Confidential · Keep to yourself
Operator's Playbook
TTA × Pejji: the funding & leverage play.
Your private operating doc. Everything we worked out: how to structure the partnership, how to make your money a lever instead of a gift, and how to fold it all into your own engine. This is the version you keep in your pocket, not the one you show Salami.
01 · The thesis
What this actually is.
You are not investing in a print shop. You are funding Pejji's physical fulfillment arm in Lagos, wrapped in a partnership that protects your capital and pays you back three different ways. TTA is storefront number one of a model you can repeat. The print shop is the vehicle; the real asset is the system, the digital layer, and the customer relationships, and those belong to you.
02 · The legal shell, done right
Get the container right before any money moves.
- Limited Liability Company (Ltd), not a Business Name. Only the Ltd puts your 30% on the official CAC register. A Business Name is one person's name only, your share would be a side contract, not real ownership.
- Low share capital. Register at ₦100k to ₦1M, not ₦5M. Share capital is just how the company is sliced on paper, NOT cash you deposit. The government fee is a small slice of that number (~₦20k gov, ~₦50k to ₦120k all-in with an agent). Low number = low fee. Same ownership either way.
- Your Nigerian passport, always. Hold your shares as a Nigerian citizen. Any foreign ownership triggers a ₦100M minimum capital rule. Never register as a Canadian entity.
- The shareholders' agreement. Drawn by the lawyer, alongside the CAC filing. It locks your vesting, the profit split, decision rights, IP ownership, and exit terms. The registration makes you an owner; the agreement governs how you two operate.
03 · The funding doctrine
The one rule: your money is a lever, never a gift.
From day one, every naira you put in is documented as either equity or a loan. Never "help I gave my partner." This is the difference between an investor and a donor.
Director's loan + preferred return
The smartest structure. Your capital is a loan the company owes you, and it gets
repaid FIRST, off the top, before the 70/30 profit split. Salami still gets his 70%, but only after your money is back in your pocket. You're financing, not gambling.
Fund assets, track them to you
The machines (cap press, mug press, plotter) are real value. Either the company owns them as your documented capital contribution, or you personally own them and lease them to the shop. Never let gear you paid for become the shop's with your name nowhere.
Fund in tranches, tied to milestones
Don't dump all the capital in on faith. Registration + site first. Once orders are flowing and demand is proven, release the next machine. You fund as the business earns your trust, and it quietly keeps Salami accountable, the next tranche depends on the last one working.
04 · The Pejji integration
This is the part that makes the whole thing pay you back.
- Bundle printing into Pejji's offer. Pejji becomes "your business online AND your brand in print." A client buys a website and orders their cards, flyers, and merch in the same breath. Pejji sells it, TTA prints it. One sale, two revenue lines.
- The two-way funnel. Every TTA walk-in becomes a Pejji lead (they're already a business owner spending on their brand). Every Pejji client becomes a possible TTA print job. The money flows both directions.
- Your TTA money pays itself back through Pejji. You own a big piece of TTA and all of Pejji, so funding TTA builds a fulfillment engine that feeds your own company. Left hand feeds the right.
- Own the digital layer + the customer data. The site, the systems, and the customer list belong to Pejji, to you, not to TTA. If the partnership ever ends, Salami keeps the machines; you keep the engine and every customer relationship. That is the moat.
05 · Your three income streams from TTA
One shop, three taps.
1 · Profit share equity
Your 30% of the profits, after your capital is repaid.
2 · Capital repayment loan
Your funding paid back first, off the top, with a preferred return.
3 · Pejji management fee recurring
A small monthly fee Pejji charges TTA for running the digital arm, marketing, and systems. Steady money every month, regardless of that month's profit.
06 · The deep angles
The moves that build an empire, not just a shop.
- TTA is a prototype, not a destination. Storefront #1. Once the model works (fund → digitize → Pejji-fulfill → bundle printing), it's a repeatable playbook for the next shop, and the next. You're buying a blueprint.
- Build enterprise value, not just cashflow. Structured right, the combined thing becomes a sellable asset worth far more than the monthly cash. Always think about what it's worth if you sold it one day.
- Win through alignment, not control. The best protection isn't a tighter leash on Salami, it's making the partnership so good for him (via the Pejji customer flow) that leaving would be foolish. Make the pie so big nobody wants to leave the table.
- Protect the floor. Structure so your worst case is "I get my money back and keep the engine," never "I lose everything." Loan repaid first, IP + customers + Pejji stay yours, machines tracked to you.
07 · How to talk to Salami
Frame it as the genuine win it is. This is the version he hears.
"I bring the capital and the customers through Pejji, you run the shop and the printing, and we plug it all together so we both get way more business than either of us could alone."
On the share capital: "The share capital is just the number on the paper that says how we split the company. Think of it like slicing the business into pieces, I hold 30%, you hold 70%. It doesn't mean we drop a million naira anywhere, nobody's checking for that. We just pay the small government fee to register, and we both officially own our share."
He gets money and clients he'd never have had. You get a protected investment and a fulfillment engine. Keep it relationship-first, you're making the pie bigger, not squeezing your partner.
08 · Questions for the CAC guy
- 1. "Quote me the Ltd at ₦100,000 share capital, and also at ₦1,000,000. Total cost for each?" (Not ₦5M.)
- 2. "With the Ltd, both our names and the 70/30 split go on the official CAC register, correct?"
- 3. "I'll be registered using my Nigerian passport as a Nigerian citizen, right?"
- 4. "Do you also handle the shareholders' agreement, or do I need a separate lawyer?"
- 5. "Total all-in cost and timeline for the Ltd at low share capital?"
09 · Rules you keep to yourself
Your money is a lever, not a gift. Document every naira.
Own the IP and the customer data. That's the thing nobody can take.
Get repaid first. Preferred return before any profit split.
Fund in tranches. Release money as the business proves itself.
Alignment beats control. Make leaving unattractive by making staying rich.
Think exit value from day one, even if you never sell.
Keep it fair. A protected slice of a bigger pie, not a squeezed partner.
10 · The sequence
Order of operations.
- 1. Call the CAC guy back with the 5 questions. Lock the Ltd at low share capital.
- 2. Get the shareholders' agreement drafted, with the loan + preferred return + IP-ownership + vesting terms in it, before any money moves.
- 3. Fund tranche one only: registration + the Pejji-built site + WhatsApp/Paystack.
- 4. Prove demand (orders flowing, the funnel working), then release the next tranche for a machine.
- 5. Turn on the bundle: printing inside Pejji's offer + the two-way funnel.
- 6. Once it hums, treat it as the template and line up shop #2.
Private working doc, not legal advice. Confirm the loan/equity structuring with your Nigerian corporate lawyer + accountant.