Start Your Business Lean: MVP, Compounding, and Multiple Incomes

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishma Ayede. I'm the host of the podcast. I saw sales and marketing challenges and I'm making today's recording at home and everyone is around, so expect to hear some noise in the background. Now, the goal of this podcast is business education. And if you are impressed by the time you're done, please spread the word so that your friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad 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'd love to connect with me, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I want to share some listener comments. And this is a comment or rather this was a call in from Eforma, who is in Gariki, Abuja. And of course, she didn't call in from the podcast because you can't call in from a podcast.

She called in during the live radio show. And that day had started off the radio show trying to set some things in perspective because there are lots of people who reach out through the podcast or who reach out on the radio show. And they keep on worrying about, you know, access to finance, lack of support, you know, these sorts of things as the reasons why they've not been able to kick off their hustle. I try to help as many people as I can, not because Ioffer financial assistance, but I like to point people towards helpful resources.

But it now meant that I was spending a lot of my time trying to figure out which grants or which microfinance bank or which, you know, whatever is best suited for people's business problems. And The thing is, when I started the podcast and the radio show, it's it's not the reason. This is not what I had in mind. My own core thesis. The main purpose behind the podcast and the radio show is that the reasons why businesses are not succeeding is because people like the know how and the frameworks to be able to identify the right customer,

acquire the right customer, close the sale and build profitable relationships over the long term. That is my central thesis of this podcast and it's the central thesis of the radio show. So if genuinely you think access to finance is your problem, then honestly, you know, I can help you and then we ChatGPT, to be frank and Gemini, you can just go and sit down and run a small search. You know, I'm a fashion entrepreneur based in Inugu in Nigeria.

I specialize in this kind of fashion, that kind of fashion, blah, blah, blah. I think access to finance is a problem for me. Give me a list of grants, bank funded schemes or microfinance products that are aimed at giving startup capital to Nigerian female entrepreneurs in this space. You now hit send. That is your prompt. And these things are so good that you actually will give you a list of stuff like 5 like 10. Your job now is to sit down,

print out this list, and then tomorrow, 8:00, start calling them or get transport fare and go to the place and start asking questions. Start hunting down this finance that you're clearly looking for. So with this AI tools, getting the idea now is not really the problem. Execution is the thing. And that's one funny thing I've realized some people who say funding is the problem. OK, no problem. Let me take time out of my schedule.

Let me help you. We've drawn up a list of five microfinance banks. Oh, yeah. Tomorrow, call them. Next. Tomorrow. How far? Now, what's up? How did it go? And I didn't call them because this because it's because that. OK, Well, you call them. Yeah, I will call them next week. OK, No problem. Next week, How far? How do you think go? This thing happened. This thing happened. That thing happened. This da, da, da. When I'm going to call them, I

will call them. It's OK. No problem. You guys are getting the picture here, right from what I'm saying, you're getting the picture. I've always had the idea is not the problem. Execution is the main problem. And I really think a lot of you who say that finances, your problem is you are running away from the main thing, which is that you really you don't like chasing down customers. Sorry, 1 moment. OK, sorry about that.

I'm back. My youngest son was retching, so I went to go and see what was going on there. And this is one of the fun things you should look forward to. That's for those of you who don't have kids, You know, children are always up to mischief. So it's impressive the ways that they, it's impressive how they figure out ways to land in trouble or land in some kind of adventure. Anyway, that is that so is even good an interruption I have himself because I think as we need to go too long and long and long about the this whole thing.

But basically on that particular day, I now showed up on the radio station and I was now telling people that look, this radio station Radio Maria does not give financial aid. Me Tavi Shimmer, I do not give financial aid. However, if you really think financial aid is your problem, or if you really think that, you know, access to credit or whatever is your problem, here are a list of resources. And I spent like 15 minutes listing out every single resource that I have come across that solves these problems.

If you think training is the reason why you can't start your business, here is access to training. Oh, by the way, I was only listing Catholic Charities because, well, you know, Radio Maria is majority owned Catholic radio station. So I just thought it'd be fitting for me to just stick to Catholic Charities. So I listed out Catholic Charities that anybody who's Catholic should have easy access to. Your training is your problem.

This is the charity you should go to if you want to start an agricultural business and you think you need training in agro related something. This is the charity. If you think access to finance is the problem and you want to be involved in baking or something, this is the kind of charity that will help you lend you money on a parish level. If you're running into financial difficulty, these are the organizations within the church that you should approach.

