The story first sounded unbelievable until I decided to read it, and it's really worth sharing.
I'm about to share the story of Chinedu Okorafor, a young Igbo man that moved to Lagos in 2016 with nothing more than ₦1,000, but now he counts in nothing less than ₦1 million monthly from selling galas.
When Chinedu moved to Lagos, he had only ₦1,000, two jeans trousers, two shirts and a bagco sack bag (which contained his belongings) with him.
His first step to financial freedom was when he decided to venture into snack hawking. He buys the snacks from a local vendor and sells them to the direct consumers.
The Lagos City
Before I continue the story, I want us to understand how Lagos is. There is a popular saying among people that 'you're sure of making it in any business you do in Lagos'. Like, you can build a house in the village by picking and selling metal scraps or used plastics.Lagos is one of the business states in Nigeria, with the heavy traffic that is recorded on daily basis, you're sure of good money on daily basis.
Hawking in the Lagos roads is one lucrative business that is overlooked by many. The traffic offers something close to a shopping mall, with varieties of items that a busy housewife might end up buying all the cooking condiments on the road before getting home.
Varieties of items like carbonated drinks, sausage rolls, newspapers, handkerchiefs and even pets can be purchased on the roads. I forgot to mention things like electronics, phone accessories and even book materials.
A 2015 study by the Journal of Marketing and Consumer Research revealed that over 40% of street hawkers in Lagos were earning more than ₦200,000 monthly, though the lowest earning hawkers make anything close to ₦20,000.
So, hearing that Chinedu makes ₦1 million a month from hawking shouldn't sound strange to you, I'd still tell the story of how he grew from making ₦40,000 to over ₦1 million in Lagos.
Chinedu's story
After moving to Lagos in 2016, he started hawking gala and was making a profit of ₦5 on each gala sold. According to him, he sold up to sale of 300 units daily, credit to the the Mile 2 traffic. 300 units meant ₦1,500 daily, which means he was making an average of ₦40,000 monthly.This continued for a while until his six month in the business when he decided to explore some other potential Lagos areas. While in the research, he discovered and moved to Oshodi and started selling over 10 cartons daily, thereby tripling his monthly income.
More than ₦150,000 a month sounds good, at least it is better than many salary jobs, but yet Chinedu wasn't satisfied. On a December, he decided to travel back to his village for a Christmas break and used the opportunity to speak to many of the unemployed youths in his village.
Fast-forward to January, he returned to Lagos with 12 young men who were willing to explore the Lagos city. This was how Cihinedu unofficially started a crude distribution company where he bought sausage rolls (galas) at wholesale prices and resold to his 12 employees, a 30% off their supposed profit.
Apart from providing the goods, Chinedu also had to pay for their accommodations and provided dinners for his employees on a daily basis.
As a normal entrepreneur, Chinedu could have settled down, and probably bagged a CEO name after getting people to work for him but he didn't. He still continued hustling like a newcomer in the Lagos city.
Before the end of 2018, he had already gotten over 100 young men and women who were constantly buying goods from him at least once a year.
Despite the number of people working under him, Chinedu didn't leave the streets, but continued running after cars and of course, sweating from the Lagos heat.
At this time, he was making more than ₦500,000 monthly (around ₦3,000 from each of the persons under him, totalling ₦300,000) plus another ₦250,000 in direct sales.
As a wise entrepreneur, he started thinking of expanding his business and diversified from selling only sausage rolls to other edibles like Pure Bliss wafers, plantain chips and even drinks.
As usual with every good business, managers of companies started approaching him with juicy discounts in order to help them sell off their goods. In fact, these companies need him months when their goods are about to expire and he does what he knows how to do best- selling them off speedily to direct consumers who can't keep the products past a few hours.
What did I learn from Chinedu's story?
One doesn't really need a big office or a registered business in order to excel. He doesn't even pay taxes, off course,. no one would disturb a 'hawker' for that.In addition to this, he didn't pass through any training, who teaches one how to run after buses? He just discovered a potential and pursued after it.
I've done enough typing for today, I think we'll call it a day. I hope you really enjoyed the article? My LinkedIn contact shared it and I thought it wise to let my friends here see it.
Please drop me comments on other wonderful business ideas you've tried, and don't forget to share with your friends too.
PS: I first shared the post on Opera News, so you might be seeing it here for the second time.
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