“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” –John Wooden

In every business blog post that I write, I try to go as low as possible to be able to start the business because I know the kind of people we are. We like to make excuses.  Honestly speaking, It’s not an insult. I like to put things the way they are. 

This delivery food business doesn’t require you to know how to cook any damn food. Yes and yes. In fact, the knowledge of boiling indomie isn’t necessary at all. So, you are wondering how I’m going to be selling and delivering food to people without knowing how to cook? You will find a fine canteen/restaurant in your area that prepares good meals at a reasonable price. That’s all. 

Let me burst your bubble: this business idea flashed into my mind while eating a plate of N350 meals in a good canteen.

So, let’s start talking about the business.

What will you sell: 

Meal prepared by a good restaurant of your choice. There are many good food canteens around your locality that prepare good meals but have not much access to customers that can pay more for their food. 

If you are a natural business person or you love to question things, you will discover that a lot of small businesses are located in a place where they are not supposed to be engaging in such business activity at all. Sometimes, it’s not the business owner’s fault. For instance, in Lagos, a landlord can wake up in the morning and decide to sell his property without notifying any tenant. And one of the thriving businesses in Lagos is real estate. If the property is situated in a choice area, buyers may show up within a week. People don’t really care that much. Almost everybody is in business, including some NGOs. And number one aim of any well-managed business is to make a profit. If the buyer is a property developer and really wants to raise up his intended structure as fast as he can because of the demand from his prospective clients, he may choose to send everybody out within 7 days. I’m talking from experience. Some developers are humane: they can offer to give every occupant enough money to rent the same kind of apartment in the locality or elsewhere. Yes. I’m talking from experience. 

The people that occupy shops are always the most affected. The ways we handle business in Nigeria leave no room for most small business owners to have some funds reserved for tackling any unforeseen occurrence that can truncate the business activity. I have watched friends going out of business because of this. 

As you are hurrying to get a new business place, you may not secure the right one for the kind of your business. You just end up renting one. And If care is not taken, you may start afresh — gathering customers. You just see that your customers disappear into thin air. Gaining customers and keeping them is a very tough job for some kinds of businesses. Small business owners in Nigeria hardly keep their customers’ data. 

Business is to spot problems or recognize an irregular pattern and try to fix and turn it to profit for good. 

Let’s put everything simply: you will be helping good food canteens to sell food to their unreachable and unknowable high-paying customers at a reasonable price. 

Who will buy your food?

Every business needs customers to stay in business. Any business with no paying customer is a hobby. Even, these days, people are turning their hobbies into thriving businesses. Most people make mistakes by creating a product first, then start looking for customers because they assume the customers will like their product of which things don’t go that way most of the time. If you create a product and nobody likes to exchange his/her money for it, you are on your own. 

You are starting a small business and the better way to approach it in order to minimize risks is to find customers for the product or service first, then look for ways to make the solution known to the prospective customer. Are they government workers? Are they friends and family? Are they private organizations employees? Are they people in your locality? Are they people in the informal sector of the economy? Are they retired? Are they property owners? Are they people who are too busy to cook food for themselves? Are they corporate people who think going to restaurants to eat is a time-wasting activity? These are the questions to ask yourself. After that, you will now be thinking of how to reach them. Are they your former colleagues or your coworkers? Do you have their phone number? Do you have their personal email address? Do you know where they live? Can somebody take you there and introduce your business to them? Can you get their information on the Internet? These are the ways to approach things in business. 

You will need to have pen and paper to put things down in the most understanding manner of your choice. After you have gotten customers, then you can move on to the next stage. You will notice that you have not spent money a dime doing this, so God forbid, if the business idea doesn’t fly, you lose nothing. 

How will your food business help people?

This, in fact, is one of the most important questions to ask yourself before dipping your toe in the ocean of business. Your potential customers are not patsy and don’t ever assume they are. You must find means of making it glaring how your business will benefit them. Almost everybody is selfish.

First, people think about themselves before anyone else and it’s not their fault, it’s human nature. People must find your food reasonable to them before they can exchange their hard-earned money for it. Healthwise, people take whatever they ingest seriously. 

You may be lucky to find some shy customers who don’t like to be disturbed and for this reason, they may buy your food and give it to their junior colleague to eat, and if that one doesn’t give a good review about your food, he may likely never patronize you again. Yes. People don’t like to be taken advantage of. 

