Young Naija Entrepreneurs' Magazine 3rd edition

International

Nigerian

Jason Njoku of iROKO Tv

Productivity

15 Reasons You

Should Start A

Business in

School

MEET YOUWIN

SUCCESS

STORY: DR.

SMYLS

7 Important

steps in building a business

Business Lessons from The Mafia. Tracking YouWin Winners. 7 Reasons Young Nigerians Don’t Start Their Own Businesses.

3rd Edition

Investment Tasty Young Entrepreneur

Celebrating, Promoting and Encouraging Young Nigerian Entrepreneurs

Cover 18

YOUWIN SUCCESS STORY:

Dr. Smyls, founder of The Smile

Shop

features 10 INTERNATIONAL NIGERIAN

Jason Njoku of iRoko TV

14 BUILDING A BUSINESS

7 important steps in building a

business

25 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

7 reasons many young Nigerians

don’t start their own businesses

24 MOTIVATIONAL TALK

Walking the path of greatness

30 INVESTMENT TASTY

Emmanuel Ogar: Modern Wall

Painter

P.10

March/April 2015 | Young Naija Entrepreneurs | 4

34 BUSINESS LESSONS

Business Lessons from The

Mafia

36 PRODUCTIVITY

15 reasons you should start a

business in school

39 TRACKING YOUWIN WINNERS

Oluwaseyi Akinde: Affordable starch

Production Company

50 AMAZING BUSINESS STORY

Paul Smith

columns BIG ACTION BREEDS BIG

CONFIDENCE 48

48 HOW TO DECIDE A LIFE-

TIME CAREER

regulars 8 FROM THE EDITOR


45 NIGERIAN BUSINESS ICON

Chief (Dr.) Innocent Ifediaso

Chukwuma (Innoson)

Editor From the

O n

the

3rd of January,

2015, Young Naija

Entrepreneurs

turned one. It was

a thing of great joy

to me, the founding editor, and every other member of the team, in-

cluding our numerous well wishes. Although things may look beautiful

and promising today, it had not always been so. Our first year had

been fraught with innumerable challenges and frustrations, that many

times I had been tempted to shut everything down and move on to

other ventures. For months we battled with low traffic; it was embar-

rassingly low, almost like we didn’t exist or that we were jinxed.

From inception we had agreed that featuring young aspiring entrepre-

neurs on our platform would always be free, but we still needed to

feed and pay bills, manage and promote the site, so we had to do

some business at the side. But it wasn’t working; we were slamming

into walls faster than a race car going at 100km/h. On the outside we

were looking good; people praised what we were doing, friends en-

vied us, thought we were raking in money and smiling to the bank,

when the truth was; we were struggling, badly.

Since we were running at a loss, why did we still stay on? You may

want to ask. That is because, every single day we preach determina-

tion, we preach diligence and doggedness, we tell the stories of young

and old people who had unbelievable challenges besiege them, but

still fought the tough fight and emerged victorious. We preach and

teach all these. What manner of people would we be if we can’t

Practice what we preach, if we can’t take a dose of our

own medicine?

A few days ago, a friend revealed something to me. He

told me that many of the wealthy and successful people in

the world are not as smart as many of us think, or they

aren’t as smart as the people who work for them. What

these people have, my friend told me, is the ability to find

an idea, just one, and run with it like crazy, forgetting

every other thing. That one ability is what many excep-

tionally brilliant folks don’t have.

So in this second year of our existence, we are deter-

mined to use more of our own medicine and to put even

greater commitment to this cause; paying attention to

this timeless quote by Vince Lombardi, “There is only one

way to succeed at anything and that is to GIVE EVERY-

THING”.

On behalf of the entire Young Naija Entrepreneurs’ team,

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has

been a part of our first year; Gracias! Without you, there

won’t be us.

We are yet to reach our peak, but we are certainly not

where we started.

Olusegun Egbeyinka

Editor


International Nigerian

Jason Njoku

iROKOTV

A fter the management decided to feature Jason

Njoku as the International Young Nigerian Business

Entrepreneur for this edition, I spent weeks trying to reach the

internet guru. I dropped messages and waited for replies, but

none came. I got slightly offended. I said to myself; these young

successful Nigerians are so proud, after they make a few bucks

they become too proud to reply mails. But for some reasons I

didn’t give up on the iROKOtv maverick. I visited his blog several

times and it was during one of such visits that I read a post that

changed my understanding of the young man and endeared me

to him. At present, he is one of my most respected young Nige-

rian entrepreneurs.

Jason Njoku was born on 11th December, 1980. He attended the

University of Manchester where he studied Chemistry. Jason

stated in an interview with Africa Dream that he is the first per-

son in his family to go to a university. After graduation in 2005,

Jason decided to venture into the treacherous waters of entre-

preneurship. His very first attempt was a student magazine by

the name Brash. According to Jason, it ended a ‘spectacular fail-

ure’.

“People love the magazine, we just were not able to figure out

how to make money from it”

Although the magazine failed, Jason had leant a lot from the

attempt. He understood that youthful enthusiasm wasn’t

enough to run a successful business and he also leant lessons

about hard work and focus.

Jason will try several other businesses but would also fail,

more or less, in every one of them.

The story of iROKOtv began when he found it difficult to ob-

tain Nollywood films online for his mother. He thought to him-

self; ‘since there is obviously a lack of effective distribution

network for Nigerian movies online, why don’t I step in and

solve that problem, offering movies to Nigerians, particularly

in the Diaspora’. And that was how the idea was birthed. Jason

believed that if his mother wanted to watch a movie that re-

flected her origins but couldn’t find, then there would be

other people also in that same boat. He was very right. In few

months, (less than what most business analysts predict for

small business profitability) iROKOtv began to turn out profit,

but not without many hurdles for the young man and his long-

time friend and business partner, Bastian Gotter.


Words by Olusegun Egbeyinka

iROKOtv was launched on 1st December, 2011 by Njoku Jason

and Bastian Gotter. Its parent company, iROKO partners, was

founded about a year before then. Jason had recognized the

potentials imbedded in the Nigerian film industry but lacked

reasonable finance to do anything substantial. His friend had

been the major financier of their company. After a few months,

and things were not improving, Bastian suggested he travelled

down to Lagos. It was during this time that he got his boots on

the ground, pounding the streets of Alaba, meeting producers

and signing agreement. According to Jason, this experience

helped him a lot in the understanding of the Nigerian movie in-

dustry.

copy, video player, payment page, everything. The iROKO

partners had approached the creators of the site and asked

them to take it down before they filed a complaint against the

site at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The iROKO Partners’ won the case and the site has since been

pulled down.

iROKO Partners are currently the world’s largest online dis-

tributors of Nigerian movies and music (iROKING) with over

5,000 Nollywood movies in its library. The company has accu-

mulated over 500 million views across its YouTube Nollywood-

Jason purchased the online licenses of some movies directly

from their producers and began streaming them on Nolly-

woodLove, their YouTube channel, for free. It worked like

magic. The channel was hugely successful in months and

drew attention of international press and venture capitalist.

The biggest investment came from a US based hedge fund

Tiger Global, which led a two-round investment totaling

US$8 million.

But Jason confessed that they made several silly mistakes in

their first year of iROKOtv; they had overspent on every-

thing; from product development, to office setups, to staff

costs and movie license acquisition.

In 2012, a site with domain name Irokotvmovies.com began

to stream movies. The site was an exact replica of the iRO-

KOtv website; page layout, advertising video copy, video

Love and iROKOtv site in the past three years just for Nollywood

content, and 950 million views on YouTube for its African content.

The top five countries where the company has the greatest audi-

ence include the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Italy.

Jason has a vision 2020, which is, 1 million subscribers by the year

2020. “If we can reach that number then iROKO will be a billion

dollar company. Simple.” Jason wrote on his blog. “That’s what I

believe Nollywood, Nigeria and West Africa deserves. A billion dol-

lar media and Technology Company. We curate and export Nige-

rian culture globally. The industry now needs us as much as we

need them.”

Jason Njoku has place the Nigerian flag on the internet and he is

representing us in the most glowing and enviable color, projecting

our culture for the world to see and admire. He is correcting the

belief wrongly-held by many foreigners of the African giant, and

for this we are enormously proud of him.

Pic courtesy www.jason.com.ng


INTERNATIONAL NIGERIAN

Glowing Beauty

Picture: Final Impression Studios Make up and Styling: Teesmiles Beauty World 08062574291

Beauty and

Style

Building

A

Business

Building a business is one of the

dreams of many young Nigerians.

