“ICT Has Made My Business Stress-Free”
By VICTORIA BASSEY

Mrs. Pamela Philemon, a 42-year old mother of three had her first degree in Business Administration from the University of Lagos as well as a master’s degree in the same course from Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma in Edo State, in Nigeria.

She loves to dress up in good clothes and equally admires people who have good taste for fashion. This was the passion that brought her into the business of buying and selling ladies’ clothes including trendy bags, shoes and jewellery, which she carries from office to office on demand by her customers, and sells from her Sienna space bus.

During her days with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) eight years ago where Mrs. Philemon served as personal assistant, then later as programme associate, she doubled as an entrepreneur, selling jewellery to her colleagues before moving further to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) where she was the secretary/programme assistant; and yet the passion for business did not wane.

While working at USAID, Pamela continued this business on a very small scale and on a part-time basis by collecting goods from her aunt who usually travelled abroad to bring in the goods; she sold to her colleagues in the office. However she was being careful not to incur the wrath of the management, but when the agency moved to Abuja Pamela resigned and stayed back to face her private business squarely and also create quality time for her three kids and her legal practitioner husband. Now she travels to the United Kingdom, United States and France to bring in her goods.
 
Her initial challenge was getting the right orders across to customers, as often times what she received was totally different from what she ordered in terms of size, colour and style. She recalls a time when she placed an order for some goods, including a skirt order by one of her customers and when the shipment came, the skirt was a total waste of money as it was the wrong size. But that is no longer the issue as Pamela is fully involved in the business and has a range of catalogues for her customers to order from; and with her mobile phone she can reach her contacts directly to reconfirm her orders. When she cannot travel out, she makes her orders via internet and transfers the money to her contacts’ account overseas.

Pamela was lucky to have this aunt of hers (IS THIS THE SAME AUNT AS THE ONE WHO ‘USUALLY TRAVELLED ABROAD? YOU MUST BE CONSISTENT) abroad who would send her the goods on credit which she sold and then paid for; so she had no trouble with initial capital to set up the business. With no permanent location or shop for her business, Mrs. Philemon relies heavily on her mobile phone and the internet to grow her business.

She calls it a mobile business as all her transactions are carried out in her “space-bus” which is always packed-full with different merchandise suitable for the women folks, moving from office to office to deliver orders and make new contacts.

According to Pamela, she has not done any form of advertisement to promote her business as most of her customers are through referrals but with the immeasurable advantages of technology, she now reaches her customers on phone to take their orders; they also do online payment of goods purchased from her; now she uses the internet to order goods from abroad which saves her the stress of having to travel all the time to bring in the goods.

This makes life a lot easier and the business is expanding. “The internet banking system has made it very easy for me to run my business. It’s a whole new convenient way of living; many of my customers also request for my account details via text messages and with their mobile phones they transfer money to my bank for goods purchased.”

Pamela uses the computer to monitor her customer database which is about 200 committed customers and also new ones that emerge every day. Through her phone and her computer she can check when a customer makes a payment into her account, keep appointment of new orders and get useful information regarding her business.

“Selling is not an issue for me because I sell every day, sometimes when I am in a hurry I drop a bag of about 30 to 50 items with my customers and they pick what they like which may be at least 20 items out of the lot. This I note down in my laptop with the help of my 10-year old daughter, Ibinabor, who helps me out a lot when she’s on holiday,” she said.

Ibinabor, her sprightly daughter, while on holidays, as she was during this chance meeting, helps Pamela to take phone calls from customers, write the itinerary for customers and most times accompany her mum to the offices where she sells her goods.

Mrs. Philomen added: “I am happy and fulfilled with where I am today in this business, my car is my shop, I am not in need of a permanent location to operate as it is easier to move around whenever I get orders from my customers. I reach them by sending mails, calling on phone and sending text messages to inform them of new arrivals. There are customers that I have built a relationship with over the years and I have their data; for instance I know their preference as it concerns colours, their sizes and what would appeal to them. To such customers I simply send them a box full of their favourite items to choose from.”

However, as a way to grow and expand the business through ICT, her next move is to open an online store where people can place orders; she intends to embrace Facebook and twitter to allow more people have access to her goods.

So far the only challenge she faces is getting the money for things purchased on time. “Some customers may not pay immediately until I call severally; send mails, or text messages to them. But all in all it has been a lucrative venture. In a month I make between N500,000 to N1million from sales, and with my next move at embracing ICT more, I hope to make more than that in a month.”

Mrs. Philemon added that small scale business involves total involvement and advises those who intend to walk that path to be sure that it is what they really want to do.

“Business requires gathering of useful information from people who are well experienced in such before taking the leap in order to avoid frustration and waste of funds,” she commented.