The Business Man

Introduction This type of business used to be very popular in the nineties. I used to think they had gone under until recently I saw one on my street. Well I didn’t take it serious until I started noticing a couple of them around my area. I counted about 5 in my area alone. That was when I decided to take a closer look. On looking into one of the places, I realized they had mostly Yoruba movies and the number of people that were at that shop that day indicated that there was indeed a need here. What you need A shop (or actually a store front) where you can display your videos and your sign post. You can share a shop with a friend.   You just need a staff to register all videos available, register all your members, register videos that people borrow etc. Type of Videos: This is a tricky one. From looking at those shops in my area, I see that they have more of Yoruba Videos.   I live in Lagos Nigeria, if you live in any other locality, find movies in the local language. Also ...

Introduction This is really an interesting business if you look closely. I didn’t quite realize it until one day the man that runs the small kiosk near my house gave me my bill. Well I had been taking stuff from him on credit for over a month and he then billed me.  The bill didn’t come as a surprise to me but what did was the amount on the bill – N 5,500! How did only me consume that much in a month on just little things? I couldn’t believe it until he showed me his record and then I realized something, this guy was making money! How many other people staying around me consume that much? What you need Starting this type of business is very easy. You only need to find a space in your neighborhood that you can use as a shop. In choosing your shop or kiosk, make sure there not more than two shops on the street. Getting Customers You don’t need even to do any type of advertising, just open your shop and display your products! Product Selection You need to be very careful here. ...

Introduction I was visiting a friend who makes cakes the other day and I saw a very beautiful Cake she made with the Arsenal Football Logo as a big design on the cake. I was really impressed with how it looked and I asked her how she got the design so well. She showed her design stencil and guess what, she bought it for NGN1,500 ($10)!. Can you imagine that? I mean I cut that design myself! Description  Finished Design Stencil   Manchester United Logo on Cake  The business part of this is simple. I made some enquiries and I found out that you could find more Popular logos and designs, cut them really well on stencil material and sell them to people who make cakes,make banners, screen printers etc Profiting Estimate Seriously, you the profits here can be insane!, you use a stencil or two (less than $1), about 1hr of your time for very delicate designs, and you go home with about $10!. Multiply that by 10 in a month and you don’t even work every day. What you ne...

Introduction Website design is simply the process of creating websites for people and getting the websites live, online. As a business, it costs very little to learn and start. You can learn on your own free of charge. Free tutorials are available here In the business, you could get paid from NGN10k to NGN100M depending on the extent the website required and your clientele. There are generally two approaches to the business. You could (A) Design websites for cash and or (B) Design websites to address needs or solve problems Lets look closely at both approaches (A) Designing websites for Cash This is the most popular form of this business. You find your clients, design sites for them and then you get paid. What you need - Get a Computer A laptop preferably. This is because you will have to make presentations. A fairly used one here in Lagos Nigeria goes for about NGN60k. - A Business Profile Prepare a company profile. This just a document introducing you to anybody. It should say who...

This is another business you can start with very little capital. The business is as simple as getting the materials & distributing / Posting them then collecting your cash. What you need Get a business name. It will help with branding / distinguishing you from others How to get Customers Get your customers by 1) Post Posters of your business. Your advert should say it in a very simple way. For example “We Post Posters / Distribute Flyers. Call 080…… email …..website…. “. Design something that will be quite cheap to produce. No fancy colours- black and white will do just fine. The most important thing in your advert is the size. Make sure the “Poster” part is in very large characters. The idea here is that if your own posters are visible enough for your clients to find you, then you have posted in the right places. 2) Newspapers Do the small/smallest size of advert. It shouldn’t cost you more than 7k. One good thing about adverts is that YOU WILL SURELY GET RESPONSES. You need to b...

Introduction This just as the name suggests, selling information!. This can really be a very profitable business. Well it costs a little money to start but the rewards are very encouraging. What its all about Lets dream a little(Literarily) , what if you find a way of solving a problem for a lot of people? then you put it in a book and advertise it. How many responses do you think you would get? That is the foundation of this type of business - you give people information of exactly what they want. That was the easy part. How do you know what people want? This is the hard part. This part actually accounts for 80% of your success in this business. I have written an article on this subject. It will help you brainstorm. Click here to read it. Similarly, people also search for what they want on the internet. There are a few tools available to help you. Try the Google Adwords keyword tool or Wordtracker for free or Keyword Elite for a little fee. The Paid tool makes it extremely easy fo...

Do you know that people always drink? No matter the situation, people especially the young professionals always have a a favorite drinking spot. The best part of this is that people drink even more when things are bad. Just think about it for a minute, do you know how much is consumed everyday in different joints, bars, parties and clubs throughout the country? At the going rate of N200 for a bottle of star, and an estimate using just one bar with 50 guests during a football match ; assuming each guest take a bottle(which is really below real expectations); we'll have 50x200 = N10,000 ! for just one evening. If you spend 1,500 on fuel and all other things being equal the business is lucrative. Requirements 1 freezer(100k plus) and a Standing see-through refrigerator(80k plus) -The drinks have to be chilled, hot beer is dangerous to your health and your business Power supply Forget about Public Power Supply (PHCN), prepare to run on Generators 24/7(between 30 and 50k). If you get p...

A few years back, when I was living with my uncle, I was once asked to go and hire a ladder from a neighbor. When I got there I saw some other people there and on enquiry, I discovered that they all wanted to hire the same ladder. Unfortunately, the owner was nowhere to be found. That opened my eyes to another business opportunity. Renting at N200 per day was quite affordable for the normal cheap ladder. If your ladder is hired twice a week, you have 200x2= N400 and in a month N1600. In a year you will have made 1600x12 = 19200. So assuming you bought your ladder for 15k, you would have made a profit of 4k. It is not a big business but if you multiply it....in 3 locations....with costlier types of ladders..or if your in a very high construction area....it could really pay off. Why I love it is, it is a business you can just start and the business runs on its own. Requirements A good ladder. You could ask a carpenter to make one for you or you could buy an industrial type of ladder li...