Profitable Small Business Ideas

Everyone wishes to be a millionaire but atleast everyone needs a job, people who like to work on their own individually can have lots of benefits of starting your small business. So here we discuss some of the bestSmall Business ideas so that you can start your own Business with almost little or no investment.
1. EVENT MANAGEMENT

Every year, lots of event and parties are organized. So event management has a high demand these days. Of course it needs some capital to start, but the business is obviously worth a lot.
2. CONTENT CREATOR
If you are good at writing then you can start writing contents for others and start selling them. You can use services like fiverr or seoclerks or even create your own site to sell your articles.
3. SECURITY AGENCY

New Firms, Companies are starting daily and they need security. You can find some good security guards and make your own agency to provide security.
4. WEB DESIGNER

Almost every company agency, small or big have a website, so there is high demand for a web designer. You can learn HTML, CSS, PHP, SQL to be a good web designer.
5. BLOGGING

Blogging is one of the best ideas, you just need a topic in which you are good and start blogging on that topic. There are lots of bloggers  who are earning from $1000 to $5000 in a month.
Blog can be based on cooking, learning or any topic about which you know in deep and you can write number of different articles, it needs somewhat daily affort to going forward.

UNIQUE RESTAURANT

You have to be creative and unique in your idea otherwise its not easy to establish your business as there are already lots of restaurants. People want something new from you which attracts them, do a little bit research then you can find the best one.

10 Businesses You Can Start With #30,000 in Nigeria

So much has been said about having a huge capital before starting a business, but you know what, u can actually start a lucrative business in Nigeria today with as low as #30000. Here is how-
1. BULK SMS RESELLER

Bulk sms is a premier provider of mass sms messaging solutions to businesses, organizations, and individuals using reliable, secure, and intuitive messaging platform built to deliver the best messaging experience. You can start with less than #25000. You will be making a profit of about 30% in your first month or even more and you can sell the site later for profit.

2. BUYING AND SELLING OF TRENDY WEARS

You can start buying with as low as #30000, your profit margin depends on your location, type of goods, and quality. Lady wear, baby wears, fancy wristwatches, jewelries, shoes, purses, etc all sell well. You can also import from some websites at cheaper prices.

3. FARMING

Farming has always been lucrative and it will always be. Going into crop production n vegetables in also lucrative, but you need to understand what is needed in your marker majorly. You can also just act as a middle man for farmers; you buy from the villages or places where particular food items are cheap and sell where they are not. The north specialises in vege things such as pepper, okro, tomatoes etc.

4. POPCORN BUSINESS

You need to buy the machine and then the rest is all about Maize, Oil and Sweetener. An average of about #30,000 to #40,000 can be made per month in a bubbling area such as schools, bus stops, market place, children party arena etc. 

You can also package it and be supplying it to various distributors in schools and other places for you.

5. FACEBOOK FANPAGE DESIGN

The start up cost for this one is actually too little for you not to start right away. Facebook fanpages are fast becoming the new trend for businesses, celebrities and organizations in Nigeria.

But there is a minor problem; not everyone knows how to design one. Even if they do, they don't have the time. You cab charge about #5000 per page. Your customers will be organizations, religious bodies, celebrities, upcoming artists etc. You can also charge for managing it for them.

6. BARBING SALON

You need a clipper, which goes for about #2000 to #3000  with the accessories. You need to be trained by a professional; or u can start practicing by studying videos on it and try them out on your siblings. Don't try nonsense on your friends' head ooo...  You may later need to get a place where you can launch it out fully. For a start, you will be making up to #1500 to #2000 a day assuming u start with just 8 to 10 heads per day at #200 per head.

7. PACKAGING AND SEALING OF NYLON

Nylons represent one of the most used products here in Nigeria. It is mostly used in packaging food stuffs and pure water. Get a sealing machine, the price varies according to how effective it is and the type but there is one you canbget for less than #20,000. You get the materials and learn a bit of the trade. Your customers are so wide but the competition too may be stiff. You may need to add incentives for your first customers. You don't need too many customers to man money here, just few rich ones.  You can make an average of #25,000 to #30,000  within month if your pricing is good and you have big customers such as pure water companies, food packaging companies and bakeries.

