Business and Entrepreneurship

It is a general knowledge that Nigeria imports virtually everything consumed within her territories with the United States, China and India leading other countries as source of goods consumed in Nigeria. It is also a general knowledge that we even import products we can readily produce. As a country that has so much of agricultural and natural resources, we however export some minute quantities of our agricultural produce especially to Europe and China.

This is one major rule in business. Your focus should not just be profit but the satisfaction of your customers. When you realise your customers are the sustainers of your business, it helps you to shift attention from profit to them.

The saying that the graveyard is the richest place on the planet is not one of those saying one can quickly dismiss because to a large extend, it’s the truth. It also applies to the aspect of ideas as most ideas are never tried, not even once before being dumped in the dustbin with “it won’t work” tag.

One of the ways to reduce our rate of unemployment is to encourage made in Nigeria. One of the way to also reduce the depreciation of the naira against other currencies is to encourage the buying and trading of Nigerian made products. The government should also help in the aspect of organizing the market. Prospective entrepreneurs should also learn to look for specific areas in whichever field they decided to venture into. You may not be able to manufacture a car but if you can manufacture car lamp, start with that. with time, you will add more areas to venture into and before you know it, you will start making a car. A little rivers they say make up an ocean.  

This is one of the questions that troubles the hearts of aspiring entrepreneurs. The answer to that 'Big question' however is NOW. Did you hear me?

In as much as we advocate for more patronage of Nigerian products, we also advocate for production of quality products.

Any prospective entrepreneur or business person must learn to be consistent. Consistency in this context is of two types 1) in terms of the service you are rendering, 2) To remain in business in the face of challenges

Knowledge by general saying is power, the same applies to business. To succeed in your business, you need spend quality time and money on getting information to remain relevant. The good news is that information is very close to us better than any other time in history.

The truth is that whatever you intend to do, be it starting a business or getting a job do it early. What do I mean by starting early. Aside the favour of nature blessing early starters, there are a high possibility of correcting errors made on time.

As a country, we need to come to a point where our mindset becomes "if we must use it, we must produce it". Taking a look at China, most of the products they use are made in the country, they don't even use Facebook like that because they have their own local social media network.

There are indications that the Nigeria government may sooner or later stop the importation of some goods into the country to boost local production in response to the pressure of local producers and patriotic Nigerians of  which I am one.

If we can build this, it also means we can grow further to start putting engine into it. It's better to do something and make mistake than not to take any step at all. Arise Nigeria, Arise Africa, we can!

The high rate of unemployment in Nigeria has reached a point where the number of graduates returning to the universities to pick post graduate forms for diploma, masters and PhD has greatly increased and still increasing by the years.

Let me point at the two (2) scenarios taking place in this country (Nigeria). 1)       The unemployed or underemployed graduate will not buy the same product made in Nigeria but will prefer to buy an imported version of the same product.

An annoying business environment   Watching the sorry state of the Nigeria economy, I discovered that we are a nation that enhances the economy of other nations. We are proud, yet unproductive. In this article, I intend to raise a number of issues which needed to be addressed urgently to reposition the Nigeria economy and reduce our current dependency level. We are a nation that imports about 85 % of our basic need.

Other thoughts on entrepreneurship It is relevant that an entrepreneur should have a written business plan before registering with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). The business plan should include the nature of the business, the sales and marketing strategies as well as the financial background and profit statement. However, emphasis should be on what makes your business different from other available ones.

Preliminary steps to being a business person First, there is a need to build your personal brand through some self discovery measures. To start a business does not require a degree or one’s ability to be good in business studies, nor is it for only those in business environment or for those who are very well established in business.

You and your business Emmanuela Felix, a friend of mine in the University once told me some things which I will like to share here. I have also published the work in Joint Christian Body (JCB) Unity magazine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The account is as follows.

The first step to becoming a totally independent nation in terms of our need as a nation is for everyone to change our collective thinking. We need to upgrade our thinking, we need to stop seeing school as a medium for qualification towards job security. Instead, as a means of changing society. the nations of Europe, America and Asia did not arrive at the enviable state we all still dream of today by just being a nation of job seekers. No! they consciously took steps that led them to where they are today. The aim of this blog is therefore to change our perspective toward employment as well as give information that will enable us, as a nation to be numbered among the committee of industrialized nations of the world in no distant time. Another important fact is that, to get to that desired position among the committee of industrialize nation, it is a collective effort. It's time to stop giving excuses.