Hampers of Hurdles: Cracking Business Challenges in the Gift Giving Game

Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'd like us to tackle something different and more ambitious. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that we are over 780 episodes so far and in the past I've tackled some questions from someone who was in the corporate gifts space based in Lagos. Now, if you remember, I started off my business journey as a wedding photographer A decade and a half ago. And I've been running through my phone systematically, you know,

reaching out to all folks, you know, people I used to be in touch with because I'm trying to revive certain networks, You know, just get the whole networking thing going. And I've found that I'm not the only wedding and event professional who has left the business. In fact, I've come across a former event planner who is now into curated hampers and gifts in also in Lagos, and a bunch of other people, A bunch of other people doing the same thing so well, First off, I didn't realize that there's money to be made in that space because it seems like a rather difficult business.

Maybe it's because I don't have a sense for giving gifts and things like that. So for me it looks like it's incredibly difficult. So I thought wouldn't it be a good idea since we've already had a couple of questions from people in that space in the past over here on the podcast. Wouldn't it be a good idea to take this whole industry that's created hampers and gifts giving to look at the business in entirely, entirely from a business sales and business development perspective and see how if you were in that space you'd be able to solve your solve your business problems.

I think it would be a good case study to run through over here on the podcast, and it would also be an interesting way for me to flex my creativity since to be honest, it's something that I think would be a hard business. Well, OK, well, you know, when you say things are hard or easy, it's in a relative sense. So for someone who has a flair for this sort of thing, it would be an easy business. But for me, just standing as an outsider looking in, it looks like it's a terribly hard business to do.

And I don't see how I'd be able to make money off of merchandising T-shirts and flowers. I'm putting together hampers and key chains and things like that. So for me it's absolutely frightening. So that is what we're going to do, not just in today's episode, but in a couple of episodes to follow. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to predict or give you a guess about how long this narrative arc is going to last because I want us to go into things in some in some fair detail and the hope is this.

Not that. I'm not assuming that most of you who listen to this show are currently in the hamper business or the gift giving business. But remember that my overall thesis is this, that no matter the business that you're involved in, whether it's hampers or whether you're a doctor or a dentist or a Carpenter or you sell chickens or you sell catfish, sound sales and business development principles are going to be needed to get you through along.

So that you have a profitable and sustainable business. And that even in the regular problems that you face in the business, sales and business development principles should at least be able to get you through some of the challenges or at least get you chugging along until you're able to. How will I put it? Or you're able to see a light at the end of the tunnel. So yeah, that's what we're going to do today in today's episode and in a couple of episodes that are going to follow.

So once again, the scenario or the case study that we're looking at is people who are in the curated hampers and gift giving space. Now let's look at the number of business problems that we think people in this business might have. And by the time we run through the business problems that people in the gift giving business face in Lagos or Abuja or New York or wherever you are, you will see that when I keep saying that business principles are the same, they're universal,

it's just the contextualisation or the application that is different, this should give you a good enough idea. So what are the possible business problems that people in the curated hampers and gift space might face? So number one, I would say is market competition or the problem of differentiation. And that's because, like I said, I've noticed that a number of event planners that I had worked with in the past and no longer in the space, and this is what they're doing.

I've checked a few people's Instagram handles and once you start going down that rabbit hole, it looks like there are Instagram handles galore over there on the on the Internet with people who put together party favours, hampers, gifts, they do corporate giving, they handle merchandising and branding of coffee mugs, and it just goes on and on and on and on and on. It looks like it's a business that the whole world is involved in.

And lo and behold, is there any business that is currently not going through that problem? Remember that when I was in the wedding photography space was something that some of my comrades used to complain about. They would say the industry is going to the dogs. Everything has fallen into shit. And that's because cameras are cheap. Everybody can buy a camera. OK, well now, because of what's it called, interest rates, The dollar rate.

I'm in Nigeria right now. Cameras are currently expensive, prohibitively expensive. But back in the good old days, more than a decade ago, you could you could raise 2300 grand and get yourself a good camera, you know? So now you're probably talking closer to a meal. That's if you're looking at entry, entry level models, not to talk of the prosumer models or the professional models. So back then it was a complaint. Everybody can buy a camera,

everybody's uncle and auntie and brother and sister can go on YouTube and watch a couple of videos. And so because everybody can buy cameras and everybody can watch YouTube videos, everybody thinks that they are a wedding photographer. And so because of that, everybody's becoming a wedding photographer. And so the profession is becoming commoditized. And so the challenge is how do you differentiate yourself? Now, if you're a doctor, I'm sure you would also think the same way that everybody and their uncle and their auntie has gone to medical school, they probably lowered the Jamba,

what's it called, Jamba, acceptance rate or whatever. So the marketplace is being flooded with hundreds and thousands of doctors and everybody's uncle and auntie and even your neighbour's monkey is a doctor. And so because of that, the market is becoming choked and commoditized. So it's something that absolutely everybody can complain about. So you can see how some of the problems that we face at Universal or some of the principles that we need to get us out of this mess are universal.

