Businesses To Start With Low Capital in Nigeria

BUSINESS…. LOW CAPITAL…NIGERIA

Now that’s a lot to think about if you ask me. You’ll quite agree with me that starting up a business anywhere isn’t easy. And then in Nigeria, so not very easy!

Someone once said, “If you can make it in Nigeria, you can make it anywhere”. Now, this is very true because this country sure stretches us and makes us the best version of ourselves. This is a fact our beloved motherland doesn’t get enough credit for.

Day after a day, a lot of people are starting up businesses, on the road to becoming their own bosses. And this is as a result of the high unemployment rates (which is sadly not a very good thing).

However, or should I say, “thanks to this”, Nigerians are coming up with fabulous ideas and are making waves both at home and abroad. And with the right business idea, plan, focus, discipline, and tenacity, the businesses are thriving!

I hope this gives a little glimmer of hope to ye young upcoming entrepreneurs! Now if you’re probably reading this and thinking: “I want to make waves too but I’m completely clueless”. Don’t stop reading just yet! Stay with me.

It is a true saying that as an entrepreneur or someone considering starting up a business, you should recognize a need in your society, and attend to it - just like find a vacuum and filling it! Very Simple! Or perhaps not…

So you got the perfect business idea. You found the need and you want to fill it. But you got a problem, no funds! You’re looking at possible sources and all is looking like a dead-end?

I’d be taking you through the kinds of businesses you can do without breaking the bank and still be a successful entrepreneur, some advice to keep you in business and I’d also be helping out with how to source funds for your business.

Sit tight and let’s go sleighing!

 Businesses To Start With Low Capital in Nigeria

1. Freelance Content Creation:

This involves creating content ranging from articles to blog posts, etc. For companies and organizations. It could even be advert papers. You need zero money to start this. Just enhance your social profiles especially on Facebook, LinkedIn and Upwork to create awareness about what you do and put out some of your previous works in a portfolio. And guess what? You could be lucky to strike a good deal with some organizations where each article you write earns you a fine amount of money.

2. Lord of the LOGS:

This involves creating your own BLOG using WordPress or your own VLOG using YouTube. Either way, the goal is to serve your readers or viewers premium yummy contents that make them want to keep reading your write-ups or keep watching your videos. By doing this, you create for yourself, a large community of followers and you start earning. 

For Blogs, you could also optimize your blog posts using Google Adsense to increase your “people traffic” and hence earn from it. To do this, all you need is a good smartphone and or laptop. Zero start-up capital! Optimizing however may not be free…depending. And in the end, it's just a matter of time before you start getting paid by those platforms.

3. Drop Shipping

...the “I sell shoes and bags” geng.

This involves you partnering with one or more drop shippers, that is, people importing certain goods. All you need to do is choose your niche and your drop shippers or suppliers. Once that is done, you do advertisements, people order, you forward their orders to your supplier and you get paid for your marketing and customer service. The key is: Choose suppliers that are legit and reliable.

4. Online Courses and Tutoring:

This involves picking a topic of interest that you’re quite knowledgeable on, and you think is in demand, and writing / making videos about them and making them available online for people to benefit from. YouTube channels come in very handy here. You even have an online class site where people can have access to your lessons at affordable rates. To learn how to go about that, you can chat or call the number written at the end of this article.

5. Event Planning 

Usually, when people hear event planning, they assume it’s Owambe’s only. But event planning is really broad. From corporate events to birthday and baby showers to house parties. The interesting thing is all you need to be a boss at this is good organizational skills and all will fall in place. 

You do not need to know how to decorate or know how to bake ( though if you do, it’s all good and maybe even better), all you need is to be able to mobilize good reliable people to get the job done, and voila! You’re an event planning CEO.

6. Social Media Consultant

This entails helping people to establish a standard social media presence and everything about growing their brand online. You basically help them with a creative working plan for their social media platforms.

7. Liquid Soap Production:

This entails the production of liquid soap and selling. This is quite a common line of business but unlike, most people do, I would encourage you to do proper branding and packaging of your soap and make them available at supermarkets and online stores.

8. Uber  

All you need is to know how to drive and have a license. Then you register with Uber and you’re good to go. But you have to have a car with 4 doors.

9. Software Training 

This involves making available online lessons or classes to train people on necessary software skills that are in high demand. When companies see how good you are, they could even pay you to teach their staff or hold training programs for them, which of course would not be free of charge.

10. Graphic Designer 

Does it feel like too many guys are going into graphics already? Well while that may be true, here is another truth you may not have heard of.THERE IS NEVER TOO MANY DESIGNERS. Reason is because more and more businesses are born everyday, and each business needs at least two graphin designers. So beat it! 

Visuals is one of the powerful ways businesses sell. Graphics design involves producing excellent designs for businesses. To thrive in this business, never be shy to put out your work. Put yourself and your work out there and allow it to do the speaking. 

11. Digital Marketing Services

Here you will simply learn the skills involved in promoting brands and businesses online. Like social media consulting, to thrive in this business, you have to boost your online presence with Facebook, Up work, and LinkedIn. And you also need to have a high "people traffic". When brands see that, they'd pay you to promote for them. You also have to be skilled in how to run social media ads.

Now, you’d notice that most  businesses I mentioned above are online. Well, let’s just say COVID taught us some hard lessons. And once beaten, twice shy.

“IF-YOU-CAN-THINK-OF-ME-YOU-CAN-HAVE-ME” BUSINESSES 

“IYCA-TOM-YOCHAM” businesses for short. Also called Low Capital Businesses. These are businesses that require little or no starting capital. If you can think of them and come up with a working business plan, you can have them. 

If you’re worried about starting up a business this year because of COVID-19 and the challenges it brought with it, well, research has shown that the times of economic and financial meltdown are the best periods to start a business. Don’t ask me to explain that though, I’m as lost as you are.

Never has the statement “If your business is not online, you’d soon be out of business” been more real than in the post-COVID era. Even if your business is not one of the “IYCA-TOM-YOCHAM” businesses I mentioned above, ensure you build a standard social media presence for your business because, in the post-COVID era, 80% of sales and purchases are going to be happening online. I said what I said!

So the relevance of these “IYCA-TOM-YOCHAM” businesses or businesses started with low capital, I mentioned above, in the Post-COVID era, is that the nature of these businesses require a standard online(social media) presence and so when the “80-20 wave“(that is the percentage shift to favor online businesses ) happens, you’d have Hakuna Matata (at least online-wise).

5 Things to help your low capital business stand the test of time. 

1. Never ever stop researching about your business. In researching, look out for competition and gaps needing to be filled, and leverage on them.
2. Have a long-term business plan.
3. Establish a standard online presence.
4. Prioritize QUALITY over QUANTITY.
5. The importance of Networking cannot be overemphasized.

On the right plan and strategy you might need to kick off on any of the business ideas here, you can contact 07080225737 (Call/WhatsApp). You are sure to get a very good kick off with their help. 

I hope this article was insightful. What makes the difference between the those who make it and those who don’t is the knowledge they put to good use. Do you have any question, or addition or observation based on this article? I'd like to hear from you in the comment box. Thank you.

Boluwarin Shalom is a book freak, Veterinarian, and content writer at Manicleworld. She is also an ardent music lover on an aside