Don't Let Your Budget Dictate Your Dreams: Finding Your Perfect Business Fit

Hello and welcome to the show. I'm recording this at home with the kids around because of course, it's the holidays and then there's been some light Abuja rain so I expect to hear some noise in the background. Now yesterday, Tuesday was the day that rather is the day because this happens every single Tuesday. That's when I do my radio show. That's the business booster show on Radio Maria 91.3 FM and it's a call in show.

So people get to call in and we get to discuss business problems like we get to troubleshoot and then a couple of people also call in because they want to encourage people because there's someone, some people call in with the problem and then somebody calls in later on to say, oh, you know what? Back when I was in this stage of my business when I had this problem, this is how I solved it. You know, things like that. So it turns out that the radio show actually is a very wonderful business community.

I mean, sort of like what we do over here on the podcast. It's just that on the radio show, it's live. So last week I received a call from two people separately, those Regina and Arifa. And they both wanted to know business ideas that they could start with a certain amount of money. And one of them wanted to know what kind of businesses can I start with 100K? And the other person wanted to know what kind of business can I

start with 50K. And yesterday I finally tackled the question because last week I think we had like 7-8 callers so it's not possible to go through every single question. But of course I write everything down and I was able to get to Regina and RFR this week. So I started off by saying, and I want to share the RFR Regina as a case study because I think it's not entirely the right way to go about these sorts of things. You know, to think, OK, I only have 100K, what kind of business can I do with it?

I don't think it's the right way to start. I mean, some people are trying to hedge their risk. And if that's the case, I still think it's not even the best way to start because there are other factors that go into making a business successful, like location, marketing and effort, you know, things I'll talk about time and time again. And in fact, some of the things that we're going to talk about today, you'll see that they are location specific.

So there are lots of factors that are going to making sure that the business survives and thrives. So if you're coming at either from a risk mitigation point, it's not entirely the best way to think about it. And if you're thinking about it from the level of, OK, that's all the money that I have, I would understand how you would start thinking, OK, 100K is all I have, So what business can I do for 100K? But still, I would think that that is the wrong way to go about it.

Sorry for using that word wrong, not the wrong way, but I think there are much more better ways that we can go about this. So this is how I answered their question. First of all, I gave them the answer that they wanted. Then after that, I gave my own perspective on how we ought to be thinking about these sorts of things. So just like I said, nothing is foolproof, nothing is 100%. The factors for business success can be many things.

It's varied. But in this case, a lot of the ideas that we're going to discuss are location specific. And then of course, every single business, whether it's location specific or not, there's a marketing component to it. And then there's also an effort component to it. So in other words, it's possible that you pick the you pick the right location, but because your marketing is crap or because you don't put in enough effort, the business is going to fail.

Or rather let me say the business might fail. You know, because it's possible they can have a poor location. Abby, how did I put it? Anyway, forgive me, but you get what I'm trying to say. Now, there are lots of things that we have to juggle to make sure that the business succeeds. So for some of these businesses that are location specific, we need the right location, we need the right kind of marketing and then we also need to put in the right level of effort to make sure that this thing succeeds.

So let's start off with 100K ideas and I think Nigeria people and is it Americans or is that busy Aussies? Is that there's some people that use 1100, I mean use the K thing different in Nigeria when we say 100K, we mean 100,000. OK, So just to make sure we're on the same page. But then of course, if you want to know how much money that is, let's say you're listening in from Cameroon or listening from Bangladesh or America or whatever or China, then just go and use the currency calculator.

We'll give you a sense of how much actually is worth in your own local currency. But unfortunately in Nigeria of the day, 2025, excuse me, as at the date of this recording because of hyperinflation 100,000, it just isn't worth much you carry to the open market. You know, it's not, it's not anything really. So, yeah. So ideas for 100,000 naira, 100 key ideas. Now, one that I came up with was POS. Now POS just means point of sale.

Point of sale is, you know, people running around with those little machines that you can use to pay for something. And because the Nigerian government has this policy now of trying to grow us into a cashless economy. So successive governments have been trying to make sure that we stop carrying money around. It is necessary that we have that we need to have more POS devices so that people can do cashless transactions.

And so because of that, we currently have last I heard, the gist I heard was we have over 2 million registered POS operators in the country and it looks like even that is not enough, like we might still need more. So because of the policy thrust of the government, it looks like this is a good business to go into. And you do not need, you don't need huge sums of money to do it. You can do with 100K. And unfortunately for me, you know, I mentioned that on the air and lo and behold, somebody sends me a question.