8. CLASSIFIED ADS

Do you know anyone willing to sell something such as lands, cats, camera, phone etc? You can act as the middle man by posting the advertisement online for free on sites like nairalist.com, vconnect.com or olx.com.ng. You get paid commissions as per the cost of the goods sold. Lands and cars may get you as high as #30000 on a single deal.

You are smart, make money!

9. ONLINE BUSINESS

Football betting with the right strategy, website and domain flipping, affiliate marketing, google Adsense using special methods, drop shipping. Becoming a seller on sites like Konga.com while getting goods from abroad etc. are all online businesses one can venture in.

10. SERVICES YOU CAN RENDER FOR FREE

Do you know how to plait hair?

Do you know how to wash rugs?

Do you know how to wash clothes very well?

Can you iron nicely without burning the clothe?

Do you know how to drive?

Can you teach?

Can you design using Photoshop?

Do you have a nice voice?

Are you beautiful enough for wallpapers?

All these stuffs can make you money right here in Nigeria. 

Five Steps for Starting a Business for Under #100,000 in Nigeria

1. Strategic Plan. All of us have heard of a “back-of-an-envelope” story, how many businesses are formed—and these stories do happen. However, it is typically the concept that happens on a back of an envelope, not the actual plan to bring that concept to the market. The first step is to develop a well-thought-out business plan that addresses key success factors such as:

Name of firm. Descriptive of your service or your name; companies with a description of their service or products generate more web visits than ones using fictitious or personal names.

Owner or owner-to-be. Are you going to be the sole owner or will you have investors or/and partners?

Information on the business. Information about the type, nature, and products of your business.

Market analysis. Consider customers, competition, and barriers to entry and success.

Market strategy. How will you generate sales, promote your product, and what media will you use to promote your product or services?

Management. Can you manage the business and also serve your customers?

Financial. Can you make money?

2. Web Identity. Everyone is on the web. Customers access and search the Internet for services and sellers through searches. Suppliers and banks look at your website for credibility and presence.

But your web identity is more than a website. It starts with an email address with your business name such as Jim@legalconsultants.xxx and a domain name such as legalconsultants.xxx.

A few years ago, creating a website was expensive and required outside technical consultants. Now it is quick and easy to do it yourself. Consider many companies to choose a domain name, email address, web hosting, and website design.

3. Office Space. Even if 52 percent of all small businesses are home-based, that does not mean you need to look like you work from your home. Customers looking at an office address can usually tell the difference between a professional address and a home address. Also, if you’re meeting with clients, you’ll project a more professional image if you meet in an office setting versus a suburban home.

4. Business Cards: Believe me, you will need them. A paper carryover from the past, they are still widely used and critical to a new business. There are many online business card services, but companies such Office Depot and Staples offer quality cards for as low as $10.

5. Social Media: Depending on your type of business, you will want a social media presence. LinkedIn, with more than 380 million members, is regarded as the business site for connecting with other business people and offers excellent posting features for articles and blogs. Facebook is more of a social friends site than a business-focused site, but it’s also an excellent tool for “getting your word out” to your friends and customers. Both Linkedin and Facebook allow you to set up a commercial page for your new business.

To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to provide a service or product that customers want to buy, that you can provide at a profit. And of course, it’s not all about the money—it takes very hard work and long hours. But with a bit of planning and a little bit of money, you can beat the odds and create and grow a successful business.
Feel free to add your comments. Thank you for reading.

