To move us into a higher gear, I will suggest that after getting to this stage those who may be interested in participating in this project should indicate with a post that will just mention their area in Lagos and also describe the market as he/she perceives it be as it relates to this project and the product in question.

We do not need too many people per area. We must provide enough room for each participant to grow his business into profitability.
I suppose we can use this weekend to conclude on the people that will work in the various areas.

Please your comments and opinions are welcome at this stage.

At this stage I will request for comments opinions and suggestions.

Earlier on, a poster asked us to consider those in Ilorin.

It will be difficult to consider those who live outside Lagos but I assure you that that problem can and will be solved when we put on our thinking caps subsequently.

Now if I were in Ilorin and in the same unemployed circumstances and was resident behind C&S college in Sabo Oke and had just 20,000, I would also order the Chin-chin and supply all the shops in and around C&S, St. Anthony, all the shops/kiosks at the secretariat, the Police HQ, down to Post office and then over to Maraba garage.

I will also have customers from Sobi, Emirs Palace, Tanke, Fate, Taiwo and Unity Roads, General Hospital, the University campus, C.O.E down to Saw Mill and Girialimi.

I would build my business with commitment and an understanding that it is a fast moving consumer good and it will only make sense when I start doing volumes.

A faster way exists for newbies who live outside Lagos in far flung locations like Uyo, Jos and Kano etc. We will examine the options that can be appropriated for their benefit, Always know that where there is a will there is always a way.

We will look at these possibilities later in the thread.

I will paint two scenarios here and they will reflect two different approaches in two very seemingly different towns in Nigeria.

Lagos will be my first. Now let us assume that I live in somewhere around Oregun,Ikeja. I am unemployed and I have just 20,000 Naira in my account, what would I do?

The whole stretch of Oregun road is filled with side streets from the Ojota end right through the Ikosi road axis and down to the Alausa end of the road. There is also a lot of people there both day and night and it closes into a major market at the Alausa end.

I will embark on a survey looking around the neighbourhood and checking from shop to shop to see what snacks are available for sale, and in just interacting nicely with the shop keepers/owners I will narrow down the preferences of people as regards snacks especially chin-chin. I will ensure that the chin-chin I want to sell is not predominant in that market, then I will call the chin-chin company of my choice and after negotiating on the phone I will place an order for the product and will insist on paying on delivery.

When the product arrives I will first test run the sales in my immediate area without spending too much on transportation. Please note here that this venture may initially not yield any profit. Secondly, it may commence as a credit based transaction because of the fact that the retailer will not want to invest in something they have not bought before. You must not on that account despair because this is just the beginning. Many people will tell you out right that they will not buy since they have too many brands in their shop. Respond to them politely and do not try to push them too hard but make a mental note of the person and her shop you will have to pay repeated visits to that shop until she says yes. And honestly when she begins to buy, she never stops buying.

I will then grow the business as much as I can because what will then happen is that the customers discernment will come into play. In the course of sellin or marketing shops, I will not ignore any shop any location at all but will consider every outlet. I used to have two bank staff as neighbours, and they used to buy about 5 bags per week from me and sell it through the cleaners in their office. They were also reselling the jars for their colleagues. I also had a staff in one of the biggest new generation banks selling over 20 bags weekly for me in the Bank HQ and at their training school restaurant.

Now imagine that I have a cleaner in all the banks that have branches on Oregun road selling the product, you can imagine what my sales volume will look like not to talk of having a sales vendor reselling for me in Oregun grammar school premises. I would also try to selling on Sunday mornings on Ikosi road by Daystar church. If the customers like the product enough then you are in business because your phone will never stop ringing.

Now the company has different pack sizes so what I would do on my second order is to buy a little of all the pack sizes;

ten bags of the 50.00 packs,

1 dozen of the 250.00 Naira packs

and maybe just 6 packs of the jar types which sell for 500.00 Naira only.

You will be pleasantly amazed at how fast you will be selling the 500 Naira jar packs.

We will look at it subsequently in more detail.

The chin-chin project must start small especially with newbies.

Now, it is more profitable to start as a large distributor because the company will help you with some incentives which may include rebates and discounts. But I can assure you that you will still have a tough time offloading a totally new product without Legwork and aggressive sales canvassing and merchandising.

Whichever option you choose a lot of work is still going to be involved. You can count on that as fact.

Imagine that you are given 800 bags of chin-chin which is a small busload and it is offloaded into your home in Ajah, Lagos on a Sunday morning. Let us further assume that you have never sold anything like chin-chin before in your life, how will you start? I assure you that within three months a lot of it will still be there. I have found out that even with products that have the highest possibility of doing well in the market, the experienced trader always starts small and gauges the acceptability of the product before taking a plunge.

