How to Get Business Equipment When You’re Broke

Hello and welcome. Apologies for the noise in the background. For those of you who are listening to the show for the first time, my name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm a former lawyer turned business consultant. And what I do here over on the podcast is solve business problems, especially problems that you can solve by looking for more customers, talking to more customers, and increasing the amount of money that you make on each particular customer.

However, today the question I'm going to be looking at is how to buy equipment for your business when you don't have any money. Now, the reason why we're looking at this question today, even though it's not a sales question, is because even though my specialty is sales, because we don't have good content here in Nigeria where radio show hosts or podcast hosts are tackling business questions. I find that lots of people who listen to the podcast, you know,

whether it's my area of specialty or not, you know, Chad was sending a question because to be honest, where else are they going to send another send the question to? I mean, who else is doing this sort of thing that I'm doing over here on the Internet? So that's the reason why we're tackling this question today, even though it is not my area of specialty. However, if you'd like to connect with me because you have one or two business questions you need another brain to help you think through things with,

then you can call. Send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Don't worry if you think I sound expensive, that's not a problem. I'm reasonably priced. However, I answer questions for free. Just make sure you let me know in the very first text message, on the very first WhatsApp message, the very first phone call, just say, hey, bro, are you there? Love what you do? I'm looking for free advice and then I'm going to answer one question and one question only.

So think really hard about what your one question is going to be and to get the best of our time together. Just make sure it's a question that relates to sales. All right, now back to the question. How to buy equipment for your business when you don't have any money. So this was a question I received from your former based in Abuja. The first time we're in touch, Ivoma wanted to know how she could buy equipment for her fashion business through Easy Buy.

Easy buy nowadays is what I think we would have called hire purchase back when I was in secondary school, which is basically you want to buy something, you don't have 100% of the money and then you come up with an arrangement for how you can put a deposit down and then pay the rest of our time, you know, stuff like that. So back when I was a secondary school, you know, business studies and all that, I think back then it used to be called hire purchase, but now people call it easy buy.

What else? Buy now, pay later. You know, it has different names. So she wanted to know how to acquire a machine for her fashion business. And obviously the reason why she needed to do that is because, you know, in the fashion space, you know how it is now, you buy sewing machine, sewing machine. Then you also buy stoning machine, the one that will put all those gems and shiny stuff on the clothes. Then you also buy what else, you know, ironing machine, you know,

compressing machine. This machine, that machine, as in the machine is plenty Shah. And of course, all those things cost, well, not too expensive, you know, for 405500K, you know, that kind of thing. But yeah, might need quite a bit. So yeah, that's how Ifoma and I met. But luckily, but the second time we spoke, she said, ah, there's no need. I said there's no need. Why? She said because I have some good news. So let me hear the good news.

And she said that she was able to make 5 items, 5 dresses, and she was able to stone them and that's, you know, put all the fancy jewels on them and stuff like that. And if she's able to sell the five completely, she will get one point something M. If she gets that one point something M, she'll be able to use that to buy 2 machines. And I said perfect. And I'm really glad you said that because that was one of the things I was going to suggest.

And she said, yeah, that the reason why she's doing that is because she doesn't want to deal with the hassle of owing people money and, you know, things like that. So that's the reason why she did that way. That's very, very good. And I'm glad that she did that. And that's going to be one of the options that we'll look at today on how to buy equipment for your business if you don't have any money. Now, traditional options, first of all, we start with savings.

And if you want to save towards equipment, you need to create a budget. How much is each particular machine, how many do you need and all those sorts of things. And then start working towards it, especially if you're an employee. So you can start saving over time. Now, the second traditional option that is bootstrapping is precisely what? Precisely what? Sorry, I gave the wrong name. I'm sorry, my name is Favour. Actually, yes, yeah, Favo.

So that's actually what Favo did, bootstrapping from business. Now bootstrapping just means you make revenues from your business and you are saving from those revenues and employ the profits back into the business to acquire whatever it is you want to acquire. So that is bootstrapping. So that's what she did. That's the additional route as well. Then another old school traditional route is to raise money, excuse me, from friends,

family members and associates. So those are people who believe in you and people who are willing to support you. You raise some money. And my cousin who is into fashion, that's how she got started actually. You know, talk to uncles and aunties, talk to this person, talk to that person. Then the fellow she was dating at the time. Now her husband also dropped some money down and that's how she got into this space. So this is one of the traditional routes.

