincidence that the first episode I did for Raising Capital also happened to be someone who was in the catering space.

But then she is a student in Benway State University. So, well, if you listen to that episode, then we'll be talking about pretty much the same sort of thing, except that for Kelly, I had some specific resources that I wanted her to try out at the end of the day, which were kind of different from the resources that I recommended for the lady from Benway State. But if you've listened to that particular episode, that's the catering in Benin Estate and then you're listening to this one, the catering in Abuja.

I, the overwhelming message I hope you take out of this is just to see that resources are available. If you want to go through the grant route, just know that resources are available. You just have to put in some, some work because when it comes to grants, you're going to have to formally apply. So these are the sorts of things that we're going to be discussing today on the podcast. Now, before we get into the meat of the session, I'd like to say give a shout out to Clement Wisdom.

He's a listener of the show. He left a comment on Spotify and that was the episode where I was talking about was one of those WhatsApp episodes anyway, about how we can get Better Business results if our messages are much more concise and if we use strong call to actions so that when people see our WhatsApp messages, this specific thing that they have to do. So, yeah, he enjoyed the episode, but at the end of his comments, he mentioned that the entrepreneur in question, that's Zenani, who is the CEO, the brains behind me best foods.

Again, if you only check Zenani out, it is Mee and then best BEST, but written together as one word. So me best foods, MEEBEST and then foods. So if you only check out Zenani's work, you know, that's that's how Instagram handles so you can see her stuff. So Clement wisdom mentioned that Zenani would be better off creating her own website instead of using a website from bumper. Oh, and by the way, bumper is spelled to BUMPA.

And I gave a caveat in that episode that if you want to check out bumper, don't just rely on bumper because, you know, I said, so you like do your own research, you know, as in me and Zenani were just in Aspire were friends. So you know, you guys are my friends as well, so I'm just giving you gist. I'm not recommending that it's a service you use. So anyway, Clement Wisdom mentioned that Bumper has some limitations and so Zenani would be better off setting up our own website.

So what I told Clements to do last in the Spotify comments anyway, because since it's Spotify, you know, it's not like it's what's up. So I couldn't just reply and continue the conversation. So what I put there in the comments, and I hope that Clement Wisdom, I hope you've seen the comments or I hope you're listening to this particular episode. So what I suggested to him was, since you know, that bumper has some limitations, why not just record an audio message?

Just the way I'm recording this message. You see, I'm I'm here at the car washer. I'm just chilling. I just wip out the phone. Make this recording. You can do the same thing. Don't worry about audio quality. Just make sure that what you're saying makes sense that you know, if you say that bumper has some limitations, I expect that you're familiar with, you know, websites and these sorts of things. So just send an audio message saying that these are the limitations of Bumper.

The limitations are 123456, you know, and based on my own professional opinion, I think Zenati Zenani will be better off making our own websites or doing a website that would accomplish, you know, 123456, you know, just that kind of thing. So make an audio message. Don't worry, it doesn't have to be too long. Even if you go 1015 minutes, it's OK, but just make an audio message. Share your opinion because I've been trying to get some some usage generator content, you know, some some of you listeners, you know, it's it's I'm curious.

I want to hear what you guys think on certain sorts of things. And you know, the more perspectives that we have, the better. So climate wisdom, if you're listening creative voice, not a voice note on WhatsApp, just record an MP3 on your phone and then send it to me on WhatsApp. The number is 08064662140. Country code is +234. Just in case, Clement, you are not Nigerian, so send me the audio note unless you're your perspective with other people over here on the forum.

