← Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Building Businesses That Scale in Africa: Insights from Two Marketing Masters - Paa Kwesi Folson x Blessing Onwukwe Hanson
01:27:33
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- [00:00]
A
One size fits all or a custom approach.
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B
I'm saying a customer approach.
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C
I don't agree with that because I believe that we use ourselves as the goal. We are trying to sell to ourselves instead of listening to the customer. We don't listen to the customer enough. A lot of people are selling, but they're not making money. They are posting thousands of bags of deliveries going out, but their business is struggling because their pricing is way off.
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B
They get stuck and consumed by the hassle, but they're not consumed by strategy. That's the difference between a lot of big companies and small companies. Most people just though I need mine to start, you need mine to scale, you need a customer to start. So if I'm zero, I'm going to spend. There are three types of currencies. This is your most default currency. If you don't have money and you don't have a network, you need to leverage on a currency or leverage on this capital.
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A
Why most young businesses across Africa fail very quickly.
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B
Number one, I think.
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A
Do you think entrepreneurship is for everyone?
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C
I think everybody should have an interest in entrepreneurship.
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B
So it's for everybody.
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C
Yes.
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B
I don't think everybody is one to be an entrepreneur. I don't think everybody can be an entrepreneur.
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A
So. Hello and welcome to Connected Minds Podcast. My name is Derek Abayte and thank you so much for supporting this podcast, bringing it to where we are at this moment today. I've got something special for you, Very special. So special that I'm nervous. And what I have packed in our studio today is that I've got two entrepreneurs. They will talk about their story, their business, what they do for people. And I would let them go through their own perspective and what they think about each person's idea. I would want to give them role scenarios from each and let's see how they can turn their businesses around. This is definitely a conversation for every aspiring entrepreneur. You haven't seen this in the screens in Ghana before. Like this? Never. And we bringing this to you because we value you as our audience. So if you are not watching the video, Please head to YouTube so you can watch it. And if you make it to the end, I'd love to know in my comments section. I've got Pakosi here and I've got blessing. How you doing?
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C
I'm excited. A little nervous, but excited. And I've watched a lot of your podcasts online and it's so nice to see you do this in person. Yes. I'm so happy to be here.
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A
Thank you.
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B
Yeah, thank you.
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C
Yes.
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A
How Are you?
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B
I'm fine. How about you?
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A
I'm fantastic. I mean, you saw me doing a lot of running around. I do this a lot. Even on my construction sites. I'm with the people with I, I. It's just the way I expect things to be done. I always want to put myself in it. So when the video comes out, I want to identify myself.
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B
It's a pleasure doing this, especially with Blessing, and I'm excited for what we have to do today. This is different to the space, and so we make magic.
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A
Yes, absolutely. And I think this was an idea dropped from heaven.
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C
Yeah.
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A
Because we have originally planned to just speak with Blessing today, tell us everything she does, how she helped businesses scale. And then all of a sudden, you know, it dropped in and says, nah, Pakwisi must be involved in this because he's an expert in this field. You know, he helped businesses scale as well. Ye has a lot of marketing strategies. So you guys do very similar things even though you have your own businesses. But I think this would be fantastic for the audience.
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C
Yes.
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B
Can't wait.
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A
Fantastic. So let's start off with Blessing.
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C
Yeah.
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A
I've already asked you how you're doing. The first question I've got for you is what do you do for the people?
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C
What do I do for the people? Yes. So I come from a background of pharmacy. I didn't want to do pharmacy initially, but, I mean, my parents pushed me to do something science related, but I knew that I wanted something more. I didn't want to get up and sit in the pharmacy every day and sell drugs. Right. So I went into entrepreneurship and that changed my life completely. So now I'm able to run, I'm able to sustain my life completely on my business. And I realized that a lot of people want that as well for themselves, but they don't have it. Not because they can't do it or not because I did something out of the ordinary. It's just because of their mindset, just because they don't believe that they can and they're not willing to hold on enough to do it. Yes. So I have, I started something called the business of your dreams, where I impact into the lives of people, into their businesses. I help them to launch and scale their businesses as well. So that's what I do for the people. I have mentorship mentoring sessions where I meet people every week. We dive deep into your business. I have resources for hair business owners as well, because I am an expert in the hair business as well. Yes. So, yeah, so that's Something that I really is my passion, I love to impact. I can speak about business all day. Yeah.
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A
And privacy.
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B
Yeah.
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A
For awesome. What do you do?
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B
Okay, so I would say I do what I do for three main reasons. Number one, to shape thoughts, mold characters and propose the destinies of individuals and businesses.
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C
Yeah.
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B
So that's what I mainly do. And so I do that through my work as a speaker and a coach and a consultant. And so over the time, I've had the privilege of coaching and training multi million dollar companies from real estate companies. I can name a few names. But now. And so I've been doing that ever since I was professionally, since I was 22 years old. And so I've seen a lot of businesses, I've worked with a lot of people. I've bring in new ideas because I'm young. And so I bring fresh, innovative ideas to the table. I help people to, to optimize their marketing processes, especially because that's where I'm at. Well, that's where I'm an expert in. And so I come there and I build your stuff, I train your marketing team. And I've worked with so many businesses and there are some people that we actually do the marketing for them. And so, yeah, I go around speaking to people, helping them to understand business from a different point of view. And yeah, that's what I do. You make magic. Yeah.
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A
Through our conversation.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Someone told me that you can build LinkedIn accounts.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Faster than most businesses can for themselves. How do you do that?
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B
Yeah, so I do that. The number of strategies and everything. But the whole thing is that on LinkedIn I can take somebody and take you from 0 to 10, 30 days. I've done it multiple times, multiple different accounts, people, we teach the strategies. And so the strategies are very much the system that we use. And once you just copy the system, you have the same outcome. Because there are some people who have a lot of followers on LinkedIn, but they can't explain the growth. Like they just maybe made a post and it went viral a couple of times. And so that's how it happened. But they can't tell you. Okay, I pressed 1, 2, 3 and I got here. And so what I did was that since When I joined LinkedIn, nobody knew who I was. I came from obscurity to limelight. And so LinkedIn was my medium to come into the limelight. And so what I did was that I developed a system that I can use. And so once I had that system, I just got to teach it to other people. For free, as a start. And once that working for them, they started telling their friends and their friends, their other friends and the other person, the other friends. And by the time I realized it became a business and that's how I started, and I started charging people and doing that.
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A
Take me through the system step by step.
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B
Definitely no problem at all. So. So there are a number of things that you need to do. So I call it Vava B A V V A. So Vava starts. Number one, vision may sound, but you need to start vision. Number two, authenticity. Number three, value. Number four, visibility. And number five, authority. If you follow those five steps, you actually have LinkedIn visibility. Now, what do I mean? Most people come on LinkedIn and don't even know whatever they're looking for, so their vision is wrong because they come there looking for a job. Meanwhile, I mean, if you want opportunities, LinkedIn is a social media platform. You can't just come and all you think about is a job. So because, because their primary thought, they approach everything so wrongly, you should have a real goal, a real outcome, a real connection. What exactly are you trying to get out of this platform? It should be properly defined. If you don't have that, most people have their vision wrong. And so every other thing now goes, goes away. Now authenticity. Authenticity is, I would say, is the bedrock of personal branding. And so what you want to do is that you want to be able to find a way to not be like everybody else. You need to, right here to your authenticity in terms of you have your value, you have your things, your core, your core elements. But how can I do it in my way? That is not necessarily a standard procedure for everybody within my space. So you need to be able to define your authenticity. Now let me go to this part. This is where I want to go deeper into everything. So now the value. Now your value. Value comes from the Latin word or from an old French word known as Valois. Valois means worthy. So when we're talking about values like what are you bringing to the table that is worthy for someone else? And so most people come on LinkedIn and they're just, they're just the, oh, I got a job, or I, I just started this new company, I just did that. So they're just using LinkedIn as a platform for updates, but you should use it as an update, as a platform for value. In other words, you should use it as a platform to be able to give something worthy to people. And so what most people do is that they come on LinkedIn and they don't share content at all that is vulnerable. What I do is that I spend. When I first started LinkedIn I was posting twice a day, sharing value about random things, leadership and marketing, twice every single day. By the time I was done with my university, I had over five jobs reaching out to me. I don't have a cv and so it was just because I was using as a platform whereby I was sharing my worth. And so when you start doing that, especially at a very, in a very consistent manner with high volume, I'm telling you like you are going to grow. Because now the thing about LinkedIn platform is this. So let me, let me just explain this way. So on LinkedIn you cannot run ads on your personal account. Now on Instagram you can press boost post. I know probably used that before, but on LinkedIn you can't do that for yourself. Now they're trying to include that into the platform but like you can't do that, you can't boost a post personally. So the only way you can run ads or LinkedIn is using a company account. Now what that means is that the company accounts, they've killed the reach for it, basically. I don't say they've killed it, but the reach for company account is not so much that as a company you are forced to buy ads. That's the strategy. But when it's a personal account, the organic reach for a personal account is so high. Right, because you can't run ad. So they made, they've optimized the organic reach for you to be able to get a lot of views and most people don't understand that. So they're just on LinkedIn and they don't even know what to do. So once you start actually actively using the platform, because less than 1% of the LinkedIn population actually post on LinkedIn and LinkedIn has over a billion members. So if you think just a number of people, not to even talk of Ghana, not even talk of Accra, how many people are posting consistently? So the moment you start and you start posting value, I am telling you the the platform is designed to give you a lot of visibility.
