₦airaland Forum

@ hannytalker and george31 am so grateful to you and all readers and lovers of the thread.
Please stay tuned, we still have a lot ahead of us

Why the need for good customer relations? Some customers have the 'gene of unsatisfaction' in them - irrespective of the first class service you give them.
They will complain about everything and everybody; and you know what? they are often the least paying.
It is imperative you learn to handle this group of people, you will definitely come across them, sooner or later.
However, if you are a person given to anger, go for anger management first because you will do more damage with it if not tamed.

Till Monday, have a nice weekend.
Thanks.

Friends, the second way I believe we can go around the fertilizer business is by rising up to take the advantage if you come from a state that has a large deposit of rocky phosphate - a raw material.
Why?

Every state looks forward to it's resources being tapped to join the league of industralized state, for more tax and employment of the people.
Let the deal be such that you will be incentified for your effort using a PPP arrangement that would ensure they buy at your cost price and subsidize thereafter. Let there be written and legal documents to this effect. Your production can spill off to other non-producing states.
It requires a critical analysis. Look and think before you leap.
The favored states are Ogun, Oyo and kwara.

Iin case you are averse to the risk associated with 'politics' of fertilizer, we shall look into other alternatives tomorrow.

Thanks.

Hi, all. Today, I want to talk about a post that made the front page yesterday. Sorry I do not know how to link post on with a mobile phone.

The story was about a person that was scammed. Everybody called him names and said he was a fool to have fallen for it.
However, someone's comment brought out the essence of trust. He said trust is all that is needed to become a customer - and as long as you trust you can be scammed easily.

What does this mean? When you earn the trust of customers, please and please keep it as something sacred. I am sure nobody wants to build a scam brand. Scamming builds only a transient brand. Sooner or later the scammer is found out and the chance of a repeat business is blocked.

The tip is that, let trust be synonmous with your brand.
Thanks.

Hi everybody. @ tuazor, I hope you got the link to the free e-book.

Tip 2: Let your brand speak trust to your customer.
In any known relationship, trust is the bedrock of it's existence and continuity. People will only do business with you if they trust you enough that you are not out there to fleece them, short-change them or take them for a ride.
You are building a brand which may even outlive you, so do not let the small gain of the moment spoil your long term gain.

The truth is that you drink every Coca-cola bottle with the trust that the content will not harm you. I am sure - you will be very skeptical to drink some brand of pure water and once you do not trust a brand, you do not patronise it.

Deliver the promised quality, quantity, type and value for the money paid.

Thanks.

Hello friends. I am sorry for being 'off thread' yesterday.

Without wasting time, let us look at ways PPP in the fertilizer arena can be approached.
1. Some states had blending or fertilizer plants in the past - according to reports, majority have gone moribund.
As an aspiring investor, what if you make a request to the state government to allow you bring in experts(not contractors) - all expense paid by the government, to make recommendations on the state of the facility and the amount required to make it functional. Let the agreement be such that, if the cost of turn-around is reasonable to you, you will invest on a PPP basis. Like I informed you earlier, variants exist in PPP, so you need a good lawyer here to educate you on your choice.

What other way can we use to position ourself in this market? Till tomorrow.

Thanks.

Dear friends good evening. I had a hitch after posting in my other thread. I 've been able to fix the bug.

See you tomorrow. Thanks.

@ babaearly and @ tuazaor, I am humbled by your comments. Thanks also for your loyalty to the thread.

@tuazor, is it the free e-book gift you are referring to? If it is, please get the link to the copy from post 37 on the thread.
Thanks.

Hi friends.
Every customer that comes your way comes with an expectation. On your part: it is either you meet the expectation or meet it exceedingly above the need of the customer.

To have and retain customers, you 've got to exceed their expectations. A customer comes to buy roasted corn, you offer a sit while negotiation is going on, you divert a bit into his/her emotions to persuade him to buy - after the purchase you offer pure water, at no cost, to help wash down the content to the stomach. As a customer you will look forward to coming back. Compare this to a seller who shouts at you while bargaining - you wouldn't want a repeat encounter.

Tip 1: Always give customers above their expectations, even if they would pay for it indirectly. Put in a better word - suprise them.
If you promise a bonus for a purchase, suprise with two.

Tip 2 tomorrow. Thanks.

Welcome to another week friends.
I hope your journey on this thread
has been a worthwhile one.

Last week I wrote on bookeeping and available softwares that can give required financial information when you input the debit(income to you through sales and others) and credit(expenses) figures into them.

Recall that we are still learning about the skills we ought to have a foreknowledge of before we start any venture. Today, we will start with the king called 'customer'.