But, what is worth doing at all is

worth doing well. Therefore, as

young aspiring entrepreneurs, there

are certain steps we should be

knowledgeable about, the ignorance

of which could jeopardize our

chances of ever building our dream

businesses. To successfully launch a

business, there are a few steps that

should be considered.

Have an idea Remember, ideas are infinite, if you dare look for them you

will find them. An idea does not mean an invention. The

world has been beautified and made comfortable… if you

have an idea of how to deliver a service better, you can rein-

vent or revolutionize a whole industry. So look around you,

when was the last time you were unsatisfied by a company’s

service delivery? Rather than complain, create a business

around that need. Chances are, you are not the only one un-

satisfied with that service. When was the last time you looked

for a product around you and couldn’t find? You can start a

business that supplies that product. You never know, you may

be the next millionaire by just satisfying a single perceived

need.

Find a pessimistic partner Controversial, I guess. Entrepreneurs in general tend to be

overly optimistic and are soon taken into a world of fantasies.

This is however not so good, because even though it is good to

be highly optimistic about your chances, you should however

have a good dose of reality check most times. This will help

you come to grip with reality.

And pessimists are the best realist out there. According

to David Schwarz, pessimists are the best business part-

ner, because they help you come to grasp with reality

most of the time. However, you have to be careful with

the advice you get from pessimistic partners, because

they are not the best builders and are usually gifted with

pulling down momentum and more often than not take

advice from their fears, which are the wrongest place to

get advice from.

Choose a company name When choosing a company name you must know that

despite several claims that a name affects the impact

that a company will make, the truth still remains that

you can make any name a brand or a world class symbol

by the quality of the products or services associated with

the name. Just decide on a name with your partners or

do it alone if you will. It will do you good if your name is

not too mystical or too far away from the product or ser-

vice you intend to offer. For example, if you wish to sell

T-shirts, it would be better to name your company Seyi-

wears than to go for Avante cole. However, if you do


Words by Ime Ekpon John

BUSINESS BUILDING

start with Avante cole and develop a reputation for qual-

ity and have your own uniqueness, I can guarantee you

that somehow people will find Avante cole more inter-

esting and easy to recall than seyiwears.

Buy your domain name

After choosing a business name, it is important that you

buy your own space on the world wide web. Buy your

www.yourcompany’sname.com e.g www.seyiwears.com

and if you wish to be country specific-which is highly

advisable-buy the .ng or .com.ng extension, this will sig-

nal that your primary place of business is Nigeria. How-

ever, if you plan to become an international brand,

the .ng or.com.ng extension would serve as a limitation.

Build your website and social media handles

We live in the age of the internet. Almost everything we

do in our business is online which helps us reach more

people and do business easier than ever. So after buying

your domain name go ahead and start building your

website. Incorporate all the plugins necessary for the

services you will expect to offer, like e-commerce, book-

ing system. Also, build your company’s profile across all

the social networking sites to better position you to lev-

erage the immense power of social media.

Register with CAC and obtain all the other

necessary licenses

Registration of your business name and company type with

the Corporate Affairs Commission is very important and it is

important to at least register the business name that you have

come up with before you register your domain name. You

don’t want to register a domain name only to find out that the

name is already taken by another business in the CAC regis-

try. So endeavor to register the business name you have come

up with immediately before it becomes unavailable.

Start building a team with at least one staff

Team work they say make the dream work. So it’s important

you start out by enlisting support from a trusted partner or

staff. One of the things that kill momentum in the entrepre-

neurial journey is commitment on too many things. In busi-

ness, you have to be very focused; precision is the key. This

involves you doing only those things you are certain you can

do and employing someone else or outsourcing the others you

cannot do.


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Young Naija

Entrepreneurs

Editor

Olusegun Egbeyinka

Production Manager

Raimi-Lawal Mustapha Babatunde

Beauty Editor

Malomo Oluwatosin

Feature Writer

Pastor K.C Nwankwo

Staff Writers

Ime Ekpon John Valentine Ogbamebor


It is not every day that you come

across a YouWin grant winner.

Even more rare, is coming across a

man who has not only won the

highly coveted grant but has also

won the Tony Elumelu foundation

entrepreneurial prize. It seems the

young man has the mythical Midas

touch, where everything he

touches instantly becomes gold.

Dr. Saheed is regarded as one of

the biggest success stories of You-

Win.

In this interview, Dr. Saeed tells us

about the motivation behind his

venture and where he sees his busi-

ness in the nearest future.

YouWIn

Success

Story:

Dr.

Smyls


T he first time we contacted Dr. Saeed about wanting to

do a feature on him was about a year ago. He wel-

comed the idea warmly and asked us to send in our

questions for his consideration. We did. And then there

was silence. We waited and waited, but no reply came. We tried

contacting him, over and over again, but the result was the same.

We concluded he was no longer interested and we moved on.

But just a few weeks before we were scheduled to publish this

magazine, when we were deliberating on essential contents, Dr.

Saeed got back to us. There couldn’t have been a better time than

then.

In this interview Saeed tells us about his motivation and where he

sees his business in the coming future.

Tell us a little about yourself

My name is Saeed Jumah. I am a Dentist and graduate of

University of Benin. I am the founder/CEO of The Smile

Shop; a dental service provider. We provide dental clinic ser-

vices and sales of dental hygiene accessories/products.

What motivated you to start the business?

I was motivated to start the business as a result of the

lack of quality dental service providers in my commu-

nity and the low level of dental health awareness in

Nigeria. I wanted to create a platform to give people

the best in private dental practice and also build dental

health awareness in my community.

Did you consider doing a residency in dentistry

before starting the clinic?

I had always known I wanted to do Private Practice.

Residency was never an option I really considered.


COVER STORY

Was the business in existence before you got the

YouWin award? If yes, what was the scope of the

business before the award and how has it im-

proved with the award?

Before the YouWin award, I focused the business mainly

on sales of dental accessories (tongue cleaners,

toothbrushes). With the award, I was able to set up a stan-

dard dental clinic with modern equipments and also ex-

pand the sales of dental accessories/products.

How many people do you employ, directly and

indirectly?

6

How was the procedure for applying for the

award, did you have to know someone?

The procedure was transparent; I did not know someone

while applying or even before receiving the grant award.

What are your plans for the future?

I plan to expand the clinic operations to at least 5 more

major cities in Nigeria within the next 10 years.

Do you think the number of beneficiaries for

YouWin award should increase? And why?

Yes. To give more young people the opportunity to start

up new businesses and multiply the impact of the pro-

gram.

Beyond the YouWin awards, what else do you

think can help SME businesses to develop?

Access to funds for expansion, training and networking

opportunities/ forums.


COVER STORY

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Walking

The Path

Of

Greatness By Pastor K.C Nwankwo

G reatness in life is not a mystery, neither is it a product of

luck. Greatness is the result of consciously and uncon-

sciously applying some basic principles of life. Failure, on

the other hand, is as a result of consciously making the same mistake

over and over again.

The truth is that, greatness is a possibility to any person whose mind is

made up to be great and is ready to obey the rules that makes for

greatness.

I have discovered that everybody in life has this desire to become a

great person. Eight out of every ten persons you ask on earth will tell

you that they have a dream to become one thing or the other. Many

of them, if not all, have dreams of greatness. The major question we

have to ask ourselves is, why is it that virtually every one of these peo-

ple, irrespective of their dreams of greatness, eventually end up small

in life?

In this write up, it is my pleasure to outline a few principles that guar-

antee greatness in life. And I believe that as you read and put to prac-

tice the keys outlines here, you will take your position at the top.

God has deposited seeds of greatness in every individual he created

on earth. But the responsibility of actualizing this greatness lies ma-

jorly in our hands. These are the keys to greatness:

1.Believe in Yourself:

Many people who are destined for greatness have failed because they

did not believe they could make it. “He will make it, who believes he

can”. Success and greatness in life begins with first of all believing that

you have what it takes to make it.

Lack of self-confidence is the reason many youths amount to nothing

in life. Even when other people do not believe in you, if you believe in

yourself, you will make it to the top. Let us take a look at the young

man called David in the bible. Even when nobody believed

he could face Goliath in a battle, he believed in himself.

That was the secret of his victory over Goliath. Whenever

you believe in yourself, there is always a supernatural

help that comes to your disposal to achieve your desire.

