Posts Tagged ‘Small Scale Business’

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Small Business Ideas With No Financial Investment

Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

It has become natural that for launching any kind of business you need to invest a small amount of money, which depends upon the kind of field you’re going into. Do you want to increase your income by starting a small scale business? You don’t want to invest any money in starting up the business? Then here are some solutions listed below for your small business start-up ideas where you can earn profits without investing any cash in the business. The different small business ideas that can be turned into reality are:

  • Start earning online: Blogging, link building, freelancing and selling goods are different kinds of jobs that can earn you money online. This is one of the easiest ways that doesn’t need any capital to be invested in the process. You can directly start earning money with your deeds.Online Income
  • Establish a consultation: There may be some hidden talents in each one; it is time for you to notice them and bring them out. You can cash your talent within a very short span of time where you can establish a consultation where you provide necessary advices in the field that you expertise in. This is also known as expertise selling where you share your ideas for some amount.
  • Content writing: As there is an increase in the demand of content writers that produce quality content that is genuine and copyscape protected, you can take an advantage of it. Even in this instance you don’t need any initial amount where you can start off with your service as early as possible and get paid as per your talent.
  • Freelancing: You can start free lancing that includes music, journalism, screenwriting, editing, web designing, graphic designing, consulting and translating, where you are self-employed and there is no boss above you. You may require the client to sign written contracts or sometimes perform on verbal agreements. The pay for freelancing is high compared to other services.
  • Travel agency: This is the best option for the people who are mostly interested in travelling to different places, so that they can guide others with their experiences regarding the travelling options. You can have a franchise with a travel company and start offering exciting packages that tempt people. Even this earns you a good amount of money as there will be many people in the list who want to travel and explore many places.
  • Organising services: This is one of the interesting businesses that one can opt for. You can offer services such as organising parties, marriages and different occasions. This service is in huge demand at present as many people want to have things organised to reduce their burden and perform the ceremony free from stress.

However there may be some jobs that need a small initial amount to be invested in starting it. In such situations you can secure payday loans rather than a traditional loan that offer a short repayment period and instant approval with no credit check.

Author’s Bio

My name is Michelle. I am a tech writer from UK. I am into Finance. Catch me @financeport

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Posted in Entrepreneur, Guest Post, small business | 7 Comments »

3 Easy Steps to Make Money Blogging

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

Make a great living online by following these simple steps

Thousands of people around the world enjoy blogging, and most think of it as a small hobby that they couldn’t hope to live on; but it’s surprisingly easy to turn your blog into a modest, successful small business. There are already plenty of blogs that discuss Google Ads and affiliate marketing, so we’ll focus on how to make your monetization strategy (whichever you choose) more profitable. There are no “dirty tricks” here—these are all tips to make a blog that is both useful to your readers and attractive to legitimate advertisers.

1. Find a niche

For your blog to attract the attention of users, advertisers, and search engines, you need to select a theme; ideally, one that isn’t already populated with big-time sites. For instance, if you want to start a generic cooking blog, you’ll be competing with thousands of others, including giants like Betty Crocker and The Food Network, and your blog will never get past the twilight zone of page 8 on Google. If you select some specific, underserved niche, however, you’ve got a shot at reaching people.

Before you nail down your blog’s theme, do a bit of Googling on the topic. Check to see how many people are searching for key words related to that topic, and what pops up on Google’s front page. If very few people are searching for that specific niche, you’ll struggle to bring in traffic; but if the key words are bringing in a healthy amount of searches, and you’re competing with other small personal blogs, you’ve got a good shot at topping the Google rankings and becoming an important source of information on that topic.

