Business Errors to Avoid While Starting Up Your Business.

It is not unknown to many that failure is a risk one has to take in venturing into any business. But it can be avoided if you become aware of the common blunders entrepreneurs make in starting up. There are aspects that must be factored in to make sure that you find success in your first attempt at this endeavor. So let me give you 5 mistakes to avoid in starting up a business.

1. Failure to Measure.
You need to make sure that you have fully understood what you are getting yourself into.
Assess well your business capital and funds, costs, time, competition in the same industry, your market, etc. before plunging fully into the business scene. There is wisdom in the saying that “you cannot manage what you can’t measure.” So make sure you have more pros than cons as you begin setting up.


2. Operate Within Capital.
 In businesses there are economic realities and that includes expenses. But too much of it will kill your business before it is launched. There are fixed costs to consider, yes, yet anything apart from operational costs, like rent, salary for the staff (if you need any), electric bills, insurance, and other preset expenditures you can do without. Check if your capital funds can cover that thing you want to spend on. For example, spending money to put up a huge billboard of your startup company is not sensible at all. Be frugal and creative. Find other ways to promote your business without spending way out of your budget or capital.

3. Wrong Company Structure.
You need to recognize that for any business to flourish it needs to be founded on the right company structure. There are three kinds of business set up: sole proprietorship, partnership and corporation. Know ahead which set up you prefer. If you want to sell pre-loved items or second-hand products, you can go at it as a sole trader. While partnership can be beneficial too, you need to gauge if the enterprise you are starting up needs partnering. Many businesses close down because of partner issues. Determine the kind of business you have and set it up in a structure that will work best.

4. Underestimating Your Competition.
Sometimes even if the business has great potential, it shuts down because they cannot content with their competitors in the industry. Research how your competitors function, find any weaknesses vis-à-vis your company’s strengths then build on that, and distinguish your unique selling point that you can develop. Identify the competition so you would know how to compete, else your business will have a slim chance to survive.
5. No Marketing Plan.
Businesses need to have a good marketing plan. Confirm first if your product or service has a strong market in your area. Enhance the niche you have by creating strategies for people to know you and your company. It does not necessarily need to be expensive (remember mistake #2?). For your start up business to succeed, people has to know that there is a new business opening up and create enough curiosity for them try it out. Take advantage of the social media channels and make interesting videos of your company. Work out your connections and ask friends to try your product or service or give out samples and let them promote for you. You may also do the traditional method but make sure you have weighed the costs well. Just be sure that you have a fine marketing plan that you can work on and develop. Your start up business will find success if you have carefully mapped out a strategic plan that is feasible. You need to be aware of these errors when creating your start up business plan. Make sure that you factor them in so that you will be able to grow the business that you have started by avoiding them. Consider a careful study of your market and wise handling of cash flow and look ahead with caution. Do not be hasty but be confident. With thorough planning and preparation, your start up business will definitely turn out well.

Author bio: Celina Conner is a Yoga Instructor, a holder of a Marketing Diploma from Martin College Australia and a mother of a beautiful daughter, Krizia. She has a passion in cooking and formulating vegan recipes.Follow her adventures on her Twitter.

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HOW TO EXPORT FOOD STUFF ABROAD

Three days ago I received an email from one MR. PAUL OGUNDANA, below is the message.

“Hello MR. SUNKANMI AFOLABI I want to commend your good work especially giving out useful guides on your website for free. I pray that God will give you more knowledge to keep the good work moving. Please sir I need your help on how to start food exportation business, have heard a lot about this business but I am afraid to fall into the hand of 419ers. I and others reading your blog shall be grateful if you can provide clear information on this.

  Thanks (PAUL OGUNDANA) 0805XXXXXXX”

Good morning friend thanks for joining me on this blog this week as I will be giving out more useful Tips on a daily basis. The message I quoted above was the one I received from Mr Paul Ogundana last weekend (sent to afolabisunkanmi@gmail.com), please permit me to keep his contact email and phone numbers anonymous.

