The Journey of the Nascent entrepreneur

The shop has been open for 254 days and during that period I have learnt so much about doing business in Nigeria, I’ve often wondered why the odds are so stacked against the little man or lady in my case. During these days I have drawn inspiration from everyone and everything I can find and this is including bible, bottles, sports, I have chanted and quoted every scriptural quote in search of a breakthrough in my endeavor to being the woman I dream of daily.

My shop is on a row of shops, located before the Police barracks, so I am a neighbor to the washman, a church, a fish seller’s shop and more. I have since formed a family with the aforementioned; we talk, laugh and share stories and experiences. I open my shop at 9 a.m. daily and close at 9 p.m., all the while waiting for customers to walk in and sample and perhaps buy my wares. I have a table, a chair and a computer, set up to give the impression of the office I want and so I act the part, all the while knowing my desires are a big purchase away. My office as it doubles, serves as a melting pot of activity for everyone, friends, customers and family. I have a cousin who serves as my assistant, seeing as I am the ‘chief shop sales girl’ and a retinue of fun. Typical days bring in customers, dry days bring in friends who won’t leave when it’s their time to leave but hey what can a girl do?

Few months after the shop was opened and there wasn’t an avalanche of customers, my cousin and I decided to do some mobile marketing with my cousin around various offices and I sold everything off my rack. So here with my car, cousin and prayer we’d go into the Yola sun and sell stuff, it was fun, we’d meet people, all kinds, answer all manner of questions, we were not going to get stopped by anything, failure wasn’t an option. We would come back and tell ourselves tomorrow would be better and it would be for as far as we believed it was.

The shop has an air-conditioner that should be powered by Nepa, more often than not, it never does get powered and I have to provide my own light spending money on fuel, servicing and dealing with the generator repair man, who is the only dark spot in my otherwise self-imposed optimism. He will take the generator and give more excuses than necessary, nevere fix it and all the while eating into my mearge profits. This is not to talk of the Police who double as our landlords and security, who come for ‘revenue’ at will and sometimes I wonder why. Least I forget the customers who will come and pick items saying am coming right away and you won't see them or your money till you chase after them or till they find you, weeks later. But all in all, am growing and learning the ropes and gradually making more sales with each new month.  If you ever nurtured a dream of owning your own bussiness, now is the time to stop dreaming and start doing. Goodluck