Did you know that dog breeding business is one of the most profitable businesses in Nigeria?

Dogs are largely kept as an assurance of security in Nigeria. Aside from this, they’re kept by humans for companionship. The adorable faces, acts and fur of some dogs make them irresistible and craved for by their onlookers.

Dog breeding businesses are highly sought after due to the huge demand for dogs.

And this business can make you rich.

Now, although there’s profit in dog breeding, it must not be the major goal. The health, genetic makeup, and proper care for these animals are highly important.

For every business that booms, you need strategy and you need knowledge.

Why dog breeding business is profitable, how much you can make as a dog breeder, how dog breeding business works, how to start your business, the best dog breeds, among others are outlined in this article.

Let’s dive in.

Why Start a Dog Breeding Business

● You get an opportunity to make a career out of your adoration for dogs.

● You get to provide dogs for families, individuals, for security, cosy hugs, hunting and other differing purposes. You help someone who needs a guard dog get them. Soft, warm and furry companions exist in our homes because of you and people like you.

● You help prevent a species or more from going extinct, preserving their distinct features, characteristics and the purposes they primarily serve.

So, why not?

Who’s Your Target Market?

The target market for dog breeders includes dog lovers, security units, hunters, research institutes, dog trainers.

The targets vary with the breeds; athletic breeds for sports, cute and furry breeds for homes, muscular and fierce breeds for security.

How To Start a Dog Breeding Business

✅Knowledge

● Knowledge of dog breeding: how to cater for dogs; care for puppies, pregnant dogs, sick dogs; recognizing sick dogs and dogs in the heat period.

● Know genetics: this will help you as a breeder in choosing dogs to be paired for breeding. You will also understand their traits and qualities and avoid hereditary disorders in puppies.

● Dog coaching: puppies especially need to be given some basic training to prepare them for their new owner.

● First aid knowledge: just like humans, pets also have accidents and get injured. Knowledge of first aid before the appearance of a vet is very important.

✅Build Relationships

Vets, dog breeders are useful relations that would help you out in this business with their knowledge, tips and experience. Build relationships with them. Get help from them, also, help them when you can.

✅A business Plan

It is never enough to have an idea in your head, especially a business idea.

Write out your business plan. Studies have shown that there’s a greater likelihood for a business idea to morph into a prospering business when there is a business plan.

✅A Business Name

This is what would be used to refer to your dog breeding business by people. Create a name that would stick to the mouths of people like a piece of blown-out chewing gum.

✅A Location

A place where the puppies and dogs would be cared for. The neighbourhood where the kennel would be situated should agree with the noise that would be produced. It should also have enough space for them to roam about and play.

✅Set Up The Business

Acquire the starting or founding dogs- the starters of the breeding business. Make the necessary equipment available.

✅A business Account

This puts your business name upfront. The business account carries the business name and all the money for business goes into it, preventing your money from getting mixed up with that of your business.

It also offers the protection of your assets in a case where your business is sued.

✅Business Accounting

This helps you study the performance of your business. It involves the detailed calculation of income and expenditure for your business.

✅A Business Website

A business website helps put your dog breeding business out. It displays your business as legit and trustworthy and attracts customers to your business.

✅Build Your Brand

What your business stands for is your brand.

The quality and health of the breeds showcase your brand. If the breeds are weak, your brand is affected and people would hesitate to refer you or come back.

A website helps with the brand building too.

✅Dog Exercise

Regular training and exercise for the dogs to keep them active and alert are of great importance . Not doing this would lead to a weak immune system, restlessness, tiredness, among others in the dogs.

✅Regular Checkups

Regular checkups by a vet ensure that the dogs are healthy. You should have a veterinary doctor who you recognize as a vet for your dogs.

✅Marketing

To find customers, relationships built with other dog breeders and vets would come in handy.

Your website, social media and referrals are also ways to market your dogs.

Best Dog Breeds for Business

✅Siberian Husky

They have a lifespan of about 14 years. Siberian Husky breeds are active and have low possibilities of health issues. They are amongst the best selling dogs.

✅Rottweiler

The Rottweiler breed is among the most famous dog breeds. It is playful to the core with familiar people and defensive against strangers. Rottweilers are not susceptible to many diseases.

✅Otterhound

Otterhounds can swim. They have thick fur and a calm appearance. The Otterhound’s coat is waterproof, keeping its body temperature stable while it’s in the water.

