Stories That Touch: "From Serial Entrepreneur to Serial Debtor"

 

Tell us your first experience with making money

Well, I used to take a lot of contrabands such as sweets and chocolates to my secondary boarding school. I noticed my dorm mates weren’t good at sneaking theirs in. Hence, they would result in begging from me. So, I started offering it to them at a price and they jumped at the offer. That’s how I got the nickname Contra Mama. I became the go-to for contrabands and I made sweet money from it. I was selling an item for over double the price of the initial cost.

Impressive! So was that when you decided to be a Business Owner

No, I wanted to be a Lawyer. I studied law at the University of Lagos. However, right from year one, I was into one business or the other. I always took advantage of my environment and created opportunities for them.

Do you think it has anything to do with how you were raised?

Hmmm! That’s very possible. My mum is a Medical Laboratory Scientist but she runs a SuperMart. Thinking back now, I think my mum has dived into several businesses. I remember her selling gold, fabrics and even paint at different times. So maybe you’re right, she may have had an impact on me.

Now, let’s talk about running a business while being a Law Student. How was that?

I actually ran 3 businesses.

What!!!

*laughs, Yes. I sold wigs, jewelry, shoes and bags. That’s 4 businesses actually. 

Well, it was pretty easy for me. I had a lot of referrals and made use of social media to promote my business as well. I did that till I graduated. My business was doing so well that I decided to skip Law School and focus solely on being an entrepreneur. If only I knew, I’d have chosen differently.

Really?! What makes you say that?

Well, I guess it was pretty much a lack of information on my part or maybe I knew and I just chose to ignore it.  My business was doing so well; I never thought about saving. So I always reinvested the money into the business or used the profits on funding my baby girl  lifestyle.

Sometime last year, I made a huge purchase of human hair from China. However, I got scammed and I lost a lot of money. It’s been difficult to bounce back as I have no savings. I had to borrow money from friends and family to pay my customers who made early payments for preorders.

That’s sad to hear. What’s the next step for you?

Well, first I have to settle all my debts. I’m running sales so I can make some money selling off some old wares.

My elder sister already promised to support me with capital to reorder the goods. So, I'm going to start my business again. 

What do you plan to do differently this time?

It’s a case of once bitten, twice shy. This time around, I’m saving as I’m making a profit. I can’t afford to let what happened repeat itself. 

I already opened a LifeTime Savings plan with Enterprise Life. I’m really excited to get back to my regular way of doing business.

 

 

 

Stories That Touch: “ Losing my job ended my dreams of relocation”

Tell us a bit about your childhood

 

I was a very inquisitive child and luckily for me my parents encouraged it. As the last born, I got a lot of attention and that meant whatever I wanted I got. So I had lots of toys and I remember dismantling them all in the name of trying to find out how they were built. My siblings would be furious especially when it was a gift from them but then my mum would always cover for me saying I was going to be an Engineer. Hence, they should let me be. To be fair, I did manage to assemble most of the toys I dismantled, plus I remember fixing my dad’s radio at age 11.

 

How many siblings do you have?

 

I have 2 siblings. Two elder sisters, actually.

 

Nice! What else were you interested in?

 

Books!!! I loved reading. I think I was influenced by my environment. My dad studied Literature and he loved reading as well, my sisters also loved reading. We had a library filled with old books and he always encouraged us to read. As far back as primary school, I had read Pride and Prejudice. Even Though, I didn’t fully comprehend it. I always enjoyed traveling to new places through books. I knew I wanted to live abroad when I was older.

 

You’re one of the few people who actually practiced their childhood ambition. How did that happen? 

 

Well, I think my parents played a huge role in this. Although, we were of the middle class, they ensured I never lacked anything when it came to my education. I remember falling behind in Math in secondary school. I had two lesson tutors, one at school during break and then one at home after school and during the weekends. They were really invested in my education. I think it also helped that my nickname was Engineer. I put in so much effort into my admissions exams that I was really surprised when my name was on the Merit list of Mechanical Engineering courses.

 

How did school go?

 

School was good to me. I have always been invested in my books and my lecturers seem to take a liking to that. Hence, it was easy for me to ask questions even outside classes. That really helped with my grades. I started topping my class in my second year and it stayed that way till I graduated.

 

Ahn ahn! You didn’t tell me I was talking to a genius.

 

*laughs. Please do. We’re all geniuses.

 

No o! You’re a First Class graduate. There are some levels to this. *laughs

It must have been easy to land a job. So tell me, how did you kick-start your career?

 

Well, to be honest it was. Remember, I said I was close to my lecturers. During the break before my 3rd year, one of my lecturers had gotten me an internship with a top multinational company. They were impressed with my output and every break I’d intern with them. Immediately after I graduated they sent me on a 3 months training course in Korea. It was an amazing opportunity for me, my parents were so proud. 

I worked with them for 5 years before I got an offer I couldn’t resist on LinkedIn. It was for an oil and gas company.

 

God When! Should I say you had it easy.