If on the contrary, I give you just ten bags of chin-chin and ask you to sell it and you start by introducing just one bag to your neighbours and they like it, and then you take two bags as you're going to drop kids in school and introduce it to co-parents at the car park you will be making progress slowly but steadily. You will be selling slowly but you will be learning a lot. Some things that are taken for granted by the big distributors will be taken more seriously by you. So the approach to selling the chin-chin will be slightly different from the doughnuts. Again selling it will be reflect the local peculiarities of the different locations.

I will talk now from my experience. I have experimented with selling different types of chin-chin in the last two years but I decided after a proper evaluation to stick with just one company and grow my business from there.

Your choice of product/company will be determined by your detailed consideration of a number of variables such as quality, quantity, packaging, logistics support, pricing incentives and a number of other factors.

CHIN-CHIN

This product like many other products in the market today will amaze you in terms of the transformation it can bring to your life.

The rewards start very small and grow incrementally to surprising proportions.

It has been proven time and time again that sustainable wealth is grown from a solid foundation and in measured, stable and consistent steps.

Flying to the top of the ladder without experiencing every rung may only lead you to a great fall reminiscent of the Nursery rhyme icon Humpty Dumpty.

Start small, work hard and smart, observe closely, review your strategy, and stay focused on the goal.

Learn the necessary lessons with gratitude and try not to repeat mistakes.

Listen inwardly and most importantly you must create for yourself regular periods of inward and outward tranquility where you can actually stay quiet, consider or visualize your goal, review your approach/strategy, assess your strides so far, evaluate your activity thus far and draw the necessary inspiration to fire you on.

latestarter:
Karin,

Thanks. It is getting better

Thanks too.

rose75:
"Jam filled doughnuts is my preference here. The doughnut is priced for 50.00 per unit and it is packed in units of 50 divided in two big bags holding 25 pieces each".

Hi Karin,

Thanks for job well done.
Reference to the above quote, could you please address these concerns:

- Is this #50.00 the wholesale or retail price?

- Are the individual pieces packaged separately inside the bags?

50.00 is the recommended retail price.

I don't know the current wholesale price but I could find out when ready.

There is primary packaging for the doughnut, which is a sachet, and then they are secondarily packed in large transparent cellophane bags and sealed with cello-tape.

Each bag carries 25 pieces and they are sold as bags where fifty pieces constitutes 1 bag.

I hope that explains it properly. I havent seen it in about two years but I intend to upload pictures of it eventually.

Doughnuts cont;

In our earlier post on doughnuts we mentioned that one of the best locations for sales is large schools. And very true too. I also added that there has to be adequate planning for the holidays when the demand will naturally drop.

So how does one manage with this drop? The solution is to understand that your market generation must be a continuous process. At no point must you rest on your oars. You must continuously deepen your market while at the same time widening the market in a latitudinal mode. New places within your territory must be discovered and uncovered.

This translates to an increase in sales during the school term and some measure of sales during the holidays instead of a zero sales situation.

The second thing that will help you stabilize your business and reduce your costs and thus increase your profitability is that you are going to draw your profit from not just one product but two, then three and then four and so it keeps growing. After a while you will be the most sought after person in the neighbourhood.

Please note that there will be logistics cost in selling. We have to look for a way to mitigate the traditional business costs. It is for this reason that I will suggest that you do not need the traditional approach in selling your products. Ordinarily, to become a distributor in a structured company you would have to rent a respectable shop in a good location, apply for the distributorship, pay a deposit to the company, get an approval before paying for your first consignment. We are however discarding that process and jumping over all the steps.

Ours is to identify a product that has potential from a good company and become a mobile distributor taking it to the retailer and taking our money.

We will build our territory very fast such that when those goods are required what will then happen is that whenever a call is generated by the customer, the company will route it back to us in our individual territories. So there will technically be no shop. The cost of shop space will be transferred to other cost centers like logistics and recharge cards.

Thirdly, in order to increase our profitability whatwe will need to do is to carry other products and sell them side by side with the other products.
I will provide an instance here. If you see the cyclists in the various towns who sell a popular brand of cheap ice-cream and milk shakes you will notice that unlike previously when they use to market only ice-creams, these days they have attached baskets where they sell varied snacks.

So while making commissions from their company for selling ice-cream they also use the same opportunity and resources to sell other products. When I was still residing in Lagos my typical day began with ensuring that my consistent clients for doughnuts were served early in the morning every week day. I will then attempt to create new markets for doughnuts and then I will attend to the chin-chin. Now the chin-chin comes in three different pack (I understand that it will soon to be four) sizes.

