 Alright, thanks for staying with us. Now according to a publication on Keeper in Business Partnerships, many businesses consider taking on business partners when they are tired of shouldering the burden of running their business alone or they have come to realize the impact of building networks. Now, if you are at the point of job starting a new business partnership with anybody, you should know that having a business partner is precisely what it sounds like. Having a partner means choosing someone you can work well with, whom you can share business goals and ideas with. A business partner is someone who can complement your strength, weaknesses and skill set and this should be the first thing you look out for. Now a lot of good can come out of forming a business partnership. Think of it as an opportunity to combine resources. You don't have to improve your business or by yourself. How do you think more people can begin to start to run successful businesses? That's the question we're asking today. Remember, you can join the conversation, send us an SMS or WhatsApp to 081 803 4663. You can also tweet at us, I wish you have covered with the hashtag. I didn't realize that we had a lawyer in the building before we decided to talk about partnerships. But money quickly, before I bring in our guests, I want to hear your two cents on this. Business partnerships. First of all, would you go into a partnership with anyone to run a business? Definitely yes. Everything about life nowadays is about platforms, partnerships, you understand people. Yes, I would go into a partnership with somebody. I've actually even explored it with my firm and I'm still looking at it. So what I would say about partnerships is most of the time you see people, they have a vision, come up with a vision and they want to run the seats, which is a very good thing to do. But they forget about the very important thing to do, which is to get a lawyer. I'm not saying this because I'm a lawyer, but I'm telling you that the first thing you do is business name. Is there any business without the business name? And if you choose a business, then who's going to help you register the business? So you need a lawyer to help you register. You need a lawyer to help you draw up your memorandum of association, articles of association, which talk about the root of the business, shareholders, shareholders, regulations and laws. You need a lawyer to help you to structure, to build structure. Nowadays, what everybody is saying about pitah obese, there's no structure, there's no structure. So we understand the importance of having structure in your business. So for me, I think that partnerships are very good, but first things first, get a lawyer. Straight to the point. I believe in collaborations, actually. Everything that I've done over the years has been as a result of collaborations. But I learned very quickly that before we even start to say, I love you, I love you, let us sign the document. Absolutely. So Frank Unwakpa is a business administration graduate of Caleb University. He founded his first company, Property King, which deals with property, sales and management in 2020. After COVID and in 2022, he formed the late night food truck called Hangover Grills, which has generated millions in just a few months of incorporation. Now, Tejiri on the other hand, Yowari, is a graduate of Babcock University. Now, founder of Swift King's Logistics and Auto Rental Package Delivery and Moving Company. You see, these people are powerful people. He also worked as head of public relations at Wellman Group in 2020, after which he attended the Nigerian Law School in, ah, okay, in 2021, slash 2022 session. He is the co-parent of Hangover Grills, the late night food truck, which has generated, as I said earlier, a few millions, right, in just a few months of incorporation. And they might add their handsome guys, you know, just check in, in case you're looking. And they joined us live in studio. Thank you so much. So before we even talk about money, we don't have to be, but thank you so much for joining us. First of all, you guys are really handsome, you know that. I hope they told you that. So was it a criteria for the partnership? Yeah, because it means that partnership is going to work. But hey, thank you so much for joining us this evening. I mean, tell us, because I read a bit of the story around how the business started, right? What made you guys say, you know what, I think it's time and let's come together and do this? First of all, your business idea is fantastic. Thank you. Because night life in Lagos, you're going to clean out, right? But tell me what prompted the choice of doing this with a partner, as opposed to just going all out when the idea came? Okay, so first things first, business came from a point of experience. I'm not saying we're a nice clubgoers. It's okay, we don't judge here. We don't judge men's table. But yeah, like we go out a lot, we see things, nightlife and everything like that. Our boys. So yeah, I think in December or January, I was at a particular club. The club where our truck is currently located in, then I was thinking to myself, normally when after drinking, I need to get food, I need to get something to eat. Not like I'm a drunk I don't need tea, but... Why are you doing a disclaimer? Don't worry. He's a no judge person. Who is the lawyer? Are you the lawyer? I thought to myself, normally I go to some other sports to get food, go from this club because this other