₦airaland Forum

Karleb:
I guess this is what they call the rat race.

OP, so why are you not taking the leap of faith of quitting your job?

Well, I dont really know. I really want to have another source of income before leaping out. So far, the little investment that I have made didnt stand. And the capital burnt out. Hopefully this coming year if the country remain fairly stable, I will leap out cos there is another investment that am targeting. Just trying to raise the capital required.

RainOnMe:
Following

Villagemeat:
You want to advertise networking business,na so them dey start

YOur own personal opinion.

I will have to stop here for now. I welcome any form of question or criticism. But no insults plz.

99% of wealthy people are business men, you wont get to a greater height in wealth if you dedicate your entire life on a paid job. The average worker who is upright and doesn't involve in shady dealings ends up not been too wealthy or achieving much in life. Aside from multinational company's, most firms in Nigeria pay belwo 100k and when you factor in cost of leaving and daily expenses, how much can one save out of the salary in a month. Thats why I noted in the beginning of this write up that except you are working in a firm where your salary is above 100k and promotion/upward review of salary is certain within 3 years, then you are just wasting your youthful age when you work in such a place for long. If at the end of a year, you cant be able to save up to 1M, just try as much as you can to quit the job. Though its not easy, but its better you bear the heat and get out when you are strong and agile than wait when you get old.

My advice is that as early as possible, one should start looking for a business to start, irrespective of the nature of the business, as long as its legal and pays your bill just dedicate yourself to it and nurture it to growth/maturity. Business is easier to manage and nurture when your personal expense and responsibility is still very low, thats why its good to start when you are still under your parent, as a student or during NYSC. That way, even when the business fail, you have your family to fall back on until you gather the necessary resource to start again.

On a last note, when you have a striving business, by the time your kids grow up, one or two of them can you in the business and probably be on their own by having an offshoot of your business. That way they wont have to be looking for a job after school especially in this period of unavailability of jobs. But if you retire as a worker, you have nothing to pass to your kids to help them kick start their life. They will have to search for job or establish their own business.

I will also advice that if you have the opportunity of picking up a job as a sales rep of a company, please do not hesitate to accept it as this type of job gives you first hand experience of how businesses of buying and selling works. You will get to know how the market moves, the season when some certain goods are in high demand and with this experience, starting your own business in same line wont be difficult for you as you can even get some capital and purchase goods in the name of your customer and if you have a good relationship with him or with those around, selling the goods wont be much difficult through their help pending when you get your own shop/warehouse.

MODIFIED...
My own rule of thumb is... IF YOUR JOB IS YOUR ONLY SOURCE OF INCOME, DONT QUIT YOUR JOB FOR A SIDE BIZ UNTIL THE BIZ IS A "GOING CONCERN" AND IS GIVING YOU MORE THAN HALF OF YOUR MONTHLY SALARY.

Take for example those young lads who go to serve their oga as early as 12-15years of age. They learn the art of business right from teenage, they get to know customers and how the market fluctuate. Then after been settled 6-7 years later, finding their feet wont be difficult as they already have what is needed to succeed. They have the experience, the capital from settlement and the customer base(that's friends they made while serving)... then when the business is booming, their peers back home will think that they did blood money, but its just simple economics.

I have a friend that sale cloths in bales. From my findings, each bale cost 10k and he sells it between 11-13k depending on the quantity that you are buying. On the average he sells about 10 - 15 bales per day. Then during weekends, that's Friday and Saturday, he sells almost 20-25 bales. He has customers coming from Niger Republic, Chad and neighboring countries coming to buy in bulk. You can now estimate his monthly income. I can bet you that only a few multinationals in Nigeria will pay such amount for fresh graduates. And the funny thing is, when you enter this guy's shop, you wont even know that such income can come from that shop.

Take a time out and try to look out for wealthy business men around your area. Try to investigate how they all started, most of their business started very small and when they where young. Time is all its takes to grow a business beyond recognition. Believe me, if you can manage and maintain your business for 3 years plus, then you have crossed the red zone. All factors been favorable, the experience you have gained over the years will see you through to greater heights.

There is a man I know that own a big pharmaceutical company in Lagos, the last time the man came to our branch, he just started gisting me stories of how he started. He started with a small chemist shop before he married his wife who read pharmacy in school, through the help of his wife and her licence, they started expanding. More than 20 years down the line, he is among the top pharmacy company in Lagos.