If I was the one doing this business, I will make it clear to my customer that: my hygienically-prepared food will nourish them without leaving their office desk at an affordable price. Simple. I will be delivering the food at their preferred time to their place of work. 

What will you charge your customers?

Business = Profit,  and Profit = Revenue – Expenses. To run a profitable business, the total cost of doing the business — the business expenses must be lesser than the revenue generated. For instance: if it costs you N5 to produce a product, N1 to brand it, N1 to store it, N2 to transport it to your customer — making the total cost N9 only— it’ll be bad for business to charge N10 or N11 for the product. Just make sure the price is reasonable to your customers. Once your customers can afford to pay for your product, you don’t need to worry. 

In the local canteen where you will be sourcing cooked meal from (have it in mind that you must have already had a trade agreement with food canteen, not necessarily paper agreement, it can be a verbal one: I will be coming to buy so and so the food at the so and so amount in so and so time), you will get the plate of food lower than the price you can sell to your customers. For instance: you can get a  plate of food, let’s say a plate of eba with vegetable soup and beef for N300 only; you sell and deliver it to your customer for N500; that’s N200 profit on a plate. Period. If you’re a good negotiator, you can tell the food cooker to reduce very small quantity from the food and since you will be buying let’s say 100 plates from him every working-day, 500 plates a week, s/he should be giving you a plate at the rate of N200 per one, so, that the extra N100 can now be going into things like branding and marketing for your business. That’s it. 

If you can get a plate of food for N200 from a good canteen, you’ll be packaging it in disposable food plastic, you get a white nylon bag to deliver it. If I were you, I would be using white branded paper envelopes to deliver the food. You go against the norm in the food market. You deliver the meal with Nestle table water or Cway table water and 2 pieces of a serviette. 

As the business is growing, you will be thinking of how to add other things to it like selling 100% natural fruit juice made from freshly-squeezed fruits. 

There are many things you can add to grow your business and turn it into a cash dispensing machine for life. 

How will you get paid?

It’s important to know how you will be getting paid by your customer and which methods of payment you will need to use. 

It’s very important to make it easy for customers to pay for your product and service. Don’t do business like some Nigerians that collect cash only. Let your customers decide the means of payment that is convenient for them. If they want to pay cash, accept it. If some want to do mobile transfer, don’t discourage them. Even, if they want to pay with bitcoin, collect it. 

Let’s go a bit further. Some of your customers may want to be paying you at the end of the month after they earn their salary — that is postpaid, don’t reject the offer; it’s a good one. Some customers will choose to pay you for a whole month before the service — this is an opportunity to get funds to grow your business. 

As you’re getting paid, do well with your fund. Don’t mismanage it. Don’t spend on anything that won’t contribute to your business growth now. 

How else will you make money from your food business?

Successful businesses are the ones that have multiple streams of income. As the company is growing, they create new products and services to increase their revenue. In today’s fast-paced world, to stay in business, you must be innovative with every business activity. 

You can do the same by adding other things to the food you are selling. You can start selling natural fruit juice to your existing customers.  

Also, most of your customers will be busy people and they will need a home meal plan. You can tell them that you can be bringing their dinner to them at their office before they close for work for the day. They can just warm it when they get home. And definitely, a whole lot of Lagosians have microwaves in their various homes. 

Furthermore, what about weekend meal plans? The rate may be a little lower and more affordable than the one for working days. 

You can still do more by getting a private and reliable dispatch rider that will be handling the logistics for you. To date, logistics is a mess in Nigeria because of trust issues, but as a passionate business owner, you can always work your way around it. 

As your customer base is growing, business is booming, you have gained a special place in your customer’s heart because you always deliver — beyond expectations. Your customers will have an owambe or small birthday party, and they’ll need to eat and drink some things. Your business is to find means of providing them with the things they want. 

Busy working-class people spend money to buy pots of their desired soup, pots of cooked delicacy. If you know how to prepare a certain delicacy that customers want or you can hire a caterer to make it for you, business is done. You just deliver it on request and get paid. 

I can go on and on to tell you how to make more money for your business. The ability to think is what makes us human. You too can think more deeply and add some new things and to make your customers’ lives become better. 