In my neighbourhood then I so pushed the chin-chin that it was available in every shop, kiosk and supermarket. I will discuss the chin-chin sales subsequently but for now we will continue and complete the doughnut sales plan and approach.

At the end of the analysis we will then look at how your earnings should look like in three months commencing 3rd October 2016 till 18th December 2016. What I will show there can be described as a conservative the sales forecast and profitability projection for sales of Doughnuts by Snack Sales Newbie in Lagos.

eay:
Wow...I guess I have really missed alot.
Did I just see @samhay, @amicable nd @babacele on this thread? wow...it my pleasure oooo.

@karin God bless you for this great paradigm shift of our rigid mindset...you are a big blessing to this generation.
@rose @ego @blackie et al...so good to know you guys of great intellects...ur selfless contributions is very pleasant to the mind.
Two major recipé is required of a FMCG distributor especially as a newbie (although I'm still learning too ) PASSION and ENTHUSIASM.
We have to develop keen interest in the product and making; more research about the product viz-a-viz studying our target customers to know what they really what to hear about the product.
Of course,there will always be a 'NO' and there will always be discouragement from our close relatives (even from our profit analysis) but ENTHUSIASM keeps us going. Be happy with what you do,because such attitudes birth new ideas and strategies that makes you a prominent entrepreneur.

Lastly...concerning our new product, I will suggest the 'HOLLANDIA YOGHURT' sachet because of its portability and shelf life. It can be served chilled or warm.
It has a wide range of target customers frm school kids to teenagers to undergraduates to working class etc since everybody loves sum quality 'yoghurt' but prefers something cheap (as low as #50)...
Can we still remember how 'bobo' drinks quickly replaced the long bottled 'viju milk' and it quickly left a lasting footprints in the heart of the school kids?
I think the 'HOLLANDIA SACHET YOGHURT' can follow that trend too.

Cheers!

Oga, thanks for your succinct contribution.

Your observations are very on point.
Passion and enthusiasm backed by massive and consistent action is the bedrock of success in the FMCG model and indeed any endeavour that anyone embarks on.

This is however a whole topic by itself and I assure you that by the time we are have identified the areas and the participants and are ready to start we will discuss these two concepts and related matters and I will bring to fore the little experience I have here.

Your suggestion about the Hollandia Yoghurt is beautiful and well thought out. You have a firm understanding of this sector already. Chi Industries is a very focused company with delightful products from their stable.

When I started this thread I considered some of these products including Hollandia Yoghurt, Hollandia Milk and even some other products from Haansbro called Milka. I think that at the moment this is the fastest selling FMCG product in the market. It is very quiet and yet very successful and I can tell that many adults, especially men have never seen this product but it is awsome. This product sells like crazy. Priced at 10.00 per sachet it moves so fast.

I also thought of another product from Hollandia which was a ready to eat custard packed in sachets and sold for 50.00.

I am however not interested in all these popular products. I do not wish to compete in the market place with already established distributors.

What my model specifies is that I sell products in my neighbourhood that will be difficult to find in the local market. That gives me exclusivity and latitude to play around and make some profits.

Essentially, what I am saying here is not that the product does not sell, on the contrary these are very fast moving products but the distribution process has been cornered by the deep pocketed Distributors who are situated in the major markets of Lagos.

So in my desire to excel, I will develop a long term plan and start small with a reasonably new product from a small/medium business and ensure that the product demand in my chosen territory is at its peak. Thus I will be the 'golden girl' primarily because the demand for my product will be high while I can be the only one to provide this service.

That gives me a little edge over my regular competitors who are fixed location distributors.


That is the general idea.

dannB:
Guys, what about fruit juice? I think it will be easily to market to target audience in as much it is quality. Also, it is FMCG product. I am sure it will also sell fast. What do you think?

Very true but if it is already in the market through the traditional distribution network then it will be difficult for you to sell.

Fruit juices and other drinks sell seriously but I assure you that they all have an existing sales process and you really cannot penetrate without difficulty.

I will take a break now and will continue later in the day but you have my assurances that we will complete the analysis on the products today. On resumption we will together complete the doughnuts and then we will talk about the chin-chin which will be quite a long post since it has so much potential.

The chin-chin will aspect of this expose will be adaptable for the whole country and we will attempt to see how we can all benefit with minimal capital. For every challenge there is always a solution(mostly so nearby)...........if we look at it very carefully.

Doughnuts:

I will start by saying that the sales of doughnuts using this is not my idea so I cannot take credit for it in its entirety. It is a model that has been used successfully by many experienced sales persons.