If you hear the story of how A A Rano started, you will be shocked. But now look at where he is now. This man isn't a graduate, but bank officials are always after him. And there are lots of rich men like him who are not really educated, but their net worth now is mind blowing.

My branch manager usually make reference to two of our biggest customers who use to come to the bank to make transaction of 300-500k back then when he was a junior staff, but now those guys deal in billions of naira. If the bank is sending delegation to see these customers, it's the senior officials that goes. This is to show you how big these guys have grown. That's the power of business. There are lots of people I would have used as examples to show how business grows over time, but that will mean divulging privileged information so I will have to keep that aside.

Look at this scenario, 3 days after I resumed at my branch, there was this sales rep of an FMCG that approached me and was pleading with me to help him count his cash as he was running out of time. That day, there was lots of cue in the banking hall. So I took him to our bulk counting room and connected him to someone who helped him to count the cash. Since that day, we became friends and started communicating. At about 3 months later, he told me that one of the major distributors of his company folded and so he is trying to take the distributors right and make purchases in the distributors name without the main company knowing because he is still under the company's payroll. He succeeded in becoming a distributor, supplying to some of the super stores in the state. During the lock-down, he told me that what he does mostly now is to order for a container of good from the company, costing around 20m. That after he finish selling it within 5-6wks, he makes a net profit of about 1.2m. Which firm will pay its staff such amount within 2 months. Right now, he has about 5 big shops around town and two ware house. He is married, has two cars a house in the north and in the east and from the little interaction I have had with him, his biz is worth about 45m. This is within the space of 4 years of becoming a distributor. You can imagine what his net worth will be after like 10-15 years of been in the business.

There is this corper lady that sells roasted cat fish around my area. She choose a good spot, right in front of a bear parlor. Her fish ranges from 1200-1500 per one. This lady sells roughly 15 fishes per day with an average profit of N200/fish, some even N300. Thats roughly 60k a month. THis is a biz she does between 4pm to 10pm. Compare that to some bank contract staffs that earn between 40k-70k a month while working 8am-5pm.

If you own a keke marwa and ply a very busy route with good road, you can be sure of making 5k in revenue per day, that like 100k a month. Or if you feel you want to give it out, the return is usually around 2k per day. I know that some people will be shy cos how can a graduate be driving keke. But in this our country, anything that will put money in your pocket shld be tried as long as it's legal. Now, if the keke is yours and you are driving it your self. Each day am sure your net income will be around 3k. That's an average of 80k per month, much more than what 60% of companies in Nigeria will pay fresh graduates.

Another scenario, during the interview stage for this job that I got, I made friend with a fellow candidate. Turns out that the guy didn't made it as he wasn't called to resume when they called us. Three months later when I called him, he told me that he's learning a trade from his uncle in Lagos. Around middle of 2017, he called me, telling me that he is now on his own and asked for my prayers so he would prosper well. As at Oct this year, he bought a land in his home state and already building on it.

MODIFIED

Luckily for me, as the business flopped, around march of 2016 I got an offer for a bank job which I gladly accepted. Salary was 75k/month. Not much, but for me back then it was much.

I went for training and was posted to one of the states in North west. I have worked for about 5 years now, but I only got a promotion January this year, taking my salary to N115k/month.
Now the question to ask is, if I was into business for this period of 5 years, putting in the type of dedication that I did where I work, as at now, will my net revenue per month not be more than N115k.

Over the years, I have got to understand that business grows every single day. It might not reflect in your net income, but each day that a customer walk up to you to buy your product or pay for your services, your reputation and good will grows. This will amount in more revenue/income later on.

Secondly, we all know that salary remain stagnant while inflation grows. No organization will increase your salary cos of inflation, but unlike business, business grows with inflation. For example, if a product is been sold for N8 as cost price while retailers sell at N10. If there is inflation and cost price rises to N11, most retailers will end up selling at N15, thereby increasing their income relative to inflation.

I am in the banking sector, and it seems to me that am trapped in there even though I work tooth and nail to resign as soon as possible, but a lot of things that I have invested into, didn't turn out as I hope. Not giving up yet, as I look out for other opportunity. To grow a business, the owner need to be on ground to nurture it, but that time is what you don't have when you are working for someone esp as a banker. Its not all that easy leaving your job entirely to go and grow/nurture your business, at a time when you already have responsibility and expenses to carry, you might end up running down your capital. That's why I want to reiterate that the best time to start a business is when you are still in school or under your parent roof, that way you can do all the trial and error you needed to do without getting burnt. If the business fail, you still have roof over your head with your feeding and other basic necessities covered, all you need is time to regain more capital and start afresh.