They want to know how to start that business with 100K. And you know, it just goes to some of the dangers that I'm trying to avoid that because 100K is all you have, doesn't mean you should be thinking what 100K business should I be going into? But anyway, I'll get into the dangers of this kind of thinking later on. Let me just answer their questions. First the 100K and then the 50K. So OK then apart from that, we also don't have enough banks or ATMs in this country.

The gist I heard, please go and verify the figures is that the bank branches with ATMs in this country are just over 400,400 thousand branches in this great big country of ours only 400,000. That is precisely the reason why we have over 2 million POS operators accounting, because when people even want access to the cash, for lots of people, they would have to go to great lengths to go to a bank to get the money. In fact, if you listen to the episode that I made last week for the fellows, the Ben Ray boys just like me who are trying to look for money to finance their business.

One of them wants to do SIM admin registration and then the other one who wants to do car fleet, you know, Bolts, Uber, and that's all those sorts of things. If you remember the chap in Ali AD the local government in binary state when I was talking to him about microfinance, because I know for sure that you know, major banks, you know, like Sterling, Zenith, STANBIG, IPTC, Access Bank. I know that all those banks are not in Ali ADI know for sure because in Pop C's village in in Shangivia that's inquiring the local governments, we don't have those banks.

So I just knew that OK, Ali AD the banks will be there. So even microfinance banks are not even Ali AD local government. So I know that a lot of you listening to this show who are in a similar situation like oh, every time we have to go and travel home, whether it's Christmas or Easter, once we enter Villa, you know, there's no bank. If we need cash, we need to load up on cash before we enter Villa. So for lots of Nigerians, that is the case.

So these people who are running POS businesses, they actually are serving a vital need because even though there's no POS in Ali AD, so even though there's no bank in Aliade, even though there's no bank in Shanghai, even though there's no bank in, I don't know, Umuahia or wherever it is you come from, at least POS operators are definitely there. Even if they're not close to your house, at least you know that by the time you enter general markets in your village,

you will see one or two POS operators. So those people definitely serve, serve a valuable role. So POS business as a business that can be done then excuse me, another business that I went into that can be done with 100,000 naira or less as a mobile hairdressers and mobile barbers. Now for some of you, you've never heard of that before and to be honest, I didn't know that those things existed until this year because I was driving around one day and I got stuff in some serious traffic in Abuja.

Now I know those of you who live in Lagos, you guys will laugh, You say which kind of traffic in Abuja I better go and sleep by anyway, by Buja standards out serious traffic. So I now started entering coral, you know, to see how I can avoid the traffic. Enter 1 coral, enter 1 coral. So I now bust out in front of one place and I noticed that in front of one house there was this big umbrella, like what was it called Nikon insurance, that big, big, big, very big umbrella, as in bigger than empty and umbrellas.

So the big umbrella was there and there was a woman sitting down in the chair next to her. Was this like a portable sink? Like a sink on the stand, you know, the sink that women used to wash their hair in salons. You know, when you do permit and you need to wash that, relax off your hair. So that kind of sink. Then there was another chair, then there was a pedicure stool and, you know, some small, small things here and there.

And I was a man's saloon. So I was like, OK, I just drove by. Then later on, I gave my wife the G's. My wife was like, oh, standard. It happens all over the place. I was like, yeah, really? And then mom, she showed up like two days later and then I told mom, see about it. Oh, this is what I saw. Can you imagine? My mom was like, no, no, this one is standard. My people have been doing this since in the end of this by me,

I never noticed. So there are people who that is how they start the hairdressing business. You understand the hairdressing business. You go and look for the price of the shop. The local council people tell you that look, shop is 500 K. You think to yourself, I don't have 500K, but you only have 100K. You go and buy one or two things, you put it outside your house and then you start doing business. Then if it looks like these people, what are they called?

The task force. If you see task force, you not gather everything and then run inside your compound, you know, say that some people that start like that, you know, 100K. By the way, I'm not advocating that you break the law. That's not what I'm asking you people to do. So do not fly out the laws, but you know, let me just keep quiet. Let nobody quote me saying that I said on a show that I said something. So let me just keep quiet.