And just know that I'm not opposed to, you know, people reaching out to say, I agree with this, I disagree with this. Or can you explain these things better? Because we've we get wonderful podcast ideas. And in fact, the first series I did on how to sell on LinkedIn, I think was close to 6 or maybe 8 episodes was precisely because somebody reached out to say, look, this thing you're saying about selling on LinkedIn, I

agree on this. I don't agree on this. And that's what inspired the other episodes. So shout out to Climate Wisdom. Thank you very much for listening to the show. And now let's address Kelly from Pooja's question. But like I said, if you listen to the episode where I was talking to the lady in Benue State, the one I called Wonder Woman about how to raise capital for business, it's pretty much the same thing. But if it's your first time listening to the show, yeah,

let's head straight into it. Now this particular lady, Lady Kelly, she had, this is a second time round in the business. The first time she thinks the business didn't work because of the poor location, was a faulty location. Now, I was going to ask some more questions like how do you know it's a faulty location? Because you know, sometimes we have problems in our business, but it's not necessarily the location. Sometimes the location is poor or is OK or is manageable, but the problem is that maybe we are bad at generating publicity and generating attention.

All that we were good at generating publicity and attention and people are coming into the store, but then we are bad at conversion. Conversion just means how you get the person to take the next step. So people are coming to the store, but we don't know how to get them to sit down to try out the menu or even if they do that, we don't know how to get them to come back again. So sometimes it's not just as simple as saying this location is not good or this building is not good, or my branding is not good or my, you know, one particular thing is the problem.

Sometimes it's a bit more complex than saying there's this one thing. But before I asked her, you know, how do you know what's the location? She now mentioned that, oh, she's in a good space and now that is plenty of foot traffic. So I just let that thing slide. So as long as now she's in a place where there's plenty of food, foot traffic, that's good. So she says there's plenty of food, traffic, people are coming to the shop and it's all good.

The problem now is that at the end of the day, at the end of the week, she doesn't have enough money to replenish the stock. So what she wants to do is she wants to raise capital because there's plenty of demand, but she is not meeting demand now. I think there's another problem there, but you know, I'll talk about that later. But let me go straight to answering her question. So now the options that are available for business finance,

I've said it in the Wonder Woman episode, the K try in Abuja, sorry, the K try in Bennu State and you know it's going to be the same no matter who asked me the question. The options are available basically are for in my own opinion, there's bootstrap, there is loan, there is equity investment and there's grant. Let me repeat and then I'll define. So there's bootstrap, there is loan, there's equity investment and then there is a grant.

So bootstrap just means you're funding this business from your savings. Talk to Momsy, talk to Popsy, collect some cash here, you know, save some money here, you know, you know, this kind of thing that charges, put the money together, that's bootstrapping. Bootstrapping also involves using the money that comes from the business that you're doing to finance the business. Now, for some people, given their circumstances, I recommend bootstrapping because it's the easiest way to raise finance.

So bootstrapping in this case would mean that the money she's getting from selling rice, beans, spaghetti, cupcakes, you know, everything, take the profits and then plow it back into the business. That will also be bootstrapping. And This is why I think there's a problem in the business. If you set up your business right and if you crunch your numbers well, you shouldn't have this problem of you're having lots of customers, but they're running out of cash.

So my first opinion was to tell her was like, you know, sister, I think you need to raise your prices. You really do. Because if you did your calculations well, house rent plus, I mean office rent plus cost of rice, plus cost of beans, plus cost of eggs, plus cost of everything at the very least as you're selling, you know, 11 cupcake or 11 plate of rice or you know, 11 plate of fried eggs and was I think fried potato and fried eggs.

At the end of the month, it should all tally up that it should be a profit there. So the first thing that I recommended to how was to raise prices. Lots of people are scared to raise their prices and I understand. I'm there. I've been with you guys. I started off as a wedding photographer. The first job I did, I charged 50K. And to be honest, when the person I agreed to the 50 Ki felt like I was on top of the world and trying to raise prices from that poultry 50K, it took a lot.

Eventually I did. But the thing was, I the next person I spoke to and I said, OK, 400K. So yeah, maybe the gap from 50 to 400, especially when I don't have a justifiable track record, was too much. But The thing is, I'm just trying to say that I understand the angst and I understand the fear when people don't want to raise their prices. But to be honest, the easiest level that you have for business growth is to raise your prices.

