Outrageous Bank Charges!

April 14th, 2010

Outrageous bank charges in my account, this is unacceptable! It is not often that I make  a post because I’m angry. But this post, Outrageous bank charges was inspired by the activities of my banker that I just discovered this morning. I wasn’t planning to make any post today, but I got angry enough to hit my computer keyboard, because I’m definitely going to reclaim those bank charges or look for a better banker. Here is the story and I will be glad to read your opinion.

I got a cheque from a foreign firm who places adverts on this website (I do make money online you know). The cheque was for $125. Small amount I know, but that’s what makes the big bucks when it comes from different streams. Well, with excitement, I deposited the cheque in my domiciliary USD account with my banker, one of the famous Nigerian Banks (some are no longer famous, if you care to know why, read this post, .

The cheque was credited into the account and I went home smiling that in another 21days (well, from experience that is what it takes before a foreign cheque gets cleared into a Nigerian domiciliary account),  I will have access to the fund. However, I was shocked to discover when checking my account online the following day that the figure credited into my bank account has been reversed. A new figure for $100 was now credited! That was so confusing. I’ve never heard of such before. What manner of accounting is that? At least the cheque figure should be credited and then whatever charges the bank wants to make can now be debited into the account with explanation. Well, that wasn’t the case.

Careless me, I forgot to take the issue up (I guess I was too busy chasing more money online). I forgot all about the transaction until this morning when I discovered that I have been charged another $10.50 for the same cheque (21days is accomplished, the cheque from the foreign firm has cleared). Also, another $20 was charged as handling fees for sending the cheque from Nigeria to the foreign firms banker! For crying out loud, it is just a piece of payer, almost weightless! Isn’t this courier charge outrageous!

Anaylsis of The Outrageous Bank Charges

A quick analysis of all the charges got me angry. First, $25 charged for unknown reason, another $10.5 charged for unknown reason and finally $20 charged as handling fees. That means a total charges of $55.5 out of $125! That is a whooping 44% of the cheque value. So, while I labor tirelessly trying to make money online legitimately, my banker is sitting in the comfort of his office and taking out 44% of the proceed without my authorization. And nobody deemed it necessary to offer some explanation on why my internet business proceed should be divided between me and my banker in a manner I consider unfair.

My Reaction To the Bank Charges

If they had taking 10% or 20% of the proceed, maybe I would have been too busy to notice, but they took 44%. Of course, that was too much for me to forget. I paused my online business activity and made a franctic call to my account officer, ready to express my grievance. Unfortunately, he was not available to pick the call. That did not disuade me from making more effort, 44% of my earning can’t just end-up in the banker’s pocket without me putting up a fight. I quickly drafted an email and fired same with a note of urgency to the customer care service of my bank. It has been over 30 minutes since then, but there has been no respond. My account officer called back and I narrated the situation, he too promised to look into it, but there has been no response till now.

Nigerian Entrepreneurs Doing Business Online Please Help

Am I using a wrong bank?

Is this what other Nigerian Entrepreneurs doing businesses with foreign firms go through?

Was it stupid to have agreed that the foreign firm issue a cheque in settlement of the service I rendered?

What are the best steps to take when disputing bank charges?

Can bank charges be reclaim in Nigeria? I know it is possible elsewhere.

I need answer to this because it was not a one time deal. Another payment will be due soon. (I’m still making money online legitimately though I live in Nigeria!) The foreign firm does not use AlertPay, PayPal, is yet to remove Nigerians from her blacklist. So, what other options do you suggest for receiving money from this online business client?

This is not the first time am dealing with a foreign cheque. I’ve not really been careful to determine if the bank charges was fair or not. However, this particular incidence is a good starting point. I may not have noticed the outrageous bank charges if the cheque was for a five digit figure! I need your opinion on this, especially naija online entrepreneurs. Are you experiencing outrageous bank charges?

Update: Poll added based on readers demand (credit goes to Willo and McNeri) 😉

[poll id=”1″]

Note: You can choose up to 2 answers.