Jam filled doughnuts is my preference here. The doughnut is priced for 50.00 per unit and it is packed in units of 50 divided in two big bags holding 25 pieces each.

The doughnut is an early morning/midday product. it also sells during the day. It is a snack that many people like if it is well made. In all my experience doughnut is very fast selling because of its general appeal.

Just like all other snack products, the margin is very small for the entire distribution spectrum.

The manufacturer has the smallest margin per unit but makes profit when he produces very high volumes, the distributor makes a larger chunk and sells an a somewhat large volume while the retailer sells for the largest margin.

It is important to state here from the very beginning that the jam doughnut has a very short lifespan.
It is best consumed within 24 hours of production. It can however last for 3 days. Truthfully, I don’t think it will last beyond three days. But please note that this short shelf life can be an advantage. It will spur you to create a market for the product and widen it as much as possible.

On starting the doughnut sales, it is important that you start very small. On your first day I do not think that you should start with an investment of more than 5 bags (250 pieces). Secondly do not give the retailers, whether they be shops or Mallam kiosks more than a dozen pieces initially. Then you grow them gradually.

When I kicked off my doughnut project in Lagos I was advised on how to go about it and I found that a very simple yet very effective model. I was asked to identify schools in my immediate neighbourhood that had large population densities and start from there. I can attest to the fact this was the most incredibly profitable experience I ever had.

On the first day I sold only one bag (50 pieces) and on credit too. The following day I sold 5 bags because that’s all I went with. I was able to eventually sell 15 bags a day. Now, all I was making by way of profit was just 100.00 per bag, which translated to 1,500 per day, 7,500 per week and 30,000 profit per month from just one school.

Now imagine that you are selling this product in just 5 schools within your area what do you think it will translate to. Even if you make only 50.00 per bag do not be worried because what will then happen is that you will broaden your sales horizon, increase your sales volume and you will still be making a lot of money.

So as your very first step in this process take a quick and detailed survey and identify the big schools in your neighbourhood. They could be public or private schools. It doesn’t matter which. Now the approach you use for each school may be different from one another. In some schools especially the public schools, the authorities will refer you to the school approved vendors.

In the big private schools, they may send you to the Home Economics department. You must note that some Schools already have their own home economics department and they are already producing stuff for sale.

The school is a market by virtue of its population and everybody is always trying to take advantage of this potential. One way or the other you must meet and convince whoever is in-charge to buy your doughnuts. Trust me, whatever it may cost you in terms of time, visits, bribes and whatever you three months financials will show that it is worth it. Just imagine that you have just 5 of these schools in your kitty, it will strengthen your resolve to fly. Furthermore, if you can get what is described as a school complex into your fold, then your bread is buttered completely.

As a matter of concern, when doing your projections please remember that there will be a lull immediately schools close for holidays. you must as a matter of fact plan properly and take due note of the long holidays. there will be very low sales during that period and I can assure you that if you had not planned very well your capital will be eroded.

This should have been posted last night but I wasn’t bargaining with typing fatigue and of course my primary obligations which include hubby and kids among other things.

My sincere apologies.

I will ensure that you get all perspectives today and this stage will be done unless there are reservations, comments and further suggestions which could lead to a realignment.

So after seriously considering all positions, I decided to incline to the option of re-enacting my experience through others in the thread. I will guide the interested participants through the sales of snacks. Two snacks will be adopted here. For those in the outlined locations above we will start with Doughnuts and chin-chin.

For people who are interested from other locations in Lagos, I suggest you start with Chin-chin; details will follow subsequently.

Now, I will quickly add that the information I intend to share here will be anchored on universal principles and as such can be adapted to suit other products especially those of the fast moving variety. Apart from the direct participants whom I will prefer choose exactly the same product for uniformity in the guidance others can simply adapt the model and use it to suit their own peculiarities.

The basic requirement here will be that you apply the principles to the letter.

Now you may want to ask; why doughnuts? Why chin-chin.

The most practical response to this question among other responses is that I have experienced these products very well. Both of them I sold in Lagos and one of them here in Port Harcourt with some measure of success.

In my next post (coming very soon) I will do a proper analysis of both products.

I will show how we will approach the sales of these products with small wins every day.

I will demonstrate how participants in the different locations in Nigeria can also benefit from this plan almost immediately.

Finally, I will share with you what I assume this entire exercise can transform into. It can be so big, really big if we can stand firm and avoid pettiness. Explanations may not be today but before the weekend runs through.

MnenaSadiku:
I also have a suggestion.

