Let me talk about my ‘failed businesses’ according to @LegendaryMec (MUST READ)
I launched Helang Ride which was an Uber-like service in Enugu in October 2017, put a lot of research, marketing, and of course a shit load of money into the project, it flopped after 6 months.
🧵
I launched Helang Ride which was an Uber-like service in Enugu in October 2017, put a lot of research, marketing, and of course a shit load of money into the project, it flopped after 6 months.
🧵
This was my second attempt at entrepreneurship since completing NYSC in 2016. Together with my brother and cousin, we founded ‘Helang Ride’ with the view to take over the south east ride sharing market. Uber was the only ride sharing app then so we thought it wise to cash in
on the opportunity since the market wasn't saturated. What we didn't envisage was that the demography to which we were selling this product to were unprepared. I decided we push a concept known as ‘induced demand’ using a heavy marketing strategy. We flooded radio stations
with adverts; Dream FM, Coal city fm, Solid FM etc. The marketing was extensive. We ran extensive Facebook & Google Ads targeting residents of Enugu. We flooded the streets with our marketers who went shop to shop and house to house to tell people about this app.
Some millions of Naira and two months after the launch of the app, we had about only 900 registered users and averaged 15 requests daily. The few users we had were very loyal, most of them had lived outside Enugu or were visiting so they were already oriented with how it worked.
We kept pushing. Sometime in November 2017, I recieved an email from 'Penthauz' requesting our services. I kept wondering what kind of service they needed from us aside the usual ride sharing, I didn't even know who or what Penthauz meant at the time, imagine the shock when I
discovered that it was @phynofino's record label looking for a logistics partner for his upcoming show, Phynofest. I arranged a meeting with Eloka, phyno's manager, Afam the manager of the event or so and @jasmine_naza the publicist, we met at Universal hotel Independence Layout.
After negotiating the terms of partnership which included a 5 days 16 hours logistics arrangement, picking & dropping guests, artistes and management crew from the airport to wherever they wanted to go. It also required that the drivers would work from as early as 6am.
We sent out a broadcast to our drivers, asking who wanted in. By the next day, 13 cars had lined up at universal hotel Enugu ready to be deployed to wherever the team needed them. Work began. The next day, only 8 drivers showed up, the absentees cited the high stress level
as their excuse for not showing up. We needed to do something fast because we made a commitment we couldn't afford to fail. I called on my brother and a friend, told them to dress up cos we are joining the rest of the drivers to do the work. In 2 hours, we arrived with our cars.
To be frank, this was the most exhilarating 4 days of my life. Sometimes I came back home by 3AM and by 6:30AM I was out again. I tasked our staff to commit themselves as this was an opportunity we couldn't afford to fumble, they were given bonuses to grease their palms.
In addition to providing logistics for the crew, we gave free rides to anyone attending the event. Ride requests came in and the rest of our drivers were at work. Of course we reimbursed them the estimated amount they would have made in the trips.
There was so much ride requests that we couldn't even meet up, alas, we had finally ‘blown’, or so we thought. By the next day, we got only 4 requests. To say we were depressed is an understatement, but we kept on moving. We continued this for another 3 months before we decided
it was time to pack up. We hardly grossed 100k in earnings yet we paid out over 1m in staff salaries every month for 6 straight months. I depleted my entire savings, my co-founders too. After paying the staff the last salary before we drew the curtains, we thanked them for
their loyalty and I won't forget Ms Favour Doose (spelling might be slightly wrong) an exceptional human who had the company at heart. It was really sad to let her go because she gave herself for the success of this business, however the cost of operations were over bearing.
Favour, if you ever get to see this thread, please hola at me, I can't thank you enough, it's been 6 years and the memory is still livid, how you gave everything to Helang Ride.
The essence of this long a$$ thread is that as an entrepreneur, you will fail, you will fail many times, but your failures is what will never define you, that is if you don't give up. I have started 7 businesses, 5 crashed (If I had channelled these monies into
'spare parts' business I would have been competing with Dangote & Otedola by now).😉😂
Another lesson to take from this is that you may have everything all figured out and the business will still fail. It's not your fault, it is nobody's fault, the elements of the universe and
Another lesson to take from this is that you may have everything all figured out and the business will still fail. It's not your fault, it is nobody's fault, the elements of the universe and
the timing didn't align with your plans, and that's not what you should beat yourself up for. If you're an entrepreneur reading this, I want you to know that you are special and even when id!ots like @LegendaryMec shamelessly try to mock you with your failures, it doesn't
define who or what you are and what you can achieve.
On a different day I'll talk about the second failure, ‘Next2you’ and other enterprises I've tried my hands on and ‘flopped’ over the years and I hope you'll learn a thing or two from my experience.
Peace and love. IrÚéfí✌️
On a different day I'll talk about the second failure, ‘Next2you’ and other enterprises I've tried my hands on and ‘flopped’ over the years and I hope you'll learn a thing or two from my experience.
Peace and love. IrÚéfí✌️
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