weight gain guide book
weight gain guide book
weight gain guide book

On Doing What You Love … And getting paid for it

When it comes to doing what one loves, I must say that in my 4+ decades on earth, I have had my fair share of enjoying the things I have done in life.

From studying my dream course, Electronic Engineering … I remember that right from my secondary school (high school) days, I knew I wanted to study some kind of Engineering. People often assumed that as a brilliant science student, the most natural course for me to study would be Medicine & Surgery. But nah! I hated Biology so much and only read it to pass my exams. I am a Maths and Physics babe. 😉

My French teacher was shocked when I informed her that I would no longer take French because I would not need it as much. I had to choose between French and Technical Drawing and I went with Technical Drawing because one, I enjoyed it and two, it would be much more useful to me in my course of study.

“French would be much more useful to you because some names of drugs are written in French”, she quipped.

“Drugs?”, I asked.

“Yes, drugs because you are going to study Medicine.”

“No, I want to study Engineering ma.”

This I said in the presence of the French HOD and our school principal who she convened a meeting with after trying to convince me for a while. They looked at each other and left me alone for good.

So from an early stage, I knew what I loved and I knew how to go for it.

I went on to study my course of choice. I wasn’t necessarily keen on Electronic Engineering in particular, any Engineering course would do. I would have loved Civil Engineering because I consider myself a pro in Engineering Drawing hehehehe and I love it so much. But they told me no, Civil is for boys. 🙁

I did my internship (IT) in a weird place. Weird because the company is an Electrical Engineering company that installed transformers but I took on a completely different role while in the company. You see, the MD of the company, an Italian, was always on about the internet. CompuServe this, dial up that, email this, webserver that. Remember, this was in 1998 and I and two other guys were the only ones that listened to his endless talks about his strange World Wide Web.

He saw my interest and with my computer skills, he made me a member of the organising committee of an internet conference he was planning at that time. He also had an Internet Society, an organisation he formed that is made up of internet enthusiasts (mostly university professors) and I started sitting in on their meetings. For the conference, he invited people from all over the world to speak and I was in charge of making some of the arrangements. At the end of the conference, I had so much material that talked about the internet. I became even more fascinated and this led to my doing another thing that I enjoyed!

With all the knowledge I have gained about the internet and all the material I had with me, when I got back to school for my final year, I went to one of my favourite lecturers in my department Dr. Osuagwu and told him that I have a project topic and asked if he would be my supervisor. Luckily my project topic, which is about the internet, is not lecturer specific – normally one would need to go to a lecturer that handles the course that the person’s project relates to – so I went to the one person that would make the project writing experience a good one. Dr. Osuagwu was well loved in the department so it had to be him! He did not fully understand what I was talking about. In his exact words he asked me:

Floppy Disc what will I be supervising, eh?”

He gave me that nickname in my 3rd year and it stuck. All the engineering students knew me by that nickname and still call me that till today. 😀 But he said he was confident that I knew what I was talking about and said yes to being my project “supervisor”.

Flo's School Project

I went on to write my project, even created a dummy website for my university with the help of expert web coders. Another thing I loved!

After graduation, I went on to serve (Nigerian NYSC) in a telecoms company in Port Harcourt. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at Bruswich. It was a small company but it was my kind of work. There were 4 of us in the team: 2 engineers, 1 youth corps member engineer (that’s me) and 1 student engineer (intern).

We had the time of our lives, at least I did. Very hands-on. We went for field work every single work day and we would go to the mammy market in Onne for lunch – they have the best Nigerian food there by the way. We would climb NITEL masts, go to houseboats to install telecommunication equipment, go to Bonny Island on speed boats etc. It . Was. Fun.

Nitel Mast
On the NITEL mast at Garrison, Port Harcourt.

After that, I got a job with Schlumberger. With this job, I had the opportunity to travel the world. With the world class technical training and experience I received while in this company, when I moved to other companies, all I needed to do was submit my CV and I was hired, straight away, no need for an interview. Now that I have gone freelancing, oil exploration companies ask for me by name! Some of them even want to get me to work for them directly (poaching). All these come with doing what you love and most of you already know how much I love my day job.

