A lot of people lost their job as a result of this renowned Corona pandemic, it was not an African thing, it was worldwide. I was begining to stay at home for too long that boredom was no longer an option. I was eating at an alarming rate and my account balance was on the low. 'I've got to start a business!' I often said to myself, but what kind of business? I made research on ethanol production, social marketing, online sales among others and then an Idea popped into my head. The Nigerian government at the peak of the pandemic had to close down all markets, but opened the food markets on particular days. People couldn't do without food, it was the one commodity that would keep selling ahead of clothes, shoes and bags.
I gathered enough money and got the basic foodstuff necessary, I got a shop and had a woodworker make me some furniture. I expected things to go smoothly but I was yet to be lectured on things that didn't appear on the surface. Probably I didn't make my research well or they were just knowledge to be acquired solely by experience.
You see the foodstuff business has no much gain, much of it is lost in the course of transportation, the beauty only lies in how fast you stock up and get it totally sold out. Foodstuff get sold out quickly especially if it's quality. Business strategy also applies when you sell, customer relationship is paramount and account is very essential.
I've met all manner of customer in my short stay in this business, many are greedy, some are friendly and the unfriendly ones are also there. Some make you believe your goods are too expressive but if you make your research properly, you have no reason to defend much. Those customers are just greedy creatures looking to extort the newbie in the business.
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Learning to recognize good food is a vital skill, if not the most important because no one wanna buy bad food even at a cheaper rate, trust me. I made the mistake of getting a bag of cowpea because it was cheap, I saw a great profit margin but I'm yet to completely sell it off. I learnt what to watch for in different food product. In cowpea, you're checking for the size, colour, presence of aphids, present of impurities and other types of beans, quantity of charfts among others. I once bought a bag of beans which had a lot of chafts, turned out to be bad business. Talking of quality food, when you source for very good stocks, you get it disposed quickly. Like in my area, I've the best garri and I'm not ready to leak my source to my competitors. Many come far to get it solely from me, they might get their rice, beans, oils and eggs somewhere closer to their homes but when it comes to garri, it's my monopoly game, and I can play around with the price, It's my world.
Foodstuff if not kept properly will perish as carelessness will invite unwanted animals to feed on the oasis. So I wasn't employing myself to buy and sell alone, I learnt how to keep off unwanted animals.
And the accounts.... That's another dimension of it's own. It's like learning to bend a completely different element. You can calculate your sales a couple of times and get different results. Or you can get an headache when your recorded sales is higher than the cash at hand. One thi
ng about account I've learnt is to keep records and cross-check as much as required.
Well, when people gather tp discuss the year of the pandemic, I'd talk of how I was tutored in the school of business and food business. Yeah, you read that right, there are general business principles I acquired and principles strictly for food business.
I hope you enjoy this write up, leave your questions, I will do well answer them all.
Thanks, reporting live from Damzxyno's Food Store.