2.Hard Work:

One major factor that guarantees greatness in life is hard

work. “To win the prize, you must pay the price”. Anybody

who wants to be great in life should first ask himself or

herself, what prize am I ready to pay to become great?

Hard work is the only sure way to becoming great in life.

To shy away from hard work and still claim you want to be

great is to be nothing but a daydreamer.

3.Stay Focused in Your Pursuit:

The easiest way to stop a man on a vision is to give him

another vision. To be focused is to channel your energy,

resources and time only in pursuit of one thing. It is living

and dying on the one thing that you were created to do in

life. I have discovered that if you knock at the door for

long, it will definitely open.

4.Embrace Mentorship:

Mentorship is following the steps of those who have gone

ahead of you. It is climbing on the shoulders of those who

are already where you wish to be in life.

You must realize that there are people who are already

where you desire to be in life. Wisdom demands that you

learn from their wealth of experience in order to get there

faster.

Conclusion

With these few principles outlined in this write-up, I may

not assure you that in 6 or 12 months that you will be-

come a millionaire, but I am assuring you that eventually,

you will rise and take your place at the top.

Good luck.

MOTIVATIONAL TALK

7 Reasons Many

Young Nigerians

Don’t Start

Their Own

Businesses

1. THEY ARE AFRAID OF FAILING:

However everyone who becomes great in life fails first., you won't

be the first or last. Let me advice you, if you want to make any

sort of impact in life, fall in love with failing, because failing shows

that you are growing. And the faster you fail, the better.

2. THEY LISTEN TO THE OPINION OF OTHERS WHO HAVE NEVER

STARTED A BUSINESS:

You can never rise above who you allow influence you and your

decisions. Listen to your inner voice they says "You can make it"

Don't allow someone who hasn't done anything tell you that you

can't do something, he is just not experienced enough to tell you

what a great idea look like. Remember, you never know what you

can do until you try.

3. THEY THINK THAT THEIR IDEA IS NOT PERFECT:

There is no such thing as a perfect idea. Even Microsoft has

never sold a perfect product, that's why they keep bringing

out new versions letting us know that the previous version

we bought was not perfect.

Don't despise your small ideas, launch out with what you

have and mighty forces will come to your aid.

4. THEY ARE WAITING FOR A SAFE SECURE GOVERNMENT

JOB: We are all supposed to be creators of jobs and not con-

sumers of jobs. Just imagine if Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had

focused on finishing school and getting a "safe and secure

job" there would be no iPad or even Microsoft windows. Stop

waiting and start creating. The government may not create

enough jobs, but they will not steal your creativity.

SELF DEVELOPMENT




5. THEY HAVE NOT TAKEN FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR LIVES:

Its amusing to see that most young Nigerians between the age of

24-35 still live off their parents’ assistance. Micheal Dell started

Dell Corp. when he was 19 years old. Bill Gates cofounded Micro-

soft when he was 19 years old. What are you waiting for before

taking full control of your life?.

6. THEY BELIEVE THE ECONOMY IS BAD:

This should have been the first, I guess, but I'm deliberately writing

it now and also will leave it short and simple "the world has its

problem, Nigeria has its problems, but it’s the only world that we

have and the only NIGERIA that we have". It is still in this bad econ-

omy that Dangote, Adenuga, Tony Elumelu are making impact,

stop complaining about the economy and you will start seeing op-

portunities.

7. THEY HATE TO WORK:

Let's face it, what would make a young and vibrant Nigerian

decide to look for a civil servant job where he will spend

most of his 35 years plus in the office reading news paper,

gossiping, and asking for a higher pay for sitting in the of-

fice.

The government may not create jobs but they have not sto-

len our creativity.


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HOTEL REVIEW


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Various conference and banqueting facilities available with seating capacity from 160 to 200 for conference and banqueting.

Each venue is air conditioned, with standard audio visual equipment are available on request.

HOTEL REVIEW

Investment

Tasty

C apital is one of the biggest challenges that

confront young aspiring entrepreneurs. De-

spite this albatross, some young people have set out on

their entrepreneurial journey, having very wonderful busi-

ness ideas but struggling to keep their ventures afloat. In-

vestment Tasty category features such young hardworking

individuals, who have very viable and admirable businesses

but are in dire need of capital investment.

On completion of his University education and the mandatory

National service, he saw the gloomy fate of young graduates

in Nigeria and therefore decided to apply himself to towards

learning a skill and becoming self-reliant. He thought deeply

about the one thing which he loves doing and researched ways

by which he could be better in it.

Emmanuel Ogar is a personification of what we stand for at

Young Naija Entrepreneur. We teach young people that things

are not so rosy out there and it is not possible for everyone to

find a white collar job. We teach young people to think deeply

about what they love doing and see how they can turn it into a

money-making venture, hence becoming self-reliant.

Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Emmanuel Ogar, a graduate of Estate manage-

ment. I hail from Ogoja, Cross River State, I am 29 years old

and based in Abuja.

Can you tell us about your business? What do you do?

I am a Wall Skill Painter doing modern wall paintings that re-

quire special skills. Paintings such as Liquid wallpaper painting;

which is a painting technique which makes your wall look like real

wallpaper. It is washable, durable and eco-friendly. Other paint-

ings that I do includes, Fox painting, Airbrushing, flashing, ragging,

stucco, diamond painting, wall art, and wood feeling. The liquid

wallpaper is more unique than the traditional paper wallpaper. It

requires less maintenance and can resist moist and dampness

from wall.

Okay. You studied Estate Management but now you

work as a wall painter, what happened? How did you

come into this business?

Before completing my NYSC here in Abuja, considering the fact

that over 40 million youths are unemployed, I sat down to think


Wo

rds

by

Olu

segu

n E

gbey

inka

INVESTMENT TASTY

critically about what I am good in, how I

can improve by doing what others can-

not do who are in the same area of wall

painting. I started researching on mod-

ern wall paintings, mostly decorative

paintings that amazes the eye. After

completing my NYSC, I won the FCT

NYSC award, which exposed me to dif-

ferent people based on the project I

executed. I came in contact with a Chi-

nese who helped in developing my skills.

With the mindset I have that every

graduate cannot be employed, I devel-

oped wall skill painting that is quite dif-

ferent from the traditional paintings.

And how long have you been

into Wall painting?

Two years now sir, April would make it

three years.

Do you have employees?

Yes sir. Three persons; two graduates,

one is a town planner and the other an

artist. By next year, I am looking to-

wards training female painters.

Many people who see your work

will quickly assume it is expen-

sive and it can only be afforded

by the rich; can you give us an

idea into how much it cost to

have these wall paintings?

The quality of the paintings is more than

it cost. Normally I have made it afford-

able. We charge 2,500 naira per square

meter. While for the normal paintings I

charge between 700-1000 per square

meter.

What were some of the

challenges that you faced

when you started? And

what are those that you

are currently facing?

The challenge of financing my

dream wasn’t easy. Secondly,

Nigerians don’t believe in Nige-

rians. Most of these rich politi-

cians like patronizing foreign-

ers, who would now take these

jobs and outsource it to blacks,

or use blacks to execute it at

peanuts prices. It is annoying,

very annoying. Currently, I am

faced with financial constraint.

I want to buy some machines

that can increase my speed of

work.

I can understand your

plight. Do you think the

government is doing

enough to support young

entrepreneurs in Nigeria?

If no, what do you sug-

gest they do?

Government programs tailored

toward assisting young entre-

preneurs is poor and with lim-

ited success because the real

entrepreneurs are not benefit-

ing. A commission or a module

should be set where young

entrepreneurs can access funds

and support directly. If am sup-

ported, I can employ up to 10

youths who would be trained

to become self-reliant.



BUSINESS TERMINOLOGIES

Trade Secret:

A trade secret is a secret device, technique, formula, practice, or

process used by a company in manufacturing its products which

gives it a competitive advantage over its competitors.

e.g Coco-cola has a secret formulation which is known only to the

company. This is their trade secret. Other beverage manufacturers

also have similar formulation secret.

Initial Public Offering (IPO):

An initial public offeing is the first sale of stock by a private com-

pany to the public. IPOs are often issued by smaller, younger com-

panies seeking the capital to expand, but can also be done by large

privately owned companies looking to become publicly traded.

A company that does an IPO changes from being a private com-

pany to being a public company with thousand of shareholders.

The major reason companies go public is to raise more funds.

E.g Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) on May 18, 2012

(It changed from being a private company to public), with a peak

market capitalization of over $104 billion.

