The Life of a Job Seeker: Episode 16
EPISODE 16: COPY CAT
Marvelled by Emeka’s success, Kobi, Sophia, and Faruq decided to venture into farming. They resolved to begin with Poultry farming just as Emeka did, and expand into other areas of agriculture as they grow.
If Emeka the drop-out could make it very big from poultry farming, then we can too they affirmed themselves. Upon hearing their plans, Sabinus indicated interest to partner with them.
Without good knowledge about the business, they put up their money together, bought 250 little birds and choked them in a small cage that they constructed with weak woods in their compound. “By Christmas, these birds will be ripe for sale, and we will be cashing out big”, they envisaged.
Guess what?
On the first night the birds arrived at their weak cage, 11 out of the 250 birds died of cold and 5 appeared to be infected and were gradually infecting the other birds. On the second day, 10 more birds died, and on the third day, 38 birds had died in total.
Fear gripped them, that they organized a prayer session; prayed over some oil and sprinkled the oil around the poultry for the birds’ safety; but on the following day, more birds died.
It was then they realized the need for a good knowledge of poultry health management; the need for proper lighting to keep the cage warm; a quarantine for infected birds and so on. But these, they didn’t budget for.
They managed to squeeze out money to construct a mini quarantine cage to isolate the infected birds, and also light up the cages for warmth. Soon, they started running out of funds to buy feeds for the birds, as it appeared that the only the thing the birds knew how to do was to eat non-stop and die whenever they like without pity for their owners. Soon, they started feeding the birds with just any kinds of waste food.
Withing 3 weeks, they lost 82 birds and by Christmas when they intended to sell the birds, all that remained of the 250 birds were 31.
Getting buyers for their birds became another problem as they didn’t have a good marketing plan in the beginning. In the end, they were able to sell only 9 birds at fair prices while they ended up eating the remaining 22 by themselves.
It was a huge loss and a big lesson to them.
Lesson 10: Never Be in a Rush to Start a Business Without a Good Knowledge of It.
There is nothing wrong with copying something nice but it should be done with good knowledge, as the success of any business begins with good knowledge, skills and competence to manage it. Devote adequate time to learning the ropes of a business and have a winning plan for success. Rushing into things without good knowledge and plans is as good as rushing into failure.
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