28 BUSINESS HACKS FOR NIGERIAN ENTREPRENEURS

Scaling the Challenges of Doing Business in Nigeria

It’s been a month of fascinating interviews with young entrepreneurs and I am sure you had a nice time reading those posts. I got a message from someone who asked why we didn’t have an interview with Willy of TWW, and I smiled. The short answer to that is this: we have not been in the game long enough. Willy has only been a functional business person for just about three years, and one day, he would tell his story here, but not now.

The interviews we held revealed a few things that were common with our guests. These things stand out and we would bring out a number of them for you to read, especially if you are a young business owner in Nigeria. I would do this using the popular factors of production you learnt in your Economics class back in high school. They are: land, labour, capital, and entrepreneur. I would however rearrange them to give a CELL acronym, now in the order

1. Capital
2. Entrepreneur
3. Labour
4. Land

1. Capital

Capital refers to liquidity, money used to run and float a business. In business, it also includes your assets and properties. For small and medium businesses that turn in little profits, a modest capital is required to start off. You could start such a business with as little as ₦5,000* capital for some and as much as ₦2.5 million at the other end of the divide. The entry of technology has made it even easier to create businesses with lower capital.

The essential nature of capital in doing business makes it the biggest challenge most entrepreneurs have. Over 80% of business owners blame lack of funds for the reason their business hasn’t grown as much as they would have wanted, even after they have been in the business for over five years. Some of the challenges faced when securing capital to do business in Nigeria are:

1. There are not enough investors
2. The few available investors are not patient enough with new businesses
3. High interest rates when obtaining loans
4. Insignificant collateral to obtain sizable loans
5. Poor financial literacy
6. Poor financial intelligence (advisors)
7. High rate of inflation
8. Devaluation of currency

Tips for Securing Capital

1. Start small if it’s enough to get you started
2. Ask for support from family and friends
3. Join savings cooperatives
4. Seek out grant opportunities
5. Develop a high sense of financial accountability
6. Track your expenses and income
7. Cut out unnecessary expenses

2. Entrepreneurship

This is the management of a business, the daily running of the business. This is arguably the most important part of the business, as the success or failure of the business depends on it, irrespective of the resources that are available.

A good manager has the ability to grow and increase a business and turn around the fortunes of a struggling business while a bad manager can crash a solid business empire in a short time. It should be worth noting at this point, that not everybody can make a good entrepreneur. There are certain qualities a good entrepreneur should possess which would be required to grow a business. They are, but not restricted to:

1. Honesty
2. Accountability
3. Resilience
4. Determination
5. Consistency
6. Open-mindedness
7. Relevant experience and a willingness to learn
8. Exemplary leadership

Any entrepreneur with these qualities is certified HARDCORE!

3. Labour

Most small businesses are sole proprietorship businesses, but there are a significant number which are partnerships and still others who require the employment of extra hands. The employed hands are known as labour.

Labour might be full-time, part-time, or contract staff. It is their job to work with the business manager in ensuring the effective operation of the business. A lot of small businesses need extra hands but cannot afford to pay the standard charge for their staff, especially owing to low profit margins. I would share a few hacks to get the labour you need for as little as nothing. Try the following:

1. Ask for help from family and friends
2. Offer partnerships to equally competent hands as yourself
3. Be willing to take in and train people for free
4. Enlist with NGOs as a skill acquisition centre and have people sent to learn
5. Participate in exchange volunteer schemes

4. Land

The final item on the list, land is simply where you work, except you’re a bird. Your work space and the resources on it is your land. For small businesses, the cost of getting a standard place to operate and do business can be a big challenge, as space in certain areas can be very expensive. Notwithstanding, since you cannot trade in the air, I give you subtle ways to get land for your small business. Take your pick, there’s quite a number:

1. If you’ve got the space, set up a shop in your house
2. If you can’t get a shop, use your bedroom, or any other room that’s available
3. Go digital, take your business online
4. Share a shop with other small business owners
5. Set up a kiosk
6. Set up a stall
7. If you have a vehicle, you can use it
8. As a last resort, talk to family or friends who have enough room to spare for you to use

Well, that’s about that, and I am positive your business is ready for uplift after this. If you have tips you want to share, let us know. Thanks for sticking around this month, see you in August.

Stay smart!