Greetings Nairalanders,

I hope I'm not being preachy. I simply wanted to share my experience with you and primarily encourage more foreign investments in Nigeria.


PART 1

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MyIncorp:

The Jibs are in all sectors of the economy, so I'm not surprised.
Good for you you were able to spot good friends/partners in Nigeria; and you are also learning from your previous mistakes.
And the fact that you were able to own up to 5 trucks in just 2 years is commendable especially when the fund is limited.

MyIncorp -- True. Forums like these are also powerful tools that can be used to expose people like Jibs. It will only encourage more fairness, accountability and integrity.

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ayusco85: u have almost become nigerians. setting up a successful business in nigeria is not easy. kudos

Ayusco85 -- Thank you very much for the encouragement!

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shadowwalker101: if they can make it tgen we can make it
[img]http://www.?aff=391[/img]

shadowwalker101 -- Ofcourse!

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Hemanwel: It's an open secret that the Nigerian investment clime gives good return on investment.
Once you have a solid start-up capital,and a fantastic idea,then you are good to go!
Mr Thai,your testimony shall remain permanent!Just ensure a proper welfare plan for your employees.

Hemanwel -- Thankyou! I did like to mention that two of our Nigerian managers are also shareholders of our company. We have such deep personal relationship with each other that we are indeed like a family. That's why I call them my brothers/family. We chat and converse on the telephone nearly everyday. A company can only grow with proper teamwork and unity in vision. I did also like to mention that my MD travels to Nigeria nearly every month and sometimes even on a weekly basis.

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Pavore9: Following....but the English and flow sounds Nigerian!

Pavore9 -- Thanks for your comment and interest! I don't know what to say to this. English is a worlds language. We are in the process of upgrading our website. The upgrade will encourage Transparency, Relationships, Ethics and integrity. We will even upload monthly pictures and videos of our trips and work in Nigeria.

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msmon: Brb!

Back! I don't just have any comment, I rather go through the comments carefully coz I intend to have my own business too. What better way to learn than this?

msmon -- Thank you! I really hope you do! I hope to include more information about the haulage business regarding Transparency and Integrity. There is a funny inside secret too, which should not be a secret actually. I will write it down on my later posts.

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caesaraba: Great topic. Beautiful insight as well. As someone in the transport business, I must agree with the OP that indeed managing drivers is one tough job. You are talking about Nigerians for that matter. The consensus basic instinct across board is to cheat you first before any other thing follows.

Nigeria indeed is not for faint-hearted people foreigners or citizens.

Honestly, as I read your paragraph about building relationships, I started clapping in front of the PC. I`ve learnt a lot this morning from your post and hope to keep tabs on any further updates you make.

caesaraba -- Thank you Abi! The strategy of building relationships was our key "turning point" in our business. Let us connect someday in person and share ideas.

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koning: That's some pretty good English coming from someone from Thailand. Your write up is interesting, but i think you are not revealing your real motive.
Methinks that you are now an Independent transporter in need of more trucks for expansion.

Are you based in Lagos ?.

koning -- Thank you! English is a worlds language now. Although not all Thais know good english, around 30% I think would know proper English. The rest are just horrible at english. But they're slowly starting to realize the importance of English.

Although we are an independent transporter, my original intent was to share my experience and try to explain things from a foreigners viewpoint and the struggles we've been through. We're also strategically located in Dubai. There are alot of investors in Dubai as they are cash rich. Although having Nigerian investors trust us is an honour for us, we believe that most of our investors will most likely come from abroad and Banks from Nigeria. As I type this, we've partnered up with a Nigerian Company to work on a professional business plan that we will pitch to foreign investors and venture capitalist.

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Turbocharged: @op. syop fooling urself. U be naija full blood. Your use of words betrayed u.
I wonder what u want to achieve by this write-up.




