5-Step Guide to Seed Funding your Startup with your life: Case Study- SmallChopsNG
Around this time last year, I decided to disrupt the Finger Food industry in Nigeria by commercializing Small Chops. You know Small Chops, yeah? Those distant relatives that you only acknowledge in reference to the life of the party
“Ah Aunty Puff Puff, looking good o, have you seen Madam Jollof around?”
It’s not like I’m a tech genius, or a food maven. I like to think of myself as a dabbling polymath, the proverbial ‘Jack of all trades’ but I really just wanted one pack of small chops, not two, not five, just a single miserly pack, but alas! the gods of finger foods declared me unfit to have any small chops if I didn’t order at least five packs.
Call it frustration, or just plain old stubbornness, but fast-forward a few days, and the idea that is smallchops.ng was born, our founding mantra: #NoMinimumOrder.
Today we are rolling out a few upgrades to the website to make the UI/UX better and to allow us better reward our loyal customers and the vendors that actually make the small chops, but that isn’t why you’re here. You’re here because the title says I seed funded SmallChopsNG with my life and you’re wondering how I did it.
First off, you have to know this:
There’s always a price to pay.
Its not always money.
Most of the time, the resources you need are simply your mind and your time. You have an idea? Well, start building it! You can’t code? Ever heard of Google or Lynda? Learn! You need an office? Err, no you don’t, Not yet.
The first ever smallchops.ng website (a coming soon page) was coded by my then girlfriend, and she wasn’t even a programmer! Let go of the belief that you need something you don’t have to get something you want. It would just hold you back.
Okay, now you know, so let’s begin: The 5-Step guide to life funding your startup
Step 1: Evaluate your Life
I don’t believe there’s any clear-cut description of the life/lifestyle of an entrepreneur, so this isn’t me giving you a ‘do-you-have-what-it-takes’ checklist(In case you’re looking for that, Entrepreneur.com compiled a nice one here). No, this is me saying you are about to enter some deep shit, possibly lose girlfriends and be the prayer point of a few morning devotions. So sit down, assess your life, know what you’re currently thankful for, what you don’t ever want to lose, and prepare for the worst.
Step 2: Don’t be afraid/ashamed of little beginnings
Nobody. Starts. Big.
If you can’t break your idea down to the point where with your current (or easily obtainable) resources you can’t achieve some part of it, it means one of two things.
Its either
a) You have zero business management skills, in which case you shouldn’t be starting a company, or
b) Your idea is half-baked and would probably crash when investment money runs out, which eventually happens.
So it doesn’t matter if all you can currently afford is less than 1% of the full idea. Start it out, work out the kinks, and grow it bit by bit.
P/S: Nobody will steal your idea because you start small, even if they do, all they have is the 1%, you can still kick their butts with the rest of it.
Step 3: Don’t hog the stakes.
Like my paddy Charles would say, “100% of 0 is 0”.
Now I’m not saying you should be stupid and relinquish control of your yet-to-be-born company, what I’m saying is don’t be greedy and try to keep 70% of your ‘baby’ when that mad ass programmer that will design the whole system, build the framework and still monitor all the stuff you don’t know squat about is asking for 40% because you don’t have the raw cash to pay him yet. Give it up and let your idea come to life. Just make sure you have everything written down and agreements signed. Documentation is everything.
Step 4: Learn how to make noodles.
Cheap and easy to make. Its a very important skill to have during your company’s initial stages. Just take my word on this one.
Step 5: Charge from day 1!
I learnt this one from Somto Ifezue, CEO of SharpHire (PushCV, PiggyBankNG….read his Twitter Bio). Create value people would pay for from the onset and charge them for it. The life force of any business is cash flow, and if you’re life funding yours, you better start getting some revenue from day 1 or you’d have to rely onstep 4 for a really long time.
So I hope with these five steps of mine, I’ve been able to convince…just kidding, but seriously, easy stuff yeah?
That’s it really. At least it has worked for us at SmallChopsNG till date. Our current investor search is bordered on growth and expansion, not survival. I’m no business expert but I believe that’s where any startup wants to be.
Thanks for reading, I sincerely hope this helps!
Believe it or not, HawkGirl proofread this one for me!
