arresa:


Civil disobedience liberated a lot of societies all over the world and even in America today, black people have rights because they fought for it via demonstrations and civil disobedience.

Just wondering if the people who fought for those rights in the societies you mentioned had to relocate their families abroad first before starting the struggle.

Mark my words, any demonstration in Nigeria will not affect any of the family members of these politicians calling for demonstrations cos their families are already abroad or they'll soon be.

I can only view their calls as genuine if such demonstrations will be led by their children (not themselves or their adopted children).

If you've experienced war, you'll know that war is not good.

Please let's be wise!

Always remember that some times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them......Steve Jobs. So it is perfectly normal for you to create the market for your product. It is a bit harder though.

Some good quotes to get you going:

1) Do not ask "Will this idea work?" instead ask "What if it does work?"...................forgotten the name of the person who said it
2) You'd only know by trying.................forgotten who said it
3) People don't know what they want until you show it to them.............Steve jobs
4) The way you look at the problem is the problem.........Albert Einstein

Take your destiny in your hands. See you at the top!

Duetime

As a businessman (I'm not sexist; I use this term to refer to anyone involved in business, whether male or female), you have to learn not to quit especially once you've started. Always see things to the very end. This does not mean that your business will become successful if you don't quit. It only ensures that you give your all to your business. If you always have it at the back of your mind that if you hit a rough patch , or if you get a bad review/feedback from the "Big Boys" you'll quit, then it would be hard for you to put in your best. Always believe in your business. What we can achieve by just believing will amaze us. So, don't ask whether the idea will work, always ask "what if it does work?" I ran into that advise either on Techcrunch or some other tech blog. I've forgotten who said it, but it's a very good piece of advice. One of my pet project I've refused to give up is SmallPocketBook.com, a directory of Nigerian online businesses (forums, blogs, shopping sites, etc). Someone was asking me the other day why I was still operating the site in spite of low patronage. I told him the concept was wonderful, irrespective of what anyone said, and that it was just a matter of time before it became popular. This should be your spirit too. Never take NO for answer.

At times, we are advised not to go into a particular venture because the market is crowded. If what pushed me into this venture was not because people are making lots of money from this segment, then I normally ignore this advice. I'm not saying I go into business with the hope of not making money. What I'm saying is: would I enjoy playing football at a professional level or do I want to play professional football because Ronaldo and Messi make millions from the game? I try not to put the cart before the horse. The idea comes first, then the analysis of the market/segment. You'll have greater motivation to stick to the business longer compared to if it was only money that was your motivator. The concept itself should keep you captivated. You win in two ways. I don't know how many of you read Techcabal.com? Before Techcabal, you could say we had other tech blogs like Techloy.com, Ogbongeblog, Bits.ng (formerly Otekbits) which is also owned by theguys at Techcabal, etc. To give you more perspective, Techloy has won many awards as one of the best tech blogs in Africa. However, did the Techcabal guys say "we have lots of tech blogs in Nigeria, so let's just forget about setting up another tech blog" Nope. There went ahead and setup one of the best tech blogs in Nigeria. Personally, I think the blog is the best tech blog in Nigeria. Anyone remember Skype, BBM, then Whatsapp, then all the others including WeChat, SnapChat, Viper, etc. They are all successful.

For those that watch Dragons Den and/or Shart Tank, you'll notice that there will be some business pitches that one or two Dragons will dismiss as making no business sense, but the other Dragons will fight to fund. What does this tell you? That people are different. What makes sense to one person, may not make sense to the next person. So don't feel bad is someone dismisses your business idea; you have about 6 billion other people to think about. The popular saying "One man's meat is another's poison" comes to mind. There is hardly a business that sells everyone. No car company can sell everyone. No social media can sell everyone. Not everybody would want to come from or live in the USA.

So now that you've got honest opinions about your business, what do the "Big Boys", venture capitalists, investors say? I remember reading in INC or ENTREPRENEUR about a very big and popular Silicon Valley VC who passed on investing in Facebook at the initial stage because he felt it wasn't a worthwhile venture. He thought nobody would use Facebook. In fact, the whole concept made him laugh. I don't think this was the only person that felt Facebook was not going to be successful. I also guess many would've told Mark that. If you were in Mark's shoes, what would you have done after getting such feedback? Fold up or continue minding your business?