Offshore

But if you think that all these listed above are awesome, you’ve got another think coming! Of all these fun that I have had, of all these love that I have had for the things I am doing and have done, nothing beats my website gig. This my hobby turned online business, nothing beats it! You see all the Nigerian recipes, YouTube videos, Facebook fun with Nigerian food lovers, nothing like these! Words fail me each time I try to tell the story of me and my website because I do not know where to start. You may find bits of information here and there on the web about me and my website journey but there’s no comprehensive story.

But yesterday, I received an email that blew my mind. Lanre Solarin sent me an email and said that I should check out his case study about my website. I receive such emails of people writing about me and my website from time to time so I went over just to take a look at the page but when I started reading, I was hooked. Mid-way, I turned and asked my husband if he wrote something about my website on a blog because he has been in this journey with me and he alone can write such detailed analysis from a business point of view.

All I can say is that with that story he wrote about me, Lanre sure knows his onions about online businesses. I’ll stop here and let you read that in his own words so go over to his blog and read his: How Flo Madubike Built A Digital Business From Her Cooking Skills [Case Study]. You can also click the image below.

How to build a digital online business from your skills

What is that thing you love? Can you do it in the comfort of your home and make money from it? We are in an era where online business is the in-thing. Ours is a generation where if our certificates are not getting us what we want, we need to put away our certificates and whip out our talents and skills.

Even if your certificate is getting you something now, years down the line, you may not want to tow the certificate line. When I started all these, I did not know what I was building, I still don’t know what I’m doing LOL. All I know is that I had a skill which is a bit of foundation in website creation. I had another skill which is preparing Nigerian meals that I and people around me enjoy. I discovered I had a talent which is explaining something in the language that most people understand. The whole online business aspect was an accident.

If you think that you have something that you can take online and do not know where to start, you should surely get in touch with Lanre on his website, click here. Your own “accident” is waiting to happen but it will not happen till you DO something.

If you have a thought but think that it is worthless, comment below to state your fears and watch me burst that fear. Like I always say, I am not an expert in anything; but I always make sure I know enough to be dangerous! Go on, state that fear below and I will try my best to burst it. 😀 Lanre is also on standby to help me out. 😉

♥ ♥ ♥
Flo

Comments

  1. Aunty Flo, nice piece. I am still lost on how to turn my blog to a business. I’ve added the affiliate marketing (Amazon, konga” eBay) and Adsense but they yield nothing.
    Will go and read Lanre’s piece, hopeful of gaining more insight.

    • Chyoma nne, to answer that in simple terms, it’s all about traffic. The more traffic you have, the more everything else falls into place.
      But I will leave it there for Lanre to reply in details. If he does a site audit for your blog, he will be in a position to tell you what and what you need to do to bring up the traffic.

    • Hi Chioma,

      I’ll actually applaud you for being open about this. Most people think a blog on its own is a business, but that’s not the case.

      As Flo said, to make anything tangible from those affiliate marketing sites and ads, you need a ton of traffic, which I’m guessing you don’t have yet.

      I checked your blog and I see you also blog about recipes. Your easiest route is to use Flo’s story as a guide since you’re in the same niche. You can check the case study she referenced.

      For revenue, a basic process would be to:
      1. Continue building your subscriber list with your free recipe book.
      2. Listen to your audience. Find out what they want to learn.
      3. Create it.

      Unfortunately, most people skip step 2.

      I’d like to skip protocol for you, as a member of Flo’s audience. But go through her story first, and if you need more details, I’m at your service.

      Thanks for your comment Chioma :).

  2. Congratulations Flo, well done. I enjoyed reading about your life & seeing the similarities that we both share – from being bright students in Nigeria, to becoming multi-facetted adults living abroad. Life stories are my main business, & yours sounds very interesting. I am also the published author of several books, including “The African Palate Cookbook”, that’s been in print for many years now. Feel free to check out my business website, then you’ll know what I mean about my apreciation for your very refreshing life- story: http://www.jmayersgroup.com. Who knows, perhaps we can collaborate on a project or two in future. Once again congrats! – Joké (Laniyonu) Mayers

  3. Thanks a lot for this recommendation Flo. It means a lot. And yes, I’m open to help anyone you send my way. It’s the least I could do.