✅German Shepherd

This breed of dogs is among easy-to-breed dogs. They are smart and courageous dogs (I’ve read a story where a child was saved by a German Shepherd). They are one of the popularly bred dogs in Nigeria.

✅French Bulldogs

French Bulldogs are adorable, small-sized breeds. They need much care and maintenance.

They are prone to defects like dwarfism and respiratory disorders. These defects can be countered by acquiring healthy starting dogs to produce equally healthy puppies.

✅Tibetan Mastiffs

Tibetan Mastiffs live as long as 16 years and more. They are guard dogs and are extremely intimidating to strangers.

They have a muscular build.

✅Saluki

This breed is one of the swift dog breeds. They would thrive in competitions and hunting. They are also homely dogs for families and individuals.

Best Dog Foods for Breeders

7 best dog foods recommended by Vets:

● Royal canin dog food

● Bavaro

● Josera

● Purina

● Booster

● Taste of the wild

● Arion

Housing Provision For Dogs

● The kennel must be warm and comfortable, a home for the dogs and puppies. There must be absence of fear and discomfort for the dogs.

● Equipment for feeding, warmth, cleaning, disinfecting should be available as well.

● The location of the kennel should also be in close range to vets, pet shops and customers.

How Much Can You Sell Your Dogs

The prices differ with dog breeds, age and sex. After checking in on the cost of feeding among others, study the market before you set your price.

Don’t try to breed after every litter. Give the dog time and space to recover and care for the puppies.

This would allow you to care for each litter sufficiently.

Conclusion

Did this article clear your doubts on whether dog breeding is a good business in Nigeria?

Let me know your answer in the comments.

Don’t forget to share.

This year, unemployment in Nigeria has surged again. Due to the pandemic, many residents have been deprived of their usual sources of income. Losing your job is a nightmare, but there are still ways to become self-employed, even with very little or no investment. I’m going to show you how you can start a company with zero capital.

These ideas can help you succeed despite the saddening turn of economic events. Discover five occupations that pay enough to cover typical expenses and make savings at the same time. You can earn money in one of the following ways.

1. Website Design

You can start a company to create websites, using free online courses to acquire web design skills. In this realm, practice makes perfect, so all you really need is a good eye and perseverance. Instead of spending hours on social media, do something that will pay off in the long term. Then, you may spread the word among your friends, place ads on social media, and gradually grow your clientele along with your portfolio.

2. Fitness Training

Being fit is trendy, so why not leverage this trend? People are still crazy about six-packs and athletic figures. Education is also accessible through the Internet. Begin by toning your own body and offer services to other people. Many Nigerians would like to train, but they have no time to visit the gym or no discipline to work out at home. With home services, you will grow your network quickly, as people will be referring you to their friends.

You can also become a fitness blogger on Instagram and make videos for YouTube. This opens up a world of opportunities in terms of advertising. First, if you have many followers, brands will reach out to you with paid promotion offers. Secondly, you may join the YouTube partner program and to get money for every thousand views. Thirdly, you may open side businesses like the production of sportswear. Overall, if you start small and work hard, there are many possible money flow directions.

3. Online Trading

This year, the popularity of trading online has soared. Skilled traders can make money wherever they are using computers or mobile devices. In 2019, Nigeria had the second-largest volume of FX trading on the continent. Now, it is poised to surpass South Africa. Education is free, and global brokers register demo accounts for risk-free practice on terminals like MetaTrader 4.

The idea of trading in the largest financial markets may sound daunting, but most instruments follow the same logic. Your goal is to buy low and sell high. All operations, from initial analysis to trading and withdrawal of funds are done online. All you need is the right software, reliable brokerage, knowledge, and a sound plan.

Entry into the live market is more affordable than ever, and you may open an account with just two thousand nairas (or $10). Forextime offers accounts denominated in the Nigerian currency, so you will save on conversion fees. Discover what is copy trading and delegate decision-making to professionals.

Start with currency pairs like USD/ZAR or EUR/USD. Subsequently, you will add more assets, which boosts profit and lowers overall risks. Beyond Forex trading, there are precious metals, stocks, and assorted derivatives. CFDs allow holders to profit from changes in different markets without owning any physical assets. There are CFDs on stocks, commodities like oil, market indices like FTSE 100, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, etc.

