Naija hard oo. To do business is harder than getting a job in Nigeria. It takes average 5 to 10 years to break even as a business man in Nigeria. I mean without cutting corners and not doing the start up Mantra around. Forget all those stuffs you read on media about one company raising thousands of dollars. Naija no be Canada. Many of those don’t have the right foundation.

Op, that is Nigeria for you

I have 400k right now but do not know what business to do with it

There couldn’t be any greater rubbish

Op must have read the 20 laws of money, cos only a handful of people can think the way the op does. If you wish to become wealthy and still on a salary job, then Oyo is your second name.
If you are ready to start up a business that requires hard work and low capital but with a potential to change your life from where you are to where you want to be, feel free to contact me by sending a pm.

LIFE NO EASY

Oh

DukeJoe17:

You are right but I don't think government will ever ban it because it has provided jobs for classless Nigerians more than the FG herself.
Imagine with ssce and six months computer training someone with will be earning 20-30k in some betting company whereas FG is paying her graduates of 4-5year 33k

deybthere be running erratic statistics, all its takes is for those news about suicide from bet lose to get to the senate and thats if it hasn't gotten there already just waiting for its turn to be deliberated on. Preying on ppls sorrows is not a source of income.

bookmarked

Weldon brother, I will like to have a private talk with you of you wouldn't mind.

Kindly chat me up privately or email me at haryothosyn@yahoo.com

Very wonderful write up. Thanks so much sir!

This is an inspiring write-up God bless you abundantly for this.

AltarBoy1:
99% of wealthy people are business men, you wont get to a greater height in wealth if you dedicate your entire life on a paid job. The average worker who is upright and doesn't involve in shady dealings ends up not been too wealthy or achieving much in life. Aside from multinational company's, most firms in Nigeria pay belwo 100k and when you factor in cost of leaving and daily expenses, how much can one save out of the salary in a month. Thats why I noted in the beginning of this write up that except you are working in a firm where your salary is above 100k and promotion/upward review of salary is certain within 3 years, then you are just wasting your youthful age when you work in such a place for long. If at the end of a year, you cant be able to save up to 1M, just try as much as you can to quit the job. Though its not easy, but its better you bear the heat and get out when you are strong and agile than wait when you get old.

My advice is that as early as possible, one should start looking for a business to start, irrespective of the nature of the business, as long as its legal and pays your bill just dedicate yourself to it and nurture it to growth/maturity. Business is easier to manage and nurture when your personal expense and responsibility is still very low, thats why its good to start when you are still under your parent, as a student or during NYSC. That way, even when the business fail, you have your family to fall back on until you gather the necessary resource to start again.

On a last note, when you have a striving business, by the time your kids grow up, one or two of them can you in the business and probably be on their own by having an offshoot of your business. That way they wont have to be looking for a job after school especially in this period of unavailability of jobs. But if you retire as a worker, you have nothing to pass to your kids to help them kick start their life. They will have to search for job or establish their own business.

I will also advice that if you have the opportunity of picking up a job as a sales rep of a company, please do not hesitate to accept it as this type of job gives you first hand experience of how businesses of buying and selling works. You will get to know how the market moves, the season when some certain goods are in high demand and with this experience, starting your own business in same line wont be difficult for you as you can even get some capital and purchase goods in the name of your customer and if you have a good relationship with him or with those around, selling the goods wont be much difficult through their help pending when you get your own shop/warehouse.

MODIFIED...
My own rule of thumb is... IF YOUR JOB IS YOUR ONLY SOURCE OF INCOME, DONT QUIT YOUR JOB FOR A SIDE BIZ UNTIL THE BIZ IS A "GOING CONCERN" AND IS GIVING YOU MORE THAN HALF OF YOUR MONTHLY SALARY.

make I shalaye something for you.as a banker,why can't you buy maize from North when it cheap and resell when the price is high.you can also buy palmoil from East or West depends on your location when it also cheap and resell again when the price goes high....na million business b that ooo but depend on your capital!

God bless you, somebody needed to hear this. Love bro

AltarBoy1:
Luckily for me, as the business flopped, around march of 2016 I got an offer for a bank job which I gladly accepted. Salary was 75k/month. Not much, but for me back then it was much.

I went for training and was posted to one of the states in North west. I have worked for about 5 years now, but I only got a promotion January this year, taking my salary to N115k/month.
Now the question to ask is, if I was into business for this period of 5 years, putting in the type of dedication that I did where I work, as at now, will my net revenue per month not be more than N115k.

