It’s been quite the week. There’s been progress happening with ChickChick. The first is definitely on the housing. Let’s look at what’s new with ChickChick.
First is the housing. Remember in my last post I spoke about how I was trying to cut a deal? Yeah, it fell through. I was trying to negotiate with my landlady to give me one of the chicken pens on rent. Why? Well, for obvious reasons that I will be able to monitor the chicks and ensure proper growth.
The way it was supposed to go was rearing in the compound. Close to my house. Unfortunately, that’s no longer possible. So, I spoke with agent and he did his due diligence bringing the available places to me. Well, it was just one place.
The space had room for up to fifty chickens if I allowed it. It was within proximity to my home, and there was provided security. In short, it was a good deal with N50,000 for rent yearly (a down payment of N75,000).
It was so good I already grabbed it and then the neon signs of warning flashed the next morning that made me renege on the deal. Here were the red flags I ignored at first due to pressure:
Previous Tenant Complaint
I remember the lady making a passing statement of how the caretaker made it difficult for her to sell stuff. There was always a problem with whatever she decided to sell and she only dealt in fabrics.
Now, here’s the catch. I found out the caretaker also rears chickens. In addition to his horrible personality (from witnesses), he was the best friend to the landlord who also has questionable character. The truth is, their character won’t have mattered if it won’t affect my business in the long run. I don’t do well with “unhealthy competition”.
Environment
While there was “provided security”, closer inspection revealed that these “security guards” were only individuals who make a living from patrolling the night. No formal training whatsoever, which means if danger should come knocking, they would likely japa (Nigerian slang for run so fast their legs are practically invisible).
Looking deeper, after a night awake and unsure of the deal I was taking, I realized this place was situated right in the midst of people with very not so good habits. The space is close to a guest inn which is known for its shady activities and attracts quite the crowd of people that makes it unsafe to go out at night or way too early in the morning. Which I would be doing.
Funny how it took me already almost sealing the deal and coming down from the high of excitement to see all these things I missed.
Ventilation
This was the biggest blunder. When I played the video of the place again by midnight, I realized there were no windows! How did I not see that? I was carried away with the fact that the place was warm enough to incubate chicks, I forgot they needed to breathe. Oh Jeez!
This definitely threw me in a panic and I decided to call first thing in the morning and withdraw from the deal. Thankfully, my partner had only released the funds and I had not yet paid for the place. I was supposed to the morning I cancelled. It was a good thing the rush of happiness cleared out on time and I properly assessed what I was getting myself into.
I think the tight deadline blinded me for a moment. I nearly made the mistake I made before in terms of lacking patience. Of course, I felt weird because, I already put my partner in a hot seat. Going to tell him now that I didn’t take the place after the whole rush might leave him skeptical of me. A business needs trust between the people. Relationships of any kind needs trust.
I contemplated just taking the place and toughing it out but that would have been a suicide mission in a business that’s only beginning. Hence, I decided to ignore my feelings of shame and do what needed to be done. This only taught me that I have to be more patient with the vetting processes of these things.
Conclusion
Currently, I created a Naira account for ChickChick. This account is to solely receive funds for the business expenses. As time goes on and we begin to make profit, I’ll create another smaller one (eg. Moniepoint, Opay) to collate profit and all.
Presently, we have N101,242 (£50) in purse. This is for the rent of chicken pen. We are working with a budget. As agreed, partner will disburse according to purpose for effective tracking of expenses. There will be a sheet to keep these things. We will update them upon every expense / profit made.
I’ll stop here for now. I saw the agent today and he assured me he was working on getting something better for me. For now, we wait. Don’t wanna miss this journey.
Images are mine - Manipulated on Canva
