According to a Google search I made just before writing this piece, the current population of Nigeria as at 30th September 2022 is estimated at around 216 million.
Yea, you read that right-216 million mouths that feed, pass faeces and have to wipe their buttocks with toilet paper.
Now I’m sure you’re beginning to get a glimpse of where this is all boiling down to.
But before you whip out your calculator to punch numbers-I’ll let you in on a quick story.
Not too long ago, a young man who I’d like to call Andrew here (not his real name) was an apprentice in his master’s business.
Andrew’s boss sells toilet paper rolls as a distributor for one of the toilet paper brands in Owerri, Imo State.
Not quite long after I got to know Andrew, his boss decided to “settle” him.
Meaning his boss decided that Andrew has learnt the trick of the business and is matured enough to start and run his own toilet paper distribution business.
Just as it was customary for all bosses who someone served as an apprentice.
Andrew’s boss gave him some money to go start his own business.
And so it was that Andrew started off in the business world as his own boss.
Selling toilet paper rolls like his boss.
Within a very short time. I checked upon Andrew, and discovered that he has made significant progress in this new business.
In just three short years Andrew has accomplished the following feats just from selling toilet paper rolls:
- built a bungalow
- got married
- bought a car and
- opened a new shop for his new bride
Last time I check again he was trying to get his male siblings to come help him manage his booming business and also learn this wonderful business from him.
I’m always amazed whenever I reflect on Andrew’s fast growth.
While I know a lot of factors played out to propel his astronomical growth like:
- hard work
- market knowledge
- choice of products to sell
- good customer relationship among others.
One can’t take away the fact that the product he sold played a significant role in his success.
While this piece is not about Andrew, I wrote this to show just how anyone can replicate his success, simply by modelling what he did.
Which I’m about to show you and other things you can do too in this piece that will set you up to make money just from the sales of toilet paper rolls in Nigeria.
Common Challenges With Choosing A Business To Start
I know lots of people want to start one business or the other.
The challenge with this quest to start a new business is that, most times you need to submit yourself (like Andrew) to apprenticeship over a certain time before you can be properly equipped to start that business.
For others who just want to buy and sell stuff, they often don’t know which item to choose that will NOT:
- tie down their funds
- perish
- require so much funds to start
- require regulations by authorities
That is why you need to pay attention to what I’m about to share with you.
Because after reading this piece, you would learn everything there is to know about selling toilet papers faster than most Nigerians would learn how to drive a car.
Toilet paper is consumed daily.
And you don’t need a degree from the uni before you start making money from selling it.
You also don t need lots of money to start this business as you will soon find out.
The Opportunity
Toilet paper arguably is one of the fastest selling commodities in the market.
Almost everyone uses it for one singular purpose-to wipe the buttocks.
With our country having over two hundred and sixteen million people in it.
This figure presents some juicy opportunity for anyone who understands the power of demand and supply in the market space.
And wishes to move from being a consumer to someone that has something to sell/supply in the market.
Who Should Start This Business?
If you want to start a distribution business but don’t know which item to sell.
If you desire to start a side hustle or a full blown business selling fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).
If you have saved up some cash and don’t know which business to start.
If you’re a graduate fresh out from your national youth service corps (NYSC)
You don’t need a certification to start this business. You equally do not need prior knowledge of toilet paper business (this report will set you up as quickly as you can finish reading it)
Toilet Paper Market
Have you ever wondered how the toilet paper that sits in your water closet got there?
Interestingly, you were part of the cycle in the sales of toilet paper-the final consumer.
When toilet paper rolls are manufactured in the factory, it passes through a couple of distribution channels from the factory to the final consumers.
The various distribution channels represents an opportunity for anyone who wants to make money selling toilet paper rolls.
Also, various institutions like the correctional facilities, schools and hospitals represent great markets for toilet paper roll sales.
Who Are Your Customers?
The beauty of selling toilet papers is that there is a ready market waiting for your products.
All that is required of you is to identify the various customer segments in the market .And work towards serving them.
Let’s take a look at some of your potential customers.
Wholesalers and Retailers
Wholesalers are those customers who buy upwards of 50-100 bags of toilet paper rolls.
These are your primary targets; you should always strive to have so many of them.
These are the ones that will drive sales of your toilet paper roll faster.