Over the years, I have got to understand that business grows every single day. It might not reflect in your net income, but each day that a customer walk up to you to buy your product or pay for your services, your reputation and good will grows. This will amount in more revenue/income later on.

Secondly, we all know that salary remain stagnant while inflation grows. No organization will increase your salary cos of inflation, but unlike business, business grows with inflation. For example, if a product is been sold for N8 as cost price while retailers sell at N10. If there is inflation and cost price rises to N11, most retailers will end up selling at N15, thereby increasing their income relative to inflation.

I am in the banking sector, and it seems to me that am trapped in there even though I work tooth and nail to resign as soon as possible, but a lot of things that I have invested into, didn't turn out as I hope. Not giving up yet, as I look out for other opportunity. To grow a business, the owner need to be on ground to nurture it, but that time is what you don't have when you are working for someone esp as a banker. Its not all that easy leaving your job entirely to go and grow/nurture your business, at a time when you already have responsibility and expenses to carry, you might end up running down your capital. That's why I want to reiterate that the best time to start a business is when you are still in school or under your parent roof, that way you can do all the trial and error you needed to do without getting burnt. If the business fail, you still have roof over your head with your feeding and other basic necessities covered, all you need is time to regain more capital and start afresh.

hmmm nice write up o.p.am into plumbing and tilling work base in ore ondo state,due to low work,I gather like 100k then rent shop around march started okrika business as a side hustle,the time I started business is moving but now the market is not moving again some says that my market is too cost though I sell grade A.I am now regretting starting this business

Business is great, especially when you have initial capital with great expertise and management skill in whatever type you're venturing into. Better than white collar job where you hard to work under pressure 8-5, if not more, everyday.

Nevertheless, capital is needed, and your best bet to raise capital, especially for those of us without a very strong background, to take up job in other to raise capital.

I was telling a friend of mine the other day that it's illogical to study really hard in the university to get a first class, get some other degrees and end up having to search for a job that pays you a meager #150,000 monthly in this harsh economy. There's no even certainty that you'd get such job easily, and even if gotten, there's high certainty of not being able to retain it as the way company pays off staff lately is alarming. Hence, people that rely so much on school certificate need to have an alternative investment they hope to invest their life into. Else, despite all the struggle during school, after school the struggle continues, as you'd have to work you ass work relentlessly for a salary that'd end up not meeting needs in the current harsh economy of the country

Nevertheless one should struggle to go to the university at least. Under no circumstances should you say, you preferred business and school is useless and so you're not going to school at all. Nah, opportunity abounds as a graduate. No doubt.

Starting a Business has it's disadvantages too. IMO, I will prefer learning a skill and rendering such services to people. It pays more and less risky unlike buying and selling. Buying and selling in today's Nigerian environment is a huge journey on its own.

Also, if at all one dreams of taking a white collar Jon, I'm of the opinion that rather than private sector, as for me, I see more opportunities similar to having your own business in the public sector. Public sectors, especially those in federal governments are where money is. Aside monthly income, side incomes comes bigger than salary sef. Therein lies job security too with retirement benefits which is quite rare in the private sector. Once a private sector lays you off or retires you, that's the end. No matter how long you serve them. Nevertheless public sector isn't rosy too but I rate it above the private aspect.

Above all, may God's grace matters. There are people into business for more than 20years but still can't boast of major achievement in life, just like their are people working their ass off for white collar job for more than 20years without tangible results too. One should just stick to one ask for Grace.

Papachulo:
There couldn’t be any greater rubbish

You call this write up rubbish, your brain needs to be examined

oweniwe:
AltarBoy1 Wey the light nau?

Na selling you dey do... What if you were into production?