How will customers learn about your business?

This is the marketing aspect of your business and it starts on the first day that you begin the business. 

In the beginning, I was discussing getting working-class people for your business. Telling more working-class people and explaining how you can make their favourite meal available to them in the comfort of their office without lifting a finger can make people want to learn about your business. 

You can do SMS marketing too. Try and get the phone number of your targeted working-class people, send text messages to introduce your business to them. 

If you have a fine budget, you can make fliers and distribute them in your targeted area. You can go to where office workers parked their car and meet them at their closing time to give them the flier. If you are the shy type, you can fold the flier and put it on their car. 

Also, in your religious centre, especially, if you are a worker in the church, you can tell your pastor to help you to reach some busy working-class people in the church that you don’t have access to and you meet the ones you can one-on-one. 

There are many things you can do to make prospective clients know about your business. 

Business is booming and in today’s Internet age, having an online presence is crucial to your growth. Create a free Google My Business account for more people to be able to find you on the Internet. Do not be surprised about the kind of things people google search these days on the Internet. I mean, Google is a go-to place for people to search for anything. Imagine if somebody searches for “meal to my office in Ikeja” and your Google My Business profile shows up in the result, that is a plus for your business for free. 

Creating a Facebook page is something you can do in seconds. There are millions of people waiting there to learn about your business. 

As you are gaining more customers, you can consider having a functional website for your business. Your existing customers and your business will benefit greatly from this innovation because they will be able to place orders easily on it. Your website will have a blog section where you will be discussing healthy eating habits, the health benefits of certain food ingredients, and so on. Make sure you create good content and stay consistent in writing good blog posts. If you don’t like to write, you can employ the service of a freelance writer to craft compelling copies for you on a regular basis at an agreed amount of money per article. 

Adding a forum section to your existing website is also a welcome development — through this — your customers will be able to create topics and discuss with fellow customers. The complaints section will also be there. Your business will never be 100% perfect — this means there will always be complaints from customers. Customers stay loyal to businesses that address problems or any inconvenience they have with their product or service. 

How can you encourage referrals? 

In business, I have come to the realization that, if your product or service meets people’s needs, they will always recommend it to anyone who needs the same thing. The most important thing is that your food must be really good and it must arrive when they want to eat it. People do say that hunger and anger go the same way — a hungry man is an angry man. Your customers already have many things to bother themselves about, so don’t let your foodservice become another problem and reason to bring anger into the only life they have.

 I have seen high profile people discussing a particular pounded-yam with vegetable soup and bush meat they always eat anytime they are having a particular meeting. 

You can also tell your customers about how you are rewarding customers for referring new people to do business with you. The reward may not necessarily be something big, but little things go a long way. It can be a bottle of fruit juice; it can be additional pieces of meat; it can be a plate of meal; it can be a thank you message; it can be a loaf of freshly baked bread. 

If you look very well, there are numerous ways to encourage referral. Ensure that your customers like what you are offering as a gift. 

The food business will be successful when it achieves these metrics: 

From the beginning, you need to have a certain number of customers in mind to reach for business. And as the business is booming you will be increasing the number. 

You can say that: my food business will be successful when I have 1000 paying customers that eat my food daily in their various offices. You can also have it in mind that when you generate thirty million naira profit per annum consistently for five years, your business can be tagged successful. 

In life and business, there is no standard for measuring success — because success is subjective. What one person calls success may be a failure to another. 

You just have to set your own metrics. 

Obstacles, challenges, open questions: 

You need to consider the obstacles you will likely face in engaging in business activities. In business, some obstacles don’t show themselves in the beginning until when you start the business and the best way to go about it is to write down any problem you think of and look for ways to work around the obstacles and don’t let it deter you from going about the business. 

Any question that comes to your mind should be written down too. 

Like, what if the food canteen owner doesn’t want to do business with me? 

There are numerous good canteens in your locality that are ready for business. All you need is to walk and talk more. 

What if working-class people don’t want my food? 

There are millions of working-class people within your reach and more so, you’re not cooking or buying any food before getting customers, so you lose nothing by meeting rejection from some of your potential customers. You can consider talking to more people. 

