Interview With VisitAssist CEO (Pt3):”Anyone Can Earn Money With VisitAssist”
Please tell us about your referral program:
Yes, we have a referral program. We pay a percentage to anybody who refers a client to us and the client goes ahead to purchase our services.
Anyone?
Yes, anyone. Details are on our website. https://visitassist.com.ng/
You seem to have a lot of resources at your disposal, cars, accommodation, security personnel. Are all these facilities yours or how do you source them?
Laughs.
No, the cars and the accommodation are not ours. Just like the cars your Uber rides don’t belong to Uber or the apartments to airbnb.
True
We hire the cars from private owners, pay them an agreed amount and the difference between what we’ve charged the client and paid the driver or car owner, minus any referral fee, if there’s one to be paid, is our profit.
It’s the same arrangement we have for accommodation as well.
If you have a nice car for hire and it’s in good condition, we can negotiate a very reasonable rate with you.
Is that a pitch to car owners I’m hearing?
Laughter
Not only to car owners. We approach landlords and estate agents as well who are interested in renting their properties on a short-let basis.
We are always on a lookout for traders selling merchandise and souvenirs as well.
We are always willing to work with people within the local economy, restaurant owners, drivers, courier-companies, caterers, even those running laundry services. You never know what a client will ask for.
We intend to provide a 5 Star service for our clients.
So, can we put it out there that anyone running any service in Nigeria should get in touch with you to see if their service would be needed in the future?
Oh, it’s worth sending us an introductory email telling us about your business.
our email address is info@visitassist.com.ng
On that interesting note, let me ask my final question. What word of encouragement do you have for anyone thinking of starting a business in Nigeria?
You know, when I told people I wanted to start this business, most people said I was crazy to even think of starting a business in Nigeria. Crazier to think I could be here in the UK while running a business in Nigeria. They all predicted it would fail. But you know something I’ve always known? The major economies that exist today, the US, the UK, France and China were not built by governments. These economies became big today because individuals like you and I took bold steps to establish businesses.
Growing up in Nigeria, the brand names we were familiar with back in the day, Cadbury, Dunlop, Lever brothers, which later became Unilever, PZ, Patterson Zochonis, which is now PZ Cussons. All these names were the names of founders of these multi-million Dollar companies. These companies were not founded by governments, they were started by individuals. I told myself this, I’m not waiting around for the Nigerian government to fix everything before starting my business. I’m starting right away before someone else seizes the opportunity.
So my advice to anyone who wants to start a business in Nigeria is this: If you have every other thing in place, capital, staff and… you know, what economists refer to as the four factors of production, you as the entrepreneur, land, labour and capital and you’ve researched the market, start the business. Don’t wait for the government to fix Nigeria before starting.
Wow! Sound word of advice from the CEO of VisitAssist.
Like someone I know says, “we’re out of time not out of words”. There’s still a lot we want to ask you about VisitAssist but we’ve run out of time. We will cover the rest during our next interview. Thank you, once again for your time, Tunde.
Pleasure is all mine. Already looking forward to our next tete-a-tete
Laughter!!