sport, get food, then go home. They can be something here. This place has a big compound space and everything like that. Next day, we were casually talking and I told him about the idea and everything like that. He was like, yeah man, this is awesome. We should look into this and boom, that's what I came about. Thank you. Tony is just thinking about the millions they made. So why did you accept to go into the business? Was it just because the business was fantastic or you looked at the person that you were going through that partnership with? So firstly, we've been doing things before. Well, it's not like something concrete like, okay guy, this one there, let's go here. This one there, let's go there. We've been partners for a while. You know, different aspects. So when he came... I'm not in crime too. So when he pitched the thing to me, I'm like bruh. We need to act fast, we need to act fast. That was it. So the reason why I entered is because we've had prior experience and I'm like, you know, this is good. This is my guy, we've done things together so why not? And everything we've done, like, by the grace of God, has been successful. Okay, lawyer has a question for you. Okay, so I don't know, maybe I should still ask this question. I'm not just going to ask you. I know that you're a lawyer in the making. So do you have anything, any legal document that is binding you guys together and securing your bag? Yes, we have a partnership agreement. Okay. Okay. Do you have an exit plan? No, not yet. Oh, let me know. Now are you... Yes, because it's very important, you're a lawyer in the making, you're going to find out when people come together to start a business, it's always very roses, just like any marriage that we know about, because this is what it is, it's a marriage. So in the beginning, the love is very sweet, it's very shakky-shakky, you know, but after some time you start experiencing some things that come out of differences from the two of you. And then you now start thinking, I don't know if this is such a good idea anymore. I'm not saying it's going to happen for you, but I'm saying that when you are going into a marriage, you think about different things. So we have... Abroad, we have people think about these things and they sign some document so that when I'm exiting, I would leave what I bring so that there are no issues. So it's always advisable for people to always think about an exit plan. It may not even be that this exit plan arises from a problem. It might just be that your business has gone full circle and you need to piv it into something else. So I think you guys need to look at that. I mean, we have it closed, but it's not as concrete as... Yeah, so it depends on the kind of lawyer you see. Well, let's talk about the business, right? So it's one thing for you to think about an idea, like you've said, and it's another thing for that idea to actually just... So what do you think is the why for you as your business? Why is your business doing exceptionally well in just a few months? I mean, one thing I would say is, as a young man, what you really love books and what you love things and you hear them say, look for where you can add value. We saw that this is value, we're bringing value to the table. Basically solve the problem. So we solved the problem, you know, and that was... that was one reason why, because this is a problem that we saw. You know, keep on looking for problems everywhere to try and solve. So that was it, you know, there was a problem. And, you know, we solved it. And when you solve a problem, you make money. So it's true. Yeah, because money goes in the direction of value. Absolutely. So I'm going to come back to a question that I want to discuss because a lot of times when people want to start up businesses, right, funding is always a challenge. Mmm, you're smiling. But we'll go on a very short break. When we come back from that break, we'll continue the conversation. Stay with us, we'll be right back. Alright, thanks for staying with us. Now if you're just tuned in, we're discussing starting and running a successful partnership in Nigeria and we have with us Frank and Tejiri, right, the owners of what's a grill? The hangover grill. That's the kaha. No, wow. Problem. Remember, you can join the conversation. Send SMS or WhatsApp to 018034663. You can also tweet at us. So you see with your own stories there, I actually love it. You know what I'm saying? Some modern men would just go and drink, would not think as you are drinking, they think you have to replenish your pocket. But Tejiri and Frank, they entered, they drank, you know what I'm hungry. And I decided, they were high in this place. You know, because when you are at a certain level, and I say, I'm hungry. So why can't I, you know, but some modern men, you just go and drink your future away. You know, but hey, Tejiri and Frank, they've created a business from this and I must say it's really amazing. When I saw it, I said, ah, it's really true because ha ha, Legos. But let me hear your journey around fundraising because it's one thing for you to say, okay, I have a business. It's another thing for you to have funds to run the business. Then when we move from that, we'll move into staffing. Because yeah, these are all challenges that businesses face. So let's start with fundraising. Who is bringing in the money? Or is it a 50-50 thing? Okay, so initially, the idea wasn't meant to be a food truck. It was meant to be a food spot, but not a