What I’ve learnt about Business and Entreprenuership at 21 years old.
Funny picture, but then again laughter is the first emotion many of the OGs I’ve done business with express when my age becomes public knowledge, its either that or disdain, but the latter wouldn’t make for a very nice picture.
My name is Uche Ukonu Jnr, you don’t know me yet, but you would soon enough. I’ll be turning 22 in September, the 15th to be precise (Virgo baby!), it would also signify my 6th year in business (that is, if you consider selling cold drinks in Peter Hall of Covenant University for a N30 per-bottle-profit as ‘business’).
Now, before I delve into the reason you’re reading this, I want to state explicitly that I’m not claiming to be better or smarter than any of my agemates and contemporaries, I just happen to have had a few opportunities, same as everyone else, only difference might be in how I exploited these opportunities, which is what this post is about.
Let’s get to it then!
Now, in business, even before I realised it, I was operating on three(3) core principles, i’ll brief through them.
First Principle: A strong sense of ‘self’.
Everybody talks ‘self esteem’, ‘self value’..but how many of us are truly living in that reality?
In reality, if I let people’s opinions of me get in the way of my thinking, I would have an excess of ‘friends’ and not enough focus, because more often than not, people see just what they want to see and tend to blind themselves to the reason behind the being.
As a lad (My dad still calls me ‘lad’ :-P), I was called a jack of all trades and chided with the popular saying ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ because of my desire to learn at least the basics of everything that there was to learn. I hopped from music where I learnt the piano, the guitar, the saxophone, the snare drums to IT where I learnt the basics of any programming language I could lay my hands on from php to java to c# to mysql and then to food before landing in agriculture. My hunger for knowledge of everything around me earned me nothing more than spite from my peers who could only see a dude that wanted to know everything. Fastforward a few years and I co-founded Kaifugo, a company that connects people to anyone that can do anything, you can’t be effective in leading such a company if you don’t have an inkling of the inner workings of the businesses you refer others to.
I can give you a lot of examples
*’People’ laughed at the time I spent reading books, turns out you need a good vocabulary and a shit load of facts and information to talk to boards and pitch to investors.
*I was seen as queer because I refused to engage in activities like drunkenness and ‘highness’, I have nothing against those who do (I indulge once in a while ;-) ), I’m just glad it didn’t become a habit, I like to have my mind working at full capacity at all times, companies depend on it.
Fact remains, nobody defines who you are more than you, and nobody knows you better than you and your God. If you start changing to every side comment, or every little push from peers, you start to lose that uniqueness, that perfection, that makes up the amazing identity that is you.
In business, if you change your model due to every slight change in trends or the prospect of making a little extra cash. You start to lose your uniqueness and your customers will start to see you as just ‘one of the many options available’.
Second Principle: Recognising the value of relationships.
Now, I’m twenty-one years old.
A few days to my eighteenth birthday, I saw my first million naira, not because I was the best at what I did then (I was into commercial programming) but because I had wonderful relationships with the right set of people. They were heading somewhere great, and I was glad to accompany them on their journey.
All through my business life, I have been moving from level to level almost solely because of my relationships, did I mention that God was my number one partner? He is, so yh…solely by my relationships.
So how do you build your own money-making relationships?
1. Never overlook anyone that has even the slightest sense of direction, you don’t have to be the person’s best friend, all you might have to do is remember their faces and say hello every time you see them. Most times that’s enough.
2. Its easy to spot people that are going somewhere with their lives, too easy and we all know it. Find these people and make them your ‘guys’. Doesn’t mean you should overlook everyone else, but make these ones your ‘guys’. I met Charles Eke, Project manager at Check DC, when we were in our second year at Covenant University, then he was still hustling how to install photoshop on his laptop, but I knew immediately that he was going somewhere, I quickly guy-ed him. Ebuka, Co-founder Reftek, that one was the deepest guy-ing in my first year, this guy used to amaze with his business sense and programming skills! now we partner on a lot of business endeavours. There are many stories like that, Mayowa, David, Michael…all relationships that i’m forever grateful for.
3. Add value to the relationship, don’t be a sapper, contribute and watch the relationship grow.
Finally: Wisdom in expenditure.
This is where many of us young business owners get it wrong, you don’t make it to spend it!
In the book ‘The richest man in babylon’, it was said that ‘a part of what you earn is yours to keep’.
If you are in business to just make a little extra spending money, then I guarantee that its either you pack up after a while, or you never leave your comfort zone in the business.
We young entrepreneurs tend to spend our profits as soon as we make them, its easy to spot a young business owner that has landed a huge profit. new shoes, fancy expensive dates, new iPad for him/her and bae, maybe even a new car if he/she landed a really huge one.
These things are not necessary every time, why buy a car when in the end it will turn out to be a huge liability? If you don’t want to get dirty before a business meeting, then pick a cab! don’t get me wrong though, having a car is nice and all, but not as a first priority, make sure you are very comfortable financially, then think of a car.
Paraphrasing what my friend Charles would say;
“Why buy a car when you know that you will grumble at every little fluctuation of the fuel pump price?”
[The original statement had something to do with G-wagons and 4-figure pump prices, but I digress...]
Plan your money as it comes, there’s no such thing as ‘free cash’, its a lie! you’ll pay for it later. If you structure your income from your business and how to utilise it properly, you and your business would definitely grow, to borrow another quote from Clayson’s book ‘Let your gold work for you’.
In life they tell you not to count your chicks before they hatch, in business I’m telling you that if you give your hens the best care and observe all the necessary factors, those chicks will definitely hatch so plan how to sell them. (Unless its spiritual sha, but we have God on our side so nothing spoil.)
In conclusion, there’s really nothing special about me, my grades will tell you that i’m no genius, my friends will tell you that I can be an annoying pain, its all boils down to just an insatiable will to succeed and the grace of God. So if I can make it in business, you can too. Good Luck!
