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Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, shout outs and today's shout out is going to be someone who we already addressed yesterday and that is Emmanuel or Jabbola. He's the guy who is my guy from efair who is the graphic and product designer. Now the reason why I'm shouting him out again today is because he sent me another message on LinkedIn. And this time he sent me a message with a book recommendation. And in principle, I think it's a good recommendation.
So shouting him out. And then I'm also sharing it with you guys today so that you guys can go and read the book because it's always welcome development whenever you guys can explore other perspectives when it comes to sales, marketing and those sorts of things. And also him sending me a book recommendation just got me thinking. This is the first time someone has sent me a book recommendation in the for almost five years and over 1020
something episodes that we've been running this podcast. So please guys and girls listening to the show, don't feel shy. Whenever you come across a book that you think would be a good read, reach out. Let me know if it's something I can get access to. I will. I'll read it and discuss some of the ideas here. Even if I don't read it, I'll do some research on it and then discuss some of the themes. But either way, if you think something is going to be a worthy read for people in the community, reach out and drop it here.
Let me share with everybody else. So the book that Emmanuel or Jabbola is recommending is called Persuasion, the Art of Influencing People and it is by James Borg. Borg is Borg. It's a book I've heard about before and the reason why Emmanuel Jabbola is recommending is to me, and I am also recommending it to you guys listening to the show, is because it explains how memory and body language can help to persuade people.
Oh, by the way, that is not the official summary of the book. That is just Emmanuel Ojakwala's reason for recommending the book. So he says read the book Persuasion, the Art of Influencing People by James Borg because it explains how memory and body language helps to persuade people. So if you can, please read the book for a different perspective about all the things that we talk about over here on the podcast, because the things that I say are not gospel.
The whole part of me making this podcast is introduce you guys to new perspectives and a different way of seeing the world when it comes to business. So I don't intend to be the only voice that is in your life. I'm just trying to broaden perspectives. So that's it. So thank you very much, Emmanuel Giguela for the book recommendation. If any of you listening to the show think that there's another book that it would do well if I
read or other people read, then reach out, send it to me. Let me let other people know. Now before we continue with the topic that we've been on for the last week or so. Oh yes, if this is your first time listening to the show, yes, we are. This one is a quite a bit of a narrative because we've been we've been discussing something Sha for the last three or four days. So after you're done listening to this broadcast episode, skip back at least one week's worth so that you can catch up to the fuller context of the conversation.
Well, and by the way, if you'd love to connect with me, just like Emmanuel Jaguar has, the phone number to reach me on is 08064662140. The country code is lost 234 if you are not Nigerian. That's my WhatsApp number as well. Then I'm also available on socials. The name to look for is Tavishima Ayede on LinkedIn and also on YouTube. All right, now before I continue with our gist, a note of warning when reading all these books about persuasion.
Now you guys listen up. Is it possible to actually persuade somebody to do something? Because a lot of these books that are being written by people, especially people who are not sales people, I've is one thing I've noticed, you know, journalists, maybe communications specialists, marketing specialists, you know, writing books about persuasion, persuasion, persuasion. But if you notice those of us who are well versed in the out of sales, none of us write books about persuasion.
And I think it's instructive anyway, let me just put it that way, that those of us who are actually on the ground, who actually doing the talking to people, we do not talk about persuasion. And that should give us cause for concern and should make us think that is persuasion even possible. Yes, I guess persuasion is possible. But the truth of the matter is when it comes to business, because remember, in different areas, you know, politics,
religion, there are ways that you can say things and hijack people's emotional compass and get them to do things that the Auden or otherwise would not normally do. But when it comes to business, you're trying to sell iPhone, you're trying to sell rice and beans, or you're trying to sell business consulting, or you're trying to sell a construction pro project, or you're trying to sell fruit juice. You're trying to sell football,
badminton, kit, whatever it is, it is doubtful whether you can persuade someone to do something that they didn't intend to do already. In other words, if if deep down somebody would never buy an iPhone, you can't really persuade the person to buy an iPhone. So what do people who sell iPhones do? And what masterful sales people do is they look for people whose motivations aligns with ours, people who already have the pre-existing motivation and then you just look for ways to make that connection and then close the sale.