In business, you will surely meet rejections and people will sometimes doubt your ability to deliver as expected. You just don’t give up. There is never a good time to start any business. Manage whatever you have to begin what you want to do. 

Key Takeaways: 

Start as little as possible by sourcing prepared meals from a good canteen.

Get some busy working-class people who need your food delivery service.

Package the food very well and deliver it at the appropriate time.

Get more customers.

Reinvest your profits into the business.

Hire people to do some tasks for you.

Continue growing your business. 

I would love to hear from you as you have made up your mind to take the first bold step to start your business. 

Let me leave you with this: Jumia and Gokada are into this business, so why can’t you start your own business on a small scale?

“Make it happen now, not tomorrow. Tomorrow is a loser’s excuse.”  – Farrah Gray 

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HOW TO START INSECTICIDE PRODUCTION BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

Insecticide sells like crazy in Nigeria and Africa because people need to get rid of perceived harmful insects in their homes and surroundings. 

According to UNICEF: “Malaria causes more than three hundred million acute illnesses and kills at least one million people every year. Ninety percent of deaths due to malaria occur in Africa, south of the Sahara, and most deaths occur in children under the age of five.”

Malaria kills people everyday in Nigeria. Mosquito is the carrier of the plasmodium parasite that causes malaria illness. Malaria is spread when an infected Anopheles mosquito bites a person. Anopheles is the type of mosquito that can spread this life-threatening illness. It becomes infected by biting an infected person and drawing blood that contains the plasmodium parasite.

They say: prevention is better than cure. Getting rid of mosquitoes is the number one reason most people fumigate their homes and surroundings with insecticide. A single Anopheles mosquito is capable of infecting more than 100 people before its lifecycle ends. In order to not give way to this, people go to any length to destroy mosquito inhumane activities. 

There are other creepy crawlies that cause damage in homes: cockroaches, flies, termites, spiders, bed bugs, ants, bees, etc. They all destroy things and their activities are quite embarrassing. Insecticides are used to terminate their lifecycle. 

Insecticide production business is lucrative. You can start it without taking a loan from the bank. The market is booming and entering it to take your own share is as simple as ABC. 

Look at the big and known brands in the market to see how much they sell their products. Look at the way new products surface in the marketplace. Just imagine why they are coming up with new products everyday. If the demand is not there, no one will waste his/her time, energy, and money to produce a product that no one is ready to exchange his/her money for. 

Let’s go into how to start the production of insecticide.

WHAT ARE THE EQUIPMENTS THAT  YOU WILL NEED FOR THE PRODUCTION?

• Big bowl.
• Stirring stick.
• Facial mask.
• Nylon/Rubber hand gloves.

WHAT ARE THE CHEMICAL INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF INSECTICIDE?

• Sniper. ( 100 ml size)
• Industrial Camphor. ( 2kg )
• Formalin. (1/14)
• Mulvap. (100 ml)
• IPA. ( 50 cl)
• Kerosene. (5 litres)
• Color. (As you want. You must have already dissolve the color in water separately before application.)
• Perfume. ( As you want)

WHAT ARE THE PRODUCTION PROCESSES?

1. Pour your 5 litres of kerosene into a big bowl. 
2. Pour all the 2kg industrial camphor into the kerosene and leave it for like 40 minutes to let dissolve properly.
3. Pour the Mulvap 100 ml size into it carefully. 
4. Pour all the IPA.
5. Pour your desired perfume.
6. Pour the color solution into it.
7. Use the stick to stir everything together.
8. Leave it for some minutes.
9. Package it into containers of your choice.
10. Brand it and start selling.

HOW WILL YOU FIND CUSTOMERS FOR TOUR PRODUCTS? 

Advertise, advertise, advertise. Market, market, market. Introduce your people to the people in your locality. Give it free to friends, co-tenants, coworkers, and family members who you know will need the product or usually complain about damages the insects in his/her house has caused. 

I have a friend who hates cockroaches with passion. This friend of mine can smell cockroaches miles away. Look for customers like him. They are everywhere to find and if they discover that your product works as they desire, they will always buy and recommend your product to customers.

Package your product well. Don’t let it look like something that wasn’t properly made. Design label sticker for it. Make use of uncommon plastic containers to package them well. If you can afford to print a nylon sticker, print it. 

