Earlier this year, I travelled to Benue State, Nigeria - a state in the North Central region of the country. Though I had been there before, this time business brought me. Benue State is known to be the food basket of the nation, and they really deserve the name. The plan was to stay there for a while, purchase yams, and send them to the City of Port Harcourt, where they are highly expensive. The business began well, but it ended up generating absolutely nothing. It was rather the case that over half of my investment in it was lost.
In as much as it ended badly, it taught me a lot; most importantly, I realised how important reports are to any business. Though I was the only investor, it was supposed to be a two-man business. While I was to purchase and send yams down to Port Harcourt, my mom, who is in Port Harcourt, was to sell and give me returns. From my own end, I would usually give her an analysis of my purchase as well as all the expenses involved. This was to enable her to arrive at the pricing of the tubers.
It seemed like it was going well, since I got returns faster than expected, but there were no records of any form from her end. Though it was a small business, I insisted on getting written reports on what had been sold, but she would always dismiss it with the fact that she was busy with other things. In as much as I was convinced that my mom didn't steal the business money, a business established with more than four hundred thousand naira (£300) could in less than two months not be worth two hundred thousand naira.
At this point, I had to travel back to Port Harcourt myself; I needed to see how the sales were carried out. On getting home, I was surprised at how the business managed to survive with such poor management. Apart from the issues I had with my mom's pricing, I realised she made external expenses from the business money at will, and she absolutely saw nothing wrong with it. I was also meant to realise that every yam consumed in the family house came from this growing business of mine without being paid for. Funny enough, my mom approved and never saw it as a problem.
The last and most annoying thing was me realising that people were given yams on credit without documentation. Though my mom claimed to know everyone and what they owed, that was not good enough for me. Allowing my mom to manage the business from the sales side was a huge error on my part, considering the fact that I could not hold her accountable. That, for me, was the biggest loophole in my business plan; I am only sad I realised it the hard way.
In as much as I want to apportion blame, I was undoubtedly part of my problem. I was unwise to have continued a business of such nature without proper reports from the other end; the reports would have at least given me a clue of what was going on. I have certainly learned from my mistake.
