HOW I STARTED MY FIRST BUSINESS AT AGE 23

Right from my childhood, I have always danced with entrepreneurship. I raised a thriving poultry business from nothing at a tender age of 9; sold old stuffs from my father’s garage; supplied handouts to my course mates in the University; sold “packaged shirts” to survive after school; and little stuffs here and here. So you can say, rightly though, I was born with the DNA of an entrepreneur. I remember growing up observing my Dad’s lifestyle.
Unlike most of our tenants who would been seen hurrying off to work every morning cladded in their well ironed suits and tie, my Dad always seemed to be in control of his time. He would leave for his office anytime he chose to; wearing something simple as he drives out in his regular Volvo. Now and then, he would jet out of the country and stay for weeks and sometime months without his business suffering. He was simply my greatest mentor and role model in business. Well this book is not about my Dad but my story as an entrepreneur will be incomplete without mentioning the impact my Dad made in my life. He is gone to be with the Lord but before he left, I gained from him the greatest inheritance ever. I got the Blessing!

My mum could be said to be a home-based entrepreneur par excellence. She made the best cookies in the world! I really mean that. No one ever made better snacks than my Mum. She was simply the best in her field. A fashion designer who made a name for herself working from home. Together with my Dad, they built what seemed like a great future for us with investments in real estates and many businesses…

Okay back to my story. Sorry I had to take you through all that trouble. I simply miss my lovely parents. I wish they were alive to see who I have grown to become. Well, I left school with one thing in my mind- I want to build businesses instead of working for someone else. It’s not that working for someone is bad on itself; but I realized that no job can afford me the freedom and wealth I had envisaged for myself.

But first I need to be educated. This is not the same education I got from the University. The school system, at best, can only teach you how to be self-employed; it can’t teach you how you can make money work for you, which is what running a business is all about. I enrolled into the University Of Hard Knocks (UNHK), learning under great mentors and successful entrepreneurs who have built successful businesses from the scratch. I’ve followed the rise to the top of great business icons like Alhaji Dangote of Dangote Group, Cosmos Maduka of Coscharis Motors, Jimoh Ibrahim of Global Fleet, and other fathers of entrepreneurship in Nigeria. I read thousands of books including “7 Habits of Highly Effective People “by Stephen Covey and “What they don’t teach you at Lagos business school” by Dr. Sunny Obazu Ojeagbazu. I was simply insatiable, jumping on every opportunity to learn something new in business. I made friends with the rich and successful, just to learn from them. It was not easy as I had to swallow my pride to serve in most cases.

I was in Okigwe then, I  a small town in Imo State with little business potential as it were. The town was mainly dominated by students of Abia State University and their lecturers with fewer than eight banks. How could I have made so much money in this town?

I noticed something. These students, lecturers and bankers were pressed for time. They would leave their homes very early in the morning for their various jobs only to come back in the evening so tired to do anything for themselves. Aha! That was it- they needed servers to do for them what they could not do for themselves. They needed someone who could help them save more time. They were willing to pay that person anything just to have more time pursuing their various objectives. That was a hungry market waiting to be exploited.

I decided to start what is now known as RicherLife Cleaning Services- a professional household/ corporate cleaning firm involved in Laundry and Dry cleaning, fumigation and other cleaning consultancy services. I named the idea HomeCare Services- a name that contributed largely to the fast growth of the small business.

To implement my ideas, I needed money. How would I raise money to start this business? I had no money at all. Don’t ask me why! I simply had no money- home and abroad. But I was not going to watch this opportunity slip by or worse still watch someone else steal my idea. I must do something- Fast!

I approached one of my friends and asked him to buy me a vacuum cleaner with his name. That means the machine was officially his and that I was just renting it until I was able to pay back. So with my new vacuum cleaner flung on my neck like a badge of honour, I proceeded to announce my arrival to my market. Without any flier or any other marketing material at my disposal, I resorted to using my voice and personal contact to pitch my expertise in cleaning houses. A new Cleaner was in town! It didn’t take long before the jobs started flowing. Remember I told you how hungry the market was. I soon had my hands full with orders to fulfill - rugs to wash, houses to clean, offices to clean, etc. I needed a contact office, so I met another friend who runs a dry cleaning firm and asked him to let me squat in one corner of his office. That relationship proved to be a boost to my young business. As his clients comes in to pick or drop their cloths, they would notice my service stand and most would just walk over to my stand and book an order with me! I would also get laundry orders for my friend from the homes I cleaned. It was a Win-Win relationship. I also learned a few details of laundry knowing my business would expand to that area in future. What a perfect arrangement.

While I was there, my reputation in the industry grew so quickly. I got my first contract to manage the cleaning of the biggest hotel in the town- Pego International Hotels. This was a breakthrough for my young company. I employed six young boys to help me do the job. It’s amazing! I am now an employer of labour! That has always been my dream.

This breakthrough was just the beginning of more things to come. Barely three months from then, we got yet another contract with Oceanic Bank Plc, Okigwe. I was in cloud nine!

To activate this particular contract, I needed a registered company. I quickly travelled to Enugu branch of the Corporate Affairs Commission to have my company registered. That was when I realized that the name HomeCare Services was not available. I now registered RicherLife Cleaning Services. We got our own office in a nice location; employed more people, graduates included; got myself a nice 2- bedroom flat thickly furnished to taste and sat back to calculate my next move. I needed to explore a bigger city!

Before long, I relocated to Aba in 2009 and within one year I have built exactly what I had in Okigwe with fumigation services now added to our business portfolio.

It’s been an amazing journey in business and I want to guide you through as you take that very crucial step to starting your own business.  The following chapters of this book crystallizes the principles I applied to successfully launch my first business. As I studied further, I realized they were not just peculiar with me. They are the same principles every successful entrepreneur have used to launch their own businesses. Study them critically, chapter by chapter. Make note of salient points in your book. Call or write me for clarifications if you don’t understand any concept I introduce you to. I’ve tried to simplify the concepts so you can easily grasp them. I want you to sit back and enjoy the ride. See you at the top!