From small beginning to global impact, by Michael Olatunbosun  |

The book: “From Living Room to Boardroom: Positioning Your Small Business for Multinational Contracts (2022, PurpleBloom),” is written by Efe Fagbeja. 

Efe Fagbeja is a published writer and self-discovery and personal fulfilment coach for women, and convener of Behind Closed Doors, a transformational seminar for women, among many others. She has a Bachelors in Economics, a Masters in International Business, and she is a GIA-certified jewellery designer, and a certified Emotional Intelligence Practitioner. She has about eight years work experience in various roles spanning HR, market research, retail sales, supply chain management before quitting paid employment.

In this book, Fagbeja draws from her personal journey from the certainty of paid employment to entrepreneurship to charge her readers to make the leap too. She lays the cards on the table right from the book’s introduction. It is written for business owners (especially small business owners) who wish to play big and get multinationals to look their way. She writes that her intention is to prick others into getting their businesses “ready to plug into opportunities when they arise.” The key phrase here is: get ready. And the way to get you ready is to open your eyes to opportunities all around you, to give you direction and help you to prepare for the big break, when it shows up.

So in 59 pages, Efe Fagbeja highlights in nine strategically arranged movements (chapters) her own journey from the certainty of paid employment to entrepreneurship, starting from her living room. In the first chapter therefore, she details her first shot at business with mobile phone recharge cards, the initial boom, the challenges of erratic pricing because of the entry of people with more cash. Then being robbed by staff and then the exit from the business in favour of another idea suggested by a friend. This experience shows that determination is not enough; there must be sufficient knowledge of the industry and its gatekeepers, and cash flow.

But for the author, if survival is driving you, you’ll not be deterred by all the challenges stacked against you. The challenges will be there. 

Debt, wounds, scars, fear and trepidation. But “the only thing on my mind was daily survival.” (P9) And when failure stares you in the face, you begin to question yourself and doubt your abilities. For the author, she writes that she shrugged off those feelings and decided to fall back on her skill of jewellery making. And that was the trigger. So she set on investing in tools and started making jewellery, and started getting orders, also making sure that they paid some amount upfront. This was how the business began to make progress.

At this point, the author makes profound comments about earning as a small business owner. She argues (p13) that it may not always be possible to put yourself on a salary as they always advise small business owners. Based on her own experience, the author avers that when your business is at a small stage, it is “advisable to practice strict financial prudence and self-discipline at this stage.” She concludes that at this small stage, you should “cut off all frivolities and unnecessary expenses,” on the basis that “your payback will be when your business is big enough to pay you a consistent salary.” The idea is to make your living expenses minimal and your savings excessive. “Whatever your business can do without in the short term, don’t buy until it becomes crucial,” she concludes. 

In this book the author then states the things that propelled her from her small start to big break in business. Some of them include joining business booth-styled platforms, exhibitions and fairs, and leveraging social media. She mentions that it requires overnight work and investing in learning – online training, and entrepreneurship seminars. The author states that attending these seminars and training will afford one the opportunity of access to leads and potent information. Through attending business and entrepreneurship training and seminars, one can access life-changing information about courses that will expand one’s horizon, as it did for the author. 

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The book showcases that growing and expanding your business requires dogged persistence. The author tells the story of her relocation to a new city and finding clients. She writes about following up with potential clients and challenges of getting an appointment with a government official who later liked her products and then became her lead to several other customers. All these and other exploits and future exposure were initially achieved from building the business from her living room. Later, the global acclaim came. And she then gives tips on factors to consider before choosing a business location. This topic is given a considerable amount of space in the book, considering that it is critical to success in business.

In the book, From Living Room to Boardroom, the author writes that even while running a small business, record keeping is critical. It is also not a good idea to operate in the small business mode perpetually. This is because small business mode operations will keep you from getting prepared for big opportunities. Thus she narrates a story about a missed opportunity with a big organisation simply as a result of not paying attention to business registration, tax records and critical documentation. 

In the book, the author gives the reader a line-up of opportunities her business explored and leveraged to stay on top of the line and go global. She mentions the international organisations that enabled her to move from single income to multiple incomes, and the unseen hands of providence upon her life. She testifies that she could have missed a third chance with a multinational if not for divine intervention. She had received an email for an invitation-to-bid and had deleted it, thinking it was a scam mail. But as it turned out a call from the organisation confirmed the genuineness of the mail and indicated that the opportunity would lapse in three days. The chapter Third-Time Charm and a “Scam” Email has all the details. But if the bidding process was tedious and winning the contract was great, the execution was fantastic and commendable. Therefore it was a no-brainer that they would be able to proceed on scaling the project. This is also detailed in the next chapter.

In the course of growing her business, the author mentions the place of availability of funds. Moving from small to big and unto great requires access to finance, and having personal integrity to pay back as promised. She mentions that it is destructive to personal integrity and business reputation if one borrowed money from financial institutions and government agencies and failed to pay back. She recalls that her faithfulness to a government agency which gave out loans to business owners opened doors for future business advantage for her. She expresses her anger at the fact that the government agency was castrated later because many people took loans which they did not pay back. For her this is absolutely unacceptable. So she writes for us a couple of tested financial lessons to help businesses and business people manage their finances.

This book is essentially the story of how the author moved from paid employment to entrepreneurship, beginning from her living room. It showcases her trajectory from 2009 as a rookie entrepreneur, her challenges moving up the business ladder and culmination in 2017 to a contractor winning multi-million naira deals with multinational organisations. The author gives insight on how to leverage information, access, networks, personal integrity and dogged determination for entrepreneurial success and international relevance. She has in this 59-page book, an exposé on profitable processes and potent prescriptions for all those who desire to grow from small business to international relevance and impact. And without trivialising anything, she writes that anyone can get up there and play big as she has done. All the lessons are here laid out for all those who thirst for greatness, only if they will be intentional.

. Olatunbosun can be reached via 0802-351-7565 (SMS and WhatsApp only) and [email protected].

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