...I dey smell SCAM

Turbocharged -- Thanks for your comment. This thread was started with the intent to share personal experience about us doing business in Nigeria and the hard facts about the haulage industry.

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JustCare: This is great! I have always discussed and followed issue to the above regard on nairaland. I understand the huge profit in this business and the big heart and risk involved. it's time to wise up guys. where are my fellow importers on nairaland! it's time to make real money and expand our coast as stipulated by the book ' The Richest Man in Babylon '

JustCare -- Thanks! You are correct! Nigeria is a great place to do business. We could meet up some day and connect.

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CoolHunk: As a young entrepreneur. I find your post very inspiring, even though my line of business is very different. Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is certainly not for the weak or fainthearted. And intelligence plays a huge role also.

CoolHunk -- Thank you! You are absolutely correct! Some call it business intuition. You look at the business from far away and see what am I missing? Why cant I move the business forward? It comes with experience and lots of reading. Had we not changed our strategy to start building relationships, we would have failed. We could meet up someday and connect.

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StealthyMe: Thanks for Sharing your experience @ThaiAlNigeria
Very Inspiring Piece i must say!

But can you please give an estimate capital wise into your start-up haulage business ?

StealthyMe -- Thank you! A 40 footer Daf Tokunbo initially cost us around 7 million Nairas, a 20 footer will cost around 3.2 million - 3.4 million Nairas, a 10 ton will cost around 1.8 million nairas. There will also be additional cost for GIT which is around 450k Nairas for each truck. Changing wheels will also cost alot of money. Get good branded wheels! Changing wheel and additional paper work will cost another 600k Nairas. Total for a 10 ton truck to be in prime condition and fully operational will be around 2.6-2.9 million nairas. And once you go independent, you will need to have money for fuel cost for your trucks as some factories wont pay you for at least 4 weeks. But once you're registered and the process has started, you get paid on a trip by trip or weekly upto 3 weeks basis depending upon the policies of various factories. Make sure you check your trucks from a trusted mechanic before you buy. Different factories will require different tons of trucks. Feel free to ask me anymore questions you did like.

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spotmataz: Good post @op. Doing business is Nigeria is not easy at all for Citizens and Foreigners alike. You have done a really good job of sustaining your biz even despite the difficulties trying to set up and even sustaining the ones you eventually started. It is at that point most aspiring business men give up and pack up. Kudus. Looking forward to learn more from you.

spotmataz -- Thank you! If business was easy I think everybody would succeed. Truth is, its not easy. And the RISK TOLERANCE for various people varies.

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angelo82:



Bravo!Very deep and insightful write up.You have touched so many areas that the so called JIBBS were hiding from prospective investors.Since you have the practical experience in the field of Haulage now,don't you think it will be nice for your company to start taking Trucks from interested people from Nairaland.I will love to go into the business and I mean slowly but I will prefer a very trustworthy company for a start.If you are willing to accept to manage trucks on my behalf you can send me your full contact and I can as well arrange with trustworthy contact in Nigeria to do the follow-up.

Angelo82 -- Thank you! We should first meet up. My MD will be in Lagos soon from Dubai. You should meet our team first. Also at the moment, we are not exactly sure which route to take. Are we going to take local people trucks under us or take foreign venture capitalist money and give them EQUITY in our company or bank loans or independent investors form abroad. As I've mentioned, we are in the process of formulating our business plan mainly to show the banks. I will personally be in Nigeria around Oct or Nov.

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bioye: @ThaiAlNigeria, thank you for the excellent post. This is a great lesson in entrepreneurship and SWOT that we can never learn in a classroom. Also, given the challenges even Nigerians face in the business environment, seeing from the point of view of a foreigner in invaluable. I await your next lecture.

bioye -- Thank you! That was very encouraging! I will mainly try to focus on keeping at Haulage business and maybe the challenges of growing from a 5 trucker to a 10+ trucking business. I believe managing 5 trucks wont be the same as managing 10+ trucks. As we grow, I promise to relay the strategies we've used and where and how we got the money to invest in this business.

