hi NL, i have a bakery in benin city nigeria. it was opened in january and its been run by my sister.
the problem is were are not making a profit.
i spent about 4million setting it up but it has refused to get off the ground.

cost of baking one bag of flour (including other ingredients)according to my calculations is about N11,800.
they are making profit of about N1200 fom each bag after expenses.
this doesnt make sense, i expect to make at least 40% of the cost of making a bag of flour.

we cant even holdon to a baker they come spend 1 month and they are gone.

pls anyone wit experience, can u help wit tips?

Hi I would have loved to help you bt I don't want your sister's going to do juju claiming I have taken biz from her. I have managed high quality bakery calabar. I was their accountant before I became the manager. I can tell you for sure that on the days we do outside deliveries. To stores, we make over a million naira. for yrs now and we make good profits

bebe2: hi NL, i have a bakery in benin city nigeria. it was opened in january and its been run by my sister.
the problem is were are not making a profit.
i spent about 4million setting it up but it has refused to get off the ground.

cost of baking one bag of flour (including other ingredients)according to my calculations is about N11,800.
they are making profit of about N1200 fom each bag after expenses.
this doesnt make sense, i expect to make at least 40% of the cost of making a bag of flour.

we cant even holdon to a baker they come spend 1 month and they are gone.

pls anyone wit experience, can u help wit tips?

Hun, if u give me advice on wat wud will help my sister will do juju to kill u

Babes, dat one strong o

Tnks anyways

Btw I don't believe in juju

you are kidding yourself into believing you can stay in the UK and do business back home. It is nearly impossible because only the owner knows where the shoe pinches. Most family members think if you live abroad money is growing on trees and they will never give you a true account. Anyway even in a so called developed company it is nearly impossible to have business succeed without being 100% involved you are fooling yourself! Call it a loss unless you can go back to Nigeria and oversee things for yourself.

@op u really have to come home to establish it since its your dream. BTW I have some baking experience I could come join you ;-) I live in Warri

My dear, I am from Edo like you shall I address as you as my sister. Please take my words for what they are, the words of advice from a brother. Consider either going back to Nigeria to manage this business yourself, or cut your losses and stop now. I hate to tell you this but I've seen it so many time before and it just dose not work. Nobody can run your business like you. Even your blood relative may not have the motivation or drive to go the extra mile required to run a business and make good profits. When you consider that Nigeria can be a very tough place to do business you have to go the extra mile. I would advice you to focus on static business like real estate which requires minimal intervention.
I wish you all the best.

biafranqueen: My family owned one of the most famous bread factories in the east during the 60's and 70's before I was born and my dear I am sorry to tell you that you are kidding yourself into believing you can stay in the UK and do business back home. It is nearly impossible because only the owner knows where the shoe pinches. Most family members think if you live abroad money is growing on trees and they will never give you a true account. Anyway even in a so called developed company it is nearly impossible to have business succeed without being 100% involved you are fooling yourself! Call it a loss unless you can go back to Nigeria and oversee things for yourself.

The above is the best advice you would receive on this matter. Move back home and work it.

.

Bebe2,
Sorry to say but you have to be there to know what's going on.
Been there,done that.
You will still be required to wire money from over there to sustain the biz.
It's good to invest in ones' own country but......

Why not try bake cassave bread or maybe agege bread omo ur profit may increase!!!! Gbosa!! Double double portion

Nobody can run your business for u properly,except YOU. Its either you pull the plug on your sister,or close it down till you are ready to come back. Bread is a staple food in Nigeria,so its a lucrative business here,your sister is just pulling wool over your eyes.

She can manage it by simply employing me.

She can manage it simply by employing me.

bebe2: hi NL, i have a bakery in benin city nigeria. it was opened in january and its been run by my sister.
the problem is were are not making a profit.
i spent about 4million setting it up but it has refused to get off the ground.

cost of baking one bag of flour (including other ingredients)according to my calculations is about N11,800.
they are making profit of about N1200 fom each bag after expenses.
this doesnt make sense, i expect to make at least 40% of the cost of making a bag of flour.

we cant even holdon to a baker they come spend 1 month and they are gone.

pls anyone wit experience, can u help wit tips?

you did the equivalent of pouring petrol on N4million worth of cash and you lighted it up with a match. you stay abroad and you want to run any business in nigeria? who advised such? even when you stay there, they still make attempts to steal from you, let alone staying abroad. go back home, sell the business and take your money back......you are better off putting your money in a fixed deposit with any good nigerian bank!

