THE MINISTERS MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL (TMMI)

The lady was shouting at the sale's girl in a very rude manner; using foul words on her. I was getting upset and wanted to confront her for such ugly behavior but the owner of the shop resisted me, immediately the woman made her purchase and left, the shop owner apologized to her sale's girl for such behavior, turned to me and said, 'our duty in this shop is to sell to customers, not to teach them manners'. That line opened my eyes to what business is all about, sell, sell and sell. To train the African Child to excel in business, he must not lose focus to his primary purpose which is to sell his goods and offer his services. The businessman should be only interested in selling and nothing more. Endure the ugly manners of your customers and clients as long as they patronize your products and services. If the customer is shouting at you, don't retaliate, sell your market and make your profit. Nice men are in heaven, those on earth are products of various mood...

On every birthday, I receive a birthday text from one of my banks, and during special holidays like Christmas Easter, and Independence days. These texts are their ways of endearing me to them by making me feel they are also interested in other aspect of my life that is non-bank related. Some other banks buy cakes to celebrate their customers and give them special preference cards just to show appreciation for banking with them. I have two different banks, three before, but I closed one, ignored the other and I'm very active with one just because of the relationship they are having with me that not bank related. To train the African child to build a great business, let him master the art of customer relationship. Attend their birthdays and any event thats special to them or send messages, call to know how they are, show that you care and really care. As you build a deeper relationships with them, you'll endear them to your products/services, and you won't be afraid of ...

I went to buy a packet of sugar from a shop owner, I asked for  StLouise but because he doesn't have it and wanted me to buy the one he has, he brought it out and said something that put me off entirely and killed my interest from buying that brand of sugar. He said, 'this sugar' pointing to the brand he brought out, 'is better than StLouise because its not too 'sugarish''. I looked him with a look I can describe and said, 'if I want paper I'll buy a pepper that is 'pepperish', if I want salt, I'll buy a salt that is 'saltish', and if I want sugar, I'll buy sugar that's 'sugarish', if this is a pack of sugar that's not 'sugarish', I want StLouise that is' being able to answer the question, what does my customer want when he asks for these goods or services from me will help you know how to sell your goods. Your success as a businessman is around the need of your customer. Being able to know what ...

I met a friend whom I knew hawked packaged water in traffic, he now runs a big business. I knew him when he was selling those package of water (aka pure water) and he was ridiculed for it. I gave him accommodation then because he was putting up in a church before we met. He is now doing very well financially. I also knew many people who refused to began from that point where he began and till today they haven't begun anything because they are afraid what people would say when they see them beginning from the lowest point in life. Pride and the fear of what people would say is the reason so many are still living in abject poverty today. They are afraid of the ridicule they might get if they decide to hawk in the market, traffic or streets etc. as long as you can't begin small, you cannot begin at all. To train the African child to be wealthy, trained him not to be ashamed of starting from the lowest point in life while keeping his vision on the sky. God honors those who h...

After receiving lectures on how to raise funds for his business ideas, he now wanted to practicalize it, and then he discovered that life application is always different from theory. His friend said, forget that lecture, you can't raise fund for this ideas by selling your business ideas and units to people as per the lectures, how would you gather the people? Who would listen to you? He tried discouraging him, but he wouldn't allow anything discourage him. He thought of how difficult it is for him to raise money from family members, so he decided to organize a launch party. He is going to launch the business he hasn't started. He told the best catering company whom he wanted they serve that he doesn't have money for their service, but that he'll bring important men to the occasion which would mean more customers for them, so the company agreed to serve as long as it would offer them the opportunity to meet with some elites of the society for a very low fee which w...

Many years ago, when pipeline began the leak, people started rushing to fetch the diesel, gas, fuel and kerosene that flows at various timeframes. while the traffic was channelled towards that place, a man decided to sell gallons. there was sudden need for gallons and this man made it available. He sold it far higher than the market price and because he had set up his business on the road that led to the place where the pipeline was leaking, people bought gallons without minding the costs, after all, they are going to fetch oils that costs so much for free. some people even paid more just to secure all of the gallons. the price of oils (gas, fuel, kerosene and diesel) became came down because everyone within that environ have gone to fetch themselves but the cost of gallons never came down until the government came and sealed the leaking pipeline. The African child must be trained to see that opportunity is not in the cause of the traffic, but in what people need when heading towar...