Franchise:

Franchising is simply a method for expanding a business and dis-

tributing goods and services through a licensing relationship. In

franchising, the business owner, called the Franchisers, sell the

rights to their business logo, model and pattern of doing business

to third parties, called franchisees.

E.g MacDonald is a franchise. Ray Kroc (the founder of MacDonald)

started selling MacDonald franchise since 1955. Hundreds of fran-

chisees rushed to buy the MacDonald franchise and set up Mac-

Donald eatery in different parts of the world.

A franchiser would give the franchisees clear rules on how to run

the business. That is why MacDonald look similar all over the

world, and a burger sold in London taste almost the same as that

sold in any other part of the world.

There are over 25,000 MacDonalds in operation worldwide.

Venture Capitalist:

An investor who either provides capital to startup ventures or sup-

ports small companies that wish to expand but do not have access

to public funding. Venture capitalists are willing to invest in such

companies because they can earn a massive return on their

investments if these companies are a success.

These funds may be required to start a new business from

scratch (seed capital), expand an existing business

(expansion capital), or acquire another business with huge

profit potential (buyout funding).

In return for their investment in a business, Venture Capital-

ists hold a certain percentage of shares in the company.

E.g Tiger Global is a popular Venture Capital Firm that has

invested in several internet businesses in Nigeria since 2010,

companies under its funding includes Jobberman, Cheki,

Wakanow, iROKO, and PrivateProperty.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP):

It is the total value of goods and services produced in a

country’s economy, not including income from abroad.

It is the monetary value of all the finished goods and ser-

vices produced within a country's borders in a specific time

period. E. g The Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria accord-

ing to 2014 estimation is $522.64 billion.

Mission Statement:

A mission statement is a formal summary of the aims and

values of a company, organization, or individuals.

It is a written declaration of an organization’s core purpose

and focus that normally remains unchanged overtime.

The mission statement of a company is the company’s pri-

mary guiding principle. It gives the company a focus. Once a

company is going out of line the mission statement will help

nudge them back to their primary path. A company or busi-

ness, however small or large, without a mission statement is

without direction and would sooner or later crash.

E.g The mission statement for Young Naija Entrepreneurs is

‘Celebrating, promoting and encouraging young Nigerian

entrepreneurs’

At times we are tempted to go out of line, but once we re-

member this statement we make necessary adjustment.

Acquisition: when one company buys another or part of another

company, or the company or part of a company that is bought.

Advertising campaign: an organization’s programme of advertising

activities over a particular period with specific aims, for example an

increase in sales or awareness of a product.

Bankrupt: someone judged to be unable to pay their debts by a court

of law, and whose financial affairs are handled by a court official until

the debts are settled.

Bank statement: information sent regularly by a bank to a customer,

showing the money that has gone into and out of their account over

a particular period.

Balance sheet: a document showing a company’s financial position

and wealth at a particular time. The balance sheet is often de-

scribed as a ‘photograph’ of a company’s financial situation at a

particular moment.

Barriers to trade: something that makes trade between two coun-

tries more difficult or expensive, for example a tax on imports.

Benchmark: something that can be used as a comparison to judge or

measure other things

Benefits package: the total amount of pay and all the other advan-

tages that an employee may receive such as bonuses, health insur-

ance, a company car etc.

Blueprint: a plan for achieving or improving something.

Boom: a time when business activity increases rapidly, so that the

demand for goods increases, prices and wages go up, and unemploy-

ment falls. A time when activity on the stockmarket reaches a high

level and share prices are very high.

Board/Board of directors: the group of people who have been

elected by shareholders to manage a company.

Bonus: an extra amount of money added to an employee’s wages,

usually as a reward for doing difficult work or for doing their work

well.

Commission: an amount of money paid to someone accord-

ing to the value of goods, services, investments etc they

have sold.

Competitive advantage: something that helps you to be better or

more successful than others.

Brand manager: someone in a company responsible for

developing a brand.

Consortium: a combination of several companies work-

ing together for a particular purpose, for example in or-

der to buy something or build something.

Corruption: the crime of giving or receiving money, gifts,

a better job etc in exchange for doing something dishon-

est or illegal that helps another person or company.

when someone who has power or authority uses it in a

dishonest or illegal way to get money or an advantage.

Cash flow: the amounts of money coming into and going

out of a company, and the timing of these.

profit for a particular period, defined in different ways by

different businesses

Crash: a time when many investments lose their value

very quickly, usually when investors lose confidence in

the market and sell.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO): the manager with the

most authority in the day to day management of a com-

pany, especially in the US. The job of CEO is sometimes

combined with others, such as that of president.

Crisis: a period or moment of great difficulty, danger, or

uncertainty, especially in politics or economics.

Downmarket: involving goods and services that are cheap

and perhaps not of very good quality compared to others

of the same type, or the people that buy them.

Dress code: the way that you are expected to dress in a

particular situation, as an employee of a particular com-

pany etc.

Dumping: the activity of selling products in an export

market cheaper than in the home market, or

cheaper than they cost to make, usually in order to

increase market share.

Differentiation: when a company shows how its prod-

ucts are different from each other and from competing

products, for example in its advertising.

Goodwill payment: a payment made by a supplier to a

customer because of a problem the customer has had,

for example with quality or late delivery of goods.

Gross domestic product (GDP): the total value of

goods and services produced in a country’s economy,

not including income from abroad



Business Lessons from The Mafia

1. Never keep a subordinate of your own who has not learned to obey, no matter how competent he or she is.

2. When meeting you boss, speak only when spoken to, and to the boss’

point. Don’t try to impress by talking too much, and don’t stay too quiet

like a fool.

3. Be sure you understand what your boss has ordered before you act. Ask

questions if you ain’t clear.

4. Never put anything incriminating in writing; names, address, documents, files etc.

5. To survive in an office as a newbie, be patient; watch, listen and say little. Be a friend to everyone. Be cordial to all clique but join none.

6. Before you become involved in any office battle, ask yourself; what do I

stand to gain, personally? There are some battles you would rather avoid.

7. Do business with strangers as if there were brothers and brothers as if there

were strangers.

8. The most important thing is your business relationship is a reputation for

honesty. If you can’t get it genuinely, fake it.

9. Mind you business, but keep your eyes on other successful businesses. If your

neighbor wakes up early, you wake up earlier.


10. Never give business advice to another that does not profit you or Be sure you understand what your boss has ordered before you act. Ask questions if you ain’t clear.

11. And never act on business advice given to you without second and third

opinion. Your trusted advisers may want to see you fail so be careful.

12. It may take a long time, but with patience even a really serious and persistent

problem will eventually go away by itself.


15 Reasons

You

Should

Start

A

Business

in

School

Life is not divided by semesters:

This is one truth I wish I heard when I was still in school. When

you know that life is not divided by semesters, you will be more

time conscious and focused in both your academic pursuit and

other interests that are very valuable to you. For those who still

feel that it is too early to start your own business right in school,

I want you to know that school is only a part of life and not a

break from life. Have you not noticed that men who have im-

pacted the world most are school dropouts? Example, Bill Gates

of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple etc. They simply viewed school-

ing as a part of life and went ahead to continue life regardless of

whether they have finished schooling or not. Another thing you

must know is that education is not only for five or four years, it’s

a lifelong process. You can combine schooling and business suc-

cessfully.

Business experience is the best business school:

I read business in school, fortunately for me I also started a busi-

ness in school so I have the gift of both the knowledge and the

experience. But, I can authoritatively tell you that no matter the

kind of business education you get, there is no way to know

about a business better than experiencing it yourself.

It is both a thrilling and life transforming experience. While

some people may feel they need to know some certain things

about business before they can start a business or have a per-

fect product/idea before they can successfully launch a busi-

ness, I dare say to you “done is better than perfect”. Even Mi-

crosoft or Apple have never given a perfect product, yes, if they

have, why do they keep revising them in the form of Microsoft

office 2003, 3007, 2010, and 2013 and Apple keeps bringing

iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPhone 6… start up now and you will get

better.“The secret to getting ahead is to get started”.

Your network determines your net worth:

It’s who you know multiplied by the number of people they

know, that may be the key to unlocking your success in life.

When you start a business in school, people of great ability and

potential will want to flock around you because they have seen

that you had the courage to follow your dreams. From this lot

you will have the opportunity to help others who would be


PRODUCTIVITY


great men tomorrow also to start up like you did. When you help

many other people to startup in life that way, I can guarantee you

that many of them will be indebted to you for life and you will be

able to get help, support and partnerships later in the future.