I bought about 24 cartons at a cost of N4.5K/carton and way-billing it from Lagos cost me about N12k. I exhausted the N120k on purchase and carriage inwards(it could have been more if not for the lady that helped me purchase it). Therefore, the cost price of the biscuit/carton was N5k.

I was able to use the small space left in my parent shop as my own shop, then I use my Mum's bike to go out for advert and supply.
I hit the market immediately and started advertising the biscuit. In a carton, there are 12 packs which contain 12 biscuits. Now, my selling price was N5.5k/carton and N500/pack. So the retail end of one biscuit was N50. I sell as both wholesale and retail, so if I sell a carton, I have a profit of N500. If I sell 12 packs at N500 each, I have a profit of N1000. Then if at my shop, I was able to sell the biscuits in pieces, I will make a profit of about N1700 after exhausting a carton. The first week I started, things didn't go so well, but as time goes on, business was picking up. Though there was a catch to it. The "end-eaters" are mostly students of the university and most shops don't buy in carton, they buy in packs. So when the school is on break, sales slows down but picks up when they resume. Later on, I added some little local biscuits and products so that I can be turning over my capital pending when my stock gets low before I can buy from Lagos. Profit from those local products are negligible. At the peak of my business, that's towards the end of 2015, I know I was making an average profit of about 700-1500 per day, which is roughly 30-40K per month. Things were going smoothly and I was happy, but then everything went south. By the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016, the value of naira depreciated and since the biscuit was a foreign one, the carton price gradually went up from 4500 to 8000. The single biscuit which was sold at N50 also rose to N70. People no longer buy it, business came to a halt and I had stocks which I literally sold at almost the cost price some even less. The little money I had, I tried to diversify into a new product, but wasn't successful. The product that looks promising requires capital of 1M upwards which I cant access as at then I have about 250K with me.

I finished serving in the year 2013, job hunted for a while but no success. I always sleep on job site looking for new job advert, I walked the street of different cities going from company to company and dropping CVs. I attended lots of interviews and tests, all to no avail. The closest I got was during the 2014/2015 recruitment exercise for PTI Warri which was done in Abuja. I spent lots of money shuttling from my state of residence to Abuja for about three times. Computer based test was taken twice, then a final interview. In the position I applied for, I was among the 5 people that made it to the final interview stage, but I waited for call up/appointment letter but I didn't get any.(time, energy and resource that I could have channeled in starting a business, wasted)

After all these, I gave up on job hunting for a while. I stayed back with my parent, helping them out in the little business they do, their business isn't all that rosy, but it helps in the daily expense of the house. Thank God for my elder brothers who take care of the major expense as they are working.

While going for interview in Abuja, there was a biscuit I ate there which was very nice. One day I set out to look for the biscuit in my area but couldn't find it. So it occurred to me that since the city where I reside is a university town, maybe such biscuit could move market. I was able to ask my brother for a loan of #120k which he gave me... and through the help of a nairalander, I got the biscuit from Lagos to my state (God bless the lady. As at the time she helped me procure the biscuits, I haven't set my eyes on her, we just spoke on phone. I sent her the money, she took her time, used her husband car, went to the company's warehouse in Lagos, bought the biscuit and way-billed it to me). Later on, I made a friend with one of the bus drivers of PMT who was now helping me to pick it up and deliver to me while coming back from Lagos.

What am about to explain is based on my own personal experience and that of those around me. What worked or didn't work for me doesn't mean its applicable to others. You might try and succeed. But am only here to give my own experience. Sorry, this post is gonna be long.

The lesson I want us to learn here is for us to know that working in a firm (esp banks or offices where you stay indoor from 8am-5pm) that pays you less than #120k-#150k per month with little or no assurance that after 2-3 years, you will be promoted or salary increased is a waste of your youthful age, better you start nurturing any form of legal business that you can start and manage. In view of this, I will be making some detailed Analysis and CALCULATION as I put down my experience. The analysis and calculation is to show you how "small small" business that we neglect and take not to be profitable is actually better than having a monthly paid job.
I started working in the bank around first quarter of 2016. I was excited that I got a job, hoping to start contributing financially to my family. But before I proceed, let me take us back a little for a better understanding.

Greetings to you all. I don't know if the subject of this post suits its body content, but all the same I hope that the message am about to pass meets you well.