Bread. Most people eat bread everyday. So I guess it qualifies as an FMCG product. What do you think, Karin?

Bread sales and indeed some other bakery sales is an all-time winner and in every clime. I have read of many bakeries that produce hundreds of thousands of loaves and they have developed a distinctive distributive channel that ensures that bread gets to the Consumers table within 24 hours.

I really don’t have statistics to back up my assertion but I daresay that bread is the most sought after staple worldwide maybe competing with rice to some extent. Nigerians are great bread consumers. Bread consumption is simply elastic in this country. Even with the sharp increase in the cost of the major raw materials occasioned by a whopping of the Naira by the dollar which put pressure on the prices, we still consume bread in all forms, shapes and sizes. The queues in various good bakeries, the bread hawkers on major roads and junctions and the Agege bread pyramids moving around in the mornings is a testament to that fact. We are a large landmass with an equally very large population density. Bread moves around a lot. It proves to be a very good product and can be classified as an F.M.C.G. I also know that margins on bread are quite reasonable.

In summary therefore, we can say that three most attractive attributes of bread as an F.M.C.G product for this product are;

1.Bread is widely consumed in Nigeria. Just about everybody eats bread regularly.

2.It is a regular staple and is eaten in many forms; as a constituent of a meal, and sometimes on its own. It can be eaten at just about any time of the day.

3.The margins on sales of bread are quite reasonable. If you observe carefully bread sellers change their vehicles somewhat regularly. This may be an indicator that the business is viable.


What constrains from adopting bread as a product for our launch can be seen as below.

As in most other good products, there is a proliferation of bakeries and the product. The market has been turned to a red ocean where it is a survival of the fittest. It’s a dog eat dog fight. The competition is very keen such that if you don’t have a niche you will find it difficult to sell.

A second hindrance is the fact that bread is a lot of bulk. If you are to sell bread for a particular neighbourhood successfully, you must own a car, bus or space-bus type of vehicle. The scramble for the market also requires a lot of aggressiveness to remain in the forefront. Also note that bread is an early morning affair. Most distributors are already in the bakery by 4.00am. Some actually sleep in some make-shift situation within the confines of the bakery.
There is also a large possibility to make steep losses. When you buy from a bakery, you are not allowed to return the bread where you haven’t finished selling all you products within a specific time frame.

The pricing for bread is also now very volatile. Too many inconsistencies. The above practically demonstrates that bread as an F.M.C.G product does not fit our purpose a least for now.

All the same keep trying and by all means learn.

mrsage:
Product suggestion.

Packaged Ogi also called pap or akamu. I assume it's a relatively new product.

Got it from a supermarket in Ikeja.

I have a picture. Retail price N70.

The contributions as regard suggesting what we should adopt as the initial sales product was a bit discouraging.

We will however not allow that to deter us.

The suggestion on the packaged Ogi, Akamu or Koko was not bad at all. It has a lot of pros including but not limited to the following;

1.The packaging is quite attractive.
2. It is birthed from the stables of a known brand – Bakers Choice.
3.The pricing is also not bad. N70.00 vis-a-vis the quantity/presentation is justifiable.
4. The shelf-life will be reasonable, especially if it has been appropriately dried.

For the purpose for which we want to embark on, I dare say the product is inhibited by the following cons;

This kind of being new and quite innovative in the market will require a lot of pushing, aggressive marketing and detailed merchandising.This implies that the company will have to do as lot of ground work first of all before the distributors accept to tie down their monies. Thus the retailers and distributors will not want to tie down their cash with an uncertain product so the only way to convince them is to provide some form of credit facility like sales on return.

I also do not see it as a very fast moving product at least in the food and beverages sector. My position here is backed by the fact that it is not directly consumable. It still requires some form of process; hot/boiling water before it is ready for consumption.

On the third count the form in which it comes will not be very attractive to health buffs. They will be wondering what could have been added to the corn before packaging. A lot of people who prefer Ogi over pap commit time to buy the corn and process it and sore in a refrigerator or a deep freezer. Again Iya Toyin hawks it to many customers in in her neighbourhood every morning in affordable sizes for immediate use and in a supposedly fresh form.

I may also add here that the product appears quite bulky and maybe a bit difficult to dragging or carry around without developing Olympian biceps.

In contemporary settings, custard is a strong competitor. It has a more modern feel among consumers. So the Ogi will require a lot work to sell. I am positive that it will take many years of large scale expensive propaganda before it comes close to Custard in terms of demand.

The margins for this product will be very low. Do remember that in a previous quote that I had suggested that one of the most important indices to consider in this effort is ‘little wins’.

Summarily, my perception is that too much work will be required here and the results will at best be just pedestrian.

