‘Sure-Fire Businesses in Nigeria’
‘Top 50 Businesses in Nigeria’
‘Most Profitable Nigerian Businesses’
‘Fastest Growing Businesses in Nigeria’
These are some of the phrases you are guaranteed to find when searching for businesses to invest in, in Nigeria and yes, all these information found in books and on the internet, provide useful information on good business opportunities and ideas to invest in but can you relyon these write-ups 100% to decide on a good business to invest in? Certainly not and I’ll explain why.
There are a lot of things involved in business, you cannot just select a random business idea and run with it simply because someone has said it’s a good one.
Yes, you can get ideas on lucrative or viable business ideas from others but it shouldn’t just end at that. You still need to do more work; take apart each business idea and carefully sieve through to separate the wheat from the chaff so that at the end of the day, you would be left with a well-researched, carefully though-out business idea.
To come up with a good business idea in Nigeria, these are some helpful steps-:
Look for a missing gap
Nigeria is a developing country and because of this, there are still a lot of missing gaps that need to be filled. Look around you, what is that one thing that would improve the lives and experiences of people around you? Perhaps better security? Quicker access to food supplies? When you look around you, you would certainly find something that you can provide to better the lives of people around you.
Look into converting your hobby into a business
I believe everyone has at least one hobby. For me, one of my greatest hobbies is writing and this is a hobby that now pays my bills monthly. What is that hobby that can make you some money too?
Explore your passion
Another good way to come up with a lucrative business idea is to tap into your passion. For instance, if you love travelling, you can start a travel consultancy business. If you are passionate about farming, why not invest in agri-business? Investing in something you are passionate about makes making money from it seem like a very easy process.
Innovate something
Someone innovated electricity generators. It was someone that innovated smartphones and another invented innovated iPads. These products have helped to better people’s lives and have also made their innovators very rich. No matter how small, you too can come up with a very useful product too.
Tap your expertise
Another way to come up with a solid business idea is to look into making a business out of something you are very good at. For instance, I am very good with business consultancy and I have converted it into a business. You can do the same thing too.
Spy on others
If none of the methods listed above have worked for you, don’t lose hope. You can still look into what other people are doing and then copy but not blindly.
Invest in other people’s businesses
Let’s face it, not everyone is talented in running a business successfully. Some people are simply clueless about how to manage a business. If you fall into this category, there is nothing to be ashamed of. Instead of investing and losing your hard-earned money, look for reputable businesses that you can invest in instead.
Obtain a franchise
Lastly, you can obtain a franchise of a successful business. For instance, someone saw that Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was a very successful fast food outlet in the USA and decided to obtain the franchise and bring it down to Nigeria. There are a lot of successful products that you can obtain franchises of.
There are sometimes that picking up ideas from others or from the internet is inevitable.There is nothing wrong with that but you have to do some additional work to ensure that your business idea is rock-solid and guaranteed to earn you good money. Some of the methods to do this include-:
- Conducting a personal market research.
- Observing demand and supply patterns.
- Looking into business trends in the industry.
- Observing the degree of success/failure of past/ existing investors.
- Studying potential customers in terms of market size, population, demographics and income.
You should also not forget to write a detailed business plan and guide to help you succeed in the business.