The August 2017 edition of CFA’s Startups Hangout, held at Adna Hotel on Friday, August 18, 2017, turned out to be a very exciting, educative and knowledge transferring session, with the two guest speakers, Afolabi Abiodun, CEO, SB Telecoms & Devices and Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu, CEO, InfoGraphics, discharging everything in their arsenal that they know can help the attendee Startups to run their businesses efficiently, successfully and also scale their businesses.
The hangout started with Afolabi Abiodun, telling his intriguing story of how he started running a thriving recharge card business and at the end of the day, ran into a debt of a whopping N26 million, fleeing to Ghana afterwards to cool his heels from the pursuing creditors. He eventually returned to Nigeria to face the problem squarely, with a view to resolving it, thanks to the influence of his Grandmother, who was one of those that contributed, in no small measure, to the initial capital of his business, as well as supplied the collateral that he used in standing for the loan.
Some of the lessons learned by the Startups, from Afolabi’s story, include, having the “I can do” spirit in conducting the affairs of ones business, engaging the services of professionals in areas that one does not know anything about, need to have a working experience, specially in the line of business one intends to pursue or start. Others include the fact that, your negotiations should not be only about you alone, but you need to consider the interest and point of view of the other parties too. Some other lessons learned, are to take integrity very seriously, having the right attitude, trust, carrying your team members along, cutting costs as well as staying with your business problems and resolving them. “Don’t run away from your problems. Note that your creditors don’t want you to die!”, he emphasised.
Afolabi also stated that Startups that want to succeed shoud keep learning and keep developing themselves. He stated that, because of his inability to acquire adequate knowledge at the tertiary institution he attended, he had to enrol at EDC to learn how to run his business better, even though, he had to pay for it in installments.
Chinenye did not also disappointment the Startups. He stated that he was exposed to business very early and he joined her mother’s business as early as 12 years old, although, his father was a Lecturer in a University. His story also had it’s twists and turns. He applied, in error, to read Veterinary Medicine at the University, but ended up graduating in Political Science. He stated that he had a hitch in his tertiary education because, he decided to stay out of school as he was not in concert with graduating as a Veterinary Doctor. He was compelled by his father to apply for a job as the Assistant Librarian in the same University, which, to Chinenye, was an embarrassing decision to take, as he was an “happening guy” on campus. He, eventually applied to and completed his First degree at the University. “Everyone makes his own mistakes and no matter how much we teach you on how not to commit the same mistakes, you will still make your own mistakes”, Chinenye emphasised.
Chinenye, however, advised the Startups that, after fumbling, tumbling and stumbling, making their own mistakes, they should learn from it, make amends and move on. He stated that, not everybody is cut out to be an entrepreneur. He went further to give the two sets of entrepreneurs. the first set, he opined, are those that know where they are going and those who do not. For those who know where they are going, Chinenye stated that, they must have a plan and follow it through. For those who do not know where they are going, he stated that they must be very good and fast learners, so, they can quickly learn from their mistakes, make the necessary corrections an move on.
Startups were also advised to recognise those who can help them to achieve the objectives of their business and bring them on board. “You ca never be bigger than the people around you”, Chinenye noted. It was interesting to note from Chinenye, that his business ran aground four times and at some point, amassed a debt running into about N18 million! “Open your eyes and know what your business really is all about. Change it, if necessary. You cannot run a business when you don’t know what to do yourself”, he observed.
Chinenye also wanted the Startups to now that entrepreneurship has to be nurtured and they have to be patient with growing it. “What matters is not winning the race. What matters is crossing the Finish Line”, he stated.
Both Afolabi and Chinenye both ended by advising the Startups to identify their areas of strengths and weaknesses and concentrate on the line of business that they have the greatest strength.
At the end of the presentation, some of the Startups asked the guests some probing questions which were honestly answered by the guests.
The August 2017 edition was sponsored by TAMS and Remita.
The two Startups that came the earliest were awarded gifts by one of the sponsors, TAMS, the Time Management platform
We also thank the Media Partners of the CFA’s Startups Hangout, Nigerian CommunicationsWeek, Guardian Tech and CFAtech.ng, Connectnigeria.com and ITPulse.com.ng for spreading the awareness of this unique opportunity for Startups to learn and grow.
Watch out on Startups.CFATech.ng for details of the September 2017 edition of the CFA’s Startups Hangout which will be uploaded soon. It also promises to further enlighten our growing Startups on the path to achieving success and greatness.