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A
Okay, great, yeah, Blessing here, your business. And the reason I wanted to take us through the LinkedIn strategies because I know blessing is not effective on LinkedIn. Okay, so that was essentially for her, the value for her business and her business, her personal brand. Now listen, take me through how you got your capital to start your business.
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C
It's very funny. So, yes, well, seven years ago, right. I've always been entrepreneurial, so I Always find a way to sell something. When I was eight, I remember there's this pack of Jello toffee in class. I would say I'll buy the pack and sell it 1,1 to my classmates. JSS2 I was selling bags and belts that my father was bringing to the teachers to fellow students. So I've always been thinking of something to do. So initially I was making wigs. That was in my final year in university. So that does that. You don't need much capital, you just need skill, you just need to offer your services to people. So I had traction because I know how to market, I know how to talk about my services to people. So I got some traction. And then in national, when I was doing my national service, a friend suggested I buy hair from Nigeria and sell. So that was how I started. It wasn't with a lot of money. I just bought two sets of hair. That's three bundles each, two sets of hair. And then a friend of mine gave me a thousand Ghana CDs to start. So that was two sets of hair I bought. And that's how I started my, my business, Clamine Inches. So it wasn't a lot of money. And I know a lot of people always ask how much do I need to start a business? And I find that question very amusing.
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A
Why do you think people don't need money to start a business?
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B
Business?
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C
Well, the thing is we put so much emphasis on the product. The product, the product when we are trying to start a business. The product is really important. Of course, yes. But having the product without having the marketing skills, their sales skills, the product doesn't move, it sits there. Right. So you can even sell things that don't belong to you. So in that case you don't even need money to sell it.
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A
Okay, how am I going to do that then?
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C
Okay, so that's really interesting because I know you mentioned something like that in Connected Minds Live, right? And it's something that is, I think is making waves now. Right? We put too much emphasis on the product. But you don't necessarily need a product to make money right now. Something like this is making waves, right? A lot of people have products but they don't know how to market it. A lot of people have a lot of goods sitting down. But yeah, they don't know how to use social media, they don't know how to use email list. Right. So once you build the skill, the sales skills, the marketing skill, you can now sell that. So you go to somebody who has the product, you ask the person, what is the least amount you are willing to sell this for? Right. And then you're like, okay, so I'll bring you customers. I don't want any of your capital. I don't want any of your cost price. I just want a commission on every client I bring you. So people have used this method to generate thousands of dollars, and that is your seed money for whatever else you need to do. Another way run a business without using capital or money is partnerships. Honestly, we don't put enough emphasis on partnerships. Whenever I meet somebody, I always find ideas. I always get ideas from conversations. Just yesterday, I was just chatting with somebody who sold cars, and I had so many ideas because I realized that he had a flaw in his hiring system. He has a lot of employees, but none of them. None of them is educated. So he struggles with sharing his vision, making them understand what he wants. And I'm like, I know how to hire. Why don't I just tell him I can hire for you, I can create SOPs for you onboard, your staff, and then you just pay me? That is how to make money without money. Right. Another way is we just spoke, and then from just speaking to him, I know he's doing so many things. He has. He can build LinkedIn platforms for people. He can do so much. So I just had an idea. Okay. So how do we work together to make money? How do we make money from our partnerships? Yes. So there are so many ways to make money. I think we need to move away from being stuck on how much do I need to start a business? That question is getting old. How much do I need to start a business? Yeah, we need to move away from that.
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A
So in terms of. And I love it.
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C
Yeah.
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A
Right. And by the way, I just want to chip in.
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C
Yeah.
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A
That looking for a product.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And adding your markup to it.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And then selling it.
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C
In your own.
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A
Way is different from somebody asking you that they want a service from you or they want a product from you. And are you telling that person that the highest quality of this product that they can get is 2,000 cities or $2,000? And then you take that money.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And then you go and buy them a substandard product.
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B
Yeah.
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C
Okay.
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A
And then you keep the difference.
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C
It's it. Yeah, that's what we are saying.
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A
Yes. What we are saying is that you identify a product right in the market, then you bring that online, or you can do it face to face.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And then you sell it. But the person must be aware of the markup. You want to Put on top.
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C
Yeah, true.
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A
Right. And then you make your money from that.
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C
Yeah.
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A
Don't tell somebody that you're going to go and buy them a cup. The highest quality is going to cost 2,000. And then you go. And then you get the lowest quality of 500 and then you keep a thousand five hundred. That you are not being.
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C
I mean, that is not even scalable. Because how do you, how do you build a business from that? From being dishonest from the beginning? Nobody's going to trust you. Yeah. No integrity. It doesn't make sense. Yeah.
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A
I think Blessing has just spoken about two ways where you can start a business partnership and then, you know, offer your services to existing businesses, whether it's product or services. Now, I do understand that you speak very much about by our soft skills.
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B
Yeah.
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A
What sort of skills do you think people need to be able to then go sell the products?
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B
Oh, definitely. Number one thing, communication skills. But when I'm talking about communication, I'm talking about communication to sell. I call it speak to sell. That's what I call it. Now, most people do not know how to sell. Most people think selling is convincing, but selling is persuasion and persuasion are two different things. Convincing is when I get you to do something for my own reasons, but persuasion is when I get you to do something for your own reasons. So for the customer's reasons, not my reasons. Most people start a business and then they already define their reasons why people should buy the thing. But what you should find out is why would my customer want this thing? What are their desires, their goals? And so the moment you learn about communication, because communication is this communication comes from the latter one. That's communication and communication app simply means. It simply means. Simply means a making common. What that means is that you're supposed to find a way to find a common ground with the person. Now when I talk about common ground, talking about two party streets, communication is a two, is a two way street. You can't just, you can't just. If I'm talking to you and you're not responding to me, that's not communication. I'm just the one talking, but we're not communicating. Communication always has a listener and the person speaking. And so when I'm talking about soft skills, what you need to do is that you need to have communication as your priority. The main soft skill that you are using to sell.
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A
All right, so you've just spoken about communication skills.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Right. What do you think about that, Blessing?
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C
Yeah, so I love that he said that. I really love it, because I want, I have, I have a perfect example for him. So a platform or they were developing a platform. So their sales rep reached out to me and then she wanted me to use the platform to book clients for services, for salon services. So I mainly told her that we don't offer services, we do a lot of retail. She went ahead to still talk about how the platform can help me to get clients for services.
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B
Yeah.
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C
And then I said it again, we don't do services, we offer retail. Then she was like, okay, thank you. Then afterwards, the next day, she went ahead to send me her portfolio again for the same service I had said I don't want. So a lot of the time we train people, we train our sales reps to just go out there and talk about the product. So they don't even know if the product is right for the customer. Because she could have told me that, okay, they are going to maybe adjust this a bit or something. But she was just talking about what she had been trained to talk, talk about. So that's what happens a lot when we get sales calls. Yes.
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A
Great. What other skill do you think people need to be able to sell products without owning the products?
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B
Definitely emotional intelligence is one of them because the soft skill.
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A
But.
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B
And I think it all boils down to the communication thing. But let me use this in, in this way instead of emotional attention. I love to say adaptability is a soft skill. Most people don't know how to be adaptive to situations. So I mean, because you're in a marketplace with different types of customers, with different types of wants, traits, needs and everything. And so how then can you be able to adapt your services to somebody else? So for example, somebody has a particular need that they want, can you be able to find a way to tailor that product for them? That's what we call adaptability, because it's about most people. Some people don't just want a regular service. They want you to be able to find a way to tailor what you have for them in a particular way. So that is one of the things that most people don't have. They don't have the idea or the grit to be able to be adaptable. Whatever they are selling, they are so stuck on it, so strict, they are so cemented in their opinions about their services, about their products. But are you willing to make a bend? Are you willing to modify your product offerings just for the person you're working with? The moment you have adaptability coupled with communication, I think you'll make a killing in business.
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A
Most People say that that's not absolutely true.
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B
Okay.
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A
In the sense that they think they work hard enough and they've tried everything, it still doesn't work out.
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B
Okay.
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A
What do you have to say? Blessing.
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C
Yes. So a lot of people think hard work just means you're going to succeed. But the thing is, we start businesses and we use ourselves as the goal. So we are trying to sell to ourselves instead of listening to the customer. We don't listen to the customer enough. So you bring something, clearly there's no market need for it. But you believe that in marketing it and putting it in front of people's faces, in waking up early every morning to shout about your product, you are magically going to change the customer's needs and make the customer want your product. It doesn't work. Yeah. So hard work doesn't mean anything if you're not willing to apply a bit of what he said, communication, not just convincing, persuading. Right. And also in adaptability. Yes. Being willing to understand that, okay, this is not working. How do I change it? How do I shift it a bit for it to work? Right. And also, sometimes as the founder of the business, I don't believe you need to work hard. Your. Your job is not to be working hard physically, because when you work hard, you don't make room for your mind to think and come up with ideas. Because that's your job as a founder. You're supposed to work on the business and find ways to grow the business. You're supposed to meet people who can give you inspiration, ideas to grow the business. But most of the time we find entrepreneurs waking up early, taking all the videos. They want to be their face. They want to do everything in the business by themselves. Yes. And that is not equal. That doesn't necessarily mean your business is going to work.