Now to you…

Almost every business idea can open the door to financial independence and freedom for you. You have to ensure that you execute your idea properly and market your product strategically. Put some enthusiasm into the marketing. Talk as if it’s more than the insecticide that you are selling.

I would love to hear from you. I’m happy that you have made up your mind to start your business. Start hustle now, not later.

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Start now!

One of the beauties of the Internet is being able to trade with people in all parts of the world. Before, there used to be different kinds of barriers that blocked people from exchanging goods and services among themselves. For instance: most traders are limited to selling goods only to the people in their country before, but this is no longer the case as the Internet has made trading become effortless. The Internet has broken so many barriers and replaced them with equal opportunities for every willing human being to make trading possible.

I remember those days, importers used to be rich people who could afford to ship large quantities of goods in containers from overseas countries and they made a killing from it. Starting an importation business in those days required a huge amount of money—this put many people off.

Nowadays, the Internet has made things easy and importation is no longer an overwhelming process. Mini-importation is the kind of importation where you buy your intended goods from sellers in other parts of the world on the internet at a  small scale and get them shipped into your country. It required small capital to start the mini-importation business. You can import any kind of product in small quantities from the corner of your room. 

Mini-importation is one of the lucrative businesses you can start without breaking the bank. Almost everybody can engage in the business.

What are the things you need to start the business?

Determination: Before starting any business you must be determined and ready for the business demand because business comes with a headache and if you are not determined to stay in business and grow it, you may give up easily. 

• An Internet-enabled device and Internet Connection: You must own an Internet-enabled device to start the business. It can be a smartphone, PC, or tablet. You are not going to a physical shop to buy your goods. You will be buying on foreign e-commerce websites and without any of these, you will not be able to do any importation.
• ATM Card: Owning a personal debit card is required because you are going to be making payments with it. This is not a brick-and-mortar business—so no cash transactions.
• Capital: You need to have some money that you will use to buy and import your desired product. You can start your mini importation business with as little as N10, 000 only.
• Your Physical Address: Any product that you buy on the internet is going to be shipped to your address. You will be picking up your ordered products at the post office. If you don’t have a physical address, if, by luck, your products get to the post office in Nigeria, they will be sent to NIPOST Headquarters. Imagine the stress. But if you have one, you will just pick your products up at the nearest post office.
• Valid Mean of Identification: This is what you will be using at the post office to claim your goods. Also, as you are progressing in your business, you will need to be importing more quantities of products. Some platforms limit the quantities of products you can buy except if you have some valid documents and the number one required document is a government-issued ID card.
• An e-mail address: You need to have a valid email address to do mini-importation business—you will use it to sign up on online platforms where you will be buying your products.

Where are you going to be importing your products from? 

China is the best place to import your products from. You don’t have to fly to China before buying any product of your choice. I will be listing the websites where you can import your products and sell them in Nigeria at a profitable price. Let’s go:

• taobao.com: Taobao is a platform where you can buy any product at a ridiculously cheap price. You will need to use the Google Chrome browser so that you can translate the Chinese language on the website. For instance: some wireless earpiece brands sell for 54 Chinese Yuan. When you convert that to Naira you will get N1, 100 or thereabouts. This product can be easily sold for N5, 000—so let’s do the maths: N5, 000 – N1, 100 = N3, 900 profit on a single product! See profit margin!
• ictcomputerlimited.com: This is a platform where you can buy computer hardware, networking equipment, CCTV, printers, servers hardware. The mobile phone number of the sales rep of this platform is on the website. You can save it and chat him up on WhatsApp. His name is Rony. There is one thing I love about him: He regularly sends price updates to all his contacts even if you don’t request them. 
• 1688.com: This is another Chinese website like Taobao where you can buy almost everything at a cheap rate. 
• jd.com: I love JD. If you want to be selling phones and accessories, computers and accessories, and cameras and accessories, jd is one place where you can get them. 
• tmall.com: Tmall is good too for business too. Products there are cheap. It is recommended to buy from sellers who have good reviews. 
• alibaba.com: Alibaba is another good China’s sure where you can buy almost everything you can ever think of. 
• dhgate.com
• AliExpress.com
• dx.com
• chinabrands.com
• banggood.com
• tinydeal.com
• lightinthebox.com
• gearbest.com
• paipai.com
• miniinthebox.com

Outside China, there are other reputable websites where you can import from and make a good profit on your products. I have the list with me. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you need it. For instance: there is a website where almost everything they sold is $5. I mean $5. Imagine the kind of profit you can gain selling products like these. 