4. Private Tutoring

Is there a subject you know really well? Why not monetize your knowledge by teaching others? Young students and kids are not the only audiences. Adult schooling is also in demand, as there are older people who have not studied before due to a lack of time or opportunities. The third avenue is preparation for important exams like WAEC, NECO, GCE, and JAMB.

2020 has changed the education industry as distant learning is the new norm. This means you may not even need to leave your home to work. Register on tutoring platforms and conduct online webinars for groups or one-on-ones. Alternatively, you may build your own brand on social media and get clients from there.

5. Freelance Writing

The written word is still in great demand. You may become a copywriter and create marketing materials for companies, as the Internet is the main conduit for advertising today. Alternatively, you start your own blog and monetize it through Google AdSense. Finally, you can become a proofreader and check other people’s work without the need to write anything new.

Look Beyond the Familiar

Despite its rampant unemployment, Nigeria offers many opportunities for those who want to start their business. These five ideas require little or no capital, and education is free. Build your own brand, and it will help you earn money for years to come.

If you want to start a retail cosmetics shop this year, this could be your best chance of learning very insightful secrets of starting a cosmetics shop. This guide is written to help you from scratch.

I will also answer the most common questions anyone who desire to setup a retail cosmetics shops would ask. Like, is this business profitable? What does it cost to start a retail cosmetics shop? Where can one buy cosmetics at bulk prices for a retail shop?

I have provided you with the right answers and the best advise you can follow to achieve success. As a consultant, I’m also available for enquiries if you have questions. But also know that some enquiries may attract consultation fee – just tokens to help me help you better.

How Retail Cosmetics Shop Works

A retail cosmetics shop is the last line of the cosmetics business before the products ends up in the hands of the end users. There are different lines of action in cosmetics business, from manufacturers, importers, distributors, wholesalers, to retailers. The retail shops is the end-point for cosmetics products.

In a nutshell, a retail cosmetics shop buys products at a hugely discounted price from either the manufacturers, importers, distributors, or wholesalers and sell at retail prices to end users.

Apart from retailing cosmetics products, a retailer should have a better understanding of both the products and the needs of the consumers. That way you can prescribe the right cosmetics to help your customers solve their beauty problems.

Is Retail Cosmetics Shop Profitable?

The first question you must find answer to when starting a retail cosmetics shop is how profitable can the business be? And also how you can make it profitable for yourself. It’s one thing to know if a business is profitable, which in most case is usually the situation. Like, every business is profitable, but a business may not be profitable for someone for some reasons.

So, finding how to make the business profitable for you, should be the right question that you must find answers to. That is one of the things I have provided you answers within this guide.

Cosmetics business is profitable generally. How profitable it can be for you depends largely on certain factors, your location, target market, product efficacy, and price point. The best way to understand the profit potential of retail cosmetics shop is the markup, which is between 30 percent to 300 percent. I will explain it well in my conclusion. Now, let’s finish with the steps first.

Be An Apprentice For Few Months

Make no mistakes, what you know about cosmetics business will be the only reason you will start off successfully or not. And it’s not this article that will teach you that. What you will get from here is the know-how, but it won’t be dealing with the current market realities of the business at the time you are setting up your retail cosmetics shop.

So, I recommend you become an apprentice to another retail cosmetics shop to learn more about the business, especially regarding the location you want to start the business. What you will learn as an apprentice will help you understand the business dynamics much better.

You may need to pay to become an apprentice for just a few months, like 3 to 6 months period. But know that the mentor may not want to teach you everything he or she knows about the business. Be smart to learn even when no one is teaching you. Also be aware that most of what you learn as an apprentice is based on what you saw or experienced. Take note of these two events as you learn.

Make A List Of Suppliers

While you are learning as an apprentice, one of the things you must endeavor to do is find where your boss is buying cosmetics products from. These contacts would help you when you want to start. It will also help you to learn how much your boss buys and how much he’s selling to make profit. It gives you an idea of the profitability of the business based on markup.

Your boss may not want to give you these contacts, but pay attention to details, listen in into phone calls when he is ordering or enquiring from suppliers. Ask others who are in the business to know where they buy from too. And visits some of the markets listed in this articles to meet with suppliers.

Write A Business Plan

Now that you have undergone apprentice for some months, you should have a grasp of how this business works and how you can make your cosmetics shop profitable. So, it’s time to write how you want to do your business differently.

