 Welcome back. You're still watching The Breakfast and Plus TV Africa. We have our next conversation. Of course, the business environment is quite difficult with the Russian-Ukrainian War in its fifth month. And the Germans are feeling a harder pinch with the scarcity of energy resources, wheat and fertilizer, over what importers attribute to logistics issues as well as worsening foreign exchange scarcity. The inflation rate is also rising astronomically, as well as a stretch in the over 41.6 trillion-dollar debt services. It's really an issue. It has exceeded revenue generation in its scary situation. Now, according to the World Bank, they're saying that they see an elevated risk of recession in Nigeria over the next two years, reflecting the greater potential for the geopolitical tumult, what they call it, a stubbornly high inflation that reduces households, real disposable income, and a central bank's intense focus on fighting inflation fest, which raises the risk of financial sector accidents on top of the sharp tightening of financial conditions already seen, those are the words from the World Bank. Now, this situation has added to the already negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy. It's put a strain on not just individuals and family spot businesses in Nigeria. Now, how can business owners succeed despite these very glaring challenges? We're talking about thriving in business in the current economic climate. Shayun David Onamusi is our guest on the program this morning. He's a business expert. He started several businesses, for instance, at the age of 24. Shayun opened a multi-million-dollar franchise of a very popular shirt, suit, tie, you want to call it a store in Abuja, whilst undergoing his national youth service core. He also awarded an ordinary doctorate degree at the age of 33. He's best described as a result, given my show in entrepreneurship was passionate about creatively using enterprise as a tool for sustainable progress. He's currently the CEO of Steel Dapper UK, one of the makers of David Jacob by Dapper Luxury Leather Goods brand designed in the UK and manufactured in the EU. David, thank you very much for your time. Quite an interesting, Shayun, thank you very much for your time, rather quite an interesting, impressive profile you have. Now I understand why you're looking so adapt. I was telling you off air, I don't know which one to take from you, whether it's the suit, the shirt, the tie, the pocket square, or your eyeglasses, but I assure you take one. You put it in the box and you send it down to me in Nigeria. Good morning to you. No problem. No problem. It's a good morning. Now, we know it's a globally challenging times for businesses, for individuals, for households around the world, especially after coming off COVID-19, you have the Russia-Ukraine war putting the strain on energy resources and on prices of gas and then also translating into household items and transportation and all that in the world. But is the pinch on businesses as hard as in the UK as it is in Nigeria from what you can tell? I'm sure you've been following the situation in the country. Well, the pinch is there globally. The UK is currently sitting at about 9.1 to 10% inflation rates. Nigeria is slightly higher than that, sitting at about 17% inflation rates. However, we are feeling the bronze of the gas prices have gone up by almost 200%. There are certain food products that have gone on by 200% as well. We are feeling the pinch in terms of households and in terms of businesses, of course, they had not a lot of disposable income in the economy like it was prior to the inflation. That also affects businesses. It is a global pinch. I was also on the phone with some colleagues in San Francisco last night and they are complaining about the same thing that across America, the inflation prices are starting to affect their businesses. You also have supply change issues that are being affected as a result of it. So how is it? You've talked about some of the situations right now and of course supply chain issues and all that. How is it that one war in one part of the world is so, so powerfully extremely affecting businesses around the world? I mean we have had several wars in the past. Gulf War One was there, Gulf War Two was there, the war in Afghanistan was there. What is different about this war in the corner of Europe that is making it the effect so hard on the global business landscape? Yeah, I think we underestimated or globally everyone underestimated the input of Russia in world economics. We didn't see that they were at a position where they can control the pricing for products like wheat prior to the war. A lot of people didn't know that bulk of the wheat that we enjoy in Africa and other parts of the world come from this part of the world. Literally we know that Ukraine supply issue or the war in Ukraine would affect these supply sales channels. So I think it's the underestimation of Russia and its response to global sanctions. Those are the core reasons why we kind of fall in at both points. In the country over here, we're having in Nigeria difficulties very, very high prices of diesel. People are not being used, are not used to buying diesel at such amounts and of course the power supply situation here isn't exactly ideal and so businesses have to power themselves. So if you have a power dependent, power heavy business as an entrepreneur, you have to spend loads of cash to buy diesel, purchase diesel has increased astronomically. So for Nigerian businesses, how can they, or bless that this way, how have you in the UK and as a business that is global navigated this challenge to stay afloat and to succeed and to thrive? Yeah, so I think the first thing was realizing and coming to the terms that I'm not alone. It's a global crisis that is facing everyone. So we have to, first thing that had to do was come to the terms that this is not just a showing David on almost the enterprise issue, it's not just a skilled up a UK issue. It's an issue that is across the world and that kind of gives me people to realize that I'm not on my own. But navigating it, some of the key things that I would encourage people and I've done myself is, first of all, understand the global economic landscape. I think this at towards small businesses most especially, that they need to keep an eye on the economic landscape, how vast prices are affecting household incomes, how consumer good issues are affecting disposable income. So that's a very critical thing. So I think to first of all, you will put aside my business hats and put on my economic acts so that I clearly understand how supply and demand affects the economic landscape as a whole. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing it will be to invest in yourself. What I've had to do is spend more time investing in myself, realizing that I already have gaps before the inflation hits. And a lot of business owners sometimes because they're so passionate and driven to achieve whatever they want to achieve. They often have blind spots that good times don't show, bad times show the blind spots quite often. So I've had to sit down and analyze my blind spot and then get help when needed. So I had to look for cold food, I had to look for strategies and other experts within specific areas. For example, financial modeling, understanding what my income is and what my outgoings are, clearly understanding that cash flow has really helped as well. So investing yourself is very important. Then the third thing will be investing in the people around you, around your business. So I've had to sit down my social media strategy and start to change the metrics that we use prior to the hard times. During the tough times, we were more concerned about reach, how many people we had following off the social media platform. Now we changed it to look at engagement. So we're using engagement as a