Hard Facts In Akin Alabi’s ‘small Business, Big Money

“I remember around 2002 when I ran a poultry business with a friend. We put all we had in raising chickens for Christmas. When the festive season came and it was time to sell and recoup our money, it was as if everyone in Ibadan had raised chickens for Christmas. There were many sellers. We had to take our chickens to Iwo Road to sell ourselves. We were running after cars hawking the chickens…Today, that area where I hawked chicken stands a four storey building that houses the South-West operations of NairaBET.com…”

Blunt, concise yet practicable was my first thought half way through reading the book. It is not your regular motivational book. It is not one of your ‘yes I can’ books. The messages therein resonate with what it takes to run a business in an extremely harsh terrain like Nigeria. It is a book designed to make one ponder if one really wants to become an entrepreneur.  It is a book that provides practical advice, ideas, insights and principles on business building strategies for aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners.

It takes one through the journey from starting a business from the scratch, turning little business ideas into a “money spinning machines” sustainable enough to keep recording successes at every turn. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, the book notes. It is “very hard.” And in Nigeria, it is even harder. One has to be in business for the right reasons. One has to have a strong will to succeed, otherwise when challenges come, one will quit shamefully or fall like a pack of cards. Using personal anecdotes and scenarios, Alabi lays bare the challenges of running businesses especially in Nigeria.

The book also differentiates between business and opportunity. One may make money while seeking opportunities, but it is not a sustainable way of becoming successful. One will be susceptible to fraud and one cannot always control the outcome.

His thoughts on why people start businesses are moving and a stark reminder of why one must fully understand the difference between perceptions and reality. Perception—starting one’s company implies one can be one’s own boss. Alabi’s version of reality is that when one runs a business, investors, taxman, regulators become one’s bosses.

The conventional thinking is to create “a product or business and then look for customers.” This thinking, according to the founder/CEO of the wave-making betting firm, Nairabet.com, is fundamentally flawed. He counsels, “Look for what people want and then create a business around it.” Find the market first and then a product to quench the thirst of the market. A starving crowd will always come running to buy from one. Furthermore, one must sell what people want to buy, not what they need. A product of want sells faster than a product of need.

The book further teaches the techniques to use in getting instant actions and reactions in one’s business as a beginner, how to advertise one’s products, use word of mouth marketing and appropriate techniques to fix price and ensure maximum profits.

His language though informal, delivers the message in the most efficient way. One can relate with most of the stories if one has started a business or failed before.  Alabi wastes no time on paper with meaningless platitudes about how believing in oneself is enough to ensure success in business. The book, with seven chapters including subheads, is a guideline for anyone who wants to start a business particularly in Nigeria.

Small Business, Big Money also provides a well-rounded summary of the successes and failures of businesses with examples and experiences to support his claims. The book reveals the techniques to use in getting instant actions and reactions in one’s business as a beginner.

The author uses the third-person omniscient point of view to tell his story and still engages the reader.