On the whole, this product is a good and very marketable but for newbies this is just a recipe for an early crashing out and despair.

Thanks for all your contributions to this thread.

I have thought about it seriously. I have also consulted two mentors of mine and they both advised the same thing. Based on this information I have decided to develop a plan based on my personal experience.

It will be larger and more encompassing. We may even allow participants from outside Lagos provided we are all sure it will work.

I am working on this plan and hope to post it in two or at most three parts.

I will commence with Part one tomorrow and the second and third one on Thursday.

Commencement or launch date will now be 2nd of October.

Once again I would like to appreciate the contributions made on the thread so far.
I would like to however say that we have this point moved to the next crucial stage of this effort.
Today and tomorrow we will concentrate our focus on ensuring on analyzing the first product that we will start with.

Please do well to visit the characteristics and attributes that will qualify the preferred product and then suggest a product. When suggesting a product please tell us your reasons for that choice and provide the cost of the product ex-factory and the recommended retail price. Now it doesn’t have to be a brand but it could for instance be a product classification/genre.

For instance, you could recommend a particular consumable category say noodles and then narrow it down to a preferred brand listing reasons why the brand.

Most importantly, tell us why that product is the fastest route to El Dorado, what your sales forecast looks like per participant over a period of time. Show us a projected sales volume over a particular territory and maybe even how you intend to achieve that sales figure within specific time frames.

Summarily, your responsibility is to show us and clearly so how each participant will be able to hit our targeted daily profitability(please refer to our preset targets).

To make your analysis realistic, kindly tell us especially how you will deal with the logistics, other obvious and the not so obvious challenges.

I will in the course of the submissions also provide my own but I wish to see other contributions first.

I hope this is a format we can use.


Contributions please!

marvixlinx:
dear Karin, I just stumbled on this and its becoming more interesting. pls I was a very good marketer. I am really interested in this but please first what is FMCG

You were or you are?

Once a good marketer, always a good marketer.

By the way, F.M.C.G is an acronym for Fast Moving Consumer Goods.

egopersonified:


I used to do this hiding thing too, when I meet my friends and colleagues in a shop I go to supply, I pretend I also came to buy stuff , till the same friends started borrowing money and asking for business and investment advice.

Those who would succeed faster in this project would be those who can convince themselves easily that they are a sucess with or without their certificate. Do not allow society tell you who you should be, tell them who you are or who you want to be.

Thank you egopersonified. I hope the newbies are reading this. It happens to almost everybody.
After being introduced to the egg business it was tough for my sister to identify with the product. She did not tell anyone in her estate that she was selling eggs. Goodness! Which big girl sells eggs for a living?

She was hiding her crates in the boot of her car. When her mechanic once inquired about the many crates in her car she answered that it was for our mother. But these things slip. One day she saw deliveries of several eggs being delivered to a nearby bakery and that did it for her. She approached the owner and offered to supply on credit and was accepted.

I must confess that I also experienced it too.

Going about selling chin-chin wasn't really something I was proud of initially. I didn't and couldn't' just introduce my new business to my old snooty friends but my hubby and kids were a great help.

Each time we had visitors or met our friends or I went to his office, the introduction always rang out this is my wife and guess what, she sells chin-chin. To say the least I was mortified. My kids didn't help matters too. Very soon other parents began to call me Mama Chin-chin. I must say some did look at me condescendingly.

But I did sell a lot of chin-chin in that school before relocating.

Newbies please prepare and fortify yourselves with these stories, dont just enjoy them and laugh about it. They are real life experiences and it will help you understand how society works. All of us can do all types of menial jobs abroad and we couldn't care a hoot."

Dear friends, let us dignify the work of our hands and even if you don't feel so good about it, consider it as one the rungs of the ladder of success. You will look back and be grateful for the opportunity.

I daresay you will even miss these days with a heavy dose of nostalgia.

Trust me on this and take it to the bank.

The beginning will be rough.

If it isn't then you are on the wrong boat.

Always remember that all things will always appear difficult at the beginning before they appear easy.

This is very crucial and I recall that when the Dubai rush started in Nigeria, a lot of housewives badgered their poor husbands into funding a new trading business. Everyone wanted to be an International trader overnight and off they went to Dubai, some of them for the very first time and bought stuff they didn’t even know how to sell. To worsen matters they bought from Dubai malls and not the souks.

There was a lot of debt and eventually they had to sell them wholesale to the traders in Balogun for peanuts and on credit too.

I have given considerable thought to the best product we can sell that will achieve the kind of results that I would like to see.

