When I first heard about www.flegz.com, I was wondering what this young man is up to again. A chat with Prosper Onogberie actually reveals what led him to embark on this project. Are you out there and still wondering how you can turn your dream into a project, read on… This interview is for you

Emmanuel: hello

Prosper: flegz.com rocks

Emmanuel: can you spare 30 mins

Prosper: hello. I was away from my desk for a while

Emmanuel: Can I know you?

Prosper: I’m Onogberie Prosper

Emmanuel: hm..

Prosper: hail from Ozoro Delta State and ofcourse very Nigerian

Emmanuel: is that all you want us to know?

Prosper: 🙂 I’m also a business man

Emmanuel: great?

Prosper: in the Online Industry

Emmanuel: that brings me to the second question, What do you do?

Prosper: I’m a web developer by skill

Emmanuel: listening

Prosper: and I’m into e-commerce

Emmanuel: e-commerce? what do you mean by e-commerce

Prosper: business electronically

Emmanuel: What lead you into business?

Prosper: well. i kind of saw it as an inevitable end for every man. i mean I see people work for the Gov. and then retire to start their own

Emmanuel: hm..

Prosper: people work for “ABC…” and same thing happening so I mean

Emmanuel: listening

Prosper: it was kind of the future for me. However

Emmanuel: go on

Prosper: It really got stronger when Alumni of O.A.U started coming around to do seminars on Entrepreneurship and Business, when I read rich dad poor dad

Emmanuel: that is great

Prosper: and Visited Business week, I saw then that it’s actually possible to start while young and better for a fact

Emmanuel: great. what was your first business experience? and how did it go?

Prosper: ahh

Emmanuel: what was your first shot at business?

Prosper: ok. First business experience was an opportunity I saw for Building websites for all the lecturers in O.A.U for a very negligible fee

Emmanuel: whao! websites for all lecturers in OAU

Prosper: I was a really funny experience

Emmanuel: how did it go?

Prosper: cause partly It was borne out of the fact that I could see schools like MIT and Stanford had lecturers with webpages and O.A.U didn’t have any. So, I thought it would be nice to do one for them but…

Emmanuel: that is really great

Prosper: I guess the Lecturers weren’t all seeing things the way I saw it

Emmanuel: IC :-d

Prosper: I got turned down and Ignoredand in Occations where i was refered by other lecturers

Emmanuel: hen hen

Prosper: they made me feel really bad about my Idea

Emmanuel: You mean lecturers actually turned you down

Prosper: yea. they did. i think the only ones who encouraged me was Dr. Fakoya

Emmanuel: ah

Prosper: from Health Sciences. He actually asked me to design for their faculty but err

Emmanuel: and u did?

Prosper: the project got tangled in Faculty Politics. So, I didn’t get to do any successfully but it was a great experience all the same

Emmanuel: cool. What projects are you currently involved with?

Prosper: wew. ok I’m currently working on five projects – three of them are electronic Market Square’s

Emmanuel: listening

Prosper: clients and two are personal projects

Emmanuel: what is electronic market square about?

Prosper: Electronic Market Square is a web development outfit

Emmanuel: listening

Prosper: it handles the design and implementation of web applications and wedsite design

Emmanuel: how do you source for your clients?

Prosper: I hard source for projects as a matter of fact. I haven’t sourced for Projects like others do

I get the through referrals – Referral by Clients

Emmanuel: referral?

Prosper: and mostly through locally outsourced projects. Yea. You know people you’ve worked for and those you’ve worked with

Emmanuel: alr8 🙂

Prosper: and most times our work speaks for us

Emmanuel: by the way, I heard you are the brain behind www.flegz.com. Can you tell us more about this noble project

Prosper: oh yea. that’s one of the personal projects i was talking about. There was a day i was trying to get the up-to-date prices of computer hardware

Emmanuel: hen hen. How has it been threading this entrepreneurship route?

Prosper: and I found out that Guardian which was the traditional route were not putting up the prices anymore so i set out to get the problem solved which resulted in flegz.cm

Emmanuel: this is great. so, it is about solving a problem?

Prosper: primarily it is about solving problems

Emmanuel: cool

Prosper and partly fun

Emmanuel: k. Any challenge(s) so far on the way?

Prosper: oh yea lots

Emmanuel: This is a follow up to the question I asked earlier “how has it been threading this entrepreneurship route?”

Prosper: particularly getting the right partners on long term projects. it’s been a whole rollercoaster of learning

Emmanuel: What do you think is the cause of this?

Prosper: which?

Emmanuel: I mean not being able to get the right partners for long time projects

Prosper: well, I think the environment which we live has made people think in a particular wayfor instance

Emmanuel: hen hen. I dont understand. can you be more explicit?

Prosper: people look more at the money they want to make than the problems they can solve

Emmanuel: hm…I guess I understand now. I once had the same problem

Prosper: when for a fact every problem well solved earns you money

Emmanuel: alr8. What do you have to say to fellow youths who want to start their business?

Prosper: Information is Power. Get information and be open to learn new things every day plus. Never let setbacks stop you from achieving your goals

Emmanuel: hm…

Prosper: The African Child’s only limitations are they think they are limited

Emmanuel: this reminds me of the sayings “every man is only limited in his thought”

Prosper: very true Tosin. very true

Emmanuel: Thanks very much for your time Prosper

Prosper: anytime

Emmanuel: and I hope my reader(s) will have one or two thing(s) to learn from your story

Prosper: i do hope so too

Emmanuel: we would call on you soon.

Prosper: my pleasure

Emmanuel: thanks

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