So mobile hairdresser, mobile barbers. Yeah, that's how people do it. Then laundry service. Now it's not hard. You just need bucket water, buy a board, buy your iron, make sure you budget for Nepal bills. And that's you pretty much. And then you can do it from your house. Laundry service. Then freelance writing. You can also do it less than 100K, assuming that you already have your phone or your computer so you don't have to go and buy 1.

So freelance writing, content creation, copywriting, you can do that easily from your house. The only money that you're going to spend is you're going to pay for some courses, pay for some material, pay for certification, your distribute Flyers, do some online ads, wash up 100 Ki think you can run it. Then there's also home based food delivery. All you have to do is buy the raw material. Buy your rice, your chicken, your goat meats, everything.

And then you factor in money to pay the Okada rider that will send the money to the house. I say money that will send the food to the client's house. By the way, when it comes to selecting dispatch drivers, please select somebody that has sense because I heard of someone who had a real nasty experience. They tried to do this both delivery something and the driver must have been driving like crazy because when the food got to the other person, the food you know, was now, you know, mixed and turned any which doesn't look like.

So give it to a dispatch rider who has sense because these things rub off negatively on you because when you receive the food, when they receive the food and they open the food and the food looks like you were shot out of a catapult, you know they won't think stupid dispatch writer. They will think about you that what kind of stupid cateries this that look at how this food is. Is a human being supposed to eat this food?

So be careful when selecting a dispatch writer. Then mobile phone accessories. That's also a business you can start with less than 100 grand. I know this one for a fact because OK, let me not say for a fact because I'm guessing to be honest, because whenever you know, you go to, you go to the motor park, you know, relatives around you drop them back so you can take the bus back home. You always see those boys with the bag and with the basket and they're selling screen selling chargers, they're selling power banks are selling, you know,

stuff like that. So I think definitely you can start that kind of business on the budget also selling screen protectors. Then fruit and vegetable sales. Yeah, that's also less than 100 grand. You know, people, you see them around now, at least in Abuja, you see them around in the estate, small table, sell watermelon, carrot, green pepper, you know, that kind of thing. Then small scale food production, you know, snacks and pastries and then what else?

Then bead making and jewelry. You know, these are small, small things that you can start with 100K. So like if you're making these things, what are they called again? I call them a shallow beads, but my sister-in-law says it's not a shallow beads that ileke and that's what they're called. But anyway, regardless, you know what it what it is I'm talking about. So you're making ileke and you're making, you know, the one that people wear on their wrists then yeah, you can do that.

Less than 100 grand. So those were some of the ideas that we looked at on the show that's on the radio show on Radio Maria, when we're looking at ideas that you can start for 100K. And of course people called in later on to give testimony about, oh, you know what, what you're saying is true. I started this business with this amount and you know, we're able to agree to this amount and blah, blah, blah. So yes, some of the suggestions turned out to be true.

Then for the second person for business ideas on 50K, remember I told you guys that 100K is not, is not much because look, let's be honest. See, like today, for instance, my fan belt cut is just one of those things actually cut last night. I got the mechanic to come this morning, so wanted to buy a good quality belt then plus Okada and you know, to go and get the belt out to come and everything. That's how 25K just miss straight.

Then of course electrician was over at the house because you know, when we moved in, the sockets that we had here we're not really good quality. So I wanted to change it. The sockets for the fridge, the socket for the for the air conditioner and the socket for the deep freezer. So you know, materials this that, that that that and that's how you know close like 20 K just miss. So you can see that in the space of one morning like that for a very simple ordinary Nigerian,

just like you and me, you can see that, you know, they just break already 50K don't miss and not on anything substantial, nothing serious. So like I didn't enter market, you know, nothing substantial. That's how money just makes like that. So 100K not worth much then? Well, of course if you dash ME100K now you know, by all means I'll take it because I could use it for something most def. But in actual purchase times not worth much.

So if it's a challenge coming up with ideas for 100K, then even 50K the challenge gets even harder. But of course, like I mentioned on the show that sometimes we sit and we brainstorm, sometimes we pick up our phones, we check Google, sometimes we check ChatGPT, we check Gemini, and we should be able to come up with some ideas. Some ideas will make sense, some ideas will not. For those that don't make sense, discard. For those that make sense, give it a try.

But still, I think there's a better way to think about these sorts of things the fundamental way when it comes to getting into business. So for business idea for 50K now same considerations. Apply location marketing effort for those ones that are location dependent. Make sure you get your location tight. Like for the lady who is doing mobile hair dressing. If you set up your mobile hair umbrella in the wrong place then I'm sorry for you.