I want to quickly correct a statement in his message, as a business minded person you should not be afraid of being a victim of 419ers or scammers, to succeed in your business you must be ready to take business risk, business owners are risk takers. I always say be wise.

    Now back to food stuff export business information or guide which ever you call it.

FOOD EXPORTATION
According to record of Nigerians living abroad at present has been estimated to be over 20 million, with majority living in South Africa, USA and UK. Though we have Nigerians all over the world, but the population figure shows that more Nigerians reside in UK and USA than other countries.

      With this high population of Nigerians and other Africans living abroad, it has provided a business opportunity to sell food stuff {AFRICA FOOD STUFF} to these people. But do you know only few food exporters are into this business by which it has made the supply of food stuff very low and can not meet the high demand from these people over there. Now you as a smart and business minded Nigerian that is ready to venture into food stuff export business, then you should consider some exportable food stuffs listed below.

1. GARI
2. CASHEW NUT
3. GROUNDNUT
4. GROUNDNUT OIL
5. YAM
6. YAM FLOUR
7. COCONUT
8. ORANGE
9. TOMATO (PASTE)
10. PEPPER
11. DRY PEPPER
12. CASSAVA FLOUR
13. PLANTAIN
14. PLANTAIN FLOUR
15. SNAIL
16. HONEY
17. RICE {OFADA} on high demand
18. PALM OIL
19. VEGETABLE LEAFS {BITTER LEAF, DRY VEGETABLE LEAF, UGU LEAF}
20. FRUIT
21. WATER MELON
22. CATFISH on huge demand
23. POULTRY {local fowls}
24. OKRO
25. GINGER
26. ONION

We have many, but listed above are popular ones.

HOW TO START THIS BUSINESS

1. PRODUCT SPECIFICATION

.Choose those products that is ever so easy to produce or to sell to your customers you can choose from planting or producing the food stuffs yourself or buying the products from local traders and market women.

2. You need a capital at least #200,000 to start this business.
3. You need knowledge on how to use internet marketing to promote your product, why? Over there in countries like USA, UK and CHINA, They prefer surfing out or getting everything they needed online, also this will give you the chance of having many customers at hand.

REQUIREMENT

1. You need a phone number
2. You need an email account
3. You need a website
4. You should learn how to promote your goods on social network site like facebook. (click here to do that)

4. Get your message across to your targeted buyers by sending massive mail promotion that introduces your offer. Advertise on website like facebook, google and you can also join ecommerce site like alibaba.com where you will advertise your product for free. Still on it, join or register as a member on Nigerian forums like Nairaland, Nbf to promote your product, if you are not a Nigerian search for forums in your country through google search. You can also target my visitors on this blog worldwide by placing advert on this blog (click here to see how it is done)

HOW TO SEND YOUR FOOD STUFF AND HOW TO RECEIVE YOUR MONEY

1. You can receive your money through bank to bank transfer {i.e. you must have a domiciliary account with any globally known Nigeria banks} Also your buyers can pay through western union and money gram.
2. You can send by air that’s the fastest and suggested option to export your product abroad. Since it takes less hour sending by air than sending through Nipost, you can choose sending your product by air when it comes to perishable products} more so, you can send by Nipost, visit any nearest post office for further details on this. To non Nigerians please use your country postal agents.
3. You can also choose to deal with commodities exporter companies that you know.

        

USEFUL INSTRUCTIONS

1. To open a domiciliary account you need a current account, two referees and opening balance that depends on the bank you are dealing with, I use GTB is $100.
2. sending through Nipost, send to individual address and  not company to avoid delay or useless interrogation
3. If you want to go into this business as a serious investor then you should try as much as possible to register a business name or company name. {many buyers would love to deal with reputable company or business owners and not ordinary individuals}                                                                                 HELLO with the above tips, i think it is a new dawn for you. Just pick up from where left off
   
   If you have any question feel free to use the comment box or follow any of means listed below to contact me. Wishing you best of luck in your business. 
   