What are the fast-selling products you can import to Nigeria? 

• Phone accessories (Charger, power banks, wireless handsfree, corded earphone, pouch)
• Laptop accessories (Bag, flash drive, external hard drive, charger)
• Smartwatches 
• Fitness tracker 
• Computer accessories 
• Tablet 
• Phones 
• Wireless Hair Clipper
• Tshirt 
• Shoe
• Herbal tea 
• Wristwatches
• Jewelry 
• Phone screen guards 
• Kid tablets 
• Weight loss products 
• Spy Camera 
• Sex Toys 
• Ladies wear 

How will you ship your products to Nigeria?

• Websites like dhgate.com, AliExpress.com, dx.com, and gearbest.com ship products directly to your physical address in Nigeria and you pick them up at the nearest Post Office. Most of them offer free shipping if you can make an order for a certain number of products, though it may take like 14-28 days to arrive. 
• You can use an agent to ship your goods. This method is recommended if you are buying large quantities of products. Your seller will deliver the products to your agent and he will help you to check the product quantity before paying, and you pay him for the product and service fee—as agreed. The agent will ship the goods to you. The goods will arrive within the number of days that you choose and pay for. Chrisvicmall is a reliable agent you can trust. You can check them out by visiting their website www.chrisvicmall.com. Another agent that you can also for the shipment of your product is NBC Sky Logistics. Log on to their website to know everything about them and how they work  www.nbcskyelogistics.com. 

How will you get customers for your products?

It’s always recommended to start within your immediate circle of influence: introduce your products to friends, coworkers, co-tenants, and family members. You can sign up as a merchant on Nigeria’s e-commerce sites like Konga and Jumia to start selling there—they have large numbers of buyers who will be interested in your product. 

In addition, creating a Facebook page and promoting it to reach a great audience will be good for your business. There are over active 15 million Nigerians on Facebook.

Also, free classifieds ads sites like jiji.ng, olist.ng receive a great number of visitors who buy products on a daily basis. Don’t leave the money on the table by not taking the advantage of this opportunity to sell to them. 

Nairaland, Nigeria’s biggest forum, has a section called Technology Market where people post and advertise freely their products and services. This section receives tons of traffic every day. Don’t disregard an opportunity to reach millions of prospective buyers in the forum. 

Business Advice

The Mini-importation business is a lucrative one if you do it the right way. It’s one of the businesses where I have made money from. There are some key things you need to take note of to avoid stories that touch. 

Don’t pay any seller outside of the platform he is selling on. It is advisable to use the payment channel on the website. Anything outside that may be risky. You are just starting, so don’t burn your capital this way. 

Before paying for any product, it’s good to check for the price of the same product on some other websites to discover the best price to go for. Also, as you are checking that, don’t forget to check the retail price locally too in order to have an idea of how much the product can be sold in Nigeria, and if the profit margin makes sense enough to you. I remember how I shipped 20 pieces of wristwatches that I ended up selling at the price that I bought them. I gained no profit. I failed to do a proper price check before making the payment. That particular seller is notorious for selling his products at ridiculously high prices. I later read comments of customers complaining bitterly and warning retailers not to buy from him because the price he’s offering the product is for end-users, not resellers. Do a proper price check before paying for any product. 

Furthermore, import the fast-selling products. Do not make mistakes by assuming that people will like any product that you bring to the marketplace. Do a little finding. Check local e-commerce and free classified ads sites to have an idea of what people are buying and requesting regularly. 

Don’t rush. Start by ordering products in a small quantity, then you’ll be increasing it gradually as you are seeing results—this will save you money, energy, and time. You will know what works and what doesn’t. If you fail, you will be able to manage things properly. 

Take enough time to think and plan.

In conclusion

I believe if you follow this comprehensive step-by-step guide, making money and growing your mini-importation business will be realizable.

I would love to hear from you. If you have a contrary opinion or question or something that you think I suppose to cover in this post, please, leave comments below.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have one issue or the other with starting your mini-importation business and making money in Nigeria. 