Everyone starts somewhere, the earlier the better:

Like I quoted earlier, the only way to get ahead in life is to get

started. And the only difference between you and Seun Osewa or

Linda Ikeji may be that you started later than them. Jesus started

going about his business at 12, Michael Dell of Dell Computers

started his company at 19. You see time is already against you if

you are still out there waiting for the perfect idea or time. I want

to say that the act of starting up a business is the toughest part of

running a business. Once you start, fortune will give you enough

favor and boldness to pull through. So this is the perfect time. Re-

member you have lost yesterday, tomorrow is still concreted, all

you have is now, use it in a way you will be proud you did.

You will overcome the fear of starting up:

So many people die with their ideas still in them, their greatest

regret would be; if they had followed through with that idea, or

started that business… When you start up a business in school, you

will have overcome the numbing fear that kills many dreams in the

world today, and when you have unlocked the gates to starting up

one business, you will become unafraid to start up several others

like Richard Branson, who has started over 200 businesses.

Enough time to test run many business models and

ideas:

There are several business models out there, and there is hardly

one size that fits for all kind of business. When you start a business

in school, you will be able to test several of the models with your

businesses and will be able to make a choice of the best which you

will use for your other business endeavors later in your career.

Also, you can switch to as many business ideas as you like in

school, if you are still searching for the right business. This may be

too expensive for you when you are out of school.

Opportunity to fail early and fast:

Every successful person has failed in life, and the bigger the failure,

the more successful the person has become. When you start a

business in school, you will have the rare gift of experienc-

ing failure, from which you will learn lessons that will take

you steps ahead of your future competitors who may be

new on the business terrain. In business, a competitive ad-

vantage may just be that experience which you have from

previous failure and the competitor does not have and can-

not buy in the market.

Great talent to work with almost for free:

When you run a business in school, you will be able to tap

into an array of great raw talents on campus. Many will be

willing to serve with you. If you can persuade them with

reasons like; the experience or partnership, some may not

even want any payment, but want to be part of the success.

Just look out for the best hands and you will be building

your empire right inside the campus. This will come at a

very high cost when you are out of school. Remember all

great businesses and teams start small. Richard Branson

started his student magazine while on campus, most of his

starting partners followed him to start the record company

and to other businesses that made up the virgin empire.

Confidence building:

Starting and owing your own business is one of the biggest

confidence boosters, it will help you have a better image of

yourself, improve your self esteem, and make you live with

the mentality of a champion and someone who has a bright

future and already on the road there. Start now and your

life will be changed for good.

An opportunity to live life on your own terms:

When you start a business in school, your life changes.

While other students will live like dependents or salary

earners, you will have the very exclusive opportunity to live

your life in a very disciplined and focused way. This is your

first step to becoming successful and living life on your own

terms.

March/April 2015 | Young Naija Entrepreneurs |37

You will live free from chasing security all your life:

Like Robert Kiyosaki rightly pointed out, entrepreneurs seek freedom,

while those who seek for jobs, especially government work, seek secu-

rity. Those who have secure jobs no matter how high paying it may be,

pay for that security with their freedom. When you own your business,

you will be free to live life on your own terms and I can guarantee you-

you will have enough people seeking security to work under you which

you will by more of their freedom in exchange for secure jobs you are

offering them and you will be free.

Low capital start up costs:

Most businesses that can be done on campus receive very minimal

capital to start. When you are very serious about starting a business on

campus, just look for the ones that will sell; you will surely find, so with

this, you can start your business career with little or no capital and

grow into an empire. Also, when you start a business on campus, you

have the opportunity of asking for support from your sponsor (parent

or guardian). Any parent or guardian would be proud and very eager to

support you if you can persuade them this business will be able to help

you make your own money and reduce your bother on them. I tell you

what, each time you fail and go broke, they would still have your back.

Opportunity to start small and grow big:

We live in a world of big and quick results. Almost every young Nigerian

wants to work in a big firm and earn huge start up pay, or wants to

start a business career very big. However, the only person who starts at

the top is the person who is falling down, everyone who is at the top

started from the ground up and every business that is big today started

small. So start your business now no matter how small. Begin with a

dream and a desire to work on that dream; you will be able to become

as big as you wish.

Break free from fear of taking risk:

Most people never accomplish anything in life, because they are afraid

of taking risk. When you start a business, you will break yourself free

from that fear and you will be free forever to take daring steps that

always comes with great rewards in wealth and riches.

Respectability:

Last but not the least; you will be well respected around your campus,

by both your peers and customers. This respectability will follow you

into the world outside when you will be in need of staff and other free-

lance technicians.


PRODUCTIVITY

Business Lessons from Henry Ford

1.Use of Innovative Strategy: In your business, always strive to discover innovative ways of doing things. Think about how you can rebrand your product that would make it look different from others in the market. Or how you can change your production tech-niques that would make the process cost less while not affecting the quality of your produce. Or how your cus-tomers can reach your products easier and faster than what is contemporary obtainable. Just think of a way to make you or your product positively different. Henry Ford applied this tactics many times, but the most remarkable was when he changed the daily wage from the contemporary $2.34 to $5! It looked crazy, but he knew exactly what he was doing. But offering such high wages he was able to attract the best mechanics in the entire city, they came with their expertise, their ideas and their genius. Productivity increased tremendously, while training cost fell. 2.Know When to be Hard and Rigid, and when to be Soft and Flexible: Although many business publications and articles would advise you to always trust your guts and to be determined and dogged on what you think is the right decision, it is equally as important to know when to be flexible and heed advices from family, friends and business associates. Henry was known to be a stubborn and strong willed indi-vidual. This character helped him immensely in a couple of cases, for example, in 1902, when his investors were impatient about putting an automobile on the road but Ford wanted a more efficient car. Rather than bend to their wishes he chose to leave the company. A similar example can be found with Mary Kay Ash and the share-holders of her company. But this same character almost ruined Ford’s company. At first it was in the mid 1920s, when sales of the Model T was beginning to decline due to increasing competition. The other companies were incorporating modern me-chanical features to their cars and offering customers a credit payment plan. Edsel advised his father that they should incorporate new features into the Model T but Henry refused. Sales kept dropping until production of the Model T was eventually stopped. And then later in his life, after the sudden death of his only son, Edsel, Henry held tight to the company despite how sick he was. The company was declining so fast, los-

ing over $10 million ($136,290,000 in today’s money) every month that the government was tempted to take it away from Ford. It took the intervention of Edsel’s widow, who led a minor coup to remove Henry Ford and install her son, Henry Ford II, for normalcy to return. It is good, even necessary to be firm in business, but you

have to know when it is time to be flexible.

Tracking YouWin Winners

Oluwaseyi Akinde

In 2011 the Federal Government, seeing the rising spate of

unemployed youth in the country, launched the YouWin initiative.

YouWin, which stands for Youth Enterprise with Innovation in

Nigeria, is a program aimed at providing financial and managerial

assistance to young Nigerians who are willing to start ventures

which, particularly, have the potential of creating employment

and also increasing the nation’s gross domestic product.

In its four years of existence, the program has featured three

different seasons (fourth season is on currently) with at least three

thousand young Nigerians being awarded millions of naira to

pursue their business career.

This category is therefore dedicated to tracking some of the

winners of the much coveted grant, to inquire the challenges they

encountered before they won the grant and most importantly,

how they have been able to make use of the fund.

Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

My Name is Oluwaseyi Akinde I am from ogun state in Nigeria the 1st

child of three children, I am 31 years old, am an entrepreneur and also

an industrialist into manufacturing of Food and beverages. Mr. Oluwa-

seyi Akeeb Akinde: is an Entrepreneur and one of Nigeria’s best and

dynamic sales man / Marketing Guru, A brand strategist with a huge

industry experience spanning over 9 years of real-world corporate ex-

perience in sales and marketing ,Strategy Development, Business Devel-

opment, Brand managements. Seyi represent a new

breed of business think tank of a new generation in

Nigeria

Tell us a little about what you do?