Because in most cases you raise your prices, some people disappear, but then you find out that you're having less number of customers, but you're making more money and you now have more free time to dedicated to other things. So please be brave enough to give it a try. If you'd like some help with that, then I've given out my contact details. The number is 08064662140, country code +234. Hit me up on WhatsApp. Let's have the conversation.

If you're one of those people who's thinking, yeah, I need to raise my prices, but I'm afraid, let's see how we can come up with a plan. So that's my recommendation. Raise your prices so that you can bootstrap. Because if you're running your business at a loss, there's a problem somewhere. And I really think it means that your prices cannot justify you being in the business. Now, there are some problems with raising prices depending on where you are, because you're in a place where all the other caterers around you are selling one plate of rates at 25, you might feel as if, OK, if everybody's selling the one at 25, if I raise my own price to 27, you know, I'll lose customers.

So, you know, there are lots of things to consider on a case by case basis. But raising your price, easiest thing to do so that you can now bootstrap, you can finance your business from the profits that are coming from the business. Now the reason why I recommend bootstrapping for most people in the beginning is because the other two, which is loan and equity, the says, it says scratch my back. I scratch your back and play.

So for loan, loan does mean somebody gives you the money, but you promise that you're going to pay them the money back and you're going to drop interest, you're going to pay extra. Now the problem with the Nigerian environment is, you know, hyperinflation, blah, blah, blah. So interest rates high, if you go to the bank, the interest rate is high, not to even talk about if you go to the loan shark, it'll be easier for you to get money from the neighborhood loan shark.

But The thing is, those people, they will stress your life. And I've heard that some of these people can be caught throat like they're gangster, like those show up to your office, show up to your house, that kind of harassment gangster. Although for one of my cousins, when he tried them, what they did was I wasn't able to pay. They send text messages out, you know, very embarrassing text messages. I received one of them.

My mom, she received them. My aunties received them. I don't know how they were able to copy his phone book shop. But anyway, they just sent messages out to everybody, you know, really, really embarrassing messages. But where was I? Basically what I'm just trying to say is that loans are expensive. If you go to the bank, it is expensive. If you feel like this bank is giving me too much stress, let me go to the Neighborhood Loan Shack.

The neighborhood loan shack is even going to charge you more. And then there's a harassing harassment thing of somehow do show up at your house, be harassing you, harassing your wife, harassing your kids. And then the whole thing of the text messages just, you know, blowing up everybody's phone and sending embarrassing messages about you. So loans expensive then equity. Equity is where somebody gives you money. But then the analysis that look,

you and me, we're partners. I'm giving this 500K for the business and because I'm dropping 500K, look, we're going this thing 5050. So your profits are my profits, you know. So the way I advise you is that, look, when it comes to equity investment, it's a marriage, it's a long term marriage. So I need to decide if I'm collecting this person's money, can I be married to this person in a business sense? So now of course, the definitions of these things are much more complicated, much more complex, but I'm just trying to come up with very simple everyday man, everyday woman definition so that people can understand and get one time so you understand what you're getting into from the beginning.

So simply equity just means the person is dropping money, but they want to share your business. They share the business also means they will have some control. The person will be able to say that look, I don't think you should be selling chicken. Again, chicken is too expensive. Sell fish, sell ice fish. And for you, that might be off brand. You might be thinking, no, ice fish is too. What's the word? OK, I don't even eat fish, so I

don't even know what people think of ice fish these days. But I know that back when I was in primary school, people used to think like beef and chicken was more middle class than if you're eating ice fish, that is more like on the poor end of the spectrum. So I'm not sure what people think about ice fish these days. But yeah, you can find yourself in that scenario. You're thinking, look, I want to be selling beef and chicken.

