 The relentless rise in prices of goods and services has had a profound impact on SMEs affecting their operations, profitability and overall sustainability. Despite these challenges, Nigerian SMEs are resilient and resourceful, while the right strategies and support they can continue to drive economic growth and create jobs. My guest Nnamdi Ibe is a certified management consultant with the International Council of Management Consulting Institute with over 15 years of experience. Over the years, over 600 businesses have been able to overcome their break-even stage through his expertise in management and strategic business growth. Nnamdi has authored over 15 books on business startups, business operations, human resources and organizational structure, among others. He sits on the management board and board of directors of multiple organizations and is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. Ibe is the founder of the Organized Small Business Academy, where small business owners learn practical and simple way to structure their small businesses. Many thanks for joining me, Nnamdi, on business insights. Thank you very much, Justin. Alright, it is indeed a pleasure to have you on the show. It is really a sad one because I have spoken to so many small businesses and their main concern right now is that they are not really profitable anymore. Since May 29 when the president announced the end to fuel subsidy, everything skyrocketed, prices, the economy just was going so high. Even small businesses have been impacted by these policies. But before now, there was a report that said that most big small businesses die in their first five years because of some issues. How would you really rate small businesses some growth and development in Nigeria? Okay, so here's my approach to not just small businesses, but businesses in general. I think a lot of, majority of the successes for any business, whether it is small, medium or large, is dependent on who is sitting at the helm of affairs. Who is in control? Who is making decisions for the business? Now, you see situations where a lot of, for example, in a Nigerian economy, a lot of businesses, a lot of Nigerian business owners are complaining about the business environment and how harsh it is. But yet some people come from outside Nigeria, come in here, face the challenges and succeed. So there's something they know, there's something they are conscious of that makes them succeed where many of us in Nigeria are unable to succeed. So I think the decision maker for every business is a key strategic factor as to why a business succeeds or fails. And I say this frequently, where you are today in your business is your fault, where you would be tomorrow is your responsibility, regardless of where you are today in your business. Where you are today in your business is your fault, where you would be tomorrow is your responsibility. and I can prove it. Who started the business? Who chose the business name? Who chose the business line? Who hired the employees? Who chose the location of operations? You made all those decisions that led to where you are today. If you had chosen a different line of business, you probably would have a different set of problems. If you had chosen a different location, you probably would have had a different set of problems. Basically, what I'm saying is the responsibility for success of your business, regardless of the difficulties in the environment, the policies, it still boils down on you. Nokia, for example, started with, I think, making detergents or something ridiculous. Now eventually, they started making phones. Lamborghini started making tractors and then they pivoted and started making luxury cars. And so it's how you see, when you change the way you see things, the things you see change. All right. That's a very good way to start it. So the overall, you know, direction per se of the business actually falls on the entrepreneur himself and the owner. Okay, fine. In our pre-chart, when we were discussing this yesterday, you talked about some useful strategies that businesses can actually, you know, adopt, you know, in trying times, such as the ones that we are facing right now. Can you share some of them? All right, fine. And I'd like to start by sharing a little story. Many years ago, in my first business, I used to sell women's shoes, clothes, and burn. You promised you wouldn't laugh. I used to sell women's shoes, clothes, and burns. And I would bring them from outside Nigeria and bring them to Port Hacod where I was staying at the time and then I'll try to sell. But I noticed that even though I was putting a lot of energy into that business, I was struggling. I wasn't making money. So it took some, you know, I say this sometimes, if you truly are building a business that will stand the test of time, you will get to those moments where you ask yourself, should I just drop this thing and go and pick up my CD. And so it was in one of those moments, I just did an evaluation of the things I was spending my time on and the things that actually brought money into the business. I realized that I was spending money on starting the goods, traveling to go and buy the goods, reviewing which items were good and which items were bad. Those items were not bringing, those activities were not bringing money into the business. The activities that were bringing money into the business were me making phone calls, me doing marketing, me putting those products in different stores, me posting on Instagram or sorry, on WhatsApp, doing those activities that bring money. And so what happened, you know, after that realization, because I tried to focus my attention on those things, was that it became easier for me to do a lot more, to make a lot more and get a lot more from my businesses. It is from that experience that these five strategies I'm going to share which it came from, because they worked for me and they worked for a lot of my clients. The first strategy is traffic. The first strategy is traffic, yes. Look, there are two kinds of businesses. Businesses that serve to very few people and charge a large amount of money. Then there are those that serve to, that charge very smaller amounts but have to serve multiple people. For you to serve multiple people, you need to have enough people knocking on your door, looking for a meeting room and trying to do business with you. That means the one question you should ask yourself when you wake up every morning is what are the things I can do today to make a lot of people pay attention and try to do business with me. That's called generating traffic. For example, some people will post once on social media and rest and hope miraculously that angels will come from somewhere or you just open your business, post a signboard there and you wait. No, no matter how much you pray and fast from January to December, the angels will answer