Running a small electronics accessories shop in Lagos made me good at improvising. One day I was dealing with a customer who wanted to negotiate the price of a charger, and the next I was trying to confirm a bank transfer while my network was behaving badly. Then there were the days when the electricity went off just when I needed it most.
I used to think of electricity as one of those expenses that simply came with running a physical shop. I knew I would occasionally need to buy fuel for a generator or charge some devices using alternative power. What I did not appreciate was how deeply unreliable electricity could affect the way I sold products, tested stock, communicated with customers and planned my working day.
My shop sold phone chargers, USB cables, earphones, power banks, screen protectors, adapters and other small electronics accessories. Most of the products were relatively affordable, which meant that customers often wanted to inspect or test them before paying. That made electricity particularly important.
After several frustrating months, I decided to stop guessing about the problem and start recording it. For 90 days, I tracked my electricity-related expenses, the hours when outages affected the shop, the products that were difficult to sell without power and the money I spent on backup solutions.
The exercise completely changed the way I looked at electricity.
I discovered that the biggest cost was not always the amount I spent on fuel. Sometimes the bigger cost was the sale I lost because I could not demonstrate a product, the customer who had to wait, or the time I wasted trying to keep the shop operating normally during an outage.
My Shop Was More Dependent on Electricity Than I Realised
Before I started tracking the problem, I would have described my shop as a business that needed very little electricity.
I was not running a restaurant. I did not have refrigerators full of products. I was not operating heavy machinery. Most of my merchandise could sit on a shelf without electricity.
That made me underestimate the importance of power.
The problem was that the products themselves were not necessarily the biggest consumers of electricity. It was the activities surrounding the products that depended on power.
I needed lighting so customers could see what they were buying. I needed to charge demonstration devices. I sometimes needed to test chargers and cables. I needed my phone charged so I could communicate with customers and suppliers. I needed internet access for transfers, WhatsApp orders and other business activities.
When the electricity went off, none of those things necessarily stopped immediately. Instead, everything became slower and more complicated.
A customer could still enter the shop, but I might not be able to test a charger properly. I could still receive an order, but my phone battery might be low. I could still sell products, but a dark shop was not inviting to customers.
That was when I realised that electricity was not simply another utility.
For my type of business, it was part of the sales process.
The Customer Who Made Me Take the Problem Seriously
One particular incident made the problem impossible for me to ignore.
A customer came into the shop looking for a replacement charger. He had already compared several products and wanted something that would charge his phone properly. I recommended one of the better-quality chargers I had in stock.
He asked me to test it.
Unfortunately, the electricity had gone off shortly before he arrived.
I had a partially charged demonstration device, but it was not enough for the test I wanted to perform. I explained the situation and offered to let him wait.
He waited for a few minutes.
Then he looked around the shop and asked how long the electricity normally stayed off.
I could not give him a reliable answer.
Eventually, he said he would check another shop.
He left.
The charger cost ₦9,500, but the incident stayed in my mind because I realised I had lost a sale for a reason that had nothing to do with the quality or price of my product.
That evening, I began thinking about how many other small losses I had simply accepted as part of doing business in Lagos.
I Started Recording Every Outage Instead of Complaining About It
The next month, I started keeping a simple notebook beside my sales records.
Whenever the electricity went off, I recorded the time. When it returned, I recorded that too. I also wrote down whether the outage actually affected business.
After the first 30 days, the figures surprised me.
The shop experienced approximately 74 hours of grid-power downtime during the month.
The number itself was not the most interesting part.
What mattered was that about 29 of those hours occurred during periods when customers were normally active or when I needed electricity for testing and other operations.
Before tracking the outages, I would have simply remembered the month as "one of those months when light was bad."
The notebook showed me something different.
The problem was concentrated around particular parts of the working day.
That meant I could plan around it.
What the First Month Was Costing Me
I also started separating electricity-related expenses from my other business expenses.
My first-month figures looked roughly like this:
| Expense | Amount |
|---|---|
| Generator fuel | ₦68,400 |
| Generator maintenance | ₦8,500 |
| Charging and miscellaneous power expenses | ₦6,200 |
| Replacement bulbs and small electrical items | ₦3,900 |
| Total power-related cost | ₦87,000 |
₦87,000 did not initially sound catastrophic.
