Doing business in Nigeria is fraught with a lot of issues and challenges but to succeed sometimes just requires us avoiding certain actions or choices which we are faced with daily.
That is the purpose of this blog. How NOT to do business in Nigeria. It has been said that one of the first things you must do in your business plan is to know your clients. After that, just ensure you treat them nicely.
Some may argue but your customer is King, and if I may add, the employees are Queens. Both parties must be handled with care.
I will cite an instance with my most recent business demo session where I and my team went to show a very interesting game called race to infinity to a school in the Lekki phase 1 area of Lagos. It was a success, and we await the massive orders from parents who would watch the videos of their excited kids playing and learning too.
After the session I had to take my team to lunch as the exercise was demanding. I did not have enough money on me so I quickly rushed to the bank after asking them to wait for me in the school's reception.
I hoped to transfer a certain amount of money from an account which atm was not with me to another one which i had an atm for so I could make a withdrawal and go back to pay those dudes.
I submitted the document and even pleaded with the cashier that some people were waiting for me to get this money. She just replied, "You can't get it now. You'll get it in thirty minutes!" I could not afford to keep those guys waiting so I had to rush home, and get the atm of the account with some money and got them paid.
What's the point here? The cashier could have made the payment possible immediately after seeing it was urgent. That would have been a plus for her and her bank. However, she didn't. To worsen it, she never effected the transfer at all. Imagine i had been waiting for her, hoping that she would do it, how would those guys have felt?
It is always good to have an alternative just in case, a transaction you need does not pull through.
The children i mentioned earlier are my first clients, so i made sure they were comfortable and enjoyed the game. I have to leave the parents who are my paying clients to make their decisions now.
Morale: Never treat a customer badly. People may forget what you said to them but they will never fprget how you treated them.
Nigeria is a great place to do business. It has lots of potentials and opportunities.