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MAKE MONEY HERE IN NIGERIA SELLING REFURBISHED AND FAIRLY USED LAPTOP

A guy once asked me how to shop abroad online here in Nigeria. I replied him with one of my blog Tutorial post “How to shop abroad right here in Nigeria part 1”

Today’s tutorial is all about selling fairly used or refurbished laptop in Nigeria.

 TIPS TO START

1. YOU NEED CAPITAL
2. YOU NEED A LOCATION
3. YOU NEED TO SELECT AN ONLINE SHOP TO ORDER YOUR PRODUCT
4. YOU NEED PACKAGE FORWARDING COMPANY
5. YOU NEED TO APPLY MARKETING STRATEGIES

                              ABOUT START UP CAPITAL

Now that you have chosen to start selling refurbished or fairly used laptop. The first thing that comes to your mind is how much you would need to set up your own laptop market. But before you jump into capital decision, why not take a good look on necessary or important things needed for your business to kick off, by this you will be able to decide quickly on amount needed for each requirement. E.g

1. shop(you should decide if you are going to rent a shop, buy a space or may be you going to stock your product at home)

2. Location (you have to decide on location, which I believe would require transportation fees, shipping bills and so on).

3. Product Type (You should also decide on the laptop you want to sell, to make your business unique just limit your product type to not more than 3 types).

4. Tax (Do you need to pay any Tax , How much is the clearing charges? You should decide on this)

5. Marketing secret (you should decide if you will market it in a traditional market i.e just open your shop and display your laptop to buyers. Also decide if you will apply some marketing tools to boost your sales such as online marketing, advert on news paper, bill board, hand bill, poster and radio advert).

6. Quantity (decide on the pieces of laptop in your first order)

If you can follow the above mentioned tips then you should be able to calculate your needed capital. But for small laptop shop just budget #500,000 to #1,000,000. Remember I am talking about refurbished and fairly used pc and laptop.

                                                          YOUR LOCATION

Location helps this type of business, No thought that Lagos is still the best place to be or other civilized area if you are investing into this kind of business.

You also need to decide if you will pick up your own stand at a place like computer trade centre a good example is our popular Lagos computer village. You can get a mini shop, open shop, just a stand, full shop, ware house and so on, it depends on how big or small you want your business to be.

                                         YOUR AUCTION SITE

Decide on which country you want to buy from, you can choose from the popular ones i.e USA, UK, CHINA and JAPAN. Permit me to tell you that the best country to deal with when it comes to buying quality computer and laptop online is USA and when you are looking for a place to buy the cheapest Laptop just head straight to CHINA.

HOW TO ORDER LAPTOP FROM USA

For every non USA citizens just head straight to AMAZONsearch for your product as illustrated below.

MIND TO BILLION'S PHOTO

 E.g hp laptop then search, hence you will notice series of product with different specification and worth as shown above, here you can choose to buy new, buy refurbished or buy used. Pick your product, pay for it with any globalize credit card, master card. Ask your local bank for this card, if you are a Nigeria fellow like me use zenith websurfer, zenith debit buxz or gtb dollar master card, we have other good ones please ask your bank officials.

Next is

YOUR PACKAGE FORWARDING COMPANY

To receive your product from amazon as a Non USA resident you need a USA address, you can get the USA address of your relative living in USA or use a website called myus.com, this site will provide you a USA address as a non resident where you can easily forward any of your amazon product to address provided by myus.com. To register for a USA address log on to myus.com register for free and go for the subscription package that suite you best, note you can choose standard package $6.99/month or $60/year.

*order you laptop on amazon, try to order in bulk like 5 pieces in other to minimize your shipping bills, send your product to USA address provided by myus.com, when your product gets there myus.com will notify you.

*It is time to forward your product from myus.com to Nigeria, you are to pay for shipping bills, myus.com will calculate the bill according to the weight, size and quantity of your product, also your product will be forwarded to your resident address or office address here in Nigeria through DHL, it takes 3 to 7 days, it depends on the package you have chosen.

*When dealing with amazon, myus.com just use a dollar dominated credit card and don’t worry your self about paypal, inshort if your country is not listed among the countries accepted by paypal just stay away from dealing with them.