Then in the podcast was spoken a lot about business loans from a bank or from a microfinance bank. The only problem with that is you have to write a business plan. So for those of you who don't like writing things down, this is going to be a problem for you because you need a well thought out business plan. And the focus of the business plan basically will just be to say who are you? What is the business idea? What do you want to do with the money and how are you going to pay back this money with interest.

So that's what the document is going to outline basically so that the bank can say, OK, you know what, I can give money to this person. Then on my radio show in particular, I did episodes on Islamic banking options because that is a way to acquire your capital assets, acquire your machines in without how I put it, without paying too much interest. Let me put it that way. And no, you don't have to be a Muslim to take advantage of these sorts of options.

I first discovered Islamic banking as a young wedding photographer. Yes, I my background is in law, but eventually I was in the event space. So I was a wedding photographer, honored to acquire some new equipment. And so I went in to talk to a bank at the time was Sterling Bank. And yes, some of you are shocked, Sterling Bank, yes, Sterling Bank. I didn't know that Sterling Bank has Islamic financing options. So I got to the, the office in area area 8.

Is that area 8 next to the cathedral, excuse me, next to the pro cathedral in Abuja, the Catholic Church. So next is the cathedral. So I went there, they directed me upstairs. I spoke to somebody in the marketing department and started looking at what kind of options the Islamic banking would would cover. So through Islamic products like this, you're able to buy equipment. And this is how it works. The bank, once you identify who the seller is, the bank enters into an agreement with the seller and then they buy the equipment in the bank's name.

Then the seller has been paid off. You now have a relationship with the bank, so you'll be paying off the money, you know, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, whatever it is, periodically, Sir, you're paying off the money. After a certain while, you've paid off everything. The bank now hands it over to you. So these are options that are available under Islamic banking. So if you're curious, just like I was, you just walk into any bank.

So I don't know about now, but at the time when I checked many, many years ago, Sterling Bank had an Islamic, had Islamic banking offerings, then this Taj Bank. OK, well, I don't know if Taj still exists THA Taj Bank and you know, all these other banks. So walk in and have a chat. By the way, I'm not affiliated with any of these banks. They're not paying me any money. I wish somebody would introduce me to one of these banks so that they can start paying me money to advertise on their behalf.

But basically the reason why I'm pointing that out is please take responsibility and verify whatever information that you hear here. Don't just take it. That old Tavish man said something. Therefore it's your truth. Go and verify because you are responsible for whatever information you act upon. So that's my warning. Then investors, also a traditional way to raise money for your business. Let's see. OK, that will also require a business plan because investors want to see feasibility.

Feasibility just means can this thing work? What is this idea? How will this thing work? Is there a market for it, blah, blah, blah. And then investors also want to see a timeline for returns because they want to know when they're getting their money back, how they're getting their money back. Then another thing to watch out for for investors is because you will get business partners by force, by force. And when I say by force, by force, I mean by force by force.

Somebody's not just going to call you and then hand over lots of, lots of millions like that with no strings attached. You'll find that usually they want a stake in your company, you know, so essentially you get a business partner by force. By force, except if somebody gives you the money as a loan, like here, take this one M use it for the business. You know, when you blow, you know, give me back 2.5 or something like that.

So that one is, is a debt. Yeah, it's a loan is a debt. But if you're looking for investment, investment proper, just know that you're going to enter into a forced business marriage. So make sure that you properly vet the investors that you're talking to, make sure these are people that you're comfortable hanging around or that you like spending time with. And make sure that these are people whose opinions that you value.

Because when somebody gives you 10 M and say, go ahead my song, go and start tomorrow, the person is calling you to say, I think we should do like this. I think we should do like this. And you want to start saying, respectfully, Sir, there's no respectfully nothing. You've collected money. So this is also another reason why it's handy. Excuse me, real useful and advisable to have lawyers, you know, throughout this whole process just so that there's someone to advise you to make sure that things are very, very clear.