Why are they called the king? They determine whether your business will live or die. I use to know a man who was into water production, an incidence around him sparked up hatred for his product in the whole town. He tried to turn the tide, but all to no avail. With no customer patronizing him in the whole town, he had to shut down his production facility. Ever heard this before? Please a customer, he will tell another person - displease him, he will tell seven others. With the ratio of 1:7, which news will spread fast about your business?


This week, we will look into some tips that can help us in customer service and relations.
Let us meet tomorrow. Thanks.

I say a very pleasant morning to the reader of this thread. I hope you all had a pleasant weekend.

I think it will be a disservice if I do not intimate you with the main problem in this business - before I give you a clue to where to get indepth information on fertilizer business in Nigeria.
It is free information as usual.

It is no news that this important agricultural input is subsidized by the FG to the tune of 25% to states - who has the duty to channel it to their farmers.
Some states do a further subsidization between 21% up to 69%, some states on the other hand do not - and infact collect charges on handling to the farmer.
What does this information portend for an aspiring investor? As long as the FG is in the business of buying and selling of this input, with subsidy - it simply means you cannot sell at competitive price, except you have a PPP arrangement with the FG or state government.
Without this stance, forget it.

For people that wants to look further for PPP in a market with a deficit of almost 1 million metric tonne yearly (USAID) - with only two fertilizer companies in the whole country and a large deposit of rocky phosphate, a major raw material, then let us meet tomorrow.

Thanks.

@ Aminu, go to the webmaster sub-category, people there will be of much help to you.

Hello friends. Recall that we are on agriculture partnerships with the government at the state and local levels.
During farming seasons, inputs such are fertilizers, improved seed varieties, tractors with tillers, ploughers and chemicals are made available for farmers. Fertilizer is supposed to be given out at subsidized rate, but as @ lubracasi said, the process is hijacked by the 'powers-to-be'. If it eventually gets to the farmers, the price is high above reach.
This is a problem, but problems come with opportunities to tap in.

Why the problem of this yearly hijacking? There is always a deficit , both in production and importation to meet the need of the sellers, the hoarders and the farmers - small, medium and large scale. So what opportunity does it portend for us? This is an opportunity to build, if just a mini - plant that can cater for your state allocation or farmers' co-operative group to meet their needs.

Dangote is a major player in this market - allocations are made to states and bulk buyers, but demand seems high for an agrarian society like ours'.

Where can I get help on fertilizer production? Let us meet on Monday. Have a nice weekend.

Thanks.

Good morning friends. In solving our financial computation problem - a very good help will be a software. Input the figures, press the enter button and whao! You see your income statement, profit/loss account, balance sheet and so on and so forth.
These bookeeping/account softwares will also help you in budgeting/forecasting, variance analysis, inventory/stock control and what-if-analysis (where you vary input(s) to see the effect on price or other constant).
Examples of the softwares are Microsoft money, Quicken, Initut e.t.c. I recommend Quicken, infact most new computers come with a trial version of it. Different versions exist, from basic to pro edition. Go for the basic edition for a start - since your information needs are minimal.
Where can I get it? Computer villages - from Lagos to Ibadan, Kano, kaduna, Aba, PH e.t.c. or software shops . Original version or not? The ball is in your court.

Have a nice weekend. Till Monday. Thanks.

Hi friends. Now that we know the basic financial record to keep, what information can we derive from it?
1. Profit/Loss.
2. Income statement.
3. Balance sheet.
4. Cashflow

The financial information tell how you are faring in your business - and if need be the adjustments you have to make in your finances.
It takes less than 30 minutes a day for bookeeping.

I know some of us are not mathematically inclined or know how to do a single or double entry in account. How can we go around it?

Stay cool till tomorrow. Thanks.

Good morning friends. I did raise some issues in reply to @ lubcracasi's post yesterday. In furtherance to my comment, this thread is about SME BUSINESS IDEAS for NIGERIANS who intend to come back home to settle.
These are ideas you can tinker with. Adequate consultation with experts in the area of business viability, business feasibility and business planning are of importance.
A lot of business actually fail because, a proper assignment through the mentioned experts, is often neglected. These reports put the many factors that might want to militate against your business into consideration and even gives you the worst case scenario - which are the things you fear that may happen to the business. So good intentions or a business idea with cash availability are not enough for a business. Do your assignment well.
A business plan for the UK or USA market will fail in Nigeria, except with some adjustments.
I work as a business/work idea consultant. I look out for and spot business opportunities - nothing more.

