 All right, thanks for staying with us now. Sustainable SMEs are an essential component for Nigeria's economy to thrive because they can help to create jobs, boost economic growth, protect the environment, and improve social well-being. They are also more resilient to shocks and crises. Technology is a necessary tool for any kind of business, especially for SMEs in Nigeria to thrive and compete in the global marketplace. It can help them improve efficiently and productively, reduce costs, reach new markets, and gain a competitive advantage. However, not all small businesses have been able to leverage the benefits that come with being a digital native. So tonight, we're asking what is the influence of tech in building sustainable SMEs in Nigeria? Now, please let's hear what you have. Say remember, you can join the conversation. Send us an SMS or WhatsApp to the world, 1-803-4663. All right, so quickly, NJ, since you are the tech people, how important is tech in small businesses these days? Yeah, it's just like what I was saying earlier. It makes your business, it moves your business faster. It helps you automate, digitalize. It helps for you to increase customer base and even have a track record of that in terms of reporting. It helps you make easier partnerships. So it has brought forward a whole lot of things that used to be like a cage and used to be like it has changed and revolutionized all those things. And now you see what would take a business weeks and months to achieve. Now you take it in a day, less than hours. So it has done a lot. Absolutely. So let me bring Fariza, understands the role of SMEs in evaluating or elevating rather than fast-tracking development in Nigeria and Africa at large. This has filled her passion to contribute tirelessly to supporting small and medium-scale businesses with development strategies and technology infusion for business growth and sustainability. She is the head of strategy and operations at MindShift Business Solution and has three years experience as a business development expert providing strategic and innovative solutions that have helped businesses experience 70% increase in client base. That one is measurable. And she's joined us live in studio. Hi, Fariza. Hi. Are you mother, Fariza? Yeah. No, Fariza is fine. I like this idea that it's actually traceable or what they call it scalable and it is measurable. You know, sometimes you have business development experts, they come into your business. You can't even measure how much growth has happened in your business. So I like the fact that if I try to come into my business now, let me just give you a warning. If I don't, I will call you out. But that's just try to put the mood lighter. I mean, so we all know that tech is actually, well, I call it a new goal now, a lot of people are actually building different things around technology, making it, you know, even easier, more accessible, more, what's it called, the navigation, the user journey is quite easy these days. People are bringing lighter solutions, quicker solutions, things that are not so complicated as we used to know tech to be. So is there an excuse for any small business not to be thinking of infusing technology in their business today? Okay. First of all, good evening. And thank you, Uwa and NG for having me. So there's really no excuse, right? I feel like there's no excuse. Because just like you said, it is now easy, right? It is now easy to implement. They are now, you know, is more, is it, you know, it has sort of been brought closer to everyone so that you can actually find technology that can work for you where you are, whatever level of maybe expertise and all of that that you have. So there's really no excuse. Well, I mean, probably when you ask another question, I'll share my thoughts on why I feel like, you know, some SMEs are not embracing technology. You can go ahead and just share that. Because if there's no excuse, I was going to just follow it up. We say, so why are people not? What is the, what's the barrier? Why are people not thinking in that direction? Okay. So two things, you know, that I'm just going to highlight. First is the fact that there's still, maybe we can call it a mental block in the sense that some people still think technology is far reaching. So we say that, oh, it's now more accessible, but that's how we are looking at it. So some people still feel like this thing is hard, right? I don't really understand what's happening there and I'm not interested. So I think that's the first thing, that mental block. Yeah. So that's one. And then the next might also now be close to the mental block. It can also be a challenge of finding the right tool. Now, because of the interesting time we live in where you can literally Google anything and you can just say, maybe for example, let me use a CRM too, because I mean, most businesses, CRM is a customer relationship management tool. So maybe you're just like, what CRM tool can I use and then trust Google to give you all sorts of options. And you know, it now becomes a question of which one should I actually use? Which one would fit my business? Which one would fit what I'm doing? Because not all tools will give you the same offering. And trust me, I don't think many business owners are interested in doing that. Especially, I mean, if it's a large organization where they