If you’ve read 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R Covey, you might remember this is Habit 2. My last day at work (mandatory service) was the 27th of January. That means that I’m no more on anybody’s payroll. I’m like totally on my own…it’s scary and exciting. Scary because this is completely new to me and exciting because this is completely new to me..hahaha 🙂

Armed with this knowledge I had to be at least 50% sure of where I want to take my Agribusiness to. 100% is way too much I have to trust the process and in life I’ve learnt that anything can happen, so need to stay open to the possibilities…good or bad. So I’m leaving the other 50% to ‘God, the universe, the divine hand, powers that be’ (feel free to insert what you will) and if 50% is too little or too much…..well….just going with the flow.

Right now the end is having nicely packaged cut vegetables for mid to upmarket clients. Spent the week looking for packaging companies and going to the market.

My week in pictures….

After clearance (my fellow corpers understand) I hit the road in search of printing presses and packaging companies…

We didn’t take a lot of pictures on this particular day because I was all kinds of stressed from driving and asking for directions and getting disappointed when we got to our various destinations. However we took this picture at a company called Nikapaco, because we made some progress here. We thought it was weird that a company had a HUGE mirror just after the reception…haha

So hit the road the next day (I WISH I HAD A DRIVER) in search of packaging companies. I happen to have 3 Personal Assistants. I wish…they are family and since they had nothing better else to do…they tagged along. Love my family 🙂

Took a few pictures while we were waiting and prepping.

 Think the meeting went well in the sense that he would put us in touch with a smaller company that can produce smaller quantities. This company is called Studio Press Nigeria Ltd. They deal with large companies that produce large volumes. I was impressed by their professionalism and quality of their products.

Next up was one of the busiest markets in Lagos…Mile 12…I’ll do a separate post on this…basically went to find out prices of some vegetables….

Meet my girl from way back…Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, she was giving a talk on accessing grants, so went to support her. I also went to learn a few things as well. I’m in search of funding through grants because the banks charge very high interest rates (28%). She did a great job…well considering she has received at least $100,000 in grants, didn’t expect less. Will introduce her properly in another post.

Lessons learnt

1. The road to agripreneurship isn’t easy but you have to keep the faith 🙂
2. A lot of people will waste your time and disrespect you, don’t sweat it, keep moving…I did.
3. There are a few people who will help you, remember to appreciate them.
4. Driving in Lagos is STRESS…but have faith that you will soon start making enough money to hire a driver.
5. Always leave your options open, you might go in search of something but find something completely different. Don’t get disappointed, just accept what is….might be a blessing.
6. Always support your fellow entrepreneurs and people in general, not everyone will return the favour but you only need a few to.
7. ALWAYS PLAN but remember that PLANS ALWAYS tend to change.

Thanks for stopping by :-)PS: If you know of any packaging companies in Lagos or Nigeria, please hit me up. Thanks