Mercy Eke Opens Up About The Hard Realities Of Running Her Real Estate Business, Wishes She Didn’t Start The Business, Wants To Quit
Mercy Eke is a business woman and influencer and during her latest appearance on Lilian Afegbai’s “Lilian’s Couch” show, Mercy opened up about the hard realities of running her business and why she wants to quit. There was a lot that Mercy said so without further ado, let’s dive right into it.
Mercy Eke on ‘Lilian’s Couch’
Speaking about her real estate business, Mercy Eke said:
MERCY EKE: I think real estate is the most hardest thing to do. It’s not easy to convince people to like buy things from you the way this our economy has been up and down – not up and down, this our economy has been down forever. So it’s not easy. And going into real estate I had this mindset, “oh I’m going to make it big”, this is where the money lies, but when you get into it, you will see that it’s not that straight forward. You could view like 10 houses and you won’t be able to sell one.
So it’s more difficult than people think. But when you do sell one, it’s a lot of money. You could just chill for a few until you have to do it again. It’s not easy to convince people to put their money into something. So it’s not easy. When I have some listings, some guys think “is she really coming to sell this?”, it still boils down on convincing them that I can do this.
You know me, there’s no way I’m going to disappear with your money. But I feel like there’s still this gap that the men are doing it better. I don’t know if the girls can do it, I don’t know how they’re doing it, me I’ve tried. I partnered with some people to do Lambo Homes and I know people have been asking “0h why is she not doing it?”
Going into partnership with things you don’t really know much about, sometimes it’s not worth it. So I just take a step back to re-strategize.
Apart from Lambo Homes, Mercy operates other businesses like a clothing business and more. Speaking about running businesses and why she sometimes regrets and wants to quit, Mercy Eke said:
MERCY EKE: I don’t want to do again. I wish I didn’t start. It’s not easy. I’m telling my friends that if I had known, I wouldn’t have rushed into business. I would have just taken my time, enjoyed this whole thing before entering. But now you can’t quit. [Right now, I’m making money online to pay my rent], that’s what I’m doing. Paying service charge, paying over 7 million for one small place. I think every business owner in this Lagos knows this thing. See in case you see me, no Lambo Home thing working, please don’t blame me. The economy is too bad. Then you can’t even order things from [outside]. When they give you maybe you have to pay 1.5 million to clear it, and you’re like I can’t pay it, you see that moment you’re wasting, go and check that thing again, it’s already 1.6. See, I was crying, I was like what kind of country is this? You’ve given me the bill already, why is it increasing each time I go? I just had to pay. It’s not easy. You see all these business owners, I hail una. And are you not going to pay your workers? Salary. Light, the tariff is too high. Like I feel like at this point, it’s just that I don’t know how to just quit, if not, I want to like close down the shop.
Cuz I’m still funding the shop. I’m not getting anything from this shop. It’s really hard. People will watch this episode and they’ll be like “Ah, thank you!” Because I know a lot of business owners are like on the verge of closing down. They’ve started closing down. How much am I paying for the shop? How much is the goods inside the shop? How much will I bring? You have to keep up. You know this “keep up” of a thing, abeg I don’t want to keep up again.
Source:Jide Okonjo
Email: elora.akpotosevbe@yahoo.com
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