I leave this with you - to continue tomorrow.

Thanks @ lubracasi. Every enviroment has a peculiar way of doing it's own business. I am not disputing the fact that the terrain here is harsh - infact you start to see 'us' in action when you highlight from the plane.
Look through the thread, I had early written that if you love bureaucracy then you can venture into PPP. I think I was wrong when I thought everyone understood the term 'bureaucracy' - this meant the 'human factor' you mentioned in your post.

Take a stance of 'look before you leap' through a business plan. This will tell you the price you have to pay for the PPP and the 'extra'. Ask yourself if you can pay it? If not, it isn't for you. Also make sure a legal agreement, duly signed by a lawyer is in place - I wrote this at the start of the post on PPP.
The truth is that there is hardly any SME business you can do in Nigeria that the 'human factor' does not play a role - it has permeate our system. Haliburton and Siemens have a lot to say about doing business in Nigeria.
Albeit, problems are meant to be solved and not run away from. For those who are interested, the winning plan, as I have advocated for in my early post on PPP, is to allow all stakeholders have a part of the profit on a monthly basis. Unfortunately the customer bears the brunt.
Thanks.

Hello friends. Your thread still remains the thread of choice for SME business for Nigerians returning from abroad. Keep following and keep contributing.

Today, we would look into another sector of interest for PPP at the state level - agriculture.
It is no news that most state and local government have agricultural projects in their kitty.
Partnerships to fund, provide technical assistance and training are open within these agricultural projects.
A ready example of this is the YES agricultural program for unemployed youths in Poka, Epe. The partnership is with a foreign firm which brought in modern farming technology coupled with technical expertise.

Let us see ways we too can come in as partners tomorrow.

Thanks.

Good day friends. In continuation, other records worthy of mention is the debtors' record, which is a list of those owing you - it is an income on paper, but not in reality. The other is the creditors' record, the people you owe. These records are the basic required for a start.

From these information, what financial computations can I get?
We will know tomorrow. Thanks.

Hello dear friends. I remembered we are yet to know about the type of records we are to keep in our business: this we would do before we proceed to customer relations.

An income record showing all the money coming into your business must be kept, on a daily basis. Such money could be from sales, gift, interest or loans. This income represents your cash inflow.
Another is the purchase record itemising each thing you spend money on - this represents your cash outflow. For a business to survive, do not take your eyes off cash outflow.

Which other record should we keep? Let us know tomorrow.
Thanks.

Hello dear friends, I am very sorry for going 'off' scene yesterday. I have been engrossed with a 'work idea generation' seminar for corp members.
Tomorrow, we will continue with the thread.
Download the free gift I posted on 28th June, if you are yet to avail yourself of it.

Thanks.

Hello friends of the thread. I hope you all had a nice weekend.
Thanks @ akko. Today, please let me give @ akko an answer and we will continue with customer relationship tomorrow.


@ akko, you must have a perfectionist trait for your ability to spot error in printed matters - just on the humor side.
You can use that ability to turn yourself into a multi million naira
'proof reader' brand. How? A lot of Nigerians are into information product creation, in books and e-books format (printed matters).
A lot do not have a good command of written English in terms of grammar, structure and style.
Proof read to spot errors and correct them, at a fee for publishers or writers before they offer their printed matter for sale.

@akko, I hope this meets your need. Thanks.

Hello friends. I hope the e-book content have cover my sin of late uploading of it. I hope it was quite helpful.

Lest I forget again, my contact e-mail is on my profile. I would appreciate we ask our questions on the thread rather than through the mail - a lot will benefit via the thread.
Secondly, business conditions may apply to what and how I anwser personal question through e-mail.

Today, we will look at another non-negotiable skill, record keeping or book keeping. Why the need for a working skill of this?
1. It will provide you a record of your business activity.
2. It will help you measure the actual success of your business.
3. It will help you in decision making in your business.
If it has this much advantage, what records should I keep?

See you on Monday for the continuation. Have a nice weekend.
Thanks

Hello. Dear friends, I hope the book was of help. Thanks for every post you have open to read.

Recalling our last discussion; FUNAAB is school that has open up itself to PPP and gaining from it. AG Leventis has a huge stake in the large scale farming business of the school. Nestle foods Nigeria also have a stake in soybeans production of the school - they are also their major buyer.

How can you bite off your own share of the PPP market?
1. Check on the facilities lacking in these public institutions. An insider can do a better job of this for you.
2. If you are to recoup your investment through which way would it be? Would the student pay a special fee for the facility or the school will pay from it's monthly allocation?
3. Write your business plan. Remember that a winning plan is one where all the stakeholders gain.