Your business plan should address important aspects of your retail cosmetics shop. It should help you articulate the types of cosmetics you want to retail, who your target customers should be, where to locate your shop, how much you require to get started, what your retail prices should be like, how you intend to market your products, etcetera.

Pick Your Niche

If you have decided almost everything in your business plan, it’s time to take the plunge. Define your cosmetics shop niche. As a startup, don’t make business complicated for you. Pick a niche to start and add more as your grow, or as market demands.

For example, you can choose to start with a particular brand or with just creams and soaps, or with perfumes, or makeup kits, etcetera. Start with the one you know and understand the most. Once you are in the business you will learn more and be able to move to what sells the most for you.

Plan Your Setup Cost

Your setup cost is a product of your plan. This cost is personal to you. You must put it together. Nobody knows what you want to do more than yourself. But this is how I can help you know what your setup cost should be.

Start by inquiring on the cost of shops in your target location. That’s your first cost. Write it down as cost one.

Also, you should have made a list of cosmetics products, based on the products that are either selling more during your apprentice days or have better market potentials. In your list you should have both their retail prices and cost prices. Add carton orders to each product to get the total. And that’s your second important cost.

Other things you need to put into your cost consideration includes:

• Interior decor cost
• Power supply generator cost
• Marketing and advertisements cost
• Staff requirement cost

These things you can find out and at a cost prevalent at the time of starting your retail cosmetics shop.

Find A Shop

Once all the cost have been put together. You know what all that’s required would cost, it’s time to start implementing each of them. The first step here is finding a shop in the target location defined in your business plan.

Your shop will be where most of the sales take place. Retail cosmetics shop is a location based business. So, the best location must be your goal when looking for a shop. Here are a few tips to help you pick the right location for your retail domestics shop.

• Know your target customers too well
• Pick a location that’s easily accessible to them
• Pick a shop that’s visible from the road

Buy Products In Bulk

For a retail shop, you will be buying stocks in bulk to sell at a good profit margin. That means you should know the contacts of either the importers or wholesale distributors. These are suppliers to buy your cosmetics products from.

However, if you know the distributors in your city that might be helpful to save you cost and time, try to connect with them. If you did the apprentice I advised you to do, this would have been sorted out while you were an apprentice. If you didn’t, then you have to do it the hard way.

Trade fair complex in Lagos is a major business hub for cosmetics importers and wholesale distributors. You can start your search from there. Other major markets for cosmetics are Onitsha main market and Cemetery road in Aba. Suppliers abound in these markets.

Pick Profitable Cosmetic Products

No matter what products you stock, there are those that would make you profit and there will be those who would just seat on your shelf and gather dust. Pick your products wisely.

During your apprentice, make the list of the best top 10 or 20 selling cosmetics in your target market. They should be among the products in your list for startup. It’s not the wisest decision but a good place to start.

Another thing to consider when buying cosmetics products is the product and the retail margin. It’s okay to just stock every well known products, but it’s smarter to pick some unknown products that can deliver on their promise. New products have higher profit potentials than already known products.

Marketing And Advertising

Sometimes it’s difficult to try promoting a retail cosmetics shop, if you sell the same products with other competing shops. But you should not discount advertising from your business. I built my retail cosmetics shop on Facebook advertising.

My secret is simple, I have a new cosmetics products, and I was also the distributor in the city. I leverage on it. Although, it wasn’t the idea from the beginning. My target customers, which are other retail shops were not patronizing me because the product was new. I had no choice than to try to sell directly to the end users.

Advertising worked best for me. From no sells I moved to 3 customers per day, and then 5 per day, until I started seeing much customers per day.

Don’t discount marketing and advertising. Find a way to leverage it for your retail cosmetics shop.

Conclusion

In summary, if you subscribed to apprentice you would be well informed about the profitability of retail cosmetics shop. When I started cosmetics, my best idea was to become a distributor for a cosmetics company in my city. But when I got one, I realized while I was making N1,000 per carton of cosmetics I sold, the retail shops were making as much as N20,000 from the same carton.

Although, it takes me little time to sell a carton, but until those retail shops sell off the carton they won’t be coming back for more. So, I wasn’t in a better position than them.

Also, your shop location is a major key. If you make this mistake, the business will struggle until it will eventually shut down.

If you want to setup a bakery business, even if you don’t know how to bake, here’s your step by step guide as a Beginner. In Nigeria, bread is one of the staple foods. That goes for all the bakery products. They are now staple in our lifestyle.