So in other words, if iPhone is all about being savvy, being stylish, being independent, being upwardly mobile, being rich and sophisticated, being whatever, whatever, then the people who sell iPhones are trying to look for people who have those pre-existing motives, people who already want to be rich and trendy and stylish and sophisticated and upwardly mobile and this and this and that and that and then align those motives.
And that is how we make money. So it's not as if you can take somebody who deep down is an A Samsung person and get the person to buy iPhone. That's not possible. But to the extent that people who buy high end Samsung's and Apples have similar motivations, OK, maybe that's possible. But the point that I'm trying to make is this. You have these non sales people, like journalists for instance, writing books on persuasion.
But the sales person will tell you that look, if somebody did not have the mind for the thing in the 1st place, you can't persuade the person. The best you can do is ask questions, explore the person's motives. If you figure out that the person's motives are close to yours, OK, there's room. You can make it happen. But it's questionable that you can take someone and persuade them to do something that they don't want to do.
Now. Remember, I'm talking now only about the narrow world of business, business development and sales. When it comes to politics, when it comes to religion, when it comes to counterterrorism and blah, blah, blah. Yes, there are skills that you can do and mind tricks and all kinds of things that you can Take somebody like me now, for instance, I'm a Christian. OK, Well, I have some violent tendencies because I believe that if somebody is an idiot is your is your responsibility to beat the crap out of that person?
That's what I believe, but I don't go around beating people up because I'm a big dude and the last time I slapped somebody, the person went into convulsions. So I'm afraid, you know, you don't know who is who. Let them not be that. I'll go and slap somebody now and then the person will die, and then before I know it, I'm in jail. So yeah, I believe in the kind of whoopass. If somebody's being an idiot, I believe that, yeah, you should give the person a sweet kind of whoopass.
So that's my own. Those are my own personal motivations. So yes, when it comes to religion and policies and things like that, you can take somebody like me and do something and I don't know, wind me up and wind me down so I can become a pacifist or maybe wind me up and then I become a terrorist or something. So yes, in those dimensions, there are people who have that kind of specialty. Yes, yes, those people exist. When it comes to business, just simple business rule.
I'm trying to sell consultancy services. I'm trying to sell iPhone. I'm trying to sell bag of rice. If somebody does not like rice, you can't get that person to buy a bag of rice. If somebody thinks business consultants are frauds, you can't sell consultancy services to that person. If somebody thinks iPhone and Samsung is a waste of money, you can't sell Samsung and iPhone to that person. So have conversations with people.
Look for existing motivations, pre-existing motivations and then try and see how you can align those motives, the person's motives, your own person, your own personal motives and then you make a sale. So that is one thing when you guys are reading all these books about persuasion, just be careful. Don't take this persuasion of thing too far because some of you read these books, you feel all high and then you're trying to close a deal that is a deal that is unclosable.
If the guy says I don't like rice, then why you still talk to him trying to send me a bag of rice? You know, forget whatever it is that he read in these books, all these fancy tips and tricks. Then there's also some developments in business literature now. People now talk about presuation. So there's persuasion, trying to get someone to do something, and then there's presuation. The idea behind presuation, I can't remember who wrote the book with that in the title, but people talk about it now.
The idea behind presuation is this now that you're going to try and set up some factors, try and set up some context, try and set up some habits ahead of time so that when you start talking to some people, the people now become amenable to persuasion. That whole thing of you try and set things up right, set it up with the right time, with the right context, make things the right way or discuss some of these things in a certain in a,
in a certain order. And so it makes it easier to persuade people. So just to let you guys know anyway that as you're reading, there's also new literature, people are now talking about presuation instead of persuasion. So persuasion, PERSUASION, and then pre situation P RE-S, UASION. My own take for those of you who listen to the show is please avoid all these Jedi mind tricks. Let's just stick to traditional selling and we'll be fine.
All this whole thing of I say it like this or I dress like this or I wink like this or I stand like this or I hand over the paper like this, or I stand on this foot or I smile this way or I only wear red or I drive in this car. I beg all those things that just it's not so they don't work or they work, but it's not unnecessary mind sock. So just learn how to do traditional selling well, you will be fine. But still, Emmanuel Jabuella,
thank you very much for the recommendation. I'm going to have a look at the book. I recommend that you guys read the book as well. Just take my caveats on board. Now today we're going to continue with the whole conversation about how sales skills and not lack of finance is going to help you to expand and actualize your business. Now the context is we've been talking about a lady who is based in Makodi who attends Benway State University.
