Is it possible to create a place for people with genuine business ideas and willing investors to meet on Nairaland. By genuine I meam no egold, forex, MLM, money doubling schemes pleaaaaaaaaase,

Ciao.

Yes, a monthly meeting on Saturday at an hotel on the mainland or the Island will be a great melting point to crack nuts.
We just need to buy drinks,introduce the genuine(as u stated in ur mail to me) investors to the entrpreneurs.
What do u av in mind.

Hi herbsman,

I was actually thinking of an online meeting, obviously because of logistics and costs. My main concern is that anytime somebody starts a business thread that appears serious on the forum, so many "yahoozies" take over and you loose touch of the substance. So, I guess a more regulated forum or website might be better where people with solid business ideas can make their submission and interested investors can make enquiries. I believe there are enough people of both categories on Nairaland, and it will really be nice to be able to bring them together without all these distractions.

By the way, as you mentioned, an hotel on mainland or island may not be a bad idea, maybe some investment firms might take that up,

Ciao.

This is a good idea. Keep it up!
I suggest we create a team not more than 10 serious minded people to start with, and the team can meet in any eatry center (Mr. Biggs, Tantilizers etc) to deliberate on how to move. Intrested people should register there name on this thread and the originator of the topic should do a mail to all interested.

Kunlef,
Do u know how to paste a statement like ds on my reply to a mail on Nairaland; Click on businessplan and the viewer can read or download the content.

This should not slip us by.
Let encourage ourselves to get this done.

Mmmmmmm, The idea of using an eatry might seem like a white elephant project for now. I guess its best to start with e-delibration first. When these delibrations get to a more matured stage, you can then consider setting up a get to gether.

Lets make suggestions

@kunlef
lets know who the investors and entrepreneurs are among us. How much they are prepared in invest and which areas of interest they av.

continuos e-deliberating will lead to antagonistic comments from myopic minds as some threads have turned to.

I am an entrepreneur in search in fresh funds from fresh minds.

send ur mailing address to me so that i can send the business plan to you through courier.

U GUYS ARE GREAT I LOVE TO BE PAT OF THE TEAM PLE KEEP ME UPDATED

@ herbsman
MY MAIL ADDY awosolid@yahoo.com

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your discussions.  I agree with herbsman that it is time to move on. However, if you look at this thread carefully, you will see that we have only about  5 people who have posted comments. That number is too small for now. However, I know we have over 100 viewers, so that might be a good reason to start something. Like Richystar4 suggested, maybe if we get up to 10 serious-minded people ( I guess investors), we can start something, although I am not sure about eateries for now. We can still work with e-meeting first and do the actual meeting at a more advanced stage. Also, I do not want us to exclude people living outside Lagos or Nigeria for now from participating. So, e-contacts might do for now.

Therefore for now, I have created an online form on my website www.lekkilinks.com where people can submit their details either as an enterpreneur or investor.  The links are as follows:

www.lekkilinks.com/nairaland_investors.html
www.lekkilinks.com/nairaland_enterpreneurs.html

I do not think it is necessary for investors to state how much they are interested in investing for security reasons, but the enterpreneur can state the minimum investment per person. I will regularly post an update of registered investors and enterpreneurs to all members through a group mail to be created later. So, I think it is better for all enterpreneurs to get their business plans/proposals ready in electronic format for easy circulation.

So, I guess for the investors, this will eventually operate as an investment club, but with minimal rigidity. That is people will not need to make a monthly contributions, but make specific investment for specific project. As we get more membership, we can develop all the legal and financial stuff. But for now, let us concentrate on getting the investors and enterpreneurs together first.

Any other comment is welcome.

Ciao.

Kunle
www.lekkilinks.com


@herbsman

I have already read your posting elsewhere on Wapa Apparels. I have already sent my mailing address to you yesterday through my email. Anyway, I suggest you convert your business plan to electronic format (maybe pdf) so that you eliminate the courier cost and save time. By the way, I will be awaiting the courier.

@herbsman

This is my mail address richystar4live@hotmail.co.uk

@ Kunlef

Good job

hello brothers in the house,i am also interested in this arrangement,my name is iyke,i am based in Aba.

Kunlef,
U really did a great job as a visioneer. The weblink u single-handedly provided for investors n entrepreneurs is a big plus for the group.

An investment club isnt a bad idea, registering with CAC at the long run after more members have shown interest will be a good step.