2. Create user-friendly content

This is more than just “writing well”, although that is important (and could be a blog post all to itself). People read online content differently than they read books and magazines, so you need to modify how you write to suit an online audience. Follow these tips:

  • Break up your content: Reading long blocks of uninterrupted text is harder online than it is in print, so you need to separate your content. Select the best funny videos or images related to your topic and use them to chop up your content into smaller, easy-to-read pieces.
  • Numbered Lists: You’ve probably seen a lot of “Top 10” lists on the web recently, and that’s because it really does draw more traffic than content posted in other formats. Numbered lists provide an easy way to organize and simplify your content so that busy readers know what they’re getting into before they click
  • Keep it brief: With few exceptions, most online readers lose interest after about 1000 words, so if your post is longer than that, you might consider a more focused topic, or breaking up your post into installments.

3. Get Connected!

This is by far the most important way to start pulling traffic and getting money from your advertisements. Find successful bloggers (or better yet, a blog network) that is related to your niche, and offer to guest post on their sites.  Don’t be afraid to submit high-quality content in guest posts; you might feel like you’re sacrificing good work, but it’s a small price to pay for the awareness it will create for you and your blog. At the bottom of each guest post, most bloggers will allow you to include a link to your blog; and that’s how you’ll bring in users and start earning real ad revenue.

As you cultivate relationships and continue creating trustworthy, quality content, other bloggers will begin linking to your site on their blogs, increasing traffic directly and improving your Google ranking. Keep expanding your network, reaching out to more and more blogs and establishing connections. It’s this growing network that will draw in ever-increasing traffic to read your posts, click your ads, and bring in revenue.

About the Author: Tiffany Ganttis a staff writer for ApronAddicts.com, a website dedicated to the love of cooking and looking good while you do it! You can often find her getting creative in the kitchen as she whips up something yummy in one of her flirty, color coordinated aprons.

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Posted in Blogging, Entrepreneur, Guest Post, small business | 6 Comments »

Outrageous Bank Charges!

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Outrageous bank charges in my account, this is unacceptable! It is not often that I make  a post because I’m angry. But this post, Outrageous bank charges was inspired by the activities of my banker that I just discovered this morning. I wasn’t planning to make any post today, but I got angry enough to hit my computer keyboard, because I’m definitely going to reclaim those bank charges or look for a better banker. Here is the story and I will be glad to read your opinion.

I got a cheque from a foreign firm who places adverts on this website (I do make money online you know). The cheque was for $125. Small amount I know, but that’s what makes the big bucks when it comes from different streams. Well, with excitement, I deposited the cheque in my domiciliary USD account with my banker, one of the famous Nigerian Banks (some are no longer famous, if you care to know why, read this post, .

The cheque was credited into the account and I went home smiling that in another 21days (well, from experience that is what it takes before a foreign cheque gets cleared into a Nigerian domiciliary account),  I will have access to the fund. However, I was shocked to discover when checking my account online the following day that the figure credited into my bank account has been reversed. A new figure for $100 was now credited! That was so confusing. I’ve never heard of such before. What manner of accounting is that? At least the cheque figure should be credited and then whatever charges the bank wants to make can now be debited into the account with explanation. Well, that wasn’t the case.

Careless me, I forgot to take the issue up (I guess I was too busy chasing more money online). I forgot all about the transaction until this morning when I discovered that I have been charged another $10.50 for the same cheque (21days is accomplished, the cheque from the foreign firm has cleared). Also, another $20 was charged as handling fees for sending the cheque from Nigeria to the foreign firms banker! For crying out loud, it is just a piece of payer, almost weightless! Isn’t this courier charge outrageous!

Anaylsis of The Outrageous Bank Charges

A quick analysis of all the charges got me angry. First, $25 charged for unknown reason, another $10.5 charged for unknown reason and finally $20 charged as handling fees. That means a total charges of $55.5 out of $125! That is a whooping 44% of the cheque value. So, while I labor tirelessly trying to make money online legitimately, my banker is sitting in the comfort of his office and taking out 44% of the proceed without my authorization. And nobody deemed it necessary to offer some explanation on why my internet business proceed should be divided between me and my banker in a manner I consider unfair.

