Billionaire Femi Otedola has disclosed that before creating his Zenon Oil brand, he sold diesel by knocking on doors.

That was the situation before his founding Zenon Oil, which would go on to become the dominant force in Nigeria's diesel market. In his Amazon best-selling autobiography, Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, Otedola related this tale.

“To prosper, accept that nothing is beneath you,” the billionaire businessman wrote.

“In the beginning, I went around pushing diesel, riding in the van beside Samson, the driver. I always wore jeans and a polo shirt as we went from door to door, to the market or to deliver the product.

“When we met at nightclubs on weekends, my friends would tease me with questions like, ‘Where’s your truck?’ They’d laugh when I walked in and ask, ‘Are you here to sell diesel?’ I took the wisecracks in stride. I didn’t feel that selling diesel was beneath me. I had my wife and children to look after; there were school fees to pay.”

He added that survival was his priority: “and facing up to my responsibilities.”

Otedola found the enormous potential in the market at this time of door-to-door diesel sales, Daily Sun reported.

“Maximize opportunities and expand to meet demand,” he said while reflecting on one of his key business lessons.

“After I started this small-scale selling, I came to realize that the entire country was running on diesel – homes, offices, factories, trucks, and trawlers. The energy situation was dire, with constant blackouts and shortages, and the demand for diesel was enormous.

“The opportunity was certainly there; we had to rise to the occasion. I got to work on an ambitious marketing strategy. I employed 14 sales executives, all young, brilliant, and driven women, and gave them new cars. In my experience, female salespeople were more effective in convincing prospective clients, perhaps because of their commitment, ability to charm, and reluctance to take no for an answer.

“It also helped that the new trucks I’d ordered from the Turkish manufacturer BMC had arrived, which we began using for home delivery.

“With the marketing team on an aggressive sales drive, the orders came rushing in. I had given them a list of big companies – Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Flour Mills of Nigeria, the Dangote Group – and they closed one deal after another. I would pay Marca or Eurafric for supplies, and they would send trucks loaded with diesel, and I’d add my margin, which came to about N8 per litre.”

He quickly went from buying diesel on a small scale to buying it in bulk, renting storage tanks, and eventually establishing a tank farm. Large ships began importing diesel as a result of this expansion.

At its height, Zenon Oil was making about $6 million a month before the worldwide oil meltdown of 2009 changed the market.

Femi Otedola’s billion-dollar loss

Legit.ng reported that Billionaire Femi Otedola has disclosed how, during the height of his business empire, banks used 'bewitching ladies' to secure his loans and deposits.

In passages from the book seen by TheCable, the oil magnate explained how a succession of financial problems, including the global drop in crude oil prices and the devaluation of the naira, left his enterprises heavily indebted and under enormous pressure.

He described how his fortunes drastically changed, saying, "At one point, I was the banks' darling, and they did everything in their power to court me, do business with me, give me loans, and take deposits from me."