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B
Definitely.
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A
What's your view on that?
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B
I completely agree. And so I'll say, when tall feels, tall feels, strategy always works. Let me say that again. When tall feels, strategy always works. So most people have been working hard. They work work hard, hard, hard, but they are not being strategic. When you are strategic, that is where you are able to win. Most people don't take the time out of their busy schedules or they are just. They are so stuck with working hard until they get stuck and consumed by the hassle, but they're not consumed by strategy. That's the difference between a lot of big companies and small companies or big brands and small brands. And so one of my, one of my godfathers told me this. When the tough Gets going, the tough seek collaboration. I mean the quote is when the tough gets going, the the and the going gets tough. When the wing was tough, the tough gets going. Yeah, but that's not true. When the going gets tough, the talk seek collaboration. And so what you need to do is that you need to be strategic. And that's City of collaboration is being strategic because you need most people when, when they are working so hard, like, oh my God, I'll be working so hard. I'll be applying to a lot of jobs. Have you decided to be strategic? Because I see. Because I do a lot of, because of the LinkedIn thing, I help people also get like jobs remote in Ghana. Here. Here in Ghana, outside of Ghana and all of that. And so you see some posts, oh, I've been applied to jobs every day. Have you decided to be strategic for once on LinkedIn? One of the things that you can do this is outside the realm of this business. I just want to say this, is that there's a feature called because everybody puts their school on there. So if, let's say I'm in Ashese or I'm in Cape Coast University, like it's over there, you put on your page. And so when I open the school's page, I can literally just go to the page and look at the alumni. Now I go to the list of the alumni and just go there and just look at that, look at somebody and see that, oh, this person is working over here. Just text a person, say, oh, hello, I'm an alumni from this. And that what happens is that because you both share a bond, it's called affinity, affinity bias in psychology, because people share a bond, what happens is that you're going to leverage on that affinity, that common ground and use that. Because I mean when you go to like when you're outside of Ghana and probably in the UK and you see your fellow Ghanaian, you see the way you react just because of that common ground is the same thing. And that's called strategic thinking. So I'm not just going to apply to a job, I'm just going to look for alumni and alumni asking for a job opening. If there's one in his company, then apply to that company and he becomes my voice in that company. I say, oh, I kind of know this person. Especially if you kind of target somebody in the HR recruiter space or you're cool to go. And to most people, whether it's a business in career, whatever they're doing, they are just doing the work without being strategic. And the People that always win are the people that always prioritize strategy.
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A
That's a smart. Thank you. You have helped several businesses.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Grow.
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B
Yes.
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A
On the Internet. Give me example of some businesses that you took from zero to wherever you took them.
- [25:27]
B
Definitely. So those are coaching company that we were helping. And so they weren't doing anything at all in terms of they weren't selling any products. Not selling anything. I mean the company was there, they had their products, their services on the website, but they hadn't made any sales. And so what we had to do was that we had to now we had to realign their offer. So we restocked them, we looked at everything and then we restructured everything and then we found a way to position that offer in front of the client. So what we simply do is this most. And that's a type of an information business. And so what we do is that we simply give people kind of a free trial first because there's something that. From Rastle dancing. Okay. So he has something called. He calls the secret formula. So who were bait results. So when you're trying to sell something, can you find a way to bait them to get them attracted to whoever? So first thing that we did was that we simply just put up a free something. Free something to taste. So for example, if it's. Since it was the coaching business, we did a free webinar. The free webinar. We then kind of positioned the webinar in a particular way whereby we're able to give them a lot of value. But at the same time we sold some offers at the back. So once we did that, the person went from literally zero to now having a lot of money coming in into the coaching business for them to now start doing workshops and stuff like that and doing more things that they wanted to do. And so it's just about that, just about moving from something, giving something out for free. Most people are not willing to do that in Ghana. They're not able to put out lead magnets. I can go to lead magnets. It's a whole different conversation. But you can do that for your business and it's going to really change everything about everything. We've also helped a shipping company just move. We've also helped people also in the. We have this company that they help people build builders like these supply cranes and all of that. And so what we did was that we simply took whatever they had combined it with. There's a way to get free traffic somewhere on LinkedIn. And so instead of running free ads for Them and the business just exploded. And so it started getting some people coming in.
- [27:26]
A
50,000 young businesses across Africa.
- [27:29]
B
Yeah.
- [27:30]
A
What value do you think you can give to businesses should they come to you?
- [27:33]
B
Okay, marketing number one. So marketing, marketing, marketing. Most people don't understand marketing to its core. And so that's why I help people understand, understand, help people to understand how they can market better. Not just organically, but paid. Because when you're trying to skill to a certain level, you can't just rely on organic marketing.
- [27:51]
A
I, I learned this second year in business that every business must have a marketing budget. Even as an, as a musician, you need to have a marketing budget. If you're trying to reach people, you need a marketing budget. I think this is why a lot of people are surprised as to how fast Connected Minds podcast has been able to get this success is because we have a marketing budget. As I speak to you now, because we treat it as a business, we have a marketing budget and we have to keep that ad running.
- [28:17]
B
Yeah.
- [28:18]
A
My personal brand has got a marketing budget.
- [28:20]
C
Right.
- [28:21]
A
You help businesses scale, start and scale, especially people from the diaspora.
- [28:25]
C
Yeah.
- [28:25]
A
Give me examples of businesses that you have helped start.
- [28:27]
C
Okay. So I do help businesses in Ghana as well. One of my office is to help people in the diaspora to start and scale businesses in Ghana. It's because I live partly in the diaspora. Yes. But yeah, so an example is actually the person I got the suit from today. Yes. So hers is an aspect of scaling. Yes. When she came to me, she has been running her business for five years, but she didn't even understand where she wanted the business to go. She was just running it her own way. So first of all, I made her identify what made her different, which is what I like to hit on. What makes you different from someone else selling suits? Are you going to be called, oh, that lady who sells suits or you're going to be called this brand? Yes. So this brand protects you from a whole lot. You being known as a brand or you being known for something, it protects you from a whole lot. An example is two years ago. I had issues with my hair. But because we had a brand built up, it cushioned us from the damage. We were able to come back up. Yes. So I made her identify that. And then also I looked at her pricing. She wasn't making profits, so I made her increase her prices across board and then I made her set her short term goals, her long term goals. Very important because if you don't know what you are working towards, you are just working so short term goals, really important. She set that her long term goal. So I've been working with her for close to three months now. And her short term goal was to have a certain revenue every month and last month she far exceeded that revenue. So when I had my monthly check in with her, I was like, wow. So the next step was hiring. Now I told her she needs to refine her hires. A lot of the time we, it bothers me a lot. We don't hire smart people. The people you hire are supposed to be smarter than you. That is how your business grows beyond you. Yes. So that's what I had to refine for her. I told her to go back to the drawing board. Hire somebody who can do your job as well as you do so that you can, when you are not around, you know that things are going to get done. Set up SOPs in your business, set up systems structure, know what you have in your shop. So that is how I'm helping her to scale. And honestly, I was blown away from our last meeting. She has just exceeded her revenue targets and I know if in the next year she's going to do great. Yeah.
- [31:02]
A
You know I thought about something, right. I was thinking about why most young businesses across Africa fail very quickly. Right. What do you think the reason is?
- [31:18]
B
Okay. Yeah. So for me, number one, I think they don't completely think through. So I mean if it's a small business, number one, the thing is that they never optimize their business for cash. Let me see it that way. So most people are just, they don't think too much about cash in hand. They are just trying to make a few sales. But the whole, the whole idea of running a business is that you need to be profitable if you are just running. Most people go register their businesses or register whatever their entities and think is a business. If your business is not making money, it's just a registered company and it's not a business, it's just an entity. Just a registered entity with the government. It's not a business. You need to figure out a way to get customers like that should be your daily headache. And I do think a lot of small businesses here in Ghana prioritize that. The they are just there.
- [32:10]
A
Do you really think that the young Ghanaian entrepreneurs economy in Ghana, they really understand the power of Internet marketing?
- [32:19]
B
No, they don't. Not at all. Not at all. I think most of them are very shallow in terms of the knowledge when it comes to Internet marketing. They don't go deep into everything because the moment you Understand, because the Internet is a revolutionary technology. I don't think people can grasp how important the Internet is. Like, you can literally have 2 million or 20 million people at your disposal. That's the reach and the massive thing that you have right in your hands. The world is your hands.
- [32:47]
A
Let me stop you here for a minute. We are on the journey of changing the minds and the lives of people. People. So if you haven't subscribed and become part of the family, please hit the subscribe button and turn on the notification. Thank you. Now, let's carry on with the conversation. When I made my first million, I remember sitting back and then telling Ed that this would never have been possible without the Internet.
- [33:11]
C
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
- [33:13]
A
And all I had to do was take a course on Udemy and then I brushed over it with YouTube videos and then created my first ad. That was it. I think I said it.
- [33:25]
C
Yeah.
