Posts Tagged ‘small scale entrepreneurs’

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 »

How Needs Give Birth To Business Opportunities

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

Have you observed that needs often give birth to business opportunities? If you haven’t it is time to take a look around you. While a lot of people are getting depressed because of the global and local economic crunch, some guys and gals are actually making money from the present situation.

Human beings are quite creative. I’ll share a practical observation that I made with you. I live in the part of a city where the roads are so bad that individuals often prefer to park their private cars and use commercial vehicle (just to save on maintainance cost). As the situation got worse, (the government agencies simply closed their eyes to commuters plight), some smart small scale entrepreneurs started importing motorcycle and were giving them out to jobless young men on hire purchase. That was the begining of okada business in my community.

Those entrepreneur made so much money while the okada business last. Unfortunately, some criminals took advantage of the situation also and started using motorcycles as quick-get-away vehicles for their criminal activities. It became an everyday occurrence to hear story of people being robbed or assaulted by motorcyclist. The complain from the public was so much and the only solution the state government could think of was to ban the use of motorcycle altogether (never mind the fact that it sounds funny that it is now unlawful to use a motorcyle in my neighbourhood).

The ban was a great misfortune to many entrepreneurs and many youth who earned their living via okada business were thrown back into the unemployment club. While some entrepreneurs went home counting their loss, the smart entrepreneurs went home brainstorming on the next opportunity to catch on. For your information, the roads are still as bad as before.

Well, those smart entrepreneurs settled for a new business with TRICYCLES. We call it “KEKE NAPEP” At first, people were reluctant to enter the tricycles (human beings naturally resist changes). Well, it wasn’t long before we were forced to change and embrace keke napep as the best means of moving from one point to another.

The reason being that they are better at navigating the bad road and they also find it easy to pass in-between on-coming and on-going vehicles whenever there is traffic jam. The CAB-DRIVERS in my neighborhood hates those tricycle with passion. As far as they are concern the tricycles are business spoillers. They carry more passengers than the taxi (you may not believe it, but some carry as much as 6passengers beside the driver, that is Naija for you) and also make more trips per day.

Why am I discussing this? Well, I have being facing a lot of challenge with my online businesses. The soucrce of the challenge is just my ISP (Internet Service Provider). My company relies heavily on internet for communication with clients. Unfortunately, after dishing out a whooping sum of $200 per month (thirty thousand Nigerian naira) per month as rental for VSAT internet connectivity, we are stuck with a bad service provider that gives excuse instead of quality service. It is not easy to dump the ISP and go for another because they are still the best available in my neighborhood, and our present subscription covers several months.

So, I’m just praying and looking for an opportunity to get rid of them. When I get the right opportunity (I’m really on the look-out for it), I’m going to start an ISP company to serve my community.

If you’ve been wondering why my posting hasn’t been consistent, now you know. I’m not quitting blogging, I’m just fighting the challenges hindering me from getting online as I want to.  However, I’ve been busy exploiting some offline business opportunities too. I do really believe in multiple streams of income, so I have several baskets for my business eggs, not just one. Are there needs around you? Think deep, those needs will birth business opportunities for you. Cheers.

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Posted in Entrepreneur, small business | 3 Comments »