Karin001:


This is even more interesting.

I will ask more questions about this product of yours later and maybe together with other posters even appraise the best model that can be used in selling it effectively.

Thank you very much. I appreciate any positive assistance as regards the business

matoxy:
please, how can you extend this to people outside Lagos. I'm in Ilorin in Kwara State
Really interested.

I have noted your concerns. We will address other areas outside Lagos sooner than you think.

I would even like to see the model working live in Port Harcourt here.
So just follow the thread.
Secondly you can draw for the experience of the posters and direct participants and start something right there in Ilorin.

Online degree programmes are helping people acquire degrees all around the world without as much as a visa not to mention air tickets.

Reflect!

bharkarh:
Just getting to see this thread now and I must say I'm impressed. Thanks @karin001 for trying your best from taking people off shackles of poverty.

I will be through with my service year (NYSC) in 3weeks time and will like to join the group to prepare myself against forthcoming challenges of career option.

And I won't just need you for this but will appreciate if you can be my Mirror.

You are such a wonderful writer and your plan has clarity and intelligibility.

You are welcome.

Congratulations in advance. Please hit the ground running as soon as you finish your POP!

Karin001:


You are welcome.

Congratulations in advance. Please hit the ground running as soon as you finish your POP!

that's why I need you ma. I'm in!

Our next activity on this platform will be to appraise Fast Moving Consumer Goods that we consider really fast and attractive to sell in the specified areas.

We will then identify a particular fast moving product that we will recommend to be sold by the team.

The characteristics of the product will be provided in due course.

For now I would like to welcome suggestions as regarding what we could sell effectively in the areas above that will have an effective demand. I will say that we should feel free in recommending anything that we think of whether it is apparently silly, funny, fantastic or outright hilarious.

Just post it and add your reasons for standing by it.

By tomorrow hopefully, I will list out what I consider the attributes that newbies in sales can effectively sell without despairing.

It is imperative to state here that while we will welcome suggestions from far and wide, we will only adopt a product that reflects the majority of the attributes we have identified. At this stage I would also like to invite Nairalanders who are producers/manufacturers of things they consider our team will sell to come and market us.

But they must recognize from the very beginning that we are not obligated in any way to choose their product.

Quite honestly, nothing is clear at the moment. What ever we choose will just be a tool that will be used temporarily to boos the confidence our participants and other posters and to prove that sales and marketing is not a s difficult a it is made to appear.

Meanwhile, a recognition hit me last night and I became very excited.

I will share this recognition with you in my next post tonight and you will further see why if we are all alert and open a clean way of creating wealth will always lead to the goal.

This experience I only recalled after reading through a particular thread right here on Nairaland.

The perspective is so simple and yet so practical and the yield is unparalleled.

Keep a date with my next post.

Tonight !!!!!!

Karin001:


I honestly give up. Tell me, is there any real need to continue any further? Your analysis is just spot on.
these are the kind of contributions that will enrich this thread.

You can now see that this model is far superior to an ebook.

Thank you Rose 75!

I sincerely appreciate your compliments, though I am as surprised as I was flattered because I am just a learner.

LadyBoss, please fire on. You're the captain, we'll do your biddings.

But you have your way with words, I doff my cap.
You may do well to release the products/ specifications you have in mind, let's take it up from there. A little contributions here and there will fine-tune what's on ground.

Just a little kick to set the ball rolling....

Most times we overlook or undervalue most items we feel we can easily get our hands on.

Just recently, I saw an online advert for " clean, sand-free, oven-dried catfish" ready for sale. I was amazed at the number of orders placed both within and outside Lagos for the fish.
It may not necessarily mean that dried catfish is not available to those making the orders, nor was that online one cheaper for them.

That could just be a function of the branding. Therefore, whatever we are talking about has to be appealing and also a good reflection of the brand we're trying to promote.

Yes,it has started, but what we don't know at present is how far it can go on the long run.

Karin, still waiting........

Karin001:


My dear friend, it will take more than Kilimanjaro to keep you out of this.

My thoughts are with you and indeed I am watching you always.

I can even feel your longing and thirst from far off.

Your foundation for your business towers will be laid in the next three months.

You can take that to the bank.

Thank you so much for your kind words Karin. You keep encouraging me & I have learnt alot from you these past few months. God bless you dear.

Last night, I was browsing through the first three pages of the business section of Nairaland and something hit me really hard.

I have for some reason been observing that there was a prominent thread on Used clothes sales(Bale sales) where the Op is a woman too. I noticed yesterday that there was a new one by a man and it was equally growing and I quickly read through the entire thread and then visited the old and prominent thread and went through it too.

