FREE WEBINAR: 10 BUSINESS IDEAS THAT YOU CAN START WITH ZERO CAPITAL: HELD ON SATURDAY AUGUST 28TH 2021

 On saturday 28th August 2021, I held a free webinar where I showed 10 great business ideas that require zero capital.

It was a very rich session and we had over 50 people in attendance.

To watch a recorded version of this webinar, please Click on the link Below:

ZOOM VIDEO; FREE WEBINAR

To download the slides that I shared on that day, Please click on this link below:

WEBINAR SLIDES

The video was recorded on Zoom and uploaded on Youtube. The beginning was unclear but it got better as we progressed. 

Feel free to drop your comments and ask questions

Thank you so much for being a part of this.

God bless

UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUSINESS TERRAIN

In March 2020, just before the Lockdown was announced, a few things crossed my mind and thankfully, I immediately took action;

At that time, I was still running my jewelry business as a side hustle and I sourced them from China.

This only meant one thing;

I was going to run out of products pretty soon.

So here's what I did:

1. RAISED A LOT OF MONEY AND GOT A LOT OF JEWELRY

(Sounds crazy right? Who orders for non-essential products in the wake of a pandemic?but you will soon find out why)

2. I TOOK OUT A LARGE CHUNK OF THE MONEY, BOUGHT A LOT OF FOOD STUFFS, DRIED THEM AND STORED THEM

(Almost everyone did this though)

Then I waited.

A few weeks later, Lagos announced a lockdown and blocked interstate movement.

Most of my jewelry customers came from outside Lagos, so there were no jewelry sales in April and May as the lockdown lingered.

But I sold something else....

I live in an enclosed estate with over 170 homes and we had a commercial whatsapp group.

So I sold my food stuffs in the whatsapp group;

Yams, Crayfish, lemon, ginger, egusi, ogbono, etc.

While people ran out of foodstuffs and couldn't go out to get more, I sold to them.

I also created a Facebook page, promoted adverts to people in my locality and sold food stuffs to them.

By the middle of May, when the lockdown was lifted,

the Dollar rose against the Naira;

But I already had a lot of jewelry which I bought at the old dollar rate;

In fact, I had enough jewlery to last me for at least 3 months...

DO YOU NOW SEE WHY I ORDERED JEWELRY WHEN A LOCKDOWN WAS LOOMING?

As a business owner, you have to listen to the news,

Follow economic trends,

Find out how it affects your business.

That's the only way to stay afloat.

Gracias

 

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED MARKET SEGMENTATION IN YOUR BUSINESS?

 Let me break it down in layman's terms.

So we understand that all customers can never be the same;

Especially in this our Mass Market where you have 200M people but with 60% living below $1 a day;

Are you really going to ignore the 60%?

Take DSTV for example.

Their ACTUAL monthly subscription is the premium subscription where you can enjoy over 100 channels for about N18k per month;

But does EVERYBODY in Nigeria really want 100 channels?

And do we all have N18k per month to spare?

So DSTV SEGMENTED their market;

Get Gotv for about 10k and subscribe for 3k per month;

OR

Get the usual DSTV with only Nigerian Channels and African Magic; N4k

Add some music Channels and some Cartoon Channels; 7k

Add some more Channels: N12k

That way, everybody gets a bite and DSTV smiles to the bank.

SO HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO YOU?

You may be selling a premium product for targeted premium customers (which is fine)

But rather than wait till your premium customers arrive,

Why don't you segment your market and give cheaper options to the Mass Market?

That way you always have something to sell.

And you can pay salaries too..

Until your premium customers eventually arrive in their trickles.

OR WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Gracias

DON'T BE AFRAID TO DIVERSIFY

 The companies that have succeeded in Nigeria are mostly those who have a variety of products that people love and need.

Take a company like Nestle for example;

These guys made a profit after tax of over N34B last year;

In a Covid year,

With unpredictable exchange rate;

In a harsh economy,

Na wa oh!

One cannot help but ask:

So what have they been doing well?

I will tell you a few things;

When Nestle enters the market, they don't come to play.

Their product would be so desirable that it will become the generic name for every other product from other competitors (can you beat that?)

Then the prices will be very fair

Then they will flood the market with their products;

They never stop advertising

They would always be in your face.

Now let's list their products:

Maggi,

Milo,

Cerelac,

Golden Morn,

Nestle Water

Should I continue?

Why won't they make N34B in profits?

We can't all be as big as Nestle but we can start somewhere.

My people have this saying that you can't watch a masquerade from one spot.

If you are in the business of baking cakes, think of other related products that you can sell and make profits.

Bake doughnuts and meatpie and supply to schools and supermarkets,

Make Chin chin and find a good distribution chain.

And don't be afraid to advertise vigorously.

We will all get there one day.

Gracias

MUST YOU IMPORT YOUR GOODS?

 Back in 2010 when I used to source my jewelry from Cotonou,

I decided to source handbags from Togo and add to the business.

It sounded like a grand idea;

Benin Republic and Togo are just next door neighbours.

It cost only a little extra to move between the 2 countries.

So on one of those long public holidays, I took off to Togo with my younger sis Aries-Yudy Udodi Dow (Me and this babe really did plenty waka that year).

We went by road.

For starters, I got extorted at Seme Border.

The guys who carried us on their bikes took us through a back route where some customs/ immigration guys were sitting under a make-shift shade.

They searched us and unfortunately, I had an old N20 note in my wallet

N20 had just been recently changed around that time so that became an international offence ( see me see international crime ).

I begged and begged and begged.

Eventually I had to part with some substantial amount of money.

In the process, one of the bike guys also stole some money from me.

When I tried to confront him, he called his fellow bike men who nearly beat us up.

Anyway, we eventually got to Togo

I saw a lot of nice, second hand designer bags made from some of the best brands.

They were quite affordable for their quality.

By the time I got back home, I felt like I would make a kill.

Unfortunately for me, this didn't happen.

What I didn't consider was that rather than pass through the stress of importing from Togo,

I should have looked around for major importers who would sell at even cheaper prices, with less hassles.

Because finally, none of my customers cared that the bags were of premium quality;

They still wanted to buy at the same price as what was found locally.

Moral of the story:

Before you decide to import your goods,

Check if there are locally available alternatives

It is glamorous to tell people that you import the stuff you sell

But is it glamorous for your bank account?

Gracias

90Aries-Yudy Udodi Dow, Chinwike Eazydegreat Emenyonu and 88 others

13 Comments

1 Share

Like

Comment

Share