I'm into repacking. No light to power nylon sealing machine. Wetin man go come do? I will sell and use sales money to buy fuel to run gen.. E dey wipe capital. Nigeria is frustrating county

If you say make i but inverter, I don't have 250k to buy robust one

Nigeria environment doesn't help business to grow

Mr Oga to be a successful enterpreneur in this part of the world, u go try ooooo

uthlaw:
make I shalaye something for you.as a banker,why can't you buy maize from North when it cheap and resell when the price is high.you can also buy palmoil from East or West depends on your location when it also cheap and resell again when the price goes high....na million business b that ooo but depend on your capital!

pardon me for my question have are you into that kind of business

AltarBoy1:


All these are part of the information you needed to have before starting your biz. Knowing fully well that your biz requires electricity, you should have tried to site it in an area where the electricity supply is fairly constant. Now lets analyze this, if you spend roughly 1k per day on fuel, thats around 20k per month and approximately 200k per year which is g=high enough. And I know that with your gen, you might not be running at full capacity as you might want to manage fuel to save cost. WHy not just relocate to a place with constant supply of light even if its means increasing the amount of rent that you will be willing to pay.

What if the city or town or village or anywhere he later go doesn't favour or move his market and business..

Moneyboyz:
I have 400k right now but do not know what business to do with it

Invest in Nylon business and you will thank me later.

You can buy from us and resell to market women who retail and you make your coll cash.

Nylon don't spoil and demand is more than supply, look around you you will see how it is been used by every one.

Good write up. Anyway, I need advise from nairalanders who have been in business in Nigeria and know how business works. I live in America but frequent Nigeria very often. I have tried several business especially bringing used clothes to Nigeria, cosmetics like Irish spring soaps and others but the people I entrusted the business mismanaged it at onitsha but I have not giving up because I'm a strong believer that consistency to a purpose is the best match towards progress. Currently, I'm putting up a supermarket like shop, not big as supermarket but to at least start bringing in those American quality products, original products like Soaps, Doves, play soaps, Irish spring soaps etc. I have got a reliable person to be my assistant and I'm seriously committed now than before. Prices are a little high because of it's quality and originality but I hope that with time, we shall excel because there're people out there looking for where to purchase original products. Our focus is only American products for now. So please I need advise or suggestions on this. We will utilize social media platforms as marketing strategy to be able to reach wide range of customers. You can reach me privately via my email. Vinesee@Yahoo.com. Thanks guys

The OP just gave a complete lecture on Financial Literacy. Good one and thumbs up

jagorinho:
lovely write up!!
I would love to add something, I have friends that run different businesses, but I am concerned about two, one makes snacks and he is big in the business now, he even has sales girls while the other is a barber with many apprentices.

I tend to observe that the one making snacks usually complain about inflation a lot, the price of his inputs (baking products) are always on the high side because of the unstable naira , most times his selling price doesn't really correspond with the percentage increase in inflation because he fears total boycott from his customers but the barber is doing extremely well, on weekends he makes 15-20k daily and 10k on weekdays, and fortunately for him, he does not need to buy or change any of his inputs/barbing materials every time, they are fixed except buying of fuel for the generator.

My point is I would really love a business venture that would not be sapping my materials everyday, I won't mind buying everything I need once, so far they will serve me for long before considering replacements for them instead of all these business you have to buy your materials needed every other day, it can be very stressful.

......summary is a baker would need to buy flour, vegetable oil, etc almost every other week but a barber might not change his clipper for six months and when there is low patronage many snacks are wasted which usually affects the guy's mood but a barber does not really have much to loose on days of low patronage.

Open a computer center on a sure location.

bestmutiu2019:
pardon me for my question have are you into that kind of business

sure but no fund to proceed again... waiting for my covic19 loan if I will be selected to start up again!

Thats how i went to buy cloths a few days ago here. Made thr transfer but the man said he hasn't seen the alert so just to make me believe me he showed me his recent messages, let me not talk of the 650k i saw but that 25m i saw gave me sleepless night that day. I work day in day out all through thr month and year still yet....... infact lets leave tlk. A salaryman is equivalent to a slave!!

May God bless you for this bro, thanks for inspiring and motivating me to do more.

Nicklaus619:
Thanks op, I have written and printed, my business plan, next is to register my company and kick off, I have worked for close to 8 years now after graduation, nothing very serious to show for it, I need to start my own business and nurture it to grow
Procrastination is what i have been entangled with over the years, but come 2021. I ain't doing that sh!t no more, I am taking a leap of faith come January, 2021 and hoping and praying things fall in place

It definitely will go well. Trust God and believe.

OP, you mean graduate trainees (Executive assistants ) get promoted & salary review every three years?
How come those in operations at Access bank & Wema bank do complain that they have been stagnant for 5-6years?

Excellent piece. It'll really help to go ahead with my plans to start up a business of my own before retirement..
Thanks for the piece and God bless you.