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Posted in Entrepreneur, Nigerian, small business | 49 Comments »

How To Pacify Clients When You Fail To Deliver

March 29th, 2010

Here is a guest post from a fellow Nigerian Entrepreneur who writes and practices entrepreneurship. He shares a personal experience which illustrates the importance of having a contingency plan for taking care of your clients when you fail to deliver on your promise. Please, do visit his website  Mk Akan to get more business and blogging tips and other resources for free. Enjoy! – NaijaEcash

What Customers Want When You Don’t Deliver

There are situations when the best companies and businesses fail to deliver. It does happen and all the time.

It happens in online businesses and offline businesses. It happens online when you do a launch, offline in customer care, offline in delivery and in any department you can think of.  So when it happens what do you do? What should you do?

Let me tell you a little story.

Sometimes when I am far way from my PC and internet access, I do head to a cyber café to get stuff done online. One day, I dashed into a cyber café. The management had obviously done a great job. They had flat screen monitors, all well arranged with great furniture.

They had functional air conditioner, God, I was so happy. Now I could just cool off and surf the web. I paid for one hour, it was quite costly but, in my mind, it was well worth it.

I sat on the PC close to the air-conditioner and started working. 18 minute later, the unexpected happened. There was a power cut. (Sudden power outage is almost normal so I was not shocked) .

The people in charge scrambled to the back of the building to start the power generator. I was still working thankful that management had thought it good to get UPS (unlimited power supply) and that the power generator would be on in no time.

I was wrong.

10 minutes later, the power generating set wasn’t on and the UPS were not beeping any more. They were screaming, a sign that meant- I gonna go off in seconds”. I was in the middle of something. There was nothing I could do than hope that power would come on.

Then suddenly, it happened, what I feared happened. The UPSes started going off one by one. Mine was the 3rd to go off. Everything I was working on in the last 20 minutes was gone.

All I was doing was gone.

Seconds later, the power came back because they finally put on the generator. One of the workers came in and started putting on the computers. He excused me and put mine on too. After powering up the computers, he left without a word!

I was vexed. I stood up and went to complain at the customer desk.

“I was doing something very important and now I have lost everything” I told the attendant.

“It is not our fault, he replied, there was a power cut and we could not put the power generator in time”. I kept complaining hoping for something to calm me down, they gave me none.

I was very annoyed, it showed on my face.

Even though, I knew about the problem of incessant power cuts, and I knew that mechanical devices like power generator sometimes have problems. Even though I know we are all humans, we sometimes fail in our promise and that things sometimes happen and does not go according to plan. yet I expected a better treatment form that cybercafe than what I got. That brings up the question I want to ask you.

How do you treat your customers when you fail to deliver?

Sometimes the customer just needs you to feel his pain. To sympathize or empathize with him/her.

In the Case above, the attendant or people in charged should have had done any of the following, and I would have been pacified.

Apologize:

He would have apologized after the power cut, apologize when he came to on the PC. Simply saying “please we are sorry for the problem, there was a power out and we could not on the generator in time” would have done the magic. I would have felt better.

Compensate:

I would have been happier if he came  up to say “sorry for the delay…blah, blah, we will add 10 minute to your remaining time”. He didn’t.

My satisfaction wasn’t their concern. They took my money and failed in their service. My money was more important to them than my satisfaction.  They forgot that, “you are not in business to make money, you are in business to serve people and give them satisfaction” after satisfying them, money comes. 

Solve the problem:

Yep, solve it. I may forgive you when you slip once, we may forgive you again if it happens another time, but if keeps happening again, we will just avoid you and your business.

We don’t want to hear your sob stories, we won’t tolerate it.  Just fix the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen again. People pay for quality service or product, not sorry tales!

Conclusion

Do you plan for these unexpected occurrences? How do you handle your inability to deliver on your promise?

Do you have a compensation plan for your customer when you fail to deliver? I’ll surely like to hear your views.

Thank you for your comments.

Mk Akan is an entrepreneur, blogger and publisher of the FastClick, a web-centric magazine published in Nigeria. He blogs at www.MkAkan.com

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Posted in Entrepreneur, small business | 11 Comments »

10 Tips For Better Business Opportunity Selection

March 22nd, 2010

This post, 10 Tips For Better Business Opportunity Selection was inspired by a comment made by a fellow Nigerian entrepreneur. The present economic climate in Nigeria is causing a lot of small business owners to loose sleep. Business opportunities are now viewed with skepticism due to several woeful tales of business failures. Unpredictable sudden changes in government policies has not helped matters.  Too many entrepreneurs, are now finding it much more difficult to make a choice among different business opportunities available in the present economy.