The Harsh Reality of Running a Business in Nigeria

As someone who has launched a few successful startups in Nigeria, I know all about the late nights and diminished savings accounts. However, it is just as hard getting your business off the ground as it is keeping it there. Here are a few tips to keep in mind that might help:

Be loyal to the business before any individual
Loyalty, something I place tremendous value on, should flow freely in a healthy startup. A group of people who are in the trenches together and dreaming together form really tight bonds. For me, it’s one of the best parts of being an entrepreneur. That said, too often leaders get blinded by the somewhat nostalgic connections they have to early team members. For a business in Nigeria to thrive beyond startup success, its leaders need to be loyal to the business first. This sometimes means reorganizing and upsetting people you feel closest to.
Update on the things you know
If you’ve gotten to a stage where you’re considered a “successful startup,” you’ve likely learned a few things. You might have a good sense of your audience, revenue model, cost structure, product roadmap, etc. That’s awesome, but you should continue analyzing and refining the things you know. It is just as important to operationalize curiosity and experimentation. There’s something very humble, hopeful, and helpful in being slightly loose in how a business might evolve. I think this is true for big, established companies and certainly for those that are at an earlier stage.

Not all nairas are created equal
Whether the initial capital for your startup came from a loan or faithful friends and family, you should always be driving to make every naira matter. So, assuming you’re still fundraising and can be selective, be meticulous in evaluating the strategic value of each naira. How patient is the capital? Does it come with concrete resources or attached revenue? How much do you like the people and want to spend time with them? You should be factoring all of this in.

The key to Startup Success in Nigeria

Every businesses in Nigeria require a lot of detemination and focus because the road to success in not always smooth. Here are a few things to keep in mind that might help:

Don't go broke
Businesses fail when you run out of money. Watch your burn rate and make sure you are spending your cash wisely. Make sure every naira you spend will generate a positive return for the business. Many venture capitalists are looking to fund businesses with sustainable growth that have a clear path to profitability.

Reinvest
Often times we rest on our laurels when the business starts yielding. Reinvestment in of utmost importance for the business to survive and grow. Many promising startups in Nigeria have collapsed due to the failure to save part of the profits made, every penny should be accounted for. Give your business time to grow.

Continue to innovate
The only constant thing in life is change. The market for your product will also experience change at one point or the other. During this time, the market you’re focused on will change, and it may be completely out of your control. Be aware of these market changes and be reactive to them. If customers are demanding X, listen to them and consider adding it to your product. Continue to add features that are useful for your customers and disrupt yourself with innovative ideas before your competitors disrupt you.

Focus on your customers
Customer retention is key for businesses that have recurring revenue. Even if you are adding a lot of new customers, it is difficult to grow the business if customers are churning out. Spend time with your customers. Listen to them and make sure you’re building a valuable product that fits their needs. It’s a good idea to create a customer advisory board to collect feedback and exchange ideas with your customers. Happy customers also make the best marketers. If they love the product, they will advocate for you and help put you on the path to success in a capital-efficient way.

Stay humble
Finally, stay humble. Every great business has gone through multiple rough periods. Remember to stay humble, get help, and make changes to the company. You will be able to overcome these challenges and put your company back on the path to success.

Pigs Eat Grasses!

I have written extensively in one of my posts about how pig farming business is very lucrative in Nigeria. But little is known to farmers about the ability of pigs to eat grass. Indeed, pigs are monogastric animals rather than ruminants, but they thrive well on grasses as they don’t digest grass the way that cows do. There are many species that eat grass and even harder to digest cellulose (e.g., beavers). Some animals have four stomaches compartments, some have two, some have one – There are many strategies. The fact is the pigs get a lot of food value out of grass.

Additionally, pasture is not all grass – there are clovers, alfalfa, shrubs, young trees and a lot of other forages. Cows, sheep and goats also enjoy the above forages. Pigs thrive on pasture as the majority of their diet and they can even do very well on just pasture/hay. They simply grow a little bit slower and are leaner than grain fed pigs. Pasture is lower in calories and lysine – a limiting amino-acid.