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redcliff:

You are absolutely correct. This is very synonymous to nigerian businessmen. They expect to breakeven the very first few months of startup. Which is absolutely not true. More than 90% of world class organizations made losses for more than 3 years after startup. Few nigerian businessmen have the endurance to wait that long.

Redcliff - Thank you! You're absolutely correct! It is mostly not possible to breakeven within 1 year. It takes at least 2-3 years to really start seeing some results. There's simply so much that goes into starting and maintaining a business.

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biopat:

His use of words betrays him. That guy is a Nigerian. He even using words like "abi"

Many guys here C a Thai investor, I c another Remedy4gud (if u know what that guy did to nairalanders). This Thai guys might even b him....the way he uses words n his strategy look alike. Look at his user name self....mtcheww!
Remedy4gud acted like the Messiah, convinced gullible Nigerians n then, scam them.

@All, be careful. When someone makes this kind of effort to give u a free biz idea (n he is not a blogger), u have to think twice.

To my "Thai" brother, I m sorry if I acted to pessimistic... but do u have a website? An office? address.

Biopat -- Thanks for your comment! Yes, we do have a registered company in Nigeria. We have a registered company in Thailand. As we've grown now we will eventually have to pay our taxes. Yes we have a website. http://thai-alpha.com/

It would be very funny if we have been travelling and intimately involved with Business in Nigerian for upto 2 years and not know the meaning of "Abi" "Oga" "Oga pata pata" "Tokunbo trucks". We frequently refer to every employees and our Nigerians managers as Abi. Sometimes they refer to us as Oga. They even refer to us as "bro" Its about the COMPANY CULTURE. How do we want our work environment to be like? I've preferred a "family like approach" business strategy regarding to "companys culture" instead of a "hierarchy like approach". We could meet up if you have any further doubts. You can meet our team and see our trucks. I would also like to mention that my MD has a STR Expatriate Quota visa which will soon be converted to CERPAC (Combined expatriate residence permit and aliens card).

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Greetings Nairlalanders,

Hope you are all doing well.

I was quite surprised that this thread got put in the front page. That was indeed not what I expected and I am also grateful for this honour.

My reason for making this post is simple. I want to promote Nigeria to the world as a premiere country to Invest in. When we first started out, we "believed" that we could make it in Nigeria. My elder brother believed it and made me believe it too. But even more important, we believed in our Nigerian Partners/Friends/Family to help us do that and they believed in us too. Which is why I had emphasized the importance of "building relationships"

I'm not exactly sure how should I proceed from here after reading all the comments. But I do have alot in my mind I did like to convey.

I would like to start by saying that I have been using Nairaland for my research and due diligence for more than a year. This website is a valuable source of great information about Nigeria. A recent example of my research using Nairaland was finding out which banks were the best for companies. As eventually we will have to take a loan for rapid expansion in our business and we will do it with the help of Nigerian banks. I am not sure if I should write down the names of the banks I have selected here as it may invite some unforseen comments. But the point I'm trying to make is, I use this medium to give information and to reach out to foreigners and locals to start investing and the great potential for Nigeria.


-------- Nigeria is on its way to the top ---------

Nigeria is a consuming Nation with nearly 170 million people! After the 2008 world economic crisis, people from all over the world are looking for ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS as their traditional investments has failed them. The allure of Alternative investments is the higher rate of returns than simply investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds etc etc which gives out lower returns.

The WORLD has the money. They're holding onto it. They're always looking for opportunities to make good investments. But they have no knowledge and are hesitant to invest in Nigeria. That's why they're rushing off to China and South East Asia to invest in. If they really know about Nigeria as to what we know, they did be investing alot of money in this wonderful Nation.

