This particular day, after walking up and down, I saw a place and entered, the sales girls were religious in appearance plus three other people buying things, I just bought Vitamin C and left. Entered another chemist, no crowd, when the sales girl saw me, she screamed, “Oh my God, Beta Wale, is this you? so glad to see you, I always watch you on TV, I don’t miss your shows” Haaaa I just bought Strepsil, the money in my pocket is almost finished, haa I suffered, ontop fake life o...READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
I later saw a small chemist, the woman alone, not looking educated, “this one can not know me,” I entered and bought it, sigh, finally I found a permanent place to buy. We became good customers, she no dey look my face sef.
One day in the afternoon, I was around the woman’s shop standing with someone, she saw me, and with a broad smiled, she said “Boda, mo ri yin ni Ayetoro lana, mo n pe yin, e gbo, mo ni Boda to ma wa n ra kinni lodo wa niyi (I saw you at Ayetoro, I was greeting you, you didn’t hear me, I was saying this is the brother that use to buy this thing from us..) before she could finish her words, I gave her a bombastic look, I guess she read me well, that’s why she didn’t mention CD.
I was like wait o, this woman knows me? Haaaa she can recognize me? So, if I didn’t give that look she would have gladly said I was her condom customer? Haa eleda mi gba mi,what is that audacity? Are we not suppose to pretend like we don’t know each other, funnily enough, I don’t buy anything else from that shop apart from.. you get? Well, that was how she lost me, I stopped buying from her since that day, how dare you celebrate a CD buyer in public? What is that for? she lost a good customer, in her mind, she was just greeting, that greeting was wrong.
Now take note, you can be doing your business with top quality output and still lose customers, not because you are not good at what you do, but because you didn’t give attention to other things around your business.
This goes to say that, asides learning a skill, you must learn the rules of that business, infact the rules are more important that the business itself. Have you not noticed that there are people you are better than in your business yet they flourish more? Yes, they learned the rules.
As a lawyer, you can not afford to have a loose mouth, no matter how sound you are in a court of law, if you cant keep secret, you will lose clients, not because you are not a brilliant lawyer but because you failed the rules of it.
A Doctor can not use the photo of his patience for advert, that hospital will fold up, but a photographer is allowed.
Most people avoid certain okada, not because it won’t move but because of the rider’s appearance.
A photographer should not post client photos ahead of them online, it can irritate clients, a photographer must also be able to withhold a sight of a woman’s body without being moved, else you won’t last.
While a mechanic can test my car after repair, it will be absurd to reach my tailor’s shop, meet him wearing my cloth in the name of testing it.
A restaurant server should not keep talking while serving food. I may not turn up next time. This same talking can be done by a shoemaker freely without issues.
This is to say that, beyond your business, there are rules. Those rules are left aside while people focus on the skills, it can ruin your business. Learn a skill and its rules, that’s why you should not rush learning, ensure you watch your boss closely, keep an eye on how other things are done.
As you plan to make this year more productive, keep a watch on those little things that can affect your business indirectly and avoid them.