Pardon my typos.... Typing long post isn't my thing.

JONNYSPUTE:
.....Just relax bro.

You ve passed your message and anybody that feels hurt about it should go and commit sucide.

Period.

Thanks man...

ogunboy:
U didn't have to do dat. I am a Yoruba boy there was nothing wrong with what you wrote.

You know, in Nairaland, any small opportunity some people see, they will use it to attack other people's tribe. You are already seeing in here. One have started spewing the bad side of Muslims trying to tarnish them as if there is any where in the thread where I praised Muslims for been honest.

sexymoma:
so in all these things wy he write na tribalism you perceive.. your nose nor good..

I have finally modified the post. Seeing the tendency of this post falling into the hands of tribalistic warlords of Nairaland, I have removed that part that mentioned the tribe.

Klass99:
I absolutely love the outcome of this story.

Speaking about the other thread, most people condemned the woman in question and her conduct. Very few people supported it - going by the comments I read, from a few pages of the thread. I didn't follow the entire thread.

Two of my friends used to work with banks, one quit because she was stressed from the job, she said she wasn't sleeping well, she would often wake up at odd hours, thinking, did I post that deposit with the accurate sum, did I do ABC or XYZ correctly? The anxiety and restless sleep took a toll so she walked.

The other friend overpaid a customer, over the counter during a cash withdrawal transaction. She overpaid in excess of 50k. She went home crying and prayed about it, fortunately for her the guy returned to the bank the next day, met her over the counter discreetly and returned the money.

So I totally feel you on what you are saying.

Seriously, it's not easy working in the bank as a teller. A customer once told me that if he is the CBN, that he will compel all the banks to pay their tellers nothing less than #350k considering the pressure they pass through and the amount of time they spend in the system.

If there are available jobs in other industries, 98% of those working as tellers would leave. Imagine there are some bank who pay their tellers less than 60k a month.

DontBullshitMe:
I perceive tribalism.

It's obvious you have a tribalistic mind that was why you perceive tribalism.

Dande55:
Muslims are the worst kinda people to criticise a religion. Are they not the bandits killing and kidnapping people with hundreds of millions being deposited into their account, are they not the ones killing and maiming people all over the world, causing terror, are fulani herdsmen, ISWAP, AL QUAEDA, ISIS, Boko haram and the host of other terrorism group not from Islam, we also know Abacha and Buhari are the worst president in terms of killing and corruption. Are they not the ones beheading and slaughtering people who criticise their moon god?
Why do these folks think they are holier than others.

Block heads everywhere.... Who is talking about holier than someone here. This is based on individual encounter with a few of them.

Ikjosh04:
Hi bro, how where you monitoring the account? I got scammed of 500k it's a year and 1 month na. Please i need to monitor this guy account to get my money back.

If you have a friend working in the particular bank, he can help you do that when you provide him with the scammers account number. But if you want to succeed, you need to have a friend who works with a security agency like efcc, icpc DSS or police. So that if there is money in the scammers account,you will know what next to do. Ordinarily, the guy in the bank can help you much cos he's not authorized to tamper with any ones account.

Why am I saying all these... If your account is over credited or you were over paid across the counter, don't think it's the bank you are cheating. The teller responsible will most likely pay or lose his job. So if you are in such scenario, try and return the money if you can, don't wait till they call you. Sometimes if you were over paid, the teller might not knw which of the customer he over paid and you on your own you will be thinking that you have gotten free money because you were not called back. Just knw that someone somewhere is crying over that money.

Please always place value on integrity, you never know who you will be saving...

When I went back to my branch, I started monitoring the account on daily basis. The woman was still using the acct, but the transactions are very low. One day, about #700k entered the acct. Immediately I called the lady and told her about my finding. So she gave her tellers the acct number and told them that if some one comes to withdraw money or transfer from the acct that they should notify her. About a week later the woman came for withdrawal and that was how she was apprehended and they told her to either transfer the remaining balance to us or she will be handed over to the police. So the woman refunded us the money.