Logistics is a very big business. On a daily basis, people move goods from one place to another. Daily economical activities rely heavily on logistics. It’s a lucrative business one can dip hands in. Every industry needs logistics services to run business smoothly. 

The food items you eat everyday come from somewhere and it is the job of some people to make it available for trade in the marketplace.

As I said earlier, logistics has a very big market, and there are many segments of its service provision. Load moving service is the one I’m going to be talking about in this post. 

Why do I think load-moving  is a good business in Nigeria ?

• It’s a daily need of people and businesses.

• Logistics is still a mess in Nigeria—people get disappointed in the services rendered by most players in the industry, so, being able to deliver beyond customers expectations will make a place for you in their hearts and they will always recommend your services. 

• The demand is higher than the supply.

• The profit margin is high. 

• Little to no innovation in the market—you can disrupt the market with good innovations and turn things around for your company. 

• There are so many unsatisfied needs in the industry. 

What services are you going to offer as a load-moving business man?

In business, mostly, you are selling goods or offering services or both. You have to consider the kind of services you’ll offer as a load-moving person. I will be listing the kinds of services that I think you can offer. 

• Residential Moving: This is one of the services you can offer. You will be helping people who are relocating from one location to another to move their belongings.  The demand for this service is high most especially in Lagos where people relocate every blessed day. 

• Commercial Moving: Producers/manufacturers deliver goods to their customers. They need a reliable person/company that can be handling it for them because they are busy with other business activities. You will be helping them to satisfy this business need of theirs and get paid. Also, in markets, people come to buy goods and they need a bus to convey them to their destination—not every trader owns a vehicle—so this is a business opportunity for you. 

• Equipment Moving: This is a load-moving service where you help individuals and businesses to move their business equipment from one place to the other. Business equipment can be of any weight—it depends, so it’s not necessary that you should be moving every business equipment.  You can choose the kinds you will like to be moving for people. For instance: DJs need equipment moving service every weekend to the location of their show.  Speakers, generators and other sound equipment must be brought to where the show is going to hold, else there won’t be anything. 

• Interstate Moving: Interstate service can be any of the aforementioned services. People relocate from one state to another—interstate service will be needed. The farmers in a town need to make their farm produce available in the market. Interstate moving service is a goldmine if you have a good truck because a single trip can bring a whole lot of money.

How will your business help people?

People go through a lot of pains in the process of moving loads from one location to another. As said earlier, logistics is still a mess in Nigeria. Logistics companies don’t deliver on time. Some will spoil everything they move for you. Your equipment, food items, goods may be badly damaged. No apology from the company. A lot of them charge people and businesses crazily but deliver below the perceived value.

Best thing to do is to find out the kinds of problems people are having with their logistics companies and find means of tailoring lasting solutions to them. 

Your business can help them by making delivery of goods to their customers a seamless experience. You pick the goods on time and deliver it on time.

You make your services reasonable enough to exchange money for. 

You ensure  that all goods are delivered undamaged. 

Having good customers’ complaints channels are good for your business and customers. People like to be able to reach out to business if they experience any inconvenience—and you are able to bring a solution to their complaint—this reaffirms the trust they have in your business. 

What are the things you need to start the business? 

• Grit: You need grit to start and grow any business. Entrepreneurship is not any easy thing that’s why many people cannot do it. Launching your business will require you to take bold steps and if you don’t have the courage you won’t be able to do it. It takes sweats and proper planning  to start any business—and not everybody likes to be worried. When everything turns topsy-turvy in business, grit keeps you going. 

• Bus/Truck: You will definitely need a bus/truck to move the load from one place to the other. Your bus/truck must be in good working-condition to be able to satisfy customers’ demand. Don’t panic, as a beginner, it’s not required that you own the bus by yourself. You can seal a business deal with some good bus/truck drivers, so, when you have an order from a customer, you will employ his service to deliver the load for you. As the business is growing, you can consider getting your own bus to make more profit in the business. 

• Niche: Choosing the kind of load you will be moving for customers is crucial to your business growth. Carrying all the movable loads may burn you out easily and you may not be able to deliver as expected. As a starter, you must not disappoint any customer so that efforts to grow your business will yield desired results on time. 