I've called her Wonder Woman because I don't want to use her real name. Now Wonder Woman in Makodi is involved in catering and cuisine and she wants to expand, sorry, expand the menu that she offers and the orders. And then she what she cites, what she cites as not allowing her to move forward is a lack of finance. So yesterday we looked at how sales skills can help you secure grant financing. Because my argument was that it's not a lack of finance that is the problem, It's a lack of sales skills.
And if you have sales skills, you are going to be able to use that to cure your financing challenge. You'd be able to use the sales skills to go and chase grants. So yesterday's episode was to show you how you use sales skills to pursue your grants. Today we're going to be looking at how sales skills I'm going to help you to. So I lost my train of thought. So wait, hold on, let me get my I think I wrote down the kinds of the ways of getting funds.
Let me just check my notes. Yes, I've seen it. So today what we're supposed to be doing is we're trying to go and see how sales skills can help you to secure funding from sales or from revenue, because that's the order I listed them first. I said, if you lack finance, the first thing you chase is grant. Grant means they dashed you. Then the second one is bootstrapping. Bootstrapping mean Shah, you raise the money, you check your bank account, you check your wallet, you check your bag, You,
you know, you scrawn Shah, you get the money. Then the third is sales on revenue. So for those of you just listening for the first time, don't worry, continue listening. You will get some stuff out of it. But if you're lost, if you listen to yesterday's episode and then you skip back, listen to the one prior, the one prior, just do that for one week. You understand everything that we're saying, or rather you understand why we're saying what we're saying.
So how to use sales skills to business development skills to get more sales, to get more revenue. And it is that that Wonder Woman is going to use to fund the new meats that she wants to roll out. Like she wants to do peppered meat and some, you know, some nice stuff. The new soups that she wants to roll out, the new vegetables that she wants to roll out, the new menus that she wants to roll out, the new smoothies that she wants to roll out.
She also wants to try out something in Magodie. Where? How did she explain it again? I think she said like a hamper basket. Yeah. So it's like a hamper basket with food. I'm already inside. So instead of hamper basket with fruit and stuff like that will be hamper basket with food. I'm not quite sure I understood the concept, but she's trying to do some new stuff here. So we're going to see how sales skills can help her to get money from all this.
If we're going to get money from all this by expanding our sales and our revenue. Now if you're going to do this now, that's a option three. I'll be 1-2, three, Option 1, grant. Option 2 is where's my notes? 1 is grant, 2 is what's up around 2:00, I can't remember. Option 2, I can't remember anyway, one sales shaft. That's the most important thing, whatever option 2 is. So yeah, we're going to do. This is going to be a matter of cash flow.
Cash flow just means money is coming in, money is going out. The idea is hopefully plenty of money is coming in, small money is going out. Everybody has cash flow issues in business. So you build the client, you build the client 3 million, you collect the three million, But then to produce the thing that you need to produce, maybe. OK, let me see. OK, Documentaries. Yes, I've been making documentaries recently for non governmental organisations.
So some of you will hear that somebody made a documentary and the person collected 20M. Yeah, it sounds big, but it doesn't mean that 20 M is what actually entered the person's pocket because it will surprise you that the person might collect 20 M and out of that 20 M you have to pay taxes on it because of obtainable tax now is what 14%? So do 14% of of 20 M. So that's how much the government will collect. That's almost a fifth of the money, which I think is painful just to think about it.
So teenable demo, collect 14%, then you know the other people, you, if you don't have your own equipment, you rent camera, you pay editor, pay mixer, pay this, pay this person, pay that person. So I'm not surprised if production cost might now eat out half of the money or even more. But basically what I'm just trying to say is that every business owner has this whole thing of you collect money on front, in the front and then you spend it out at the back.