    Keep up the good work,
    Lanre

  4. Really want to be a blogger,but don’t know how to start.
    Will really appreciate your help.
    Thank you ?

    • Adaeze the only place to start is knowing what you want to blog about which should be that thing you are passionate about. So passionate that when you sit still or you are busy doing something else, there are these voices in your head that will not let you rest till you have done something about it.

      Once you take the first step, your experiences while in the journey will determine the direction you will take the idea.

      When it comes to the technical aspect of blogging, there are lots of information online and you can jump right in doing your own research but if you need some handholding, if you are afraid that you will misstep, then getting someone who knows more than you do will be a good option and that’s where Lanre comes in.

    • Hi Adaeze,

      As Flo said, it starts from your passion. That’s what will keep you going even when things don’t go as planned.

      I noticed you already signed up on my site. Kudos to you :). Time for you to add some flavour to your story :).

      Thanks for your comment Adaeze.

  5. Janefrances says

    I studied Law but I don’t practice. I love to write stories and inspirational essays but everything I require to set myself up requires finances. To make a blog mine, I’m told I have to pay and a lot of other things. I won’t mind paying if I had the resources but I feel sad watching another year go by and I’m not able(again) to achieve one thing I desire.
    I compete in writing competitions; I still write hoping to get published; I’ve been turned down by publishers but I don’t intend to give up and I won’t.
    Meanwhile, I still attend job interviews hoping that one will click so that at least, I can have a source of income to finance my dreams. It can be frustrating atimes but I know one day, I’ll look back at my struggles and thank God that I finally made it!

    • Hi Janefrances,

      Let’s not allow another year go by without you taking the right steps in the right direction :).

      You can check Flo’s story here: http://rathersure.com/flo-madubike and then register for the free training at the end. That should get you started.

      • Ahh Lanre so you offer free training too? I only saw the free site audit. I just posted my own reply to her and saw yours.

        Janefrances you’ve heard ooo, nothing should hold you back anymore. It was very overwhelming during my learning stage, trying to sift through tons of information online. And this was 5 years ago. These days there are even more info online but I believe that with a specific training, the coach, in the case Lanre, has sifted through all the info out there and separated the necessary info from the noise.

        I do not know him before now neither have I taken his course but from his analysis of my site alone, where he stated some info that only the owner of the site should know about, he knows his stuff.

        This year will not pass you by abeg. 🙂

    • Janefrances yes, setting up a blog/website that is wholly yours requires some kind of payment. I wrote the codes for my website from scratch. I learnt and refined all my web codes on my computer and at some point during the training, I was supposed to upload the codes to a web server to see how they displayed on the internet. According to the several trainings I was following, some codes might work well on a computer but would not work when they are on a server. Out of curiosity, I registered for a domain name and paid for 3 months webhosting. I wanted to pay for one month (the minimum) but there was a promo at that time that put the cost for 3 months at almost the price for one month. I decided to get that just in case I would need to go back to refine my codes. But one thing was for sure, I only spent the amount of money I was ready to part with. I got all the information I needed for my training online – absolutely free. So I was like yea, if I were to pay for the training I would have definitely paid much more so I was ready to part with such an amount without regrets.

      In essence what I am trying to say here is spend but make sure it is the amount you will be happy to part with if you do not get anything in return. If from the onset you are going into blogging for profit, just regard that money as initial investment and usually you will see that it is a tiny amount of money compared to if you were to start a buying and selling business, a catering business etc. Makeup artists buy the tools for their trade, tailors do the same so there’s no business that one can start without money.

      There are free blogging platforms where you can pour out the writing ideas that come to you for now but those who started on free blogging always regret it saying that if they had known, they would have started on their own platforms. Personally, I believe that if something is free, we often give up on it. But when you put in some money into anything, there’s some commitment and you will be more likely to work hard at it to make it succeed.

      Good luck!