You will discover them in the market by the nature of their business-they usually don’t sell items in bits, but sell in bulk.
Retailers
These are your secondary customers.
They are the ones that will most likely buy 1-5 bags from you.
Or they may have to buy from your wholesaler, if you do not want to run around supplying them at their kiosks or shops.
Hotels
Hotels use toilet paper rolls a lot.
Especially the smaller toilet paper sizes.
You should find out the category of hotel you want to serve.
Is it a five star hotel or a smaller hotel?
Once you decide on which you want to serve, you go ahead to book an appointment with the stockist and introduce yourself and talk about your product and how you intend to supply them.
Institutions
By institutions I mean hospitals,correctional facilities, universities and the likes.
You have to as part of your marketing and business growth strategy decide to visit these above listed institutions and send in your proposals.
Telling them why they should buy from you.
I will share one secret with you-most toilet paper sellers don’t visit these institutions!
This was one of the keys strategies that Andrew (whose story I shred earlier) used to grow his business.
Because few persons visit these institutions, there is less competition and you’re likely to close the deal and make sales.
Supermarkets
People like to visit the supermarkets these days.
Before now, people usually believed that buying things from the supermarket was a lot pricier.
Not anymore!
You are most likely to discover that most commodities sold in supermarkets are quite cheaper than what you would buy from the open market, or by the street side.
With more people now buying things from the supermarkets, it is only wise that you too should peddle your wares (toilet paper roll) there.
If your prices are okay and you agree on a favorable payment plan, you will make sales most of the time supplying supermarkets.
How To Sell Toilet Paper Rolls In These Markets Even If You Have Zero Experience
Now that we have taken a broad look at the toilet paper market and opportunities therein.
Lets dive right in to show HOW you can sell to these individual markets.
Before I proceed, it’s important that I point out that each market requires a specific selling strategy as you will soon see.
This means there has to be a conscious effort to try to understand each individual market’s customers’ journey.
Customer Journey
Customer journey means the buying process an individual will have to go through before engaging or buying from you.
It depicts the series of interactions or touch points that a would-be customer would have with your product before buying from you.
If you understand the above concept, then selling becomes quite easy.
Why is this important?
Well it is often said that he whose only tool is a hammer approaches every problem as a nail.
That’s a horrible way to go!
You wouldn’t want to use the same selling strategies for a hotel to approach the open market.
You also won’t take the selling approach suited for the open market to the supermarket.
That is why it is pretty important to understand each market’s dynamics, before making any offer in it.
This singular explanation above is the biggest reason quite a handful of business people fail in selling ANYTHING in the market.
Don’t take it for granted.
I wrote a book on this topic (5 Steps Customers Must Take Before Buying Anything From You),if you want to get more in-depth knowledge on how to understand your customers’ journey, you can chat me up via our the whatsapp link on this site.
Selling Strategies
While toilet paper is one of the fastest selling commodities in the market.
Learning to sell them is not so common.
In this report I will expose you to some of the potent strategies you can swipe to sell your toilet paper rolls.
Sampling
This is a simple strategy of taking some of your toilet paper rolls to your target customers (institutions, supermarkets, wholesalers etc).
Here you take say individual sizes of your toilet paper rolls (medium, small and or jumbo sizes) and give it away as a sample for them to use. To see how good your claim is.
When they accept to test your toilet paper brand, they’ll be more receptive to listening to your offers and probably consider buying from you.
Sell Or Return
This was a strategy I used when selling pharmaceutical products.
Here you approach a distributor you know that sells off toilet paper rolls faster.
Because he/she may not want to patronise your brand (as a newbie).
Offering to invoice it to them at a sell or return basis takes away all their fears allowing them to at least stock and display your toilet paper brand in their shops.
However, you should not leave so much quantity with them.
Leave a small quantity they can quickly finish thereby making them to call you to supply more.
Cash On delivery
As the name implies, it entails supplying only those who are willing to pay you cash once you supply them your toilet paper rolls.
However, as a beginner, you may not use this strategy much as you are yet to be popular in the market (newbie).
In any case, those you are able to convince to pay cash for your toilet paper rolls should be attended to first.
Where They Money Is
Selling To wholesalers
Here you need to target voluminous sales. Take for example your toilet paper costs N1200/bag.