What we're trying to do is create awareness and build a brand. Thai Alpha Nigeria is here to build trust. We've been through alot. And more hurdles lies ahead. My Managing Director and our brothers/family/partners has been through alot. And we'll continue to deliver through our continued hard work and integrity. Once they (the world) trust and they see our results, they will start doing even more business with the Nigerians in general. We're still small players compared to those really big Nigerian companies. But we've come so far and we're not giving up.

The BIG BOYS know that Nigeria is the next BIG THING. The big boys (the really wealthy) in the western countries know that Nigeria will grow and it will grow at a very rapid pace. And I'm pretty sure they're taking action. I think informed investors around the world will also know the massive opportunities that is in Nigeria but need a way to invest in Nigeria and this is where we did like to help them do so.

These are my personal thoughts above. And because we (our company) believed in everything I had written above, we worked towards it and did our best to see if what we believed is true or not. Obviously its true.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I will write down the critical gaps that exist between Nigeria and the world from my opinion and personal experience.

1) General Lack of Trust - There is some truth to it as the locals themselves do not trust each other. But alot of it is also overhyped. Nigerians are some of the most honest, hard working and dynamic people on the planet. If you’ve made a friend here, you’ve made a friend for life. There are plenty of honest and trustworthy people here looking to promote a generation of high standards of business and trust. We realized that the KEY to building a successful business here is RELATIONSHIPS.

2) General lack of knowledge about Nigeria. – People know very little about Nigeria. They have never been to Nigeria nor do they ever plan to. This lack of knowledge leaves a big gap in grabbing onto the opportunities that others eventually will.

3) High rate of fraud – Yes it is true. There is fraud. But there are frauds everywhere. If you use your common sense, you won’t be making mistakes here or anywhere else.

4) Media Scare – Media overhypes everything. Unfortunately Nigeria constantly gets a bad rep from media especially when it comes to scams. However, this is slowly changing and business channels are now spreading the news about the growing economy and business opportunities in Nigeria.

5) Mediocre Legal System – There is a lot of corruption here. But there is corruption every else. However this does not stops honest hard working people from doing what they have to build business empires based on "trust" and "integrity".

6) Inexperienced Management – Business are unable to grow from a certain point due to lack of management skills. However this is slowly changing, thanks in a large part to forums such as Nairaland for the priceless information here and the internet.

7) Unwillingness of entrepreneurs to live in Nigeria – Let’s face it. You have to be tough and rugged to live in Nigeria. Foreigners may just find Nigeria a tee bit harder to live in.

Unwillingness of entrepreneurs to travel back and forth on a monthly basis. -- Nigeria is pretty far from alot countries. Travelling back and forth is a very tiring endeavor.

9) Underdeveloped infrastructure. – The infrastructure of Nigeria still needs some work. But with proper management and our wonderful team on ground, we make sure that goods and services are delivered regardless of the infrastructure.

Thank you all for your comments and I am humbled by the attention this thread has got. I've read all your comments and I will try my best to answer everyone to the best of my ability. We're here to stay.

In my next post, I will try to further elaborate on why I had believed that Nigeria would be a great place to do business in.

My humblest regards,

Your Friend.

Greetings Nairalanders,

Today I will try to elaborate on some hard facts, insights & statistics about the Haulage business in Nigeria.


----- Hard facts, statistics and Insights about Haulage business or business in general in Nigeria ------

I will start with this. Any foreigner looking to succeed in Haulage or other businesses in Nigeria must know this. You cannot do it without trusted friends/employees/partners actually living in Nigeria. That is, according to us, the first most important factor. Either that, or you yourself must live in Nigeria or at least travel to Nigeria once every month. If you are unable to do any of these, your business will most certainly fail. We were fortunate enough to have the best most trusted friends/brothers/partners/ along side with us and the opportunity to travel to Nigeria once every month and sometimes even on a weekly basis! If you are a foreigner and you think you can just do business in Nigeria while living outside of Nigeria for more than a few months, you will fail.