in heaven but you still need to draw people's attention. Let me digress a little. See what this incredible comedian and musician is doing. Last boy with his song. He's collaborating with everybody to draw attention. That's traffic. So what are some things you can do to do traffic? Don't just stay one place and hope that customers will come. Those days are gone. Go look for them. That's the first strategy. The second one is consistency. Consistency, okay. Look, yes, your business does not require as much passion as you think it does. Passion is 5%. The remaining 95% is discipline. Majority of the things you need to do for your business to succeed don't require passion, you require discipline. You don't need passion to pay your shop rent. You don't need passion to pay your staff salaries. You don't need passion to show up every day. You need discipline because you wouldn't feel like showing just in even you who is working where you are. It's not every day you feel like showing off work. You show up because of discipline. Of course. You need to be conscious of consistency. This is where you make up, you set up parameters, you set up things that make sure you show up every day. For example, if you have five key things that you must do for your business every day, you wake up in the morning and you attend to those five things first. Do that consistently for 13 days. Your business will finish. All right. That's number two. Number three is packaging. Packaging. So let me explain it this way. Justine, I saw one of the pictures you said to me. I know you don't like to wear ties. But you're wearing a tie. It's packaging. Press it. Let nobody deceive you. In the Bible, it is only God that sees what is inside their heart. All of us see what's outside. And so, I'm wearing a suit. Not necessarily because I like suits. But I have to... There are places you go to eat, Justine, and the way they will arrange the effort. Hold the capture by force. When they bring the bill, I'm telling you, when they bring the bill for you to eat, you will complain. But there are places that they bring it and they bring the bill you start to complain. It's the same effort. It's just packaging. So I'm not saying spend a lot of money rebranding and packaging, no. But you can do something that will stand you out. These are things like exactly at your small level, a small branded waterproof, a thank you note, a simple, a small chocolate, different things you can put together just to make your product different from other people. I went to a supermarket some months ago and I saw where they packaged crayfish so neatly. We didn't need it in the house. I bought it. Packaging. So that's three. Number four. Focus on the market. On your market. Focus on the market, on the market. So what do I mean? Many people want to sell what they want to sell, not what the market wants to buy. But then you have to identify what the market is then. Exactly. So let me give you a practical example. All the books I have written, I did not start writing it until I had sold 50 copies on pre-order. That for me is a litmus test. My partner and I own a fashion brand called Asserted Ethics. We started that business by testing the market first. We made samples, wore the samples, did photo shoots, and put it out there for people to indicate if they were interested first. So we are creating something for the market first, not just what we want to sell. The market tells you they want to buy cupcakes. You say it's wedding cake you want to make and you stick with wedding cakes. My brother, my sister, please sell cupcakes. Sell cupcakes. So focus on the market. Create offers that appeal to the market. Create offers. Speak the language that the market will understand. So it's not about you. It's about what the market is willing and able to buy. All right. And then finally, the fifth strategy is structure. Now for you to be able to do everything I have mentioned, you need structure. What is structure? Structure is you being able to have the right people in the right role doing the right work. So you get the right results. Structure is the right people in the right roles doing the right work paying the right policies so that you get the right results. Okay, so you have to get the right people and being they also have to be at the right place as well. The right place to me is the place that allows you to serve the market the best. So how do you go about identifying the right place? So when we look at place, it depends on the kind of business that you are doing. Here's an example. My consulting business, my fashion business, the academy that I own, three of them are domiciled in Portugal, but our clients are all over Nigeria, all over Nigeria, all over the world. We have people attending and we do business with them from everywhere. So location is really irrelevant here. But we also own a hotel. That hotel is domiciled in Portugal. Now the hotel, we have to be conscious of the environment where the hotel is. You get the point that I'm making. So the nature of your business will determine how you will approach this location issue. But my thinking is this, be conscious of one fact and one fact only. Where will you stay that is the cheapest, most affordable from which you can serve your clients, from which you can serve the market? All right, Andy, for some sake of time, I understand you actually have put the bulk of your ideas in a particular book which you just authored. Can you just share about what it is about really? So Organized is a simple book that helps you put together some of these things I had mentioned. It helps you set up a structure for your small business. So in the book, I talk about the important things you need to put in place for your small business to stand and make more money without pressure, so much pressure on you for you to be able to make money consistently in your business. Because many business owners would make money today, they don't make tomorrow. So what are the things you need to do that will help you with marketing, that will help you with staffing at your small level, that will help you with the basics you need to set in place, even if you're the only one in your business. All right. That's what I put together in the book. Yes. Organize how to structure your small business. What's it called again? How to structure? Organize small. Organized. How to structure your small business. All right, Andy, indeed we have to bring you again on the show because there's a whole lot to talk about business moves and all of that. You cannot really exhaust everything in 30 minutes. Very true. Namde Ibe, many thanks for joining me. Namde Ibe has been my guest. He's a business consultant, a serial entrepreneur and you can actually follow him Namde the Surgeon on Instagram. That's the size of the show for today. I am Justin Akadoni. Many thanks for being there. We'll see you again next time.