bjdon: My dear, I am from Edo like you shall I address as you as my sister. Please take my words for what they are, the words of advice from a brother. Consider either going back to Nigeria to manage this business yourself, or cut your losses and stop now. I hate to tell you this but I've seen it so many time before and it just dose not work. Nobody can run your business like you. Even your blood relative may not have the motivation or drive to go the extra mile required to run a business and make good profits. When you consider that Nigeria can be a very tough place to do business you have to go the extra mile. I would advice you to focus on static business like real estate which requires minimal intervention.
I wish you all the best.

This is a great idea. Lady, business is for making profit. So have deep think about the whole issue whether to still keep the day2day running with your sister with poor result or sell it off and invest in something static like this example quoted which you can manage easily and consume less time. Good luck!

Yomieluv: Nobody can run your business for u properly,except YOU. Its either you pull the plug on your sister,or close it down till you are ready to come back. Bread is a staple food in Nigeria,so its a lucrative business here,your sister is just pulling wool over your eyes.

This is the Gospel truth. Come back and run your bakery and if possible, learn how to bake in UK. Money dey the bizness

bebe2: hi NL, i have a bakery in benin city nigeria. it was opened in january and its been run by my sister.
the problem is were are not making a profit.
i spent about 4million setting it up but it has refused to get off the ground.

cost of baking one bag of flour (including other ingredients)according to my calculations is about N11,800.
they are making profit of about N1200 fom each bag after expenses.
this doesnt make sense, i expect to make at least 40% of the cost of making a bag of flour.

we cant even holdon to a baker they come spend 1 month and they are gone.

pls anyone wit experience, can u help wit tips?

My advice? Come back home to mind your business. Nigerians can not be trusted with anything that has to do with money. Theres a general criminal mindset everywhere in this country. No one can be trustef. As long as you sit on the uk expecting profit, you don jones be that.

my sister meks millions of naira frying Akara and dodo while i do the supply....i think with our mega experience consider your bakery biz overtaking DANTOKE and DANTAPIA in bizness:d

We can set up cctv cameras in your bakery and route it through IP servers for you to be monitoring your bakery anywhere in the world. Lol... Only you that knows how hard to get the money to open a business can successfully control it, others will always see your business as a way to better themselves

Yes you can! I asked a similar question before on Nairaland and got very useful tips. Here's the thing.

1. Businesses are established not only for financial profits (cash) but also for economic profits (non-cash), which may be to provide employment ur sister, or to make name, etc. establish which one is more important to you.
2. If you live outside Nigeria never hire a family member or relative to run your business.
3. Don't hire anyone who come to you advertising him/herself or begging for jobs
4. Hire people through a thorough interview process like a real company does. They'll respect the job more.
5. Do not pay salaries. Share the risks by paying only commissions (usually 10% on sales, or about 40% on profits.
6. Commission on sales is more motivating for hard-working people
7. U can also pay a base + commission. Anyone who cannot live on commission is not business-minded. Afterall the owner lives on profit only
8. Have a Bank account with a Microfinance bank (they help small businesses more) not a commercial bank
9. Every dime made must be paid into the bank (and withdrawn if needed)to build cash-flows in case you need loan some day. they should take picturess of bank slips and receipts of purchases and BBM u immediately the transaction is done.
10. Use BBM to stay connected and on top of business. BBM can transmit instant pictures of events & real-time chats as if you are there.
11. Be ruthless, professional, and out rightly non-sense with Nigerians. A lot of fraudulent crappy people out there.
12. You may take a bank loan to share the risk with a local bank, and let part of the loan be management TA (technical assistance), so the bank can provide their own manager to run the bakery professionally as a partner.
13. Another option is to rent out the bakery to a baker who pays you a flat fee every month, just like you will rent out a house you built to a tenant.
14. Every receipt must have the seller's or buyer's phone number on it (not hand-written). make random calls each month to audit or confirm transactions. If they know you call sellers and buyers, they will shape up.
15. Be patient! A business setup in January is not supposed to be making profit by now o!. It usually takes about a year or more to make profits.
16. On marketing use established re-sellers who buy in bulk and pay cash- Supermarkets, bread sellers, restaurants, shops, etc. Don't sell directly to people yet.
17. Please, please, please, hire a lady as a manager, preferably an educated married lady with kids. That's the only thing that works in Nigeria. They may be slow, but at least they won't loot your funds.