In fact, everyone to add steak to the menu so that we can apply. Sorry, attract people that have much more, you know, refined taste and then your business person is saying no, we should be doing high fish and people are quarreling up and down because you now collected 500K or 1M for somebody and the person is now your business partner 5050. So that's equity. Then another Ave. available is a grant. A grant just means free money.

It means not dash them, dash you. However, because a grant is free money, it doesn't mean that there are no restrictions to it. Usually there are some considerations there. There are some eligibility considerations. So they don't give everybody. And so because of that, for Kelly, the options that I gave to her were options that relate specifically to female entrepreneurs. So that's some of these things that the deal might be sweet.

And then you go there and they say, oh, no, sorry. We only give it to women who are between the ages of 18 and 23, but you're a man and you're 48 years old, so you don't qualify. So there's eligibility and then there's usually reporting restrictions on these sorts of things. So that means, yes, we take this money, you know, now dash, we dash you, you know, it's all free. But every single year for the next 5 years, you have to send us photos and videos or reports to say this is how we spent it,

This is what we do, This is what we did. So you can see that is a dash, but it's not entirely, it's not entirely dash, dash, dash like free like that. So there's some some other considerations, some restrictions you will have to abide by. So my recommendation to Kelly and another person who is considering grant is sit down and read the document properly and have an honest conversation with yourself. These things that are asking me to comply with, can I comply with that thing?

And then of course, it also involves a lot of work because since grant is free money, it is a dash. You best believe that everybody's applying for these grants. So you're going to have to be good at writing reports, writing proposals, writing what is it called, grant application, you know, all these sorts of things. But don't worry. The good thing is with all the AI tools that we have available now, you know, Gemini ChatGPT,

you know, we, it's now it's workable. In the old days, like 10-15 years ago, you'd have to do all the work yourself or you'd have to go and look for a consultant who specializes in these sorts of things. But now I'm just saying, I'm not recommending that you should not use consultants to help you write your grant proposals. But I'm just saying that if you're broke, like if you're dead broke, you can just buy, let's say 15.

If you buy like 1/5 data on AT Salat, I think they have like a like a four gig plan. So if you have like 1500 now you buy, you get a four gig plan for the month. You can watch a few YouTube videos. So from YouTube and then plus Gemini and then all those things, you should be able to figure out how you can put together a convincing grant proposal. So since where was I? So since I had mentioned grants, now I wanted to give her some grant opportunities, some grants that she can apply for.

So I did some small research, but this is not in depth research. So I mentioned to Kelly and I'm also mentioning to you guys all these things I'm saying now because I'm saying it, don't take it. That is gospel truth. I'm not affiliated to these people. I just did a small Google search just to see what's out there. So you can also do a Google search as well to see what's available in your city. So you can check, you know,

grants female based entrepreneurs, you know who are here if you happen to be in more here and throw it in Google and then see what comes up, you know, so Google will show a number of options, maybe like 10. You look through the list, see the place that is closest to you, the place that has physical office that you can go to and make inquiries or the place that has phone number that you can call and make inquiries, but or e-mail and make inquiries.

But either way, you can do some research. So what I found was flourish Africa. That was one flourish Africa. Then I also found African Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum as very long. So just use the initials. The initials are AWIEF, African Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum. Then there's also she leads Africa, I repeat, she leads Africa. These are people who are making grants for female based businesses.

And then there's also the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund which also has grants for female entrepreneurs. And then there is sorry, one moment, OK, a notification was coming through my phone. Just wanted to be sure was nothing urgent. Then there's also Faith Foundation Legos. Now I mentioned to her that I have done some consulting work for Faith Foundation Lagos because Faith Foundation Lagos, they they offer, they offer resources for entrepreneurs.

So I've done some consulting work with them, I've done some training work with them. And recently Faith Foundation partnered with the OCIF, that's the Orange Corners Innovation Fund or something like that. And I think that they are from the royal family in Denmark Abbey, never Netherlands, Denmark. Sorry, forgive me, I'm poor in geography when I know that Faith Foundation has collaborated with the OCIF. So just Google OCIF Orange Corners Innovation Fund.