That's just what cash flow means. Money entered your hand today, money left your hand tomorrow. So this is sales. There's a cash flow play. So traditionally now the sales playbook that we use now is when we're trying to get money to enter our hand, good money to enter our hand, what we do is, number one, we get more customer, we get more customers to order. That just means we get new business. So last month you had 20
customers. Hopefully this month those two come back. But on top of that, 20 customers. We'll see if we can get another two or three customers to come. So get more people to order, get new customers. That is option 1. So Wonder Woman, your options are get new customers, then #2 get customers to increase how much they spend. So Wonder Woman option 2 is the people that I bought from you last month, we're trying to see how when they spend this month,
they spend more money. Then option 3 is get customers to buy again and again that is repeat business. So the people that you got last month and hopefully they'll do business with us this month. The reason why I'm stressing this one repeat business is in Nigeria, we just have this fundamentality of one and done. You do business with someone, you collect the money and then that's it. You let the person go, you start looking for a new customer.
But no, that's not where the sweet money comes in. The sweet money comes in when people buy from you again and again and again. So if you sell bathroom sleepers and you sell bathroom sleepers to someone and you know the person pays you, your profit margin is 500. You know, yeah, you're happy, but the goal is not that the person bought bathroom sleepers and you got 500 non profit margin. The goal is to get someone to be able to come back again and again and again so that if person bought this month and then the slippers pause in two months time, the person comes back to you.
So that if somebody ends up buying from you 3 or 4 times in a year, your profit margin will now be two, five on top of one particular customer. You know, so that's where the sweet money comes from. So it's not just that when somebody bought once, it's repeat business, get the person to come back again and again and again. Then another level for us to pull is to get people to bring their friends, their family members and their associates.
You know that is called referrals. So Wonder Woman for your catering business, what we're going to be trying to do is we're going to try and get new customers, our old customers. We're going to try and get them to buy from us again. When they buy from us again, we can try and get them to increase the amount of money that they spend. After we do that, we'll see how we can get them to bring their friends and their family members and their associates to come and buy from us.
If I ever can bring the enemies to buy from us too, the better. So how do we get new business? Unfortunately, people try and be very smart and sexy about this thing. But The thing is, how you get new business is just to sit down and ask yourself, OK, these customers that I have, these old customers, how did I get them in the first place? Whatever the answer is, go and do it again. That's how you get new customers. It's that simple.
So for Wonder Woman, some of her customers are her classmates. So if you want to get new customers, it's very simple. Go out and do the same thing and you will get more revenue. Go and talk to more people in your department. So the people that did the business with you last year, there were people in your department this year. Go and talk to more people in your department. If you Max out your department, move to another faculty.
In fact, you can start thinking of faculties where traditionally people say they have money, like medicine, for instance. I don't know about now, but back in my day, people used to say it's only those who are rich kids who studied medicine. Like you're either rich or you're either very smart. I don't know how true that is, but that's just what people used to say. And then people also used to say that law faculty, that's where all the big boys and the big girls are because, and it depends on campus to campus,
because there are some schools where they say law faculty that that's where all the Aluta people and all the activists are. So, you know, it depends. So if you're in a school where people say medicine, that's where all the rich children are and faculty of law, that's where all the big boys and the big girls are, then Wonder Woman, that's your next play. Max out your department and then start talking to people in medical department and then law faculty.
And that's how you're going to get new business. So there are creative ways of getting new business, but please, please, please, please, please, please stop thinking of new, sexy, 21st century, you know, blah, blah, blah ways of getting business. Just sit down and think this customers that I have, how did I get them? Go out and do the exact same thing again and you will get new customers. So I'm not a fan of new, new,
new, new, new. There's a time for new tactics, but we'll get to that later. So that's how you get new business. How did you get your old customers go out, do the same thing. So Wonder Woman, go and talk to your faculty members again. Now that school is resuming. Once you've spoken to everybody in your faculty, when I start talking to all the rich people in medical school and all the other people in law faculty, then next, next, next, next,
next OK, order value trying to get people to spell to spend more. This is where we now talk about upsells and cross sells and stuff like that. So if you know, let's say you have maybe like six or seven guys in your department and what they order from you is breakfast. You talk to them and try and see how instead of just breakfast, maybe they can now be doing breakfast and lunch combo, you know, that kind of thing. Or somebody has been buying all your lunch and then talk to them so they can do a lunch and dinner combo or something.
Or eventually you talk to someone in medical department, so medicine faculty or law faculty and you get some good relationships there. From there, you can now enter event catering because LSS, law student society, they will definitely do dinner every year. Every year there has to be law school, law school, law students dinner. And then also medical students society. I'll be sorry, I'm not sure what they're called or what they call it in your own school Medical.