You will not get any business. I'm assuming you want it in a residential space where there's plenty of foot traffic. Foot traffic just means people, they walk up and down or people are driving left and right or people are taking Okada here and there. That is when somebody will see you and the person will think, you know what I need to do? Wash. I set sharply. Let me just do it here. Or these braids. I want to loosen these braids.

But if I go home now and I call my daughters, my daughters will send me or my daughters might not be at home. So let me just stay here and loosen my braids. Sharp, sharp, you know that kind of thing. So location dependent. So you're thinking about this sort of thing. Mobile hairdresser. Excuse me mobile Baba then sorry, excuse me, you need a place that has lots of food traffic. Sorry about that. My voice is kind of tired because yes it was a busy day.

Apart from the radio show, I also did 2 coaching sessions and I can tell you guys now that there is no occupation that doesn't have its hazards. Let me just put it that way because I remember back in my event days, you know, when you're doing events, you're standing for like 12 hours straight and I used to think, oh boy, isn't that an easier way to make money? It just turns out that no matter which way of picking, no matter which way of making money that you pick, it has its own hazards.

So as a matter of pick your poison. So if you're doing a lot of sitting for a living, it has its hazard, backache, shoulder ache, and you're doing lots of standing for a living, it has its hazards. If you're doing lots of manual labor for a living, it has its hazards. If you're doing lots of talking for a living, it has its hazards. But I guess some hazards are better than other. I mean, I'd rather talk for a living than do manual label.

Anyway, let me get back to the to the point. So for 50K now, one idea that I was able to find was perfume, perfume oil sales. Now when we say perfume oil, we don't mean Isimiaki, we don't mean Calvin Klein. And yes, some of you will start laughing at me saying isimiaki. What year were you born? Calvin Klein. Ha ha ha. Do people still use Calvin Klein? Well I'm sorry I'm not a very fashionable guy so I do not know what perfumes are raining nowadays, but back when I was in school, if you had Isimiaki,

perfumes were a big boy. Well to be honest, I can't even remember if Isimiaki is a perfume self, but I know sure that we used to do isimiaki. What else? Christian Dior, CK, Calvin Klein, what else? And even even Tommy, like Tommy Hilfiger. There's one Tommy Hilfiger perfume that actually ran back then back when we were in school when I was in Greg's white bottle like this with the Tommy Hilfiger flag on it. So, so I'm not talking about those kinds of perfumes because I hear now I had some guys discussing, I won't say who they are, but if you haven't listened to the episode, yes, I'm talking about you and we're talking about perfume.

And they say, oh, they want to buy 20ML and the bottle IS300K. And in my mind, my brain just went like mad. Like I exploded. Like what the hell, They want to spend 300 grand on perfume. Like you don't have any other priorities as in grown man 300K perfume by saying let me keep quiet because when I talk like that, my wife just says beef now because I don't have 300 K to throw around on what I consider to be trivialities.

So let me just leave it. So yes, I'm not talking about those kind of perfume that you know, 300K500K, just one bottle. But it is possible that you can go and buy perfumes, bulk, bulk purchase. This is more like local perfumes and local body oils. You can go to the market, buy them in bulk purchase and then repackage them in small, small bottles like 100 hundred meals, you know, 120 meals, 150 meals, you know that kind of thing.

And you'll be selling them small, small, small. Now, that was the one that somebody gave me testimony. The fellow called and was like, look, that he can be a testimony to the fact that his perfume business, he didn't move. I was like, yeah, really. He said, yes, of course. Now when my girlfriend was still in school, if I went again and said my girlfriend, I was like, hey, my director will square him now because Radio Maria, it's it's not a Catholic radio station.

But to be honest, it is founded upon Catholic principles. So I know for sure that when the guys say my girlfriend can imagine that the program's director was I've been squirming in his in his seat by anyway, so I had to guess it. So while my girlfriend was in university now she was thinking of what to do blah, blah, blah. So I gave her 25K. Let's do this perfume business. I said within one week she made over 50 Ki was like seriously.

So yes, yes, yes. So that was the testimony. So all that testimonies came in like that. So some of these things might sound far fetched or strange or beneath you or whatever, but just know there are people who are doing this. And somebody called in live and direct to say that he gave his girlfriend 25K and within one week she made that 25 K 50K. Then let's see what else. OK, VTU, virtual top up. Virtual top up. That's what we used to do back in the good old days.

