The Ant and the Elephant

Looking for PHONE NUMBERS, WEBSITES and ADDRESSES of companies in Nigeria? Text the COMPANY NAME to 33000.E.g. Text VIRGIN NIGERIA to 33000

An ant and an elephant are standing at the foot of a long bridge and they both want to get across. The ant looks at the length of the bridge and realises just how long it’s going to take to get to the other side. He politely asks the elephant if he can get a ride on its back. The elephant figures the ant doesn’t weigh a lot and says ‘sure, get on’. They get across the bridge in a very short time and successfully end up on the other side. The ant gets off the elephants back and proudly declares ‘WE SURE SHOOK THAT BRIDGE EH!’ The elephant smiles at the irony of the statement but has to agree and says ‘Yes we did’. POINT? In many instances at work and at play we are often ants…We want to cross the bridge but going it alone is a long and painful journey that may break us. Every business has an elephant. Every idea has a shorter, faster and better way to get of the ground and stand on its feet. SO ??? Go find your elephant!!!!

DELIVERY BUSINESS; the delivery business is unique in the sense that it grew from being an additional service for a lot of businesses to a business on its own. My idea for a delivery service would be one that had nothing to deliver itself but delivers for other people. Example? A delivery service that attaches itself to restaurants that have no delivery schedule of their own. The Motorbike/vehicle is stationed at the restaurant, cutting down waiting time and charges a flat delivery fee regardless of what the restaurant adds on to that. The advantage here is a built in customer base and the restaurant enjoys a value added service at no additional cost to themselves. If you delivered 10 times a day at N500 per delivery…The math begins to add up!

BAKER TO THE BANKS; everyone loves cake!!! Okay maybe not everyone but most people love cake and that’s the basis of this alliance. Most banks have a particular set of customers called HNI’s (HIGH NETWORTH INDIVIDUALS). The pitch here is simple. Every one of these HNI’s has a birthday and every birthday deserves a cake. So if you can pitch the banks to allow you bake and deliver cakes to these customers all year round then your bakery has a head start. Most banks have at least 100 HNI’s and this is certainly a great place to start as you build your client base and ultimately market share.


THE 100 SALE; One of the trickiest things to do is market a new product. Matter of fact it’s hard enough to market anything which is why it makes sense to start with the people that you know. Take 100 people off your phone and look at them as your first clients. If you can pitch and sell to 100 people on your phone then you have a great start. The world of buying and selling is hard and rough so it’s always better to start with customers who have an obligation to you. THINK ABOUT IT!

This weeks post is a little more practical than most but that’s cause at the end of the day success isn’t always pretty or exciting; sometimes it’s about knuckling down and doing the math.


PLUG OF THE WEEK; do check out the opening of the new APPLE CENTRE at Ceddi plaza in Abuja this Saturday 24/05/08

QUOTE OF THE WEEK; a successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others have thrown at him…David Brinkley