₦airaland Forum

nigeriantrucks:
I own a truck and a logistics license with some factories in Lagos. We need more trucks; 6 tyres. We handle maintenance and pay driver and motor boy, and remit 150k monthly to you.

If this interests you we can arrange a meeting in Lagos at my office to discuss further. The truck you need is sold around 3.5m.

markessien:
Hello Guys,

I am Mark Essien, the founder of Hotels.ng and Hotels.ng just raised $1.2m in funding from international investors. I started this business on my own two years ago in Calabar, and now we have become a big business. Hopefully, some people will read this and know that it's possible to be innovative, creative and build something from nothing in a few years.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2015/05/26/nigerias-hotels-ng-raises-1-2-million/

Questions that people have asked me and answers. If you have any other questions, ask below and I will reply.

What's your view on competition? How closely do you follow what Wakanow, Travelstart, etc., are doing relative to hotels.ng?

Competition is necessary for you to have a baseline on which you want to improve from. Otherwise you can have a really crappy product, and you don't know because there is nothing to compare it with.

At the end of 2014, you made the following statement: "We recorded almost no customer complaints in last two months, while booking tens of thousands of people.” So...what's your approach towards customer service? And how has your team (apparently) been able to proactively address issues?

Customer service in my opinion, is about empowering customer service to do the best they can to help people, no matter what it costs.

As an entrepreneur, getting the right staff is usually a challenge. How do you get talented people? What is your recruiting trick for finding great staff?

I do things like this - https://medium.com/mark-essien/hotels-ng-interview-questions-to-screen-for-a-genius-49bb6cb9946a - to find people.

What was your biggest fear on the journey to this point, and how long did you anticipate it will take you to cross this threshold?
My biggest fear was that we would not make enough money in time to be able to survive, in case we did not raise money in time. Luckily, with focus and a bit of luck, we crossed that bridge.

What would you do differently if you were starting over today?
Differently - I would have avoided doing things that are side-experiments and been more focused on the main thing.

How many percent of your company did you have to give up for $1.2million. Do you own controlling shares?
Right now, I own more of the company than if I had no investment, but I had a co-founder.

Who are your senior management team? In every conversation about Hotels I only hear about you the founder, never about the team.
So far we have operated without a 'senior' management team. But that is about changing. Expect some news here.

Did you choose your investors or did they choose you? I am personally working on a service and trying to decide who my investors should be.
We chose each other, just like a marriage

Tell us three business development hacks you used to stay afloat while you raised money..?
1. staying very focused on what would contribute to bottom line and what would not

2. Implementing performance based compensation across board

3. 3. Deferring expenses that were not critical.

What is it about hotels culture that has made you successful and how will you keep it consistent as you scale.
Hotels Culture is one of everyone-do-your-best and always keep thinking. The overall philosophy is that people should not need to be controlled to do their best. The Netflix presentation on this is one of the best I have read, and I hope we one day achieve this.

Do you consider yourself a technology company or a hotel booking service?
We are 100% a technology company.

What inspired you to start Hotels.ng?
I was inspired by wanting to do something in tech in Nigeria, and seeing a big open market

Here's my question before you received funding from spark how many employees did you have?
First of all, it was just me coding the site, then after that I hired a friend called Charles Bassey - and we were working together getting our inventory in calabar. That was before I moved to Lagos.

---
If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I will answer them all!

Me and the team

Oyerinde16:
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///BpB027jStEo6FPnhh7tYu1

Abia state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///JgAb9vdcLJ12GzTrmbSB0L

Adamawa state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///JTBlIzpf5goDtR4tTUhdW5

Akwa ibom state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///DdV54iXJSXH6Jh0cM8nd7m

Anambra state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///KWD16PznDyf424Rv51Iau9

Bauchi state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///DfU7fCVI56xEd4jjI97bAa

Bayelsa state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///KmaNo5TMePA1FxgO7Yc9KO

Benue state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///Dmbmbjp7NyQBoxVniBFKDi

Borno state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///IPPm65T8Xpr7D9eO3JxptL

Cross rivers state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///Ie3BxjQEJ2CJe3E01tuoTm

Delta state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///IKA2hCkXudPGvod3IQchfy

Eboyin state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///IKA2hCkXudPGvod3IQchfy

Ebonyi state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///GUioHVZ57tAJGqL14Me3uT

Edo state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///DY2t9ttdu7p3zQk1KUwFH6

Ekiti state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///HfBnQTmoW4D9pVUYllCP8t

Enugu state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///EcBrQesQJPw1Ttn3wh4fiL

Gombe state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///C9JrY1QKkzU0SAZDLsRxiP

IMO state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///KlR3EPISKFB4ZBk72t2mqo

Jigawa state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///KW7ZFNCCDqA9x6GDo7t68X

Kaduna state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///I23FVRnu30g6Vlkrzx0y9m

Kano state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///LBsiZwE7nQbJx5sviTSMSx

Katsina state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///KW7wgjlpBd90u1BTIN2MvT

Kebbi state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///LZUbocW9iI69FtAibk90d2

Kogi state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///Lokbu5m1Zvx4wzTQMJhAu6

Lagos state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///F76cNc1surU8x9UdVmbhJi

Nasarawa state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///BjEMWP7IMXb3FHwqOW0xft

Niger state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///CtVN5AIjqSyKHr2kGaeyFJ

Ogun state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///FLkMwy6yq9xIYpcekb60X9

Ondo state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///FLkMwy6yq9xIYpcekb60X9

Ondo state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///BupyyUbTmdT4sK70YYBGVV

Osun state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///D6MQyiR0eIuHgj38HurGlj

Oyo state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///LwWmJQ7TMjD22ACJt2JXdX

Plateau state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///Im03H5iadNW92SBYP35ep2

Rivers state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///KK0TxCV88fJ1MyKDZEKaJC

Sokoto state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///DSFyde6vDjxKqNz8JOlxjA

Taraba state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///JErLUHcte2z2NQ369WK3jf

Yobe state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///K63rIwNrVgpIrDgsgjEsxX

Zamfara state
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///C8BBLDreKLA2TRYA5F1diu

Abuja Fct
Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https:///Fv8xw3y07Md6jFjRMua02Y

Kwara state

helinues:
And by the way, hope you are aware Chinese Yen is more useless compared to Nigeria Naira.

arimahoseloka:
Am still waiting for my goods (battery product) to land at EMCA Lagos office. Can you help me out?