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Hello and welcome to the show and here's wishing you guys a wonderful new year as well. In fact, apologies for the noise in the background because I've done my best to noise proof my audio booth. But The thing is, boys are still going crazy, at least in this part of Abuja anyway. So fireworks, bangers and stuff like that. So I'm not sure how much of that is going to bleed in into the recording. But if you hear that, don't worry.
My house is not being robbed. It's not gunshots. It's just boys going crazy. Fireworks have been popping off since last night. And I thought fireworks were illegal in Nigeria. So I'm surprised that people have access to these sorts of things. And so that's what the noise is in the background. Now what we're going to do is there's a brief detour, but recently I had to look at someone's employment contract. So I figured, let me just make a quick episode about how to evaluate your employment contract.
Now the reason why I'm going to do that is because those of us who are self-employed or who are in the SME space, small and medium scale enterprise, Oregon micro enterprise, Oregon Nano enterprise. The thing is when we're trying to run our hostel, build our businesses, we get to acquire some skills, some easily acquired and transferable skills that apply to other facets of life and business. And so because of that, people find us to be valuable resources as those of us who are self-employed or who run SM ES.
So people want to pay us for our skills that we have gained in running our businesses or our small businesses. And people try to pay us for those services, either to become employees or contractors or, you know, those sorts of things. So it's not a surprise to find people often reaching out to people like you and me wanting to pay for copywriting skills, sales skills, community management skills, lead generation skills, marketing skills, strategy skills, you know, all those sorts of things.
And so that's what we're going to look at in today's episode. So if you've been self-employed for a while or if you've been running your SME, your Nano or your micro, small and medium skilled enterprise and somebody wants to pay you for copywriting or for sales or for marketing or for strategy or for Facebook ads or whatever, what are the sorts of things that we should be looking at and paying attention to in our employment contract?
So if you'd love to connect with me to explore opportunities, the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is lost 234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, then you can connect with me on socials. I am on LinkedIn as Tavishma aide. I'm really shutting down all the other socials so don't bother looking me looking for me anyplace else. So like I said, today's episode is born out of a real life case study because I've spoken to a real person, but I don't have her permission to share these details.
So I'm just going to call her Rapunzel. Now Rapunzel is considering unemployment contract is from a Nigerian company based in the UK that they are in the cosmetic space. And these are the terms of engagement that you know the things that the company wants a Rapunzel to do. So the company wants Rapunzel to do content creation in a two week rotation schedule. They also want Rapunzel to do lead generation and they want Rapunzel to do community building.
Now, let me define those terms for those of you who are new listening to the podcast, this is the first time that you're hearing these terms. Now, content creation just means putting out stuff over the Internet, whether it's text, whether it's audio, whether it's video. So photographs, infographics, podcast episodes, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, PowerPoint, whatever. Anything that you can put up on the Internet that is going to expose people to who you are as a business, the products or the products or services that you offer, the problems that you solve, those sorts of things.
So anything that you're putting up on the Internet, regardless of the format, let's just call that content. So this company wants Rapunzel to create content for them. Then there is lead generation. Now, lead generation as I define it and as you should define it because it's a very simple definition. A lead is just anybody who puts up their hand or who does something to show that they might be interested in your product or your service.
This is how I explained it to my wife because my wife overheard while I was talking to. I'm Rapunzel. And then my wife is like, babe, what's lead generation? And then I said, oh, yeah, that's easy. Lead generation is. And then she replied in a very funny way, how to generate a lead, you know, And of course, we laughed over that. But this is the way I explained it to her. I was like, hey, babe, remember how when we're looking at Instagram earlier and we're trying to look at places to take the kids this morning because it's New Year's Day as of the time of this recording, And my wife was like, look, yeah, we're back.
We spent a bunch of money in Marcudi, and yes, times are hard, but we can't just stay happy looking at ourselves like this. Let's take the kids out. Yeah, things are rough. But Shah, let's go out. Let's do something. So I told my wife, remember this morning how we're looking at Instagram handles, trying to figure out where it is that we're going to go. And you are complaining that, look, this place looks nice, but the last time these people posted was in 2021.