It is also critically important for foreigners to build strong family like personal relationships with the locals. Many foreigners feel like Nigerians cannot be trusted. That is an unfortunate impression created overtime by a few percentage of Nigerian people attempting to scam people over the internet. But the truth is, Nigerians are some of the most trusted, dynamic, intelligent, fierce, humorous and hard working individuals on the planet. Use common sense when judging people and their background. Not everyone is to be trusted. But alot of them can be!

For foreigners -- Nigeria is not for the faint hearted people. There is indeed alot of money and business opportunities in Nigeria. But if you are weak willed or your business acumen is weak, you will eventually lose your money. You need to have that burning desire to succeed and the passion for the country. You need to be rugged and determined. If you know what you're doing, you will be wealthy within 5 years.

Haulage is a competitive business.

Haulage business is a very good and exciting business. And the internet is filled with optimistic and candy wrapped description about the business. But here is the truth. Its true....Haulage business is the best! But very few people can break through to become independent transporters or a sizable haulage company. I can imagine that our company are in the top 10%-20% of companies that are able to be independent Transporter. Here are some critical reasons as to why.

Lack of funds and liquidity -- Abi, Investing in a Tokunbo truck requires huge capital. Alot of people cannot simply get into this business due to lack of capital. And it is a huge mistake to take loans from bank to finance your truck. Reason? You will understand as you continue to read. There will always be unforseen issues and problems with the trucks. If you know how to buy a truck, you will be fine. But if you don't know how to buy a truck, your repair bills and ineffective service will kill your brand and name and ultimately you will be left with a huge pile of debt.

People like Jibs wont allow you to grow -- This is in my opinion one of the biggest hurdle in this business. If you have read my previous posts, you will know who the Jibs are. These independent transporters simply do not want to see you grow, Because growth for you means more competition to them. Truth is, there are some good independent transporters you can work under. But alot of them will simply take advantage of you and your trucks and will use YOUR revenue to service their own trucks. That is why it is extremely important you FIND A TRUSTWORTHY independent transporter. Make sure you do everything you can to find out if they are trust worthy.

The importance of independent transporters -- Independent transporters are necessary because they have the experience, connections and a personal fleet to help factories haul goods. Factories needs to haul goods. It is critical to their business. They cannot rely on amateurs. They need professionals. Factories do not like to work with new players unless the new player can prove they can grow to a sizable fleet and manage their fleet effectively. Hence if you are interested in the haulage business, you must go under an independent transporter because the factories simply wont accept you. Once you have some experience, the next issue you have to think about is funding. Can you muster up enough money to grow to at least 5 trucks? Factories wont even consider meeting you unless you have 4 trucks.

Jibs are happy if you only own 1 truck -- As I mentioned above, Jibs do not want to see you grow. They will pay you on time and keep you happy if you only own one truck. But if they see you start growing to 3-4 trucks, they will be alarmed and start formulating strategies to stop you from growing. I need to mention this, we went through HELL when the Jibs stopped paying us. I was extremely fortunate enough because I had taken capital money from my other businesses and put into our trucking businesses. But suffered I did. We even had to borrow money from friends and families just to keep our trucks running and to pay off the drivers and keep our employees happy. We always pay our employees before we pay ourselves. Had we had no backup MONEY for the 5-6 months of hell that the Jibs put us through, this business would have been finished and we would not have been here. In all of this, I want to say that our Nigerian brothers/family/partners/management still believed and stuck with us through it all. They knew we would deliver and believed in our integrity, honesty and passion for Nigeria and we also believed in theirs.

We have no idea how many good honest hard-working truck owners these jibs has put out of business, but the numbers can be high. In fact, we connected with some people that wrote about the haulage business over the internet a few years ago. People who gave good insights about the business. But unfortunately they are now not in the business. Some are. But alot of them are not. And the jibs plays a huge role in that. They simply cannot compete with the jibs due to lack of funds.