So The thing is just that differentiation for someone who is in the curated hampers space is going to be different from differentiation if you are a wedding photographer. And it's going to be different if you're trying to make yourself stand out as a medical doctor or a dentist or a Carpenter. But that is one problem that our brothers and sisters in the curated hampers and Gifts face to face #1 market competition. Because if you open up Instagram, it looks like the whole world is in this business then #2 supply chain management.

And this is something that I'm happy that I don't have to deal with this much nowadays, because as a wedding photographer it was a problem. You get the work done, you hand it over to the fulfilment centre, the fulfilment centre finishes with that. Then you hand it over to the the people that are going to do the actual book production or flash drive production or produce the frames and things like that. So supply chain management is an issue because you're getting materials from point A and you're running it through people in point B.

It's supposed to come out in Point C and then you deliver in point B. So that was a problem for me as a wedding photographer because that's also something in itself you have to manage. And I can imagine that if you're in the created hampers and gift space that this is something that you have to deal with every single day. So if you want to create hampers and your hamper is going to have pig milk and barn Vita and Rice Krispies and what else, and coffee and honey and bananas and groundnuts and garden eggs or whatever, then these things have to be sourced.

They have to be was word procured is that word. You have to procure them from some place. So you or someone else has to go to the market, has to buy these things. These things have to be delivered to you. Since you're in the business of creating hampers or creating curated hampers. I'm assuming that you want to keep cost down, you want to source things leanly, so you're probably buying in bulk. If you're based in Abuja, then you're probably buying in bulk from Lagos or wherever.

This is just a guess because I'm not involved in the business, but bottom line is this is something that people in this space have to worry about every single day. Supply chain management. You wake up, the hampers are almost ready, but the peak milk and the bomberta is not there. So you have to pick up the phone and start harassing people. Where is my pig milk? These orders are supposed to have gone out. You people want to kill my business.

So the devil is using you people, blah blah blah, blah, blah, you know, And all those conversations. And yes, people do have those conversations because once I was waiting to pick my son up from school and this lady comes and she parks the car and then she gets out. She whips up her phone and then she absolutely blasts the person on the other end of the phone. I mean she just got off in the rage. She was like you people will not kill my business.

That the devil is using people. You people want to destroy my business. You want to destroy my life. That how can you do this kind of thing. The customer placed the order by so, so, so and so it is now. It is now 1:45. They have not showed up. You were destroying my the end. The devil is the enemy that I reject. The devil will not use it to destroy my business, blah blah blah blah blah. So people who have to do supply chain management actually go through a lot trying to chase down people.

On the other hand, to make sure that every single thing that they need to deliver to their customers comes on time. So I'm sure it's a problem for people who are in the created hamper space. Then there's also the problem of seasonal demand, something that I faced as a wedding photographer. Well, to be honest, I was not entirely convinced. I just think that those of us who are in the wedding photography space at the time,

we didn't do a good job of marketing all year round. That is what I suspect. That's why it looked like it was seasonal, You know, this whole thing of December, weddings pick up, then you crossover into the new year. Things get quiet during Lent. Before Easter, things are quiet. After Easter, things pick up. I really think we just didn't do a good job. But marketing our services very well back then, but for these people created hampers.

Yeah, I I think seasonality could be a problem because end of year things will definitely pick up. People buying Christmas hampers. People buying New Year hampers. Let's see what else Idil, Maloud, Salah, things like that, people buying hampers, let's see what else, corporate, what's it called, end of year parties, things like that. So I suspect that it's going to be a bit of seasonal demand and fluctuation that they have to deal with.

Then people in the hamper space, I'm sure they also have to deal with customer acquisition problems and retention problems. That's something everybody has to deal with. But this is, if this is an industry that is acutely commoditized and people are buying on price, then I'm sure that it's a problem. You know someone comes and does business with you now at 50K per hamper. And why they while they deliver the hamper, they come across another hamper that was put together AT42K per hamper or something.

Now the price doesn't seem like much 50K42. The difference is only 8000. But The thing is, for somebody who is buying these hampers because they want to use it for corporate gifting, if they're able to save 8K per head and they sent out 10 hampers in the last week, you know that's already 80K. So for businesses, like let's say banks, for instance, we're probably sending out hundreds of these stuff. If they're serving 88000 per head, then that's a huge chunk of money at the end of the day.

So it's possible that someone might buy you a hamper today and discover that somebody supplied it at 42 or maybe 45 and they're thinking, you know what, Next time, let me save 5K off of this and let me go with the other person. So customer acquisition and retention I suspect could be a problem for people in the hampers and in the gift space. Then of course, the other challenge is marketing and branding. Everybody faces that one.

Operational efficiency definitely has to be one of the headaches that these people face. Financial management, especially since they're dealing with physical goods, because it's not like they're doing consulting. If you're a consultant, all you're billing for is your time, more or less. OK time. Napa, what else? Phone bill, Internet bill, you know, it's not the same as if you're sending out 100 hampers and you're short by peak one tin of pig milk, you know that is 800 tins of let's say 800.