That's in Obasanje era when GSM first came into Niger. So now you buy credit on your apps and stuff like that. You know, you buy on your apps what else? You buy on your banking apps, you buy on mobile apps, maybe you buy on OPA, you know, stuff like that. That's how people buy credit nowadays. But back in the day when emptying was fresh, you actually had to go to somebody in the store that was branded with MTN or Econet or Glow.

And you tell the person, give me 1000 credits. The person will say no problem. He will collect 1000 from you. The person will give you a card. You will now scratch that card and behind that card there will be a code like star, 333 star something, something hash, you know, send. You type that in, you send it to your phone. And that's how we loaded up our phones in a good old days. Then after a while, the scratch card was replaced with paper and you just go and buy paper.

Now I thought those things were dead and gone, but surprise surprise, those people are still with us today. That's the VTU people. And I know that because one day now if I steal this fan belt issue because the fan belt actually caught like 2 weeks back, I called the mechanic, he brought two options. We picked the one that he said was trusted, of course was the more expensive one and you know that's the same one I caught now and then the idiot you know shows up and anyway, that's a long story.

Let me just leave the whole thing. So that was when the fan belt just caught the first time now. So now to pay for this thing now as when it is a lot and glue and everybody decided to do me a shaggy. I was not able to get Internet access at all to transfer money. And then of course I was low on cash. So I said let me just try my luck. I tracked down to the junction. I saw one guy you know, selling watermelon and you know all these kind of things.

And then I just asked him, you know, bro, I beg go fee buy credit. And then he pointed behind him and see that guy, see that guy with the back and say, oh, OK, I went to go and meet him. I said, bro, I bet glue 500 so sure, no problem. And then he brought out the sheet of paper and then I did the star something, something star whatever, whatever, whatever hash sent. And then also I was able to load up, load up my glow line and then I'll get glow data since my other data was misbehaving, get glow data to now be able to do everything.

But for good measure, I also bought Abby. OK, anyway, that's how I got glow data basically. So summary what I'm trying to say is that those people still exist, the VTU people. So if you're ever in the pinch, just look around. If you see, you know, I want junction, maybe somebody selling one time alone, somebody selling biscuits, somebody selling into me, just go there and ask, you know, I beg, I want to buy credit. No point.

You and those guys still exist. And that's a business that you can start with less than 50K. Because when I tried that business many years ago, just when I was when I knew you got married, me and the guy that were partnering together, we started off with 20,000. That's how much I dropped. I can't remember how much he dropped, but yeah, we definitely started with less than 50K. Then of course, freelance digital services, I mentioned that graphical design, I think graphic design, social media management and all those sorts of things, assuming that you already have your own computer and you have your own mobile phone and stuff like that.

So those were the ideas that we looked at for businesses that you can start for under 100K and for under 50K. So that's how I settled Regina and that's how I settled what's the second lady's name? Can't believe I've forgotten it, but that's how I settled them. And another person called in to say, OK, this POS business that you've mentioned, how can I start this POS business now? So I'll tackle that question next week.

But the proper way that we should be thinking about this thing is it's not a matter of a half 100K. What is 100K business I should start? No, the proper way, the more systematic way, the more fundamentally sound way of getting into a business is a three prong framework that I talk about a lot on this podcast. That is number one. We need to find the right idea. The right idea is contextual and depends on you, your age, where do you live, what's the environment like?

What is your interest? What is your skill set, what is your passion? So the right business idea for me might not be the same business idea for you because there's somebody who is making millions of naira in the sheet parking business. When we first moved to Lagos, I was surprised. I saw the billboards everywhere and I was like so sheet parking is business and I had that actually is very, very good business. But to be honest, maybe any, I

don't know. To be honest, I, I don't think I can do sheet parking business. I don't think so, even though I'll have to pay some other people to handle the crap. Literally speaking, I don't think that's the business for me. So we need to find the right idea is contextual to who you are and a bunch of other stuff. We now need to ask ourselves, is this a profitable market to enter? Is there market demand for this idea? Do people value?

Do people desire, do people want, do people chase these things that I'm about to invest money in? We need to ask ourselves that question because if it's the right idea but people don't want to pay money for it, wala. If it is the right idea but people want to pay money for it but not enough people so that we can build a, a profitable business, then wala. If it is a business and we have, if it's a good idea, that is good for me.