  6. Aunt Flo, well written. I came here today to look for how to cook pepper soup and I stumbled on this piece.
    This is awesome. Well written. Thanks for sharing your super inspiring life story but you are one of the few who knew what they wanted in secondary school.
    My passions are writing and cooking and I desire to combine these two into blogging about food and other things I love – there, I’ve said it. I hope to focus enough on these soon enough hehehehe.
    Thanks again for sharing your story. It’s been very inspiring.

    • My Kiki! You said it oooo gbam! It shall be permanent. Everything starts with speaking about it. So today you have spoken life into that big thought. Next and with immediate effect, you need to do the deed and get those ideas from your head to a place where we can all come and learn a tip or two from you.

      Oya, let’s start already! I am officially sending you your very first recipe request. Biko, I need the recipe for Fisherman’s Soup ooo! And I am serious o.

      You are welcome dear. I am glad it was a fun read for you. 😉

  7. Aunt Flo of life, you never ever cease to surprise. Thanks for being such an inspiration.
    I already started a blog on blogspot but Le Hubbs says I should rather work with my own platform. Now, reading your comment above, I’m inspired to do just that.
    Did I ever tell you that you have a way of making difficult things seem easy peasy? Engineering na beans? Website designing na moi moi? Cooking and snapping and videoing yourself while at it na potato? You are a phenomenal woman. Period! Like Lanre, I too will blog about you and following in your footsteps, I will have that fisherman’s soup served up soonest. I love u my sister, and I consider myself blessed to know you.

    • lol @ videoing yourself na potato???? 😀 😀 😀 I have never heard that one before o. Kiki no kill me here with laughter.

      Nne m, it comes with loving what you do. Once you do things because you are passionate about them, not because you see everyone else doing it, it shows. It will look so easy to an onlooker and indeed all these are so easy when you approach them with passion. But when you apply the fire brigade approach, it wears and stresses one out.

      Another thing is someone’s approach to life. I don’t always have my life going according to plan. Sometimes, I find myself thrown in the deep end but I always find ways to have fun with the situation. For instance, the telecoms company where I served was not by choice, NYSC posted me there but while some ladies would complain that the field work was hard work, it was what made it fun for me. The day I climbed the NITEL mast, eh? Everyone in the vicinity, including those eating in nearby restaurants came out to watch a girl climbing the tall mast. Even my colleagues expected me to chicken out but none of that was going to happen! 😀 😀 The most basic things in life just get me going ga-ga. lol

      Your hubby knows what’s up dear. Please get your own platform. From your comments here, I know you as someone who writes very well. When you add that to what you are passionate about, it will surely be explosive! I can’t wait for that recipe dear. Please invite me when the blog goes live so we can “e-wash” it! ♥ ♥

  8. Aunt Flo, I just checked out the article by Lanre and registered to receive some of his material. One thing I would like to know is how one can combine one’s passion with a regular 9-5 job. And then, it would be nice if you could tell us the story of your amazing accent because I am sure an intelligent woman like you could not have lived abroad for so long without having her accent tainted by the oyibo one. Look forward to watching or reading about that. You remain my mentor.

    • To combine the two nne, you will have to do your 9-5 as your main job and do your passion around it, as a hobby. All your free time, your ME time will be dedicated to working on your passion. Instead of chatting on WhatsApp, you are working on your passion 😉 . Instead of being on Facebook and Instagram, you are working on that which you are passionate about. For some people, their passion has to do with being on social media so yes, be on that Facebook and Instagram but make sure you dedicate MOST of the time on there to your passion not aimless browsing. *wink! To successfully turn one’s passion into a business, one needs to be mentally strong, disciplined, a determined person and someone who works without being supervised. You know, some people only work when their manager is there looking at them telling them to work. But entrepreneurs take charge and plan their time well without anyone telling them to do so.

      Hehe, this my sexy Igbotic accent! I regard myself as “accentless” though. For the past 15 years, I have been working with people from different parts of the world. Sometimes one gets to work with people that just speak enough English to get the job done so, we English speakers often find ourselves pronouncing words with a Russian accent one moment and the next moment, pronounce words with a Norwegian accent so that our Russian and Norwegian colleagues will understand. So my accent is all over the place but I majorly speak my Igbotic accent when I am away from my work environment.