PS - We're still after the Jibs to pay us our due. This is the exact words the Jibs said to us "We're frustrated that you are not working under us anymore".........

Start slow, grow gradually -- This is a capital intensive business. There is no need for you to take aggressive risk. The key to being in the Haulage business is this. ----- MOST IMPORTANT. Find a trust worthy independent transporter. He will pay you on time and will be honest with you. He will give you hints and tips. Tell him about your dreams and goals. The Independent Transporter will guide you, even to independence if you did like! The money he pays you, it will be a significant amount. Haulage is a good business. The pay is good. Save up some money from the revenues. Let a year pass. Let the revenues come in. Learn to manage your truck. Learn to find good drivers and keep them happy. The money that you have saved, buy a 2nd truck, give it to the same trustworthy independent transporters. Let them pay you for 2 trucks. This is your 2nd year. Let this second year pass. Let the money come in. Save up. Buy a third truck. Give it to the independent transporters. Let them pay you. Now you are getting alot of money. Good. Get a 4th Truck. Let it go under the independent transporter. They pay you well. Now you're getting quite wealthy. Now within the 4th or 6th year, you have 5 trucks. Your revenues are now in the millions per month. Do you know the cost of fuel? Now you may want to go independent. Well can you? Can you build a good relationship with the factories? Do you know how to? Most factories will only accept 10 trucks. Have your trucks always been in a good condition? Have you built a good name for yourself? Good, they accept you. You are now independent! Now you do not need to rely upon the independent transporters. You work directly with the factory. But working with the factories comes with more responsibilities. Can you handle that? Sure you can! You've made it this far. Alternatively, if you do not want the hassle of working with the factories and are happy with your Independent Transporters, you may take this route.

Factories do not like people like the Jibs -- Honestly, we can tell you that the Jibs management system is terrible. Haulage business is in a dire need of quality and world standard services. The factories themselves do not like the Jibs, but the jibs does manages to get the job done, which is to haul goods for the factories. The haulage business is in need of a revolution and I believe it is soon coming. Nigeria is changing.

Management intensive -- Haulage is management intensive. But once you understand and get used to the small nuts of bolts of the business, it becomes routine and simple later on. But in the beginning, there is alot to look after. Wheels, drivers and an whole assortment of repairs, numbers, etc etc.

Don't do it all by yourself -- You can share the work. Have faith in your partners. Share the work load. It gets easier as time passes by. Money is good. You do not need all that money for yourself. Its hard work. You most likely wont even have time for yourself if you try to do it all by yourself. Share the burden. There will be enough millions of Nairas for the both of you. Have a life outside of the trucking business. Take saturdays and sundays off. If you really want to grow into a huge haulage business, you need people to work with. But if you only plan to have 3-4 trucks, you can work alone. No problem.

Buy Tokunbo trucks from Nigeria itself -- It may be cheaper to buy trucks from the Netherlands or whatever. But the truth is, you wont have an opportunity to check your trucks before it becomes operational. I can tell you that some of the best trucks with little to no issues were bought from Nigerian soil itself. The worst trucks with the largest number of issues were the cheaper ones from abroad. Don't be cheap. Buy good trucks! Its an investment. And your trucks will make you millions in the coming years. I recommend buying from Nigerian soil. Not from abroad. We've personally had terrible experience from the Netherlands.

Haulage is good business comparable to an income generating asset -- I would like to state it again. Haulage is one of the MOST PROFITABLE business in Nigeria. You get 100% return on your investment within 2-3 years. And the truck continues to generate money in the 3rd year upto 10 years if you maintain your trucks well. A house cannot do that for you. A house can never return your investment within 2-3 years. But always remember, the key is finding a trust worthy independent transporter to work with.

I've tried my best to describe hard statistics, tips and the realities of the haulage business.

In my next post I will write down critical gaps that exist in my personal opinion between Nigeria and the World.

My humblest regards,

Your Friend.