It is an established fact that the success of a small business often depend on the ability of the business owner, i.e. the entrepreneur, to make the right decision especially, when such decision is considered critical to the survival or growth of the business. One of such senarios is choosing a business opportunity among several available options. Even if the entrpreneur has a team of staff he brainstorms with, as the CEO, the responsibility to make a critical choice among available business opportunities will eventually rest on him.

In as much as you may wish to shift such responsibility to one of your employee, common sense dictates that it is better to take such business decision than delegate it to another, knowing fully well that you are accountable for the success or failure of your business.

Despite the harsh economic reality we are currently facing in Nigeria, as an entrepreneur, you can reduce to the barest minimum the risk of making mistake when choosing between business opportunities by following some old and tried principles. I’ll share with you 10 Tips For Better Business Opportunity Selection:

1. Never reject a business opportunity because you see a flaw in it. That it has a flaw doesn’t mean it can ‘t succeed. Ask how the flaw can be corrected.

2. Never reject a business opportunity because you won’t get the credit. It is the impact of the success on your overall business that really matter, not who gets the credit for proposing the idea.

3. Never reject a business opportunity because it looks impossible. Go ask the Wright brothers, nobody thought it was possible to fly 😉

4. Never reject a business opportunity because your mind is already made up on other possibilities. It won’t hurt if you have an open mind and consider all options on their individual merit before settling for one.

5. Never reject a business opportunity because you think it is illegal. Get expert legal opinion before trashing the idea.

6. Never reject a business opportunity because you don’t have the money, manpower, muscle or resources  required. Whatever happened to partnership, joint ventures etc. You must not insist on getting 100% returns and eating it all alone. Also, 10 return from a $1,000,000 joint venture deal is better than 100% return from a $1,000 deal you did all alone. Look at the big picture before making your choice.

7. Never reject a business opportunity because it will create conflict. If you’re not ready for conflict, then you’re not ready for success.

8. Never reject a business opportunity because it is not your way of doing things. You can learn to do better than you’re already doing. Be an avid learner.

9. Never reject a business opportunity because it might fail. Life is all about taking risk. It is actually risky not to take risk.

10. Never reject a business opportunity because of your personal emotions. Human feelings are quite unstable. It doesn’t take much for emotions to change. So, never bring your emotions into business decisions.

If you follow those ten don’ts whenever you are making your selection, you would have gone a step closer to making good business choice. Wishing you all the best. Cheers.

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Posted in Entrepreneur, small business | 6 Comments »

Earning Employees’ Loyalty

March 2nd, 2010

Earning Employees’ Loyalty

Why are employees referred to by companies as being the greatest asset? The answer is simple, machines, equipment, tools etc no matter how automated they are still need human beings to operate them. A seasoned human resources manager understands that the success of the company is dependent more on the loyalty of the workforce to the vision of the company. One of my colleagues who will fondly call Bossman, gave me a write-up he photocopied from a Nigerian daily. After reading it, I was prompted to write this article, Earning Employees’ Loyalty.

A business survival is dependent on getting customers who will patronize her goods or services. Growth is dependent on how loyal the customers become to the product or service of the company. Getting the right customer is a critical step in building a loyalty based business system, but it is only the first critical step. Once a company has loyal customers and it begins to enjoy steady supply of revenue, it is time to put a strategy in place to re-invest a good portion of the surplus to getting and retaining loyal employees.

Just as it takes quite some effort to build personal relationship with customers, so also it takes effort to build relationship with employees. Loyal employees have greater potential to learn and increase job performance.

Why Earn Employees’ Loyalty

Loyal employee will save you money. They save you money by reducing recruiting and induction costs. That money can then be use for some other productive ventures.

Seasoned Human Resource Managers do not like high rate of employee turnover because it is counter productive. It is not just about the financial cost of induction and training, but the distruption that constant changing in the workforce can have on the growth of the organization.

Even though some organizations claim that people are their greates asset, few actually act it. It is important not just to know the cost of your employee, overhead cost, but also the worth of your employee, their potential, the value they add to the organization.

As an entrepreneur going places, your business must learn to attract the best possible employees, hold the employees, recognize them, motivate and reward them.