Yeah, they also, they do like orientation week and things like that. And then they do dinner during orientation week so you can see how you can increase all that value. Somebody's been buying breakfast before. Try and upsell the person on lunch. Somebody has been buying breakfast and lunch before. Try and say you can throw dinner into the package. Oh, by the way, if you're going to do all this, make sure you're studying very hard because it looks like this is going to be a lot of time cooking.
And you know, if you're going there and spend all your time cooking and then you fail your exams, you know, your mom's and Popsy, they're going to be very upset with you. But I trust that you're very smart woman, dear Wonder Woman. So I know that you're going to be able to cope then. Yeah. So that's how you increase your order value. And then with some networking, you can see how we can now get money from some other things like event catering if you're going to do LSS dinner and then medical students, the orientation dinner.
But my recommendation is please, if you're going to deal with law student society or if you're going to deal with medical student society, my recommendation is please collect at least 60% of the deposit upfront. I beg of you, please collect 60 or 80%. Cause the problem with the ex schools of all these societies is by the time they pay you the 60% or the 80% and the dinner goes on well after they think they'll say they don't have money, they will now start.
Do not start posting. You next week will turn to next month. Next month will turn to two months. Before you know it, the term will end. They have not paid, and then they will now swing in the new Expo. And the new Expo, I can assure you, is not going to pay the debt of the old Expo. So in fact, make sure you pad your budget so that even when you collect the 60% or the 80%, so that even if that's all they pay you and you don't collect,
at least on that 80% that you collect that, there will still be a profit. I know some of you might say this is being unethical. Look at this is not being unethical. This is just real policy care. It's just real policy care. But we're Nigerians just being off front with you and this thing happens in the real world. There's a certain Nigerian telecommunications company, I won't call that a company, but content providers and media people know that when you deal with this company that they never pay you in full.
That initial 6070% deposit that they pay is the only one you collect and this company is famous for that. So that's what people do. People just pad and submit the bid so that by the time you bribe one or two people here and everything, they pay the 70%, If they pay you, the rest is good. You thank God you have plenty of money. If they don't pay you, at least there was profit margin there. So there's something that you can survive on.
So this just being real policy here, nothing unethical here, absolutely nothing at all. So Wonder Woman, if you deal with law students, society don't look at the fact that these law students who. So in fact, sometimes lawyers can be the biggest criminals. So, and I can say so confidently because that is where I started off. Yeah, my undergraduate degree is in law and started off as a lawyer. So I can say so confidently and nobody can harass me for saying that.
So please collect your 60 or 80% deposit. If you go and collect 30 or 40% deposit, you're on your own then. OK, so that's about increasing the order value and then getting some good money through event catering. OK, so now repeat business. Now repeat business that is getting your old customers, people who bought from you last semester to come and buy from you again this semester. And then next semester is just a game of follow up and relationship building.
I repeat, getting repeat business is just a matter of follow up and relationship building. I don't like saying follow up, but I'll just continue saying follow up now. We'll make another podcast episode about that. So follow up and relationship building. So your WhatsApp game has to be strong. All the people that you've been cooking for in your faculty or medical departments or whatever. In fact, if you've been cooking for some lecturers, you know,
same thing too. Have everybody on WhatsApp. Don't create a group. Let the messages be personalized be sending the messages during these holidays. So we've just finished the holiday period. So you know, there should have been Christmas greetings, New Year greetings, you know, blah, blah, blah. If the holiday stretch for too long, maybe because or strike or stuff like that. You could have been sending menu ideas for holidays for those of your clients who are women, for instance.
Then as you guys are about to resume school, I don't know when school is resuming anyway as right now this is generally at the time of this recording. I don't know when school is resuming, but whenever school is about to resume, you can now start sending out WhatsApp messages with meal planning ideas and results and suggestions or things like that. You know, things that people can do when they resume. And then of course when you resume, you now pick up your phone and start calling up people one by one.
Assume that you are going to continue with the same order. Just assume if you have something is wrong, the person will tell you that, oh, OK, no, no, no. I did it last semester because I could afford it this semester and things are tight. Popsy didn't really give me much money. I'm not going to be able to afford it. But just assume you're continuing. Call the person up with the spirit of yeah, we're going to continue.