HOW TO ORDER FROM CHINA

I once dealt with Aliexpress.com one of the largest e commerce site in CHINA; my experience with them was good, though with carefulness. So here is not like amazon oooo, you must shine your eyes very well before jumping into the pot of scammers. There are lots of merchants on Aliexpress.com each promising the cheapest and a ridiculous price for their products.

*Don’t buy from substandard merchants, deal with at least Gold suppliers

*When you want to pay for your product pay through escrow. Escrow stand as a third party bank between you as a buyer and seller. When you pay, escrow will receive the money on behalf of supplier and when you receive your product escrow will then pay your supplier. I think that’s clear enough.

PAYMENT FLOW CHAT

You can search for your laptop using the search box, plus the combination of keyword, make sure you read product information very well so that you wont order a substandard laptop especially those CHINALLY made laptop that are very cheap. Did I just said “CHINALLY MADE” lols but that’s the truth.

Your supplier shall send your package through fedex or DHL. You can pick your product up same way as that of amazon. That’s clear.

 YOUR MARKETING PLAN AND TIPS TO SELL YOUR PRODUCT

1. If you know you knew nothing about fixing laptop problems easily, please don’t bother to order for used ones Just order refurbished. Note used laptops sometime might be faulty that you will need extra money to repair it, that’s another capital for you. But if you are a laptop engineer then you are good to order any type you like. So either way chooses wisely, that’s all.
2. for example a refurbished laptop on amazon or aliexpress could cost as low as $250 to $300, compare to knew $500 above. If you exchange the currency figure to our naira its around #40,000 per refurbished, now let assume $50 shipping bills from myus.com and $50 from Aliexpress, please note am talking just a piece of laptop not in bulk, bulk shipping are calculated on quantity , weight but if you ship in bulk there is going to be a discount in your bill I am very sure of that.

If you ship through DHL, but please make sure you register with DHL as a real customer to avoid any future embracement of law enforcement agency, Nigeria is so corrupt especially our officers, pardon me for that. Let assume that our total cost is now #48,000 you can resale #55,000 or more, you just have a #7000 return on your capital, let assume you order like 10 pieces that’s #70,000, the more you buy the more your profit maximize, so on any capital calculate your profit before order.

3. how do you market your product for quick sales and profit.

1. bit down your price but calculate profit, be wise.
2. Apply Extra Advertising tools.

You can choose from or combine all.

1. news paper advert (complete sport is a good target cost #7500 per classified advert)
2. online advertisement(you can build a website if you have many laptops in stock just like simple ecommerce site, so your customer would already known what the product you are selling is all about, before they start calling you to order, you can also use free classified advert website like dealfish, trade stable. Also register on Nigeria big forums like nairaland, nigeriabestforum and so on. If you have knowledge about facebook marketing secrets its also a good tools to advertise your product quick click here to read about facebook marketing secret.
3. you can place posters, handbill, use direct contact, go to your targeted market such as schools, café, send bulk sms to boost your market, you can buy like 10,000 to 100,000 units of phone numbers and send a bulk sms for as low as 90k per number. Contact me if you want to buy Nigerian’s numbers at cheaper rate, contact me using any of my contact listed below.

PROFIT PLAN

#fact you will make it if you apply everything I have discussed with you just now.

RECOMMENDATION

If you are afraid of dealing directly with amazon, then you can choose to pay for your product via a company called Circuit Atlantic, Circuit Atlantic would allow you to shop any product in USA via their website, note only that, you will also pay in Naira through bank deposit so you wont need to worry about credit card. Follow this link to contact circuit atlantic in lagos

Did you missed my post on how to shop from abroad Right here in Nigeria, if yes click here to read before you leave.

