uo067:


Pls how did u download dem cox i need dem too. Any site or sumtin. thax

yusufu16:
I quite agree with databoy my oga OP. For most startups, exposure is very critical in the initial stage in order gain public acceptance of your brand. You can create the much needed curiosity for the public through online ads.

I want to say that I have gained a lot from your experience. But you can even make your startup litle easier if you bring your wife onboard. You can teach her how she can buy into the you vision. Its easier you know. While you concentrate on other things on she focus on other things like marketing. Again instead of renting an office , you can use a friends house or your house. It saves money again.

OP you also forgot one good aspect of any business. and that is PR. If you are an introvert like me, then i think is good if you can hire a PR Specialist.

We are still in speculations of this your startup though. Nobody will steal your idea here since you have started operation and have made all legal rights. By telling us what your business is on this forum, some people will be in a better position to give more advise on how you can move your business to the next level. There is no point hiding it.

Wallie:


Nice!

I'm currently in the same boat but my SAAS B2B startup is US based and I'm currently seeking Series A funding.

Dealing with institutional investors is nerve–wracking and time consuming especially when you're a solo founder like me. The amount of equity and terms they're seeking when you find a receptive investor almost makes you say "fu.k it', especially when you're looking at your burn rate! Couple the fund raising headache with customer development and acquisition, conversion of users to paying customers, attending trade expos, continued software development, resource issues, keeping an eye on VC funded competitors, uncertainties in some of your hypothesis, a full-time job, and family obligations...I will be writing a book once I exit. :-)

By the way, if any Nairalander attends Johns Hopkins, I will be participating in the 2015 Startup Fest at Carey Business School to recruit.

1k001:
Learning

The most important part of creating a business is learning. Forget what anybody says, it's not intuitive, at least not for me. To date we have spent close to 1000 USD on learning resources, technical conferences etc. Now you don't have to spend that much. There are multiple free resources online that will get you to where you need to be. Youtube and google should become your friend. I also used apps such as 'pocket' to store articles to read later.

To start you off i suggest going to youtube, search for 'how to start a startup sam altman'. It is a 20 series lecture given at stanford (the most entrepreneurial university in the world) by some of the greatest entrepreneurs of our generation. Get it in podcast format and listen to it at night before you sleep, that's what i did.

Other Books i've read that are helpful are:

'4 steps to epiphany' by Steve Blank - The father of the lean movement, he gets you to focus on customer development rather than product development. This approach increases chances of success. Youtube his videos and follow his blog. He's a great guy

'The unfair fight' - Sam Hazledine - Good summary of things and tips to know and do in a small business

'The personal MBA' - Josh Kauffman - This is kinda like a reference text. Explains virtually everything business related. No need for that expensive MBA

'The innovators dilemma - Clayton Christiensen - I kept hearing about disruption in the tech circles, a term coined in this book. So i read it. The bottom line for us in Nigeria is there's nothing to disrupt really. There are a myriad of problems looking for just simple solutions. Provide those and you're good, Forget all this disruption rubbish.

I follow a number of blogs and people, google them, follow them via their blogs, medium or on social media

- paul graham

- Mark andreessen

- Peter Thiel ( read his book 'Zero to one' )

- Mark Essien (hotels.ng)

- Jason Njoku (Irokotv)

- Marek chindeu (Jovago)

- Sam Altman

- Techcrunch

- Techcabal, techpoint.ng,


Take some of the things they say however with a pinch of salt because your situation is unique and you've got to figure stuff out yourself, mostly through trial and error.

How did i manage all this with a family, while working full time. Well mostly a very understanding spouse i'm most grateful to. Forget sleep, TV, games, having a life. Do you want to build a great business or do you want to be a well rested movie buff? I know what i want and i'm chasing it earnestly. Forget the lies they tell you about balance in life, successful people aren't balanced, they focused on one thing and worked hard at it until they became great. Think Messi, Nadal, Jordan, the trend is the same, there's no substitute for hard work.

Remember to keep notes! Use Evernote or Google keep on your smartphone. You'll be thinking a lot as you digest learning material and ideas would come at odd times. Can't count the number of eureka moments i've had in the shower. Write them down immediately!

1k001:
Co-founder

As i read and worked on my business plan. I considered learning to programme myself but quickly learnt it was a waste of time. I could never hope to do everything myself; programme, found a business, work full time, have a family.