- [33:25]
A
In the event.
- [33:26]
B
Yeah.
- [33:26]
A
Where I was saying that, look, I needed only a few others. We came back to work and we had over 200 orders. And that's how the exponential growth started, purely by utilizing Internet marketing.
- [33:42]
B
Most people try to figure it out by themselves, but the thing is that there are people who have already done it. Just go learn from them. And so now knowledge has been democratized. Right. So YouTube is on Udemy, but most people also looking for free things. But the moment you decide to take a step further, go pay for something. I don't know, go find something on Udemy Coursera. Go get something. Because that's how I did it. That's how I. I started learning.
- [34:02]
A
I want to give you a real scenario blessing here. One of the major businesses that makes a lot of money is hair.
- [34:10]
B
Okay.
- [34:10]
A
She sells hair.
- [34:11]
B
Definitely.
- [34:12]
A
Now I want you to maximize her business growth with your strategies.
- [34:16]
B
Definitely.
- [34:17]
A
Let's go.
- [34:17]
B
Okay, so. So first of all, can I ask you a question?
- [34:22]
C
Yes.
- [34:25]
B
What's the average price point of my hair?
- [34:28]
C
I would say about 5,000 cities.
- [34:31]
B
Okay.
- [34:31]
C
Will be average. Yeah.
- [34:32]
B
5,000 cities.
- [34:33]
C
Okay.
- [34:34]
B
What would you like to make in a month?
- [34:37]
C
I would like to make at least a 400,000 Ghana.
- [34:42]
B
Okay, so let's do the math real quick. That should be. That should be close to. That should be about right.
- [34:50]
A
So do you want to make what for 400.
- [34:52]
C
400,000 Ghana?
- [34:53]
B
400,000 Gana cities. So that's a month.
- [34:55]
C
Yes, A month. Yes.
- [34:57]
A
Right.
- [34:58]
B
That should be probably about 90.
- [35:01]
C
Yeah, about 90 orders at least. Yes, yes. At least you can do the calculation. Yes.
- [35:07]
B
No, but let's. I think that's 80 if you want.
- [35:10]
C
Averagely, yes. About 80 orders.
- [35:12]
B
80 orders a month.
- [35:13]
C
Okay.
- [35:14]
B
So now that we've done the math, because that's what most people don't do.
- [35:16]
C
Yeah.
- [35:17]
B
They have, like, very vague goals. So the first thing that you need to do when you're running any form of enterprise is that you need to first of all get clear on your goals. Clarity, power.
- [35:26]
A
Like you get.
- [35:26]
B
You get power from clarity. And so now we know what we are working with. We were trying to do 400,000 galaxies in one month, and that's only, what, 80 orders. Okay. Now what we need to do is that now that we have our math straight, what we need to do is that we need to figure out.
- [35:43]
A
How.
- [35:44]
B
Are we going to get these 80 people? That's our next challenge. Because the money is going to come from those people. And so 80 people. Imagine. Okay, so let's. Let's imagine you started from scratch.
- [35:54]
C
Yeah.
- [35:55]
B
Is this scratch?
- [35:55]
A
Yeah.
- [35:56]
B
Yeah, from scratch. So let's start from scratch.
- [35:58]
C
Okay.
- [35:59]
B
You have probably no followers, just created your account, but you have the products waiting for you, the inventory, everything. That's fine. And so, number one thing is that you need to first of all get your branding straight, because there are majorly three different challenges that people have on running businesses. Number one, they have a branding challenge. Number two, they have a traffic challenge, or number two, they have something called conversion challenge. I call it the BTC inflection. So branding, traffic, conversion. And so first of all, you need to get your page set straight. I mean, like, if you're running a physical store, you need to make sure that everything looks good. Same thing with the additional page, you need to make sure that it looks good. So now that you have that, you need traffic, now you need to determine because of how much you want to scale. I don't think. I don't think organic traffic might be the way for you, because it's going. It's going to take some time. So what you need to figure out is that, number one, you want to find a way to position your office, have the prices down, explain the quality behind it, and then start running ads. Start running ads. That's the first thing I'm going to do. But what you want to do is that, first of all, you want to test out different. Different. Different, you know, do like a different test of maybe different hairs, maybe the brown one, the black one and everything.
- [37:05]
C
Yeah.
- [37:06]
B
And puts it out there. Now when you see how the market is responding to a couple of those three of them, you pick the one that is kind of getting a lot of traction and then you start, you start doing everything. But most people, what you do is that they start with a giveaway. I said like, I'm not trying to say give a hair away, but you might want to start with kind of font loading your initial orders with giving people either free hairs for before. I'm going to start this. I'm going to give it to maybe like something like that. Yeah, give them free. Just get them to see something. Something. Because one of the best ways to be able to get somebody to be able to buy is when the social proof. And so you want to guess that that's how I'm going to start. I'm going to actually guess that. Run ads on the person talking about it and then you're going to start, get, get, start, get some orders about it. So that's how I'm going to start about running your business. And then we see how much we are able to do. But if you look at 80, that means that you need to put a lot of budgets into it because you're trying to get 80 buyers of a 5000 series product. And so that's going to take some time. So that's what I can say for now.
- [38:07]
A
Fantastic.
- [38:08]
B
So cool.
- [38:09]
A
Now. And your business.
- [38:10]
C
Yeah.
- [38:10]
A
That helps people start businesses. Yeah. And then scale business.
- [38:14]
C
Yes.
- [38:15]
A
A man here is into marketing.
- [38:17]
C
Yes.
- [38:17]
A
His business is to find businesses that need help. How are you going to apply your strategies to his business?
- [38:23]
C
Okay. It's funny because we're actually discussing this earlier, how he was, how he was going to scale beyond him.
- [38:30]
B
Yeah.
- [38:30]
C
Yes. And I would leverage AI. Yes. Because AI models now are incredible. They are incredible and they are fast. It's fast rising. And AI learns with data. You have a lot of data. You have a lot of. Even though it's unstructured, you have a lot of data from your past courses. So an AI model can actually learn and be like you. Right. So scaling beyond you, having a platform where you have all your resources put together. Right. And then having a bott that can kind of act like you and then make people feel like they have a, they have kind of a connection to you in that aspect. Yes. So then that bot can now upsell. So based on the conversation the bot has. So people can even pay a subscription just to talk to Pakwesi. They can pay a subscription. They don't know they are talking to an AI bot. Yes. So they are talking to you, paying you every month just to talk to your bot, which you have trained. And then in that case, the bot can now recommend things to them. Oh, we have this resource for you. We have this. Are you looking for a job? We have this for you. So in that case, the bot just upsells and then that is how you scale. That is how you become bigger than who you are now without actively doing the work all the time.
- [39:50]
A
Yeah, I think that's smart. I. While she was saying it, I was thinking of crazy. But Derek.
- [39:57]
C
Yeah, and then.
- [39:58]
A
But Derek is going to be full business strategy.
- [40:00]
C
It's also personal life because the bot is on WhatsApp, so it feels like you're actually chatting with a human being. And the bot has a name, so it can actually say. It can even check in with your customers. So then you can set it to go back and check in with your customers. So hold them accountable. Yeah, so, I mean, it will feel like they're having a, a feel of you without being you.
- [40:22]
B
Yeah.
- [40:23]
C
Yes.
- [40:23]
B
Yeah, definitely, definitely.
- [40:25]
A
So thank you so much. I want to throw this to the two of you. You have two. I'm going to give you two businesses.
- [40:33]
B
Okay.
- [40:33]
C
Right, yeah.
- [40:34]
A
I'm giving you two businesses right now. One at zero USD and the other at 100k revenue. How would you approach these two differences to two businesses?
- [40:46]
C
Yeah, okay.
- [40:48]
A
One is zero, the other is 100k revenue.
- [40:50]
B
Definitely.
- [40:51]
C
Okay, so I'm guessing one wants to.
- [40:53]
A
Start, one wants to scale, the other is struggling.
- [40:58]
C
Okay, okay.
- [40:59]
A
And then the other is already at 100k revenue.
- [41:01]
C
Yes. So the 100k, what is the, what's the person was the challenge? They are looking.
- [41:05]
A
They want to scale.
- [41:06]
C
They want to scale. Okay.
- [41:07]
A
And then the other one wants money. They just want, they want some customers in the door.
- [41:12]
B
Definitely.
- [41:12]
C
Yeah.
- [41:13]
B
Yeah.
- [41:13]
C
Okay.
- [41:14]
B
So, yeah, So I mean, when you're not making money, that's like a very big issue. So I, I always say that you don't need, you don't need money to start a business. You need money. You need a customer to start a business. Not money, money. That's what most people don't do. So most people are just, oh, I need money to start. Because you need money to scale, but you need a customer to start. And so if you're, you're running whatever type of business, you're selling building materials. There's a time ago, one of my friends is running a cement business at a rfi. I mean, we had no money to do anything. We have the product, spend everything to buy and ship our products. Now what do we need to do? You need to go into the place and then Start looking for kind of a lot of customers say oh yeah, building and so we can give you cement to be, to be building your thing. And so once they agree, they pay us tickets and go. And so you need to get the customers manifest and you need to start moving. So if I'm on zero, I'm going to spend.
