My mum was my first employer; the first person to pay me for services rendered. I had several opportunities to offer my little assistance in her different trading ventures while growing up. I cherish every opportunity we had to do things together. She gave me both unpaid internships and paid (part-time) employment opportunities. I will highlight a few that stand out in my memory.
JOB ONE
The earliest I can remember was when I was about 7. We had a small shop, selling little things like bread, biscuits, milk, kerosene, etc. One time, my mum was not around and I think she had asked me to not sell if someone came to ask for an item I was not sure about. When she left, a customer came to buy kerosene. After selling, she said, ‘put fisi for me naa’ and the additional kerosene that I poured in the name of fisi was a lot! Thankfully, my mum was just walking towards the shop and she was close enough to see the fisi that I was adding. She had to re-measure what I had sold to the customer. It’s so hilarious thinking about it now.
JOB TWO
Around the same period, my mum started a fast food joint selling akara, yam, potato, platain fries, indomie and egg, etc… I was the sales person, whilst she was the one making the fries. The area had a university, so many students resided there and would usually want fast food. So we usually had a rush of customers in the evening. One time, a young man tried to underpay me and was shocked at how accurate my calculation of his bill was, despite the multiple customers that I was attending to at the same time. My mum was so proud of me. Lol
JOB THREE
My first paid job! I worked as her shop assistant in the market. This was during one of my summer holidays in my early teens.
Now thinking about it in retrospect, my mum didn’t really need me because she was totally fine without an assistant when I was not on summer break, and I actually didn’t have to join her. It was just a ”Would you like to?” kind of opportunity. I took it. The offer was 50 Naira for each day that I came to work. But she would put it in ‘Adashi’ (a local kind of saving where you keep your money with someone for as long as you wanted and in the frequency that you could afford; you’d get a card where your savings are recorded and the person has their own record too) for me. So she gave me my Adashi card to track how she was saving my daily wage and I got my money at the end of the summer break. I was rich, I think I made about 1,500 Naira or so. I can’t remember clearly how I spent it, but it seems I bought story books and novels, because at that age, I really loved reading and would save up to buy story books.
On this particular job experience, there is something I still remember till date that makes me laugh. My mum was away to get something and for the first time, I was alone in the shop. I really wanted to impress my mum by showing her how much I could sell in her absence. I hoped and prayed that I would sell out all our items for the day before she got back. Sales were low that day. After waiting for long, a woman came to buy a particular item and negotiated so much and because I didn’t want her to leave without me selling anything, I sold it for less than what I had been told. When my mum got back, I told her I managed to make one sale and how much I sold it for. She wasn’t really upset, but told me that I had sold it at a loss. I felt so bad and asked her to deduct the loss from my pay. Of course, she didn’t do it.
This was my first job ever paid job.
JOB THREE
She had a restaurant at this time where I assisted during my summer breaks from school.
3 LESSONS I LEARNED WORKING WITH MY MUM
- Resilience. That ability to bounce back from anything is priceless.
- Your customers are the reason you are in business. Treat them well.
- Honesty is the best policy