I shared this story to a Nigerian Billionaire and he made certain I pen it down so others can pick value from it.
Several years back, during my industrial training, I met a couple of friends who shared same drive with me - the quest to "hama" (become financially buoyant).
We stumbled on Fiverr, a freelancing platform where we could sell various services in diverse niches.
I could finally take woman crush to Chicken Republic without praying for the spirit of 'long throat' not to descend on her.
Suddenly, my friend's (Victor) Fiverr account got ban due to a new policy he mistakenly defaulted.
In pain, he uttered a simple statement that would later serve as a very vital principle for my online business career.
"Mehn, no mata how fresh pesin online hustle take be, make e nor depend on any third party connection - na direct link with clients sure pass." Victor mumbled.
Dear content creator, no matter how engaging your social media page/group is, you can still be denied access. Do you have your followers on any email list or are you directing them to your own website.?
#1 Rule...
NEVER BUILD YOUR HOUSE ON RENTED LAND!
So back to my friends...
Victor made sure he acquired all clients direct contact in his new Fiverr account.
But he didn't stop there. He reached out to Eze and I, so we could build an email list, phone number database and website push-up (browser notifications).
I really wasn't interested, after all, I was making big bucks just freelancing. Wasn't I?
Not having eye sight can be hurtful, but not having FORESIGHT can send you to an early grave in business, faith and relationship.
So Victor and Eze burnt up all available time and resources trying to acquire as many emails, phone numbers and web visitors as they could find.
Six months later, there I was, looking fresh like the Prince of Saudi with my freelancing money and there they were looking like Somalian refugees with their lead generation (emails, phone numbers, web visitors).
"I dey send the emails now, oya push the bulk SMS, then we go run the web notification together." Victor said to Eze at about 8am before I left their room.
They were about to launch their ebook titled "How to get a Canadian Visa and Raise the Money to Travel".
I came around by 9 pm to see them smiling suspiciously facing their laptop like drunkards.
Of course I couldn't figure out the cause, so I had to tilt their laptop screen to find out.
Lo and behold, I literally froze. Like freezer froze.
I just kept staring at their GTB online banking dashboard where I saw various credit alerts summing up to over N2.4 million naira.
"Wait. What? I don't understand. All in just 13 hours? Na lie. Where una get this money from?" I asked in confusion.
"Ehen na. We sell the book for 5k each, over 480 people don buy am. Calculate am na." Eze replied me.
Dear reader, I'm not saying you must go into email marketing, phone database or website/blog notification.
My point is, if you neglect the power of FOLLOWER DATABASE and LEAD GENERATION in your niche, you may not "hama".
There are three ways to go about acquiring an awesome database that would transform your business in "A.B.C." :
(1) A - ATTRACT people with 'hot' contents (in form of ebook, audio, video etc) so they subscribe to your email list to receive it or they turn-on their web/blog notification.
Setting up an autoresponder (platfrom to send bulk emails) isn't a mighty challenge when you've Google. Get an expert if it's still difficult. I recommend MailChimp. It's free for under 2000 emails.
(2) B - BUY from professionals. When I purchased the entire 75million phone numbers of everyone that voted in 2015 elections my team thought I was crazy.
Until when we started hosting events in various states. I'll just pick the local government I want, send bulk SMS to the voters phone numbers in that LGA and viola, the next day our event hall would be filled up.
Besides, I've re-sold that same 75 million database to various individuals and corporate organizations, now that's a win - win!
(3) C - COLLABORATE with someone who already has an email list. I recall a student who partnered with me to recommend his awesome product to my 5000+ email subscribers. Over 200 people purchased, and that grossed him about N300k profits. Collaboration is the definition of SMART WORK.
There exist a thousand and two ways to make money once you've a list/database. But it starts with finding your niche and taking your first step!
Remember Uncle Bill Gates words "If you were born poor, it isn't your fault, but if you die poor, you're definitely at fault"
Feel free to ask any question or share any comment below.
I'm Lovemore Leonard, the first Coach you should've called to increase your business profits and the last coach you'll ever need.
