Nelson Nseabasi is the founder and CEO of HypeMedia Marketing Group, a full-service digital media agency and communications advisory firm that helps businesses accomplish its goals. Having worked with many companies including government agencies to strategies marketing plans and campaigns in Nigeria, he is considered a thought leader and expert in digital marketing. Nelson before starting his firm was a digital marketer for a government agency who was underpaying him for one year in service.
Nelson who before starting up his firm, was a freelance journalist working with AriseNews for over three years. He has successfully worked with several startups, entrepreneurs and influencers to get them featured on news websites like CNN, Forbes, NYPost and Inc Magazine among others. Presently, he’s a writer for Nigerian news website Premium Times. He has successfully built several startups within the past three years. His story may appear to be one of those fantasy success stories but its no lie, we got to meet recently and i learned about his story.
Nelson’s entrepreneurial story began in 2016 after he quit his job as as a digital marketer for a government agency in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. “During my time working in the agency i earned between $15 to $25 a month, at that time i felt it was much caused i had just finished school and finding a job was really difficult. At a certain point in time i realized i was overqualified and underpaid for the job i was doing, so i took a bold step and quit.” After quitting he explained things were a bit tough but after some few months he got his first job from his newly setup social media page. He said his first job paid him $100 which at the initial time he received offered seemed too good to be true. After he had successfully completed the project, he invested the income into getting a website and setting up his social media page for services. Nelson at this time had put in more than 16 hours a day marketing his firm and its services online. For 5 months, every passing week felt like he got his last job as he didn’t get anymore client. “I felt like i had gotten my big break from my first job and getting more clients was easier but after some weeks i discovered its really difficult. For almost 6 months i didn’t get a client, i had lost hope, i barely checked my emails and had regrets of leaving my job. I ventured into website design but it wasn’t working out too. Getting to the ending of the 6th month without sales, i mean’t a friend who was doing well in marketing and he convinced me to try a different approach of marketing to clients. He advised i signup for Upwork and Fiverr, i got back home and did immediately. After some days i started getting jobs worth $200, that was more than 6times my previous salary, then i got jobs piled up and waiting. I was so excited but now i had another problem, i couldn’t deliver the job on time and they were just too many orders coming in. I knew it was time to expand a bit, so i hired people to help with the orders.”
Within two months Nelson had made over $4000 with less expenses apart from sitting home and paying for internet and electricity. In 2017, he decided to get an office space. By that time he had hired two staffs, one for customer service and the other for to assist in executing the orders. In December 2017, Nelson had registered his company and expanded again and added two more staffs. In early 2018, he launched a website design company in a separate office from the first one which was setup for digital marketing and reputation management.
In October 2018, he started offering his services to influencers and partnered with several startups to develop and grow businesses. Since Nelson had already written for several news websites before then he decided to reach out to them and form a network with journalist and editors at top media firms to build a concrete network of publishers. “I learnt the hard way that, its not how many times you fail but how many times you get back up.”
Nelson is currently managing several successful businesses in the field of marketing, public relations and e-commerce. His story is an inspiration to many people in Nigeria, encouraging people never to give up but rather have the “I can do” spirit.