Two young men hawk bread to travelers. One day, one of them noticed that travelers need more than bread, that they sometimes come down from their buses to buy from the closest shops and because the buses don't always wait for that to happen, they don't buy as many things they wanted, so he went and have a wheel shop constructed for him where everything he could believe travelers would need would contain. he wheels the shop to them, so they could from the window of the buses buy anything they wanted. By this, he could sell more, and he operates a shopping system where he doesn't need to pay for a stand to build a shop on. his selling mate stuck to that traditional way of selling while many others started copying this young man and replicating similar ideas  in their various locations. Mr Strive Masiyiiwa saw a mobile money system run by Safaricom in Kenya and copied and reintroduce it as  a very successful mobile money called Ecocash in Zimbabwe. When you see a working ...

Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn went from door to door delivering goods, and now DHL has become an international air express industry. Never feel too big to go from door to door marketing your goods and advertising your services. Do you think there weren't houses that rejected the services of those three men? Did you think they didn't have friend that made jest of their work then? Where are those friends today? Who knows those people who had rejected their services then? Never because of what people would say shy away from taking your products to people and introducing your services everywhere your legs can take you. The African child should be taught that there is nothing wrong with hawking, going from door to door introducing people to your products and advertising your services and using your social media account to sell what you do. Never allow pride and the fear of what people might say hinder you  from going from door to door selling and advertising y...

We've been trying in vain to convince him to buy from us until my mum spoke Hausa to him, he paused, conversed a little more with my mum in Hausa and then bought from us and from that day, he buys from us. when you speak to a man in the language he understands, you speak to his intellects but when you speak in his language, you speak to his heart. Nothing wins someone over more than appealing to his heart. When a man is endeared to you in his heart, he'll patronize your goods and services without much ado. To train the African child to be successful in his business, he must learn the art of conversing in the language of his would-be clients. If you are going to trade amongst lawyers, do some work and use diction familiar with lawyers likewise every other professions and, if you are going to trade amongst men of certain language, take formal or informal class on how to at least communicate in their language. You stand a better chance of selling your business and goods wh...

STRENGTHENING THE POOR 40 A woman noticed by 2 am, people gather to wait for a bus that travels daily across to another city on a particular spot. She decided to set up a shop to serve these people. 1am till 4 am became her working hours. She started with a shop, then brought lots of seats, and then she brought generator and TV sets.  Soon, luxurious buses started stopping over there with traveling passengers for a brief rest, this increased sales and opened up the place for more businesses. To train the African child to be more effective in his business, he must learn the time of his target audience and be faithful with such timing to be available to serve. Being faithful to time is a very important factor in setting up a multimillion businesses. When you've identified the time when the customers would need your services or products, discipline yourself to be available and when you can't be, have someone else standing   for you that's why you should set up your busin...

Pluck all the mangoes from a tree, after a while you'll find mangoes again, take all the billions from a billionaire, after a while you'll find him with billions again. Wealth is not what we have, but who we are and what we've trained our minds to lay hold of. a billionaire is not the one who has billions (though billionaires have billions) but the man who can make billions anytime because he has trained his mind to guide his hands into making billions. Take every money away from him and take him to a neutral ground, within A shortest time, he'll have billions again. Wealth is not what is in the hands, but what is in the mind. The African child who doesn't believe he is a billionaire has placed a limit to the amount of wealth that'll flow to him. When its possible in your heart, it would be achievable with your hands. We are who we believe we are, when we improve on how we see ourselves, we've improved on what we'll get in life. The man who believ...

The biggest tree was once a seed, buried under the earth just like the smallest grass; they all had the same starting point but the difference is in the potential in the seed of the tree and the seed of the grass.Thee owner of the biggest business once had nothing likewise the owner of a petty shop, the difference is in the vision of each of them.How you see your business in your mind determine how big it would grow in your hands. When you see a very lofty business, the owner started from nothing just like you and built then business until it has grown into such greatness. Unlike seed, you can increase the level of the greatness of your business by adjusting how you see things. You only go as far as you can see, not more. You must train the African child to believe that there is no limitation to how great his business can grow into should he dream bigger and higher. The level any business can grow to is hugely dependent on the vision of the businessman. If you can dream big, your...

When Facebook has only 'like' button for posts; when there are posts like 'deaths, bad things, and unpleasant news' people didn't know how to react to it, because clicking on the 'like' button would mean they took pleasure in such unpleasant news. Facebook users started criticizing Facebook for having only 'Like' buttons and Facebook listened and did more, we now have various buttons to express various emotions to posts. This made Facebook users rate Facebook more and Facebook was able to service its purpose of connecting people more. Real business tycoons listen to customer, their sincere feed backs are what they need to make adjustments. The African Child must learn to listen to customers for research purposes on how to improve his business and be of better service and not get offended at comments and the negative reactions of people to his product and services. You begin a business by working on an idea but your perfect the business by list...