The feeling was electric and it then took be back in time. We really have no reason to complain in this country, honestly.
Whatever we want is usually available for us easily if we but just look around us enough. The country is bristling with opportunities. Sadly, it is only a certain type of foreigner that are appropriating these opportunities something with very little or no leverage. Very sad.

In 2009, I visited a friend of mine who was then and is still residing at the LUTH staff quarters in Idi Araba, Lagos. She had this young lady of hers living with her who was supposed to be her Husband’s niece. The girl had finished NYSC and was in Lagos looking for a job and hoping for the best. So far luck had not come her way and she was losing momentum by the day. There was also this palpable tension in the house, two grown women always at home. recipe for anarchy.

This was transforming her into a psychological wreck lacking in self-confidence. In discussing with her for just a few minutes one could tell that before a very fiery interview panel she would crumble like a pack of cards. It was that bad.To crown it all she bagged a 3rd class in Sociology; the classical nail in the coffin.

However, there was something else about this lady which everybody who had taste acquiesced to; She had impeccable taste. She may not have been earning money then but you could tell that she had taste and was very intelligent. She loved clothes and could analyse them animatedly.
Added to the fact that she was also very warm and little things set her on fire.

Her enthusiasm was infectious.

It hit me and hard too!

Sociology was just a certificate with this one.

This was a born trader just lacking in guidance and direction.

Keep it up

Karin001:
Last night, I was browsing through the first three pages of the business section of Nairaland and something hit me really hard.

I have for some reason been observing that there was a prominent thread on Used clothes sales(Bale sales) where the Op is a woman too. I noticed yesterday that there was a new one by a man and it was equally growing and I quickly read through the entire thread and then visited the old and prominent thread and went through it too.

The feeling was electric and it then took be back in time. We really have no reason to complain in this country, honestly.
Whatever we want is usually available for us easily if we but just look around us enough. The country is bristling with opportunities. Sadly, it is only a certain type of foreigner that are appropriating these opportunities something with very little or no leverage. Very sad.

In 2009, I visited a friend of mine who was then and is still residing at the LUTH staff quarters in Idi Araba, Lagos. She had this young lady of hers living with her who was supposed to be her Husband’s niece. The girl had finished NYSC and was in Lagos looking for a job and hoping for the best. So far luck had not come her way and she was losing momentum by the day. There was also this palpable tension in the house, two grown women always at home. recipe for anarchy.

This was transforming her into a psychological wreck lacking in self-confidence. In discussing with her for just a few minutes one could tell that before a very fiery interview panel she would crumble like a pack of cards. It was that bad.To crown it all she bagged a 3rd class in Sociology; the classical nail in the coffin.

However, there was something else about this lady which everybody who had taste acquiesced to; She had impeccable taste. She may not have been earning money then but you could tell that she had taste and was very intelligent. She loved clothes and could analyse them animatedly.
Added to the fact that she was also very warm and little things set her on fire.

Her enthusiasm was infectious.

It hit me and hard too!

Sociology was just a certificate with this one.

This was a born trader just lacking in guidance and direction.

I was caught up the first time i came across your e-person through your earlier business essays under the FMCG distribution experiences you started sharing here few months ago. Yesterday, when you talked about self help books and their principles being universal in response to an admirer's observation while in the same breath seeing roses in the thorns of our present karmic reality tagged recession, i was hooked. I know a reader when i see one for this writer is a voracious specie whose taste is insatiable.
Now this very essay is the tripod and the concluding most important part in my falling in love with your essence. I think you can change ugliness to beauty, a base metal to gold; a human alchemist like the few persons i hold in high esteem here on nairaland. Pardon me mademoiselle,of course i know you are betrothed; but this is my confession.

I am passionately moved after stumbling on this thread by luck. I can hardly believe that OP is a woman ( no pun intended), I can only conclude that Nigeria got talents. We are first world material and will get there by God's grace and our various but coordinated individual hardwork, that , I know this thread will contribute it's quota.

I have booked my popcorn and seat in advance ( to avoid the rush). Waiting patiently for our able mentor/Lecturer.