In my former life, I would choose to forget the idea and look for something else. However, with what i have experienced so far in the business world, I will always choose minding and pursuing my business irrespective of what anyone says. I take some of the feedback and work it knowing fully well that I cannot satisfied everyone. No matter how successful Facebook and Nairaland are, there are still some people who are not on them, and this does not detract from their value. Someone made this statement (I can't remember who): You'd only know by trying.

I don't know what your motivation is for wanting to start a business, but whatever it is, the success of such business depends on you. How do you take feedback? Do you only accept positive feedback? Are you stubborn and persistent? Do you take every feedback from other successful entrepreneurs as gospel?

It's not uncommon for prospective business owners, or even business owners, to ask around for advice. We ask family, friends, colleagues, and at times, those who've excelled in such areas. We are always happy when they tell us what we want to hear - that it is a very wonderful idea. Family, friends, colleagues will always give you that positive feedback. They don't want to hurt our feelings. This in itself is not bad; what is bad is that it does not open our eyes on time to the harsh realities of starting and running a business. I read in one of the monthly editions of INC. magazine how a businessman proposed we went about treating feed back from our "loved ones". He proposed simply asking whoever tells you your business idea is wonderful to commit to buying or subscribing to whatever business you want to start. Once their money is now involved, the real truth starts coming out. Don't ask them if they will buy; ask them to buy now! Let them commit their money! Some people give you positive feedback because they don't want to hurt your feelings, but in reality and unknown to them, they end up hurting your life. If you start and fail at a business, it hurts like hell. It will take greater courage for you to start anything again.

When we expand our circle of advisers to included strangers (through market surveys) or by soliciting for such here on Nairaland, we can get some pretty nasty feedback. Is this bad? NO. I love this kind of feedback because they get you to think more about your business. You shouldn't take the feedback personal, though some people would want you to.....they want to hurt you for whatever reason. Try to analyze and work out all the issues they raised, not for their sake, but for yours. Note that I said TRY because you cannot satisfy every person on earth.

aikfrank: What I have noticed from this thread is that


1 - Every body has his or her own idea
2 - No body is buying someone else's idea, every one is dropping theirs, plus the one they imagine and the one they just feel its cool
3- The OP has succeeded in creating a nice tread that has caught the attention and the interest of so many persons and we are just misbehaving

My thoughts exactly!

Maybe it's me; but again, maybe it's not.

Are OAPs, newscasters and presenters now journalists? Thought the OP titled the post "Most Beautiful Female Journalists?"

esere826:
've been busy
hope ur doing good

Yeah, we've been good.

Good to know you are okay.

Hopefully, w'll get to hear from you soon?

Best regards.

@esere826, what happened? It's over 1 year since you last enlightened us.

You'll find a complete list of bulk sms service providers here: http://smallpocketbook.com/bulk_sms.php


Thanks.

The complete (or almost complete) list of all the online shopping sites in Nigeria:

http://smallpocketbook.com/online_shopping.php


Thanks.

I am interested in being a moderator of this section.

Thanks.

I stumbled upon the site long before now. I was impressed then and I'm still impressed. So much went into building that site. No wonder it took almost a year to build.

Just wondering if the owners of the materials on the site won't sue you for copyright infringement?

Who knows what happened to Buzznetz? Their website is not accessible anymore. Are they no longer in the DVD rental biz?

Is this idea different from what www.ResearchClass.com is doing?

@okine4real, 60 feet is actually 18 meters, not 6 meters.

@page9, great and very informative post!

Hello cranky,

I think I've beaten you to this.

I came up with paying for comments and new threads on my forum, www.2Naira.com. I was lucky to get an organization that was willing to put down money to see how the responses from Nigerians will be. I convinced them to do a study. We agreed to pay N150 for a new thread and N20 per comment (N10 to the thread starter and N10 to the commenter) for each and every thread and comment.

With these rates, they provided funds for about 50,000 comments and 1,000 threads and expect this target to be met within two months. My role is to make sure that the forum is adequately moderated and members adhere to the rules and regulations of the forum. I had to pen very strict rules and regulations; I even had to ban members for flaunting these rules.

So far, the responses have been very very impressive.

You can follow what I did, but you must look for a sponsor first.

