Escape the Grind: Launching a Weekend Business & Exploring Fish Farming

Hello and welcome to the show. I'm making today's recording from an undisclosed location in Central Area in Abuja. So expect to hear the usual interruptions in the background. Now, the goal of this show is free business education. So this is your first time tuning in. Don't worry, you're in the right place. This is not about wonderful places to visit in Abuja and if by the time you're done with the podcast you find it to be of value, please share, promote and talk about the show with your friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad so that they can benefit from the questions that we tackle.

They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of their choice. And if you in particular have any sales and marketing questions, then bring them to me. Call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I want us to tackle 2 questions that I've already handled on air for the radio show. And I remembered these two questions in particular because today is Tuesday, so you know I'm going to be on the air later on 7:00 PM in the evening on Radio Maria.

And so we're going to be looking at two issues. Let's see. OK, One of them is how to get into fisheries because somebody had that question. And for those of you who've been listening to the podcast for a long time, you remember the episode that I did with the fellow who runs, what do you call it, an aquaculture training institution. I've been, you know, something like that. So it's something we've done on the podcast before, So I'll just rehash that.

Then let's see what else. OK, then ideas, good business ideas that can be done on weekends only. That's what people who want to do. What was it called again? What's that thing called side hustle? Yeah, for people who want to do side hustles. So let's start off with the first one. The first one. So Grace from Metama called into the radio station. She works full time, but she wants to start a business. She wants to do something part time, but she's only available on weekends.

She's available on weekends only. Now. Let me see. What was that? OK, Well, it's a good question. But the problem with some of these, OK, Grace didn't call. She sent a text message. Now the problem with some of these questions, just in case, you know, dear listener, you're currently listening to this podcast because you're thinking, I want to do something I understand outside also, you know, what should I do? And then, you know, somebody who runs a podcast or a radio show or you want to go and talk to somebody here and there to get some ideas.

When you're asking these sorts of questions of people, you know, the more details that you have, the better. Because the problem with answering questions like this, you know, for Grace or any other person is that, you know, really we can talk about any number of things and being plausible business ideas can go on for days. So actually, the more details that you have, the better. But I'm going to get back into this later.

So of course I want, I want to know what she's currently doing, you know, because I have ideas about how your Plan B or your side hustle should be related to your plan A or what it is that you're already doing so that you can take advantage of the knowledge and the skill set and the expertise and the reputation that you already have to now channel into a side hustle. Because when you're starting off from this point using your knowledge, your expertise, your credibility, your reputation, it makes it easier to sidestep.

So let's pretend that I'm not a business consultant and I still have this radio show. And then one day I say, you know what? Radio don't tire me. I want to move off into something else. If I am going to start being a consultant to help other people get radio shows, you can see that that is going to be an easier side hustle and an easier step because I'm taking advantage of my skill set in radio production, my network based, my relationship capital,

my social capital that I've built, you know, with other radio stations, other show hosts. What else? The reputation that I already have, what the small reputation I have because I've only been in the, my radio show is only about 2-3 months old, you know, not that much. So you can't really say I have a reputation on radio just yet. So you can see that any business idea that I'm trying to start by taking advantage of the knowledge, the skill set, the capital, the relationships, the excuse me, the whatever, the trying to take advantage of all these soft stuff and trying to pile it into some other part time thing or some Plan B is going to be a whole lot easier than saying let me go and start something afresh.

So if I say radio, don't tie me now, let me go and start selling cement. I will have to Start learning the cement business. What kind of cement? Excuse me? What kind of cement do Nigerian people like to buy? What is the best cement? Which cement is best for dry season? Which cement is best for rainy season? Where should I be importing my cement from? What is the best place to price my cement? Where can I, how can I build relationships with truckers to deliver the cement to my customers?

