Running a Food Retail Chain

So I got asked this JAMB Question on twitter and I decided to do a 1 minute free consultation, here it is;

CAPITAL – running a brick and mortar store is capital intensive, especially the high up-front cost, which means that break-even point for an outlet could be between 7 months to 2 years. Of course, this does not account for sudden #borderclosure and all other Nigerian shenanigans. BE GUIDED!

MENU – consistency in the quality & presentation of your meals is crucial. Hence prioritize quality over quantity of items on your menu. Take a look at the best and growing QSRs, they have limited items, but are excellent at it. e.g KFC does basically Chicken, Bread & Fries; that's all.

STAFF – don't dwell on the stereotype, Nigerians make excellent staff. However high attrition rates in retail could be very frustrating with the lower level staff who are usually young and very mobile. You will need to plan for this and have a robust training and on boarding process.

STANDARDS – Maintaining standards across multiple outlets is quite a daunting task. SoI invest a lot in developing SOPs, training, training, training (the repetition was not a mistake) and retraining, creating layers of supervision, audits (inspection) and compliance assurance.

INFRASTRUCTURAL DEFICIT - power, water, security, waste management, transportation will conspire to frustrate you. Add to it rent seeking GOVERNMENT and its AGENCIES!!. Need I say more.

SHRINKAGE - due to waste or theft (you can only minimise and not eliminate; know this and know peace). Hence your Inventory Management systems must be rigorous. CONTROL! CONTROL! & I SAY CONTROL!

MARGINS – contrary to popular believe, food businesses do struggle with profit margins, especially brick and mortar, hence you want to monitor your COG & OPEX tightly. Na daily struggle, ko easy.

LOCATION - Getting d right location at a reasonable cost could be very challenging, especially when u are competing with "business fronts" but DO NOT compromise on d optimal location, it easily solves 70% of your marketing drive. Took us 1+ years to get a good location on admiralty way & the rest is history.

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