Sometimes the challenge is the thinking you should know how to bake before you can venture into bakery business. To start a bakery business, you only need to think like an investor. However, having the knowledge of baking is an advantage.

The market for bakery products is very huge and competitive as well. But you can choose to stand out with your own delicious recipes. Anyone can win in the bakery market. It’s not a first come takes all. A new entrant can sweep the entire market to its favour if you know what to do.

Understanding Bakery Business

Bakery business involves the production and sale of food made out of flour and prepared in an oven. These foods include bread, cake, pies, cookies, biscuits and pizza.

The bakery business is interesting. It involves a wide variety of products. Some bakery industries specialise in a collection of flour-based products while some only specialise in just one, for example, a bread bakery.

As a beginner, bakery business is lucrative and gives you a certain freedom to an extent to work from your home. If you’re a huge fan of baking and work-at-home jobs, you can start a bakery business at home even as an online business.

You can also transform your kitchen or garage to a mini bakery and shop with tables and chairs to accommodate those who want to sit and eat.

Tips On Setting Up Your Own Bakery

#1 – Get started with the kind of shop and business you want. Take your time with this. This step involves your view and the idea of your bakery. What does it look like in your head? Sketch it out.

• Do you want to work from home?
• Do you think a shop is the best for you?
• What are your preferences?
• What are your ideas?
• How do you want your bakery business to be?
• Answer these questions yourself to help you figure things out.

#2 – Make a plan, like every house before it’s built, and every business before it starts, a plan must be drawn. If you can do it yourself, get a business consultant to do it for you. Once you have figured out your strengths, weaknesses and preferences, write them down. Draw it out. More than keeping them in your head, it’s better to have a sketch on paper.

This plan should include your start-up cost, the amount needed to start your business. Also, include the specificities of your business. These include the products you’ll be making, their prices or price range of you don’t know it yet and all the equipment you need to start your business.

#3 – Map out your pricing plan. Formulate a plan you’ll use to figure out the price of each of your products. The factors to consider when choosing a price should include the time spent preparing the product, the price of ingredients, the time spent publicizing your business, and packaging.

Time is money. The time spent on a baked food or a batch of baked foods should be accounted for.

#4 – Find a space. Your space is your kitchen or garage if you’re working from home. If you would be owning a shop, be patient and be selective in your search for the perfect one. The right space should pay for itself overtime.

#5 – Marketing: Before you start baking, especially if you’re home-based, announce your business to the world. Or your community at least.

Use mouth to mouth and person to person mechanisms to inform people of your new bakery and the kind of goodies you make. Make sure you accompany your talk with beautiful pictures of your goods or printed flyers.

You can also spread the word via social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.. Send digital flyers to your friends, family and followers and make them send it to their friends and followers too. To further brand your bakery and increase your publicity, open social media accounts for your business.

#6 – Storage: A fridge or freezer is important in your bakery business. Baked products need to be preserved because they have a short lifespan which can only be extended by freezing them.

Buy the right cooling storage system. The regular home fridge may not be most ideal. But if that’s what you have , ensure it’s the type that has temperature control. Baked products have their proper cooling temperature for storage. Avoid letting them freeze above the required temperature.

Startup Cost And Requirements

The start-up cost of a bakery business is required to cover the necessary pieces of equipment, ingredients and the cost of a shop (if you would be getting one). The start-up cost depends on how large you’re starting. If it’s a small in-house business, it would cost less and the opposite for a larger business.

Pick your cost level based on the size of the bakery business you. If you are starting small, know what’s needed and invest only on such equipments for a small startup. You can upgrade as the business grows.

Types of Bakery Equipment

There are several pieces of equipment used in bakeries. The following are five classes of bakery equipment:

Cleaning Equipment: These includes equipment used to clean used and dirty equipment. Examples are dishwasher, soap and sponges.

Preparation Equipment: The equipment in this class are the ones implemented in the preparation of the baked goods. Examples are mixing bowls, cookie cutters, electric whisks, spatula and tables or boards for kneading.

Baking Equipment: This includes equipment used in the baking process. They include baking tins and trays.

Exhibition Equipment: These equipment are used to exhibit baked goods. They include display containers or boxes and display racks.

Storage Equipment: These are equipment used to store ingredients and baked products. They include freezers for perishable items and shelves for non-perishable ones.