Who are the people that need cement? Where can I find, you know, it's a whole new host of questions that I'm going to be asking myself. So as a general idea, I always recommend to people if you're looking for a side hustle, you're looking for a Plan B, try and make the Plan B, the side hustle related some way to your plan A so that you're taking advantage of your knowledge, your skill set, your reputation, your expertise, your social capital, your networks, your everything.

You'll make it a whole lot easier to start doing your side hustle. Now for Grace's case now I don't have any details, so I just had a freestyling so you can do freelance someone in Grace's position. So excuse me, sorry, my my little one had a cold as usual and he has affected me. So I'm trying to sort that out. What was I so for Grace now I was just freestyling so she can do freelance because you know, writing, editing, design work,

graphic works, you know, all I kind of think can be done on the weekend. So you can entertain one or two phone calls or DMS during the week whenever you do all the work on the weekend. So that's a good business idea that can be done on weekends only. Photography and video or event management. That was where I started off my business journey from. So of course that one is heavily weekend based. You can talk to people, answer DMS, maybe visit somebody's office, you know, if you need be.

But then once you close the deal, the actual execution, the thing that is going to take time will be on the weekend for photo, video and event management. Then you can also be a tutor. You can teach people music or fitness or whatever. I currently have a music tutor for my son. The music teacher in school says that my boy has some skills on the keyboard. So I say, well, we might as well. So we bought the keyboard and now we have a tutor so people can do that kind of business on the weekends because of course,

me and the tutors, you know, when we're talking because I'm also thinking of a math tutor because my boy also has some math skills and you know, wife, he's thinking about one or two things. So we'll get him a math tutor as well. So with the tutors, we're chatting during the week and the tutor can be doing whatever it is they do. Because it's possible that my music tutor, maybe he works in NNPC, you know, 96 every day when we're trying to hook up this thing where he teaches my son on the keyboard, you know,

for weekends. So it's the kind of thing that that works. And it's possible that let's say my son's math tutor or he's the one that is going to be the math tutor, the one that we're looking at. It's possible that maybe he works in Ministry of Health, for instance, and he's there from 95 when we're trying to hook up these things on weekends or after working hours, he can come and tutor my son in math. So you can see that this thing works.

Then of course, there's handmade crafts, you know, you make your beads, you make your elected, you make your whatever. For those of you who are not Yoruba elected, is those those beads that women wear on their waist? You know, I call them ashy beads, you know, and of course it's obvious why I call them ashy beads because they're supposed to, you know, You understand, So you can be making your like AD your crafts, your beads, your whatever.

So, and The thing is, honestly, there are lots of things you can do that depend on that I weekend only kind of business. So it depends on you, who are you? What's your interest, what's your skill set? What are your personal circumstances? So it depends. So if you ever want to ask someone this kind of question, please, the more details that you can come with someone, the better. So if you come and say I work full time because I'm a radiologist, I want to start a business that can only do on weekends.

I am interested in I'm interested in business ideas that can be done from the cost, the comfort of my home, sitting behind on the computer. And I am not good in writing or graphic design. You know, what kind of business ideas, you know, can we can we come up with, you know, see that kind of thing that is very specific. And with that kind of thing, we'll now know that. OK, writing, freelance editing, all of that is out of the question.

You know, maybe tutoring is an option about the more details that you give someone, the better. So if you're going to shoot me a question or if you're going to go to your neighbor or your pastor in church because you want to discuss business ideas, the more details that you give, the better. But then I also have a framework for starting a business, which I mentioned on the air, which I'm going to mention right now, which is that you want to make sure that you tackle 3 main things.

Number one, make sure you have the right idea #2 make sure that the business idea is profitable and #3 make sure that you can build a selling framework around the idea. Now, right idea, that is when we're focused about your interests, your skill sets, your passion, or maybe problems in the market. That is how we figure out the right idea. So the right idea is just something that you have a passion for, that you're interested in, you have a skill set you already dedicate some effort to, or maybe there's some obvious gaps in the market.