I'm not willing to check it. They're not serious business. And these people, there's also other places that have posted and posted recently, but they didn't have any menus there, any price options, any offers, you know, nothing like that. And so she didn't consider all those people. I was like, OK, baby, remember all that? She said, yes, what does it have to do with lead generation? And I said, this is what lead generation is.
If those people had put up some sort of content that made you think this is interesting and then you may be liked or shared or send them Adm to say how far are you guys open, how much do you cater to kids, blah, blah, blah, you know, all these sorts of things. She said yeah. And I said, OK, Now that process is what we call lead generation. You just do something online or do something offline that gets people to take some sort of action that shows that they might be interested.
Because if you put up a menu and a wifey or her mumsy looks at the sort of thing as she slides into your DM, it is not a guarantee that she's going to end up being your customer. But The thing is, at least that mumsy, that wifey, that girlfriend, that whoever has done something to show that they might be interested in your product or your service. Now that is lead generation. When you do something in real life or you do something online that gets people to take some sort of action that shows that they might be interested.
And of course, if they might be interested and they take the right kind of action. It's implied that we have permission to connect and to try and sell. So if Wi-Fi has slid into somebody's DM, of course there is implied permission that whoever it is that responds, it's OK for the person to try and sell Wi-Fi on something or to try and convince Wi-Fi on something. Why we should try this menu, why we should try this or why we should try this or why we shouldn't try that.
So that is what lead generation is about. And I think the oldest example that I've used over here on the podcast for lead generation is that young man who came to my son's school and who was handing out Flyers. So you hand out Flyers to people. If somebody calls you from that flyer, that is lead generation because the person has done something to show that he might be interested in the products or the service that you offer.
So that is lead generation. Then the last thing that the company wants Rapunzel to do is community building. Now, lots of Nigerian businesses, they get this thing twisted, they think that community building is automatically going to lead to business growth. Well, not necessarily case because community building is not you talking at people. Community building is when you facilitate the space and then people start talking to each other.
Now those of you who are in the graphic design space, you will know what community building is because there are some of you that use Adobe Suite for all the stuff. You do use Adobe audio editing stuff, you use Adobe video editing stuff, graphics editing, you know, all those sorts of things. And there are different kind of forums that exist on the Internet where those of you who are graphic artists talk to one another.
That is community building. So Adobe doesn't own the space and there are things that Adobe does to facilitate these kinds of conversations. But essentially community building is you people who use Adobe, you guys are talking to each other. It's not about Adobe talking to you. So when Nigerian businesses think community building, they're thinking about places that you own, that you're talking to people, broadcasting to people.
So they think WhatsApp is community building and they think Facebook group is community building. But unfortunately, that's not the case. That is just you talking at other people, not necessarily people talking to themselves. And the value in community comes from people coming together, robbing minds. And that is how it now has outsized returns for the business. So you Adobe people, the more you guys get together, the more you guys discuss and the more you guys share techniques like,
oh, no, no, no, for audio editing, do it like this, do it like this. For Photoshop, do it like this, do it like this. Then the more it reinforces people using Adobe Suite as the premier solution for audio design, video design, graphics design, that sort of thing. So these are the sorts of things that Rapunzel, sorry that the company wanted Rapunzel to do for them create content, create leads, and then handle community building.
I hope you guys are paying attention. This is what they want one person to do. They want one person to create content, one person to do lead generation, one person to handle community building. Take note. Then the company also wanted Rapunzel to adhere strictly to an SOPSOP Just means standard operating procedure, and it makes perfect sense. The standard operation procedure is just that document that you have to make sure that everybody's doing things the same way in a manner that you can track so that if there's a problem, we know where to fix it.