We are in the process of revamping our website. Please note that our website email info@thai-alpha.com is not currently working. It will take around 2 months to fully renovate and change our website. Until then you can send me an email on bangkokce@hotmail.com

Sparrow - Thank you for the welcome bro!

3cycle - Thanks for your interest! There's alot more to it which I will try to explain the in next post.

MyIncorp - Thank you for your interest! We'll definitely connect someday and when we can, we will refer your company to other people.

ddeston - We travel to Lagos every month sometimes even every week! We can connect some time in October or November. We will definitely do our best to see how we can benefit each other even if there is no business taking place between us. You're most welcome to send me an email at bangkokce@hotmail.com

femokuc0 - Any post that enhances the image and encourages more confidence in Nigeria is welcome. Your blog will also give us insights for our research as we continue to pitch to investors around the world to invest in Nigeria.

I hope to contribute more valuable insights in my upcoming post.

My humblest regards,

Your Friend.

Greetings Nairalanders,

I will elaborate on Phase 2 (Haulage) which will include 1) how we got into this business 2) our growth 3) our struggles & near collapse 4) Our rally push 5) success

1) How we got into this business.

We were exploring opportunities. We've tried out several businesses but realized that either there was too much competition, dubious activity or the profits were dead low in relation to effort involved.

Our employee/partner/friend of Thai Alpha Nigeria suggested Haulage as an alternative. We were hesitant as it was very capital intensive. He said he knew someone whom we will name Chris, in this business who owns a truck and claims he is doing well. Basically what Chris does is he lets his truck work for a big manufacturing company "under" an independent transporter company. The independent transporter company takes Chris 10%-20% revenue that Chris's truck generates for the "opportunity" to work for the factory. Chris has to manage his own truck and find his own drivers and do any repairs he needs to. Chris is unable to work directly for the manufacturing company because in order to work directly with the factories, you need to OWN at least 10 trucks IN YOUR NAME. The standards are very strict.

We did our due diligence. My personal strength lies in doing proper research. I read and absorb alot of information. There is alot of post on the internet about how Haulage business is great and you can earn alot of money in a very short time. It sounds too good and very sweet with a cherry on top. The Nairas earned makes your mouth water. After much due diligence and making some connections we decided to buy a 40 footer truck and run it under our Independent Transporter we will call Jibs.

2) Our Growth

So we got our truck. It started running and all was well. Jibs were paying us on time. The revenues were indeed great! What is posted on the internet is true. You stand to make alot of money in this business. Your investment can be fully recovered within 1 to 2 years. We decided to aggressively expand as quickly as we could. Within 8 months we added an additional 4 trucks to our fleet. We are good at getting investments. Thanks in part to our Managing Director Charismatic personality and integrity. 4 trucks in 8 months is alot of capital.

3) Struggles & near collapse.

There were common struggles that everyone in the haulage business knows. Such as managing drivers, repairs and one of the worst issue of all; buying the wrong sort of trucks. We made alot of mistakes but we learned quickly and rectified it. In this process we even made our own TRUCK BUYING MEMO. These are our rules laid out about quality before we buy trucks. But the most serious issue we ran into was can you guess?........The Jibs. Basically the Jibs;our independent transporter were alarmed at the rate we were expanding and decided to start playing games with us. They delayed our payments, and even outright stopped paying us for as long as 4 months straight while our trucks were running! This had consequences that effected the company in ways we shudder to think about.

We had to pay our drivers, our trucks needed repairs, the drivers were complaining, our partners were not getting paid. Income stalled for us all. We investigated and knew that the factories were paying on time, but the Jibs were making all sorts of excuses. We pushed and pushed them for payments but they only paid paltry sums. It got so bad. Everyone from CEO (Myself) to the drivers were affected. My employees were so disheartened that one of our top management suggested that should close down the business.