18. Ok having said all this. Please fire your sister now if she's not performing. Give her N350k gift to start her life somewhere

All the luck.

Join the (growing) list of those who have been there done that. Im very sorry to tell you that your business is being mismanaged. I wouldnt go as far as saying you are being ripped off as I dont know your family or those in involved. I did something similar a while back investing a little more than what you have, only to disciver that it was run into the ground. The problem is that you are seen as a financer, so if the money is finished we will simply ask for more. Its even possible that any profit being made are being used elsewhere. When they say its cost NGN 15k, be rest assured it cost NGN 10k but they have added lunch, transport, jarra etc etc etc etc. The reason why workers dont stay is most likley the person in charge is not coming to work on time and is not professional so why should the workers. I feel for you badly as I can imagine what you are going thru thinking I can achieve something and also help my family. This only suceeds in very rare cases. The few I know succeed because the person makes suprises visits a couple of times in the year and has a financil advisor who he has check up every now and then. The worst part is you better not complain. If you do you will hear what I heard... OK IF THEY HAVE EATEN THE MONEY IS IT NOT IN THE FAMILY.

simple, by making me your general manager. I studied economics, 2.1.

Sister like me i stay here in germany. a friend of bring this idea in 2008 i should give him 2m,he wants to start DJ. i almost giving him d money b4 i call another friend who really advice me well. to use the money & buy land anytime i want to sale the land,it yeld more gain. My advice for u is that go home sale the bakery put the money into real estate.if u buy land,the document will be with u.Whenever u feel u wanna go back to Africa u can start thinking of bakery

Don't u have a feasibility and a business plan? What were your realistic projection? If u are not breaking even yet, check your records and try to trace the fault.


Does your sister have experience in bakery business? If no then make her understand why it has become a a thing of necessity to employ an experienced hand to make that business thrive.
You can't invest 4M and be complacent about that business.

My 2 cents

Let me handle d company 4 u, and u wil c d result positively

bjdon: My dear, I am from Edo like you shall I address as you as my sister. Please take my words for what they are, the words of advice from a brother. Consider either going back to Nigeria to manage this business yourself, or cut your losses and stop now. I hate to tell you this but I've seen it so many time before and it just dose not work. Nobody can run your business like you. Even your blood relative may not have the motivation or drive to go the extra mile required to run a business and make good profits. When you consider that Nigeria can be a very tough place to do business you have to go the extra mile. I would advice you to focus on static business like real estate which requires minimal intervention.
I wish you all the best.

You are dam right, my personal experience was bad, took a bank loan, send the moneys to my Jobless Brother to buy a van so as to become self employed and remit some money for me, Over 900K but after one yr of STRESS, I went back home to see what I invested in but bust into tears, I decided to sell it 280k as AGREED with the buyer but my family told me the buyer brought 250K. Can somebody help in counting or calculate my loss

I collected my change and moved on, but I'm in Uk paying back the money as I don't do yahoo or any dodgy deals, that's my experience.

My advise to anyone abroad is "HELP IF YOU CAN BUT PLEASE DO NOT RUN ANY BUSINESS IN NIGERIA WHILE LIVING ABROAD", it's crime to help in that country as far as I'm concerned.

98% of our people are ready to kill you while you are breaking your back, always wants to EAT where they've never invest....BAD MENTALITY.

No More Person Oooo, people are as bad as their leaders.

Okija_juju: Use Bromate..



Ok! Seriously! A Business is only as successful as the management and its market!
Did you ever personally manage this business before handing it over to your sister?!
If Yes?! What was you profit margin then?!
If it was high, what is the cause of this low profit turn out?!
Do you have an idea about your market and customers?! E.g Hotels, e.t.c.

Answer and lets take it from there!

No, I just sent money down for it to be established.

I did a bit of research which bread business was a good venture. But if they are making 1200 from a 12 k investment den that's not gud.

We dont do big supplies yet, we just got our first distributor , we also just bought a van registering it next week.

The profit margin is just too low

Revolva: Why not try bake cassave bread or maybe agege bread omo ur profit may increase!!!! Gbosa!! Double double portion

Casava bread in Park n Shop is almost double the price of normal wheat flour bread. If u see how angry I was that day ehnnn