My Reaction To the Bank Charges

If they had taking 10% or 20% of the proceed, maybe I would have been too busy to notice, but they took 44%. Of course, that was too much for me to forget. I paused my online business activity and made a franctic call to my account officer, ready to express my grievance. Unfortunately, he was not available to pick the call. That did not disuade me from making more effort, 44% of my earning can’t just end-up in the banker’s pocket without me putting up a fight. I quickly drafted an email and fired same with a note of urgency to the customer care service of my bank. It has been over 30 minutes since then, but there has been no respond. My account officer called back and I narrated the situation, he too promised to look into it, but there has been no response till now.

Nigerian Entrepreneurs Doing Business Online Please Help

Am I using a wrong bank?

Is this what other Nigerian Entrepreneurs doing businesses with foreign firms go through?

Was it stupid to have agreed that the foreign firm issue a cheque in settlement of the service I rendered?

What are the best steps to take when disputing bank charges?

Can bank charges be reclaim in Nigeria? I know it is possible elsewhere.

I need answer to this because it was not a one time deal. Another payment will be due soon. (I’m still making money online legitimately though I live in Nigeria!) The foreign firm does not use AlertPay, PayPal, is yet to remove Nigerians from her blacklist. So, what other options do you suggest for receiving money from this online business client?

This is not the first time am dealing with a foreign cheque. I’ve not really been careful to determine if the bank charges was fair or not. However, this particular incidence is a good starting point. I may not have noticed the outrageous bank charges if the cheque was for a five digit figure! I need your opinion on this, especially naija online entrepreneurs. Are you experiencing outrageous bank charges?

Update: Poll added based on readers demand (credit goes to Willo and McNeri) 😉

[poll id=”1″]

Note: You can choose up to 2 answers.

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Posted in Entrepreneur, Nigerian, small business | 49 Comments »

What Kind Of Income Are You Earning?

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Are you working for money or is your money working for you? That is a familiar statement to those that read RichDad books. I’ve just finished reading RichDad’s Cashflow Quadrant all over again. It is not my first time of reading the book. But this time around a question really kept ringing in my heart. What kind of Income are you earning? If I stop working now, can I sustain my present level of monthly expenditure?

There are two kinds of income.

Income Earned By Working For Money

This is where most people start from, except you inherited some income generating asset from your parents. It consists of Salaries, Wages etc. The issue here is that you only earn by working. If you don’t work, you don’t earn. Once you stop working the income stops. So, it is not the best source of income. For many small scale entrepreneurs in Nigeria, this is the case.

Income Earned By Your Money Working For You

This refers to income generated from assets you own. Here, you invest in an asset and the asset in return generates passive income for you. Even if you decide not to work again, as long as you have a system in place to manage and maintain those assets the income keeps flowing.

Now that I’m done with the brief definition, let’s get back to my question.

What kind of Income are you earning?

Initially, when I read Cashflow Quadrant, I was congratulating myself that I receive income from different sources. Some are earned by me working while some are from assets that I owned. However, now I am more interested in the percentage of the passive income to the total income.

I sat down and wrote down all the income I earned monthly. I then classified them into Passive Income and Non-passive Income. The analysis was an eye opener. I realized for the first time that even though I was earning passive income, it was less than 10% of my total income. Invariably, I am still in the rat-race. I’m still busy working for money. That means, if I stop working today, I will not be able to sustain my present standard of living. The income from my assets is grossly insufficient to cover my monthly bill.

Since I made that discovery, I’ve been working on a plan to change my strategy. I don’t want to work for money at my old age. I will rather spend my time doing what I really enjoy doing while my money works for me. So, now is the time to start acquiring assets that will generate the volume of income that I desire to earn so as to sustain the kind of lifestyle I want to live.

The Cashflow Quadrant is a great book for small scale entrepreneur to read. I recommend it to my fellow Nigerian Entrepreneurs. It offers some great financial knowledge that would have cost you years to acquire. The paperback edition is readily available in bookshops and is not expensive. Please note that this is not a product review. Now it is your turn to answer the question, What kind of income are you earning? Tell us in a comment. Cheers.

