Sunburn remedy

Before You Price Your Product Know What It Actually Costs You.

Here's a mistake I see many small business owners make:

They calculate the obvious cost.

“The ingredients cost $5.”

Then:

“I'll sell it for $10.”

But wait.

What about the packaging?

The label?

The production materials?

Your time or labor?

Wastage?

Utilities and other relevant overhead?

Other costs directly associated with producing and getting the product ready for sale?

When those costs are ignored, the apparent margin can be much larger than the real margin.

Here's the simple principle:

TRUE UNIT COST = ALL RELEVANT COSTS ÷ NUMBER OF SELLABLE UNITS

For example, if a batch costs $300 in total relevant production costs and produces 100 sellable units:

$300 ÷ 100 = $3 per unit.

Now you have a starting point for making your pricing decision.

But don't stop there.

You still need to consider your desired profit margin, market positioning, customer value, taxes where applicable, selling fees and other business-specific costs.

The point is simple:

Don't price from emotion.

Don't price because:

“Everybody else sells theirs for $10.”

And don't price because:

“I think customers won't pay more than $10.”

Start with your own numbers.

Know your cost.

Know your margin.

Know your market.

Then make the decision.

Let me tell you about my biggest mistake in my 2 years of selling baking ingredients.

In December last year, I was SO happy.

I sold 300kg of flour. 150 packs of butter. My WhatsApp was on fire. I told my friend, "Sales don show! I don blow!"

She asked me one question that humbled me:

"Sifon, congrats on sales. But how much PROFIT did you make per product?"

I was blank.

I knew the price of flour. But I didn't know my real profit after transport from the market, nylon, delivery, and that "small" money I used to buy lunch from the shop account.

So we calculated together.

Flour: I sold at ₦1,800. I thought I was making ₦300 profit.
Real profit after everything? ₦85.

Butter: I was so focused on selling many packs, I didn't notice I was making only ₦50 per pack — while my sugar, which sold slower, was giving me ₦400 per kg.

I was chasing SALES, not PROFIT.

Sales is vanity. Profit is sanity.

Sales will make you feel popular. Profit will keep your shop open.

That day I learned:
If you don't calculate profit PER PRODUCT, you will work like an elephant and eat like an ant. You will push the product that makes you tired, and ignore the one that makes you money.

So I changed. I started writing for every item: Cost Price + Transport + Packaging = True Cost. Selling Price - True Cost = Real Profit.

And guess what I discovered? My customers weren't just bakers. They were mothers, wives, students. After buying flour, they'd ask, "Do you have rice? Do you sell oil?"

I was leaving profit on the table because I was only focused on baking sales.

That's why I'm introducing something new.

I'm adding Foodstuff & Provisions to this family. Not just to increase sales — but because I've now calculated it, and I know these are profitable, fast-moving products that will actually grow my profit, not just my stress.

Clean rice, beans, oil, spaghetti, provisions — from the same person you trust for your baking.

This time, I'm not just selling. I'm tracking profit per product.

Are you team SALES or team PROFIT? Tell me in the comments, and tell me what foodstuff you want me to stock first.

I don't know yours yet — but I can help you find it in 2 minutes, because it's different for every business.

For most small businesses, it's usually ONE of these 4:

1. Cost of Goods / Stock (for product businesses)
If you sell food, clothes, cosmetics — your stock/restocking is often 40-60% of revenue.

2. Rent + Staff Salaries (for service/shop businesses)
Salons, restaurants, boutiques — rent and wages quietly eat 30-50% combined.

3. Marketing / Ads / Delivery (for online vendors)
Instagram ads, influencer payments, logistics and packaging can become your #1 without you noticing.

4. "Invisible" Personal Withdrawals
For many owners, THIS is the real answer. Daily transfers to yourself, family support, "I'll pay it back" — it doesn't show on any receipt, but it's the biggest chunk.

Here's how to know YOURS for sure:

Do this today:
1. List all expenses from last month 2. Group them into categories (Stock, Rent, Staff, Transport, Marketing, Personal taken from business) 3. Divide each category total by your total revenue, multiply by 100
Example: You spent ₦200,000 on stock and made ₦500,000 revenue.
200,000 / 500,000 x 100 = 40%

The category with the highest % is your answer.