I know that some of you will ask that why didn't we escalate the issue so that the bank can recover the money officially. Well, we have the option of doing that, but if we take that path, about 4-5 staff might be suspended and their job could be on the line. After about some days, we were just discussing about the issue when one of my colleague said that he is sure that the woman will still go to church and pay tithe from the money. That statement really hurt me cos I knw that they were directly refering to me because similar issues have occurred before with customers who were Muslims, but they returned the money on their own. So my colleagues were just making jest of me. (It happened that am the only Christian in my entire unit. It's just our manager and 2securities that are Christians).
Because of that, I took it upon myself to see how I can recover the money. About two months later, I went for a training in Lagos. During the training, a lady stood up to ask a question, then she introduced herself and her branch. Immediately, I remembered that her branch was were that woman opened her account and that was also where she withdrew the money from. After the training, I approached her and told her about the issue fortunate for me, the lady is a senior supervisor in the branch. So she said she will help me, that all I need to do is to keep watching the account.

Let me tell you a story...

Back then, there was a day one of my colleague credited the wrong acct with the sum of #600k. That day was on a Friday. It went unnoticed till on Tuesday when the owner of the money came bck to complain that he hasn't gotten alert for his deposit. We checked the ticket and transaction history, we discover that the teller mistakenly changed the last digit of the acct number and so the money went into the wrong acct, and the person have withdrawn the money.
So we checked the details of the acct and we discovered that it's a lady residing in SWn state while our location is NE. We called the woman and pleaded with her to return the money but she refused. We begged and begged she refused. Infact, even her husband told us never to call her line again. So we gave someone who speaks her language to help us plead with her. Finally she decided to return only #200k that she has spent the rest, so she transferred the money to us. We had to contribute money among ourselves to pay up the remaining balance.

I opened this thread in response to an earlier thread that made front page.

Here is the link.

https://www.nairaland.com/5968066/friend-cancelling-wedding

The response I read in that thread literally broke my heart.
It's obvious that some Nigerian youths are as corrupt as the politicians we accuse and insult everyday. We lack integrity and it seems like everyone is looking for an opportunity to steal and enrich himself at the expense of others.

How come on that thread, a lot of people are defending the lady, calling her smart lady and saying that they will do same if they were in same situation. Some said that it's an opportunity to pay back to the bank for the excess bank charges on our account. Common that's gross ignorance.

So you don't knw that it's the teller who will pay the money.
Some one said why can't the bank go through the official way of blacklisting the person's BVN. Well, that is possible, but before that can happen, it means the issue must have gotten to the banks auditors and the teller could probably face sanction and risk his job, that's why the easy way out is to call the customer and plead with him or her

Fidelity

Got it man... Thanks a lot
cc... Seunmsg

Solomon8144:
Hahahahaha

Never been this happy all my life

I'm giving 5k to the first 5 people to drop their bank details immediately the final whistle is blown , if Liverpool lose today

Final whistle... Here is mine,

PrettyHelen:
I understand where you're coming from, thank you very much for your input AltarBoy.

You welcome... Success in your TS.

PrettyHelen:
It's an entry level position sir as a graduate trainee, not contract


You said you'll love to join marketing? Why so sir?? I have been lowkey praying that after training school I should not be in marketing because I had a misconception or let me say stereotype about how marketing is. I'd love to know why a marketing is a good unit sir. Hearing from someone with actual experience is refreshing.

Best regards

Well, am only taking from the experience of my own bank. The marketing department isn't that difficult as other bank, the pressure also us not much. You get to close early unlike the operators who will wait till every book is balanced before leaving the office. Also you will be oppotuned to meet people of high calibre during the course of your marketing and you can use that as an advantage to broaden your horizons. There are lots of benefit in it. But like I said, it depends on your bank.

PrettyHelen:
Care to breif me about your banking experience so far?

alright, will do that later.

PrettyHelen:
I enjoyed your thread, in fact I just did my medicals today for a bank as well. I don't know why I'm just scared (maybe fear of the unknown) , seeing someone post about medicals three years ago is so refreshing. I pray I scale my medicals as well.

Care to breif me about your banking experience so far?

The banking industry is a great place to be... The work is enjoyable cos you get to meet lots of people. Am in operations, but in the bank where I work, most of us in operations are praying and pushing to join marketing.


Welcome to the industry. But based on my experience, if you are entering as a contract in to all these mid level or lower level bank, put ensure you have plan B cos anything can happen.

In fact, if you are a university graduate, it's only Zenith bank contract staff that I will take any day and any time, cos you can actually have a future from there. But other banks, it's frustrating.

Wow... So this thread still dey. It's been more than 3 years now since I resumed work. May be I will come and post more about my experience.

Am been forced to believe that majority of the foot soldiers been sent to the north east are christiians.

BH burnt down there base for the 3rd time. This is really serious.

There is something the govt is not telling its citizens.