4) Our Rally Push

In that critical moment, I refused to give in. I rallied everyone, decided that I was going to use the special gift that all my employees and management had to make this happen. I looked at the financials again and knew that the business was good. But the Jibs were the issue. I knew if I could push on for the next few months we could make it happen. I formulated a new strategy, the strategy of "building relationships". We started building good relationships with the management of various factories. We were at good standing with the management because we always maintained our trucks and always kept our drivers happy. Through building connections and strong personal relationships and through our hard work and integrity, we were given a favorable option of working directly with the factory with our 5 trucks. Thats called FAVOUR and it comes with BUILDING A BRAND.

5) Success

Long story short, we are now working directly with factories and they are very happy to accommodate us and is encouraging us to expand and bring in more trucks. Which obviously we are more than happy to accommodate.

In my next post, I will write from personal experience some of the critical gaps that exist between Nigeria and the World. The gaps that could be filled to encourage more foreign investments into this lovely country. And also I will give you some hard insights and statistics & tips about the Haulage business and business in general Nigeria for locals and foreigners.

My humblest regards,

Your Friend

Greetings Nairalanders,

Looking forward to be a valuable contributor in these forums.

I'm from Bangkok Thailand and our company has been doing business in Nigeria for almost 2 years.

We have a registered company in Nigeria as well as in Bangkok and Dubai.

My elder brother saw an opportunity in Nigeria and made up his mind that Nigeria indeed has a great many opportunities.

Needless to say, actually implementing the idea was not an easy task.

We faced so many great hurdles to make it here that we almost closed down our business at the end of first year for reasons I will further explain soon.

I will separate my post into 2 phases.

1) Our first & second business idea and how that failed (Rice, Clothing and imports)
2) our third business idea and how we made it. (Haulage)

I will start with the first phase

Our first business idea was importing Rice into Nigeria. Seeing that I am from Thailand and Nigerians love Thai rice it sounded like a valid business plan. So we went around Lagos searching for buyers. We came across several powerful women that trades in Rice. We saw these huge warehouses full of rice and many container of rice being offloaded into the warehouses. They were willing and enthusiastic to work with us if we could get them their price. Daily rice prices are fixed. So we made a connection with these powerful women.

Now our next goal was to find the rice at the right prices here in Thailand. But it does not end there. We had to register our rice with Nafdac (Nigerian agency for food and drug). And going to the process of Nafdac is amazingly time consuming and expensive. We hired a lawyer to help us speed the process.

We had also known that the import taxes on rice into Nigeria is 40%. Now here was the issue. We tried finding a source of rice at the right prices here in Thailand but it was not possible. The reason it was not possible was because the import taxes were too high and there was no way we could have made any money selling to the Nigerian Market. We wondered how did other people do it? We investigated. We went to the port and made some connections with some people there and found out that rice importers were not paying import taxes. They were paying money under-table. It is an acceptable practice. But we understood it was against the law and decided to drop the idea of importing rice as wanted to wholly abide by the country laws 100%. We could have made money with the right connections but decided not to go this route.

That is failure of our first business plan.

Our second business plan basically involved importing clothes worth around $2000-$4000. But we failed to sell enough in the market. Due to competition and lack of market research we failed.

After this we decided to try to import various stuff into Nigeria like Air conditioners and electronics. But we realized that the prices the buyers were asking were too low compared to what the factories were selling it for. Plus due to heavy competition, complexity in import/export process and direct easy access to factories itself via alibaba and websites; we as middlemen importers were not needed and even if we were our profit margins would be very little.

So we kissed our import dreams goodbye as well.

Almost 1 year in Nigeria had passed.

If there is one thing we learnt.....doing business in Nigeria was NOT easy.

If you are interested, I will next write the second phase of our story later and tell you how & why we succeeded and the extreme difficulties (To the point where we were about to lose most of our fortunes) we faced before we succeeded in our next venture. (Haulage)

My humblest regards.

Your Friend.