Self-Devpt. Nuggets™

I get email requests and enquiries of all kinds from visitors to my different websites:

1. Self-Development Education. 2. Best Practice Farm Business Support. 3. Freelance Writing/Web Marketing Systems Development . 4. Custom Excel-VB Driven Software Development

But MOST of the enquiries come from my Cost-Saving Farm Biz Ideas/Support Service website located at: http://www.iff.spontaneousdevelopment.com.

Initially, most of the enquiries were about my feed formulation handbook. Later, when I put my Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator software online, farm business owners began writing in to ask how they could purchase it.

******** Start of Message ********

Subject: Re: Your request for my poultry feed formulation handbook

Hi, You need to purchase the handbook.Click here to read full details of the required investment, the steps you need to take, and what you will get subsequentlly.

Let me know if I can help you further.

******** End of Message ********

With time, visitors began to enquire about my other products and services (e.g business plans, feasibility studies, research papers etc).

Some have emailed and even called me, to know what it would take to have my Best Operating Process Management System (BOPMS) implemented on their farms. A growing number have been writing and calling about my Excel-VB Driven Poultry Layer Farm Management Software, which I recently decided to make available online. A few others have written in with special custom software development needs they wanted me to tackle for them.

As you can imagine, this presents a constantly changing range of requests I have to attend to. And many times, only a few ever mature into actual sales. The reasons for this vary. Sometimes it’s the price attached to my product or service. At other times, it turns out the enquirier is just price shopping, or simply curious.

In the earlier days, about 4 years ago, I actually had a rather high proportion of the enquiries coming from phony prospects. People with no serious intentions, who only derived fun from playing mind games.

It was this latter group that taught me the importance of using carefully crafterd autoresponder messages and other tools to protect myself, and save my limited time and energy for those who really mattered. My strategy has worked quite well, and today, I can say less than 5% of enquiries I get could be said to be from “phony” prospects.

Usually When They Don’t Buy, It’s Because They Have a Limited Budget, or They’re Not Ready

For instance, reproduced below is a web form submission by a guy (a Nigerian who said he was based in Canada), who wrote saying he wished to startup a poultry enterprise in Nigeria.

Like others before him, I was not sure he was to be taken seriously when I saw his web form request. See submission below.

——————————–

> kaffo2@xyz.com wrote:

>> name = SEGUN KAFFO

>> interest = Feasibility Study

>> comments = i am interested in comissioning a feasibilty study/business

>> plan for a start up poultry farm and feed mill.

——————————–

Below is the response I sent to him…

—– Original Message —–

From: “Tayo K. Solagbade”

To: “segun kaffo”

Subject: Re: Feasibility Study

Hi,

Your request will require a meeting with me.

Past experience (right into 31st Dec 07) has made me decide to require ANYONE who wishes to meet with me pay N2,500 for that to happen. This amount will be 100% deduducted from the actual fees I eventually charge to carry out a project for him/her.

If however it turns out that after meeting with me s/he decides for any reason not to take it further, only 50% of that amount will be refunded. My apologies for this seeming self-defeating approach, but I have had too much of my time wasted by many people who were merely “curious”.

If/when you are ready, please call me on 0803-302-1263 for further details.

I encourage you to browse through every page on my IFF website (http://www.iff.spontaneousdevelopment.com/) to learn more about what I offer. Call me to clarify any areas.

Regards

Tayo Solagbade

He would go on to call me on my mobile

We spent about 20 minutes discussing, after which he said he would send a formal email specifying his exact needs.

Then Kaffo sent his formal/detailed service request(after we had spoken on phone):

===Email Startss===

Subject: Re: Feasibility Study

From: “segun kaffo”

To: “Tayo Solagbade”

Priority: Normal

Hi Tayo,

It was a pleasure having a prelimary discussion with you. I am contemplating a poultry project of about 7000 birds in 4 cycles. That is about 28000 for the first year. In the second year, I expect an expansion to about 15000 to 20000 birds per cycle or 80000 per year. It will be a broiler operation.