truck. But the club wanted something that during the day, it can move out. Then we come in at night. So we thought to ourselves, oh, what exactly can we do that would fit that description. That's how we came about the food truck. So in terms of funding, when we are venturing into this business, we didn't think we would require some certain amount of funds. You just thought it was chicken and chips? Yes, we just wanted to sell. I didn't know grilled chicken and chips and planting. Then we now started trying to source for funds. Initially, there was a particular amount me and him agreed to bring in because the 50-50 partnership, so he brought his own share, that he did something. He went to where he went to. He went to where he went to. Let us see that. We started getting pressure from the club to deliver us. Other people have started coming to pitch the idea. We spoke to a couple of our friends that we believed could invest in the business, but he didn't. Through people that we believed at that point in time, he spoke to this guy about the business because I've never spoken to him before about such. He could come through, but everything failed. Nobody that you expect to say, okay, this is my egg bomb. Let me. About your network. Being your network. So I always tell people to just try and access the people around them. Their circle. You cannot raise 10 millionaire in one hour from your friends. You should change your friends. That's one thing. I agree to that. But when a situation or in a world where these people that see you as, okay, maybe their boy has an idea and this guy do this thing now. If you don't do respect me. Do you understand? I agree to that. But when Andrea, let's call these people that the way I saw it was okay. So you want to play with the big boys? Yes. And in terms of network, I believe we had a pretty good network. These are people that we don't ask for. Things like we've never gone to meet them. So we believed, okay, if we meet these people on this particular occasion, they'll be interested. We tried a lot of, spoke to them, proposals and get back to you. Or I'll do this, I'll do that. I wonder if I'm just in the car thinking of the next possible solution as we are getting pressure from the club. I want to take it on. Wow. Wow. Hope it back. Congratulations. Hope it back. Everything will be paid. So now we are just friends. We are doing that. But is it possible that they didn't see the vision? Everybody saw the vision. It's so clear that, you know, okay, why didn't I think of this? Because these people are working there now. Why didn't I think of this? Everybody saw the vision. We needed to act fast. Everybody saw the vision. I'm also scared to tell some people the vision. Because it's one thing to have finances. Yes, you have finances. Let me do it as well. But yeah, we thank God, you know. So, so, so, staffing. One thing we really learned from this. See, the vision, me, I love my show. I don't like, for yeah, we know they talk baby grammar. So that somebody is listening out there and they are understanding how business is. The dynamics. Yeah, the dynamics. We don't want to come and bring aspire to perspire. Let us say it as it is. What's the business? First, I want to say that I don't think Barry is the problem of the country. Thank you, my brother. Welcome to the club. Because a lot of people say, oh, no jobs, no this, no that. But give them opportunities and they just misuse it. I heard somebody I fired in the 90s. I think we fired somebody in less than 90s. Yeah, I heard somebody in less than 90s. He was just frying He was just frying Ah, you are joking. You are joking. And if you approach him, he is just tasting what he is frying. He is sure that there is enough salt. There is enough salt. I think it was two days? It was two days. You hired a very hungry person. You hired a very hungry person. And also we made another, one mistake we made was starting a food business, you have your recipe book. You have your recipe book. But as amateurs in the business, we didn't know at the time that at first. No, we didn't even have a recipe book. So you know how to cook, we can cook. So we put things together. So the taste kept changing. And they were now like, they had like a monopoly of things. Because of I mean they make this one. It's kind of if you do me like this, they can resume when they want, go when they want So when we fired the first guy, everybody sat up. Made our recipe book, put everything in order. Fantastic. We had serious issues. Okay, I know that this is working now. Where you are, the club that you're selling. How about your plans for future expansion? Do you want to, you have a truck now, but you only come out at night to sell. What's your plan for day time sales? What's your plan for the future? Okay, in terms of plan for the future, before December, on November, we shared with Second Truck in Handa Club. Long time expansion, daytime sales. We are looking at an app, like a Hangover Grill app, that we can run 24 hours. So you can get for that any time of the day. That's not around 24 hours. Because we don't want to just target drunk people anymore. We want to target the night life of people that are there. Your target is actually hungry men. Not drunk people. Everything in comparison. Everything in comparison. It's not just you. Not drunk people. So you're scaling to opening more trucks. The app and all of that. So how do you plan to mind? Because, I mean, KFC started from just someone. I think it