What are we doing? Is this in partnership or is this money dash or is this money a loan? Then what are the promises that we're making to each other? What are the obligations that we have to watch each other, things like that. So it's nice to involve a lawyer through all these. So investments, that's also, that's one of the options available if you want to buy equipment for business and you don't have any money, just like Favor Favor did when she reached out OSHA, I was very happy to hear that she had decided to bootstrap from her business.

So sell items, take the profits, use it to buy the machines. The reason why, honestly speaking, right, the reason why, please pay attention, is because the easiest way to finance your business is from your customers. I repeat, of all these options that we're talking about so far, OK, let's remove savings, let's remove friends and family. So business loan, investor grants, crowdfunding, blah, blah, blah. The easiest way to finance your business is through your customers.

Give your customers something happy, they'll be happy, they will give you money in return, everybody's happy. And then use that to finance the growth of your business. It's the easiest way. It is the easiest way also because the more time that you spend in this kind of activity will continue to grow yourselves. But then let's say you want to get a business loan from a bank. All the time you're going to spend in writing that business plan, talking to the bank manager, going to go and visit the branch office, you know,

going to discuss your projections, this and this and that and that. All that time you're spending wouldn't necessarily grow your sales. Now, of course there'll be a time when it will be necessary for you to go get a business loan and you know, things like that. But in the beginning where you can if you are in favor situation and you want to buy machines for your business, but the machine no true cost. You know for 405500K you actually can come up with a plan to make it work like she did,

which was she created 5 garments. If she sells all of them, the money will be 1.2 something. She'll be able to buy 2 machines and she'll still have two. 100K remain. So that's the way forward. Then also for what grants? That's also another option because grants are available through their grants that are targeted at SMEs, women based companies, fashion sector, things like that. So grants are also good as well. Especially these grants are more or less dash, but when they dash you the money, you still have reporting obligations.

So you have to report to the people who give, who gave the grant, you have to show them that you're using the money for the purpose that you collected the money, the money for. So these are some of the traditional options for those of you who need to buy equipment for your businesses. Now like I pointed out earlier, even though I gave my number 0806466 2140, I'll say again that I am not a fund, I'm not a a finance specialist, I'm not a grant writing specialist.

I'm not excuse me, I'm not a consultant who writes business plans for people. So this is not my area of specialty. So even though I've given up my phone number, if you want to reach out to discuss a couple of general stuff, that's not a problem. Call me, send me a text message to me. I want that message. I'd love to chat with you. I like meeting listeners of my show. Then if you're worried that this guy sounds expensive, that's not a problem.

I'm reasonably priced. Apart from that, I answer questions for free. Just let me know you're looking for a free session and then we'll tackle your one question that you have. Any other thing that will require us to go in depth, we'll have to set aside some time weekly, monthly, daily, hourly, quarterly. All right, then AI, artificial intelligence or augmented intelligence. Like I like to say now when lots of people reach out to me for these sorts of things, I say like, have you tried AI?

And then someone idiot now reply back. He says he'd be like, say you like AI. I was really, really vexed. I was really, really mad. But I had to calm down and respond to the guy. But just so that you guys understand something, it's not as if I love AI. It's not as it's not as if I'm saying you should kill your brain. But think about this thing very logically. You're stuck in your business, right? OK, good. You're looking for a place to get free, easy advice, right?

OK, good. No problem. What are you doing? You're reaching out to me. OK, No Allah, no problem. What is the difference in reaching out to me or just picking up your phone and reaching out to the AI tool? Let me keep quiet for two seconds so you can think about it. What is the difference in reaching out to me then reaching out to AI? The answer is there's no difference. You need help with an activity that we call ideation.

In business circles, ideation just means I need to think of ideas. Right now my mind is blank. Blank slate, blank screen knotting on the cursor. Ideation. That's what you want to do. So the options are to look for a real human person like me who might not have your time or who wants to collect money from you. Now, do not deceive yourself. Yes, I help lots of people and I like to give advice. But if you think I'm not interested in your money, in fact, don't try me, offer me money 1st and say, oh, what happened?