And of course, they have SO PS around messaging because they want to make sure that all the employees are talking the right way, using the right words, using the right slang, you know, stuff like that, being professional. Then they also have SO PS around aesthetics because they want to make sure that everything looks all right because you can't just come in and start making the kind of content that you would like, but it has to be the kind of content that the business owner likes and that the business owner finds that it resonates with their own audience.
So standard operating procedures based on aesthetic and then other platform specific requirements, like obviously the contents that you're going to create and the kind of words that you're going to use for TikTok is going to be different from the kind of content that you're going to create. If you're creating things on, let me see, LinkedIn, yes, that's good. So the kind of things you do on LinkedIn are different from the kinds of things that you're going to do on TikTok.
So I want you to actually adhere to the standard operating procedure. Makes perfect sense. Well, by the way, this UK, Niger based UK company did not tell Rapunzel or did not show Rapunzel what the standard operating procedures are. So let me repeat, they want Rapunzel one person to do content creation, to do lead generation and to do community building. They want Rapunzel to stick to an SOP, but they have not shown Rapunzel the SOP.
Take note. Now let me move on Then the company also says we're going to give you performance based incentives, but they didn't spell out what kind of incentives are in place or whether the yardstick for the incentives. Are we going to be measuring sales? Are we going to compensate you based on leads, Even on leads? Is it closing organic leads or is it leads that are coming from here or from there? They didn't figure out, they didn't say, the paperwork didn't say clearly, all these sorts of things.
Then the document also has some things there about how community management is good for brand and reputation management wants Rapunzel to also do organic follower growth. And I hope you guys can see that the job description is very, very, very unwieldy. Content creation, lead generation, community building, incentivized performance, brand management, reputation management, organic follower growth. It's very, very unwieldy.
But the job role is social, social and media content executive. Now, there's one part in the contract that I found really, really questionable somehow, and there's a section there that says that the roles and the duties and the assignment of Rapunzel can be changed at any time at the discretion of the employer. So he's saying that Rapunzel, this is the job that you're going to do. But by the way, if a guy thinks we need to change your job role,
we will change it. So these are my thoughts about the employment contract. And I think some of you ought to consider when you're looking at some of these things, the company was not clear on the need or on the scope of work from the beginning. And because of that, in my own opinion, no one can be successful here because of such vague terms of reference. And of course, I'm going to put Rapunzel under a, what's it called, probation for three months.
And I told her, look, you take this job. This is what is going to happen in three weeks. You guys are going to quarrel because it's not clear what it is you're supposed to do. You're supposed to do everything under the sun and there's no how you can juggle everything. No. So my advice to that was simple. And my advice to you guys is simple. If you're looking at this sort of employment contract, you need to have an honest conversation with the business owner so that you guys can have a precise scope of work.
You would have to decide whether this is a good fit or not because there's going to be quarrel. And in my own opinion, I keep telling you guys on the podcast, whether it's with employers or whether it's customers, you are better off quarrelling now and you don't start the relationship then. You start the relationship now and then two weeks quarrel will now enter. It is better to quarrel now and not to start this marriage than to say, you know what, you just enter the marriage and then next year you start quarrelling.
By the way, when I say marriage, I mean business marriage or employment marriage. I'm not talking about real life marriage because you know, relationships, real life marriage, marriage once you've entered, you've entered. Well, anyway, let me let me not approach that topic because you have strong opinions about when it is that you can get divorced and get separated and things like that. So where was I? So you guys need to have an honest conversation.
And the way that I got Rapunzel about it was this just call up these people. By the way, this is the reason why I say we should have people's phone numbers and stuff like that because this is not an easy conversation to have over e-mail, but over the phone you can have this as a sharp conversation. So thank you very much, Ma. I appreciate the employment contract. I just had a look at it. But to be honest, Ma, if I end up working for you, I would love to be very, very effective at the job.
And in my honest, my honest and professional opinion, someone who has done this job for other businesses for the last five years, the terms of engagement are too wieldy because you want me to handle content creation, you want me to handle lead generation, and you want me to handle community building. And you want me to be doing this in two weekly cycles. Madam, in my honest opinion, there is nobody that is going to be effective at doing this with such a wieldy terms of engagement.