Types of Bakery Products

The number of bakery products is inexhaustible. More new pastry ideas are being created everyday. You too can create yours. However, you can also explore some popular local pastries around the world and give your customers something new.

There are many types of bakery products but below are just a few popular ones.

1. Bread
2. Cakes
3. Muffins
4. Cookies
5. Pizza
6. Dessert
7. Pastries
8. Biscuits

Highest Demand Bakery Products

The bakery products with the highest demand are bread and cake. Bread is a popular choice of food eaten all over the world. Bread can be served in different ways and with a variety of accompaniments.

Cakes are consumed as desserts, breakfast and during celebrations. But depending on your target customers, the best products might not be bread or cake. For example, if your target customers are people planning events, pastries like small chops, buns and cakes may just be what is best offered to them.

You just have to identify your own best bakery products based on your target customers.

Challenges of Bakery Business

There are many challenges of bakery business, from setup cost to picking the right location, and creating the best user experience. But the top three challenges that stands out are about staffing, waste management and customers knowledge-base.

Getting The Right Staff:

The staff of a bakery is as important as that of any business. The staff is needed to serve customers, produce baked products and do deliveries. A bakery business with few staffs than needed would need to source for more.

Minimizing Waste:

Waste is one of the major challenges in a bakery business. Scrapings from cakes, leftover pastries and dough are some examples. To prevent wastage, cake scrapings can be sprinkled as toppings on cakes and the leftover dough can be collected and used to make an additional baked product or frozen for later.

Customers with little knowledge of gluten-free products:

This may come as a challenge to a bakery since most people wouldn’t buy what they know nothing about. This challenge can be curbed by letting the staff (waiters) briefly explain what it means to the customers.

Digital Marketing For Baked Products

It’s more easier to promote your bakery business using digital platforms. It creates even the best word of mouth of publicity that you need. Moreover, with location based advertising you can reach only those who are within reach to buy your bakery product.

You can find a lot of bakery marketing ideas online. Most bakery businesses explore the potentials of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. You can also expand it with a website for quick ordering.

Selling baked products online makes it easier and faster for customers to make a choice of what they really want from the collection of finished bakery products you post online.

Conclusion

Starting a bakery business is profitable, interesting and satisfying. If baking is something you love to do, owning a bakery business means you get to do what you love every day.

However, whether you can bake or you just invest in bakery ideas, horn your skills well and create mouth-watering baked goods with varieties. Customers love to change their taste. Create bake products that doesn’t exist before.

Finally, don’t be afraid to venture into unknown territories of the baking world. You can create eating areas for customers who would love to just take a seat and enjoy some pastries and a chilled soft drink. You can’t go wrong with great ideas for your bakery business.

Do you know how business works in Nigeria? It’s important you understand the basics of doing business in Nigeria before starting one. You should not venture into a business if you are not grounded on the simple knowledge of how business works in Nigeria.

The failures associated with businesses in Nigeria can be avoided if only the starters understood the terrain they ventured into. Business, like every other thing that we do, follows a principle and a concept. They guide you into knowing what works in Nigeria, what to do, how to do it and to whom you should do it for.

Business in Nigeria is more like construction work. When you are building a house, you are not guessing if it would eventually become a house. You surely know it would be a house. Those reasons that made you believe that you are building a house, and that you don’t expect it to become something else than a house, can be applied in the same way to building a business.

That implies, if you follow how business works in Nigeria, it doesn’t matter what business you are building, it will surely become successful, if not very successful doing business in Nigeria.

The Principles Of Business

Also, you need to go by the principles of business. There are no mysteries in how business works in Nigeria than just doing business the very way it should be done but with some unfactored twist. These principles lays out what you need to put in place or in consideration when starting or running a business in Nigeria.

Business principles provides us with ideas of what makes business work. That means, you are to be guided by the principles of business if you hope to make your business succeed. These guiding principles of business work for every type of business in Nigeria.

According to American National University, there are 8 fundamental principles of business you need to Know if you must succeed in business anywhere in the world. These principles would work for any kind of business, wether small, medium or large scale business. If you follow these principles correctly, you can beat your chest and say, I know what I’m doing Works!

Well, for Nigeria, there’s a little tweak to it. Everything about how business works would work but without including the Nigerian factor to the equation, it may never work.