So Netherlands, Denmark, I don't know if they're different or they're the same place. Forgive my ignorance. So they partnered with that program where they have trained entrepreneurs in Nigeria. I know that they have done like Lagos edition. I think they have done like Ocean Edition, I can't remember which other states, but basically they take people, they train people, they give you startup capital and you know, stuff like that.

So those kind of options are available as well. Now fortunately, Faith Foundation is based in Lagos, so somehow all the kind of things that Faith Foundation and bodies like that do end up being more like a Lagos kind of thing. But all that Faith Foundation is crucial. Just go and have a look because you never know, maybe they have some Abuja thing that they're working on. But also because Faith Foundation, even though they don't give, give grants to women entrepreneurs, they, they give loans and the loans are not as bad as bank loans.

Then there's another program, the First Bank of Nigeria Gem Fund. And the reason why I found that one interesting is because they claim that they do single digit loans, but I didn't call them up to find out. Like when they say single digit loan, does it means that the interest rate is not going to pass 9% as in single digit or not the only give single digit loans like they can lend out, you know, 20K30K, you know, those sorts of things.

So any I don't know, but that's not just what a simple Google search and threw up. But bottom line, what I'm trying to say is this that with Google and with AI and stuff like that, there is you don't have to be depressed. You know, we, we actually can sit down on our phones and our computers and then come up with a couple of workable solutions and like, what have you got to lose? If there's a phone number, call up the phone number and you know, explain the situation and see if there are any resources that you can take advantage of with these particular organizations.

So that's it pretty much. So if you listen to the one oh man episode, that's the lady who was in then we state the caterer, you can see that the resources that I gave for her are different from the resources that I gave for Kelly. But either we shall, we can find resources, we can make these things work. But please, please, please, please, please, Please remember, if you are in the same sort of situation that Kelly is in,

doesn't matter whether you're a caterer or you're a wedding photographer or you're an architect or whether you sell cement. Ordinarily, if you did your numbers correctly, the money for your office shop, the money for your supplies, the money for employees, the money for everything at the end of the month, at the very least, you should be breaking even. Breaking even just means I no gain, but I no lose as in like I didn't suffer.

Break even is not what we should be aiming for because break even means that you're not putting any money in your pocket. But I'm just saying that at the very least, worst case scenario, last last, you should be breaking even. If you are not breaking even. I'm begging you, the easiest thing to do is to raise your prices before you start exploring all these other things. Because if you're not breaking even, it means that your unit economics is poor.

Unit economic means when you look at one particular, when you look at one particular item that you produce, one particular client that you consult on, or one particular plate of rice that you sell, it means that based on that unit, based on that one thing, you are already losing money. Now if you have poor unit economics are you now go and borrow money, you are borrowing money to put on something that has poor unit economics.

You could be potentially taking money to start wasting the money. Or you take an equity partner. The person is now 5050. You now take the person's money. You're taking equity to now go and pour on poor unit economics like you are borrowing money to now throw down the drain potentially. Or you go and take a grant, yes, even though that one is free money. But what's the point of doing all this hard work, writing the proposal, write the presentation, you go for an interview, you defend everything, they award you the money, and then you take the money and now just throw it down the hole.

Raise your prices, Fix your unit economics first, raise your prices before we start exploring other things. So that was my heartfelt advice to Kelly and my heartfelt advice to anybody listening to the show who is in a similar situation. So you are an architect, you're getting clients by the end of the month. You're like this money self. Where is it? I'm not saying this money. Raise your prices. All right, so that's it.

If you'd love to connect for a strategy session for a business audit, or you have questions you'd like me to answer, the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. The name to look for is Tave Shima Aidi and then I have a YouTube channel the same name as well, Tavishima Ayede. Just check Tavishima Ayede on Google. Sorry, I said Google on YouTube and you find all the free resources that I have there.

Currently we have over 1080 something videos on the channel. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.