The Day My Customer Vanished (And How I Found 1,000 New Ones)

You know that sinking feeling in your stomach.

It’s a Tuesday afternoon. You’ve just spent 45 minutes with a customer. You showed them your best products. You answered all their questions with a smile. You even gave them a small discount, because you’re nice like that.

They promise they’ll be back. “Just going to get my card from the car,” they say.

You wait. And wait. And…they never come back.

You’ve been ghosted. Not by a date, but by a sale. Your sale. The one that was supposed to pay for tonight’s dinner.

If you own a small business, you’ve felt this. That feeling of shouting into a crowded room, hoping the right person hears you. You pour your heart, your soul, and your savings into your craft—your amazing pepper soup, your custom-tailored dresses, your solid carpentry work. But customers can be… unpredictable.

For so long, I thought business was just like that. A rollercoaster of good days and empty-shop days. I relied on chance, on "word-of-mouth," hoping people would magically find me.

Then I met Amara. She runs a small cake business from her home. During the last Eid celebration, while I was praying for customers, she was swamped. I mean, swamped. She had over 50 orders for her special coconut cupcakes.

I had to ask her: “Amara, how? Who did you juju?”

She laughed. “No juju o! I just stopped waiting for people to find me. I started placing my business right in their path.”

She showed me her phone. There was a simple, clean website called doacWeb. It wasn’t just a fancy page; it was filled with people actively looking for things to buy.

“See,” she said, scrolling. “People come here every day searching for ‘small chops for events,’ ‘affordable cakes near me,’ ‘tailors in Lagos.’ They have their money in hand, ready to spend. I just paid a small fee to put my cake business right in front of them at that exact moment.”

It hit me like a lightning bolt.

I wasn’t failing because my products were bad. I was failing because I was invisible to the people who were already ready to buy.

I was waiting for one customer to maybe come back, while Amara was talking to hundreds who were already convinced.

That’s the secret. It’s not about advertising. It’s about being found.

Think about it: Where do you look when you need something? You grab your phone and you search. Right? Your future customers are doing that right now. They are searching for exactly what you offer.

The question is: Will they find you? Or will they find your competitor?

For Amara, the choice was simple. For the cost of just one of her large cakes (NGN 10,000), she placed her ad on doacWeb for a whole month. Those 50 orders didn’t just cover the cost; they brought in over NGN 250,000.

She wasn’t spending money. She was investing it. An investment that returned itself 25 times over.

You have a great business. You deserve to be seen. You deserve to have people seeking you out, not the other way around.

Stop waiting for the customer who vanishes. Start connecting with the thousands who are searching.

The people are searching. Let them find you.

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P.S. Remember the customer who vanished that Tuesday? I often wonder if they would have bought if they’d seen my product online first, if they’d had a chance to look at my reviews. I’ll never know. But I’ve made sure no customer ever has to look for me again. You can do the same.

Ready to be found? Send a WhatsApp message to us now [Or Call us today] at 09031633831 with the words "I'M READY". Let's talk about how to place your business in front of your next 1,000 customers. Let's make those empty-shop days a thing of the past.