- [42:06]
C
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
- [42:07]
B
So quick one. So in life there are three types of, of currencies or. Yes, three types of currencies. Or in other words I can say capital. Okay. So most people, they think they want capital. Okay, so all capital. Number one is everybody's most initial thought money.
- [42:34]
C
Okay.
- [42:35]
B
Number two, this is actually number one is time and number three is people. And so this is your most default. This is your default time because nobody was born with money. I don't think there was anybody who was born with like a bunch of $50,000 just in the hands of the baby. So the only thing you are now born with is time. So this is your most default currency. If you don't have money and you don't have a network, this is where you fall because this is your default currency. So these things are not default. These things you find you accumulate over time, but this is your default thing. So when you don't have anything, no revenue, you need to leverage on a currency or leverage on this capital. And so this is what you call sweat equity in business. And so you need to be able to find a way to be able to have, have sweat, sweat equity. What that means is that you need to go out there, do cold calling or warm calling. Call everybody that you know kind of go onto the ground and go get some cash. You need to first of all get cash, get cash for your business. Once you get the cash, that's when you can now be able to now put it into thinks that will allow you to scale. But most people don't even know what to put into. And that's where the challenge now lies. So once you get the cash, that first of all your first thing should be what cash? For example, in my business when I first quit my job, I resigned my job and all I had in my bank account was 49 Ghana cities. No kidding. I resigned and I said I was going to do whatever I was going to do with faith. I had employees still waiting for me to pay them and everything. And so what I needed to do was that the first thing that I did did was that I made a list I made on like the week after because I was burnt out. I was thinking about what to do I was struggling. I had to find a quick therapist online and I spoke to the person, the person said, oh, relax and all of that. But what I did next was that I made a list of people who I wanted to work with and then I started calling them, ask them when can I come to your office? And I went to all of them and I got two clients by like after two weeks after I was done. And that's how I started running. That's how I used to pay everybody that was working with me is because I knew my first go to currency is times with equity. So that's what I'll do If I.
- [44:52]
A
Had zero over to you.
- [44:55]
C
Okay. Yes. So 100% agree with time. Yes. So you don't need money to make money, which we've spoken about. Okay, so I'm going to take the person at 100k who wants to scale. Right. So now you have grown your business to 100,000 cities or dollars and now you want to make more of that. First of all you need to understand your your business well, your sister systems in your business, you need to leverage on systems. How did you make that 100k in the first place? Was it by your own sweat? How did you do that? Did you document the whole process? Did you market in a certain way in order to make the hundred thousand? Write it all down now, hire people who can execute that and then make you a hundred thousand more. So if you are able to document that and imagine you are able to have four people to follow that pattern, that's 400,000 coming into your, coming into your business. Right. And also like I've said already discovering your unique value proposition. Looking at your competition, what are they not doing? What can you do better? What are they doing but failing at and what is missing in the market? Can you supply that? If you can supply that, you have your unique selling proposition. If you can look at your strengths. Okay, these are my strengths. How do I make them better to serve the customer? That is your unique selling proposition. And also looking at the customer's needs. Very important. You've already made a hundred thousand. It means you have customers, you have data. Go back to your customers. Understand what went wrong or what went right when you were trying to serve them. Understand them better, leverage on that data and then use that data to now understand your customers need to attract the right audience that are going to pay you a lot more in order to grow your business. Yes. So scaling is about understanding the customer, understanding your unique selling proposition and hiring rights. Yes. And also leveraging systems, SOPs, documentation, inventory system, AI leverage technology. Technology will make your work so much easier. Yes. So that is how you scale and.
- [47:20]
A
And, and SOP is.
- [47:22]
C
Yes. So standard operating procedures.
- [47:25]
A
Right.
- [47:25]
C
So SOPs are just the documents that guide any aspect of your business. So right now, when we came here, you had to set up the microphones and then the cameras and stuff. So if you had a standard operating procedure pasted there, where, when you come in, the first thing you need to do is to. You can even be very, very, very cryptic, like very descriptive. Take 10 steps and then turn on this first camera. Check. You turn on this. Make sure the cameras are all working. Now make sure the. The host or the guest sits here, check. So when you're, when you're able to document everything you do, that's when you, Derek, you can decide to take a vacation, and then your assistant, who speaks well, can host Connected minds.
- [48:16]
B
Yeah.
- [48:17]
C
With SOPs. Yeah.
- [48:18]
B
So just want to add something to the scaling part. So one of the ways to be able to learn about how to scale is by looking at other businesses and looking at how they're able to scale their businesses as well. So one of the easiest ways to scale a business is to. Is to upsell. But I'm not just saying upsell, but I'm trying to say create a higher version of your product, like a premium offering. Now, how does this work? So, for example, when you look at Mercedes, use this. Okay, so they realized that all of their best clients were going to Rolls Royce. But even though Mercedes sells cars, it was good. The cars are quality, it's classy. But all of their best clients who wanted more in terms of status were going to Rolls Royce because they wanted something bigger. They wanted to feel better, richer, and everything. And so they realized that, oh, they're losing all of their clients, so what do they need to do? What they do is that they introduced what you called the Maybach that was more expensive than all of their cars. And you're able to keep a percentage of the people who are actually going to other companies like Rolls Royce just because they added something that was a more premium offer. And so when you're trying to scale, always think of, what can I, or what can I add more to my business that would make my clients feel like this is something premium?
- [49:37]
A
The moment you do that, the scaling means more money or more clients.
- [49:43]
C
Scaling. For me, scaling is making the business grow beyond you.
- [49:48]
B
Yeah.
- [49:49]
C
Yes. So just creating something that doesn't depend on you to survive, for me, that's what scaling means. So Making the business grow beyond you to grow on itself. Like so maybe like winning, like how you would win a child winning your, your business, which is essentially your baby of you. That's what I think scaling is.
- [50:08]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what scaling is.
- [50:11]
C
Yes.
- [50:12]
B
More clients brings you more money.
- [50:13]
C
Yes, of course.
- [50:14]
B
Allows when you get, when you get more money allows you to actually build the systems of skill. Most people don't have the systems of skill. There are two ways to like there are two systems when you're trying to scale or skill a business. They either delegation systems or automation systems. So it's actually you are building probably some chat chatbots or AI workflow or some AI agents or something. Or you're trying to hire or create a delegation system whereby you don't need to be present, you don't need to be in your business every day.
- [50:39]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [50:41]
C
I want to just say something. You were like, more clients mean more money. Not in my experience. Because a lot of people are not pricing right. We always think pricing like low pricing brings in clients. But clients don't buy based on price, they buy based on value. So a lot of people are selling but they're not making money. They are posting thousands of bags of deliveries going out. But their business is struggling. They are not making money because their pricing is way off. People are really putting even as little as 20 CDs. Okay.
- [51:16]
A
Because business owners don't know how to price. How do we price?
- [51:20]
C
I think we are afraid. What's the, the common pattern I have seen in my coaching experiences. People are afraid. They are afraid that once they increase their prices they are going to lose customers. But you're not having customers, enough customers anyway. You might as well just price right and then use the margins you are making. Use the margins. You are making leverage on those margins to attract the kind of customers that you want.
- [51:45]
A
Okay, what is price? Right.
- [51:47]
C
Okay.
- [51:48]
A
I'm just starting out in business. How do I do it?
- [51:50]
C
Okay. So I know a lot of the time when we are starting businesses we would just look at what other people are pricing and then make us lesser than theirs. But then that doesn't always work. First of all, you need to understand your business model. Who is your target audience? If you don't understand that you're never going to get your pricing right because you can't have middle to low income earners as your target market. And then your pricing is all the way up. And then when I say target market it means, like he said, it's a conversation. You marketing to your audience Is a conversation. So when you are market marketing to them and they are speaking back to you, so you realize you are marketing to middle income earners like you are in Makola. You're trying to sell something. You are selling. Ringing bells. But then you are trying to price something for somebody in Chasaku, but then you are marketing it at Makola.
- [52:50]
A
Right?
- [52:50]
C
So you need to understand who your target market is first of all. And then of course, you need to study. Once you understand your target market, you need to study your competition because you want to make sure you have competitive prices. Not low prices, but competitive prices.
- [53:04]
A
What's the difference?
- [53:05]
C
Yes, because people think low prices means competitive prices, but it's not because people. Okay, let me just use my business as an example. Yes. Glam in inches. I would say at the moment we do have high prices or like we do have premium pricing. Right. And you may wonder why we do have premium pricing. It's because of the value that I want to give our target clients. Right? Because in glaminanches, we want people to feel confident and look confident when they wear your hair. Right? So in their minds, this hair, because of the price point and because of how she speaks to me when she markets the hair, when I wear the hair, I have some kind of feeling like, I feel like, okay, I am wearing glam in inches. And then when we do that, we also, we have something called the glam card. So when you buy hair above a certain amount, you have the glam card, which makes you feel special, makes you feel like you are part of the community. We offer tutorials, we will send you messages, we'll call you. So in that case, we offer value. So that is competitive pricing, right? Because you're not just looking at the number. You are offering value, added value to the price. Unlike other people who may just be pricing low and then just throwing the product on the clients, come and buy, come and buy without really giving any sense of belonging, any sense of value. Right? So in that case, our prices may be higher, but they are competitive because we add a lot of value to the price.