• Target Market: It’s good to have your target market in mind. You need to ask yourself the kinds of customers you want to be serving. Most businesses that serve everybody satisfy no one in the end. So pick a market and customers you know that you can provide with satisfying value.

• Capital: This is another key resource to start your business. It depends on your budget. It’s not necessary to have a huge sum of money in the beginning. As you are gaining profit, you can be reinvesting it back to your business to grow it. One key factor: don’t spend on anything that is not essential to get the business idea off the ground. Don’t rent an office if you cannot afford it now. You can use your residential address instead. 

• Customers: No business stays in business without having paying customers. Don’t think that you can start your business and be looking for customers later. It is advisable to start thinking about getting and gathering customers from the day one the business idea flashes into your mind. 

• Company Name Registration: Having your business registered makes it easy for people to do business with you. Some customers perceive an unregistered business as an illegal and unethical one. People want a trusted company to handle their goods and deliver them safely. And if there is any mess, they can sue your company to court, meanwhile an unregistered business cannot be taken to court of law. You may be thinking what if the business doesn’t fly on time as expected and you have spent money on the registration. Don’t be worried. You can start without the registration and as the business is booming, you get your company registered. 

How will customers learn about your business?

If people know nothing about your business, you are on your own—this is why you need to make your services known to people. 

There are many working marketing techniques you can employ without spending much. You will need to try some of them out to discover which ones work for your business. No jokes. 

Let’s talk about some marketing techniques you can try out for your load moving business:

Word-of-mouth: Word-of-mouth marketing is so powerful and effective. It’s when a customer talks about a company’s product or service to their friends and family. People tend to believe the recommendations of the people they trust more than other forms of advertising. You can start by telling your friends and family members about your business. You convince them about how you can deliver on time. If you have an existing good rapport with them, giving your service a trial will come so easy, and if you deliver, they will always recommend your service. 

Network With Real Estate Agent for Gigs: Real estate agents are go-to persons when one needs to rent, buy, and lease apartments. They have contacts and addresses of people who want to sell, buy, rent, lease properties. They connect the landlord to the tenant. Having contacts or knowing some agents is a marketing advantage. You can tell them the kind of services you offer and how you do reward per referral they bring to your business. 90% of the tenants move their belongings—furniture, electronics, kitchen equipment, dresses—from their old apartment to the new one. Leveraging on the agents’ clients and contact will bring many paying customers for your services. 

Go Digital: We are in the Information Age and everything has gone digital. There are many untapped opportunities to reach people on digital mediums. Utilizing the free tools available to promote your business in the digital space will deliver desired results and bring profit. There are more than 15 million active Facebook users in Nigeria, so create a Facebook page for your business to reach your prospective customers. Also, Google My Business is free. Sign up and create a free business profile and get listed on Google with no hassle. Don’t leave Twitter out of your equation too. Follow business, real estate, and business owners accounts. Slide into their DMs and introduce your business to them and make it known how you are different from other companies offering the same services. 

Banners and Fliers Sharing: Design eye-catching banners and fliers for your business and distribute them effectively. The banner can be fixed at some specific locations like street junctions, bus stops, peoples’ meeting points, etc. 

What are the challenges/obstacles you are likely going to face?

There is no single business idea on this planet with no perceived obstacles/challenges. Perceived obstacles can even be silly ones that you imagine—which may not exist in real life. Obstacles are not meant to deter you from starting what you want to launch. 

In Nigeria, the number one perceived obstacle by people is capital—people believe it takes money to make money and without money, they cannot start their desired business—of which time has proven and presented to the many businesses they can start with no money in their pocket.

Even, you can use people’s money to start a business. I know people who stylishly collect advance payment from customers—they use it to produce or buy whatever they want to sell to the customer—they use the customer’s money to get what the customer wants. 

Furthermore, if you maintain good relationship with people, as in people know you as an honest person, they can trust you with their hard-earned money to start a business and if you are able to convince them that you will return the money at a specified period of time—may be with returns—you will have enough to get your business off the ground. 

Not getting the number of predicted customers on time can be an obstacle too and I think the solution to this is to market your service well to people who need it and the people who may know who need the service. 

Now to you…

I would love to hear from you as you have made up your mind to take the first bold step or you are thinking of when, how, and where to start. 

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