God bless, I still remain your friend SUNKANMI AFOLABI host of this blog.,

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HOW TO START IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN GOODS WITH EASE FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME RIGHT HERE IN NIGERIA, PART1

Are you thinking of how to import goods from Abroad without traveling? or have you ever wondered how some smart Nigerians get themselves importing USA, UK, CHINA and so on products from the comfort of their homes? I know you are saying yes, thats why i have came up with my best knowledge on online importation business to help my readers.
 Hi friend, I am your friend Sunkanmi Afolabi the host of this blog, in few minutes i will be sharing with you step by step needed to buy your product online anywhere anyday.
                                            TIPS TO START
1. Get a computer or Laptop
2. Get your credit card loaded
3. Get a USA address
4. Get a Nigeria address
5. Get an internet connection

There are lots of USA ecommerce shops, many of these shops would allow you to buy product from their shops online and send it to you wherever you are, why some would only allow USA citizens to shop from their store.
Below are popular USA online stores
1. amazon
2. BUY
3. Tiger direct
4. ebay
5. mobilepc
Lets focus on AMAZON as a case study.

AMAZON(How to order goods from Amazon Here in Nigeria)

Amazon is one of the America largest eshop that allows buyers globally to order products or goods in their market place. As a buyer precisely Nigeria buyers you are allowed and permitted to buy their products with your dollar dominated credit card you can use zenith websurfer or Gtb dollar master card But the little problem we are having as a Nigerian is Amazon would not ship to Nigeria Except books, cards, cds and Dvds, Gift items. Please forget your order if you want amazon to send you electronics, House hold materials, office equipment and so on. Anyway we are mostly denied to even buy a single product on other sites, you all know why (Yahoo boys). There is a solution and thats why i am here today to help you out.
1. Goto amazon on your computer or may be cyber cafe if you dont have personal computer. browse through category of products you are looking for or to make it snappy type your keyword e.g "HP laptop" inside the search box then search. Browse through the list of products that comes up. check the type of hp laptop you are looking for, review the product and note the price.
2. Get your credit card loaded, if you dont have one Goto any Nearest bank ask for it, use the above zenith websurfer link or gtb master card to learn more, But i prefer zenith widely accepted in most cases when making payment online.
              To get a Zenith websurfer card
.UTILITY BILL (phcn bill /water bill)
. MODE OF IDENTIFICATION(drivers licence/National Id card/International passport)
. $120+ opening balance
. PASSPORT PHOTOGRAPH
when you have the above mentioned requirement then you are good to get your own card zenith websurfer
3. Get a USA address, you can use your relative's or friend address in USA to receive your products on your behalf and later send it to you here in Nigeria. Alternatively use myus.com
          ABOUT MYUS.COM
myus.com is an online shipping company that provides usa address for Non USA citizens, myus.com allows Non usa to ship to their address where they would pick it and send it to Nigeria home/office address you provided. You can get a standard plus package on myus.com for $6.99 per month or $60 per year it all depends on how long you want to deal with them, if you are on for a serious importation business opt for 1 yr or more subcription, you will be given a USA address after the process of your registration is complete on myus.com
4. Log on to amazon
      Register with your Name on credit card, Register as a Nigerian, use your Local address on your zenith websurfer card. search for the product you are looking for, add product to cart, you can continue shopping if you are buying more if not proceed order. Enter your shipping details, that is your USA address provided by myus.com dont worry Amazon will send to any usa address neglecting where you are shopping from. Pay your Bills with your card. When your product arrives your USA address, MYUS.COM will notify your email box, you can also log in to your myus.com account to track your awaited product.
5. When your product arrives your USA address, It is time to forward to Nigeria, enter your shipping address(i.e where you want to pick your product) pay for shipping bill with your card, MYUS.COM will send through DHL courier company. Dhl will deliver to your address or call you to pick it in nearest office of DHL in you area.
*If you cant follow all processes mentioned since, then use this third party website circuitatlantic they shop on your behalf on USA sites i have mentioned earlier, you are allowed to pay in Naira through Local bank or Atm card. You can also check their website for more details www.circuitatlantic.com or office address

8 Ladipo Kuku Street, Off Allen Avenue
Ikeja, Lagos

my Dear friend, thanks for taking your time to read this, am Done for part 1, subscribe email to recive next post or part 2 in my future post, God bless
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