A couple who wanted a house were been shown around by an agent, the house they were inspecting caught the attention of the couples, and they were ready to pay for it immediately but the agent kept talking about another house which according to him was better than the one the couples were interested in. so he agreed with the couples to take them to this other house the next day, but unfortunately for him, the couples never showed up, that was how he lost his potential profit. To build a mega business, you must learn to wrap up deal as quick as possible. To build a mega business, you must train the African child to put the need of the customer first even if it different front his, and he must be quick to wrap up deals in accordance to the need of the customer. Not what you want for the customer that matters but what the customer wants for himself. Business are established and wrapped solely on the need of the people; whether its product or services, its wrapped around the need of t...

I was traveling to Illorin and the bus broke down on the way in the middle of the night, I became confused then suddenly a thought that'll trigger hope in me hit me 'find out amongst other passengers who is heading to Illorin'. I started inquiring who was going to Illorin and  I found 5 passengers, so we came together and because we were together, we could plan and hire another vehicle who considered taking us to Illorin because of our number. To build a business, associate yourself with others with similar dreams, because soon the going would get tough. During winters lone wolf dies but the packs survives; the cold freezes lone wolf but packs survive because they come together and generate heat, yes, the goings would definitely get tough and only those who had formed a network with other business minded men would survive and thrive through difficult times. To train the African child to overcome discouragement as he builds his business, let him surround himself and ne...

Around 1998 I noted that in the quarters that we lived, buying bread was coming every morning because i used to run errand for most of our neighbors. The place where the bread is sold is like 500 meters away so my elder sister and I decided to be buying in bulk and sell to those living in quarters. When we started the first round, we made profit, and we saved the profit and when we went second round we made more profit but that would mean doom for our small business. My elder sister was so happy with the profits that she decided we use the profit to buy more bread, I tried explaining to her that if we do, we won't be able to sell all, that we just need to maintain the amount of bread we buy for now. She was insecure and it was like I was challenging her authority thus she refused to reason with me, she exerted her authority and used the profit to buy more bread, but that would damn the business, the usual amount we used to sell was the number of bread we sold because our custome...

A CEO was sharing his experience on how his business thrived through an economic recession and expanded afterward. He said that one of his staffs came to him and advise him to sell more of his company's shares to as many people as possible, and he did. Though it wasn't reasonable at that time to sell more of his business units; he was not in need of money and there was no plan to extend the business, but he just followed the advice and sold more of his company shares so when recession hit the economy, they had enough money to hold on and relaunch immediately and because they were the first company to recover, they henceforth dominated the market and every competition. Hire people you'll listen to when they counsel you as you run your business and not those you'll keep telling what to do. the best people to listen to are those who loves the company and the vision driving the company. Train the African child never to put himself in the situation where he won't l...

Bright a Rebrander shared with me how his business crumbled because he allowed a family member to handle it, his story is similar to the stories of scores of people who had lost their businesses because they committed it into the hands of unskillful family members and very close friends. Business is not run on emotionalism, you only put business minded people in charge of businesses. Whoever that doesn't treat business as business, who uses family ties and friendships as a way out of being held accountable for the business isn't worth handling your business. To train the African child to build business, let him only put business minded people in charge of his business, and not those who can't be held accountable for the poor performance of the business because they are close friends and family relations. If your son is not business minded, let a stranger who is, be in charge of such business. Business is not run on emotions, but reasons and skills. Whoever that does...

I went to visit a friend, and noticed she was always complaining of shortage of cash during our discussion unlike her. What happened to your business I asked? It folded up she replied promptly. At that moment I noticed a sorry look on her face, what happened that your business closed down? She said, 'when I lost my mom, I became so devastated and I couldn't attend to the business any longer and hence it started dwindling till I could no longer handle it, so I closed it down.' Didn't you have any other person to run the business in your place till you became healed emotionally? No, I didn't she replied with regret. To train the African child to build business, let him automate the business i.e. set up the business in the way that it will continue with or without him. Don't make the running of the business be 100% dependent on you, train others to play your role in the running of the business in case you aren't there at any time for any reason. Two head...

The shoe is bigger than your leg, the person who designed the shoe didn't measure it well the sales man said. My friend had an unusual leg, and most of the places he goes to buy shoes, the sales men usually deride his leg but this one was different, he derided the shoe maker and not his leg. My friend decided to be buying every other thing from him because he was the first sale man not to deride his leg for being different. Communication skill is very important in building up a business. You must put the person first before the object to be sold or the service to be rendered. How you care for the person's feelings would determine how serious the person would patronize you. 'I guess your money is not enough at this moment to purchase this', 'may be another day you'll be able to afford it', 'you probably have other priorities that's why you don't want to pay for this now' etc. are examples of ways to talk to a customer who doesn't have en...