Looking around my drink store one morning and realized that if I don't do something fast I might find myself in the streets of Lagos begging for an arm in the next few months.
The effect of border closure by our government before the lockdown and the effect of the lockdown combined has started to manifest too fast. Like every other small business owner, I am feeling the heat.
Our situation is becoming of the big fish eating the small fish and a survival of the fittest.
Checked on my phone, searched for, and put one of my favorite songs on repeat. This has been my norm whenever I needed some ideas to flow.
I said to myself, girl maybe it is time to start all over, like from the scratch. Activating my plan B might just be appropriate. I just have to make sure, unlike my drink wholesale and retail business, this time I implement some lessons I learned over the last two years in running the store.
It all sounds like a lot easier said than done. Going for another kind of product entirely does not mean I can't still run the risk of going out of business but If things go well I can be making ten times my early profits. Aside from this, what I had in mind was very less stressful and less time-consuming which means more time to do other productive things.
I spoke to a few friends and they all thought I was losing my damn mind. Like who leaves selling wholesale drinks for honey? I blame them not, as They had no clue what I was going through for the past few months, no matter how hard I tried to explain.
All they could see was a store full of inventory, and customers coming in and going out of the store. They had no clue about how hard the inflation was hitting me or some bad debts from the part of my customers that is killing me slowly. Don't even let me mention the running cost and tax.
So, it is decided. Taking a new different path it is. When I opened my drink store about two years earlier. I had a little plan B that has been running on the underground. The idea was crazy at first but I'm glad I stuck to it.
Along my drink were brands of original honey sourced from local hunters. For two years I used word of mouth and some ad banners in front of my store to get the attention of the right audience for it. A kind of market niche hiding from everyone else until I unveiled it.
So, gradually I let the drink stock die a natural death and replaced it with honey. At first, anyone that came around was very surprised and thought I was crazy but in the end, everything fell into place just the way I had planned.
With these new products, I slept better at night. It is far out of reach of inflation and my running cost was very minimal. I no longer fear I might start begging for feeding soon. Besides meeting the needs of people, considering how beneficial honey is to good health felt so fulfilling.
With the right marketing approach, I gather more than enough customers that will book ahead of me getting stocks.
What was like some crazy idea to most people around me ended up becoming my saving grace. Sometimes starting over might just be the best option and I'm glad I took the leap of faith.
I remember my mother's words when I informed her of my plans. She said, if you are sure of what you want to do then go for it, people will come around. In the end they did come around
And a few months later some of my colleagues in the business started to close up their stores, due to the inability to keep up with unending business challenges.
Looking back now, I'm glad I took that decision as it paved the way for me on how far I have come today.