      Another factor is that when I first arrived in the UK, I saw that I needed to improve my pronunciation of some words. The way we pronounce a lot of English words in Nigeria is not the correct way to pronounce them so I quickly learnt how to pronounce words correctly so that I would be understood. Before then, people were telling me eh? eh? all over the place. 😀

      Even among my English, Scottish and Irish colleagues there was often a breakdown in communication. Even though they all speak English, their accents sound like they are speaking different languages! LOL At first, I did not even understand the English spoken by my Scottish and Irish colleagues. And when I started working in the Gulf of Mexico with mostly American colleagues, they would not understand you unless you speak with their accent. They want to hear you say “warer” instead of water if not, they will not understand the whole sentence. Abeg leave me ooo and my universal accent!

      Also, as part of my job training, we receive trainings to improve our presentation skills (for when we make presentations to clients) and there I learnt how to open my mouth more when I talk. This removes the mumbling effect and people can hear what you are saying clearly. When we speak with confidence, we sound better. Also smile when you talk so that your speech will be like music in people’s ears. Ewo! All the aforementioned come together to make the way I speak unique. 😉

  9. Vivian Nkeiru Ogar says

    Dearest Aunty Chi, and won’t believe ur blog has turned me from a lazy wife cook 5yrs ago when I got married to an amazing chef today according to my hubby,, I sleep eat shower o ur cooking blog, and today I say a big thank u ma for making my marriage work, I guess u know what I mean, ma the thing is I have now tried to make a living out of it, by going fully into out door catering service as well as mobile food vendor, but I am not really getting much from it, maybe I haven’t done a good advert and again here in calabar cross river state where I stay, people are no use to the mobile food thing, it’s really frustrating for me, I can’t even begin to count how many times I had to return home with plenty of well cooked meals each day, am considering quiting already.

    • Aww Vivian! You are welcome. 😉 You did it all by taking the information available to you and putting it to great use. Keep it up.

      I indeed feel for you for your losses. Have you approached offices and business establishments to get a contract with supplying the food to their employees? That way, you know exactly the quantity of food you will prepare for the day so that none goes to waste. I actually see the fact that those in Calabar do not know much about this as a good thing. This means that you are the trail blazer in this. So cheer up dear and make flyers that you will share as you meet people. Those that you give the flyers to are your potential customers and they will also help spread the word for you. Also, when you make that flyer, please send me digital copies of it and I will help by advertising for you here on the blog. Also send me photos of foods you prepared, ok? Send those to my email address contactus@allnigerianrecipes.com when you are done.

      You can go to the University of Calabar and any other schools around you, to the various departmental offices and speak with the workers about supplying lunch to the departmental staff. Some departments in these big universities are big enough to give you enough business for the day but you can visit as many departments as you can handle per day and discuss with them. On the day you will visit them, you can even go with “free tasting” for them so they can taste and see how delicious your meals are, all na part of advert dear. 🙂

      So please, do not relent, you hear? See this from its positive side. You are onto a big thing here since it is the first of its kind. Remember, trail blazers do not find it easy because there are no existing ideas to copy. 🙂 You need to constantly think outside the box. Whatever you do, please do not quit.

  10. Thank you so much Aunty floxy for this expository write up, so inspiring too. Ma’am, I have plenty talents and sure which to put them into good work and make money from them. I love food and ideas pop in my head alot which I do create too, I bake also, draw cloth designs and can plan out events within people’s budget. Moreso, I have skills to direct,talk people into doing things right, helping them with their issues and teaching others too and humanitarian in nature-giving to all and concern about longevity of every being and living things, please, where do i start. I wish to blog but wondering if I can put all of what I do and love in a website? I almost thinking I would be seen confused too.Please, help me.