So you and I need to have an honest conversation and figure out where exactly is the business bleeding? What is the biggest problem that you're trying to solve? Ma, Let's just have a conversation about that and then we can come up with a, with a workable proposal and see how I can help you grow your organization. So is it content creation that is the main thing or is it lead generation that you want us to pay attention to?
Let's say we can boost sales or is it a community building And we say community building itself. Ma, what do you mean or what are you hoping to achieve? And then you keep quiet and then you hear what Madam has to say. Now, when Madame responds, it will now give you a sense of what it is that she needs to do, what you need to prioritize. And you can now come back with a much more realistic terms of engagement before you go ahead and you collect money.
Oh, OK, sorry. No, this is not. This is for employment. OK, so don't give me money. You will agree. Now. Then you start the work, and then she's supposed to pay you in four weeks. But then both of you quarrel 2 weeks into it. And then now there's a huge problem because you are now quarrelling. 2 weeks in and she's now thinking how can I even pay you? What have you done? And then in your own term, in your own point of view, rightly think and rightly so, you're thinking, look Madam, I just invested 2 weeks of my life on this project.
Can you please pay? Pay me my money, even if it's half, give me the money, let me go anyway. So you see why I say let's have honest conversation 1st and decide whether we should move ahead or not instead of entering into the marriage and then quarrelling later. So quarrel now and decide whether this is a good marriage to enter into or not. So that was my recommendation to Rapunzel. Call Madam up and tell her, look, the terms of engagement is too wide.
I've been able to figure out three things that you're trying to achieve. Content creation, lead generation and community building, which is your most, which is your top priority right now? What are you trying to solve with the business or what kind of problems it is you're trying to solve? Let's figure out what it is that needs to be done. Because Ma, the way you set up this employment contract now, in my own professional opinion,
I've been doing this job five years. Right now. There's nobody that can be successful under these terms. So Madam, it's not even about me because to be honest, you use me. You don't use me. Noah Hala But The thing is, at least if we can narrow down these terms of engagement and make it much more realistic, it'll even be better off for you to make sure that you will have someone at the end of the day that stands a chance at being successful to help you grow your business.
So that's how you handle the conversation. But there are a couple of things I should be looking out for in an employment contract. And I think we'll just go over that in maybe 5 minutes and then we'll wrap it up because we're currently at 18 minutes. And remember, if you'd love to connect with me, the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian and then connect with me on LinkedIn, the name to look for is Tave Shima Agede.
So looking at your employment contracts, the thing we should be paying attention to, number one, I've spent 18 minutes saying it. The scope of work should be clear. That is for those of you who are looking at, you know, some social media management, something, something, something, something, but whatever it is, scope of work should be absolutely clear. What is the format? What are the platforms? What is the cadence? Daily, weekly, whatever.
How are we going to handle the analytics? What are we measuring? What is the reporting obligations, you know, blah, blah, blah. This thing should be clear. First of all. The next thing that should be clear should be compensation and benefits. Is it going to be salary or is it going to be salary plus Commission and therefore the Commission? What's the formula for arriving at the Commission? These are the two big things you need to make sure are clear first before you start looking at the other things.
If you call me up and you say bro, I beg, I'm looking at an employment contract, help me sort this thing out and you start showing me other terms. All those other terms are not important yet. If the scope of work is not clear and the compensation, our benefits are not clear, then what are we looking at? Because yes, there are other legal things we should be paying attention to like health insurance, we should be paying attention to that time off.
We should be paying attention to that retirement plan. We should be paying attention to that because Nigeria right now, they are private pension schemes. I've been seeing information floating about on the Internet and also on billboards that people like us, you know, self-employed people, those of us who run SMEs. We should be able to have our own pension schemes. You know, I'll do some research and talk about that in the future.
