Entrepreneur’s Don’ts: Never compromise on the quality of staffs.

As a future entrepreneur, I am daily learning from the mistakes of present day entrepreneurs and my current employer is a case study for me. I will be sharing some of the lesson I learn from time to time. So welcome to the new series on my blog which I hope will be useful for everyone who reads it.

In the search for cheap labor, entrepreneurs usually settle for those people who are willing to accept the crappy salaries they willing to part away with.

From the first day I stepped into my current employer’s office, I knew my boss had done a grave mistake with the current crop of staffs he had in place. When I finally met him about 2 weeks after I began working for the company; I couldn’t help myself but ask him why.

His response, he needed people to fill up the space and carry out some necessary actions. One of the staffs and the most notorious one actually received her first query letter a month after employment. You wonder why she was still in employment more than a year after despite receiving several queries, suspension and signing countless undertaking.

My boss was not ready to take the risk to go through another recruitment process. He particularly told me of his disappointment in one of the staffs who despite her impressive resume and great interview skills was unable to deliver the simplest of assigned tasks. She is still with the company till date and his reason for keeping her is her loyalty.

The sad truth about unqualified staffs is that no matter the amount of training impacted in them, they just never get to that acceptable level. They assume they already know so much and are never willing to learn new things.

♥Lara

The Nigeria my grandparents probably lived in is the Nigeria they know

Buildings such as these I first saw in local films. I remember asking someone once and he said such buildings no longer exists and the few ones in the local films are located in some film village in Ikorodu.

I saw these buildings for the first time in March along the Ogbomoso-Oyo road on my way to Ilorin for my sisters wedding. Alas there are many of them in Kwara State.

There are countless children in Nigeria who still go to school without shoes just like President Jonathan of Nigeria. The stories our parents told of how they would walk for miles to get to school is still true for people of these communities. 

May of us in the South West might not be able to relate to this life but this is the reality of some people. Visiting big cities such as Ilorin is a really big deal for them. The expression you will have on your face when you visit countries like the USA or the UK is what people in these communities will have when they visit Ilorin, in Lagos or Abuja they would feel out of this world. For some, they might never get to step into the closest developed city, all they know is life in the village or neighboring bigger villages. 

While those of us in the bigger cities cry for better infrastructure, these people are begging for basic infrastructures. They are grateful when the government finally remembers them and give to them borehole water. They are grateful to never share the river with cows anymore. From these same streams they drink, in it they bathe and watch their clothes.

Some do not even know what electricity is, yet those of us in cities shout up NEPA when we finally get to see light from PHCN after so many day.

You probably know their story if you served in any of such villages, if not well this is their reality.

♥ Lara from Ilorin