Posts Tagged ‘Nigerian Entrepreneur’

10 Tips For Better Business Opportunity Selection

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

This post, 10 Tips For Better Business Opportunity Selection was inspired by a comment made by a fellow Nigerian entrepreneur. The present economic climate in Nigeria is causing a lot of small business owners to loose sleep. Business opportunities are now viewed with skepticism due to several woeful tales of business failures. Unpredictable sudden changes in government policies has not helped matters.  Too many entrepreneurs, are now finding it much more difficult to make a choice among different business opportunities available in the present economy.

It is an established fact that the success of a small business often depend on the ability of the business owner, i.e. the entrepreneur, to make the right decision especially, when such decision is considered critical to the survival or growth of the business. One of such senarios is choosing a business opportunity among several available options. Even if the entrpreneur has a team of staff he brainstorms with, as the CEO, the responsibility to make a critical choice among available business opportunities will eventually rest on him.

In as much as you may wish to shift such responsibility to one of your employee, common sense dictates that it is better to take such business decision than delegate it to another, knowing fully well that you are accountable for the success or failure of your business.

Despite the harsh economic reality we are currently facing in Nigeria, as an entrepreneur, you can reduce to the barest minimum the risk of making mistake when choosing between business opportunities by following some old and tried principles. I’ll share with you 10 Tips For Better Business Opportunity Selection:

1. Never reject a business opportunity because you see a flaw in it. That it has a flaw doesn’t mean it can ‘t succeed. Ask how the flaw can be corrected.

2. Never reject a business opportunity because you won’t get the credit. It is the impact of the success on your overall business that really matter, not who gets the credit for proposing the idea.

3. Never reject a business opportunity because it looks impossible. Go ask the Wright brothers, nobody thought it was possible to fly 😉

4. Never reject a business opportunity because your mind is already made up on other possibilities. It won’t hurt if you have an open mind and consider all options on their individual merit before settling for one.

5. Never reject a business opportunity because you think it is illegal. Get expert legal opinion before trashing the idea.

6. Never reject a business opportunity because you don’t have the money, manpower, muscle or resources  required. Whatever happened to partnership, joint ventures etc. You must not insist on getting 100% returns and eating it all alone. Also, 10 return from a $1,000,000 joint venture deal is better than 100% return from a $1,000 deal you did all alone. Look at the big picture before making your choice.

7. Never reject a business opportunity because it will create conflict. If you’re not ready for conflict, then you’re not ready for success.

8. Never reject a business opportunity because it is not your way of doing things. You can learn to do better than you’re already doing. Be an avid learner.

9. Never reject a business opportunity because it might fail. Life is all about taking risk. It is actually risky not to take risk.

10. Never reject a business opportunity because of your personal emotions. Human feelings are quite unstable. It doesn’t take much for emotions to change. So, never bring your emotions into business decisions.

If you follow those ten don’ts whenever you are making your selection, you would have gone a step closer to making good business choice. Wishing you all the best. Cheers.

The Nigerian Entrepreneur Seeking to Make Money Online!

Monday, March 10th, 2008

I’m a Nigerian Entrepreneur

I’m not ashame to say that  I am a Nigerian Entrepreneur. I am proudly Nigerian and I don’t attempt to hide it despite the bad reputation that some black sheep among us have earned for the entire country.

I set out to make money online after reading several articles on how to Make Money Online. Some of the articles were read on blogs and websites that I visited voluntarily. Some were read from spam emails that caught my attention. Of course some information were gotten from websites that were phishing.

Coming from a country whose image abroad has been bastardize by some greedy and unscrupulous citizens, it is my desire to demonstrate that a honest Nigerian Entrepreneur can earn money online without indulging in fraudulent activities.

The original copy of this post was first published on my blog naijaecash.blogspot.com. It was the very first step of the journey. Now, naijaecash.blogspot.com has metamorphosed into https://www.naijaecash.com However, my goal still remain the same.

Nigerian Entrepreneur’s goal

My main goal for starting this blog is to achieve the following:

  • Make Money by rendering services online.

  • Get famous in the blogosphere while retaining my Nigerian Identity.

To achieve this, my targeted audience will be

  • Newbie bloggers (like myself),

  • Newbie entrepreneurs online and

  • Nigerian Entrepreneurs in the blogosphere.

Nigerian Entrepreneur’s Plan

My plan is to start a business blog (titled Nigerian Entrepreneur) with zero dollar. I will be investing the following resources.

  • Time

  • Skills learnt online

  • Other peoples experience

  • Friends and Readers Contribution

After raising income online (it will be entirely raised online), I will move the blog to a paid hosting package. (This has been achieved. I earned some Entrecard Credit and loaned some from a friend to purchase the domain name and the hosting package. No physical cash was introduced into the online business).

Just like any offline business I have my goals well written out, I have set targets, and I am drawing out comprehensive plans on how to achieve them. Most importantly, I am determined to work relentlessly until I have achieved my goals stated above. (That I am now on a paid hosting using my own domain name is a sign that I am making progress).

Since the success of any business online can be zeroed down to a single phrase “quality traffic = profit” (that is the understanding I have for now), I will be focusing most of my resources on getting good content on my blog , Nigerian Entrepreneur and then using various social networks media to draw visitors to the blog. (You can bet that Entrecard is one of my very first point of call).

How will I measure Nigerian Entrepreneur success?

I will measure the success of my blog using the following parameters:

  • Numbers of Visitors.

  • Number of Comments

  • RSS Feed Subscriptions

  • Contact Forms

  • Newsletter Sign-ups

  • Business Directly Generated

That is it. Thanks for visiting and reading this article. If you like my post, encourage me by dropping a comment. Subscribing to my Nigerian Entrepreneur RSS feed will surely be much appreciated and of course I am looking forward to your return visit. Enjoy!

N.B – My focus is now on this blog. I may scarcely give attention to Naijaecash.blogspot.com. That blog has served its purpose. The focus now is on Nigerian Entreperneur. Enjoy!