    • Sure Udunma, you can create one blog and write about all these things you are passionate about on that one blog. I hope this is what you are asking. 🙂 That’s a lifestyle blog because you are not just talking about one subject matter but everything in your day to day life. One person can follow your blog because of your fashion designs, another can follow you because of your baked delicacies, 😉 another can follow you for your healthy living posts and some will follow you for everything you talk about so it is very doable. Once you arrange all your information according to categories such that people can easily find the information they need, I will see an organized blog rather than a confused one. 😉

      Good luck! It’s my pleasure dear. 🙂

    • Hi Udunma,

      That’s a lot of interests. Impressive.

      Yes you could start a blog with different categories that address your different interests. That way, as Flo said, people will subscribe to your site for different subjects.

      The only downside is burnout. It’s not easy updating a blog that’s just centered on one topic. For a blog with several diverse topics, it could get tiring.

      Another option would be to start with one – that interest/talent that’s number one on your list. For this, you’ll have to do some self evaluation to figure out what your goal is and why you want that goal.

      If you’re able to settle on one, it’ll be easier to infuse your other interests into one. For example, starting a social entrepreneurship blog that talks about humanitarian issues, organise humanitarian events, with an online shop where you sell quality clothes (designed by you) and then you give 10% of your earnings to a foundation of your choice (something your humanitarian audience will admire). But this is just an example.

  11. Ify says
    Nice wrk & story…Pls am a biochemist searching for industrial training placement pls can u help link me to any food manufacturing company

  12. Ify says
    Am also into baking & mkn pastries at hme…I realy wnt to grow & expand,smtyms am evn afraid of advertising my cakes…mayb bcos am nt yet perfect wit fondant.But i wnt my cakes & pastries to really expand,pls how do i start d bold adverts & do wot mks me happy & come out of my shell of fear & timidity wen i see oda students bake & sell.Pls i need advices

    • Ify the only way to start being bold is to jump out of your comfort zone and start doing it. Everything in life especially things that involve creativity is a journey. Even being bold is a journey because nobody goes from being shy and timid to being bold in one step. There is no “perfect” point in creativity because that which you think is the perfect point today will be a starting point tomorrow. A few years ago, we only had basic cake designs but look at what we have today. So my dear you just need to start doing it. You have identified your fear which is that you think your work is not good enough hence you are afraid that people will not like your work. Fair enough but the good thing is that you recognize that there is room for improvement in your work. So the worst that could happen is that you will receive some criticisms. That’s expected and I am certain that you will handle criticisms better that say someone who believes that her work is perfect.

      But if you continue to hide your work, you will be hindering your own growth. Please take photos of your work and start advertising it in your immediate social circles, WhatsApp, Facebook. Own your work! Remember, some people do not even know how to mix fondant not to talk of laying it on a cake so what you see as an imperfection is someone else’s goal. Accept the criticisms with grace when they come because those are what will make you grow. If someone consistently puts you down in the name of criticism, find a way to prevent that person from seeing your work because you do not need that kind of putdown at this time. Read your criticisms with an open mind though so you do not block off everyone in your life. 😀 It is only those who want you to grow that will take the time to point out areas of improvement to you.

      Good luck!

  13. Dear Aunt Flo, this write-up have really opened my eyes to start my own online business ASAP. I am a law graduate, good at customer service, I want to start a Virtual Assisting business in Nigeria,but getting client seem to be a bit difficult. What do you think I need to do to convince people to try out my (impeccable .. LoL) service.
    I love your youtube video, so simple and understandable. Your recipes are bae.

    • IMPECCABLE! I love that word. I hope you incorporated it into your slogan. 😉
      Virtual assistance is a new service that will only grow and get bigger in this internet generation. It’s even newer in Nigeria and you may well be the first person that is starting such a service in Naija so you are onto something big Tinu. You really need to have the mind and patience of a trail blazer. You will need to do a lot of work educating your potential clients, telling them how and why they need your service. I hope you are doing this already.