It is impertive to know that all pastures are not grasses. It is possible to plant a monocrop of just grass, a lawn like pasture, but natural pastures are a wide variety of plant species. Most of the time we also feed dairy which provides lysine and added calories. Dairy also makes the pork taste sweeter. We grow and feed pumpkins, other veggies and apples. But these things are a small part of our pig’s total diet. The fact remains, pigs do eat pasture, hay and grass with high digestibility and they can thrive on it. Cassava, pawpaw, pineaple, banana leaves and pawpaw leaves are also part of pigs diets.

Pig farming business in Nigeria

Pig farming business is very lucrative not only in Nigeria but in the world. This is due to their high rate of production. A pig(sow) can farrow(birth) up to 15 offspring at once and with their gestation period of 3months, 3weeks and 3 days, one sow can have 45 piglets in a year, giving the pig farmer a very high return rate on his investment. This makes pig farming one of the most profitable agricultural businesses to start in Nigeria today.

Pig Farming Business Guide
Male pigs are known as the boar, while the females pigs are known as the sows and the little pigs known as the piglets or the farrows. Group of pig is called a herd and pigs time of maturity is seven months.
Starting a pig farming business in Nigeria requires lot of determination and preparation. With good feed formulation and good management, a good live weight can be achieved within seven month of rearing.
Starting a Commercial Fish Farm – Sample Business Plan Template

1. Location-: The first thing you need to take care of is finding a suitable location for breeding your pigs. Please, do not try to do this at home. Why? The reason is because pigs can be very smelly and you will be sure to receive a lot of complaints and protests from your neighbors because of the smell and noise your piggery would generate.
So instead of causing great discomfort to others, look for a farmland for your piggery. Just one plot of land would be enough for a small scale piggery but if you are opting for a large scale pig farming business, make sure you purchase a land that is large enough to allow for spacing, grazing and feeding.

2. Housing-: The shelter that you would build for your pigs is known as a pig pen. This would keep your pigs safe from the elements of weather and other diseases or contamination. You may build your pen with iron or concrete depending on which one you prefer and find more affordable. When constructing your pig pen, ensure that you build a proper drainage for the pigs where all the wastes can pass through.
You should also make sure the drainage is kept clean at all times to avoid insects, pests, diseases and contamination. Pigs love playing in water, so you should consider building a water pool in your pig pen for them to play in and stay healthy. The water in the pool should be changed regularly and kept clean at all times. You can also allow the pigs to come out of the pen and play outdoors sometimes but be sure to guide them closely, so that they don’t wander off.

3. Piglets-: To start your piggery, you would need healthy piglets which you can get from other pig farmers around you. Ensure that the piglets you buy are healthy and have been well taken care of. You should also ask for their vaccination history records to be sure that they have taken their vaccinations up to date. You would need both male and female pigs. The number of piglets you need to purchase would depend on the size of your pen because pigs can multiply very quickly. Pig farmers start with as low as one each (male and female) or as many as 50 each depending on the scale of pig farming you want to go into.

4. Contact a Veterinary Doctor-: You should engage the services of a veterinary doctor who would act as a consultant for your piggery. The duties of the veterinary doctor would include giving the pigs the right vaccination regularly, checking up on the pigs from time to time to ensure that they are in good health, offering nutrition advice and treating the pigs when they fall ill.

5. Pig Feeds and Feeding-: Pigs can eat most of the things that human beings can eat which means that you may not have to start worrying about getting some special feed for them. However, it is important to pay special attention to their nutritional needs. They need to be fed a balanced diet with classes of food like protein for body building, carbohydrate for growth and strength, vitamins, minerals and fiber.
You should also provide them with clean water all the time. I already mentioned that pigs love water and this includes their drinking water. They would also play in and mess up their drinking water, so you should opt for a water supply system that cannot be messed up by the pigs and ensure that they are checked upon and their water is changed regularly.

6. Pig Marketing-: Pigs can be sold live to meat sellers or used to make sausages and bacon. You can approach other pig farmers for assistance on how to sell your pigs. Pigs are usually sold per kilogram so the bigger your pigs, the more money you would earn.