have a tech team, that's a different conversation. But somebody that maybe they have just two staff and they are generating revenue and they are okay. And then person like, oh, I want to, you know, utilize technology. And they start that process. They're like, you know what, I don't know what's this thing. I'm not doing it again. So I think those are two major things that I feel like maybe challenges to adopting technology. Interesting. Indri. Well, you said quite a bit, but my question will come to what are those challenges? What are those things? I know that you said that they don't. And you've given some of the news. So what, how do they move forward? How do you convince them? Because I'm also in the same line and it takes a while, like it takes longer to close deals. And it's surprising that in Nigeria, it takes longer to close deals with bigger organizations. So organizations that you expect to understand the need for it, the importance in their in running of their day to day activities, you are expecting them to understand the need. And then they just push it to the side. It almost takes so much longer between the time it takes to close a bigger deal that would land you, you know what I mean by a bigger deal. And you would have closed like 10 small deals. And eventually you're looking at that small deals as the ones that you use to run the operations of the company, while you chase the bigger ones that get you actual, the profits that you deserve as a company. Why does it take that long for them to, I know, but I'm asking you today. But yeah, like I would like to, because we're here, what we're doing here is to educate people on the need and why they should. So I would like for you to actually be able to tell us why that happens and what they should do. How do business, you know, business people like you be able to convince them that there is a need for that? How what are the steps you take? Okay. That's a really interesting question. And you know, I just started to remember my experience, you know, working in the tech space and I know how just like you said, you go to a school and you're trying to explain to them that this school manager in my software is going to really make life easy for you. And they just feel like they feel like, oh, yes, I know, right. But I'm just not interested right now, or it's expensive and things like that. So just a few things that I would highlight. First of all, also the method in which that solution is being communicated. So instead of maybe approaching this business owner and saying, okay, this is what I'm offering you in that sense, this is my tech solution and all of that, you might want to show them a process in the organization, show them what they are doing, right? So and that way you are tailoring it to the exact oppressions they are carrying out, the exact services they are offering, show them exactly what this tool you're offering is actually going to do for them. Well, what I mean in essence, let me let me use a tech again, because I've worked in a tech for a while. So now using a tech for example, so maybe you can just use the example of, oh, imagine a teacher coming into class, maybe a class of 25 students, for example, and teacher is calling each student named by me to say they are trying to mark a tendance. Now look at, or even before as they are entering school, you account for every student and you just send this, in China they have those things from the gate. Exactly. The same thing. So now that way you're telling them that normally your mass class is not even enough. The teacher is saying, no, the time is up and we're not done. And then you're still using like 10 minutes to say you're trying to call everybody named as in tickets. So relating it in that way to what they are doing and really showing them specifics. This is exactly what it would do for you. Just tailoring back to what you said about business development. Once people see any kind of ambiguity, what you're offering them, they would just want to draw back, especially when you want to collect your money. Especially me. So they would draw back. It's just like, I get you, this thing is nice, but later on when I have no budget. So that's relating it to exactly what you are doing. Yes. Breaking it down to like layman terms of business, they now adopt it. Exactly. Let me go back to sustainability. Because we're talking SMEs now, according to World Bank, the statistics shows that about 600 million jobs will be needed by, I think it's 2030 now. Yeah. I think it's 2030. And the major employers of those labor will be SMEs. So this is, it tells me that you really cannot not pay attention to SMEs. So if we say we want to build sustainable SMEs in your own understanding, what is sustainability for a business? What does it mean? Because we use these terms loosely, especially because now, if you say anything, sustainability, and you can apply for grants, you and I give you money. So everybody say sustainability, but they don't really know what sustainability would mean in its real sense. So what would that mean from your own analysis? What does sustainability mean for a small business? Okay. Interesting question again. So generally, sustainability just refers to whatever resources is available, is available for a long time in layman's English, is available for a long time, such that you're