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Posted in Entrepreneur, Financial Intelligence | 17 Comments »

Online Business

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Online Business

Have you started your own online business? Do you have a website? Are you online? Are you making money online? Those are common topics for discussion these days. Internet services are fast becoming available everywhere. Gone are the days when you must visit a cybercafé before you can get online. This days, you can hook-up to the internet using mobile phones even if you’re living in a village where electricity is a luxury.

The information technology improvement has created an exciting frontier that is abundant with business opportunities. It is an established fact that people in this present generation now communicate more using the internet than they do using any other media. So, why not exploit the same for business ventures? That is what this post is looking at.

What is Online Business?

Are you kidding me? You want a definition of Online Business! Well, since you asked, my definition of online business is “An Online Business is any legitimate activity carried out on the internet (world wide web) that generates profit after all expenses has been fully paid for”. Please note the following:

  • If it is not a legitimate online activity, then it can’t be called online business. It is better referred to as scam!
  • If it doesn’t generate income that is more than the expenditures incurred in carrying out the activity, then it can’t be called online business. It is better referred to as hobby!

I believe that definition is simple enough for our purpose. Let’s get to the next issue.

Who can do Online Business?

Anyone who has enough determination can venture into online business. There are myriad of online business opportunities that are waiting to be explored. You don’t have to be a computer guru. As long as you can read and move a mouse or any other pointing device, then you can learn to do business online. Even if you lack those basic abilities or you are unwilling to get involved, you can learn to outsource many of the tasks you don’t like to others who are willing to do such at a fee. In other words, you can actually run your online business without engaging a computer physically. The possibilities are endless.

What do I need to start Online Business?

Well, the minimum requirement is a link or connection to the internet. For you to do business online, you must go online. That is the only requirement that cannot be bypassed. Once you get online via an internet connection, either with a computer or a smartphone, then you’re ready for online business. The fact that you’re reading this shows that you know how to get online, except if you got a printed copy of this article.

The subsequent requirements will depend on the type of online business you wish to do. There are some online businesses that requires huge amount of money to start while some other ones require zero capital. I will give two examples to buttress this point.

  1. You can sell other peoples product or service. There are different methods of doing this. However, many of the methods allow you to start operating with zero capital. You can setup a free website, write your own articles or get free articles from article directory to promote the product or service you want to sell. The last step will be to work on generating web traffic for the new site.
  2. Bulk SMS reselling. To start this business, you must buy an SMS package from a major SMS reseller and then sell to individuals or corporate entities that need the service.

As you can see, it is possible to start the first idea without spending a dime, but the second business idea requires at least about $20 as kick-off capital.

How can a Nigerian run a successful Online Business with the poor social infrastructures?

Too many never get to start because they are waiting for a perfect business environment before they start. The truth is you can start making money online even with the poor social infrastructures that we have in Nigeria. I started browsing when it cost N20/minutes to work online. Today, you can go online for less than N1/minute in some cybercafé. If you’re are really determined, you can make it. Instead of wasting your time chatting with strangers on Yahoo, you can start your online business by building a blog.

Is Online Business Risky?

Well, life itself is full of risks. It is a risk to wake-up in the morning and step outside your home. So, the answer is yes. Online business has risks. However, the risks are such that an average Nigerian can handle. You will only get into a mess by engaging in either of the following:

1. Engaging in illegal activities online because you want to get rich overnight. Gone are the days when online activities can be carried out anonymously. EFCC and other agencies are on the lookout for those that use internet to commit financial crimes.

2. Parting with cash in a hurry without learning how things work online. Too many Nigerians have fallen victim to fraudsters who sell all manner of automated junks that they claim are capable of making you rich while you do nothing.

My suggestion to you is that you start with free resources. When you have learnt how things work, and you have practice with free resources, then you can start spending your hard earned cash for resources you feel will enhance your online business. Take it from me, online business requires patience. You can’t make it big online in a hurry. You will simply get your pocket burnt by falling victim to scammers.

So quit talking and get into action. Start your own online business today. Cheers.

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Posted in Entrepreneur, small business | 20 Comments »

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