metric now, rather than how many people we have following off on social media. Because when we engage them, we have a better chance of stealing to them. We have a better chance of meeting whatever possible problem they have. So that's also critical. So I had to spend time with my team to understand what are their blind spots as well and invest in their growth as well. All right. Interesting. Now look at your base in the EU and the UK, manufacturing there. The manufacturing space in this country and the challenges are significantly different. And I already talked about power supply. What can you say about the Nigerian space and what can you add? What do entrepreneurs need to add to what you've said you've learned and you've implemented to keep your business up? What can they also add from their own challenges? What can they do about the peculiar challenges here in the country? Yeah. So with regards to doing business in Nigeria, back in 2009 when I opened up my store, it was still a high inflation rate compared to the UK where I was coming from, compared to other parts of the world. So we had always dealt with this sort of second tier position when it comes to businesses. The ease of doing business was not any better than in 2009 compared to now. So one of the things that I would encourage Nigerians to do is knowing that we don't have the basis for a sustainable business environment, i.e. the power supply, we have to start to think creatively about how we approach our business. So for example, Nigerians can start to think globally when they are selling. You have to realize that technology has helped us to reach a global audience. There's nothing stopping you from making sure that your bulk of your activities, your marketing activities on the social media or anywhere on the internet is focused at getting customers outside Nigeria. I know that inflation might be high in Nigeria and customers might not be buying, but compared to how much a pair of shoe is sold in the UK, for example, if you're a shoe business in Nigeria, you can start to target people in the UK, people outside the country as well because your price will always be lower. You will still have a lower price of production compared to the EU. Same thing with if you're in a service business, you have to start thinking about getting clients outside Nigeria. To do that, you have to position your business in the right way. Your language has to be different. Even in terms of accepting foreign currency, you have to start looking at how to start taking dollars as a means of exchange within your business as well. You look at payment platforms that you can integrate into your websites so that you can start to take business from outside Nigeria. Thinking globally is very critical. Second thing will be around gorilla marketing. This is not the time for you to cut down the cost on marketing. You have to think about creative ways in Nigeria to get customers. I feel like one of the things I did when I started my business in Nigeria back then was I had to go out and go to different groups and engage with them and talk about my product and talk about my services because that was the only way that I can reach them. So you have to start thinking gorilla marketing is not the time for you to get out there, engage with customers quite often. And the third thing will be your existing customer base. In marketing, it's well-known that it's much cheaper for you to keep an existing customer than it is attracting a new customer. So it's time for you to dust off your database and start to look at email marketing, how to look at, you know, how do you keep with your existing customers as you know, consistently buying from you, buying, engaging them, sending them birthday messages, sending them special occasions, reaching out to them at those times. It will be critical because remember, people have a lot on their mind at the moment. And if your business is not at the forefront of their mind, they probably will go somewhere else with their business. All right. Interesting. Interesting. So you're seeing a strategy is to try and sell business abroad, try and get customers abroad, try and get clients abroad. And I mean, the dollars, the pounds, the euros will do you some good, especially in the time where we have declining 14s of the Naira, falling 11% in recent days. And how can businesses source for customers abroad? This is something we just don't know how to go about this. Yeah. So sourcing for businesses from abroad is relatively in this technology landscape that we have. Take a poll of your social media, go through your insights, and you start to see the people following you. You will notice that half the time you have followers that are outside Nigeria as well as following you. For example, my business, I have more followers in the EU and in United Arab Emirates than I have from the UK. What I then do is target that. So when I'm doing my marketing campaign on social media, I'm specifically choosing the audience in UAE because I already have a base there. So in the social media marketing, you want to make sure that you remember your target audience when you're spending from there. Another way is partnering. You can reach out to people, Nigerians in the diaspora, and start to partner with them and speak to them. You already understand the customer base out there. You understand how businesses are running over there. Can we have a distribution agreement where my products will be produced in Nigeria and you take care of the distribution as well? So these are ways that you can definitely target the diaspora and get people outside the country to buy your product. Interesting. You talked about leveraging technologies finally and using the power of technology in terms of social media marketing, guerrilla marketing and all that. For those who are not really based on technology savvy, this might pose a challenge. Absolutely. And challenging times would mean that you have to think differently. So it will be challenging first. And you don't have to do it all by yourself. You just have to have a clear understanding of how it works. Back in the days, we had newspaper advertisements as the critical way of getting businesses. We had billboards. We had all the outdoor markets. Now a lot of people are on their phones. So you cannot ignore them. You have to just think about a way of partnering or getting new, getting the expertise that you need. So reach out to people who are in that space to consult for you so that you have a clear understanding and then run for them. So you don't have to do everything yourself. I don't do everything myself. As much as I know about social media, I have a team that does social media for me, especially when it comes to my businesses, because I can't do everything myself. So it might be challenging, but you're going to have to not even know it anymore. Because that's where your customers, they're ready customers there. They have their phone with them on a regular basis. You can reach them directly. Interesting. I wish I had more time to go into other aspects of this conversation. But what you've given us is quite, quite interesting and deep. I'm already getting some ideas from that show. David and now Moussi is the Chief Executive Officer of Still DAPA UK, who are the makers of the David Jacob by DAPA Luxury Leather Goods brand in the UK, designed in the UK and manufactured in the EU. David, thank you very much for your time and for your interesting insight into how businesses can not just stay afloat but succeed in these times. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, David joined us from the United Kingdom, in particular St. Albans. And we'll take a short break. When we come back, we'll look at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in the United Kingdom, Birmingham to be precise, and of course the forthcoming FIFA Under 20 Women's World Cup. Stay with us.