I went to my mummy’s shop (Omò iyà óní batà). I can boldly say “I am the Founder and Foundation of this business” Many years ago, around 2006 or even earlier, my mum usually goes to Cotonou to buy goods and resell to business owners that sells whatever she has brought in. Then, she doesn’t have a niche. She buys whatever she sees as good deal and resell to retailers. She buys stuff like; cloth linings (I hate this particular product because of its weight), soap, slippers, baby shoes and what not. We have a store inside the market. I was like her PA and Cashier. She takes me to all her customers, I take their orders, note down the price, bring forward their debt if they have any, deliver their order and follow up with them days later to collect payment. This is where the frustration comes in for me, when I go to them for payment, they will ask me to sit and delay me for hours, pay part of the money or sometimes not pay anything and ask me to come back another day. One day I pleaded with my mum to take me with her to Cotonou, after plenty begging she agreed. She was concerned about the stress for me, while I was determined to see what the process looks like for her and determine if it’s worth the stress with all this market people. Hmm, the journey to Cotonou made me respect my mum more! What? That woman is a hustlerrrrr. When we got to the border, my mum walked slowly behind me and said, I am going to cross to the other side and use that gate, I just need you to keep going straight and fast, do not turn left or right, and don’t answer anyone. And she crossed. I walked straight for about 5min without my mum. I was scared but just walking straight as instructed. I was about crying when she popped out from God knows where. Then she said that’s how we cross the border o. And I was like, why didn’t you prep me ahead? She said, I would have been jiltering and I will be caught 😩😂. On this trip I was the one that selected what to buy with my calculator hung around my neck doing conversion from cefa to Naira. We settled for Adult and children slippers in different designs. And that was how she settled on this niche. *NOW BACK TO THE CUSTOMERS* My mum only profits about #50-#70 on a dozen of slippers depending on the design, and I see this people sell each piece of slippers with a minimum of #50 and I am always pained because they didn’t even spend on transportation to get this goods and they still would not pay on time!!! In 2009, I had that tough conversation with my mum. Me; Mum, let’s start selling this slippers ourselves!!! TBC…,