I run a Manufacturing Company as the MD/CEO

called AFFORDABLE STARCH PRODUCTION COMPANY

as the Chief EXECUTIVE Officer ,we are into manufac-

turing of world class Quality FMCG Products that is

proudly Nigeria our brand name is called ‘’ Affordable

ROYAL ‘’ bust most called ‘’ROYAL’’ our products

range includes ROYAL CUSTARD POWDER Highly forti-

fied with vitamins packaged into 500kg and 2kg

bucket ,ROYAL GRANULATED SUGAR 50G,500G,1KG ,

ROYAL MULTIPUPOSE SOAP 150G, both Foods and

Beverages and cosmetics we intend to lunch our RO-

YASL Detergent soon we are also an ago allied produc-

tion company with a new different range of premium

quality products designed to meet the needs of our

customers and Nigerians in generals .Affordable

Starch was registered in 2011 by CAC in Nigeria we

also investing are currently diversifying to Agriculture

value chine by adding value into processing of Cassava

into Quality HQCF,HQCS we are currently building a 5

tones output cassava processing plant at ilaro, Ogun

state


TRACKING YOUWIN WINNERS



I also currently also works as Managing Director TSS Marketing

Company Ltd,Lagos, TSS is a world class Marketing Consulting

Company that offers strategic marketing intelligence and build

strategy for new and existing brands, in the area of Marketing &

Sales, Process Design, Marketing Consulting, Direct M &S ,

Brand Management Solution, Online Advertising Solution, Mo-

bile Marketing Solution, Branding & Marketing Communica-

tion, Sales promotions Solution for new and existing brands

product & services in Nigeria and beyond.

You are one of the winners of the federal govern-

ment’s YouWin grant, how has the grant influenced

your business? Compare your business; before the

grant and now.

Pro to 2011 when I won the YouWin 1 Grant powered by the

FGN, World Bank, DFID I was running a marketing company

called TSS Marketing Ltd with about 4 staffs where we do most

of helping people develop products, and market their products

while we earn commission it wasn’t that easy different chal-

lenges we had as an SME but we were so determine to success I

had fantastic guys who worked with me, I had written a busi-

ness plan for diversification into Manufacturing and Agriculture

as a result of my experience in product development and mar-

keting ,but when I had no fund to start or run the business I

kept pounding on it every day ,After winning YOUWIN Grant it

gave me the startup cost I needed to start the Business I was

able to get a license, Buy Technology, Lease a facility, Buy Ma-

chinery , a working Capital to further the business today we have

been able to roll our three of our 6 products line ROYAL Custard

Powder packaged in 500g and 2kg, ROYAL Granulated Sugar

packaged in50G,Royal Multipurpose Tablet Soap 150g , we are

currently in the market in Ogun and Lagos and rapidly expanding

our market to Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Abuja, Kano, Benin and produc-

tion capacity today we Employ 8 fulltime Staffs and 5 contract

staffs .winning the YOUWIN 1 Grant help to me to kick start my

dreams its been a transforming life experience because it come

with Training and business Support on how to succeed as an

entrepreneur in Nigeria YOUWIN is a National Transformation

and a huge solution to Job creation and address Unemployment

and I say a Big Thank you to President OF Nigerian Goodluck

Jonathan (CCOFR) for giving hope to young and innovative

Young Nigerians via YOUWIN .which I encourage every young

Bright Nigerian youth to be part of by applying online

www.youwin.org.ng

How much did you win?

N10 million

Not everyone who got the grant turned out suc-

cessful, what are the qualities or factors that has

helped you?

Adhering to corporate governance and proper accounting and

records keeping helped me, we also plan and kept on planning

and fine turning the business plan to meet the changing reali-

ties in the Nigerian market space.

Part what helped us to be succeed was that we stayed focus

on the goal at hand, I worked with expect in the manufactur-

ing industry and leaned all I needed to lean I was not in a hurry

to make money but to get the foundation rite , we stick to the

rules of YouWin, I kept my head up by prayer to God,

by working as if the money was a loan that needed to be paid

back when you keep that kind of mind set you won’t be ex-

travagant or spend money on what less important, I had Men-

tors I worked with them, I made sure we keep good account-

ing records, never compromise on quality, out packaging was

quality and attractive. I also believe in delayed gratification.

Finally it was the grace of God.

When you won the grant and the money was being

disbursed to you, what were some of the

challenges that you faced?

One of my major challenge then was getting NAFDAC Reg it

took up to 1 year, also the Market acceptance of New Prod-

ucts it took some times before the market accepted us .the

nature of the Nigerian FMCG Market is very dynamic market

they want to see you over time , test your quality and see if

you are here to stay before any one will put dawn their money

to buy your new product , but thank God we had the patience

and quality to storm the market.




Have you been able to employ other young people? If

Yes, how many?

Since I won YouWin I 2012 in Affordable Starch Production Com-

pany have employed 15 people which 70% of them are young

people and that the idea also our industry is a very viable industry

that has more capacity to create jobs in our community with more

investment we will be able to do more.

If you were in the position to make changes to the

entire YouWin scheme, what changes would you

make?

One very important thing I will change about the scheme will be

Mentorship program I will mandate the 1 year mentorship pro-

gram for all the awardee not optional because a lot of awardee did

not follow up with their mentor they did not follow the mentorship

program so they had no place to go when they had problems with

their business. Which mentors could have helped

Give out more money to manufacturing business who are still in

business after 2 years because its quite though in manufacturing

you have to be strong and a continuous investment is needed to

expand the market base so more money should be given to Manu-

facturer

The program has commenced once again, what advice

would you give to young people who intend to apply

for the grant?

My advice to young applying for YouWin 4 is as follows;

Firstly you must put things into the hand of God by praying about it

before filling the application remember you are not the only one

but Grace has a long way to go in all these.

Do research before filling submitting your application ,to find out

the real cost of setting up your kind of business at a capacity that

guarantee profit.

Chose a business you have passion for something you can do with-

out being paid and still have fun while doing the job.

You must show in your write up that you have experience in the

business and you understand the industry write your years of ex-

perience in your plan and for New business you must show that

for more training before the disbursement of funds to you

when you win.

Get you Financial angle right this is one of the most impor-

tant section that the Business expects looks at your figures

must be correct ,by finding out the price of everything you

will need to set up the business , location ,rent, cost of ma-

chine, training , salaries, equipment, profit potential , growth

plan and total that u need to start the business.

You must be chose your word because you don’t have luxury

to write too much words.

Locate your business close to where your raw material is

closer to reduce cost.

Finally, what are your future plans for your

business?

My plans are huge moving forward one is to make our Brand

name ROYAL brand of product an house hold name in all

homes across Nigeria I also want to expand our production

capacity to produce 10 tons of ROYAL Custard on a daily

bases this mean a yearly production capacity of 3000 tones ,

where by expanding our supply chain across south west,

North ,south south, south east Nigeria by increasing out

working capital , Buy new technology ,mass marketing and

implementing Advertising /activation plan for all product

across the chain line. Retraining of our key personnel and

adherence to SOP and global best practice .we are also com-

mitted to constantly increase the quality of our product to

meet the changing need of our customers through innova-

tion by fortification of our product with more Vitamins and

Mineral to support the body daily need

To also start construction of our CASSAVA Processing plant

that will produce HQCF High Quality Cassava Flour, HQCS

High Quality Cassava Starch, GARI Flour as a major raw mate-

rial for Manufactures of Toothpaste, Pharmaceutical, paper

with a daily capacity to 30tones fresh root into output 5

tones daily output at our permanent site at ilaro, Ogun state

after the federal poly road at olirulakan ,ilaro the project is

estimated to cost about 30 million naira with a high ROI.


Gross domestic product per capita: the total value of goods and

services produced in a country divided by the number of people

living there.

Incentive: something which is used to encourage people, espe-

cially to make them work harder, produce more or spend more

money.

Income statement: a financial document showing the amount

of money earned and spent in a particular period of time by a

company. This is usually called the profit and loss account in

British English.

Industrial espionage: the activity of secretly finding out a com-

pany’s plans, details of its products etc.

Infant industry: an industry in its early stages of development in

a particular country. Some people think that infant industries

should be helped with government money and protected from

international competition by import taxes etc.

letter of credit: In foreign trade, a written promise by an importer’s

bank to pay the exporter’s bank on a particular date or after a par-

ticular event, for example when the goods are sent by the exporter.

Interest: an amount paid by a borrower to a lender, for example to a

bank by someone borrowing money for a loan, or by a bank to a de-

positor.

Logo: a design or way of writing its name that a company or or-

ganization uses as its official sign on its products, advertising etc.

ISO: the name used internationally for the International Organiza-

tion for Standardization, whose purpose is to establish international

standards for services, goods, and industrial methods.

