Karin001:
E

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?

Yes, same thing.

Between quality and price, which one among it highly determine the demand for FMCG product.
The reasone why I am asking is because I notice emphasis on #100.00 as the maximum price for FMCG product we want to market from Karin001 and Blackie.
Hence, does that means FMCG product of #150.00 price will have low patronage compared to #100.00 price irrespective of its quality.
Expecting response.

samhay:


My Queen dat brought me to this thread is not a fan of pink lip I guess o, maybe for male sha.


It af well

Amicable, make we start the business na

hmmmm, the same person that bought me into this thread, but she is too busy to start a business unless she quit her current job, which I don't see happening. Madam Karans, thanks for the information. I will be Y up closing though I might not been able to start with the team because of some factor. I wonder how I did not see Nairaland as a useful site until Jarus mention it on his Facebook post which made me search through the site.

samhay:


My Queen dat brought me to this thread is not a fan of pink lip I guess o, maybe for male sha.


It af well

Amicable, make we start the business na

come off it bro! do you think your queen won't elope with a pink or no pink lip if he can build a business empire around pink lip balm ,and consequently can provide food, security, while keeping her bed at 50° centigrade? I still love fairy tales but love and relationship like most adult life realities ain't no fairytales. So wake up. ......lols

What a wonderful and an eye opening thread. Actually I just came across this thread today and I must confess it is the best thread in the business section of NL for the year.
I love the ideas and wonderful contributions from everybody.
But I have some questions to ask
1. Is this project meant for only people that lives in Lagos
2. Can a student participate too, most especially a student in ogun state.
Thanks

dannB:
Between quality and price, which one among it highly determine the demand for FMCG product.
The reasone why I am asking is because I notice emphasis on #100.00 as the maximum price for FMCG product we want to market from Karin001 and Blackie.
Hence, does that means FMCG product of #150.00 price will have low patronage compared to #100.00 price irrespective of its quality.
Expecting response.

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!

ollykay619:
What a wonderful and an eye opening thread. Actually I just came across this thread today and I must confess it is the best thread in the business section of NL for the year.
I love the ideas and wonderful contributions from everybody.
But I have some questions to ask
1. Is this project meant for only people that lives in Lagos
2. Can a student participate too, most especially a student in ogun state.
Thanks

Hi ollykay,
Our Professor still wants to test run the project with some areas in Lagos. However, you can adapt what you learn here to your own environment. As a student, you should be able to apply knowledge-transfer. The geographical scope of the project shouldn't limit the applicability of the knowledge.

There's no strict entry requirement, to the best of my knowledge, except Commitment to the biz and initial capital of 20k. So if you believe you meet those criteria, you're good to go.

As a matter of fact, students should do better in the biz than the working class because of time advantage.
Hope this made a little sense to you.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Babacele:
come off it bro! do you think your queen won't elope with a pink or no pink lip if he can build a business empire around pink lip balm ,and consequently can provide food, security, while keeping her bed at 50° centigrade? I still love fairy tales but love and relationship like most adult life realities ain't no fairytales. So wake up. ......lols

Good evening. Yet to hear from you.

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

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.

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.

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.

Karin001:


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.

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.

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.

I almost choked on my dinner. Honestly between you and Karin one of you will kill somebody with your sense of humour.
Its good we have come this far, a point we can look back and laugh at ourselves at our little foibles of the past. Some experience in the past are so packed with lessons only if we wish to see them as such. I remember growing up in a middle class neighbourhood and a teenager my dad insisted we cut the grass in front of our house while other parents had law mowers and even gardeners. In those days there were no high fences but just knee/waist height hedges separating the various houses. You can barely imagine the ducking we had to make when any child in the area went by. My baby brother had to take a vantage position and tell us when someone was approaching. Then one day another family moved in and they also ghad no lawn mower. They even had a small farm behind the house. The first son was always doing one hard labour or the other. And he did it happily, waving and cheering. All of a sudden he became the champion in the locality attracting more friends and taking all the babes. Very soon we discovered that whenever he was working he had more than one girl sitting around and watching him work and sometimes assisting him. The way we started working our garden and flowers even amazed my parents. Peer group issues are terrible if not used to your advantage. I connect with you.

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.

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.

Karin001:
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.

This is getting more interesting.

Permit me to ask; is this idea for the present or future?
If for the present, are we going to wait for the new product whose existence is uncertain now, or is there hint about one somewhere?

All in all, the idea is splendid. Please keep thinking.

egopersonified:




Those who would succeed faster in this project would be those who can convince themselves easily that they are a success 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.

Words on the marble!

IdisuleOurOwn:
Good evening. Yet to hear from you.

I sent u an SMS naaa. is it yr old no? let me check.

rose75:


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 .

Rose, I think I like your way of approach and also I commend you for your intelligence, you are someone to behold.

mcvincent:
Rose, I think I like your way of approach and also I commend you for your intelligence, you are someone to behold.

Hi Mcvincent,
I'm highly honoured, though an ordinary maidservant I am.
If this is intelligence, then you have it to know it.

Thanks for the compliment.

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

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.

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!

I have gained a lot here today. In class as a student, I am called Entrepreneur of the year but coming here today, I don't worth being an Entrepreneur. I study a demanding course and I have a demanding duty but my parents must imbibe this whether they like it or not. I will sensitise them and arouse them to this. Enough of no salary regular news.

Thanks for all these advice. I hope that soon I am going to open a thread and tag some people here about the success story. Though a lawyer in the making, entrepreneurial ideas can't stop flowing in... Only time and money is just failing.

rose75:


Hi ollykay,
Our Professor still wants to test run the project with some areas in Lagos. However, you can adapt what you learn here to your own environment. As a student, you should be able to apply knowledge-transfer. The geographical scope of the project shouldn't limit the applicability of the knowledge.

There's no strict entry requirement, to the best of my knowledge, except Commitment to the biz and initial capital of 20k. So if you believe you meet those criteria, you're good to go.

As a matter of fact, students should do better in the biz than the working class because of time advantage.
Hope this made a little sense to you.

It sure does, thanks alot. I don dey glued to this thread and following bumper to bumper.