I'm interested in your money. I need your money. The AI tool cannot be bothered with your money. For now, these things are free. They're now your phone. When I tell you, oh, did you try AI? Let's look at what came up. You'll now be thinking in your mind or you now have the gumption to open your mouth and tell me you'd be like, say you like AI, my friend. Let's, let's, let's be reasonable here. Now the reason why I suggest going to go and look at AI tools because they're free, they have your time and they actually do come up with some good ideas.

However, it is your own responsibility to look at all the information that is there, vet the information that is there, take action on the one that seems realistic, seems practical, stuff like that. And then ignore the ones that are clearly terrible ideas. You hear me? The fact that something comes up with bad ideas once in a while doesn't mean you disregard the whole thing. It's like me. You think every single idea I

want to give you is a good one. Come on, I'm human. I don't know everything. And there's sometimes that I don't consider all the every single context, every single nuance properly. So there will be times and I'll say, give you some ideas that are bad. When that happens, what do you do? You just chalk it up, you know, to experience. You just say, oh, Tasha Madin you no reason. I'm you no reason I'm well, that's all. And then you move on.

The one that I said that makes sense, you apply is the same thing. If the AI says something that no makes sense, hey, ignore. It's one of those things. The ones that makes sense, go ahead and apply. So use AI tools and let me give you an example. Let me give you a perfect example now about the situation. This is a simple prompt that I came up with. I just opened Gemini and I told Gemini this question. I said, dear Gemini, I'm the host of a show called the Business Booster Show.

That's my radio show by the way. One caller in Abuja was interested in acquiring machines for her fashion business through easy pay or through hire purchase arrangements. What options are available for such in Abuja and other parts of Nigeria? Question mark you see that simple paragraph, I hit send and then bam, Jeremy, I came back with some really, really interested interesting options. Now, since Favour is no longer interested in looking for easy pay or not, you know she's not going to go ahead and run through some of these things.

But if you are in favor situation, you run a fashion business, you run any other kind of business, you run chicken re business and you want to buy incubator and everything or you whatever it is you want to buy a machine for your business and you don't have money. Listen to what Gemini said and you will see that some of these things make sense. Now for the one that makes sense and you think can easily do the challenge, you will now be OK.

No problem. I ran the search on a Friday. Some nice ideas came up. Which idea can I start implementing on a Monday? That's all Monday start implementing. OK, so the first one, Gemini spoke about a government backed financing. It mentioned the BOI, that's Bank of Industry because the Bank of Industry gives cash for vendors to buy equipment directly and then you pay back in installments over three to five years. Then he also pointed out that Bank of Industries interest rates are usually around 9% per annum.

And then it even gave the address for Bank of Industry. Now for someone who did not have any idea before, it was a blank slate. Your costs are day blank. You can't think of anything. You're holding pen and paper, you can't think of anything. Does it not look as if this idea makes sense? What will you lose if you wake up on Monday morning 8:00, you bath and dress up, bath and wear shoe and then you enter your car and then you drive straight down to back of industry And then you talk to somebody and say that I

went on the Internet and the Internet say this, this, this is this thing true? What will it cost you? Nothing. These air tools are already on your phone. Please start using your brain and start using these tools. I'm not forcing people to be lazy as long as if I like these tools. It's just that when you're in a pinch, when you're can't come up with anything, anything, come up with some very, very useful ideas. Then Gemini also spoke about dedicated leasing equipment leasing companies.

So there's some companies in Nigeria and that is all they do, leasing. You want to buy equipment, you want to lease equipment. That is all that they do. Then funny enough, there's a BOI leasing company of Nigeria, Bank of Industry. I had absolutely no idea. You should I say these tools are important because I know about Bank of Industry. I didn't know that they have a leasing company, BOILECON. Oh, that's Lecon BOI Lecon.