 

Well, maybe then but certainly not now. 

My plan was to work with the company for another 3 years, save up and then relocate to Canada.

But life had other plans, sometimes I wish I didn’t take the job but we can’t change the past.

 

Hmm! What changed your plans.

 

I got posted to Port Harcourt to work on some oil tanks. It was pretty exciting and the experience changed my career, not just in the way I had expected.

 

How so?!

 

In my second month, there was a technical mishap on the field as a result of an error from me. I was one of the few gravely affected and was in a coma for two months. When I woke up I realized I had lost both of my hands. It took me a long while to adjust to reality but what made it even worse was that I couldn’t go back to the job I loved so much. 

 

That’s so sad. What did you do next?

 

At that point, I didn't really do much thinking. I moved back to my parents who were very supportive. I realized that my dream of relocating was going to be harder than I had imagined. I didn’t have so much savings from my previous job as I was living a Lagos big boy life. 

I’m currently trying to adjust to living with no hands and trying to get prosthetic hands with the money allocated to me from the company.

 

Is there anything you wish you knew earlier?

 

Yes, I wish I didn’t take early success in life for granted. I would have been better prepared for anything life would have thrown at me. I mean I didn’t think anything could change my lifestyle.

I mean now, I know better. I recently spoke to an ex-colleague and told him to get an Income Protection plan from Enterprise Life so he can always have a backup to fund his dreams and lifestyle incase of any critical mishaps during the course of work.

 

I’ve also started saving with the Enterprise LifeTime Needs plan with the money I get from friends and family. My dreams of relocating are still valid; they may just take longer.

Stories That Touch: "I never imagined life without my father"

Tell us a bit about your childhood

I like to think my childhood is my favourite part of my entire existence. I was an only child for 10 years and had all the attention to myself. I remember my dad traveling and returning with lots of toys and chocolates. My mum made the best yam porridge, and she made it whenever I wanted. She was a stay at home mum.  I remember the day she told me she was pregnant with my little sister. I was so excited, finally I’d have someone to play with. Little did I know I’d get more than I bargained for.

 

So, what happened?

Well, my mum had twins, a girl and a boy. Next thing I know, I was mum number 2. It wasn’t so bad though because we had two helpers at home at the time. Also, it was only for the holidays, as I got enrolled into a boarding school. Boarding school was amazing, I went to a private boarding school in Victoria Island. My dad also worked there so he dropped at my school quite often with gifts. I like to think that’s why my love language is receiving gifts. My dad loved to spoil me silly with gifts.

 

Daddy’s girl, so you grew up rich.

Yes, I don’t recall a time we ever had to struggle for money. My mum didn’t work but I remember she enjoyed hosting parties. She also used to buy a lot of clothes. I remember seeing different vendors in our house trying to sell to my mum. I think my dad started a new business at this time. We also started taking family vacations abroad during this period. Life was perfect! I didn’t think I’d ever have to worry about a thing, my daddy was always there to provide. Well, that was until everything changed.

 

What do you mean by life?

My dad died in a car accident in my second year in university. My mum took a while to adjust to our new reality. She sold some of my dad’s property and started a retail fabric business. She had a hard time managing the business. Soon we had only the house we lived in and one car left to our name. I’m still amazed at how fast our lives changed. I sometimes feel like my mum could have managed our funds better but how can I blame her; no one prepared for this.

My mum was adamant about retaining my siblings in their highbrow private school while I was in a private university. This meant we had very little to run the house after paying school fees. At some point, my allowance became irregular. So, I stopped asking.

 

How did you survive then?

I started selling Shawarma in school. 

 

Shawarma?! How did that start?

Shawarma wasn’t allowed in my school. However, I had my way of getting one for myself. If you went to my school, trust me you’d understand how big of a deal it was to get hold of anything that contained meat. People started asking me to get for the

m as well. So, I doubled the price. I’d buy the Shawarma at the price of N500 and sell it for N1000. Soon, word spread and I was making at least 30k a week. I did this till I was in my final year. I had to stop because I couldn’t risk being suspended at my final phase.

 

Wow! Talk about a Risk Taker. How’s life going now?

I interned at my late dad’s friend’s agency. This was where I picked up an interest in design. I started learning on my own, started with graphics design. During this period, my mum’s business started to fair pretty well so I was able to pay for Product Design classes.

 

Ahn Ahn! Tech sis in the building

*laughs* Don’t start o. I mean the journey has been good, I can’t lie. I now work with a startup fintech and I run a couple of side gigs once in a while.

I send money to my mum regularly and I started a poultry business with her supervision. I also have investments in stock and crypto. 

 

That’s really nice. How often do you miss your dad?

ALL THE TIME! I miss him so much. I never imagined life without him. I was pretty sure I was going to be a daddy’s girl for life but life has its way of surprising us. Sometimes I wish he saw the future and made a backup plan for us to fall back on.

 

Wow! There you have it, don't wait for life to happen. 

Get a backup plan with Enterprise Life today to secure your family's future.