In dealing with entry level sales people the structure must be such that they begin to see results as soon as possible no matter how infinitesimal it may appear.

Where this does not happen and on a consistent level their enthusiasm begins to wane and they begin to flounder and sooner than later they begin to find excuses for their poor performance and then with the slightest prompting they give up unceremoniously. And of course in their subconscious mind this is registered as a failure and that experience sticks.

Getting small successes from the very beginning provides the kind of support I am looking for. In considering the entire picture, I realized that if the participants have a product that can be sold every-day and they turn around the money every day then they will begin to see the prospects.

For the likes of Otedola, Dangote, Alakija, Maduka, Blackkie, Strongbest of this world the gap between conception and manifestation has become evanescent and can be bridged with quantum action backed by laser quality focus. For the newbies the gap between conception and manifestation is yawning and surreal. They cannot even conceive a bridge no matter how long that can traverse that gap. This is the point which even the most endowed newbie loses it.

I am sure that that our very own Blackkie can lend credence to this.
I am positive that he has some stories to tell in his experience about little wins every day or at least regularly.

By way of example, if a man sells only ten crates of eggs everyday and he only makes 50.00 per crate x 10 crates a day (amounting to just 500.00), he may complain bitterly because that is peanuts and his daily expenses cannot be covered by this earning. But guess what he has at least make a sale for that day. In other words, he has at least seen the reward (no matter how small) for his input. You must never underestimate the power of small wins.

If on the other hand he has capital and he goes out there and buys expensive stuff which he hasn’t sold before and puts them in a shop and at the end of a period he hasn’t made a sale, she will become nervous and desperate. I dare say if she is in a market setting she will sell at a loss sometimes so that her neighbours can at least see someone walking out of her shop with a package.
this may sound ridiculous but it is very true.

Give it some thought.

This suggestion is exciting me too much.

I am just enlarging the positives that can accrue from a collaboration. I will think about it properly but I will give you a hint; Supposing a new product was launched and rather than allow it follow a traditional distribution channel we had a group /cooperative that has exclusive rights to the product and we represented different towns and cities and gave the producers cash and then retailed it directly using our already developed retail chain.

Just thinking though and I do think a lot.

biggal:
Karin dear is it only when you want to revisit d model you will contact me? I WISH to be part of every model you make anoda idea I have is if we pull resources togeda buy in trailer load bring down to ph and share or do odawise. Sorry for being faster dan my shadow just dat I have been looking for dis opportunity

You are too much. i am so impressed with the quality of thoughts on this thread. just wondering why some of us who think of solutions are never engaged to help re-rail this economy. I just thought of this last night and was wondering why we couldn't overcome logistic difficulties. Just by adopting this model. We will discuss this later on in thread. But i really appreciate this prodigious contribution.

rose75:


I am not into FMCG biz yet, but I think the driving force in the biz is the turnaround time, which in turn depends on DEMAND and COST of the product.

You'll agree with me that it's much easier to part with smaller amounts than higher. So if the purpose of venturing into biz is to get large customer base and its resultant high patronage, focus should be on low cost products. That does not in any way imply low quality, after all it's not all expensive things that're superior.

More so, if you want to win your customers' confidence, what you're selling, as a matter of utmost importance, has to be of good quality. A balance must be struck between quality and cost. Recall; the #50 peak satchet milk we have around is not inferior to the #700 own in bigger containers.

As a layperson, I didn't intend to write much.
Please let the experts take over the microphone.
Happy Sunday!

This is is exactly how it is.

There has to be a seamless blend between quality and cost.

If you have observed closely most of the leading brands prefer to increase the wholesale prices, reduce quantity per serving while retaining quality. That way everybody in the value chain makes a little sacrifice; the wholesaler loses part of his margin and so does the retailer while the consumer sacrifices volume. But everybody does not lose and the business remains aloft.

Eddy2010:
Onitsha is a densely populated area that could also serve this pilot testing scheme. Just an observation though.

Yeah, I know. Many densely populated towns can be used to test run this project.

I would have started in in Port Harcourt where I currently reside but I chose lagos because of a few reasons including but not limited to; The proximity of the city to the major manufacturers of FMCG, and the fact that the results of the project will be noticed almost immediately. I can assure you that on this same thread we will develop a model that will cover some other major cities. We would also have drawn from the experience of the Lagos project.

biggal:
Thanks for this thread I have been looking for way to start this. I went to mkts within trans amadi in pH and make inquiries from ppl selling Garri. They go to delta to buy. From my observations I shld be making #500 from a bag if I supply to them at dat same price. There are more than 10 mkt in trans Amadi and each buys up to 50 bags a week. I couldn't continue due to finance. Op pls consider test running d project in ph or introduce me to any Biz I can do am tired of earning 20k as a graduate. Count me in pls

Biggal, This is a an interesting dimension/
We will have to revisit this model again together. We could learn how we could make it more profitable. I will alert you as per when we can review it.
Using it now as a product for our project will not fly. The investment will require more than 20,000 and secondly the logistics will be too demanding for newbies. They will only be frustrated into abandoning it midway.