Karin001:
In getting down to business, this is the schedule I suggest we to follow;

1.We will identify the densely populated areas in Lagos where will anchor this project.
I am requesting that we together identify areas that we will launch this project in within the next few days.
I am suggesting the following areas;

Oshodi;
Mafoluku,
Airforce Base
Sogunle
Ladipo,
Bolade,
Charity

Ikeja
Cantonment
Ikeja Central/Computer Village
Anifowoshe
Oregun
Alausa
Maryland/Onigbongbo/Mende

Ketu
Shangisha
Ikosi
Demurin
Ojota
Ogudu/Ori-Oke
Alapere
Oworosonki

Agege
Dopemu
Cement
Mangoro/Capitol
Agege Central
Ogba/Okeira/Aguda
Ojodu -Grammar Schl/Berger

Alimosho
Egbeda
Akowonjo
Ipaja
Iyana Ipaja
Shasha

Please appraise the selection and make your suggestions. It is important to note that what informwed my choiuce of these locations is the

1.They are all on the mainland.
I am still of the opinion that the bulk of the population of lagos resides more on the Mainland rather than the Island.

2. They are contiguous so follow-up, logistics, deliveries will be easier and somewhat efficient.

3. Similar demographic Characteristics; Most of those neighbourhoods harbour people of similar Socio-economic altitude. their spending culture
and purchasing power will have very congruent attributes.

Please note that your contributions will be most helpful at this point.

Madam Karin, following bumper to bumper.

I noticed you didn't include some densely populated areas too, Iba, Iyanaiba, okokomaiko even down to agbara(its technically in Lagos its just in Ogun on the map), Festac, mile 2, orile, ajegunle etc.

Following...

Why on earth was she searching for over two years?

At this rate she would keep getting negative responses and in getting more frustrated her negativity would increase while her self-worth would decrease.

Finally, she would implode.

I was prompted to asked her if she had ever applied to work as a sales person in either a boutique or a wholesale fabric shop? Her response was negative. Asked further if she considered a vocation in the fashion industry, she responded that she silently nursed that ambition but that her family was against that and would prefer that she had a white collar job first and retire into the fashion business after proving to society that she was not an Olodo who went to school and could not hold a job down for a while.

Then began series of discussions between me and her. Each time we discussed possibilities, you could see sparks in her eyes, for me this was a good sign, all hope was not lost.
So we sat down together and did a proper analysis. We needed to first of all uncover her. Who was this girl? Why was she thinking this way? How had she been programmed over the years? Each human being is a rare gem. Unfortunately, even the individual does not at times know his/her value and thus plods along every day. That is the bane of our educational archetype. In this case she had concluded

The effort to re-program her commenced. A lot of cobwebs were in her gaze and without removing it her focus would remain impaired.
We found out that her understanding of starting a business was that she first had to work for many years, save a lot of money before opening a shop and then stocking it and then selling.

Capital (as in cash) was the basis for setting up a thriving business.

Our education needs to be reappraised seriously in this country. Our current curriculum is archaic and seriously out of sync with present day realities. It was designed by the colonialist to produce an unthinking apparatus to service the growing public service.
The contemporary society demands a more self reliance focused curriculum. rather than education for employment as it is currently, we need a paradigm shift to something practical and useful for this present day setting.

Things have gone so wrong.

Education that is supposed to bring advancement is now the one destroying the very fabric of our psyche.

After a careful evaluation of her situation, we both decided that she would commence a business with the 17,000 she had saved from her one year NYSC year.

So, off she went to Yaba. Based on my advice she started by selecting used baby wears and had them washed and sold.

Incidentally her first customers were her neighbours with kids while her second set of customers were mothers drawn from the pediatric and maternity ward of LUTH.

In less than two years she was a force to reckon with as she had her own shop and was shipping bales all around Nigeria.

And she was enjoying it so much. Such fulfillment.

Find a job you love..............life.

That is what the Bale sales thread reminded me of. Even as I was going through it, so many possibilities that could be corollaries of that same business presented itself.

I will have to get back to you later today as regards the product characteristics. I haven't finished drawing them up yet but we will have it ready by tonight.

Do bear with me.

Babacele:
I was caught up the first time i came across your e-person through your earlier business essays under the FMCG distribution experiences you started sharing here few months ago. Yesterday, when you talked about self help books and their principles being universal in response to an admirer's observation while in the same breath seeing roses in the thorns of our present karmic reality tagged recession, i was hooked. I know a reader when i see one for this writer is a voracious specie whose taste is insatiable.
Now this very essay is the tripod and the concluding most important part in my falling in love with your essence. I think you can change ugliness to beauty, a base metal to gold; a human alchemist like the few persons i hold in high esteem here on nairaland. Pardon me mademoiselle,of course i know you are betrothed; but this is my confession.

Thanks so much sir.

Babacele, you must however remain on the thread. we really need people like you here to broaden our scope.

Droyal:


Madam Karin, following bumper to bumper.