Here are the principles for you:

1. Make quality products for Nigerians
2. Know your industry and competitors
3. Protect your intellectual properties
4. Pick a great Nigerian team
5. Organize your structure and design properly
6. Use cash flow wisely against corruption
7. Understand the accounting and finance
8. Take care of your customers

In a simple way, the principles can be better understood as product, market and competition, marketing, workers, structure and design, money, report and customers.

All these are what make business to work in Nigeria. If you carefully learn about each one, how they work in the overall plan of the business, and how to utilize them collectively to achieve your set objective, you would have known how business works in the Nigerian context more than anybody else.

Understand How Business Works

The idea of business is derived from a product or service aimed at target consumers with a promise of value, in exchange for monetary compensation. However, the concept may involve a new product or just a novel approach to marketing or delivering an existing product to a target Nigerian audience.

This idea can be better expressed as follows:

• Service or product
• Target demographic
• Unique selling proposition (USP)

So, for the concept to work it must include all the three basic information of a business idea. That’s even the first steps of the principles of business.

What Is Business in Nigeria?

Business in Nigeria is better defined as a regular occupation, a trade, or a profession that a person engages in, as a commercial activity in Nigeria. If you have any occupation that you engage as a commercial activity you are already involved in a business in Nigeria.

What makes a business is the idea of service or product that is offered in exchange for value. A business in Nigeria is an organization where people work together to make or sell products or services. The word “business” is derived from the word “busy”, and that means doing things. This business or doing things should earn you a profit for the products and services it offers to Nigerians.

However, to have a business in Nigeria it should have these characteristics:

• It should have individuals working together
• It must satisfy a Nigerian need
• It must seek to make a profit

Where a business in Nigeria is not designed to make profit, it’s categorized under another label; non-profit organization or not for profit organization. These kind of business meets the two characteristics of a business but willingly reversed the third one, which is to make profit.

Types Of Businesses

There are three major types of businesses in Nigeria one can engage in that represents a commercial activity.

1. Service business
2. Merchandising business
3. Manufacturing business

Service Business

It’s a kind of business that one offers services that are intangible. The products have no physical form or shape. They simply provide some form of professional services, like skills, expertise, advice, etcetera. Some examples include, salons, repair shops, banks, hospitals, law firms, etcetera.

Merchandising Business

This kind of business is also known as “buy and sell” business. It’s a kind of business that deals on physical products, but primarily as in a trade transaction. It involves buying products at wholesale price and offering the same to the consumers at retail prices. Some examples include, resellers, distributors, eCommerce stores, convenience stores, grocery stores, etcetera.

Manufacturing Business

A Manufacturing Business transforms raw materials or other existing goods into new products. The primary role is transforming already existing products into better products for the consumers.

Note: Some Nigerian businesses may fall into more than one classification. Some may be engaged in manufacturing and also merchandising of the products. In that case, such business could be classified into multiple types of business. That makes them hybrid business.

A very good example is a restaurant, being a food ‘manufacturing outfit’, it also engages in the direct sale of the food to Nigerian consumers.

Starting A Business In Nigeria

Starting a business in Nigeria is not entirely different from building a house. Once you decide on the kind of house you want to build, which is like doing your research, wisdom demands that you design a building plan. A building plan is akin to business plan. It’s how to put into imagery what you want to build, and in the case of a building how you want to build it.

Now, with the building plan you can start the foundation. This stage is where you dig for solid ground and you lay strong iron with concrete mixture. You can relate this with the principles of business. Without a solid foundation your business might collapse if you begin to add the building blocks, as it gets heavier with each blocks added.

Moreover, you need to take care of all the legal requirements when starting a business in Nigeria, which include:

• Register your business Name with CAC
• Apply for FIRS Tax ID Number
• Obtain necessary business permits and licenses
• Protect your business with insurance policy
• Open a business bank account
• Consult with professionals

3 Forms of Business Ownership In Nigeria

When you talk about forms of business, it refers mostly to ownership structure than the organizational structure. You can form a business in any of these 3 ownership structures. These are the basic forms of business ownership:

• Sole proprietorship
• Partnership
• Cooperation

Nigerian Sole Proprietorship

This kind of business is registered as owned by only one person in Nigeria. It’s the least formation of a business to form in Nigeria, also with the least ownership structure. It’s liability is unlimited, and it’s faced by the owner, but it’s limited to the personal assets if the business cannot pay.