was even in his kitchen. Remember the story correctly. And see where they are today. They have a huge franchise. I mean, anybody that knows that anything about business, you know that anything that has to do with food, whether you like it or not, I can decide not to work a lot more. I can work in Naked, but I must feel my tummy. Food is one business that has to be right. I mean, it would really go far in terms of how you run the business. So scaling, is it just the truck we're looking at or we're looking at maybe opening restaurants or how do we, the modalities, change for you in the future? We're looking at like a venue where we first of all want to have trucks outside. We want to have during the whole nation, not just Lagos, Abuja, but also we want to have places where you can come and pick up your food. Because one thing we do is quick services. We don't want it to be far where if we have a place in Vi now, it will serve like if it's one or maybe Iqoi. They will now open one again so that it's close. You don't have to wait. One thing we are doing is quick, quality food with speed. So I saw that I think in your profile, there was something around parties. So you take the trucks to events to do. So outside of just catering to these guys you guys also move the products to events and parties and all of that. That's a fantastic business. I think you can also try moving them to businesses like banks. I used to work in the bank and we always had some guys coming, their cars, bosses to sell us foods in parks in a big cell. So maybe you should also try that as well. We have banks, we have different big organizations. So you should try the afternoon. It's just that your business is not going to be 24 hours. We don't mind. There are a lot of things that come to that. We are shifting now. We don't mind. We can do that. I've been looking at him. There's a twinkle in his eye. When you're talking about money it doesn't light up. But I was going to say, what has been the biggest challenge? Outside of staffing and all of that, we know that the business environment like Riley said in Nigeria is quite I think it was Uti that said doing business in Nigeria is like extreme sports. Everything is just attacking you. There's inflation costs of products are going up. A lot of things are happening. How are you managing and adjusting to the current situations, the changes I mean you want to buy even a cent live in your market. You say dollar don't go up. And I'm paying like it was in your backyard. You won't buy cent live. That's why I have to go to cent live. You want to buy cent live in your market. They'll tell you that dollar is going up. And that's why the price of cent live is high. So how are you managing that customer expectations and customer like the price changes in the pricing. How are you coping with pricing outside of just your regular day to day business. I mean so right now we in new business needs customers. So we cannot hike our prices without customers. So our prices are there to fit our customers and we are not making a loss. So we are okay where we are for now. So our prices are how we opened is how we are. I think one of our major challenges is having people come and then the oars. A lot of people come it's one of the major challenges people call me. Is it in the middle of the night somebody is transferring or isn't working? Give me your number so that we are giving you the food already. So we are walking towards that's for pricing. Your friends are coming. It's Frank's place now. It's Frank's Clarkson's place now. Let me just get food now. Get food finished. The old guy will send it to you and you message them bro, what's up now? Your bill and everything like that they will feel okay. I'll send the money. But currently we are tackling that problem with some certain solutions. There's a prayer board that says when the hunter learns how to shoot without missing the monkey learns how to jump without stopping. So when you know that this is what you are tackling as people mentioned in the MLC like Bukha Hot you have to pay for the suya before you take the payment receipt to the malam to hand you the suya. You can put that system in place to cut that out. We are definitely working on that like you said this was our first time doing something like this. I just tried to put a system and we've just been three months in so we are trying to put a system that has tackled all of that. So I think we are on the road now. So if you had one thing to say to people, your customers what would that be? Mr. from Tejiri the money man. So customers are people, which one is it? So let us start with your customers first. Customers, we hope you keep on coming we hope you learnt our food. We hope you spend your money. We hope you keep on getting drunk. But don't drink and drive. So you can be hungry. So you can make money. We hope you keep on coming we hope you like our food we are doing our best to make sure we meet your needs. So if you had something to say to the people or would you say to the government which one would you face? Yeah because governments are really they work in the night now Ah ok So to people, I say if there is an idea you think it is good go for it. Another thing I want to say to people is when you share your ideas don't share it with people with discourage. Like if I told him let's put a food truck you know if people don't think bro just free that pillage and I don't think we would have been very happy today because I would have gone