- [54:40]
A
What method do you use to price your hair products?
- [54:44]
C
Okay, yes. So there's actually in. It's a lot. It's a question. I get a lot. Right. So I do have a system where I for hair products, I have a number of vendors, so I just have an Excel sheet with the vendor cost prices. I know it sounds kind of archaic, but then the vendor cost prices and I have an average of them and then I use that as my cost price, price. And then I. So now you need to look at your expenses. Right. So initially your cost price, your expenses, and then the profits you want to make. So some people struggle with that, the profit they want to make. So sometimes I ask them to value their time. If you were working for a company, how much would they be paying you for a month? Like how much do you think you would deserve to be paid for a month? And then find your hourly pay, and then look at the amount of time you spend marketing or working on that business that becomes your hourly pay. Right. And that is what you want to earn. And then some. So first you need to look at the cost price, the base cost price with shipping, packaging and everything. And then you look at your expenses, your overhead costs, everything you spend to run the business, trash collection, light, water, everything you spend to run the business needs to be recorded. And then you look at, you value, your time value your time as well. And then you add some based on after studying your competition, after looking at your business model and who you want to serve. Yes. So that's how you price in your business.
- [56:21]
A
Well, what's your method of pricing?
- [56:24]
B
Exactly this almost the same thing. But for me, what I want to do is that I, because business is for profit, I just want to just jump that you are not just running a business just because it's a business. Okay. You are trying to make profit. You are trying to do something even though you're trying to. Some people also want to impact, but you still want to make profit. Otherwise, impact without profit is frustration. And so you need to first of all optimize your business for profit. And so for me, I always try to put 100% mark on whatever I'm trying to do. So I look at my expenses, I then look at that. For me, I do look at competitors. Why? Because I feel like they will influence my pricing and what I become like a commodity, right? Yes, because when I, when, for example, if I. The thing about, if I was going to buy, for example, this marker, this marker was one city and somebody else then sees another marker at 80 pesos, all of a sudden, just because probably I looked at this and decided to price, this guy looked at my product inside the price at 80 and somebody came just buy the 80% one because it's cheaper. Because now it's just like a commodity. But when I don't look at anybody's thing and I price at my own price, looking at my time, what I've put into it, the efforts, everything, and I determine that okay, this is what I want to make then I do that. So I don't try, I don't, I don't look at other people's things. Otherwise I become a commodity. I want to be premium, I want to be a person on my own. I want to optimize the business for myself, for what I'm doing. And so I want to look at my expenses, I take account of my expenses. Everything that is going to, is going on. What is going on? The teammates, the people who are helping us do the business, the people who are everything, everything when it comes to the, the business. And so I look at that expense, I look at the profit that we want to make. So I work end from the beginning, not beginning to end. I determine, okay, let's say this month we want to make 100,000 Ghana cities. If we want to make 100,000 Ghana cities and we know our expenses are this, that means that we need to price this way. Otherwise we are not going to reach this thing. Until the moment you work beginning to the end, not end to the beginning, you're going to be in trouble.
- [58:27]
A
Today there are over 50, 000 young Ghanaians who have just finished their national services.
- [58:35]
B
Yeah. Majority of them are actually over a hundred thousand.
- [58:38]
A
Well, there you go. Majority of these people are looking.
- [58:41]
B
Yeah.
- [58:42]
A
For jobs.
- [58:42]
B
Yeah.
- [58:45]
A
But I am a big believer that even if less than a quarter of those numbers started their own businesses, they can employ half of those people in the next five to 10 years. What do you think the young person has just come out of their national services. What can they do as far as entrepreneurship and business is concerned?
- [59:08]
C
Yeah. So I think they need to leverage their time. They have all the time on their hands, which is more than a lot of us. Honestly. Sometimes I wish I had a lot more time. Like I wish I had the time I had when I finished my national service. Because I know you can, you can even attest to it. You are so busy now, Derek. Right. And you wish you had more time. Yes. So this is the time to understudy, understudy people. I'm very sure if you reach out to Pakwesi, like even though he may not directly respond to you, you can reach out to him, attend some of his free events like make yourself visible to him. Right. You have a lot of, a number of volunteers here as well. I don't know why people don't volunteer enough for things like this. So they have time, use your time, get to know people, make yourself valuable. Right. And then you get to learn soft skills. So that's if you want to, you don't want to go directly into trading and stuff. You make yourself valuable. Personal branding. Start something online. People are making so much money by just sharing recipes for simple things that they eat at home. And it's doing so well. So you have time. So right now, after national service, all you have is time. So just make sure you make the most out of that time. And honestly.
- [60:32]
A
Yeah, fantastic. What do you think?
- [60:34]
B
So, so this is what I would say. If you're just coming out from national service, I think everybody first of all needs to determine what their goals are going to be in life. If you don't have that straight, you're going to be very confused.
- [60:47]
C
Okay.
- [60:48]
B
Because there's some people who know that they want to work as an engineer. There's people who, they have different goals. Most people don't have goals and so they have little aspirations and so they are not able to move up to that. But this is what I'll tell somebody. Number one, you need to be exposed to different things. You need to be exposed to the pros of the job and the cons of the job. You need to be, to be able to be exposed to the pros of a business and the cons of the business. Not only that, you need to understand the different types of business. I think when people think about businesses, they only think about probably just a brick and mortar structure. But now it's a different world, it's a different ball game. There are different things that people can do to make money. I just literally the other time I did, I put up a three hour training online for people who want to make money. With affiliate marketing, it's so easy. What you need to do is that, I mean, now you look at creators, modern day creators, almost every creator has an information product, literally. And I've sold products behind the scenes for a lot of people. And so I look at somebody as this Nigerian guy called Salem King, these other people. So you look at them and say, okay, now if you're a creator, most creators, most digital creators have digital products. And so digital products have no inventory as you don't have to stock up anything. It's unlimited sales. And so what I need to do is that I find a way to reach out to those people, sell their products. I don't need to create a product. I don't need to spend my time, my energy. I just need to find a way to get them to make me an affiliate. I sell their products for them. So what you need to do is I Just need to learn how to learn. You just need to learn marketing. And so for me, for people who are outside, I'll tell you that you need to learn marketing, learn how to use social media, learn how to be able to market with us on the ground or everything. But for me, start something and get cash. That's the first thing I'll tell you. You need to get cash because as young people, you need to get cash. And so for me, I'll say, be exposed to different type of business models. Don't just be stuck and say, oh, since I can't start my dream business, most people want to start off with their dream business. But first of all, you don't need to necessarily start with your dream business. You need to start survival business, something that will make you survive. Then you move on to your dream business. And so when a survival business is for immediate cash, your dream business is for whatever you want to do. For example, I have some businesses I want I'm going to start in the future, but those dream businesses, I'm going to get a lot of money from whatever I'm doing now and put into those businesses in the next three years. And so that's exactly what I'll tell anybody. First of all, figure out your survival business.
- [63:04]
A
Fantastic. Let me stop you here for a minute. We are on the journey of changing the minds and the lives of, of people. So if you haven't subscribed and become part of the family, please hit the subscribe button and turn on the notification. Thank you. Now, let's carry on with the conversation. At this point. Yeah, we are no longer going to agree on one thing. I want to really get deep into your understanding of these questions that I'm going to ask you. And the first question I have is starting or scaling? Which one is harder?
- [63:46]
C
Okay. So I would say scaling is harder. Starting. Basically, you need an idea. You just need to execute. I don't, I don't really understand why people struggle to start a business. It's the easiest thing to do. Just get it started, Reach out to people, test the market, get the idea, start selling. But scaling is really hard because it's very difficult to replicate yourself. Hiring is really hard. Having people to run your business the way you do it is really hard if you're a micromanager. I know I am. And I know you are as well, Derek. Being able to take a step back from your baby and let people run it without you is really hard. Wanting to do your own thing, traveling abroad, wanting to be away from the business, Is really hard because people keep dragging you back. For example, last week, I have my. The one in charge of my business, she's on maternity leave.
- [64:50]
A
Okay.
- [64:50]
C
And then all of a sudden, the other. The second person who has to be in charge had a family crisis. So I found myself scrambling around just to get somebody to be there so that the shop can run. That is really difficult.
- [65:06]
A
Okay.
- [65:06]
C
Yeah. So I feel like scaling is really hard. Is. Is that's what takes. That's what makes or breaks a business. Scaling.
- [65:16]
B
Your turn, unfortunately. I agree, though. But this is what I say. Starting is also very hard as well. Most people don't think about how difficult starting is. Starting is also very hard. And so I don't want us to trivialize starting at all, because let's just say starting is just easy. But it's not that. Because, number one, there are psychological barriers in terms of some people. It's not everybody that's wired to be an entrepreneur. Some people just want to be. To just. Just to be working, just to get paid. Because why will you take that risk? And all of that sweat and all of that, those mental beddings of paying somebody else, that's what it means to be an entrepreneur, to be able to do that. Because sometimes there are times I've gone in my business without paying myself. I go, man, sometimes without paying myself, I have to pay other people. And that's what being entrepreneurs. But I mean, we are starting a business. You need to. First of all, you need to evaluate yourself. Am I fit for this? Can I do this? Am I going to win at this? And I don't think starting. Starting could be easy sometimes. But the thing is that if you want to start well, because some people can start, but if you want to start well, can be difficult sometimes. And so that's. That's what I'll say is you deal with those psychological barriers and so many different things.