These are the people that give training. These are the people that will give funding. These are the people that will give financing. These are the people that will give grants and enlisted every single resource that I've come across. And I kept up by saying again that financial assistance, I do not do financial assistance. I don't give financial assistance. And to be frank, if I had that kind of paper, I would not even give financial assistance.

I won't because I think that is not the root of the problem. That's for business people. So as I finish my 15 minute rant on the air now that's how we go on caller. I signal the producer I should put her through. And lady said her name is the former Ingerkey. I say former. Thank you very much for calling. How can I help? She said no, that's not as if she has a problem. She just wants to know whether she can make contribution on the radio show.

And I said, yeah, sure you can't. That is the whole point of the show. You know, I give my own perspective. I'll try and help, but then it's also welcome for people to call once in a while to say I faced this problem. This is how I overcame the problem. You know, his business education is all good. So if I went into her story, First off, she spoke about how all this access money, money, money that people are looking for big, big, big money to start and you don't need big money.

Please, I'm not making this stuff up. What I'm saying, I'm not making this stuff up because I guess it is radio show somebody called with an even bigger testimony in quote, let's just call it testimony. So the former says that there's no problem with starting small because for her she started in Tiger not business. Now usually I ask people questions and I dig in, but The thing is, by the moment she started, I was so overwhelmed with joy.

Then I forgot to ask her. Oh, OK, Tiger not business. Is it that you process and package and sell or what? You know, I even forgot because I was just overwhelmed with joy. She said she started her business a year ago with 3000 naira in capital. I didn't say 30,000, I didn't say 300,000. I didn't say 3,000,000. I didn't say 30 million. I said she started with 3000 naira. For those of you listening in America or UK, you might not have a sense of you know how small that is, but in in the Nigerian context that is small.

I know you hear 1000 thousand so you think is big because you know, in America 3000 lbs is something in the UK, 3000 lbs is something. In fact, while I worked in the UK, my own monthly salary was about 1000 too. So back then 3000 lbs would have been double my monthly salary by Nigeria. 3000 naira is is nothing. You can't be using a buy a car in my small household or 4. If you use 3000 Naira and buy a car, you know by the time I go and buff and come out, everybody has finished eating their car.

That's how small 3000 Naira is. So that is what she used. If a man used to start her business, at the time she was calling in, she had not done proper accounting, but she thinks she has done anything between 700,000 Naira and a million in revenue. Let me repeat, she started off with 3000 Naira Tiger Knot business. A year later at the time of her calling in to the radio station, she has done anything in between 700,000 to 1,000,000 in revenue.

The essence of our testimonials, you don't need big money to start, you can start small, it is doable. Or you finance is my problem, Finance is my problem. You can start small. It is doable. Now I keep saying that there are some industries that are capital intensive, so you will have to borrow. Dangote is opening another port. I think I mentioned it in the last podcast, whether in OGU or is it Calaba or something? I think it's Calaba also.

Anyway, just go and check that kind of thing. He will have to borrow because a port is a big deal. It's not something you will open your pocket and finance yourself. So if you want to open a port, yes, you need money. If you want to get into logistics business, if you need money, you can't do logistics with just one bus. Now, well, you can start with one bus, but even that one bus with the way cars are expensive now that Toyota Corolla, you know my own spec, the one that I

drive, the current model second hand, I checked, you know, 14M. So I can imagine that if you want to do logistics and you want to buy a bus, you know how much you have to drop. So aside from people who are starting big, big, big, big capital and intensive businesses, the rest of us, we actually can start with something quite small like Informer did with 3K3000 Naira Capital. And that is precisely what we mean in the business development space when we say that if you are starting a business, you need to start off with an MVP.

The MVP is the minimum viable product. It's the smallest version of your product or your service that you can introduce to the market or that you can sell to one person or get two or three people to buy. The goal of the MVP is you take this small idea, you put it out into the market. You're trying to validate the business idea. You're trying to figure out is there a demand for this product or service? Do people even like this product or service?

It is only when you get a green light. Maybe approach 20 people and then you know 11 buy from you or 12 buy from you. You now know that OK, it's time for me to start putting more and more money behind it. That is the rationale. You can start small. For a lot of you, finance really is not the problem. Then if I'm also spoke about compounding a business and that's something that people don't take advantage of because she said that at 700K it did not come one day.

It is small, small, small. You get 1 customer, you get 2, you get 6, you get 10, you get 12. Then of course, over time you're raising your prices. In the beginning, you're selling for 2/5, then you sell for two, eight, then you sell for 3/2, then you sell for 5/1. And then over time, people are referring you. All those things are compounding. The number of your customers is increasing, the number of referrals is increasing, the price that you're paying is increasing.