using that resource today will not affect the ability of a future generation, right? Your children, for example, to use that same resource. Now, bringing it to businesses in the very basic term is the fact that you can keep delivering on your brand promise like overtime. And that even though you live in a volatile environment, you can still maintain the standard of what you're offering and the profitability of your business, right? So those two things are always there. You are not, you know, you are not coming to a point where you have to now reduce your quality because you're like, oh, things are getting expensive. So sustainability is that ability to keep your business running, delivering on your promise, making sure you still have money because I mean, if you don't have money use, if there's no cash flow, you still have issues. So making sure that is happening, right? And then, you know, you now want to bring in things like ESG, making sure, you know, environmental, social and governance, in terms of you're making sure you're probably running a circular economy or making sure that's, you know, you're not violating any of those other principles in a simple way, right? I like to say sustainable business as a business that cannot live its founder. I know that's probably taking it a bit far, but it's not. That's how it's supposed to be. Because that's why we don't have businesses. I like where you're going with it because outliving the founder means that you have built a business. I mean, I was listening to someone that said that if you cannot live your business for 90 days, you're not in business. Don't call yourself an entrepreneur. You are not an entrepreneur because you cannot not be there. So you must put in structures and the only way you can put in those structures, it is through technology. Thanks for saying with us that if you just tuned in, we're having so much fun discussing influence of what's it called technology and building a sustainable business and we'll have Theresa. I call her Mother Theresa with us now. If you just tuned in, I'm sorry, you can call us on 0702. Are we calling today? No. Send us an SMS or WhatsApp to 0803-4663. I don't know, I'm so excited. So I mean, like now, practicality. I am a business and I want to see Theresa come in to help me structure my business so that I can become a sustainable business and then put the influence of technology in that business. What's the first thing you do when you go into a business? How do you do the analysis? What do you do and all of that? Okay. So usually the first thing I look out for is I really want to understand the mind of the business owner. That's my own personal approach. I want to understand the thought of the business owner. I want to understand what is driving the business owner. I really want to get into their head space and see because that gives me more perspective to even see things you're not seeing at that point. So that's the first thing I usually do, just have a chilled conversation, just asking you how did you start? What motivated you? Why are you still here? All of those questions and then from there, I mean, the tools I use, there are different analysis I use to just, I mean, to also give me data. So I ask them certain questions that helps me also to see deep into where the business is. So that's the first thing I do. So after I do that, I now move them to having conversation with their staff, if they have staff, just to also hear their own thoughts about how things are done. And then I create like a roadmap. That's how I work. I create a roadmap. I can do maybe a three month or a six month roadmap and say, okay, this is what I can do for you. This is what will happen. This is what you should be expecting. And we have that. And I mean, whether it's technology inclusion or just basic advisory or, I mean, for some people, you come in, you know, with the notion of doing one thing and then you see a lot of other things and you're like, okay, this is something that needs to be fixed if you want to, for example, now an average business owner in Nigeria will be like, oh, I need grants or I need loans. Come on, help me apply for stuff and all of that. And, you know, I'm like, oh, where's your records? And they're like, oh, we've been writing it. Oh, you even hear we've been writing it. So it's some month or there's a month or not. And I'm like, okay, first things first, we need to get to an university system first before we even go for that. Because I mean, if you, if you are still writing down, then there will be issues, right? Because it just, it's not traceable. Exactly. So we're like, okay, let's set that up and just make sure all of those, you know, literally two things are fixed immediately. So I hope I've answered your question. No, you go ahead, continue. I like the question, the answer. So it is based on the need of the business that not decides where you start from. But based, but you've done the normal and getting into the head of the owners. Yes. Yes. I get you. I get you. So one of the questions I would like to ask, because yes, what are the barriers and limitations that SM is faced with the adoption of technology? Because there's a good side and there's a bad side. Let's just charge it as an example. A major fear a lot of people have with charge it is that technology dependence, right? Where, you