Those of you who are, you're right, you understand joke. So yes, so it's a subsidiary. This is a what's, what's subsidiary. Now subsidiary is like I say Junior brother or Peking. So there's a company that is the main company and then there's another company that is a subsidiary. So subsidiary is like the Peking of the main company, just like Tonio Lumedu. Tonio Lumelu owns Ayers Holdings that is HIERS, that's that's the mummy company.

Now the Peking is Transco Hilton and then here's insurance and you know all those other companies. So that's a subsidiary. Subsidiary just means Peking. Then Germany also spoke about Aquila Leasing. Aquila, MISS Leasing, you know other companies like that. Now back to what I said earlier. You are sitting down, you are a blank slit. You can't come up with ideas. You've seen somebody you think is an influencer or a guru.

You message the guy, the guy, no message you back. You run a search, you come up with these options. What is stopping you from waking up Monday morning, 8:00 AM, bath and wear shoe, enter your car, drive down to these places. You verify the location or the place actually exists. You enter inside and you say, this is my situation, this is what I wanted to do, this is what I saw on the Internet. Is it true? Do you guys offer this service?

What will it cost you? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. OK well the cost of your fuel that's all Then Gemini also spoke about retail platforms. Buying now pay later BMPLI remember when I was a kid we used to say hire purchase but now they say buy now pay later. So and this is the reason why I love these tools. Google Gemini was not even talking about specific sewing machine like Jack machine, ML machine and then 2 lions. I know 2 lions because that's one my, my aunt, my older auntie, Auntie our day when she was younger and she used to sew,

that's what Auntie our day used to use two lions. Then you see he's mentioning specific brands now. Then Chaji was talking about how some digital platforms and some retailers allow you to even do split payment. So, you know, spoke about CD care. I've heard about CD care before because for one of my clients who is in the solar space, some of their sales teams were considering financing options or flexible paying options for their clients.

And people brought up CD Care, but the conversations didn't go anywhere. But Shah CD care, what happens is you're allowed. By the way, I'm not affiliated with CD Care. They're not paying me any money. So please do not assume that because I mentioned them at on the podcast that they're correct business to correct institution to do business with. Please go and verify for yourself. Go and do all your search. Go and do all your research because you are responsible for the information that you act upon.

Don't say I said something on the podcast, therefore it is true. Therefore I'm the one to blame once you enter busy, so go and do your own search. So CD Care allows people to do to how I put it, once you pay 50% of the price, they'll release the thing. So that's what Google Gemini said. So you want to buy 2 lions sewing machine? No problem. The 2 lions sewing machine, let's say right now the thing cost maybe like 650.

The moment you raise 325K, the moment you pay 325K, bam, they'll release the machine for you. And then you have agreement about how you're going to pay the balance over time. So that's CDK and then there's also Pay Kobo, PAYKOBO. Then let's see what else. Then Google Germany also mentioned that since Favour is in Abuja, that Favour can look into the Abuja Enterprise Agency. To be honest, I had no idea that this one existed.

So the Abuja Enterprise Agency has a microfinance scheme and partners with cooperative. Yeah, cooperatives. Now from all the things that I've said so far, can you not see that this thing makes sense? Can you not see that's how one bugger will look at me and say, be like, say you like AI. Like, what are you trying to imply? That I'm not smart? I'm a smart dude. Obviously listening to me. You can tell that I'm smart. It's just that once in a while your brain is blank and you need to be able to, you know, look somewhere just to to prime the engine, just to get one or two ideas you understand, because you can't be sitting down blank all day.

All right, so these these tools are good now, even if I'm not a smart guy, even if I'm stupid, help yourself use these tools. I beg use these tools. And for those of you who reach out to me and I respond again, my number 08064662140. Now some people who are surprised like, ah, it's Usha. And I say yeah, it's me. What did you expect? So I get that a lot. Apparently other people who produce content, this kind of content, first of all, their contact details are not readily available.

They don't like talking to people. There's a brand of mystique, you know, around them. And some people even want you to pay them before you have a conversation. This one, I experienced it live, live and direct. There's this guy, he's, he's in Lagos. I can't remember his name even if I remember that I even call his names off. So I had this idea. I thought we could make good money together. So I reached out to the guy. I got his PA.