And you'd be surprised that some people will just continue. And if anybody's not going to continue, at least the person will tell you now. So no emotional heartbreak, that whole thing of your waiting or will they won't they, will they call me? Won't they call me? So just call them up. Oh, welcome back, blah, blah, blah. So how was your holiday? How's the family, blah, blah, blah. You know, ready for school? OK, cool. So last year your order was amala and egusi soup every Wednesday afternoon.
So are we going to continue with that or are we going to be making some changes this this semester or? Yeah, last semester your order was pounded yam and megari soup. So what changes are we going to be making to that this semester? You know, just assume that we're continuing and then carry on the conversation like that. So that's a good way of getting repeat business because if you do business with people in semester one and then throughout the holiday, no follow up, no relationship building and then semester 2, you just show up.
You didn't call anybody, you didn't message anybody, just keeping quiet. You're hoping that they'll come and run and get you. I mean, look less less. Let's be realistic. Let's be realistic here. You're not repeat business is good. It's not going to find you. You are the one who's going to have to follow up and change that repeat business. So Wonder Woman and people who are in Wonder Woman situation, this repeat business game is a matter of follow up and relationship building.
So your phone is not just for watching Netflix. Go and buy credit and won't put data on your phone. You know, I'm try talking to some people and then they say, Oh my, my data was off Amazing data. What what do you mean you're mising data? What's supposed to be in business? I mean, what, what the hell are you guys thinking? I, I don't know, sometimes it just it, it blows my mind. That's how one guy I know was a lawyer and he's a lawyer actually based on Abuja.
The guys in my WhatsApp is not working. The thing just blew my mind like you are a lawyer, this was in 2023, you're a lawyer in 2023. WhatsApp, common WhatsApp you don't have OK, no problem, you die broken. All right. So as a repeat business then referrals, I have so referrals. So the people that bought from us last year, we're trying to get them to buy from us this year. And we also want to make sure that they now bring their friends, their family members and their associates.
So if you were able to get two or three people to buy from from you in medicine, medicine department or low faculty, the goal is that as these three people come back, OK, let's see, three people were from you last semester in medical department. This semester you do your follow up and relationship building. 2 of them come back. Again, the goal is hopefully that these two people, maybe they will invite one, one person each.
Think about that. If you are retaining maybe 5060% of people who did business with you last year and all the people that you retain, each of them is bringing, you know, one person each or something. If you do a good job like that, at a certain point you don't even have to sell again to start chasing new people because of the people who are doing repeat business are bringing in referrals and those referrals are bringing in referrals.
That's assuming you do a very good job. So this referral bit is really, really, really important. But we can't secure the referral unless we do a debrief. Debrief just means, hey, are you happy with the menu? You didn't purge, the food is OK, Salt is not too much. The delivery guy, when he got to you, the soup did not pour. Let's see what else. He found your address on time, The meat was complete. You know, all those sorts of things.
That's for those of you who are in the catering space, whether in the city or in universities. So you, you need to get on the phone and you need to ask those sorts of questions. You'd be surprised how many people don't do that. In fact, my wife, she likes to do these sorts of things, you know, order food sent to somebody for their birthday once in a while, other small shops in the house, you know, those sorts of thing.
And since my wife and I have been married, I'm telling you now it's like it's almost like 15 years there has been no, no caterer and I repeat capital. NO, OK, well, only one, only one. And that's the person that they now used to do to cook for. I think the directors that were passing out in my not passing out them leaving the organization that my wife works for. So in close to 15 years, only one food vendor has ever called up my wife to say did you guys enjoy your meal or sent a message to say did the order get there on time?
Think about it. I'm trying to show you guys how to distinguish yourself from the competition in Nigeria. You don't have to do anything fancy. That's why I say all these new, this new, this latest, this later, you don't need any of these latest whatever. Just do the fundamentals because your competition is not doing it. In Abuja, food vendors are not picking up the phone to say did you receive your meal? I hope the Okada driver did not steal your meat.
I hope the children enjoyed the small chops. Did your husband like the extra whatever, whatever that we packed for you? Was the food enough for the party that you ordered? Food vendors in Abuja are not doing it. Food vendors in Lagos are not doing it. Food vendors in Macod, they are not doing it. You can make yourself stand out and you can make your business grow just by doing this traditional, traditional sales stuff.