know, people now sort of stop thinking in that sense and really just allow charge it, think for them and other AI tools. And that's sometimes a fear. So some people like, oh, I don't want to, in quotes, lose my creativity. Yeah, let's, I mean, they're simple in the humanity, but I don't want to lose my creativity. I don't want to become like one of these people who cannot think in essence, right? So that's that. I think that's one challenge people face. And then the one we talked about earlier about knowing exactly where to start. And that's where, you know, having somewhere you can even speak to. You know, I like to put it as basic as if you are not maybe a tech savvy person, just have a friend. If you cannot even say you want to, you know, get a consultant or something, just have a friend that knows about tech tools. And you can always ask this thing, what am I doing? What do I need to do, right? All of that. But I mean, the honest truth is the business owner might not even know where they need technology. And that's really just it. So it now takes that external AI to be able to say, okay, this is where you need to start, right? And I don't want to say, you know, it's expensive. I actually don't want to say that. Yeah, I was coming in there because small, small businesses will tell you that. But this thing is actually very expensive for me. I can't afford it. You know, so what would you say to those people? Where are they trying to start from? What are they, what kind of technology are they getting? I mean, technology is different, you know, for defense industry. So for example, somebody in manufacturing now did, you might be thinking, well, they need some more expensive tools. But there's always a start point. There's always the baseline that you can say, okay, this is where we can start from. And I think it falls back to building your business with that mind that from this scratch, you want to make sure that you're having systems, automations. It's a cultural thing. It is you building that culture that okay, so that even when you bring in a staff that may not even be tech savvy, they cannot already see the culture and they are already stepping up, right? So that's really where it starts from. Instead of looking at it from the point of course, because to be honest, there's a lot of free options. If many of these tech tools will give you a free version, right? I'm trying not to mention names, you know, for obvious reasons, but many of these tech tools will give you a free version that you can start with. But you still need somebody to guide you on that. Yes. So that's where you guys now come in. Exactly. But I was going to say that technology is actually great. I know a gym, all of us know the gym company that, you know, I was shocked when I registered and they told me that they don't do cash, they don't do nothing. Everything is just, I mean, like literally, they're so automated that you can go to any branch, you know, all you need to do is just flush your, there's a QR code on your phone and you are like, you can go anywhere. So for that business, they're not thinking of the regular traditional thing of, oh, maybe a staff is doing all sorts of things and all of that. So I mean, technology would help curb a lot of excesses. Because again, you hear small businesses complain, you know, they complain about, oh, staff stealing from them and all of that. And they're not able to keep, especially for people that are into retailing, right? They're not able to keep stock of inventory. I had an older sister that had a massive portrait in just massive poetry. Now, their business, it was there I learned that, ah, fear people, fear people, they twist the neck of the chicken like this and throw it across the fence, they would, in fact, ah, they would insert eggs, women, we insert eggs inside that place, like maybe three, four eggs, you know, apply, that's how terrible, you know, the minds of these workers are. They do all sorts of things. They would bury eggs inside this or so. Those kinds of businesses, do you think technology can help them? Especially like maybe farmers, people in the agricultural chain, do you think technology can help? Are there solutions for them? Absolutely, absolutely. There's actually a solution for, ah, I think it's livestock, not poetry. She's my friend, right? And I don't know if it's okay to mention her name, but I'm even, her name's Adese. Farm speak, yeah, that's the name of her business. She has a, she has an app that you know, I'm trying to remember the details, but I know it does something around measuring literally everything that is needed around the livestock farming, from what they should be eating, the quantity they need to be eating, to the temperature where they are staying. She has that tool that measures all of that, and it is specifically for people in the agricultural space. And I know that as the last time we spoke, she was looking at expanding it to actually accommodate all that kind of agricultural practices. So, and that's just one. I know there are others, right? So this, and I know that she even has some, you know, agreements with collaboration with the state government at the moment. So these things are there. And to be honest, it's going to help because a lot of agricultural people, that's one of their major concerns. That's honestly speaking. And you