So like I mentioned in my estate, for instance, the other residents have been complaining since that, you know, the trash you're just piling up and nobody's getting rid of the the trash. So if you live in that kind of estate and let's say you have some idle trucks lying around, maybe used to be in construction or something, or maybe you're currently in construction where you have some idle trucks lying around, who knows, maybe that might be a way of setting up your Plan B now, OK, on the weekends, maybe we're not doing construction work, you know, you use the trucks and we'll pick up trash or something like that.

But either way, that's the framework for the right idea. What are you passionate about? What are you interested in? What is your skill set? What are you already putting effort towards? And then what are the gaps are in the market? What are the needs in the market? So I think that that's a better way to focus on this whole thing of I want to do a business, what business can I do? So like I said, I'm repeating the more details the better.

But apart from that, let me be frank with you guys. We are currently in 2025 or in 2025. There's absolutely no reason why in my own opinion, you should be asking somebody this kind of question. Because we have Google and because we have ChatGPT, we have Google Gemini, you know, blah, blah, blah. You can easily prompt these sorts of things. Lots of people are thinking that the problem is the business idea. The problem is not the idea.

The problem is the execution. The problem is that lots of us don't well, when we even come up with the idea, we're not executing on gang, we're not executing on nothing, We're not executing Shishi. So take advantage of Google and start Googling some ideas. Some things will come up. The ones that don't make sense, disregard the one that look like is workable, then try go and execute. It's only then that will now know that OK, this is working,

this what's up. This one is good, this one is rubbish, this one is trash. That's the only way that will make progress. So you really don't have to be asking people these kind of questions in 2025. I understand the business. What should I be doing? You obviously don't. You can just Google the thing or we ChatGPT, come up with a prompt, nice prompt, flesh it out and you get some good results. So in this case, you just get the ChatGPT.

You say I'm an XYZ because you have to give me some context. You know I'm an XYZ. OK? I'm a student living in Abiokuta. I have a a part time hostel working in the ministry of Greek as an admin officer. I'm interested in blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and and I'm looking for a possible business that I can do as a side hustle on the weekend. Give me and give me possible ideas. The give me possible ideas that I can start for a side hustle that I can start for a business that only require me to work on weekends and then back.

And they send you'll be shocked, but Jeremy and I will come out with some things that make sense. Tragedy to come out with some things that make sense. Copilot will come up with some things that make sense. The ones that make sense, just isolate them right now, like 3 or 4 of them. And then you just said, OK, 2025, let me try out these ideas and see, see what can happen. So the main thing is not the idea. You should stop feeling as if I

don't have idea. I don't have idea, I don't have it. Like we're in 2025, we have passed that stage. For our parents, yes, they would have to go and sit with a business coach or go and sit with a pastor or go and ask your friend or go and ask a guidance counselor or something. But for us, we can sit down with our phone or our laptop and you know, back, back about one hour, we have two or three ideas that we can try. And then the main thing now is you try and see, OK, is this thing profitable?

Is there money here? Can I sell this thing? So please, idea should not be holding any back in 2025. Idea should not, especially with Google, especially with ChatGPT, especially with all the AI tools that we have, Idea should not be holding you back. Just sit down, do this thing backward back, come up with some three ideas, 3 or 4 ideas, and then start validating. In fact, in my own opinion, you're better off saying I went to charge a BTI, went to Germany, I went to Google, I did some research.

This is what I found, you know, and I like ideas 4-5 and nine. How do I start a business in 4-5 and nine? You're better off asking that kind of question and saying what kind of idea should I have for my business? No, we're going to sit down. We all have phones. We all have computers. Sit down, do some small research. Then if you're going to now go and talk to your pastor, you're better off going to your pastor. Oh, pastor, I'm thinking of starting chicken business.

I'm thinking of starting poultry business. I'm thinking of starting of selling mattress, but I'm lost. I don't know how to get into this kind of business. So do you know anybody who's involved in this kind of business that can tutor me or that can mentor me? That is a much more fruitful conversation to have than to roll up on somebody and say, hey, mommy, I want to start a business. I don't know what to do. That's to anyhow anyhow.