So in my own opinion, it is when you have mastered all this traditional stuff, all these basic stuff that you should be doing is when you have mastered it is when you become a Don in it that you now start thinking, OK, what are the new, the latest, the trendy, what new social media tactic? What knew this, what knew that, what knew this, what knew that? Master the fundamentals and you'll be fine. OK, so we're going on for close to 40 minutes.
Let me just bring it to a close, but basically Wonder Woman, don't say lack of funds is the problem. Lack of funds is not the problem. Lack of sales skills is the problem. And this is how we're going to be able to get the funds so that you can have new meats, new soups, new vegetables, new menus, new smoothies, new every single thing. We can do that by getting more, getting new customers. Go and chase people in the medical department, they say medicine, that's where the rich kids are.
Go and chase people in law faculty. You get new customers. Then the people that bought from you last semester. Try and make sure that they buy from you this semester. So do WhatsApp follow up relationship building over the holidays into the new term so that they'll come and buy from you again. When they buy from you again. Try and increase the average order value. If somebody was buying only 5 wraps of fufu for lunch every day, try and see how you can get the person to buy 6 wraps of fufu this semester.
Or if the person was buying 5 wraps of fufu and two meats, try and see how you can get the person to buy 5 wraps of fufu and three meats this semester. I know it's small, but an increase in one piece of meat every single week, it adds up to quite a bit. Then for the people that you've come now that are now doing repeat business with you, try and see how you can get them to bring other people to buy from you as well. So that that medical student who likes dealing with you because he buys a container of soup on Monday with maybe 14 pieces of meat and that container of soup lasts until OK.
He buys it on Sunday and maybe it lasts until Friday evening. He's happy doing business with you. Ask for the referral. Oh bro, hope you're happy with this. With that, everything is OK. Size of meat is good, the soup is OK. Not too much or not too much salt please. Do you know other medical student who also would like to do soup prep for this semester? Ask and make it a very specific ask 'cause if you just say oh Bros, I'd appreciate your referrals.
It's too vague, so I recommend that if you're asking for referrals, you start with someone with a scenario that is typical to the context that you're already in. So in this case, he's a law student. He's buying soup every single week. He can make his food by himself. You just ask him the same thing. Do you need any of your classmates who like this kind of arrangement as well? Who will be buying soup every single week?
That's simple. If you know somebody, good. If he doesn't know somebody, yeah, no, Allah. But the problem is it is the more you ask, you increase the odds that somebody's eventually going to make a referral. So dear Wonder Woman and people who are in a similar context, people in similar circumstances, lack of funding is not your problem. Lack of sales skills is the problem. So with small hard work, you can close that funding gap from the revenue that you get from sales activities and you should be fine.
So that's it for today. Tomorrow, yes, for those who like gossip. Now we'll get into the part that you you guys have been waiting for. Tomorrow we're going to look at the equity option because remember I said that Wonder Woman that is this guy in the class who wants to finance the business. And I've told her that, look, this thing is a no, no. And I've been telling you guys over here on the podcast, females, listen to this podcast.
Now, please do not enter into business with your boyfriend or not boyfriend or toaster or non toaster or somebody who is liking you but not quite liking you or he caught eye for you once in a while. But some, you know, shy don't do it. So tomorrow we're going to get into the equity option. Equity just means somebody's dropping money so that they keep can be your partner, you know, whether it's 5050 or 7030, but they drop money.
So tomorrow we're going to look at equity. Equity. We'll explore the boyfriend option. You know, whether you must collect money from that toaster or your boyfriend and the non boyfriend option. You know what options are available now, even for those of you who are married still listen to tomorrow's episode because even though you have no drama in your life when it comes to equity, it's all about the terms, the conditions on which you're going to get the equity.
So you might not be able to relate because you know, you're happily married and or you've chosen not to be married or whatever. But whether you have the boyfriend drama in your life or girlfriend drama in your life or not, it's also be a good episode to listen to so that we can start thinking critically about somebody's offering me equity. How much should I collect and on what terms? What is the proper valuation for my business?
Are these restrictions something that I can live with or live without? And anyway, let me just leave it at that. So we'll deal with all that tomorrow. So thank you very much for your time and attention. Remember, if you'd love to connect with me, the phone number is 08064662140, country code +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number as well. Then connect with me on socials. I'm on LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my IED.
Same name on YouTube as well. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys in the next episode.