If you want to sell to these wholesalers, you need to add a little mark-up of say N50/bag (N1250/bag).
Which means if you get an order of about 100 bags (which one customer can easily buy) you make a profit of N5000 (N50xN1000.
Imagine if you have up to 20 wholesalers, who you can sell your toilet paper to in just one month.
That’s N100,000 from one customer segment.
Selling To Retailers
In a like manner you could also have series of retailers who buy from you either on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
Now here’s the trick-because these customer segment buys lesser quantities (1-3 bags).
Using our initial cost of toilet paper of N1200/bag. You could sell to these retailers at N1300.
Now the reason for selling at a higher price is simple.
Experience has shown that these customer segments usually owe much longer than others.
So the higher selling prices enables you have a buffer for the times you may come for payment and go home empty handed.
With this customer segment, there is no limit to the number of customers you could have.
You could sell to as much as 50 of them in a week, depending on your sheer strength and ability to cover a wide area selling per day.
So let’s take this conservative number of 50 retail customers per week.
That translates to a profit of N5000/week(N100x50customers).
This means in a month, you stand a chance of making N20,000 (N5000x4weeks in a month).
Now add that to the N100,000 you made selling to wholesalers that’s N120,000 just from two customer segments.
And these figures are conservative figures; you can make more than these depending on your selling skills, market size and sheer hard work.
Selling To Hotels
If you target busy hotels in your locality.
And these hotels have a lodging capacity of say 250 rooms.
Let’s also assume these hotel rooms are filled up to the brim 3 times a week.
That is 250×3 = 750 guests/week.
Which means in a month they would likely have 750×4 =3000 guest/month.
Which means 3000 rolls of toilet paper rolls used.
Here’s the fun part-if you divide 3000 by 48 rolls of toilet paper (hotel size), that will give you approximately 62 bags.
This means you will have to supply 62 bags monthly to one of these hoteliers.
If you make a profit of N100/bag, this translates to a profit of N6200 (N100x62 bags).
Now, imagine if you have just 20 of these busy hotels as customers.
This will give you a profit of N124,000 (N6200x20).
Now add this amount to the N120,000 you made from the other two segments.
This will give you N244,000/month. And we are not done yet!
Selling to Institutions
By institutions I mean:
- Hospitals
- Correctional facilities and
- Schools
These categories of customers usually buy very large quantities (200-1000 bags)
Selling to them is usually through bidding.
You have to price your product competitively, adding minimal mark-up where applicable.
If you win a bid, you might be given an order that could run up to a thousand bags.
Let’s say your mark up is N100/bag.
If you’re given an order of 1000 bags, you make a profit of N100,000 from one institution.
If you are lucky to have two institutions under your kitty-that’s a potential N200,000.
Now add N200,000 to N244,000 = N444,000/month.
Note: All the above figures are all conservative figures that are albeit possible to attain and exceed in the market.
However, there’re variables you need to grapple with, which might affect your earning potentials in the market.
They include but are not limited to the following:
- your selling skills
- your determination to work hard
- market dynamics
- your business environment
- the quality of toilet paper that you sell among others
While you have the power to influence your selling skill and how hard you work.
Market dynamics, business environment are beyond your control; as such you have to always learn how to adapt to them whenever you have them at play in the market.
However, you have a chance of increasing the likelihood of you succeeding in the market .
If you make a good choice of which toilet paper roll to sell.
If you want to start earning money by selling a fast moving commodity, I will recommend you start selling high quality and affordable toilet paper rolls made by a reputable company.
A company with a track record of integrity and trustworthiness in the market.
Like I said earlier, you doesn’t require much skills to start selling toilet paper rolls.
You can start with as little as N50,000 and a huge hunger to succeed.
Final Thoughts
Phew!! What a boatload of actionable information.
If you run with everything I have shared with you here, you will enter the toilet paper market like you have been there all your life.
I have done the heavy lifting for you, making your job simpler.
If you don’t want to carry out the strenuous work of researching the market in search of a dependable company with a track record of producing high quality, affordable and fast selling toilet paper rolls to invest in.
Then visit https://www.vichaez.com to begin your journey to becoming a successful toilet paper distributor.
Now that you have been provided with actionable information to start your own toilet paper sales and distribution business, the rest is up to you.
See you in the market…or in a bank. Cheers!