KISS: keep it simple, stupid; keep it short and simple. Used to say

that a method for doing something should be kept simple, in or-

der to avoid mistakes.

Labor union: an organization representing people working in a par-

ticular industry or profession, especially in meetings with their em-

ployers.

Limited company also limited liability company: a company where

individual shareholders lose only the cost of their shares if the com-

pany goes bankrupt, and not other property they own.

Market challenger: an organization or product that may take the

place of the organization or product that has the highest sales in its

market or industry.

Merchandise: goods that are produced in order to be sold,

especially goods that are sold in a store

Merger: an occasion when two or more companies, or-

ganizations etc join together to form a larger company

etc

Patent: an legal document giving a person or company

the right to make or sell a new invention, product, or

method of doing something and stating that no other

person or company is allowed to do this.

Middleman: a person, business, organization etc that

buys things in order to sell them to someone else, or that

helps to arrange business deals for other people

Mission statement: a short written statement made by an

organization, intended to communicate its aims to custom-

ers, employees, shareholders etc.

Nepotism: the practice of giving jobs to members of your

family when you are in a position of power.

Niche market: a market for a product or service, per-

haps an expensive or unusual one that does not have

many buyers but that may be profitable for companies

who sell it.

Protectionism: the idea that a government should try to

help an industry in its country by taxing foreign goods that

compete with it, limiting the number that can be imported

etc, and the actions that it takes to do this .

Public limited company (PLC): a limited company

whose shares are freely sold and traded, in Britain pub-

lic limited companies have the letters PLC after their

name.

Quota: an official limit on the number or amount of

something that is allowed in a particular period.

R and D: research and development; the part of a busi-

ness concerned with studying new ideas and developing

new products.

Rationalize: to make a business or organization more ef-

fective by getting rid of unnecessary staff, equipment etc,

or reorganizing its structure.


Nigerian

Business

Icon

Chief (Dr.) Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma

The world is filled with mavericks. The world is filled with

people who were once rejected in a particular field, because

they were deemed unfit, but later turned out to be the chief

corner stone of that field. Walt Disney was sacked from his

job because the editor believed he was not creative enough.

Chief (Dr.) Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma a.k.a Innoson, joins

in the rank of these extraordinary wonders. It would amaze

many people, as it did me, that Innoson was rejected from

studying Engineering because he couldn’t meet cut-off point.

Today, he is a father of engineers, being the first black man

to own an automobile company and build cars from the very

scratch.

C hief (Dr.) Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma popularly

known simply as Innoson has begun a revolution in

Nigeria that has given the country amazing global repu-

tation. Innoson has proved what he set out to prove, which was

that, Nigerians can also do it.

Chukwuma was born in Umudium, Nnewi, Anambra state in 1961.

He is the last of six children born to Mr. and Mrs. ChukwumaMo-

jekwu of Uru-UmudimNnewi, Anambra state.

He was not born into a rich family. After his basic education in his

home town his elder brother introduced him to business where he

started off being an apprentice in the patent medical trade. Next

he ventured into the motorcycle spare parts business. He tarried

in the motorcycle spare parts trade for a few years and dur-

ing this time learnt a great deal about automobiles.

In 1981, Chukwuma registered the name of his business as

Innoson Nigeria Limited, and traded in motorcycle parts and

accessories. His business grew steadily with time and soon he

was one of the top motorcycle spare parts dealer in the re-

gion. During this period, most of the motorcycles that were

being brought into Nigeria were second-hand motorcycles,

this was because the price of a brand new motorcycle was

beyond the means of most people.

While on a trip oversees, Chukwuma discovered that there

were four major companies that were in the business of im-

porting motorcycles. Leventis was importing Honda motorcy-

cles, Yamaco was importing Yamaha, Bolus was importing

Suzuki and CFAO was importing Moblet. Chukwuma discov-

ered that the reason motorcycles were expensive was be-

cause they were being imported in wholly in containers. A

40ft container contains only about 40 units of motorcycles.

This way, the bikes were always expensive. Chukwuma

thought about this unfortunate situation for a while and then

conceived an idea. The idea was birthed by reason of his ex-

perience in the spare parts business.

Chukwuma took a 40ft container and filled it with 200 units

of motorcycles. How did he do it? Simple. He simply disas-

sembled the bikes into parts thereby allowing more room in

the container. When the containers filled with motorcycle


NIGERIAN BUSINESS ICON


parts gets to Nigeria, Chukwuma hires a team of mechanics to

reassemble them back. Therefore the price of Chukwuma’s

bikes fell as low as by 40 percent compared to the prevailing

market price.

The first time Chukwuma brought

knocked down motorcycles, he

brought them in five containers.

It took him three months to sell

all of them. He went back and

brought in ten containers, it took

him one month. Next he brought

in twenty containers and that

took him one week. By the time

he brought in fifty containers people were already paying in

advance.

Consequently, the price of mo-

torcycles fell, from about

150,000 to 60,000. People

stopped patronizing imported

second-hand motorcycles, which

sold for about 90,000 and

started buying the cheaper new

motorcycles.

During this period, Chukwuma

discovered that motorcycles contained a lot of plastics. This

revelation was what prompted

him to create Innoson Technical

and Industrial Company Limited,

an outfit dedicated to plastic

manufacturing. He had plans to

produce some of the plastic lo-

cally. Presently, Innoson’s plastic

company is the biggest plastic

company in Nigeria, with more

than 60 plastic products in its

ever growing list.

The nation recognized Chukwuma

as a brilliant industrialist, but when in February 2007, he incor-

porated Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited to

produce commercial vehicles, utility vehicles and passenger cars,

many thought he was taking things too far. Chukwuma made the

first statement at convincing

skeptics at the 2ndNnewi Inter-

national Auto Trade Fair where

he displayed publicly some of

his vehicles.Chukwuma is the

first man to produce truly Nige-

rian vehicles.

Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing

Company Limited received rec-

ognition and great commenda-

tion from President Goodluck Jonathan, who mandated that

government agencies that

needed vehicles must first

check at Innoson for its avail-

ability before they patronized

any foreign auto maker. De-

spite the presidential man-

date, Chukwuma observed

that some ministries still pre-

fer to buy vehicles from auto

makers that they were accus-

tomed to, like Toyota, rather

than giving IVM a chance. But the auto boss is optimistic that

things would change with

time.

Several notable companies

and government have ap-

proached Chukwuma regard-

ing partnership, notable

amongst them is the govern-

ment of Ghana, who have

asked Chukwuma to come

and set up a similar plant in

the country. Nissan, the world

auto giant have written to

express interest.


NIGERIAN BUSINESS ICON


Chukwuma also founded General Tyres and

Tubes Limited, a company he hopes will meet the

nation’s tyres and tubes needs for both motorcy-

cles and cars. There are four manufacturing com-

panies under the umbrella name Innoson group;

Innoson Nigeria Limited, company dedicated to

motorcycle and tricycle manufacturing and spare

part trading; Innoson Technical and Industrial

Company, dedicated to plastic manufacturing;

Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing, involved in the

manufacturing of buses and other vehicles; Gen-

eral Tyres and Tubes, dedicated to Tyre and

Tubes manufacturing.

In recognition to his outstanding achievements

and effort President Goodluck Jonathan con-

ferred on him the national honor of the Officer of

the Federal Republic (OFR) on November 2011.

He was also awarded honorary Doctorate degree

in Business Administration by the Enugu State

University of Tecnology, Enugu. Dr. Innocent

Chukwuma is married to Ebele and they are

blessed with children.

BIG ACTION BREEDS BIG CONFIDENCE

T urn your big thoughts into big action as fast as you

can. Do not let excuses – ‘’ I’m not smart enough,’’

or ‘’I do not have enough experience,’’ or ‘’I’m too young,’’ or

‘’I’m too old’’ too female or too black, too fat or too thin, too

bald, too athletic, or too nerdy, hold you back. These are just

empty excuses, drop them.

Excuses are a symptom of fear. Plunge in and do the thing you

fear the most and your fear will vanish. Nobody is born confi-

dent. All confidence is acquired. Get the action habit and your

confidence will soar.

Do not spend too much time planning or trying to anticipate and

solve problem before they happen, that is just another excuse

for procrastination. Until you start, you won’t know where the

problem will occur, you won’t have the experience to solve

them. Instead, get into action, and solve the problem as they

arise.

Stop thinking and start doing. Start with small things and take on

progressively bigger and bigger challenges until you build confi-

dence. This is how Olympic athletes get to the top; they push

themselves to bigger and bigger goals one step at a time.