OK, let me, OK, let's say 80. So that's 80 tins of pig milk. So those 80 tins will have to be bought, will have to be transported. So there's finances going into it. So there there are problems involved. So these are the sorts of problems that I think people in the hamper and in the gift space are going to have. So let me recap. One, the problem of market competition or how do you differentiate yourself #2, supply chain management.

How do we get our goods from A to B to C to the home of the final consumer? Then what did I say again? Three demand, seasonal demand. Yes, seasonal demand fluctuation, then customer acquisition and retention. I'm sure that's a problem for them as well because of course it's a problem for everyone. Then marketing and branding, operation of efficiency and then what did I say, financial management, yes, financial management, but of course, you know finance is not my thing.

So that's not something I'm going to be able to say a lot about when we get to that point. But you know, these are some of the problems that I think everybody faces. Now, before I move on, this is my pet advice that I'd like to give to folks. If you have noticed some of these problems that will be faced by our brothers and sisters in the curated hamper and give giving space, whether in Lagos, Abuja, Potarko or New York, these are not problems that are unique to them.

The problems that they're facing, these problems have their own flair because they're in that space. But if you noticed, these are challenges that face us all. That is one reason why I tell people that there is no need to run from these challenges. Now, a lot of people decide to start some business. You know, you start your dentistry practice or you start your wedding photography thing or you open your law practice. But then you start facing some of these problems.

Competition, differentiation, what else? Customer retention, marketing, branding, and you think the problem is with the business opportunity itself and so you start running to something else. You think that if you leave the law practice and you start up fashion design, then fashion design will be easier than law. Maybe in a certain sense fashion design will be easier than law, because with law there's going to be lots of research and reading and things like that.

But you are still going to face these problems. If you leave the practice of the law and you say let me do fashion design, you will still run into the problems of how will I differentiate myself? How are we going to handle talent? Is there any seasonal demand? How am I going to cope with that? How am I going to handle marketing and branding? How am I going to make sure that my operation is efficient? The challenges are all the same.

So that's the reason why my own pet advice to most folks who are trying to build has always been let's stay here now, stay in this legal practice now. Master the fundamentals first. See how you can overcome some of these challenges so that by the time you leave your legal practice and you move on to become a fashion designer or whatever, you would have gotten some some competence, some skills in how to deal with these things.

These are transferable skills. So the fact that you were able to handle branding and marketing and differentiation as a lawyer very well, or you know in a reasonably competent way, it's going to transfer and make it easier for you to handle when you start running your fashion, your fashion practice, or whatever other business it is that you run to. So if you're one of these people who is considering right now that you're a fashion designer,

you're thinking that you're not being paid as a fashion designer. You're thinking perhaps you should leave fashion design and go and study law. You know, lawyers get paid better. It's still going to be the same problems that you're going to face. So stay where you are. Master the fundamentals less than how to overcome these challenges now so that when we move into a new space, we can take these skills with us and then you help us become better,

well-rounded business individuals overall. So I will stop here today because there's still a lot that can be said. Let me see. Let me look at my notes. Where are we? OK, yeah, so we've looked at the business problems. I think I'll stop here at the business problems today, and I will rest on the fact that I've been able to convince you guys, or I hope I've been able to convince you guys, that the problems that people in this Hanford and gifting space face are problems that all of us face.

The flavour or the accent of the problem is different, but we face these problems overall and I hope I've been able to convince you guys that if you're facing these problems currently in your business, the solution is not to abandon this business where you are and run off to another business because you will face those challenges there as well. The challenges will always follow you until you take a stand. Master the fundamentals, learn how to deal with it so that by the time you leave where you are now and you open your new business, you will take these possible skills and knowledge with you.

So I think in the next episode we should be able to look in the details about the accurated hampers and gifts giving business. Let's try and see globally what it looks like. Let's try and look at the segments or the people that play in that space. We're going to look at my guess of what I think the target audience is going to be. And I also did some research and I found some interesting business models that operate in that space.

And then maybe we'll try and figure out what some of the trends might be for the future. Now remember the approach that we're going to carry on with this case study is, is this, this is not for people in the created hampers and gift giving space exclusively. It's for the rest of us to look at this industry, try and figure out the problems that they face, try and come up with solutions to these problems so that these principles and the processes we can use that to enrich our own lives and enrich our own businesses and help us become much more efficient in whatever businesses that we do.

So if you are in fisheries or if you are in fashion, or if you're in a water supply or whatever, just pay attention to the episodes that follow. You're going to find principles and practices that you can apply to your own unique situation. So thank you very much for your time and attention. Remember to connect with me on WhatsApp. Chat with me on WhatsApp. The number is 08064662140. Country code is +234. In case you're hitting me up outside the shores of Nigeria.

Then connect with me and chat with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name from the link. We're currently listening to this episode, so thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.