You can visit the site and read the rules.

Good luck!

This could be an interesting thread to follow. Sorry I don't think I have any ideas on how you can go about that.

Good luck!

seun70: Hi all,
Fencing completed. Would anyone please recommend a very good and competent consultant?
I need to start constructing but I was told by a friend that I need to lay emphasis on sun-rise and sun-set points.

I am trying to get it right from the start.

Over to you good nairalanders......

Yeah, the sun rise and set points are important so that sun rays do not fall inside the houses, hence, the central axis of the house should be East- West direction.

Thank you

Everest28: Hello guys,am new here,but seriously need ur advice on what to expect by d end of 4month as profit with all factors fully considered.I stock 1000pcs of post fingerlings in an earthen pond and have spent above 170k&and fishes are not 4month yet.Thanks

There are 4 major things you'll need to consider, not just what you've spent so far in feeding, because many people have different values. Some might calculate amount spent on per fish basis, while some will do so on a per kg basis. Catfish is sold on a per kg basis, except you are a market woman that sells directly to the end-user.

Now let's talk about your post: you should consider the following

1. Since you stocked 1000 post fingerlings in an earthern pond, you might get a little less than 1000 pieces of fish at harvest because I'm assuming you did not periodically sort them (it is difficult to sort fish in big earthern ponds, but with small ponds, it is doable). Even if you sorted regiularly, you should still expect some losses. A safe bet should be for you to assume that you've lost about 15% of the fish in the ponds due to cannibalism, disease, etc. If you do not have nets over the pond, expect to lose more fish because birds would have eaten some (this is very rampant at night, so take note). So, 15% is a safe bet.

2. Do you know what the average weight of the fish are at this point? This is important so you know whether you are ready to sell. I know the average time to raise catfish is between 4 - 6 months (from hatching) but it does not mean you have to wait till this time before you sell; your fish might actually be growing faster. You also need this value to know the quantity of feed to be giving them

3. After taking the weight of your fish, you also need to know what the average weight of the fish should be at that age. i.e.You need to compare it to some form of a standard to know whether there are some things you are not doing correctly. I've attached a link to a table that you'll use in comparing your progress: www.2naira.com. Search for catfish growth table.

4. Even at maturity, when you get the average weight of your fish at about 0.8-1kg, about 50% of the fish will still weigh considerably lesser! 1000 fish do not always give 1000 kg.

Just my 2Naira!

Feel free to share your findings with us.

Happy farming!

clementcro: Hello everybody, please I urgently need your advice, I have a sum of 500k, and i need ideas of business I can use this money for, that I will be getting a monthly profit of between 150k to 200k,

Please advice me, before I spend the money lavishly.


Thanks in advance.

A business that generates, at least, between 360% - 480% interest per annum? pls let's be reasonable here; even our greedy banks that do not take any risk while lending (they do not lend to start-ups, only to the Dangotes, Otedolas, Jimoh Ibrahims) do not make that kind of interest in a year. In fact I've not seen a legitimate business that does 200% interest in a year, except, maybe forex trading? I stand corrected, though.

If you are looking for a business that will start yielding profit right from the first month, you might be disappointed. Studies have shown that during business planning stage, the estimated payout time is usually too optimistic, hence it might actually take you a little longer than thought or planned to break even. If you do not have the patience and perserverence to keep on keeping on (pardon my french), you might just fold up.

If you discover such a business that makes even 100% in a year, please let me know.

Pls note that I'm not against or for all the business ideas others in this forum have contributed, I'm just throwing in my 2Naira so that you can see from all angles.

Thank you

fm7070: pls. Where can I get drying machine for smoking/drying my catfish?

Try Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) at Wilmot Point, Off Ahmadu Bello, Victoria Island. They have two sizes of fish smoking kilns and I hear the kilns are very good.

Just my 2Naira

@Zrazunet,

Let's get some things straight: most big and small players in any industry pump serious money into adverts that they do not track. The only difference is that the big players pump in more because they have MORE!

