TIPS FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

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MODULE 5: TIPS FOR BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
By
Mr. Salvation Alibor

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 Startup Clinic
A step-by-step guide to starting a successful business in Nigeria.
 Objectives
 Get your business properly profiled
 Get your goals in the right perspective
 Provide you resources to get started
 Start you up right away
 Provide you with adequate resources & information for a successful startup
operations
 You can trust me to guide you
 I’ve been involved with 8 startups in the past 15 years
 2 social enterprises. 1 sub-national, 1 has gone international
 6 corporate businesses. 1 failed
 I took a startup from conception to expansion stage in 7 years, winning 3
industry awards along the way
 My biggest win: I revived a dead business within 4 months and it became
profitable in the 6th
month
 My biggest goof: I lost N6 million in 3 months
 My dream: to be responsible for Africa’s biggest success stories
 Presently:
 I am involved with 1 startup at expansion stage
 I have successfully midwifed the starting up of a Software Solution
Startup. We successfully raised the startup capital required

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 I am co-founding a new e-Commerce Startup at its pre-operational
stage.
 I am sitting on the board of 2 other startups already in their 2nd
years.
One already broke even
 In this workshop
 Becoming product ready
 Building a convincing team
 Knowing your market
 Building a workable financial model
 Funding your start-up
 Going to the market
 What product / service are you bringing to the market?
 Why are you developing the product or service?
 You must carry out a feasibility study of your market
 There must be a market gap it should be filling
 There must be a clear way of commercializing your product
 Your product must be commercially viable
 Your product must be able to kill…………….or get killed
 Learn from my mistakes
 No matter how much you believe in your product, it is as good as the
market says it is
- My C-band vs Ku-Band story in 2006

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 No matter how great your product is, if there is no market need for it, it’s a
still birth
- My SchoolManager story in 2008
 Your team will make a clear difference
 Select managers that can turn the tables
 The managers must have complementary skills
 Ensure that the managers have the right chemistry to work together
 Learn from my success
 An enterprise is already half way to success when each section of it is
manned by an experienced person(s) with equally high network in the
particular field
- My VITE story in 2004/05
 If you don’t have a market, you don’t have a business
 Come up with a marketing strategy
 Determine how much you will sell your product vis-a-viz your strategy
 Know your target market
 Create a projected revenue model for at least 3 years
 Learn from my mistake
 Never target a market you have no access to nor have capacity to serve or
can neither access nor serve. It’s a black-hole!
- My iJAMB story of 2009
 Financial modeling: your most inspiring tool
 Outline the cost of managing the business for 3 years

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 Prepare a P and L for 3 years
 Your most inspiring tool can also be your suicide shot if wrongly modeled
 Learn from my mistakes
 Never start a business without a clearly articulated and well written
business plan, you will never know it when you are derailing, neither would
you know what to do with your success if it comes.
- My VSAT Industry Success story of 2008
 How much would you need to get started?
 Bootstrap in year 1 and 2
 Consider carefully:
 Equipment cost
 Stocking cost
 Rent
 Marketing & logistics cost
 Base salaries for the startup team
 Contingency budget
 Learn from my success story
 Start as small as you possibly can! You will start faster and learn the ropes
more.
- My VSAT Business vs My SMARTCARD Business experiences
 Where would your funds come from?
 Different strokes for different sources
 Personal funds? - savings, liquidation of personal property

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 Someone that loves you too much?
 Some real investor? - equity
 Debt?- loan, PO financing…
 Or some kind of combinations of 2 or more sources above?
 Learn from my mistakes
 Keep records. Play by the book. It’s all for your good.
- My fund raising experience for Syscomptech in 2014/15
 Ready?...GO!
 Start with a feasibility study
 Register the company name
 Get an operational base
 Get the basic team
 Get tax registrations
 Get a bank account and cheque book
 Get your product or service fully ready
 Go tell the market what you’ve got (this might come before getting your
products ready)
 Remember the game is about he who makes the loudest noise!
 You have already succeeded in this business!
You only need guts to start and a business plan to guide you!
 START NOW!
I am here and always ready to help you get there!

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Salvation Alibor65, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.
+2348060002562 (whatsapp)
+2348122251555
salvation.alibor@syscomptech.ng
Facebook: salvyalibor, Twitter: @salvyalibor, Skype: salvyalibor,LinkedIn: Salvation Alibor