and thought I don't think this thing would but I told him he was very ginger the next day we went to go and speak to the owners of the club and since then we started pushing it right here today. So I just feel like when you have an idea don't share too much but if you share with people that have positive mindsets that want to see things happen but even if he doesn't work out at least he still tried So all I can see is two handsome guys let's come back we still have small time let's talk the other side of the relation because it is a very important question partnership can be ruined about our gender and I can barely say that what is your opinion let's be the English I know you are young both of you are in your 20s early 20s that is serious you are too fine to be in your early 20s so you only know that men are that fine do you even find out when they are younger man I am not young I am not young I am sorry I ask that because you know why everybody knows that there are issues around relationships that are coming how come Frank is the one how come Frank is the one in the face how come today how are you guys prepared for that I mean that is why at every point in time you must cross every single thing so how are you guys prepared for that in the future if somebody comes into the picture what then happens I think we understand ourselves so far he wrote his law school exam August to September and was away for like 3 weeks 2-3 weeks we hardly spoke and everything like that but I handled everything likewise when I travel at times I would travel 2 weeks, 1 week I don't take business calls from him or anything because I might be busy but he is not going to say I did this, I did that I am doing more than you you understand I am doing more work than you I am never going to say I did this, I did that I was doing everything so I think so far so good why the partnership of work that is because we already had a working relationship before starting this business supply logistics and different other things because for little things those people don't let things go for example let's say I remember when we were picking the logo it was giving us some hard time and I saw anyone you pick I am okay with it so it is that relationship already when we pick some small things that shouldn't cause the fights and it is about to I say I think Frank is the one that is more very detailed at everything must cross it tell me I think he is the one I think he is the one I think he is the one I think he is the one I think he is the one but you don't look like the chill one I would say I am the chill one but also do some fun drafting and all of that but when it comes to the business this is it this is that we are really proud of you guys thank you very much I said why not we are always happy to showcase young businesses not because we just feel like probably talking we want to tell Nigerians that it is possible I believe strongly in the power of collaboration I don't know why people are not thinking of getting people to join hands together we would have gone farther in terms of our business structures we were in great partnerships with people so for every single time I see young people and I see them doing something together and I see partnerships that work we are always happy to have that conversation and that's why we are having this conversation with you guys but thank you so much looking forward to more partnerships for young guys like you because I have sons too they don't have a business plan they don't have a business plan at age 14 or 16 they were writing business plans I don't take them seriously so should I start to take them seriously? you might be short my son is 9 he's my baby and I take him seriously when he tells me how he's going to pay my bills in the nearest future I know he's going to it's not about your bills auntie it's about them it's about your bills auntie honestly they did a proper organogram the structure because my son is the book owner so they said you are the whatever this is the CEO they don't draw structure absolutely so I think we'll pay attention maybe again your age is also helping matters because you guys are young so it's easy to just by the time family matters start to enter but I'm hoping that by then they will have everything but thank you so much guys we had fun we hear you guys are bringing us grills you see me chewing something please wing our grills they said the grills is here they got us grills today is the best day I'm tired I'm hungry I need to eat this is the rehang over here see our grills thank you so much beautiful packaging viewers we got our package open up for that lord we have 2 seconds to go good what is she auntie was supposed to be here auntie are you watching it's heavenly thank you so much guys we are going to love it with the hangover in us I'm high on it alright so before we go do ensure you follow us on instagram we are sure africa follow us on instagram follow us on instagram we are sure african can interact with us follow all our engagements on social media like share, invite your families and friends to watch and follow the conversation if you missed today's quote here is it again coming together is the beginning staying together is a progress working together is a success and we can tell from tajir and frank that they are doing successfully they will get better and bigger by the grace of god amen see you guys on monday at 8pm so bring another great conversation what else are they eating to your screen enjoy