But when I compared it with my average monthly profit, it became more significant.
My shop was not generating hundreds of thousands of naira in pure profit every week. I was operating with relatively modest margins, particularly on some fast-moving accessories.
The electricity problem was therefore taking a noticeable portion of what I could have kept as profit.
More importantly, the ₦87,000 did not include lost sales.
That was the part I had never considered.
Why I Did Not Want to Depend Entirely on a Generator
My first instinct was to solve everything with a generator.
That seemed obvious.
When there was no electricity, I would start the generator.
But after using one regularly, I realised that a generator was not automatically the cheapest or most convenient solution for a small shop.
Fuel was only one part of the equation.
There was also maintenance, engine oil, occasional repairs and the inconvenience of running a noisy machine in a busy commercial environment.
I also did not need a generator to power every appliance in the shop.
Most of what I actually needed was relatively small amounts of electricity for lighting, charging phones and devices, running small equipment and testing accessories.
Using a fuel-powered generator for all of that sometimes felt unnecessary.
I needed to calculate what the business actually required.
My First Backup Solution Was Simpler Than I Expected
Before purchasing anything expensive, I started with portable power banks and rechargeable lights.
The first month, I spent approximately ₦31,500 on additional backup equipment.
It was not enough to run the entire shop, but it solved some immediate problems.
The rechargeable lights meant the shop was no longer dependent on the grid simply to remain visible.
A charged power bank allowed me to keep my phone operating when the electricity was unavailable.
I also kept one fully charged battery-powered demonstration device specifically for showing certain products to customers.
These were not expensive solutions.
They were practical.
That distinction became important to me.
As a small business owner, I did not need the most impressive backup-power setup. I needed one that solved the problems that were actually costing me money.
I Changed How I Tested Products
This was one of the most useful changes I made.
Previously, I would wait until electricity was available before testing certain products.
That meant a shipment arriving during an outage could sit untouched.
I changed the process.
When new stock arrived, I prioritised testing products that had the highest likelihood of being defective or generating customer complaints. I also kept a small number of charged devices specifically for demonstrations.
For cables and chargers, I became more systematic about testing batches rather than testing random individual pieces whenever a customer requested it.
This reduced the pressure on the shop during outages.
Instead of needing electricity for every customer interaction, I could answer many questions using information and demonstrations I had already prepared.
The Second Month Was When I Started Looking at the Numbers Differently
During the second month, I invested in a small inverter and battery setup.
My total cost for the initial setup was approximately ₦285,000, including the inverter, battery, basic installation and associated accessories.
It was a significant amount of money for my small business.
I did not treat it as an automatic investment.
I calculated what I actually needed it to do.
The objective was not to operate the entire shop for 12 hours without grid electricity.
The objective was to keep essential business activities running.
I wanted enough power for lights, phones, small devices and product testing.
That was a much more realistic target.
What the Inverter Could and Could Not Do
The inverter changed my daily routine, but it did not solve every electricity problem.
It could handle my essential loads reasonably well.
Lighting was easy.
Charging phones was manageable.
Small demonstration devices were manageable.
Testing some accessories was also possible.
However, I quickly learned that backup power has limits.
If I connected too many devices at once, the battery drained faster. If I treated the inverter like unlimited electricity, I would eventually find myself without power when I needed it most.
I therefore created a simple priority system.
Customer-related activities came first.
Testing products came next.
Phone charging and communication followed.
Non-essential activities could wait for grid electricity.
This sounds obvious now, but previously I had never thought about electricity in terms of business priorities.
The Difference Between Keeping the Lights On and Keeping the Business Running
This became one of my biggest lessons.
There is a difference between powering a building and powering a business.
I did not need every electrical device in the shop operating during an outage.
I needed the things that directly supported sales and customer service.
That meant I could reduce my electricity requirements considerably.
During an outage, I did not need to charge every device in the shop. I did not need unnecessary lights switched on. I did not need to use backup power for activities that could wait.
I began asking a simple question whenever I wanted to connect something to the inverter:
Does this help me serve a customer or protect the business right now?
If the answer was no, I waited.
My Third-Month Numbers Looked Much Better
By the third month, I had enough information to compare the periods.