Want me to help you calculate it? Tell me:
• What type of business do you run? • Roughly how much was revenue last month and what did you spend on?
I'll pinpoint it for you.

Let me tell you about Ada.

Ada opened a small food business in January. By March, she was selling out almost every day. Customers loved her. Her Instagram was popping.

But by June, she was crying.

Not because business was bad. Because she had no money, and she didn’t know why.

She made ₦850,000 in sales that month. That sounded like a lot. So where did it go?

I sat with her and asked one simple question:

"Do you track every business expense?"

She laughed. "I track the big ones. Rent, stock. The small ones don't matter."

So we did an experiment. For 7 days, she wrote down everything.

Day 1: Transport to market - ₦2,500

Day 2: Pure water for shop - ₦1,200, Extra nylon - ₦800

Day 3: "Urgent" airtime for business - ₦2,000, Snacks while waiting for supplier - ₦1,500

Day 4: Gave her cousin ₦5,000 "from the shop money, I'll return it"

By Day 7, the "small ones that don't matter" were ₦38,700.

In a month, that was over ₦150,000 leaking quietly.

That was Ada’s profit walking out the back door.

Here’s the lesson she learned the hard way:

1. Small leaks sink big ships.
It’s never the rent that kills you.

It’s the ₦800 here, ₦2,000 there that you forget.

2. If it’s not tracked, it didn’t happen — but you still paid for it.
Your brain will forget. A notebook or app won’t.

3. Separate is sacred.
The day she opened a separate business account/wallet and stopped borrowing from "shop money," her profit appeared like magic.

Three months after she started tracking every naira, Ada didn’t increase her sales. But her profit went up by 42%.

Same business. Same customers. Different eyes.

So, I’ll ask you again — not as a judge, but as someone who’s seen this story too many times:

Do you track every business expense?

If not, start today. Not tomorrow. Get a small notebook or use your phone notes. Write date, item, amount. Every single one.

Your future self will thank you.

Your Business Made $1,000. S How Much Did You Actually Make?

This is one of the questions every small business owner needs to learn to answer.

Imagine your business receives:

$1,000 in sales.

It sounds amazing.

But then you pay:

Ingredients — $250
Packaging — $100
Delivery — $80
Marketing — $100
Electricity/operations — $70
Other business expenses — $100

You've spent $700.

What remains?

$300

That's the amount left before considering any other applicable costs, taxes, owner compensation, or other financial adjustments.

That's why:

Revenue is not profit.

Revenue tells you how much money came into the business from sales.

Profit is what remains after relevant business costs are deducted.

And this is why I don't want entrepreneurs to become obsessed with saying:

“I made $10,000 this month!”

I want you to also know:

How much did it cost you to make those sales?

How much did you actually keep?

Which products have the healthiest margins?

Where is money leaking?

Are you underpricing?

Are some expenses unnecessarily high?

The goal isn't simply to make your sales number bigger.

The goal is to build a business that can produce healthy, sustainable profit.

Start tracking your numbers.

Your future business self will thank you. Part 8

Your Business Made $1,000. S How Much Did You Actually Make?

This is one of the questions every small business owner needs to learn to answer.

Imagine your business receives:

$1,000 in sales.

It sounds amazing.

But then you pay:

Ingredients — $250
Packaging — $100
Delivery — $80
Marketing — $100
Electricity/operations — $70
Other business expenses — $100

You've spent $700.

What remains?

$300

That's the amount left before considering any other applicable costs, taxes, owner compensation, or other financial adjustments.

That's why:

Revenue is not profit.

Revenue tells you how much money came into the business from sales.

Profit is what remains after relevant business costs are deducted.

And this is why I don't want entrepreneurs to become obsessed with saying:

“I made $10,000 this month!”

I want you to also know:

How much did it cost you to make those sales?

How much did you actually keep?

Which products have the healthiest margins?

Where is money leaking?

Are you underpricing?

Are some expenses unnecessarily high?

The goal isn't simply to make your sales number bigger.

The goal is to build a business that can produce healthy, sustainable profit.

Start tracking your numbers.

Your future business self will thank you. Part 7