Thread by @ronaldnzimora

21 Lessons My Mentor Taught Me.

Lesson 9: One is an Evil Number in Business.

Let's go!

On this day, I had attended a meeting my mentor had with some of his mentees.

After the meeting in his NGO's headquarters, we headed to his private office.

And once there, we talked about a lot of stuff ariund business and then I said, "Sir, I want to focus on Facebook as a...

traffic platform. Hardly any business that won't work with Facebook. They can get all their traffic from there."

He smiled and said, "Ron, do you what the most dangerous number in business is?"

Ronald: (Surprised by the question) No Sir. I don't.

Dr Ojeagbase: I'll tell you.

Dr. Ojeagbase: The most dangerous number for a business, Ron, is 1. As a business owner, one of any thing is bad for you and your business.

One vendor
One supplier
One big client
One star employee
One advertising medium

One of anything important to a business is bad, Ron.

To be frank, I was still confused and he sensed it, so he continued.

Dr. Ojeagbase: Because here's the issue with it. What happens when something happens to your one thing?

What happens if you only master Facebook and then they ban your account with them?

You then start...

figuring out a new platform, while sales pause?

What happens if your only vendor runs out of raw material? You start scrambling for new ones and negotiating prices while production and sales stop?

What happens if your only one good employee quits and leaves?

See now?

And I did get it then.

You see since that time I have seen this play out a lot of times.

I have seen business owners have the advertising account shit down and banned from advertising on their one ad platform leaving them scrambling.

A supplier raising prices and businesses...

seeing the profit margin suddenly go thin.

A vendor refusing to carry a business' products and they having tons of unsold inventory and running helter skelter to move product.

A sales platform, like Amazon, putting out a co petting product, cutting the prices and driving sales

away from brands that have paid them for years to list on their site.

So I asked my mentor:

Ronald: I get it Sir. So what do you do to not get affected by "one-itis" like you call it?

And he said:

Dr. Ojeagbase: Here's what you do, Ron. You make sure you have standby options.

You maintain your one supplier but you open up relationships with others, and once in a while give them some business. You seek other vendors to carry your product. You learn how other advertising platforms work. You create your own in-house sales teams and marketing platform...

that you control 100%, independent of the likes of Amazon and Jumia, etc.

You train and groom members of your staff to be superstar performers so that even if one leaves, they can be easily replaced without a drop in team performance.

In business, never rely on one.

That my friends is a less like the many others that has served me well.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy it.

Do RT widely, share this thread with your friends, and follow me on:

Twitter: @ronaldnzimora
Instagram: @ronaldnzimora
Facebook: search for "Business Labs" and join