But then if you're going, if you're going to have this conversation with Popsy and say, oh, Popsy, I'm thinking of starting a business. I understand. I want to become a cobbler. I want to be making shoes Popsy. What do you think? That's a different conversation. That's a much more fruitful conversation I have. So please, by 2025, nobody should be saying I don't know what idea is there, if anything, with the amount of resources that we have, we have the Internet and stuff.

Anyway, let me let me overflow this issue. So that's the first question. So second question. Oh, by the way, don't worry, I didn't scored over the radio. No, if I, if I do that, they'll chase me off of the do chase me off of the airwaves. So the question, the second question we're going to tackle is OK, Another caller, Maria, she intends to get into fisheries. We are for her. It was a phone call. Of course. I told her that, oh, you know what a bad idea.

Give me some time. Let me take this thing. Let me come back because I had interviewed somebody in the past for the podcast about these sorts of things. So now let's look into how to get into fish farming. In case there's anybody who's listening to this podcast who wants to get into fish farming, Of course, I have mentioned that my framework for starting a business is we want to have the right idea. We want to make sure that the business idea is profitable or that they demand for this thing.

And we want to make sure that we can come up with the selling framework. So the reason why I say it is because I'm going to make a very cardinal assumption here. And my assumption is that Maria is interested in fish or that Maria is passionate about fish, or that Maria has some skill set when it comes to fish, or that Maria has been doing some small, small things, just putting some effort here and there when it comes to fish or fisheries or aquaculture or aquatic agriculture, you know, whatever it is that people call it.

So that is 1 assumption that I'm making. So let's get off the table now assuming that that assumption is correct. The next question now is, is this business profitable and is there demand for this thing? Now in her own case, for Maria, this involves understanding the local market in Abuja and the customer base in Abuja. Is there a market for this kind of fish that I want to do? Do households buy plenty of fish? What about hotel and garden?

Because in Abuja, hotel and garden is everywhere. Everywhere you come out of your estate, you look to the left, you see garden, you look to the right, you see garden. In fact, my uncle in law is currently visiting Abuja. And so one of his boys came, I'd come and see him aspire. It's been a long while. So they say they will go somewhere and they just take like, you know, one or two bottles. So that's how they entered the garden.

They came out of the estates. You just looked at the left, you see one guy in the enter. So as night time fell now and there was just, you know, knocking back the beer and enjoying themselves because my uncle's friend came with his wife. That's how the wife now say Jesus. And then he said what is it? They say look over there. And also that was some young girls on the stage, you know, winding and grinding scantily, cloud and everything.

Jesus, let's move, let's move, let's move. You know, they didn't know that the place that they had entered is not only a garden where you can go and take pepper soup and drink stout and or not, but then they also have a strippers there. And so my uncle came back now was giving us just like everybody knows now there are strippers in that place is like I say, yes, uncle now is a is a big business. Yeah, is is normal is in Abuja.

You find these places all the time. And you know, he was shocked because uncle in law hasn't been in the country for a while. So he's shocked to see that we have, you know, advanced in quotes, you know, to that level. By the way, what I'm trying to say is that this, you know, hotel business, garden business, you know, everywhere in Abuja, I'm not sure about Lagos. So Maria has to do her research in the hotels, in the gardens.

Are they doing fish? What kind of fish are they buying? Is there good demand? Because if you have the interest, the passion, the skill set, the effort, the whatever you've been doing Dublin, small, small, but there is no demand. You're starting off at 0, absolute zero. There is an entrepreneur that I spoke to a very long time ago. They were trying to think of some alternatives to cement because people are doing building projects all over the world and not everybody's having to use cement.

And so the person was trying to start a business around this. And for me, that was one of my primary questions, like, OK, this is a solid idea. OK, yeah. In Brazil, in this place, in this place, this thing is catching on. But currently right now, I mean, are Nigerians demanding any other thing apart from cement, especially since Dangote is here, Dangote is producing cement and we also have other alternatives of cement that are imported.

