It was 14th March last year in my 300 level first semester, when an idea of owning a Noodles spot in school flashed in my mind. Being a tertiary institution and one that prohibited students from cooking in the hostel, I had full confidence my business would boom and I began making plans and budgets for it.
After my plans, I called one of my brothers in Kaduna, the northern part of Nigeria and told him my fresh business idea because he had told me earlier that if I need financial help, I shouldn't hesitate to contact him. He asked me if I have done proper research and I affirmed boldly. He supported me with $300 and that made me excited. I met the appropriate bodies for space allocation which cost $80 and the construction of the Noodles' spot, utensils, tables and chairs cost $100.
I set up my stand with different Noodles brand all sampled on the table as a way of appealing customers to stop by. By the end of the first week, I only made three sales. I felt maybe that's because I just started, at month end, I realized I have not made enough money to cover my expenses.
I felt so discouraged, frustrated and angry but I refused to let that stop me from pushing harder. I had to find out why many people were not visiting my spot knowing how populated the university was. I realized that I allowed the population to cloud my mind forgetting to do proper fleasibility study. It was due to the low sales I came to find out there were lots of Noodles spots around and these my competitors all had customers.
I had to buy Noodles from one of the spots and I found out that truly, theirs had an exceptional taste from mine with different vegetables which garnished the noodles and made it attractive. That was when I realized all this while, I have been making normal home-made noodles and my competitors were making the everyone-choice kind of noodles.
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Thanks to YouTube, I came back that day and started watching different videos on how to make perfect noodles with veggies. I saw tons of videos and they were all helpful. The following day was Sunday, I rested and used that day to create a sale discount and different noodle recipes and spaghetti recipes designs on my laptop which I printed out on Monday and hung on my stand. Now, my customers would have to make their choice on the type they need and it will be made. This was what others lacked and I took that to be my own marketing strategy, once a customer walks in, she or he look at the menu and makes a choice.
With this new strategy and a little bit of price slash and discount, I started seeing customers coming to me one by one to see what I have to offer. With my different recipes that were an ice on a cake, the business which was once crumbling and making me feel disappointed became a huge success. My spot became a hit like that of my competitors and by the end of each day, I will end up making a huge profit.
I was grateful I didn't let my initial failure make me halt and give up; rather, the failure was a chance for me to try and try new approaches, learn, improve and stand out. I learnt that Noodles being my first business venture was an avenue for me to try, fail, and try again.
THE END
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