My records looked like this:
| Measure | Month 1 | Month 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Grid outage hours | 74 | 71 |
| Generator fuel | ₦68,400 | ₦29,700 |
| Generator maintenance | ₦8,500 | ₦2,000 |
| Other power expenses | ₦10,100 | ₦5,800 |
| Total power-related running cost | ₦87,000 | ₦37,500 |
| Estimated outage-related lost sales | ₦46,000 | ₦14,500 |
The electricity outages themselves had not disappeared.
That was important.
My improvement came from becoming less dependent on the grid.
My power-related operating expenses fell from approximately ₦87,000 to ₦37,500.
That represented a reduction of about ₦49,500 in monthly running costs.
The estimated lost sales also fell.
I was not suddenly making twice as much money.
Instead, fewer avoidable problems were interfering with the business.
The Backup System Did Not Pay for Itself Overnight
It would have been easy to look at the numbers and declare the inverter a huge success.
But I wanted to be more realistic.
The backup system had cost approximately ₦285,000.
If I saved around ₦49,500 per month compared with the earlier period, it would take several months for the running-cost savings alone to recover that initial investment.
There were also other factors.
The system reduced my dependence on fuel.
It made the shop more comfortable during outages.
It allowed me to continue testing products.
It reduced some lost sales.
It also saved me time.
Not all of those benefits could be measured perfectly in naira.
That taught me another important business lesson: when evaluating equipment, I should consider both the direct financial return and the operational problems it solves.
WhatsApp Became More Important During Outages
Another unexpected change involved WhatsApp.
Before the experiment, I mainly used WhatsApp to answer customer enquiries and occasionally show available products.
During longer outages, I started using it more deliberately.
If a customer had previously asked about a particular charger or power bank, I could send a message when the product became available.
I also used status updates to show products that were currently in stock.
This helped because the physical shop could become less convenient during an outage, but the business itself did not have to disappear.
A customer could still ask for a product, confirm the price and arrange to pick it up later.
In some cases, I arranged delivery.
That meant an electricity problem inside the shop did not necessarily become a complete sales shutdown.
I Also Learned That Customers Understand More Than I Expected
Initially, I was embarrassed when the lights went off.
I thought customers would see it as a sign that my business was poorly managed.
Some customers did not care.
Others understood immediately.
Customers in Lagos are familiar with power interruptions. What they cared about more was whether I could still serve them.
If I could test the product, explain the situation and complete the transaction properly, the outage became less important.
This changed how I communicated.
Instead of complaining about electricity, I simply explained what I could and could not do at that moment.
That small change made the interaction more professional.
Customers did not expect me to control the electricity grid.
They expected me to have a plan.
The Most Expensive Mistake Was Not Buying Fuel
Looking back at my records, the most expensive mistakes were not necessarily the days when I spent money on fuel.
The bigger mistakes happened when I had no plan.
One afternoon, I had three customers interested in products that needed demonstration. The power had gone off, and I had not charged the backup equipment properly.
I could have avoided that situation.
The problem was not the outage.
The problem was poor preparation.
That distinction changed the way I approached backup power.
A backup system is only useful if it is actually ready when I need it.
I Created a Simple Daily Power Routine
By the end of the 90-day experiment, I had developed a routine.
Before opening the shop, I checked the charge level of the backup equipment.
I made sure the demonstration devices I regularly used were ready.
I kept rechargeable lights accessible rather than buried somewhere in storage.
When grid electricity returned, I prioritised recharging the equipment that would be most useful during the next outage.
At closing time, I checked everything again.
The routine took only a few minutes.
But those few minutes prevented several problems.
What I Would Do Differently If I Were Starting Again
If I were opening the shop again, I would think about electricity before signing the tenancy agreement.
I would ask other traders about the area's power situation.
I would find out whether the building had any shared generator arrangement.
I would estimate fuel expenses.
I would calculate the electrical load of the equipment I actually needed.
I would also avoid buying a large backup system simply because it looked impressive.
The first question should always be:
What does my business actually need to keep operating?
For an electronics accessories shop like mine, the answer was surprisingly modest.
I needed lighting, communication, basic testing capability and enough backup power to keep customer service functioning.
I did not need to recreate the national grid inside my shop.
My 90-Day Power Cost Comparison
After completing the experiment, I put the numbers together.
The first month represented my old approach.