So are Nigerians looking for anything apart from cement? It can be a wonderful idea, it can be a groundbreaking idea, it can be a revolutionary idea, but if there is no demand for this thing and if you don't have a plan to try and kick start some demand or try and get some product market fit, then you are dead on arrival. The thing will not fly. So the next question is really important. Is this thing profitable? Is there any demand for it?

So that's the next stage for Maria. So if you want to get into the future business, you know, these are questions you should be asking yourself. Then next will be what specie as my biology teacher used to say. What specie or fish are you going to do? The fellow that I spoke to interviewed for the podcast, he said that basically when you talk about fish on, you know, on this part of the continent, you know, West Africa and then up,

you know, West Africa all the way to, you know, like that kind of Sudan, Egypt, you know, all these places. He said basically I might be, I'm assuming that he has given me correct information because he actually did study aquaculture. I think he studied aquaculture in FUTA. Is it FUTA or photo? I can't remember which of the universities of technology he's either a photo a photo grad. And this is what he studied aquaculture and then he has also spent some time in other African countries, you know, studying this kind of thing.

So I'm assuming that guys give me correct gist. But if you're in aquaculture space and you say like your boy, you know, he's not feeding you correct information. And please let me know so I can come on the podcast and let people know that, Oh, you know that podcast episode where I said for fisheries, not like this, not like this, you know that. No, actually the information that I got was known point. So based on my guy told me now when it comes to fish farming in sub-Saharan Africa, basically you're looking at that catfish or tilapia straight up the other species, but you're looking at catfish or tilapia catfish because catfish is resilient.

If they say catfish is a stubborn fish, the thing refuses to die, the thing catches disease and it continues going. So it's very resilient and that's the reason why people do catfish. Apart from that, there's a demand for it. And well, in Abuja, in Makudi, it looks like there's a demand for it because everywhere I turn, you turn to the left, somebody's grilling catfish, you turn to the right, somebody's doing pepper soup, catfish, you know, all these sorts of things.

So catfish then he said tilapia. Now the reason why tilapia is good is because of the profit margin. So tilapia you'll be making more money per head of tilapia. The problem is tilapia is very very tilapia and a jabo fish. You know they say that tilapia gets sick very easily. Any small thing to tilapia will just die. And he said that tilapia is mostly like an the like the Egyptians, you know, the people up, up, up that side.

You know, when you say sub-Saharan Africa, the people who are up, up, you know, not those of us who are downtown, not Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, you know, So when you go up, up, up, you know, close to the Arabs. So they're the ones that have cornered that that market. But essentially that's what you're looking at catfish or tilapia beside on the species. Then you also have to think about what it takes, you know, the operations.

You have to be ready for that. You're going to have to, you need land because you're going to do it at the back of your house. I can tell you from experience because I've lived in one of those places where somebody decides to erect a catfish pond and the man the this smell as in all of us who are suffering seriously because the smell is on another is on another level. So you need land for sure. It's not something you can come and do at the well.

If you want to be a wicked neighbor, you can go and do it at the back of your house anyway and tell the rest of your neighbors that they should go and F off. But you need land because you're going to have to erect a pond and because you also have to do drainage. If you don't do the drainage, the smell will be on another level. Think about it. You have a pond. You have like 500 catfish inside the catfish when they want to pee, where do they pee in the water.

When they want to poop, where do they poop? In the water. Some of them will die. Whether they die in the water, man, that's a nasty smell. So operations, you need to figure that out. Need some land, then finance. You need to start up capital. It's not something you start small, small because you have to go and buy the the guppies. That's the baby fish you buy the guppies you buy for water. Buy water. OK, maybe you're connected to water board, but you have to buy feed.