Your copy will be with you ds week.

can you post some tips on how to create a weblink like businessplan and u click on it to view the content.

Nigerian will be great again.

@herbsman

Yes, you can use a free web sevice like Yahoo Geocities or Hubpages, www.hubpages.com to create your business plan and obtain a link for free.

good ideas here. Keep it up.


Proud Nigerian

@herbsman

this is really good.i have read about ur shirts somewhere.u guys keep up brainstorming.im definitely for this but how do you determine who/what is genuine.keep up the goodwork

I am interested too, as an investor.

i wish to be part of this idea as an investor

@toskin
As I explained in my earlier purpose, the primary purpose is to bring the investors and enterpreneurs together, what happens afterwards is based on individual choice. So I believe you will be able to determine the genuineness or otherwise of any business venture after reading the business proposal and make adequate clarifications.

Meanwhile, I will circulate the details of the people who have registered so far by the end of the week through the mails.

Ciao.

Hello all,

This is a very nice thread. I am a business consultant with specialty in business development and strategy. I have developed several business ideas into businesses. I have worked with guys on nairaland.

I will be willing to be part of this to offer my professional skills.

I can be reached at femi.ilori@lomerg.com

@sbm4real

Thanks for offering your professional skills. I guess we might need it when the time is right.

In the meantime, why don't you propose one of the business ideas to us as an enterpreneur?

Ciao.


Kunlef

www.lekkilinks.com

contact me thru ur e-mail address to view biz plan

@kunlef, sent ur copy yesterday.

If anything must be said you've done a good job by writing a business plan - Good work herbsman. I have also taken time to write my own business plan but you need to be able to convince an investor that you can deliver. We might not be able to work together directly but I give my input through the experience i have, in building businesses. contact me if you need ideas or have questions

@herbsman

I have also gone through the business plan and I think it is quite ok for a plan and I think it is quite feasible.

However, as somadino mentioned, a good plan alone may not convince an investor to put down his money. I also agree that you need to convince the investor that you can actually deliver. I think that some usefel information about your current cost of production vs your sales price, past sales figures, limitations, etc will help especially since it is an existing business. From there, it will be easier to see the need or otherwise for expansion. Don't forget that from the investor's perspective, you are competing with the stock market, money market and other investment options.

Ofcourse, I will not advise that you put that all the details on the internet, but you will need to have this data at hand to be produced on request for prospective investors.

But as I mentioned earlier, the plan is not bad at all.

Ciao.

@samadino
the compliments for the biz plan being viewed above should go to kunlef who gave useful tips as to how to paste the link.Let me know which areas you believe can be energized by your input.Am glad u want to give insights.

@Kunlef

the ideal investors must seek to know the vision and mission of the apparels and footwear proposals n  test the R.O.C.E. n N.P.V. analysis to determine viability.We av a good product,the limitation is the capital.

Leo Smart is now the leading pen provider in Lagos,bic,eleganza and others are gradually becoming extinct.Good product, coupled with the right adverts and marketing reach took the brand to the top.

For example, if i sew 200 white and powder blue shirts,the first target market are the banks whose staffers wear the stuff.Look around you and ask which local designer or tailor is merchandising on a large scale basis.None.

The areas i need input are  investors and a board of directors which must be drawn from the media, finance industry,I.T.,Marketing, and people with big hearts who can walk on water without fear of drowning.Cos if u fall, u must not only swim to safety but walk again using a nu tactic.

Am cork sure that it will work with the right team of witty and pro-active minds.from my experience, the returns on small scale basis is over 200%.The limitating factors why the profit margin is not wide enough are the selling and distribution cost on the sale of a shirt as against using the same amount to sell 10shirts.

purchase of fabrics in yards as against in bundle when merchandising.Assuming a yard costs N800, in bundle it will cost below N400.the same thing applies  to  other consumables like stay,thread,button and wages.

Let me know the areas where the proposals are weak so that it can be strenghtened.Lets treat this as our collective dream. open to your criticisms.

If shit biz is serious business, ow much more what we adorn our body and feet with.

Thanks Brother.

This is really cool but I hope we have honest investors too who will not steal our hard worked ideas,
thoroughly furnished business plans for their own use.
Even our Banks steal our ideas so those who intend to betray us beware.

