Hello everyone.
My first money-making experience happened when I was 17years old. I was done with my secondary school and I was through with my WAEC(West African Examinations Council) examinations and was thinking about how to go about life. Like many teenagers, I was eager to contribute to my family's income and gain some financial independence on my own.
My mum told me about a vacancy she saw at a provision store and I decided to apply for it, on getting there the owner of the provision store didn't bother interviewing me because they needed someone urgently. I was asked to resume work immediately the following day. When I got back home, I was so excited and I also informed my mum about the job I got.
On my first day at the shop, I moved round the provision store to check for prices of the items that are available in the store.
At first, I was overwhelmed. Customers would come in crowd, asking for items I couldn't immediately locate. Some would request to buy things on credit, something that is common around here. I had to learn quickly who to trust and who to politely refuse.
The most challenging part was dealing with customers who bargain on prices of goods, and even in a small provisions shop, customers expected to negotiate prices. I had to learn the delicate balance of maintaining the shop's profitability while keeping customers happy.
I could remember a particular incident that happened, a woman came to ask for a tin of powdered milk. When I told her the price, she screamed , this one is too expensive o! You want to use my money to buy car?" I was not sure how to respond,after some minutes, I smiled 😁and said, "Aunty, this price is the correct and original price. But because you're our customer, I'll reduce it a bit for you." She seemed pleased with my response and we settled on a price.
As the days went by, I began to enjoying working at the provision store. I loved the interactions with different people, from the school children buying sweets with their lunch money to the people in the neighborhood buying ingredients for soup. I started to recognize regular customers and enjoyed the small talks and some neighborhood gossips 😂 .
Managing the shop's inventory was another learning experience. I had to keep track of fast selling items like Pure Water sachets and bottled water and make sure we never ran out of them. Sometimes, I had to quickly run to the nearby market to restock important items. This taught me the importance of planning and anticipating needs.
After I was paid my first salary, I saved part of it.. I also used part to buy some important things I need for myself such as clothes, barbing my hair and after much savings I was able to get myself a new mobile phone.
There were some days sales will be very poor and some days we make a lot of sales, I feel down sometimes when I don't get to sell because my salary might be delayed due to poor sales.
After working for some months I wanted to have some time to myself because the working hours were challenging 🥲. The provision store opened around 7am and closes around 9pm,and I was expected to be there throughout.
I missed hanging out with my friends and watching football matches. But I knew this sacrifice was necessary, and it taught me the value of hard work.
When jamb form came out which is an examination that is written before gaining admission into higher institutions, I paid for the form from the money I saved and I wrote the examination. Few months laster I was admitted into the university and I had to stop the job to focus on my studies.
I wouldn't say that making money was either easy or hard, it was both.
I would say that my experience of working gave me an insight for the hard work my parents put in to support our family. It also taught me lessons about customer service, money management, and the importance of reliability.
Thanks for reading 🤗