You also have to buy medicine. You have to pay for veterinary services. What again? So you definitely need some startup capital. This is not something that you just start a podcast and then you're in business. Then there's also the management things that you have to worry about cleaning, admin, accounting really, really important. Are you the one that's going to be waking up every day to be cleaning up? You know that all that poop and pee in the pond?

Because I've seen this thing happen. Like I said, my neighbors doing this thing. So you see that today do flush out water and they put new water two or three days. Now the water has just turned green and it's slimy. So who's going to be doing all that cleaning every day? Who's going to be doing all that work then? Let's see. So these are some of the things you need to talk about operations wise. Then if you want to get into fisheries, then in fact for fisheries in particular, fish and chicken, because all I put it, there's some kind of businesses like fish and chicken and these sorts of things that if you don't do adequate training, if you don't know what's up, you won't know anything about disease prevention, about proper feeding and about water quality, air quality, these kind of things.

You know, the one I'm trying to say is that you can say, let me get into catfish business or into chicken business and let me just drop like 300K worth of capital, but then you're not adequately trained because of that overnight all your chicken will just die or your fish will just die. And that's how you've lost money. These things happen. I've not seen, but I've had gist that somebody buys, you know, X number of fish today and then next week every single thing have died.

This is how. So you need adequate training. Now in Nigeria, we have the National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries, that is the NIFFR. You know, trust me, Nigerians no longer acronyms. So you go there, you can get training on aquaculture. Then there's also the Africa projects development, something I can't remember but the initiatives are, I say initiatives. The initials are APDC and now it is based in Abuja. So that's why I got now for Maria.

And then they have training in Agri business and aquaculture. Aquaculture means we are learning how to be farming the fish. Agri business means not only have we learned the aquaculture, how to farm the fish, but we're also learning the business side. How do we find customers? How do we sell the fish? How do we negotiate? How do we haggle? How do we export, How do we import? So if you want to get through the fish farming business, it is my recommendation that actually you should be looking at things from these two sides of the equation.

Don't don't only go and learn the aquaculture, how do we farm the fish, but also learn the Agri business side, how do we sell the fish? Growing the fish is one thing, selling the fish is something entirely. Now, like I said, the reason why all this training is important is because if you F up on disease prevention and proper feeding and water quality and air quality and living space and everything, all your fish, all your chicken, they will just die one time.

One disease will come and wipe out everything because these things live in close quarters. If you're farming catfish, you know all 500 of them, they're the same pool. If one of them catches HIV, all the rest of the all the rest of the catfish rockets HIV, as if fishes can catch HIV and all of them would die. If all your chicks, chickens are in one coop and one of them catches bad flu, I mean, they're there, one who sneeze on another, the other who sneeze on another and overnight all of them will get sick and all of them will die.

So adequate training please, so that we can stop hearing these horror stories because we still hate that somebody dropped 500 K to start this thing January 1st and then by, you know, January 14th what happened? Everything just died. So please, adequate training, very, very important. I stressed it for Maria and I'm stressing it for anybody who's listening. If you want to get involved in fish farming or aquaculture or Agri this or you know, whatever it is.

So that's all for today folks. If you have any sales and marketing questions, like I said, bring them to me. Call SMS, WhatsApp on 08064662140. But please, we are in 2025, you know, don't hit me up asking some questions like, oh, what kind of business should I start? No, we, we have, we have gone past that, that stage. You know a few things about yourself. You know a few things about the Internet. We're better off searching one or two things and then you come to somebody saying I am thinking of starting business of either selling cars or opening salon.

I'm not sure which one to start. What do you think that one is a much more fruitful conversation that just come in blanket coming open like that and just saying bold how to start a business? What kind of business should I start? Because honestly, if you come without any details, without any any prior research, what kind of business should I start? The answer is it can be anything under the sun. You can sell car, you can open restaurant, you can cell phone,

you can fry a Cara. You can be a consultant, you can be a music coach, you can it can be anything. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I will catch you, dear listeners, at the next episode.