And you know, 99.9% of the people we run into want to pay for it, but they don't want to pay enough for me to be able to run the business or to have a sustainable living, then wala. So that #2 important. Then the final question, can we develop selling frameworks around these things, this idea? Can we develop marketing systems around this idea? Can we come up with selling channels? Can we sell the damn thing? Shah, those are the three main things you should ask.

So you don't wake up and say only have 500 K in my account, which business can I start with 500K? We start off by saying what is the right idea? OK, these ideas are found. Are they profitable? OK, it's profitable. Is there significant market demand? And then we're not asked, OK, is this the kind of thing that I can sell? Because it might be the right idea and they're enough people and they're willing to pay for the amount.

But you don't have the skill sets to sell this thing or you don't have the interest in selling this thing. You're not motivated in selling this thing, and you don't know how to partner with some other person who can sell this sort of thing. Take my snails and catfish, I hear it is very possible, but there are some people who have no idea about how to go about selling catfish. You have no idea about what kind of networking you need to do to sell catfish, what kind of associations that you have to join to sell catfish or take human hair.

If I were to sell human hair, to be honest, well, I can give it a go, but you know, I'm not fancy, I'm not fashionable. I don't know that world. I don't even know where what I will begin to start selling human hair. I have no idea. And if you would give me the challenge, I'm sure if I sit down, I give myself like two or three days, I might, I might be able to give it a go. But bottom line, what I was trying to say is that there's one thing being a good idea and a profitable idea.

There's another thing, whether you can sell the thing or you know how to partner with someone that can sell the thing. So those are the main things that we should be looking at, not just how much money is in our bank account. So when it comes to the right idea, are you passionate about this thing? I don't like businesses that are founded on passion because if you found a business on passion, you're going to get very heartbroken because baking a cake for fun is nice.

But when a bride has given you money and she's calling you to say, look, this wedding is 3 days away, where is my damn cake is a different thing entirely. The first time when you're baking for fun, the thing we give you joy. When an angry bride is shouting on you that where's my cake? The thing that's supposed to give you joy is now giving you plenty of heartache and giving you plenty of axed. So that's why I don't like passion LED businesses.

However, passion is important because it keeps you going when the time gets tough. So passion, yeah, it's a good thing to look at. So the business idea, are you passionate about this thing? Have you been putting any kind of effort or any practice behind it? Do you have a skill set here? Do you have any affinity for the thing or have you looked at gaps in the market? Because it's a conversation that I had with my son 2 days ago while talking about business opportunities.

And I pointed out to him how in Nigeria, we have lots of solar power companies. I mean, companies are selling solar power drive into any estate. You will see that on the big, big houses, you see them 8 solar panels, 1216. I even saw one house just I didn't have enough time to count. But Omar was being to look like they had like up to like 30 something panels. And I was wondering man, like what are you powering inside that house?

But I was when I was in what's this place in kind of Utako, past Utako. It's one of the more affluent parts of Abuja, very modern houses, very sweet looking houses, nice designs, ultra modern designs and stuff. So the roofs are on different sides of the house. Anyway, let me not bore you. The bottom line. What I'm trying to say is that yes, in Nigeria, there's a need for solar businesses because in this particular environment,

NEPA is crap. If you're going to rely on NEPA, you're going to be heartbroken a lot of the times. So it makes sense that if you can afford it, you buy solar. But then I pointed out to my son that while his mom and I lived and worked in the UK, we did not see a single solar panel. Nowhere. Because, OK, well, they don't have sunshine, yes, that's a problem. But minus that, we didn't see solar panels, we didn't see wind turbines, we didn't see any alternative energy.

Whatever. Because in Scotland, Nepal works fantastic. Except for the time when there was that famous tornado off the coast of Scotland. We think not our power in the city. And I was confused because I was confused because, you know, I never expected it because, you know, in this part of the world, in Nigeria, you know, we make it look as if in America and other parts of the world never don't take lights. But The thing is, never takes light everywhere.