Then stock options, because there's some people who say come and work for us, we give you 50% of the company, blah, blah, blah over time. When is work? Is it 9:00 to 5:00? When am I going to get compensated if I work until 12 midnight? IP intellectual property, That one is also important. Ownership of work. If I create your logo, who owns the logo? Is it you people or is it me? If I create a website, who owns the website?
Is it your business or is it me? Confidentiality. Can I talk to people about the work that I'm doing with you guys so that when I'm trying to find another job, can I use your stuff as testimonial or as a samples? What else? Termination and severance. If you're going to sack me, how much are you giving me? Dispute resolution. If we're quarrelling, how are we going to solve the quarrel? Now, some of you, especially those you who have legal background, will say all these things are important and yes,
they are. But The thing is, if I don't even know what the scope of work is, and I don't even know what the compensation is, why am I wasting my time looking at time off and termination and dispute and all of that? All these things are important. But the first thing, do you even understand the scope of work? If you don't understand the scope of work, stop reviewing this document, call the person up and have that conversation.
You know, Madam, I've looked at it and I'm not quite clear what the scope of work is. You know, what exactly do you want me to do? I've looked at the documents. I'm thinking maybe you're supposed to do AB and C. So is my understanding correct? I don't hear what she has to say. And then after that, compensation. Also, I'm not clear on the compensation, blah, blah, blah. Once you have solved those two big ones, scope of work and then compensation, you can now start looking at those other things.
OK, Is it 85 or is it 96? You know, do I have Christmas off or do I have Valentine's Day off? Then those other things become important. So essentially, that's just my tip for you guys today. If you're looking at your employment contract, make sure the scope of work is clear, mix of compensation is clear. Once you understand those two, you now know whether it's worth looking at all the other small, small stuff. Let's see now, do you need a lawyer?
Because we've spoken of some technical stuff here. The answer is ideally, yes, you need a lawyer. Unfortunately, things are not always ideal. So if you have a cousin, or if you have an ex-girlfriend, or an ex-boyfriend, or your younger brother's friend, or your younger brother just finished law school, or your younger sister finished law school last year. For now, it's good enough. Just show your younger sister your ex-girlfriend.
Well, if you're in a relationship now and you want to be sharing this thing with your ex-girlfriend, it's going to be tricky. So just convince your wife or convince your current girlfriend that it's necessary for you to still be in touch with your ex. But anyway, that's the topic for another episode, where was I? So I'm saying, do you need a lawyer? Yes, ideally. But if you don't have a lawyer, don't worry. All these people that we have around you that just finished law school, you know, last year,
getting their own opinion on these sorts of things before we sign the dotted line is not a bad idea. So this is not a bad way to evaluate your employment contract. And it's something that you guys should be consider, everyone should consider because once in a while, you know, we're doing this self-employment thing. It doesn't need to be working too bad or too good. And then somebody says, hey, come and handle this thing for me.
I'll be paying you 700K every month and you think 700 K every month? OK, if I pipe low and I do this thing for three months, that would give me 2.1 M OK, no problem. Let me just close my eyes. Let me do this in sharp, sharp three months, collect 2.1. So these are the sort of things that you have to consider for the employment contract, for the retainership, for the whatever, but just make sure that the overriding consideration is make sure that the scope of work is clear.
You understand what it is they're asking you to do. Make sure compensation is clear. Once those two are clear, yes, then time off, probation, stock option, overtime, intellectual property, all those things. Yeah, you can solve all of those later. So thank you very much for your time and attention. Remember, if you'd love to connect, the phone number is 08064662140, country code is +234. That's my WhatsApp number as well.
Also, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my IED. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'm glad that we're all here. 11 healthy in 2025. Looking forward to a prosperous year for us all. And yeah, just looking forward to good things. Essentially. Remember to share the podcast or share any particular episodes that you guys find useful. Let's post the gospel. Let's let other people know that we have wonderful podcasts like this around sales, marketing and business.
Sometimes career development, although mostly I'm talking to people who are self-employed or business people. Just let people know we have podcasts like this in Nigeria, Home grown, not just the gossipy stuff. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.