lose a lot of their harvest and all of that. Go ahead. Even not even just stealing a loan. Even, you know, in terms of, for example, their animals dying because the temperature is nowhere it should be. There are so many, I mean, agricultural space is really the very dynamic space where anything can literally happen, right? And technology is really changing the game in agriculture. It's just that, I mean, as the general Nigerian thing was to was to was to literally try battling because, I mean, if you've heard about this greenhouse farming and all of that, these are all technological, you know, advancement of coming to agriculture. Exactly. And that that are really changing the game. And we just need to be more intentionally about adopting them and really now going to the grassroot farmers. Because I mean, at the moment, many of, you know, the farm produce and all of that still come from that end. So really going down. I mean, it's just what it is. The things that are wasting can be prevented. But as with every other industry in Nigeria, we're working progress. We're working progress. So it's interesting. It's interesting. So for smaller businesses that are like, would I call them now? Because sometimes you see great business presence on Instagram, you see all of those things. And then you probably chat them up. First of all, response time is horrible. You know, and all of that. I mean, like, literally, how do you how do you advise those kind of businesses for their CRM tools? What kind of tools do they do? Because I mean, you send a DM and it's taking forever to the person is not even responding, right? You call maybe they eventually peak and it's taking days and all of those things. And these things are not really great for businesses, right? And that's why me, I'm still a physical store person. My older sister is the one that she can live and breathe online shopping. She doesn't need to go anywhere right now. One of her products is stock. She has begged me now to whatever, to whatever check because she's calling them, they're not picking their calls. But I mean, these are the things we're here now. A lot of people are embracing a lot more online shopping online, all of those things. So how do you tell a small business that says, you know what, I want you to grow a sustainable business for your customer relationship management process is quite, what's it called, weak? How do you help those kind of businesses, you know, to help get better customer engagement? Okay, so the first thing is just leverage, you know, automated messaging at the basic level, right? That really just tells people, based on maybe setting questions, they ask, oh, hi, we're not here now at that basic level. We'll be back in XYZ time, right? So that's really like the first layer of that. So across each of the social media platforms, whether it's Instagram, WhatsApp, just have that layer of so people don't feel like, you know, nobody's attending to me, right? I think that's one. The next thing also will now be graduating from that to, I mean, for those who can, to having like a chatbot that really just engages, right? So that's, I mean, that might not be something. He's the shant's boss. Yeah, that's why I said that. He actually does help. I know he helps. Nobody's arguing with you people. Yeah. No, but I get right, I get not everybody can just wake up and say, I'm ready for that kind of, you know, investment, right? So just have that basic, you know, response and then be able to, I mean, as, as a, as a practice, right? Do the best you can to convert your customers from WhatsApp, Instagram to having their data stored, right? So just having whatever to you eventually set to learn, just make sure that you have your data stored properly as that, that's just it basically because now the reason why I'm saying that is some people really just engage with customers, they send them the response, they ship the product out and that's it and they leave those data in those, in all of. So you have data in Instagram, you have data in Facebook, you have data on WhatsApp. Exactly. So that's just another basic level. I mean, that might not completely solve the issue of delayed response time. I think I've mentioned what can work at the barest minimum, but have making sure that you are galvanizing all those data into, if it's a mailing list, you want to convert them to fine and good, whatever system, just make sure that, you know, you're storing the data and you're keeping the communication lines open because you can't be sending, hi, we've not heard from you on WhatsApp to everybody sending you DMs. You can't also do that on Instagram except of course maybe you have those three customers or something like that, right? So there's a level where you will be like, oh, if it is to have, oh, even if it's bulk SMS, we can send it to them. So just making sure that that, so that way they know that you're actually, you know, you are still there and they can come back, right? So beyond, you know, what, I mean, the social media space is, in fact, between, I think 2020, 2020, we grew by about 600 billion, that's 600 or 300 billion, globally, right, dollars globally, and just shows you how much people are shopping online, online platforms, right? So it just means that there's a lot of market there, but you don't want to be caught just responding to DMs and