And so The thing is compounding. And so I had to stress it on the air. I'm stressing here on the podcast that a lot of you are costing yourselves future progress by not starting today. If you did not start with 3K last year, she wouldn't have several 100 grand in revenues this year. So the fact that you're in a bad spot today is because you didn't take action last year. You want to be in a good spot next year, then take action today.

By delaying these things, you are costing yourself future progress. So for all these people who say finance, finance, finance, OK, here's a list of microfinance banks. Here's a list of the questions. Go and ask. We have the meeting on Friday, Monday morning, how far, oh, this happened, this happened, this happened. OK, No problem. Thursday, how far this happened, This happened, this happened. OK, Next week Monday, it's not me you're suffering, it is yourself.

You're suffering. You are costing yourself progress by not taking action today on this thing. Take action today. Let the things start to compound so that next year you are the one who have the testimony to say that last year this is all I had. This year this is what I have. By the grace of God, next year this is where I will be. You will should stop costing yourself future progress. If I did not start this podcast five years ago today, you would not be listening to me.

It's that simple. You're listening to me today because five years ago I started. I hope there's somebody listening to this thing now and it's making a connection. The thing is clicking in your head. You're costing yourself progress by saying tomorrow, you know what? Next week I don't really feel like it. Like it. I'll do it next month. The children are giving me headache. I beg, let me go and sleep. You are costing yourself progress.

Then Ejama also, sorry Ephoma. She also spoke about multiple income sources because she's getting income from two or three places because even though she's doing, she thinks it's between 701 and one M in revenue. See, it's normal when we start in the beginning, you know, not everybody gets an accountant. So you know, it's OK. Well, eventually we all should get accountants so that we know or or so we know accountants. What do you call them accountants or what are they called again, bookkeepers.

So you can say exactly to the Kobo, this is how much we've made. So she's still piercing together income from one or two sources. And I and I, I had to 2nd that like yes, multiple income sources and I gave a good resource on that. And that is Robert Kiyosaki, rich dad, poor dad. It's a very old book because my father gave it to me back when I was in secondary school. And even then when he gave it to me, the book was not brand new.

So now I know some people will be saying what the hell am I going to do looking at a book that is like 40 years old already or like him from that book. Don't worry about how old the book is. Interact with the ideas expressed in the book and try and figure out is this idea valid or not, Is this idea workable or not, is it practical or not, Is it true or not? That's all you need to know. Forget about the age of the book.

Which is the reason why I have no problem telling you guys to go and listen to Brian Tracy stuff of 1970 whatever, because the fact that it was done in 1970 doesn't mean it's rubbish. Or Tom Hopkins of 1976 or what's her name? I can't remember. Anyway, I've forgotten the person's name, Shawn. So forget the age. Read this thing doesn't make sense. What is the one that I can apply tomorrow? Tomorrow, wake up, apply. So Robert Kiyosaki, rich dad thought that he talks about something called an income quadrant.

And this is the idea behind the income quadrant, that whoever you are in this world, in this life, whether you're a Dangote or you're a church rat, you're going to make money from four sources. One is you will earn salary. You'll be an employee. That is the first quadrant #2 is you will do self-employed. self-employed is you are doing hosu. You're not collecting salary, you're doing Hosu. Work of your sweat, work of your intellect, work of your hand that is self-employed.

From there you would do a business owner. The hoso has paid, you have hired one or two people, you put systems in place. You are now on orga business owner and then investor. Business is paying well or side hustle is paying well or employee. Whatever is paying well. You now take that money and you throw it into investments. Everybody you love and admire in the world today has passed through these 4 quadrants. By the way, you see why I say don't focus on how old the book is, digest this thing.

Does it make sense or not? Is it correct or not? Is it applicable or not? So everybody you like, everybody you know has touched at least one of these quadrants, employee, self-employed business owner, investor. And I told people on the show, this is how you look at it. Make sure you touch any of these quadrants. In fact, Kiyosaki says most people. We flow through the quadrants. You will start as an employee. One day your guy will shout on you and you say what the hell on top what this man is shouting at me that he's a bastard.

You now submit resignation and that's how you now transition into self-employed. You now transition into Hosu because you said, look, I can't take this anymore. And then from there you sweat it out. You build a successful business and then you now have extra cash to be investing here and there and partnering with other people and doing other things. So Kiyosaki says excuse me for most people and that's how you flow into the whole thing.