It helps to get a mentor to help you jump to a higher level fester.

That is why there are master teachers and coaches in every field.

For some reason we’re all receptive to advice we receive from

authority figures. Find an authority figure in your field and get

his or her advice and encouragement to take bigger and bolder

steps. Their confidence helps to boost your confidence.

How To Decide a Lifetime Career

A re you confused as to picking a lifetime career?

Then read this three simple ways to deciding a

lifetime career.

Consider what you enjoy doing: One of the best places to start

considering building your career is with those activities you

most enjoy. Be specific, it is not good enough to say you want

to ''work with people'', more than 95% of all jobs will entail

doing just that. When are you happiest? Most fulfilled? Most

excited? These are the indicators that can help identify your life

work. Even if you are not the best at something you enjoy do-

ing, you will likely improve as you spend time working at that

activity.

What do other people tell you you're good at: Feedback from

your friends, family, co-workers and even your boss can be in-

valuable; it can help you see yourself as others see you. Don't

dismiss those skills and attributes that comes easily to you,

these can indicate natural gifts that you may be able to use

to your own advantage.

Focus on developing your interest and skills: Find a work envi-

ronment that supports you and what you like to do by allowing

you to use your natural skills.

Most youth spend time and energy fighting work circumstance

they hate instead of further developing their natural skills and

interest. If you are good at something, you have the chance to

be great at it if you focus on it.


Words by Valentine Ogbamebor Words by Valentine Ogbamebor


HOW TO REGISTER YOUR BUSINESS

NAME ONLINE AT C.A.C

HOW TO-

I n this dotcom age, it is very sad to know that many things in Nigeria

must still be done in a brick and mortar facility. Until recently, business

name registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission was the

same. But thanks to some ingenious heads at that agency, business

name registration can now be done online! No need to start hunting for the

closest commission office, or dealing with inept officials, you can now regis-

ter your business with more comfort right from your living room.

How do you go about this?

Very simple, go to the Corporate Affairs Commission Website available at

www.corporateaffairscommission.com You would need to acquaint yourself

with some of the services that the commission offers, but most importantly,

you would need to know the price for these services as it applies to you.

For instance; Reservation of name cost #500

Registration of private company with share capital of 1 million or less cost

#10,000

Registration of company not having a share capital cost #20,000 etc

The process of business name registration is pretty easy and straightforward.

But before you register a name you need to search for its availability. I will

guide you.

-On the website Click on ‘Forms’, then click on ‘availability check and reser-

vation of name’.

-Next is ‘Name availability search’

You would be required to open an account with the website, use a username

you can easily remember, and for the password, the commission will supply

you a password in your email but you will be given the option to change it to

your personal password later.

After opening the account you will be asked to fill a couple of forms, where

you would supply the intended business name (option 1 and 2; the reason

for supplying two names is because if the first name has been taken the

other can easily be reserved. In the situation where both names have been

taken, you would need to repeat this process again, also, you would have to

pay another #500), personal information (date of birth, address,

NIN…), business type information etc.

When you are done filling the form, you would have to pay #500

for name search/reservation, you can do this with your ATM card

or internet banking.

It should take a few days for you to know the outcome; if your

business name is available or not. If it is, you can proceed immedi-

ately to register it (information given below), but if it isn’t, then

you would need to think up something else.

For those whose business names are available and wish to register

it, you should follow these easy steps. (These options are only

opened to people who were successful in the name search stage)

-Go to the home page of the website and click on ‘register a busi-

ness name’ Enter the business code of the business you wish to

register.-When you click on ‘proceed’ from the above stage, the

approved business name appears, you are to click ‘Action’ and the

‘Register’

-A form will appear which you are to fill; the form is about your

identity card type.-The next form will be for your business; fill in

the necessary business information.

-The next form is for Proprietors or Corporation. Click on Proprie-

tors and then fill in the information of the principal officer of the

company. You can add more Proprietors by clicking on ‘Add’. You

are free to delete any Proprietors at any time you want. When you

have added all officers, click ‘continue’

-You would need to fill a few more forms on the business after

which you would be given the chance to select the documents that

you wish to have and the number you wish to have.

-The above stage is the last stage before payment of 10,000 for

business name registration.

I hope I have been able to offer some help and guidance on busi-

ness name reservation and registration. If you have any questions,

pls feel free to send us a mail at

[email protected]

We wish you the very best in your business endeavors.

Amazing Business Story Paul Smith

T he story of Paul Smith takes the theme of school-dropout

-turn-success to a whole new level. Not only was Paul a

dropout, he had no business ambition or interest whatso-

ever. His entry into business has been described by many

biographers as accidental. His childhood dream was to be a profes-

sional racing cyclist, but today he has built his name into an iconic

brand in the fashion world.

Paul Smith was born in Nottingham, England on July 5, 1946. He left

school at age 15 with no qualification or career plan and began work-

ing in a local clothing warehouse as an errand boy. His love for cy-

cling was great, so he rode his bike to and from work. Until one day,

two years after, that he was involved in a car accident. That unfortu-

nate event was going to shatter his dreams and end his ambition of

being a professional cyclist.

Paul spent six months in the hospital, during which he met and made

some new friends. After he was discharged, he arranged a meet with

his friends at a local pub. Coincidentally, the pub was frequented by

students from the local art college.

Paul listened to and studied the students, and it was at this point

that he fell in love with art and fashion. He knew right then what he

wanted to do with his busted life.

In 1969, Paul met Pauline Denyer, the woman who would later be his

wife and who was highly instrumental to his success. Pauline was

then a Fashion design student as the Royal College of Art. With great

encouragement from Pauline and a small savings, Paul opened his

first shop in 1970. The shop was just 12ft square in size. Also, during

this time, Paul began to take evening classes for tailoring, where he

learnt how to cut cloth and all the basics of fashion.

Paul started by selling other brands, but soon he began to sell pieces

that he had designed himself and had made by local manufacturers.

In 1976, Paul showed his first menswear collection in Paris under the

Paul Smith label. In 1982, he opened his second store in

London. The third store came in 1983, while the fourth in

1987. In 1990, Paul created his first children’s collection.

He introduced the women’s collection in 1993, after dis-

covering that 15% of his clothes were bought by women.

Today, there are 13 different collections.

Paul has received several accolades and recognition, but

the most notable was in 2000, when he was knighted by

the Queen. On the same day he wed Pauline, his partner of

thirty years.

Paul still maintains his love for sports and he gladly dresses

many sport’s men. In May 2009 Sir Paul Smith dressed the

Manchester football team ahead of their Champion’s

League Final match against Barcelona.

Despite his astounding success, Sir Paul Smith still main-

tains a humble demeanor, and has been described as

‘down to earth’ by many who know him. He once wrote,

‘The obsessive pursuit of status, wealth and power has

done much to drag ambition’s reputation into the mud’. He

also said, ‘My top tip is to take it *his business+ slow. Life is

a joy. You don’t have to be rich and famous straightaway.


Take it easy, grow gently and you’ll have a lovely life”.

Paul Smith’s products are wholesaled in seventy five coun-

tries. He has seventeen shops in London and over 200 in

Japan. Other countries where his shops are located include

Paris, Milan, New York, Korea, and UAE. Paul continues to

be an integral part of his establishment, acting as both de-

signer and chairman, therefore his shops and products all

over reflects his personal touch and character.

LESSONS FROM PAUL SMITH

1. The closing of one door could mean a better

one is about to open:

Paul’s childhood ambition was to be a professional cyclist,

but then the accident came that ruined all of that. It was a

massive disappointment, one that could make some people

depressed and even suicidal. But without this accident Paul

would have never found out about his interest in arts or his

talent for fashion. When disappointment comes, we should

not be too quick to get angry and sullen. The closing of that

door could just mean that something better is about to hap-

pen.

2. Spousal influence: Without Pauline Denyer, there would

most likely not be a Paul Smith designer. There is not a place

you would read Paul Smith’s story without finding a signifi-

cant mention of her name. The failure of any man can be

blamed, in most part, on his wife. Similarly, his success.

Most women have no idea how much power and influence

they wield over their men. You can make him better, you

can inspire him to greater works. It does not matter if you

know only little about the technicalities of his business or

career; your words of encouragement, unflinching support

and providing a conducive environment would go a long

way.


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Young Naija Entrepreneurs' Magazine 3rd edition

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