Another thing is that you are confusing going after the market the major players have ignored with being small. In fact, the first question any person will ask you if you should tell them you are going into a business that already has players, whether big or small, is what will be your differentiating factor? Going after the market the ignored does not mean you are small even though the market may be for low end people. If the number of clients in that market are high enough, you'll make more money. Let me ask you this: why is every major company in the world now rushing to establish a presence in China? Are the Chinese the richest? Of course not, but they have the population. Are those companies rushing to China thinking small? I doubt! In fact, the best way to enter a market is to go after the market the big guys are ignoring.

Let me give you another example, COWBELL milk in a sachet. Before cowbell came with their sachet milk, Peak was the big boy in the milk market, yet they never thought of milk for the larger population. Yes, this population may be poorer, but they are a multitude! Cowbell came and quickly became a househod name. I can bet that They made more money than Peak that time. With the money they made, they were now able to take on peak. With the money peak money also had, they also decided to "go small" and also introduce their peak milk in a sachet. If I should ask you to mention 3 made in Nigeria milk brands in Nigeria, cowbell and peak will be among. What if I say make it 6, can you mention them? Maybe, maybe not (I wouldn't know because I don't take milk). The point is that they are many milk brands currently in Nigeria, but you may not know them because they are under the shadows of others.

LinkedIn could also have started a social networking site exactly like Facebook, targeting the same people as Facebook, so that the two of them can slug it out there together, but they did not. They went after the professionals.

However, if he thinks he has the financial muscle to take on the big guys from day one by doing exactly what they are doing, it may work for him. Wish him good luck!

Pls don't think I also own some marketing company; I don't! I actually think I might even contact you and Benz33 very soon for some consulting work.

Just my 2Naira

fm7070:

Mr_oluway.
Thx for the info. Although it is helpful but I need someone who have acurate dates.
I realise that people send wrong information to fish farmers atimes and this always make them to look like a failure even when they are doing well averagely.
For Instance, if you get fingerlings which is like 1month from a farm, you can never harvest 1kg of such fish in 3months, not even 800g. However, you can buy juvenile or post fingerlings which is about 2months or 2months+ from a farm you can get about 1KG in 3months or few wks after 3months.
A lot of people claim to harvest their fish in 3 months, but they did not state the age of the fish as at the time they stock it.

Catfish usually matures (get to 1kg and above) after 6 months (on the average) after hatching. So if you stock juveniles of 2 months old, after three months, expect to get at least 25% at about 1kg. Note that at this time, they are already 5 months old. At six months (i.e. 4 months after stocking), expect to get about 35-45% 1kg and above. Note that the results depend on a whole lot of other factors like water quality, quality of feed, breed and genes of the fish, etc.

Just my 2naira!

mamaxxx: I'm looking to go into cat fish farming. I need all the information on starting such a business, such as financal burden and anyother requirements.
I reside in abuja!
Thank you

You have an opportunity to ask all the questions you need to concerning fish farming at the following link.

http://www.2naira.com/index.php/topic,58.0.html


Just my 2Naira!

dannywest:

A network of websites more like, they all work together. If you're really interested send me your email so I would give you the link to one of them.
I'm actually more interested in knowing if there's anyone that's done this before here.

I can't say for sure that I've ever seen any of such advertised here. I may be wrong, though.

My email add is grass2megagrace@yahoo.com.

innocent chuks: wow! a nice trend, i am a business onwer a fish farmer and computer technicain. the thing is that i have not been able to develope a good cash flow that will take me out of cat race, i need a brain storming idea that will help me generate enough cash to support my business. what is the best way to do it?

The very first thing a businessman needs to do when his profit margins are so low is to reduce costs - overhead costs, fixed costs, etc. Look at areas you think you can cut back on without affecting the bottomline. If you propound your own fish feed, maybe replacement of maize with wheat (or the other way round) will save you some costs; maybe using fish meal of 65% will probably give you the same value as using the more expensive 72%. Just look for ways; there are always ways.

Note that if your profit margin was barely 5% and you manage to cut costs by 5%, you would have doubled your profit, just like that!

After you've cut costs, you can then think of increasing revenue by increasing capacity. This will surely increase your bottomline since most fixed costs will remain the same.

Just my 2Naira!

dannywest: If a person wants to sell an online business in Nigeria generating between 500,000 and 1,000,000 naira monthly and running for 3 years how do they go about it in these parts.
I know abroad there's flippa to list sites and so on but is there any structured platform for that in Nigeria.

You want to sell a website? I may be interested. What is the site?