      To get them to embrace this service, I would offer my service for free to a few companies in exchange for testimonials. You can view this free service as the initial time and effort that one invests in business. As with every business; at the beginning, one works at a loss, investing both time and money in the business. It takes a while for the person to break even and longer to make a profit. The testimonials are important and these you will place on your website for potential clients. Then promote that site using the various means of site promotion. If I knew the scope of your service, I would have given you a few examples of what I would do. 🙂

      I’m glad you enjoy the videos. Thank you! ♥

    • Hi Tinu,

      As Flo said, you’re definitely starting something that’s relatively new in this part of the world. I’d suggest that you first figure out who you’d like to serve. Is it small business owners with just 1-10 employees? Or larger companies?

      The reason I’m saying this is because if it’s just you (without a team of VAs), a small business owner would have a ton of tasks he could outsource. And if what you do is help these entrepreneurs with their clients (with respect to customer service), it’s very easy for you to take on the clientele of a small business as opposed to trying to handle up to 50 clients from a larger company.

      Asides that, you’ll need to do a lot of convincing, as Flo said. And one way to do that is through your website. However, you need to look professional enough so that your target clients will feel comfortable working with you.

      You might consider signing up for the free training here: http://rathersure.com/start-here. We can both learn about your business and figure out next steps.

  14. Hi Flo, I visit ur site constantly to learn new and fascinating recipes.
    I love to experiment with food and everything that concern it.
    Ur story here is very inspiring. I would love to make money with what I love doing but may not really be blogging (am not an internet lover). I want to know if there is other ways of exploring the cooking talent for both fun and money. Thank you.

    • Mercy I’m glad the post spoke to you. 🙂 Read my post >> 13 Nigerian Meals and Snacks that will make you Money to see how to make money from your cooking skills.

      The truth is that in this day and age, you need the internet to reach more people. If you don’t want to own or maintain a blog, you will need to use social media to advertise your craft and reach your potential customers. So please start loving the internet oo. ???

  15. Binta Adejoh says

    Aunty Flo…. Thank you so much for this site. I want to make Chapman for my husband tomorrow…. It’s father’s day.
    Please can you add some new recipes?
    Like… Grand nut soup, black soup etc.
    Love ya

  16. nice one!some people are so lucky they got fixed in the right place in life and this really help them to grow very fast.some even join the internet business early and that make them to grow with the business but it is somehow hard this day to compete in the internet society.what word of advise do you have for young folks in the business

    • Jacob for me, it is never too late to join the internet business. The internet is big enough to accommodate everyone, after all it’s called the super highway 😀 with unlimited number of lanes LOL. The thing is that now, one has to really think outside the box to make him/herself stand out. So my advice is for one to go with what he/she is passionate about. It may be an old cliché but it is still the truth. When your business idea is from within, you can only be competing with yourself. You will be so full of ideas because it is what you are passionate about. You wouldn’t care about what everyone else is doing because you are having too much fun. It is when one is doing what everyone else is doing that there is competition.

  17. Susan Okere says

    Gudmrn floppy disc. Am a big fan of ur page. I luv so many stuffs abt u, xpecially ur thick but sweet Nigerian intonation. I just started newly on cake making.wan2 make money frm the comfort of my home but I don’t kno how to go abt it. I learnt it 2yrs ago n am yet to make money. Am yet to make even a wedding cake. All the ones av done are birth days and are for relatives, sometimes for free, sometimes for less money. I wan2 grow

  18. Chukwudi says

    Hello Ma, I’m Ezeh Chukwudi currently a student, Studying Computer Science. i must say i’m really fascinated by your work on the internet…you just ignited my Morale and confidence to startup my own blog…….Thanks For being a Morale BOOSTER.

  19. Dear Flo,
    I have always wanted to reach out to you, but there was no avenue until now. You are an icon. I got to know about blogging from Linda Ikeji.

    I watched one of her grass to grace videos and got hooked. But I didn’t know a thing about blogging then or close to any blogger.

    While waiting for directions I got busy with reading about blogging online. Choosing a niche was a bit difficult for me. Like you rightly said, it must be what you’re passionate about.

    At last, I choose food and opened my website: 9jafoods.com. Then I got to know you.

    Your blog is leading in almost every recipe that I search online whoa! You inspire me to work harder. If you can combine a job with a passion, of course, I can too.

    Thank you for making us proud.

    Odiraa.

Comment to show me you are alive and cooking some delicious food!

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