So we now looked at the former's example. The former is collecting, teaching salary that is employed, step one. Then Step 2 is self-employed or hazu. She is doing tiger nut business and then she also sells bed sheets online on Instagram. I deserve a that is also the next step for my now is business owner. And I shared with people on the air that this is what it takes to migrate to business owner. You need systems, you need processes, you need frameworks,

systems, processes, framework. So step one is you need people, you need a sales team. My own opinion, I think that'll be the first thing for her. She will need a sales team to be selling on her behalf. Later on. She will need a proper management team, you know, and everything. That's as the business grows. But for now, two or three people to sell with her. It doesn't have to be fancy. You can start with something organic.

University is on strike. Your small sister is at home and you say, sis, you will come and sell for me. That's how it begins. Or your cousin is just passing through. I will say, little bro, come. You will sell for me. That's how it starts. Or you tell your spouse that, look, my dear, I need support in this business. When you're going to work tomorrow, you'll carry 10 containers of tiger knots to the office. Go and sell for me.

Support your loving wife. That is how you will start getting people and expanding. Small, small. One day she'll have a formal sales team. She will need people, then she will need processes. Processes just means the written frameworks that you use to train other people and to make sure that everything is in check. So like regarding the sales team, you need to have a standard operating procedure. Sorry, 1 moment. OK, I'm back.

Sorry about that. I was one of my boys again. Where was I? I have processes now. So let's say she now has a sales team, team of 3 or 4. She needs to be able to put down things on paper. This is our ideal client. These are ideal customers. This is how we figure out who they are. This is how we go after them. That is the first part in training your sales team. Your sales team needs to know that it needs to be written out on paper or stored in a Google document.

The reason why is if it is not where the sales team can find it, they will have to wake you up at two, 2:00 PM at night when there's a problem when you're trying to sleep. I say 2 PM, 2:00 AM when you're trying to sleep at night. So it needs to be written out in a place that is easily accessible so that they can refer to it. So there'll be Sops for sales, for marketing, for management, for accounting, for, you know, everything.

Organisations need those sorts of things. Then technology in her own case, you know, in the beginning when you start processing, you'll be processing on a small scale. You know, you just buy one entry level machine that is helping you or some of these machines can be manual machine like this one business in ground square where they do sugar cane juice, tiger nuts and all not and everything is very manual. In fact I think that is even part of the appeal of the whole thing that you go and sit down and you watch them live.

They do the thing for you because you know it's Grand Square. So I know Grand Square Steady, Steady Plaza in Abuja, those places are expensive. So I know for sure that the woman that owns the shop, OK, I just assumed this woman, the man or the woman that owns the shop, I know that they have money to get fancy machine to just do it shop, shop behind the scenes. So it's part of the whole business experience. So in the beginning, I'm sure you buy, you know that one.

They now be turning it by hand and nothing looks laborious. So eventually she's going to have to, you know, get the machines, you know, up production, you know, stuff like that. So she would need people, she will need processes and she will need technology. Now the difference, some people wonder what's the difference between self-employed and business person? Because for me, I thought they were the same thing. And that's one of the beautiful things about reading Robert Kiyosaki's book.

Because as a small boy, if you open my eyes, I realize that there's a difference between self-employed and business person because lots of people run around saying I'm a businessman, I'm a businessman. Meanwhile, you're a business nothing, you're self-employed, you're doing hazu, you're not a businessman. And this is the difference. A businessman or a businesswoman has built an asset outside of them that operates outside of them.

And so they are not personally tied to the business. A businessman can say I want to go our flex in Ghana for two months with my family and take off. The business will not die. A lot of us listening to this podcast, we are not business people yet. We cannot take a two-month holiday yet because if we take a two-month holiday, everything will collapse because too many things depend on us. That is the difference between self-employed or hosu and business.

A businessman, A businesswoman has systems in place. More Abudu can decide that. You know what? I'm tired of Ebony live TV. I want to go to France and I want to flex for three months. She will go to France and she will come back. Ebony life, her business will still be running. That is businesswoman Oprah Winfrey can say I need a mental health day. Let me travel to Switzerland for 21 days and then I'll come back. By the time Oprah comes back,

Oprah Winfrey Network will still be running. That is businesswoman. A lot was listening to this podcast. Now in my own opinion, we should stop running around saying I'm a businessman, I'm a businesswoman. You are not there yet. Stop declaring what you are not. Recognize the fact that you are still at self-employed. You are still at Hozu. Own it and then start aspiring and putting the plan in place to make sure that you're ready to transition to the next stage.