I noticed you didn't include some densely populated areas too, Iba, Iyanaiba, okokomaiko even down to agbara(its technically in Lagos its just in Ogun on the map), Festac, mile 2, orile, ajegunle etc.

Following...

Thanks. it is by design.

All densely populated areas will be added as we proceed.

We can only commence the project without hiccups with just a few areas.

Nnannapat:
I am passionately moved after stumbling on this thread by luck. I can hardly believe that OP is a woman ( no pun intended), I can only conclude that Nigeria got talents. We are first world material and will get there by God's grace and our various but coordinated individual hardwork, that , I know this thread will contribute it's quota.

I have booked my popcorn and seat in advance ( to avoid the rush). Waiting patiently for our able mentor/Lecturer.

Thanks for the compliment.

Pun intended or not, it doesn't matter.

I have been referred to as a man many times in my life.

What is of more importance to me is how useful this information will be irrespective of the gender it comes through.

Karin001:


Thanks so much sir.

Babacele, you must however remain on the thread. we really need people like you here to broaden our scope.

of course I'm here madam . I'm flattered .

@karin001, please, can I send you a PM?

I am xoxo inspired by this thread. Following bumper to bumper.

Madam Karin,

What can I say? I'm completely blown away by your business acumen and passion to not just grow but carry other people along also.

In all my contemplated businesses, FMCG have been the last on my mind considering it's low profit margins. You however, are a proof that all it takes is a little more determination.

Bless your soul sister for being a blessing. I'm looking forward to also being an active pioneering part of this outstanding project. Following closely ma'am.

Hmmmm,
Welcome To Bizness School Practical Class.
Lecturer: Karin001

First of all, I duff my hat for d OP for ds wonderful bizness school cum training expose. From what I hv read & seen so far, she's world class.
2ndly, I was drawn here by another woman of equally great & latent potentials who's still slumbering at d moment. Lol!.

Nice work so far.

As per ds FMCG in question, my take are:
1) What age demography is d OP looking at? Shld d FMCG appeal to all age bracket?
2) Is d OP looking at FMCG used daily? Weekly? Or even many times daily?
3) is d OP looking at very simple & sometimes stupid FMCG item?
4) Is d OP looking at family or individual target?

As per (3 & 4) above, I hv a simple suggestion: GARRI

My Reasons
Nearly every home in southern Nigeria takes garri & It cuts across all income brackets.

Following @Rose75's contributions on d "Sand free, oven baked smoke catfish's" example, we must dissect or find out what makes ds particular smoked fish appeal to many pple who wouldn't hv bordered abt it abinitio.
Theses are d Packing & telling them (d truth) abt one of d put-offs or bad attributes (of smoked fish) for many pple, which is "sand".

D big question is: Can common garri be re-packed to re-appeal to many homes & individuals?

To this, I say YES & YES & YES...

Can u sell desert sand to an Arab? Yes & no.
Yes, if d packaging is right & no, if it's wrongly packaged.

In this thread, " the deep calleth the deep".

Am following cos an just a learner.....

Cc: @Egopersonified

For the courage and poise to start up this educative venture, more grace to you madam karin. My goodwill to you while i pledge my readiness to be full-time partner of this model. Grace be multiplied!!

A gesture worthy of commendation!! @ Madam Karin, that's the spirit. A candle stick loses nothing when it helps to lit other sticks. I ve been drawn to your disposition toward life generally whenever you express yourself via writing, reading through this thread i discovered what i termed your strength. Thanks greatly for the above post already. Am already learning to model same thing and put it to work in phc.

There is this erroneous belief that there is little or no money to be made in FMCG, the solution is selling more quantities to meet a profit target. I am currently distributing one product and sometimes I think I am involved in blood money, more sales equals more money. Being a distributor puts you at an advantage over shop owners, they wait for customers to come, you go to the customers. So you have the ability to determine how many you want to sell.

Rhukie:
@karin001, please, can I send you a PM?

Yes you may.

Weldone madam. Following this thread with my pen and paper.

egopersonified:
There is this erroneous belief that there is little or no money to be made in FMCG, the solution is selling more quantities to meet a profit target. I am currently distributing one product and sometimes I think I am involved in blood money, more sales equals more money. Being a distributor puts you at an advantage over shop owners, they wait for customers to come, you go to the customers. So you have the ability to determine how many you want to sell.

Hi Ego personified,
Thanks for this enlightenment.

Do you mind being a little open about the product you distribute? Just as an insight, we may not necessarily replicate it.

Though, if the sky can accommodate all the birds, it therefore means that we can also sail smoothly without interferences. . Boundaries will be respected.