- [66:32]
C
Yeah.
- [66:33]
A
Mindset or money? Which one is the biggest barrier to businesses?
- [66:39]
B
I'll say mindset.
- [66:41]
A
Okay.
- [66:43]
B
Why? Because, you know, anybody can get money. Anybody can get money, but mindset is what maintains it. Mindset is what's going to get it. So people like. There's a book that I read, the Secrets of a Millionaire Mind by T have Ecker, and you're speaking about how there are some billionaires who lose it. I'm sure that if you lost all your money today, you'll be able to get it back, because it's a money mindset. You can take all of the money away from you, but the skill is still there. And so the mindset. And you see, the thing about mindset is this is a mindset. Mindset set means a collection of things. I think when people think about mindset, they think about one way of thinking. It's not just one. There's a collection of different things because there's a set. Like in school we used to have this thing called a math set. A math sets with the set square, the compass and everything. Because so it's a different set of things. Same thing with mindset. So there are different things in our minds that contributes to our success or failure. And so most people, they haven't dealt with all the different types of sets of mindset they've received from their father, their mother, their school teacher, who is, who is broke. Your teacher is broke and he's, he's teaching you something. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with school, but sometimes they teach you certain mindsets or they teach certain mentalities. Because the mindset is basically a set of mentalities. They teach you a particular mentality that can contribute to the reason why you are where you are right now. And so mindset is hard because you need to. Need to unwind all of those things. You need to find a way to unscrew all of those things before you can succeed. And once you have that, even if you lose your money, you're going to get it back. If you are back to rock bottom, you're going to get it back. And so mindset has always been important. Mindset precedes money.
- [68:25]
C
So this is contradictory, seeing as earlier I said you can start a business without money. Me, I mean, earlier that's what I said. But as somebody who runs a retail shop or a retail business, money has been one of my biggest challenges in business. Because you have the ideas, you have the mindset ready, but you don't have the money to execute. That is really painful as a business owner. So I found money to be a huge stumbling block in my business growth. Yes. Even though mindset is important, because the mindset of money is also important. Understanding money, understanding how to utilize money when you have it. Because there are some people who can have $1 million now and nothing changes in their lives because they don't know how to use that $1 million. Right. But there are some of us, if we get that $1 million, we will make it work. But yes. So I would say money has been a biggest, one of the biggest challenges for me in business. Yeah. So, yeah.
- [69:32]
B
So the thing about mindset is that for example, if I put a random person in charge of a real estate business, and I put maybe Kennedy, Japan, no money, but like, he has always experience, yeah, he's gonna win. And it's not because he's probably richer or he's. It's just because he has built a different type of mentality. And so you need, first of all, in order to be a millionaire, you need to have a millionaire's mindset. If you want to be a billionaire, you have to have a billionaire's mindset. And so what you need to do is that you need to first of all attack the mindset before, because money is a result. I, I don't think people understand, but money is a result of something.
- [70:14]
A
So is.
- [70:14]
B
Money is not. Money is the outcome. Come. Money is not the cause. It's like it's an effect, not the cause. And so the, the cause of everything is, it begins with a mindset. Mindset is not the only thing, but mindset is always going to precede the effect. So since mindset is the cause and money is there, is the outcome the word cause or the law, of course. And effect, that's what we have. So cause comes from the latter one as kosa means a reason. Effect comes from the Latin one known as effectus. That means an outcome. So when you talk about a reason, I'm saying money. So I'm basically saying that the course is a reason. So mindset is the reason for the outcome, which is money. And so the moment your mindset is wrong. So most people get many businesses and they fail, fail, feel, feel, feel. And they're wondering, why am I failing? Because it's not just about the money. You could have 500,000 cities and lose it all one day and you're done. But once you have the mindset of multiplying, maintaining, everything changes.
- [71:12]
A
Fantastic. So now the next point I have is one size fits all or a custom approach. In business, which one do you think is better when people are starting out?
- [71:25]
B
For me, I'll say a custom approach.
- [71:29]
C
Why?
- [71:29]
B
Because when you're starting, you're starting a business, most people are just thinking of everybody all at once. But I believe that you need to start with somebody that you are dealing with. So if you're running a hair business, you're thinking about maybe a modern young lady who wants the hair or you want something like that. And so for me, I believe that you need to have a customer approach working with a streamlined group of people, somebody in who you are, who you're trying to, you're Trying to really work with, as in tailoring your product for a particular group of people. I feel that's how you need to start.
- [72:03]
C
I don't agree with that because I believe that the model of starting a business is clear. You have the idea, you execute, you test the idea. So you have the idea, you test the idea, you launch the idea and then you execute. So you execute on a small scale and then it goes to a larger scale. So the model of business is simple. So once you understand that in every niche you find yourself, it's a one size fits all, you can do this. You can replicate the system over and over and over to start multiple businesses and it's going to work.
- [72:40]
B
I don't quite agree with that. And my, my entire thing is based on this. Okay. A custom approach is how anything in this world has ever grown. Nothing ever starts big. I can't just be working with the one size fits all, just covering everybody into your entire, entire business. The reason I'm saying this is this in the Bible, that's against the. Because I'm Christian. When God wanted Christianity to be able to be a widespread religion. Because in Mark 16, he says, go into all, go into the world and preach the gospel. So that means you're supposed to go to everybody inside the world and go and preach the gospel. Yeah, but before he got to see, before that happened, God was only working with the Israelites. He was only working with the Jews. So it was a custom approach before he moved to the one size fits all. Because he was not working with a group of people called the Gentiles. Instead of working with a group of people called the Jews and the Israelites, he built a tradition with them. He built a custom approach with them. It was like a custom thing. Some of the things in the Bible are just only for the Israelites. And later.
- [73:48]
C
Don't you agree that with your experience or your expertise. Because I have expertise in the hair business. Business. But trust me, I can give solid advice to anybody in any industry at all based on the experience that I have running a hair business. Right. So even though you may need. Sure. You need to niche down, you need to have a laser focus on your customer. But in scaling or in starting, in launching or in starting the business, you can't change the model. You need to start in a particular way. There are certain principles that you can't change. Certain principles of your customer being the focus, defining your unique selling proposition, pricing rights. There are certain things you can't take away from any business model at all. Yes.
- [74:34]
A
Do you think if I don't stop you here, I think there's going to be blow? Do you think that entrepreneurship is for everyone?
- [74:42]
C
I believe that everybody should have an interest in entrepreneurship. You don't need to be the one selling or running the business, but you should have an interest in entrepreneurship. Nine to five is amazing. Sometimes I'm even jealous of the people who have climbed up the corporate ladder. I'm jealous of their resources they have. They get to meet so many amazing people at work just by going to work. They have so many benefits. But after the 9 to 5, after 60 years, what next? What happens to your life? 60 years is young. What do you do next if you don't have an interest in entrepreneurship or in maybe having a, like a widened portfolio and a widened investment portfolio? After 60, basically your life is over because you now have to live and rely on your pension, which we all know is not very reliable. So I think entrepreneurship may not be you essentially marketing your business and running your business, but you have an interest in it. You can partner with people, you can invest in things, but you should definitely have an interest because whatever business you are working for is also a business. If they hadn't set it up, how would you be able to earn from it? Yes. So I think that is it for.
- [75:59]
B
Everyone, yes or no?
- [76:01]
C
Well, so I think everybody should have an interest in entrepreneurship.
- [76:06]
B
So it's for everybody?
- [76:07]
C
Yes. I think everyone should have an interest in entrepreneurship at all.
- [76:11]
B
I don't think everybody is wired to be an entrepreneur. I don't think everybody can be an entrepreneur.
- [76:16]
C
Maybe you are looking at it as a founder or a CEO. Not everybody is wired to be a CEO or a founder, but entrepreneurship is basically making your money work for you. Right? Putting your money somewhere and making it work for you. Right? Starting something that works for you. So I believe that everybody should have an interest in making their money work for them.
- [76:41]
B
So you think everybody can run a business?
- [76:46]
C
Everybody can learn how to run a business?
- [76:48]
B
I don't think everybody can run a business.
- [76:50]
A
Okay, make your point.
- [76:51]
B
I don't think anybody can run a business. How many people? That's why they said entrepreneurship is not for the weak. Not everybody has the mental fortitude to be an entrepreneur at every point in time. Because now for even I didn't want to be an entrepreneur.
- [77:07]
A
Why did you become it then?
- [77:09]
B
Because this is a story that I don't really share, but my parents are both entrepreneurs. I've seen us go through struggles just because they decided not to be, not not to work. For somebody else. So when I was little, I used to tell people that. I used to tell myself that all these people just go and work for somebody. That. And so I, when I was growing up, I was resenting entrepreneurs, resenting running your own business. Why? Because I just felt as though like everybody else, all my friends, their parents are working. Why don't you just go work and just do something like that? And so for me, I really felt as though, no, entrepreneurship should not be for everybody. I didn't want to be an entrepreneur. Just that life so happened that I ended up being one. And this is just because of a few survival things. And I feel like, because I also kind of help my mom do a few things, I feel like I already had the entrepreneurship thing impulse inside of me. But it's not for everybody because there are times whereby when you have to pay people and your business is bankrupt. I mean, you look at how they. If. Look at some of the banks that they wiped off in 2017. Look at what are some of the founders up to now. Some of them are. Some of them are miserable. Some of them are in jail. Some of it can happen to anybody.