But stop calling yourself what you're not because you're deceiving yourself. So where was I Sorry you? It's like today is a rant episode, not a practical advance episode. Anyway, those are just more of the things that I wanted to share. But to be honest, I was really happy that the former called and that she said everything that she said because inside me there was plenty of stuff that was boiling. And you know, this is a podcast,

so, you know, it's just you and me. So I can speak real speak my mind. That's that's OK because that's the level of the contract between you and me. But you know, when you're on the air, you got to be professional. You have to be objective, you have to be subtle. So I couldn't just show up and then just vomit on the air like that. So when she called and it was a perfect example, I was very, very happy. Anyway, another person called,

also another interesting story. They started in 2015. They started with 19,000 startup capital. The person did not say what they do is plantain ships. The person did not say how much profit that they're making, but he said that they're responsible for staff salaries of over 1,000,000 every single month. Let me repeat, I will share more on those other persons experience later on. They started the business with 19,000 naira in 2015.

Well, you know, because of hyper inflation and stuff, 19,000 naira must have been quite must have been something sizable back then, but Seed Capital 19,000 currently now they're doing enough revenues that covers them to pay staff salaries of over 1,000,000 naira. Also, the reason why he called is because somebody was stealing from the business. But you know, we'll talk about that later on, the kind of controls you need to implement in your business to make sure that these sorts of things are not happening happening.

So obviously they have a profitable enterprise because they're making payroll, they're supporting their lifestyle and somebody was even still stealing on top of it. But I'm glad you found my called. And even though you guys didn't hear it, you should be glad she called too. Because if I'm A and then the second guy, Laulu, if some of us say it, you say we're being academic. So I'm glad that it's real people who are talking.

If you notice, I don't even use my own exam. That was the thing that was even like painting me like I can't use my own example because I schooled abroad, I didn't have any fancy hobbies. So when I saw a camera that was £200, I was like, let me just close my eyes and buy it. And then of course later on, OK, I need to upgrade and you know, save some money. And then I harassed Mumsy and then as I got my second advanced camera.

So that's one reason why I don't give my own example because I know people will say, oh, you are born with a silver spoon. By the way, I was not. But as I do say, and now you're born with a silver spoon, you have a rich momsey. By the way, I don't have a rich momsey, but I just know that these are the things people will say. So that's why for a while I've been biting my tongue like I can't say this is how you start small using my own example.

But now the form has called, Laulu has called, people are starting with 3000 naira, people are starting with 19,000 naira, and they're making it. Honestly, finance is really, really, really, really, really not your problem. Except if you're starting in the capital intensive business. Finance is not your problem. Attracting customers is your problem. Building profitable relationships is your problem. There's another person who called in on the show.

He's a caterer. He says he needs finance. Sorry, he's a security guard. He said he needs finance and we started talking about financing options. Later on I told him that you know what, you should go and learn under somebody. And he said, and he's not as if he's completely fresh. He now started sending me pictures. Oh boy, I was impressed for a security guard and somebody who can put together 2 sentences in English, he's making what do you call these things?

Casserole and this and this and that and that. Casseroles, small shops different. I'm wondering like where did guy like from? From where? Because when I say security guard I say I mean security guard. Like he even sounds like a security guard and he says these are some of the things that I've done. You have to tell him that guy finance is not your problem or sales is your problem. If you have been doing things like this before and you have actually sold some of these things, the problem is that you've not been able to attract get other customers so that you can sell more and be making small, small, small revenues so that this side hustle can you know peak.

So you can now resign security job and then focus on this thing fully. Now, finance is not your problem and like I told you guys in a couple of episodes before, if you go and raise finance when in this situation, the problem is that you are poor at sales. You're only making five steps forward and you now go 7 steps backwards. You get all this fancy, you get all this money, you buy all the fancy equipment, you will open up a shop, you will go and pay for branding, you'll pay for website, you pay for signage,

you'll pay for everything. But since you're bad at sales, guess what will happen? You will have the beautiful shop, you will have the equipment, you will have the branding, you have the website, you have the everything. But you will not have any customers. You will still be dying anyway. Let me stop. I guess this is the longest rant I've I've ever done, so let me just stop there. Hopefully somebody has been able to pull some sense out of it.

But for most of you guys, I beg. I really don't think finance is your problem. And if some of us, you think we're born with a silver spoon, that is our excuse, you really have to come up with a good excuse for, I mean, what's the excuse now for a former or 3K? And the excuse for Fola at 19 K was, I mean, like, what excuse are you going to come up with anyway? Next podcast episode, I'll try not to rant. I'll try and get back to something practical and tactical so that we can come up with specific things that we have to do to move our business forward the next day.

So that's all for today. Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.