𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐲 𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐈 𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐔𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧

I was eating breakfast when the text came in.

"Enitan, I can't keep accumulating salaries seeing I'm already owing 5 months. I need time to pay what's owed. Maybe I'll call you back to resume later."

Two weeks after my wedding, my boss was essentially firing me by text.

I found out later from colleagues who'd already left that he was shutting down the studio to go solo. Nobody told me directly. Just a text about needing "time."

Actually, I'd been broke for months already. Getting married while your boss owes you money is a special kind of stress. My wife kept asking when the next salary was coming. "Next week," I'd say, because that's what my boss kept telling me.

The Nigerian web design market in 2016 was a race to the bottom. People were building websites for ₦10,000. Some charged ₦20,000 and thought they were doing premium work.

I was charging ₦15,000 and struggling to get clients.

Started learning HTML and CSS in 2015. YouTube tutorials until 3 AM. WordPress sites that looked exactly like the templates I downloaded.

Found an internship at a small design studio. Five months of fetching coffee and fixing broken images. They hired me full-time at the end.

₦35,000 monthly. I felt rich.

By December 2015, the studio was struggling. January 2016, salaries started getting delayed. March, April - nothing. May, I got married anyway because we'd already sent invitations.

My boss kept saying business was tough, clients weren't paying, money was coming next week.

I stayed because where else would I go? Every job posting wanted "5 years experience" for ₦40,000 monthly positions.

After the studio closed, I found another agency job.

₦40,000 monthly to design five websites. No negotiation. Take it or leave it.

The owner treated it like factory work. "Monday: corporate website. Tuesday: restaurant site. Wednesday: fashion brand." Templates with client logos slapped on top.

When I suggested custom designs, he laughed. "For ₦8,000 per site? Use the templates."

Three months in, guess what happened? Salary delays again.

I was watching the same movie, different theater.

My old friend Daniel sent a message on Facebook.

"Guy, how far? Wetin you dey do now?"

"Web design."

"Seriously? My oga need website. Make I connect you?"

His boss called that evening. Professional voice. Real business. She needed a corporate website for her consultancy.

"How much?"

I was about to say ₦20,000. Then I thought about her voice, her business, the fact that Daniel worked for her.

"₦300,000."

Silence. I started sweating.

"When can you start?"

I built the site in two days. She paid immediately. Full amount. No arguments.

₦300,000. Seven and half months of my current salary.

I stared at the bank alert for ten minutes.

After that project, I just stopped going to the second agency. No resignation letter. No formal goodbye. I'd seen what was possible.

My wife thought I'd lost my mind. Leaving a job (that wasn't paying properly) to freelance (with no guaranteed income).

But I'd seen something. There were people paying ₦300,000 for websites while I was fighting over ₦8,000 projects.

Different market. Different problems. Different money.

First month was scary. No salary. No security. Just me and my laptop.

But I stopped bidding against people charging ₦10,000. Started looking for clients who had ₦300,000 problems.

Took longer to find them. But when I did, everything changed.

Daniel would eventually become my co-founder at Teqmoxie. But that's a story for later.

Next week: How that one Facebook connection led to more ₦300,000 projects (and the mistake that almost killed everything).

Have you ever realized you were competing in the wrong market entirely?