Earning Employees’ Loyalty Requires Planning

You can’t earn employee loyalty just by sitting back and wishing it will happen. You must have the right mindset about the value of employee. You must define in definite terms what you consider as loyalty. Then you need to put in place strategies, tactics, practices and policies that will enhance measurement of employee performance and degree of loyalty to the organization. All these require effort and determination. If you don’t have a good Human Resource Manager, you may need to outsource to a competent Human Resource consultant.

The right place to start is during recruitment. Ensure that you recruit peole who share the organizations philosophy. Employees who personal goals and visions are in agreement with the vision of your business. Never recruit base on cost or professional competence alone. A happy employee will always be more committed and loyal than one that hates the job he/she is doing.

Treating people fairly should be the hallmark of your corporate loyalty system. If you follow the Golden Rule: Treat Your Employee The Way You Would Like To Be Treated. Let your fairness extends to employee compensation. Never feel that extra compensation to employee is undue overhead burden on the business. Look at your workforce as your partners in progress. Align Employees interest with that of the business and strike a balance that will be win-win for both the business and the employee. If you consciously work on strategies to ensure that employees earn more compensation, they will get committed to the business.

Finally, ensure that your compensation system is not lopsided in favor of the executives only. Your compensation plan should be fair ensuring that non-executive employee get adequate compensation. Nothing wanes employees’ loyalty like the feeling that your business is operating like the Animal Farm. A situation where some employee are considered and treated as being more important than the others. Let the process of career growth be plain for all to see and understand. Promotion should be based on merit and performance not personal sentiments.

Just as customers’ loyalty will keep your business revenue flowing, so also employees’ loyalty will keep the engine room of your business working smoothly and at lower maintenance cost. Even if you forget all that have been said in this article, Earning Employees’ Loyalty, don’t forget the Golden Rule – Treat your employees the way you will like to be treated.

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Posted in small business | 6 Comments »

What Kind Of Income Are You Earning?

February 23rd, 2010

Are you working for money or is your money working for you? That is a familiar statement to those that read RichDad books. I’ve just finished reading RichDad’s Cashflow Quadrant all over again. It is not my first time of reading the book. But this time around a question really kept ringing in my heart. What kind of Income are you earning? If I stop working now, can I sustain my present level of monthly expenditure?

There are two kinds of income.

Income Earned By Working For Money

This is where most people start from, except you inherited some income generating asset from your parents. It consists of Salaries, Wages etc. The issue here is that you only earn by working. If you don’t work, you don’t earn. Once you stop working the income stops. So, it is not the best source of income. For many small scale entrepreneurs in Nigeria, this is the case.

Income Earned By Your Money Working For You

This refers to income generated from assets you own. Here, you invest in an asset and the asset in return generates passive income for you. Even if you decide not to work again, as long as you have a system in place to manage and maintain those assets the income keeps flowing.

Now that I’m done with the brief definition, let’s get back to my question.

What kind of Income are you earning?

Initially, when I read Cashflow Quadrant, I was congratulating myself that I receive income from different sources. Some are earned by me working while some are from assets that I owned. However, now I am more interested in the percentage of the passive income to the total income.

I sat down and wrote down all the income I earned monthly. I then classified them into Passive Income and Non-passive Income. The analysis was an eye opener. I realized for the first time that even though I was earning passive income, it was less than 10% of my total income. Invariably, I am still in the rat-race. I’m still busy working for money. That means, if I stop working today, I will not be able to sustain my present standard of living. The income from my assets is grossly insufficient to cover my monthly bill.

Since I made that discovery, I’ve been working on a plan to change my strategy. I don’t want to work for money at my old age. I will rather spend my time doing what I really enjoy doing while my money works for me. So, now is the time to start acquiring assets that will generate the volume of income that I desire to earn so as to sustain the kind of lifestyle I want to live.

The Cashflow Quadrant is a great book for small scale entrepreneur to read. I recommend it to my fellow Nigerian Entrepreneurs. It offers some great financial knowledge that would have cost you years to acquire. The paperback edition is readily available in bookshops and is not expensive. Please note that this is not a product review. Now it is your turn to answer the question, What kind of income are you earning? Tell us in a comment. Cheers.

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Posted in Entrepreneur, Financial Intelligence | 17 Comments »

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