It's just that in Nigeria never takes light daily. In other parts of the world when NEPA takes lights is an extreme occurrence. Like when they had that issue in Texas and then they didn't have power for two weeks or three weeks or something. So Napa takes like everywhere. It's just that in other places it's more of an extreme weather event. For some people. It's a once in a lifetime thing. So when I was confused now when the light went off, I was like,

hey, even in the UK, by 5 minutes later, life was back. And then life was back. And then life continued just as normal. So where was I? Market gaps? Yes, gaps in the market, gaps in the environment. So in Nigeria solar business, good idea. If you want to sell solar and generator in Scotland, you're wasting your time because quite frankly, there is no need for it. Let's see then, is the market profitable? Is there any market demand?

Try and sell a few things. That's where this whole thing of MVP comes up. MVP is just a minimum viable product. The minimum viable product is the smallest version of your idea that you can use to test whether this thing is profitable and you can do an MVP in most businesses. So for this lady now that started the mobile hair thing that I saw on the coral when I was trying to avoid traffic, it's easy to see how she probably went to go and make inquiries.

How can I get a shop in this market? And then they told her, look Madam, your bill is 800 K and that's why she probably started out of her house, you know, minimum viable product. What is the smallest version of this thing that I can start with? Eventually I would like to have a shop where I have 10 girls manning 18 chairs, where we do haircut, hair dye, dreadlocks, relaxing, retouching and breeds. But until then, right now we'll start with one umbrella and two chairs and one sink and one foot massage thing.

So that's MVP, minimum viable product, the smallest version of your idea that you can use to test whether there's market demand. Then the whole thing of whether we can create a selling framework around it or that we can create marketing systems around it. But what you're trying to figure out, can I sell myself? Should I partner with someone else who's going to sell? Are we going to try certain kinds of selling, selling channels online for instance, or are we going to try and look for selling channels offline, maybe looking for distributors, you know, things like that.

What kind of sales scripts or frameworks are we going to use? What kind of SO PS, are we going to come up with SOP, standard operating procedure? What's the SOP, What's the training framework for the sales boys and the sales girls that we're going to use to sell that we're going to use to train them so they can sell on our behalf? Sorry, apologies. Nowadays sales boy, sales girl is considered derogatory, is considered an insult.

So I guess I should be saying sales associate. So what standard operating procedures are we going to use to train our sales associates? So those are all the questions you need to ask yourself. So in my own opinion, for a business to succeed, you're better off waking up and asking yourself these questions. What is the right idea for me? Is this thing profitable? I think enough people who demand this thing and can I come up with a plan to sell it?

If you answer all those questions in the affirmative, you answer them good, good, good. Tick mark, tick mark, tick mark, green light, green, light, green light. The chances of business being doing good are high when you start off with, oh, what can I do with 100K? It's kind of arbitrary because the 100K idea might work, but The thing is, it's an idea that you don't have passion for, you don't have the skill set for. And maybe there's no gap in the market.

And maybe the thing might not be profitable or maybe there's no demand, but it might be profitable. But because you have no passion for it, you have no skill set, no affinity for it, You have no idea how you to go about selling the thing. So those are the things that I think we should be thinking of and not just how much capital do we have. So that's it. Then next week when I talk with that guy about starting POS business, I'll come over here and then give you guys the low down because to be honest, I've not done POS business before.

So off the top of my head, I can't tell you this is how you appears business. So I'll have to go and do some research because I know that POS people, there is some regulatory compliance that you guys have to meet with. POS people have to be registered with central bank. I'm not sure if it's central bank or commercial bank, but I know that there's some registrations that need to be there. Then also I also have to do some research.

You know, how much does the, what's it called, that actual card reader itself, how much of that thing cost and things like that. So I'll do my research and get back to you guys over here. But Please remember, just in case you heard anything here and you thought that makes sense. I have 100 key, I can start it. Please remember to factor in the other things. Right idea. Is the thing profitable? Can I build a selling framework around it?

So thank you very much for your time and attention. And if you would love to get in touch for a strategy session for a business audit or you have questions you'd like for me to answer, the number to reach me on is 08066. Sorry, 08064662140 again. The number is 080. 64662140 the country code is +234. That is my WhatsApp number or you can connect with me on LinkedIn. The reason why I forgot my phone number was because I was about to slow down and say the thing.

And to be honest, the the phone number for the radio station was what popped into my head, not my own actual phone number because on the podcast I just say my number like that. You know, 64662140, I just say quick before the radio, we have to slow it down so that people write the number. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode. And for those of you who resumed work today because Salah holidays was yesterday, Tuesday and the day before Monday, all of you guys have resumed work and everybody's hearty and healthy.

I'll catch you guys at the next episode.