that's all and you don't have the record of your customers outside all of the social media platforms that you're responding to them. Absolutely. Makes sense. Makes sense because again, remember when WhatsApp was down, Instagram was down. So it brings me to, you know, as we are trying to wrap up now, how important is every business owning a website, like especially a business that want to be there for a good number of years, right? How important is that owning that your own website? Extremely important. Extremely important. Like it's something that the moment you start generating revenue, start thinking about it. I really don't care what you're doing, just start thinking about it, right? Because even if you cannot do it immediately, make sure it is in your plan. Over the next six months, we're going to have the website. Just like you said, if you're not interested in being there for a long time, then you might not need to consider it. But if you are, then it's just, it's just the right thing to do. Exactly. Awesome. Okay, so I think NJ, but you see, the challenge that I have with the websites, I'm coming back again. How do we start to create real affordable solutions? Genestown. I might be able to afford a website to be built for a millionaire, but there's a small business out there that needs a website, but they cannot even afford to pay 100,000 or Genestown, I'm saying. So I believe in practicality. I work with people's budget, right? And I believe that every small business should be treated with its unique strength. If we truly want to solve the problem, I am very passionate about small businesses. So if we really want to solve the problem of small businesses, we must meet them at their level, right? So how do we begin to bring these tech solutions at that level? Like create it also with a complete package. So we help you build a website, do this, do that, you know, just within your budget. And what would that budget look like? That's a very, that's a very, what's the word now, a very compounding question. But let me take Eduardo to building, you know, affordable solutions. So this is not necessarily their own websites, but they can actually be hosted on a third party platform. So that's an option that can be explored. And at the moment in Nigeria, we have organizations and, you know, tech companies that actually offer that. So that's one level, right? So that's the first thing. And then, yeah, that's really the first thing. After that, you're not looking at there. Can you maybe get a developer that can actually work with you and you guys can reach, you know, a consensus, right? That's another way to look at it. So that's really another way to look at it. Yeah, I think those are two major things. So at the first level, you might want to start with what are those third party platforms that allow me sort of host like so you almost like you have a shop in their shop. Yeah, and they are quite a lot. Yes, they are quite a lot. Yes. Over the years, I feel like solutions have that. And that's one of the things that technology has done. Technology has opened up the space for everybody. Like you have it, you have, you know how to do it, come and do it, do it, let's see. And once you do it, and yours is better than what is existing, who is not ready to jump on that? There are a lot of free websites, people hosting third party and all that. So there, there have been various avenues. The one we were talking about earlier, I'm not going to mention the name, but the one we were talking about earlier, it's that product, although it's not well known in Nigeria, what has become is at the top. But when it comes to pricing, it's so much lower. It's so ridiculous that sometimes when we want to sell it as a company, we are free to sell it because the clients will just look at it and be like, are you sure it can deliver what I want? And you're like, yes, even more than the big ones that you already know. So a lot more people, a lot more solutions and a lot more even technology companies are producing indigenous solutions. I feel like that's the best way to go because indigenous solutions means that it caters exactly to our environment. And what is within our environment, so it's not just pricing. You're looking at the environment because you use some of these products, it's produced maybe in China, in some of Asia and America and what have you. And they are features that do not really... Don't, you're looking at it and you have to almost ask, okay, do you know what, take out this future. Does it help with the cost? Because even our technology at this rate does not even support some of those features. But I think we've had a fantastic time. Thank you, Therese there. Thank you for having me. Thank you NJ. By the way, we're all black in today. Before we go, I'm sure you follow us across all our social media handles at Wayshoe Africa. You can interact with us further, drop your comment. And most importantly, follow all the engagements on social media, like share and invite your families and friends to watch and follow the conversation. Now if you missed today's quote, here it is again. It says technology adoption is a contributor to business growth to save costs, reduce effort and get more customers. This was one of those. So we'll see you guys on Monday at 8 p.m. As we bring another great conversation to your screen.