Nigerian Business Partnership

This type of business is owned by more than one person in Nigeria, with contributed resources in form of equity. They also divide the profits from the business among each of the partners. However, there are 2 types of business partnership; a general partnership and limited partnership. While general partnership attracts unlimited liability, which puts their personal assets at risk, the limited partnership enjoys protection against their personal assets.

Nigerian Corporation

A Nigerian corporation is a legal business entity that’s separate from its owners. The ownership of a corporation is represented by shares of stock. However, the board of directors, which the stockholders elect, are mandated with control of the corporation activities.

What’s A Business Plan?

Wikipedia describes a business plan as a formal written document containing business goals, the methods on how these goals can be attained, and the time frame within which these goals need to be achieved.

That makes a business plan an essential part of starting any business. However, it’s necessary while writing a business plan, for you to understand the main purpose of having one. Here are just a few:

• It helps to maintaining business focus
• It helps to securing outside financing
• It can help in fueling ambitions and mapping growth

Your business plan serves as your company’s resume to investors, partners, vendors and employees, in explaining your objectives. It’s effective in defining your goals and explaining the steps needed to be taken to reach them. It’s also in your business plan that you can detail out your purpose, the company’s vision, as well as your means of operation.

Types Of Financing Business

In business you need money. The power of money in business cannot be over emphasized. Money is the life of every business. Without money, your product cannot spread better than the competition.

Finding money for business is one of fundamental principles of business. That’s how important it is for your business. It’s not an optional decision to find money for your business, it’s how business works. Your money is the oxygen that keeps the business alive.

There are two main types of financing business, and they are:

1. Debt finance
2. Equity finance.

Debt financing deals with funds borrowed from a lender that is repaid with interest, while equity financing is about capital exchanged for part ownership or for the shares of the company.

The Purpose Of Business

One thing is clear about business, it must have a purpose. A business purpose is the reason the business is formed. This reason is distinguished from the company vision or mission. Business purpose can be industry specific or general, and includes support services and future business activities.

Therefore, the purpose of a business can be better described as a value proposition offered through products or services to customers, who in return pay for the value with cash or its equivalent. In order words, the purpose of business activity is the provision of goods and services that customers want, at a price they are also willing to pay.

Interestingly, you have to define your own purpose of starting a business. Your purpose should be based on your personal goals, starting from whether the business is for profit or non profit organization. You can start from these three generally accepted reasons, and they are:

1. To make money
2. To gain satisfaction from working in a field of interest
3. To benefit others

Nigerian Business Models

A Nigerian business model is simply Nigerian business way of doing things. It describes the rationale behind how your business creates value, delivers value and captures value, in the context of economic, social or cultural values. This model forms part of your business strategy.

However, here are simple steps you can follow to define a strong Nigerian business model.

• Identify your specific audience
• Build business processes
• Identify key business resources
• Create a strong value proposition.
• Partner with key business partners
• Create a demand generation strategy

Also, Nigerian business models are broadly divided into four basic types that any class of business falls within. They are:

1. Manufacturer
2. Distributor
3. Retailer
4. Franchise

The Nigerian Factor

if you are doing business in Nigeria and haven’t heard about the nIgerian factor, you are dealing with foreigners and not Nigerians. There’s no how business works in Nigeria without the Nigerian factor.

Sometimes, you can’t even pinpoint exactly what this factors are but they are largely visible in every transaction you do in Nigerian business. The problem is that you won’t be told what you have to do, but at every turn you make you would hear it, but no one wants to admit that’s what they are saying.

The best way to describe the Nigerian factor is that thing the intentionally slows down business processes until a bribe is given to speed up the process. These factors exist everywhere, both in the public and private sectors. Don’t misunderstand it, that’s actually how business works in Nigeria, different from how it works elsewhere.

You can not plan without factoring into it this Nigerian factor. So, if it would have cost you N10 million to get something done, you should probably plan for N12 million, because of the Nigerian factor.

Conclusion

There’s so much you need to know about busines in Nigeria. This entire article is just to help you get on with the basics. How much success you can achieve in Nigeria would depend on this three simple factors, which are, wisdom, knowledge and understanding. You may not know how much those three words could mean to your business until you are in Nigeria doing business.

Finally, you also need to understand a simple fact. There’s a huge difference between being a business person and being an entrepreneur who knows how business works in Nigeria. A lot of times these qualities are used interchangeably, but they are nit really the same. A business person merely flips items for marginal profit, while an entrepreneur creates things for maximum profit.