Blackkie:
Heheheeee
I don enter be that!
Am swept off my feet with this. Its wonderful to know that that thread has been useful.

Karin001, you must be a James Bond on startups. Am glad you are here and I will give my little aid as much as I can.
Talking about businesses one can commence with small capital in the FMCG category, e full ground. The only challenge is stooping low to conquer, my experience with egg distribution has lots of untold positive stories.

FMCG business is what Lagos Business School refer to as the Mallam economy. Just have a look at an Mallam shop, everything there is a daily need. But what does the rich Multi-national sell - N20 - N100 items. Coke, Tom-Tom, Indomie, Soap, salt, egg, matches, sugar et al. If the companies behind these items are mega rich, any distributor dealing on it via large numbers is made.

My mentor gave me a recipe long ago-until you own and sell an item in multiples of thousands weekly with N5/N10 profit margin on each, you cannot be a millionaire.

This is getting even more interesting. Blackkie is on the thread.

Thanks for coming on board sir. Your own thread regarding the development of the egg distributorship is vintage. I can assure you that so many people have benefited from it.

As a matter of fact my sister who joined the egg distribution business told me of her experiences on the field. A woman who has been selling eggs in her area for a long time now complained bitterly that educated people are taking over the business. She is so comfortable with the trade now that she doesn't pretend or hide it from her friends anymore.

Thank you Blackkie and once again, a warm welcome to you. may your experience be most helpful to the potential beneficiaries of this project and indeed to all of us.

rose75:


God!!!
Could this be true?
Allstrasse, it is very glaring you don't want to be praised, but please pardon me, I just can't help it.
You're just wonderful!

No one can reward this kind gesture but God will forever bless you. T's already on record.

Please note; this is a faceless forum, no one can vouch for another. We scarcely knew one another, hence, I'll suggest we take things in slow strides. Unfolding events MAY determine the next course of action.

You must have a crystal ball with you or maybe you are just an unrepentant winch!

Thank you so very much.

Just picking my thoughts adverbatim.

E

egopersonified:


I supply locally bred chicken, I buy them dressed and frozen, stock up and supply. Since we can't make the government fix policies we want, we use the policies they make to work in our favour. I started last year when our borders were closed to imported chicken. I am looking at distributing other made in Nigeria products too.

Your responses are vintage.

Just wondering how you manage to convince people that they are locally bred?

Quick one; Is locally bred the same thing as indigenous or native chicken?

Thank you very much Allstrasse!

I am indeed overwhelmed! Such inexplicable generosity.

Your compliments are deeply appreciated.

I am also humbled about your very generous gesture. I have given this very serious thought since I saw your post earlier on.

While I consider your offer a very noble and altruistic gesture, I am afraid I cannot be the recipient of the money.

Your intentions are apparently above board and probably anchored on your desire of wanting to help people out there.

I am also deeply touched by the genuineness of your humility and desire for utmost anonymity.

These are deep traits of inward advancement and a desire to better our society, however we all do not operate on the same frequency and as some may end up misconstruing your (and perhaps my intentions).

Before commencing this thread, I had assured myself that on no account will unveil myself, take any money, meet anyone physically, take phone calls or project my personal desires via this platform. I do not wish to profit from this thread in any tangible or mundane form.

This effort for me is all about HELPING those who really desire and are willing to draw from the experiences of others.

Kindly note that there may be people on this thread who may genuinely need this help that you are offering but we don't them yet and how much they need it for sure.

I would therefore suggest that you keep abreast with the events and activity on this thread as we continue to update it.

Either of three things may happen;

1. We may find a better way of reaching the needy participants directly without going through me or indeed other posters.

2. You may want to sponsor some of your relatives or associates who may need this form of assistance.

3. Or the activity on thread may dissuade you and prompt you to withdraw the offer.

On the whole I still consider your gesture as being very noble, selfless and humane.

Thank you so very much and do remember please that I mean no offence.

The above analysis covers two characteristics, daily use and the attribute that it cannot be used twice.

Other products abound in this category.

One that comes to mind immediately is many satchet products. Examples here may include satchet toothpaste(recall close-up), small pack detergents, cold water starch but to mention just a few.