I relied heavily on the grid and used the generator whenever necessary.
The second month was a transition period.
I began using portable backup equipment and introduced the inverter.
The third month reflected the more organised system.
My comparison looked like this:
| Category | Month 1 | Month 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Generator fuel | ₦68,400 | ₦29,700 |
| Generator maintenance | ₦8,500 | ₦2,000 |
| Portable power expenses | ₦6,200 | ₦3,000 |
| Other electricity-related costs | ₦3,900 | ₦2,800 |
| Total | ₦87,000 | ₦37,500 |
The difference was ₦49,500 per month.
More importantly, the shop became less dependent on whether electricity happened to be available at the exact moment a customer wanted to buy something.
That was the real improvement.
What Power Outages Taught Me About Running a Small Business
The biggest lesson was not that every Lagos business owner should buy an inverter.
Different businesses have different electricity requirements.
A tailor may need power for a sewing machine. A barber may need clippers and lighting. A food seller may need refrigeration. An electronics retailer may need testing equipment and charging capacity.
The right solution depends on the business.
What my experience taught me was that I needed to understand exactly where electricity affected my operations before spending money on backup power.
I also learned to separate inconvenience from financial impact.
An outage can be annoying without being expensive.
Another outage can last the same amount of time but cost significantly more because it happens during a busy sales period.
That is why tracking matters.
The Real Cost of an Outage Is Bigger Than the Electricity Bill
Before my 90-day experiment, I measured electricity mostly by what I spent.
After the experiment, I measured it by what it affected.
There was the fuel bill.
There was maintenance.
There was battery charging.
But there were also delayed sales, customers who could not test products, time spent troubleshooting and opportunities that disappeared because I was not prepared.
Once I started looking at the complete picture, electricity became a business-planning issue rather than simply a utility expense.
That was a major change in how I managed the shop.
Would I Still Use a Generator?
Yes, but differently.
I stopped thinking of the generator as the automatic answer to every power outage.
For heavier loads or situations where I needed extended operating time, it remained useful.
But for basic lighting, charging and small electronics, the inverter and portable backup equipment were more practical.
The two solutions could work together instead of competing with each other.
That was another important lesson.
Business decisions did not always have to be about choosing one option and completely abandoning another.
Sometimes the better strategy was to assign each tool a specific job.
The Biggest Lesson Was Preparation
When I think about that first customer who left because I could not test his charger, I no longer see the incident simply as a bad day.
It was useful information.
It showed me that a small problem inside the business could become a sales problem outside the business.
I could not control when electricity would go off.
I could control whether I had a charged backup system.
I could control which products I tested first.
I could control how I communicated with customers.
I could control how much fuel I bought.
I could control how I recorded the costs.
Those were the things I eventually focused on.
Final Thoughts
Running a small business in Lagos requires more than having good products and waiting for customers to arrive. The environment around my business can influence everything from operating costs to customer experience.
Power outages initially felt like an unavoidable inconvenience in my electronics accessories shop. After tracking them for 90 days, I realised they were affecting much more than the lights. They influenced product demonstrations, customer decisions, communication, fuel expenses and even the amount of time I could spend serving customers.
The biggest change was not simply buying an inverter. It was learning to understand my shop's actual electricity requirements.
Once I knew what needed power and what could continue without it, I stopped wasting backup energy. Once I started recording outages and expenses, I could see where money was going. Once I prepared demonstration devices in advance, fewer customers had to wait. And once I started using WhatsApp more deliberately, an electricity outage inside the shop no longer automatically meant that the business had to stop selling.
My 90-day records showed power-related running costs falling from about ₦87,000 in the first month to approximately ₦37,500 by the third month. The grid itself had not become more reliable. My business had simply become better prepared for the conditions in which it operated.
That is probably the most useful lesson I took from the experience.
I cannot control everything that happens around my business. I cannot control every power outage, every traffic jam, every network problem or every unexpected interruption.
But I can decide how much those problems are allowed to cost me.
For me, that meant moving from simply complaining whenever the lights went off to understanding exactly what the outage was costing the business and building a system around it.
The goal was never to make my shop completely independent of the electricity grid.
The goal was much simpler.
I wanted the lights to stay on when they mattered, customers to receive proper service, products to be tested when necessary and the business to keep moving even when the electricity did not.