It was time to get married find a technical co-founder. I was somewhat lucky here as i had 2 good friends i'd known for a while who were programmers. I approached them with my proposal and an initial draft business plan. They both thought it was great and jumped on board.

Finding a co-founder is hard, it's a bit like finding a spouse. i was very lucky in many respects. I've no advice to give in this regard except be nice, friendly and helpful to everyone you come across. You never know when you might need their help co-founding a venture.

I've come across websites (google 'founder dating') and events (google 'founder to be lagos') that match founders. Can't say anything about this but the general trend i find from my reading is the recommendation that founders be friends(ly) prior to founding the venture. Helps for those rough times, i can attest to that

Mordyb:
Op dont take offence From all this parable you wrote i cant decipher what you do all i can deduce is that you like to read books and get info but people like steve jobs did not start making money until they were able make lay men like me buy into your idea because idiots rule the world because of money.

1k001:
Traction

Back to normal service.

After gaining all the background work and arriving at our MVP, the next step was acquiring users. One of the many resources i read had this quote: 'Almost every startup has a product, what failed startups don't have are enough customers'. I thus set about figuring out how to acquire customers. I knew that big ticket sales targeting business and corporates would pay well. The problem however is the long sales cycle and amount of work required. I left my team on the ground to pursue this angle. I focused mostly on online channels.

Now consider i had never attempted to sell or market anything much prior to this so i set out to learn. I watched several youtube videos, listened to podcasts, read books. Here's what i did practically:

I set up our social media pages - FB, twitter, google plus, pinterest, instagram even nairaland. I was waiting for people to come to me, didn't happen. So i did what was logical, i threw money at it. I set up a google adwords campaign. Using my analytics i was able to see increase in traffic via adwords but no signups.

We then altered our home page to look a bit more inviting. Explained a little bit more of our value proposition. We placed prominent call to actions (CTA), minimized the distractions on our page. I've since learnt and tested it myself that you need to give people only one option, greater options paralyze people. So with everything i promote now i try to put only one CTA, this is hard to do but trust me it works.

Anyway with search engine marketing (SEM) we saw increased traffic but no signups. Hmm how do i solve this now i thought. So i learned some more and decided to offer a trial period. Many people differ on whether this is a good idea. My thought is in a new market where my approach is quite different to what people are used to, it would be good to give them a trial. Hopefully we would be able to convert most trials through our great product and service. So our trial period was born, still no users though.

I got my team to go out on the street and talk to people individually, we were able to get a few people via this method. Was quite difficult and variable however.

Next thing i set up was the blog. I figured that half the battle is educating people on the problem they have. When they see that it is indeed a problem then we will swoop in to offer a solution. The blog was thus born. I worked on the blog and have published 21 original posts in a matter of weeks. On one frenzied occasion i wrote 5 blog posts in a few hours. With all this content i had to find a way to distribute. I went to social media, posted them and got a bit of interest. Put the posts into some targeted advertising and voila! started to see some action. I started to get hundreds of hits to the site. Out of this we were able to convert a percentage to become users.

This model has yielded pretty good dividend so far. I know almost with surety now that if i put out quality content and distribute via ads on social media i will get some sign ups. I'm now a believer that content is king and social media advertising works. I'm now trying to split test a few things to see what works best. My testing so far has led me to realize the group i should be targeting the most as i get the most sign-ups when i post material related to this group.

The other channel i think will work quite well for me is business partnerships. I'm working on a couple currently and hope they turn out ok. The bad part though is they are dependent not just on me. What i do when proposing partnerships is to think laterally and creatively. I also highlight the huge market potential of our partnership to the other business. All businesses like money, I try to present it to them in the right manner. I relegate what I stand to gain to the back burner to at least foster the relationship initially.

So in all this traction bit is the hardest thing of all, crack this and you're in business. I'm still learning and would love your input as to traction channels that have worked for you.

One book i highly recommend is 'traction' by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin mares. It details all the traction channels that are available to a startup.