I plan to site the poultry in the vicinity of Epe. My starting point is to determine the viability of the project. This is where you come in. I need a feasibilty study which will assist me in determining whether to proceed.

This should cover the total capital cost, operating cost, land area required, feed cost/conversion, acquisition of day old, equipment etc.

Before you proceed, I would need to have an idea of what your charges would be – just a ball park figure is sufficient. If the amount is reasonable then I would comission you to proceed. This way I do not waste your valuable time. I propose to pay 25% of your fees to start.

When you are about halfway complete, I will pay another 25% and the balance on completion and receipt
of the study. I hope you will consider this as fair to both of us. Some element of trust is inevitable and I am willing to set the pace with the mobilization payment.

You should be able to e-mail me the work as you proceed. I will pay you by Western Union. Please let me know if you find the above arrangement suitable.

Regards, Segun

===Email Ends===

I did him a response in which I specified my fees for preparing the document, among other details…

===Email Starts===

Subject: Re: Feasibility Study

From: “Tayo K. Solagbade”
<http://webmail.xyzdevelopment.com/src/compose.php?send_to=tayo%40xyz.com<br>

To: “segun kaffo” <kaffo2@xyz

Priority: Normal

Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as
a file

Hi Segun,

Your original submission via my website form refers below:

——————————————
>

comments = i am interested in comissioning a feasibilty study/business
> plan for a start up poultry farm and feed mill.

——————————————

I noticed you left out the “feed mill” in the project details you sent
in(see excerpt above from your original web form submission). Was that an
oversight or did you decide to leave it out deliberately? I ask because
inclusion of the “feed mill” has implications for “costing” of the study
preparation.

Ball park figure to prepare the study is N200k. If you choose to include
the “feed mill” then it will be N250k.

As for payment terms, 50% advance and 50% on completion is preferable.You can be sure of getting regular updates thru a restricted (login) access page that I will update with FULL details of progress.

The finished report will come with an automated Excel-VB driven
spreadsheet application that allows you as the “owner” to do what-if
analyses to mimick possible changes that could affect the farm biz plan
costings. For instance if a change in major feed ingredient prices occurs,
projected costs for feed compounding would be affected.

The spreadsheet software containing your original startup data/projection
could be updated in relevant places with the new prices to automatically
generate revised estimates that guide decision making.

This is a critical element in farm planning and management especially for
poultry entreprises that are so capital intensive and RISK-prone even as
they are potentially highly profitable.

I prefer (as I believe most biz owners should) to see the feasibility
study &/or biz plan as a business management tool that can be adjusted as
the project is implemented over time to reflect changes/realities of the
day. Making it “dynamic” is a good way to make effective use of it to
achieve the biz goals one desires.

Hope this helps.

Regards, tayo

===Email Ends===

The above took place in 2008. I have NOT heard from him till this day.

Maybe that’s because I told him what he wanted would cost N150k (divide that by 140 to get the dollar equivalent), payable 50% in advance.

There have been similar others. I guess they were just not convinced it should cost them so much to get the type of solutions I offer.

Maybe by the time they go ahead and startup their farm businesses without the benefit of guidance from the kind of tools/resources I offer, and they end up “struggling” endlessly to be/stay productive and profitable, they will be ready.

That is, if it is not too late by then.

Final Words: In case you decide you want to contact me about any of my products or services, keep what I’ve said above in mind.

My fees will often be affordable, but rarely be cheap – especially for my services.

If you adopt a long term perspective to the matter however (afterall, it’s unlikely you’ll be running a farm business for the short term), it will become obvious making the required investment for my kind of products/services will be a wise thing to do!

NB: This article is based on excertps from Issue No. 31 of Tayo K. Solagbade’s Self-Development Digest Newsletter published on Mon 6th October 2008 at http://spontaneousdevelopment.com/news/sdacn_Mon_061008.htm