I'll register but will definitely keep back key points because I don't know who I'm relating with yet.
It's a lesson I've learnt about life :NEVER TRUST ANYBODY

I'm not being negative but must sincerely confess that I love this forum and the good people here, with great minds that have inspired me alot. Also those on the otherside have warned me to be much more careful and vigilant.

I'll give you a real experience, a close friend of mine developed a media concept which he introduced to the so called investors but they robed him and made more than a hundred million on it.
This is absolute truth and I'm being honest to let you know my feelings.

You all know as the bible says a fool alone casts his pearls before pigs. So please I'm pleading with everyone
especially investors, get us to trust you because we Nigerians are very intelligent and we would go places if this kind of concept blossoms.

Let's spell our code of conduct clear, although we are meeting online, organising a live meeting won't be bad at all.it would boost our confidence and increase our trust in one another.

@Kunlef please organise a meeting, if you have a problem with that I'm based in Unilag for now although I have other offices, I can book a venue in Unilag in 2 days, affordable and neat.

I'll be very glad and most honoured to be part of this great move, Nigerians uniting to build, sharpen and strenghten one another.

Thank you very much for reading my post and it's my sincere prayer that God blesses the work of our hands and use this medium to rewrite the many wrongs, in the foundation of this great sleeping giant Nigeria even in the Global stage.

@ Ladi

I am not sure this is where you should have placed this advert. It really has nothing to do with this thread and just a distraction. 

@xploits777
You have a point about protecting your idea. However, there is no way you will get someone to invest in it without knowing what he is investing in. So, I guess it is one of the risks you just have to take. Also, a business plan like that of herbsman still needs a lot of his personal skills and ability to succeed. So, it is not just something that anybody can just hijack, unless you have a lot of money to hire the best from elsewhere, maybe like the bank you mentioned. 

I want to believe most of the investors here are really genuinely interested in a feasible business to invest in, and not to hijack. Anyway, if you feel your business plan can be easily executed by anybody, then it is ok for you to keep some details to yourself for now. And probably take another look at it, or find other means of funding it, because it may just be a case of later than sooner.  And if you don't try to trust the investor with your idea, why should he/she trust you with his/her money? He might as well just go to the stockmarket.

At the right time, I think a meeting will be organized, but that is not priority now. We need to get enough people first. I still do not want to exclude people not living in Lagos from the broad idea. And until we have enough investors and enterpreneurs, it will not be necessary. 

@ herbsman

I got the hard copy of your business plan yesterday. And like I said earlier, I think it is a good and feasible plan.

Also, I think the other issues I raised in my earlier mail can be addressed when all the people concerned finally meet. And I will just like to ask, have you approached any financial institution with the proposal before?

@Xploits
Solomon, the most witty Don ever, stated that, there s nothing new under the sun. I do not know what your ideas are but, is it as exiting as nuclear medicine, nano-technology, bio-organics to mention just a few.Do u know that u can get  detailed information and data on virtually all fields of study on the internet.Some write ups that has been posted by the Oyinbo's are meant to be confidential yet it was published.

What would have happened to Emeka Emeagwali if he had kept his ideas away from his professors while working on his M.Sc.  . Bill Gates shared his microsoft ideas with several people who did not believe in it. one day, he met with the right investors.  keeping it to your self or waiting for the right season may not present itself.

Am not computer literate,but av learnt some few skills on this thread.Sharing ideas with the right people is important. My question is how do you know the right person if do not e-deliberate the topic.Who knows when  Phb,Zenith,gtb will invite us for interview


@Kunlef
I approached a medium sized bank yesterday and I was told that, the wapa apparel biz plan will be reviewed yesterday and today.Am to meet wv them 2moro morning.

The hurdles before  that i must leap over include:
1.providing a collateral of 4m for the 2.6m needed.
2.6mths cash flow.
3.opening a bank account with them.

You know that an average banker may find apparel production strange, he\she would prefer to give out facility to a US.,UK or Dubai bound importer of clothings.We both know what that does to our economy.

Am positive that, before I visit the 25banks, God wl open up their eyes to the opportunities.But, double digit interest rate na serious work o. Am prepared to take the plunge with double digit interest rate and wriggle out thereafter.
Thats why pooling 2gether resources for expansion will be a better alternative with a  board of Directors.

I av worked with about 3 start-up firms and I understand what a well constituted board of directors can do to foster growth and development.

Do you av any bank in mind.

i am a business entrepenur with great business ideas i can be reached on

thephilharmonics@yahoo.com