Traction. So in all this traction bit is the hardest thing of all, crack this and you're in business. I'm still learning and would love your input as to traction channels that have worked for you.

databoy247:


I simply used one of the oldest methods out there: Email Marketing. I could have as well converted my project website into a membership website and "be like others", which i actually thought of. But i put into consideration the following;

1k001:


Great post @databoy247

I quoted the bit on email marketing as i'm not yet a believer. Many rave about it but in my little experience, the best open rate i've had is only about 6%. Click rates are even worse. Perhaps I've not put in enough effort or time, may come back to it later on when i build a bigger email list.

databoy247:
I was not a believer also but after studying loads of materials and tutorials, i decided to give it a try and it worked. I most times have as much as 47% open rate and as high as 23% click. You dont need a huge list to achieve this.

DigitalIdeas:


Can I know your list size? 47% open rate and 23% click is above industry standard. It will be nice to share with us the list size and methods of generating them. An open rate of 20% is regarded as a success. 47% open rate in email marketing is abnormal. Kindly share your email marketing methodology with us. Thanks in advance..

1k001:
Service Delivery

Across the Nigerian business landscape, a lot is left to be desired in their operations. None however irks me more than customer service. Poor customer service is so widespread and acceptable that we actually don't notice it. It wasn't till i left Nigeria over a decade ago i came to realize that this was the case.

Thus in creating my business I've tried to imbue the idea that we must deliver great customer service. The way i've approached this is to start from within. Thankfully I've been blessed with quite a good temperament. I've hardly ever been known to raise my voice or get angry. It's perhaps the way i was raised. I often have been the one to break stereotypes in people's minds of the 'loud, aggressive Nigerian'. Case in point, after i'd first interacted with my father in law who's not Nigerian, he asked my wife, then girlfriend, are you sure he's Nigerian? He doesn't behave like one.

Anyway i digress, my point being we Nigerians have gained this not entirely inaccurate stereotype of being aggressive. This aggressiveness is reflected in the way we do a lot of things, including our customer service. Personally i just try to be nice and courteous to everyone, including those that wrong me or i stand to gain nothing from. To the people that work(ed) for me I'm nice and fair to them. I respect them and treat them like adults. I don't ever shout. I never ask them to do something i wouldn't do myself.

My hope is that by doing this, I create a pleasant working environment where everyone is happy to come work and never want to leave. The hope is then that this joy in the workplace translates to the way we treat our customers.

We have the target of having a customer contact within 8 hours of signing up, preferably in the form of a phone call. We aim to speak to all our customers and keep in regular contact. When we speak on the phone we smile, it's amazing how this comes through in the conversation. We always try to build consensus and never antagonize people. Most of all we listen and try to solve the particular problem the customer has not the one we think they have. We're by no means perfect in any of this, they're ideals we continue to strive for.

When we interviewed people we had a little role play. It was that of an irate customer to test how the applicant would respond. Some responses were shocking! In one instance the applicant blamed the customer for a problem that was clearly not theirs.

Some of my aphorisms

- Treat your staff right
- Love your customers and solve their problems
- Smile always (even when on the phone)
- The customer may not always be right but their feelings are always right.
- Always agree and build consensus. Don't use 'but' use 'and' - replace 'but' in the following sentence and see the difference 'I understand how you feel but...'


The bottom line is to always have a kind and personable demeanor. Read the book 'How to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie for more.

DigitalIdeas:


Can I know your list size? 47% open rate and 23% click is above industry standard. It will be nice to share with us the list size and methods of generating them. An open rate of 20% is regarded as a success. 47% open rate in email marketing is abnormal. Kindly share your email marketing methodology with us. Thanks in advance..

Nmeri17:
op one thing about treating people (customers, house helps etc) "right" is that they start taking you for granted. you lose respect and look weak. the aggressiveness is actually a protective covering for the wearer

databoy247:

A screenshot is attached (sorry, am on mobile for now). Like i said it don't matter if your list is small or huge. I have a little above 1,000 subscribers for now and still growing (i started this project in Jan). My system is such that if i dont send updates in a week, i'll start getting calls from my list urging me to send somthing. The only secret ingredient is to build rapport and deliver value. And you just have to try as much as possible to get targeted subscribers and not just random audience.

Wallie:
@1k001

What's your revenue model? I can see digitization and access being a low-hanging fruit feature if you can get partnerships in place.

surveycash:




Go to Google and type in "Book title" filetype:pdf without the quotes and hit ENTER

empowerdex:


hey surveycash ive tried this technique please can you help me with the link or maybe u send me a copy ill really appreciate alex cowan's book, could only find chapter one and it was revealing