If you are an entrepreneur highly driven by success or a fan of self-employment, then you would agree with me that starting and managing a business to a success level in Nigeria can be adventurous but a risk worth taking.
As a startup company or business owner, you must be ready to face the competition in the global market without neglecting the possibility of folding up or collapsing if you don’t scale through. This is where the risk is anyways. Imagine starting a business with millions of naira that didn’t see the light of day.
Nevertheless, there are still many successful enterprises, including new startups, that are certainly doing great. And if you do not totally agree with it, you can consider following African Business News. So, if you are consistently bugged with how to start a business in Nigeria or Africa, this article is for you. But we dive into how to create and manage a successful business in Nigeria; let’s look at what defines a company as successful.
What Defines A Successful Business
It will be natural and normal to tag any business that makes a lot of profit a success. But I feel a successful business should provide solutions and solves human needs. I understand the Nigerian economy and the famous saying “everyman for himself.” Whichever definition, profit is the end goal.
Now, let’s hold the bull by the horn and look at how to start and manage a successful business in Nigeria.
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8 Steps of Building a Succesful Business in Nigeria
- Have and Develop A Business Plan
This point can not be overemphasized and could most likely be the defining moment for your business. Every business requires a proper and in-depth plan with enough research. Knowing what problem you are exactly solving and how you want to solve them. As earlier stated, every business is meant to meet a need.
Therefore you will need to conduct adequate research to determine which type of product or services you want to venture into. The competition, the consumers you would hope to sell to, and other relevant information like regulations, etc.
Just like the cliché, if you fail to plan, you have designed to fail. Aside from some government regulations that may affect the growth and stability of a startup business, I guess preliminary plans lead to the failure of business in the nation.
- Register Your Business
Yes! After developing your business plan, the next thing is to register your business name in Nigeria (C.A.C.). Many people don’t see it as a big deal; some say it’s expensive and meant for big Organizations. Yet, in the actual sense, it does not cost much t it saves you the stress of losing your business name, avoids all forms of illegalities, and above all, grants your business access to grants and even loans.
- Aim for Mastery in your field and quality of services
As the famous saying goes, starting small is good, but I won’t advise you to stay stagnant. Nobody wants to be stagnant anyways. But the emphasis is never to remain at the same level you are, Keep getting better at your services, and take more business class training, seminars, and exposure.
As another Common cliché says, You can never give what you don’t have, and your business mantra must be a quality good or service.
This is even most appropriate in a nation like Nigeria, where every business is compromised with a plague of low standards and compromised quality and services.
- Be Financially Literate
The sole aim of every non-profit business is to make a profit right. But being financially literate is as important as making a profit. Financial literacy encapsulates the business cash flow, accounting and book recording, budgeting, fund sourcing and planning and many more. Unfortunately, studies showed that one of the major causes of most S.M.E.s collapse is a lack of financial literacy.
How? Most business owners spend all their profit at the early stage instead of reinvesting. Therefore, it is essential to have adequate financial management and thus make the right financial decisions. To avoid this, you can explore different business blogs for entrepreneurs.
- Build up An Appropriate Team
Any business is as good as the team behind it. It is, therefore, essential to gather the right people with the right mindset and understanding of the goal of the business. Regardless of the company or brand size, it would be best if you got the right people to work with the plan and as a team.
At some point, you will need to delegate roles and duties to people as it would be quite burdensome and nonproductive to do it all by yourself. Each appropriate individual specialized to a task makes beautiful teamwork and a prosperous business.
- Consistent Networking
It’s no news that how far you go primarily depends on how much you have networked yourself, especially in this part of this world. One advantage of getting to meet people or socializing is you can introduce your business to everyone you meet, apart from advertising and spotlighting your business platforms like Businessworld.Africa, networking yourself is another marketing strategy you should consider and adopt.
- Have A Mentor
Having a mentor is a quick way to understand the dos and don’ts of a business.
This means you are suitable to learn from other people’s experiences and mistakes to be at the top of your game. So get yourself a mentor, especially one who has achieved or is at the minimum towards attaining that level you are aspiring in that field of business.
- Target Marketing
You remember drafting a business plan, considering what and who to sell to. But it would be best to have an intended audience; having an engaged audience is not enough to know about them and build your business. Among others, location, product design, and societal class should be paramount in considering your target audience.
Conclusion
This article has walked you through 8 tips to start a successful business in Nigeria. It has also given a clear definition of what a successful business is.
Biography
I am Adebayo Daniel, a Water Resources and Environmental Engineering graduate from the University of Ilorin. A content and academic writer across various fields of study.
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