- [78:13]
C
So if you don't think entrepreneurship is for everyone.
- [78:15]
B
Yes.
- [78:16]
C
So you think that somebody should.
- [78:18]
B
Entrepreneurship was for everyone who'll be working for whom.
- [78:21]
C
Yes, sure. You think everybody or those who entrepreneurship is not for should stick with their nine to five.
- [78:28]
B
Perfectly.
- [78:29]
C
But then I also believe that you can't really, you can't become rich with one source of, of income. I, I strongly believe that one source of income is not enough to make you a rich man. It's simple. You have to cast efficient net, not a hook and line. So in for somebody who wants to be wealthy, maybe I know people have been wealthy from their nine to fives, but somebody who is not as fortunate as the CEO of. Because I know that some of the CEOs have been really. Yes. Tim Cooks. Yes. But that some of us who are not as fortunate as them, how do they widen their investment portfolio?
- [79:03]
B
So you become an investor, not a business owner.
- [79:05]
C
Yes, but I do believe, because you.
- [79:07]
B
Are taking almost all of the risk quite literally and you are looking out for other people other than yourself. You are sharing the responsibility. It's like, I mean, when people are even parenting like children, just imagine that responsibility. That's what it means to be a business owner. At the same time, like you have your children that you are being responsible over. Then you have your teammates, your employees. It's like, what is all this motivation or discipline? None of Them.
- [79:33]
A
Okay, talk to me.
- [79:37]
B
Motivation is short term. Discipline is also a result of purpose. Because if discipline is like, oh, I have to do it regardless of how I feel. But that's not the whole. That's not everything. For example, if I want to wake up at 4am every time, time, if I know why I want to wake up at 4am that is purpose. I'm going to wake up at 4amSo motivation, discipline. I don't agree any of them. I agree with having purpose. The why, knowing the why. Because once you know your why, the how becomes easy.
- [80:06]
C
I think this works for a certain type of mindset. Right. Or maybe. Okay, let me just use myself as an example. I think I'm on the spectrum of the ADHD spectrum.
- [80:19]
A
All of us are.
- [80:21]
C
Yes. So I, I know my purpose. I know what I want from life. But sometimes I struggle to wake up early, I struggle to go to the gym. I know what, I know how I want my body to look like, but I struggle to wake up and go to the gym. I wake up and I know I want to do it. But so to me, I think discipline is very important. Discipline is. You can't take discipline out of the equation if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. Because I, I have coached people, I've coached different types of people. We come, the two of them are at the same level. Because I have a group coaching every Sunday. We meet. The two of them are the same level in four weeks. I can see the difference between this person and the other person. Even though this person may feel like their purpose is to be this kind of entrepreneur or to be this successful. Right. The discipline that one has will always triumph another person who has purpose without discipline.
- [81:15]
B
Well, I think we have to this, we have to describe what purpose is. Purpose is not the what. Purpose is the why. For example, if you know that you want to be a millionaire, that is the what. Like, I know that I want to be a millionaire, but why do I want to be a millionaire?
- [81:28]
A
I feel like I need to chip in here.
- [81:29]
B
Yeah.
- [81:30]
A
Otherwise again, for me, I have a formula, okay. In achieving every goal. And motivation is number one. Motivation is your why. For me, that's your why. Why you want to set yourself in a certain course, then you move to the last end, which I speak about obsession. So for me, obsession is more important than discipline and motivation. But motivation is very needed because it's your why. Now you're saying purposes is your why.
- [82:01]
C
Which essentially the same thing.
- [82:03]
A
It's different schools of thought, right?
- [82:04]
C
Yeah.
- [82:05]
B
Purpose always creates Profit.
- [82:07]
A
I agree. Yeah, I agree. But I'm. Again, my model is motivation. First you need to find out why. Because if you can't find that motivation and the reason why you want to do this and you can't build value.
- [82:19]
B
It'S a motivation, more or less how you feel about something.
- [82:23]
A
It depends on how you look at it.
- [82:24]
C
Yeah.
- [82:24]
A
It depends on the skill where you are. Right. So it's.
- [82:28]
C
It's.
- [82:28]
A
If you look at it as. As feeling, then we're going into To. To emotions.
- [82:32]
B
Yeah, exactly. Okay, okay. If that's a discussion, fine.
- [82:35]
A
Right.
- [82:36]
B
Yeah.
- [82:36]
A
Then we're going into emotion. But this has been amazing.
- [82:39]
B
Yeah.
- [82:40]
A
But I want to ask you a question. Okay. What's the best advice you've ever received?
- [82:45]
C
Wow. The best advice I have ever received is to not think too much about things before I do them, is to execute quickly. Sometimes you waste too much time. In research mode. We think, the more we think research is getting things done, but it's just. We are just. We are just coasting. We are just over there just coasting. So getting things done and learning by doing. Learning from your mistakes. I think that's the best advice I've ever had.
- [83:14]
A
I call it motion. A lot of emotion.
- [83:16]
C
Yeah.
- [83:16]
A
Never actually get anything.
- [83:17]
C
Yeah. Yeah.
- [83:18]
A
What's the best advice you've ever received?
- [83:20]
B
The best advice I've ever received. A couple of years ago, I was the. I used to be the president of the Central University Business School association, which is the largest private tertiary business school in Ghana. And one time I was with a dean and I was confused about life. Like, oh my God, I'm about to finish school and I'm so confused. And she told me this statement. She said, never leave anything to chance. Always pray about things. And so that has been my life. I never leave anything to chance. I always pray about things. And so whether I feel as though it's bigger than me, smaller than me, I pray about things. And that for me has been the best advice because at the time, I didn't think that my career or my business was something I needed to pray about. I mean, it's just like things that you learn in school from life. But for me, when she told me that, that's when I really decided to factor my career and my business in the hands of God. So that's. For me, that's the best advice I've gotten. Yeah.
- [84:14]
A
That buttresses my value on. I don't believe in luck and channel hands, but we can crack that later.
- [84:19]
B
Yeah.
- [84:20]
A
Yeah.
- [84:20]
B
Neither do I. Ah.
- [84:24]
A
Those two things I don't. I'm not a believer of it. Just got to work and pray for what you want. Work, work, work, work. Pray. Recommend a book for us.
- [84:33]
B
Okay. I can recommend a lot of books.
- [84:38]
C
One.
- [84:38]
B
One. Just one?
- [84:39]
A
Yes.
- [84:41]
B
How about three?
- [84:42]
A
Go.
- [84:42]
C
Go.
- [84:43]
B
For a businessman, I negotiate. So young person, if you're a young person, please read this book, Cash Flow Quadrants by Robert T. Kiyosaki. If you read that book, you know what you want to do with your life, whether you want to be an entrepreneur, business owner, employee or investor, any of them. So you need to figure out that the Cash Flow quadrant number two book that I'll say everybody should read is that you need to read this book called the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell. That book will literally teach you how to expand your capacity for you to be able to reach the height that you want to reach. And number three, I'm going to say this, this secret book about expert secrets in this modern day. You need to read that book.
- [85:18]
C
Thank you.
- [85:19]
A
I. I like how you said.
- [85:23]
C
Okay, so I also follow his lead and suggest three books. So the first book is Mindset by Carol Dweck. So it talks about the fixed mindset versus the growth mindset in every aspect of life, in learning as a student, as an entrepreneur, as a sports person. So it affects every aspect of your life. Second book I just finished reading, it was amazing. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. That book spoke to me honestly. It takes you into the mind of every stage of entrepreneur.
- [85:58]
A
So get ready. It's a big book.
- [85:59]
C
Yeah. I think I'm even going to read it again because that book spoke to me. It takes you through into the mind of Phil Knight and it's amazing. And finally sell like crazy. I couldn't finish that book because every few pages I had to stop and go and execute. This was. There was ev. There was so much in that book. There was so much. So every five pages I stop and then I go back to the drawing board. So that's why I couldn't finish the book. But that book is loaded. Sabri Subi. Yes.
- [86:28]
A
Blessing. Thank you so much.
- [86:30]
C
You're welcome.
- [86:31]
A
You've definitely been a blessing to my audience. And thank you for taking the time out to sit here with me.
- [86:37]
B
Boring.
- [86:37]
A
Derek. To have a conversation and pakasi. Thank you so much. You've been a blessing. I. I admire what you do and I think you're going to go places. You know, they call you the Gen Z speaker. You're doing amazing. Thank you so much. And to my viewers and to my listeners. It's been an awesome journey with you guys. And if you made it to the end, if you're still here at this moment, leave that comment. In, in, in. Wherever it is that you're listening, whether it's YouTube or it's Apple Spotify, leave a comment and let me know that you're one of our champions who made it to the end. It's been with me, Derek Abayte, the only podcast in Ghana that talks about information on how your life can change your unconnected minds. Thank you so much.
- [87:26]
C
So much. I'm out.