Eventually PA gave me his number and then so you know, I bought the guy now the guy the answer. So I said a WhatsApp message and then we started chatting and I told him that this was the idea. I think that we can make money together and this is how we can do it and everything. And as we're chatting, the guys like hold on, hold on, hold up right there. I said hold up how the guy said look before I even consider your proposal you suppose raise ME20K

I said. I said what? The guy said yes that I will not even look at your proposal unless you pay me 20. Ki was confused so and I asked him again now sorry, hold on. I have a proposal for how both of us can do business together. And I want to send you the proposal to show how everything works. And you're saying that before you even look at this document, I should pay you 20 K. And then the guy said yes. I was like, OK, it's OK.

You know what I get, I get you're being protective of your time and all, but no, I'm not going to pay you. I'm not going to pay you 20 K just for you to consider this thing. You know, funny enough, before I reach out to the guy, I was even thinking the danger would be that the guy will see it and be like, oh, this thing makes sense. And the guy will not try and run this thing without me while running with somebody else So they can, you know, make all the money.

But yeah, so I've experienced that, yes, there's some people who will not even talk to you unless you raise them some cash first. And then my friend Laura as well, the one who's responsible for me starting the podcast, there was a time when she needed she reached out to. OK, I can't remember this lady's name, but even if I did, I wouldn't say it. The lady is is in the event space and she does business consulting in the event space.

And so the lady happened to be in town. They met at an event and they were talking, talking, talking. And Laura was like, oh, sorry, I hope you don't mind. I have some questions. And this lady was like, Oh yeah, sure, no problem. I answer questions from people, but you have to pay ME15K. By the way, this was a long time ago. Long, long, long, long, long time ago. This is not now. I'm talking years ago, I'm talking 3-4 years back.

So I mean now 1520 K that's not money. But back then 1520 K was not bad. In fact when Laura paid this lady 15K at that time I needed about 4700 and something to fill my tank. That's how much it cost to fill my tank. That's your tank is empty. To fill the whole Fioga was about four grand something. So I remember when Laura paid the lady the money, in my mind I was thinking, man, that is 3 tanks of, of, of fuel right here.

That isn't that money would have you know, that's running around money in Abuja for like 3 weeks. So I was saying I can't remember how I got here. Any bottom line? What I was trying to say is, yeah, you're trying to reach out to somebody who you think is an online guru or something like that to ask the person the question. The person is not answering you, but now you have these free thing on your phone. So 510 years ago we didn't have these things.

If you couldn't Google it, your next bet actually was to reach out to some of these peoples and you know, pay them whatever their consultation is. But now we have these three AI tools. Use these tools. The next person that tells me is as if you like AI or knock you on the head. It's not as if I like it. It's a tool. It's just there so use it. AI is good for searching and information like this because AI is just an index of information over on the Internet.

So the thing already exists on the Internet. AI tools are a very good way to find it. But please, like I said, verify your sources, check to be sure that the results actually exist, then personally investigate to be sure that it is safe, especially before you go to a location or before you drop money or before you drop this or before you drop that. Go and do some research, OK? This place is real OK. Look around on the Internet.

Is there any bad news about this place? Any bad jist about this kind of thing? You know, go and verify your sources before you move. Then whenever you're coming up with ideas is a very common sense something I'm tired of people saying. AI tools are not perfect my friend, stop being unreasonable. There's nothing that is perfect. If you ask me and I give you 10 ideas and seven of them are stupid. What you do is you cross out the seven ideas and you apply the three.

That makes sense. RB Isn't that what we do? Good. That's the same thing we'll do with the AI tools. You do this prompt, like in Favo's case, it came up with four ideas. If out of the four you think that three are absolutely stupid, cross out the three. If only one makes sense, Good. Monday morning, 8:00, start applying nothing. That's all. So yeah, I think that's all for today. The next episode we have, yeah, I'll go back to hardcore sales.

I just thought these were really interesting questions from Favour now and then the previous episode from If I. So I just thought was, you know, cool stuff that I should come over here and discuss. So if you have general questions and you want to shoot the ship with someone, not a problem, you can call send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you all at the next episode.