At the event of Guyman Benefactors’ Seminar which held on Sunday 4th of October, 2020, our discussions centered around getting BDEs. A major highlight of the event was the presence and introduction of of Gozie Nwolisa – Guyman’s technical coordinator.
Gozie currently works with Andela where we met in January 2017. In 2016, Guyman was selected to participate in the Youth Entrepreneurship Support program of the Bank of Industry (BOI). One of the requirements for getting the loan facility was to submit invoice from vendors. At that point, I approached Andela to partner them for the development of the platform. However, Andela was not servicing Nigerian companies. Even though Gozie was my first contact when I entered Andela, God made it so that we linked up after and we have been on the journey together since then.
Another requirement then for BOI was that we submit the CV of all the team members. Gozie’s CV as at then was so impressive that if not by divine arrangement, I doubt I could have afforded such a professional. Ever since, we have done several projects together in and out of Guyman. He is a very intelligent, composed and progressive individual skilled at what he does.
On the other hand, I – Alex Ogundele am a business strategist. Although I have some background in programming, my core is solution/strategy development, implementation and management. Thus, I needed others with core critical skills to complement me and form a formidable team. Gozie is one of my team members very proficient in the technical aspect of the project. In addition to Gozie, we have some other team members that will be introduced in due course with different and equally important set of skills in law and operations.
GETTING BDE’s
Theme of the Seminar
Introduction
The theme of the seminar was borne out of 2 major concerns
- Some benefactor prospects are finding it difficult to convince BDEs
- Some people with busy schedules are concerned they will not have time and would rather sponsor another person to participate.
Based on these two concerns, it was pertinent to address these issues to give clarification, motivation and reassurances. The first thing addressed was the benefactor mindset.
Benefactor Mindset
The benefactors need to understand that they are helping the BDEs. The BDEs need to understand that they are helping the Referrers and even the Referrers also, must have a mindset of helping the value providers to get more visibility for their business and make them more customers.
To further this point, I gave an analogy of a friend that started working at a good firm 5 years ago. His starting salary was 200,000 Naira. Meanwhile, after 5 years, he now earns 350,000 Naira as salary. We will all agree that this is a good job in the reality of our country. Such a person can go on to work for another 5 years without earning 500,000 Naira monthly. However, Guyman is giving an opportunity to earn over 500,000 Naira per month in the next 8 months and double in less than 3 years. For doing what exactly? managing people….
Secondly, it is easy to mistake Guyman for a networking program. However, this is not the case. What looks like a pyramid is a workforce management structure. Guyman is recruiting marketers just like banks, insurance companies, jiji, jumia, opay did and some still do. These marketers work and get paid commission on targets. Even the likes of GoTV and other companies employ marketers to sell their products and pay commission on sales. Therefore, this is a job people are doing already.
Further Justification on benefactor mindset
In sales, the major considerations are the ease of sale and the remuneration. Guyman has a very easy to sell product and the money to be made is great. In addition, Guyman doesn’t choke workers with unrealistic target. Just 10 signups of value providers and convert 2 to premium daily for 20 days in a month and the worker goes home with easy 57,000 Naira. Do more and earn more. People do a lot more for way less pay in several other companies and organizations.
In addition, with the unemployment rate in the country, getting workers is not not a difficult task. Personally, if I count people that reach out to me for job opportunities within my family and community, I will be helping a lot of people by offering them this employment opportunity.
Furthermore, Guyman does not expect benefactors and BDEs to go out looking for people. Just monitor your workforce for performance which can be done remotely by simply logging on to your Guyman account and view your network. This means you can be at home or at your office to do this.
If Guyman had advertised a job placement offer for Business Development Executives with a salary of 150,000 Naira monthly, do we agree this would have been a rush…? However, we are giving the opportunity to our benefactors to extend this opportunity to people within their personal network as a gesture of goodwill. Direct recruitment affects our ability to scale.
Key Points of the Benefactor Mindset
- Guyman is an opportunity to make a lot of money with little stress.
- Allows you to extend a gesture of goodwill to people you know who deserve it.
- Gives you the opportunity to give employment to at least 30 people.
- You are the boss
Gettin BDEs Approach
- Look for workers and make 3 of them managers. This way, they will appreciate the gesture of goodwill more.
- Extend the goodwill to friends and family members you know deserves it and sponsor them if you have the means.
- If a benefactor sponsors a BDE, you can easily recoup your money on the first earnings of the BDE. we will provide the BDE sponsorship form and then you and the BDE can sign. This form will allow you to claim your funds directly from Guyman and not the BDE.
- It is possible you get 1 or 2 of the BDEs and not all 3. However, even when the Referrers are open, BDEs will still be open until all slots are filled. My reasoning is; if workers are being employed, how hard will it be for some of them to latch onto the opportunity of managers?
BDE Benefits
BDE will earn a minimum of 190,000 Naira monthly working for a Guyman Benefactor. Think about it for a minute. You have the ability to employ 3 people that will be earning 190,000 naira monthly. All they need to do is make sure 10 workers do their work. Just like the Referrers, there is nothing unique to this job description. In any organisation, the work of a manager is to manage and supervise his team to achieve the organizational goal and he is appraised based on the performance of his team. In most organizations, you must have worked for quite a number of years with diligence to attain managerial level. However, these managerial jobs are only available as opportunities in startups and new businesses. It is because of this that these positions are open now on Guyman for the benefactor and the BDEs.
Just like the Benefactor, Guyman BDEs are not expected to go out signup value providers and management work is remote. Simply log on to your Guyman account and you can see the activities of the workers you manage. Guyman is not giving you some fancy title or applause for the performance of your team. Rather, more money is what you get.
A Guyman benefactor has managerial powers over his team. This means that a manager can hire new workers to replace unperforming ones.
Lastly, there are several other ways Guyman members will be earning money in addition to the workforce remuneration and money made from rendering service or selling your product to value seekers.
Role of Guyman
Guyman Network is as important to Guyman as it is important to individual benefactors, BDEs and Referrers. Therefore, Guyman will not leave you to it.
- Guyman will provide benefactors with resources such as digital flyers, branded T-Shirts, membership badges and I.Ds etc to aid your recruitment.
- When the BDE is open in December, Guyman will embark on a road tour to your city again between February and March 2021. This will give you the opportunity to have us talk to your prospects.
- Guyman will run job advertisements for Referrers and simply refer applicants to the our managers.
We appeal to how benefactors not to despair. You have the goods that a lot of people want. It is up to us to do good with it.