The places to look into for PPP in schools include hostel accommodation, student transportation, research laboratries, school farms(business oriented) and school microfinance banks,

Have a nice weekend. Thanks.

Hello friends. I leave this e-book as a gift to mark a month of our journey as partners in progress. I will continue with the post tomorrow.

Thanks.

Hello friends. Sorry for not "appearing" yesterday. I was trying to fulfill my promise of sending your free gift, but technology is proving me otherwise. I am really sorry for it.

I have been able to attach it. I leave you with it to savor it's content till tomorrow.
Thanks.

Good day friends. The education sector has it's own opportunities in the PPP arrangement.

I want us to understand that most state higher institution of learning lack modern laboratries, hostel accommodation, engineering workshops, language laboratries e.t.c. I know somebody will say it is the government's duty - I agree and concur.
The question now is - is the government doing it? Will they be able to do it in the nearest future?
What has lack of educational infrastructure or aid and inadequate fund done to the standard of education in Nigeria.

Infact the federal government have called upon the federal universities to look for ways to generate funds, outside it's own allocation, to meet the needs of the school. That is how education is run in the USA and the UK.

Can the funds generated by the schools be ever enough to have a public world class universities? No! Then what is the way forward? Private sector intervention or participation.

FUNAAB is a good example of a university that is leveraging on the PPP initiative to generate billions of naira yearly.
We will look into the FUNAAB idea tomorrow.

Thanks.

Good morning friends. I hope we are making something out of the PPP topic.

Apart from motor parks and international markets, we can widen our scope to include public recreation parks and public rally venues.

It is important to note that some of these public arenas have toilet facilities which are poorly maintained by it's managment - In such a case you can have a concession type of PPP where you upgrade or repair, maintain and operate for an agreed period.
Do you know that the Ibadan-Lagos expressway was concessioned for 25 years. This means that Bi-courtney will upgrade the road, maintain it and erect toll gates to recoup their investment for the next 25 years; not too bad a business.

We will look at opportunities in the education sector, starting tomorrow. Thanks.

Good morning friends. I hope your need is still being met on this thread, if the reverse is the case, your feedback will set it right.

Friends, take it or leave it - marketing is all about persuading. What is persuasion? It is the abilty to talk with someone and give them reasons until they agree with what you say. Based on our topic, the definition would hence be; The ability to (talk, write or both) with someone and give them (logical, factual, sensory or all) reasons until they agree to buy your product or service.
Do you see this scenario playing out when you go to the market to buy something? The sellers wants to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt to buy a product or a particular brand. To become a multi-million naira brand, you've got to persuade people to like and buy your brand.
Remember, no sales no money.

Different schools of thought exist when it comes to what sales and marketing is; whether the subject matter is a science, art or psychological in nature - acquaint yourself with the various schools of thought.

In conclusion, you 've got to learn how to talk and write powerfully to persuade your customers. Thanks.

Hello friends. Where else can we locate this public convenience(toilet)? Imagine Balogun market in Lagos, Central market in Kaduna, Bodija market in Ibadan and Araria market in Aba - how big are they? Don't you think it is possible to locate up to five of these facility at strategic locations in these international markets?
An international market with it's size will meet our need for investment.

You can also include bath facility . A lot of people will need it. Let the facility be of good standard. Customer perception of the structure and service goes a long way to determine what people will pay.

Which other places can we put up this facility? Let us get to know it tomorrow. Thanks.

Hello friends. I am sorry @k lala, I switch off from the thread over the weekend to re-appraise my business and life. It is very important you cultivate this habit as an aspiring entrepreneur. We would go through this during the business plan module.
So @k lala, I would get back to you soonest.

My good brothers at the webmaster category helped me over the weekend on how to make the report available to you.
Expect it within the next 48 hours.

Today, we will look at why we must have a working knowledge of marketing and sales. My people, no matter how
good your product or service is - if you can't generate cash from it; then their is nothing good about it.

Marketing is all about identifying who your customers are; where they are; how to meet them; how to let them know what you have for them; taking notice of your competitors; how to outperform them and how to persuade people to buy from you.
It is a tough task abi! However, the beauty of it is that the more you do it the better you get at it.

What subject matter do we require to read? Let us know tomorrow. Thanks.

Thanks to all. I have gotten it. Was straight-forward.
You are all great.

U are all great. Who says we are not our brothers' keeper? Pls you would still help me further.
I am still in computer creche, can you explain how to go about file sharing and drop box of a thing?

I am a fast learner. Thanks.