FOUR THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE LAUNCHING OUT.

Most people think that money is the first thing when you want to start a business. This is not the case. There are so amny factors that come into play before money. You will agree that money in the hands of an idiot will never produce success. Also, money in the hands of a perosn who does not really have any ideas will also not benefit anybody..... What we need is PROPER DEPLOYMENT of recources to produce results that benefit everyone or at least most people... that is why i repeat it all the time that when you are about to start your new business, there are four things to consider first. Here they are ....

1.THE PERSON involved and the second thing is
2.THE IDEA... Then comes ....
3.THE ENVIRONMENT and only after that does...
4.THE MONEY comes into play.

THE PERSON
What do i mean by this ??  i mean YOU ! the individual behind the vision. 
NOT EVERYONE IS CUT OUT TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR. That is the simple truth....unfortunately, because of the economic situation or the way things are in your country, you find that you have no choice but to consider entrepreneurship. 

Some people are actually better suited just getting a job. some people are better at building and sustaining what has been started by another person while some are better at starting a new thing out. A clear understanding of which you are will be the initial guides for you in your quest to set up a business. 

when you know the type of person you are, you will be more intelligent in setting up a business. for example in Nigeria if you are a gentle person who does not like stress, you will not be wise to set up a business that will require you to give credit of any sort. This is because in many cases, getting your money back may require you to actually be rude or aggressive. if you cant fight for your money, your business will not succeed. 

So when you are confronted first with the stark reality that you have to think of starting a business, ( since there are no jobs ) ... before you look at business ideas that you can consider, you may have to take a look at the type of person you are and the type of business that will suit your personality. this is so important and a very key factor in the success of your business. Do not forget that as you build your business, you will need to work long hours ... if you are not in sync with or if you do not love what you are doing, it may actually destroy your health...

THE IDEA
Then comes the idea. The big vision that will make you rich. You will have many to choose from but you have to look at ideas that are along the lines of things you love or believe in or will really enjoy doing. For example, one of our members really loves young children and enjoys being with them .... so it was a logical idea for her to set up a creche and day care business. She currently has so many children bu would certainly have been overwhelmed by the pressure of the work if she did not naturally like it... changing baby diapers and soothing crying babies is fun to her... but it could be stressful for someone else. Another member who loves animals has set up an exotic animal acquisition service... he get any kind of animal for clients. many people seem to be interested in exotic animals as pets these days ... some people have snakes, tortoises and lions as pets... Also, collectors from all over the world call him to ask if he can get specific animals for them... he is in touch with hunters from all around Nigeria and Benin and Togo.... when they get the animal, they call him and he pays. he then feeds the animal and then delivers it to his client or puts it on line to sell. There are as many ideas as there are people in this world. just take your time and pick something that you are sure that you can build into a world class business. Even if it is an idea that you copied from someone else, add your uniqueness to it...

THE ENVIRONMENT
When you decide to set up a business that sells cold drinks to Russians in the winter, you know you have a dead business right there..  but if you offer the same business concept in a busy market in west Africa, which is very hot, you know you can not meet demand. Environment is key to business. You must consider it . When we talk about environment, we are talking about the whole shebang.... political, religious, social, business environments. take it from me, if you miss one out, it may cost you your business. I am sure you have noticed that coca cola as well as other soft drink makers have begun to manufacture sugar free versions of their already popular products... that is because of change in the environment towards consuming less sugar... that is the kind of change in environment that can kill a product. they have all quickly adjusted to the sugar free trend to stay in business. you nee to look very carefully at the whole environment in which you want to do business to see if you can be sustainably successful with your idea...  if they are majority Muslim, is you idea in agreement with beliefs in the religion ? if it is not, how will you sell.. ? when you study the environment properly, you will be able to design your product or service and its marketing plan in such a way that your chances of success are greater than when you did not... for example, setting up a bookmakers in an elite area where wealthy people live versus setting it up in a crowded area which is densely populated by low income people ..... which one do yo think has a better chance of bringing regular money ? most of the rich who like to gamble will rather go to a casino... 

THE MONEY
It is only after you have looked at all the other factors above that money comes into play. otherwise, you may even end up wasting your money or you may not even have enough money to do business since you did not have a clear picture in the first place. 

Money is the lifeblood of your business and you need to understand and master it or it will create a real problem for you. If a person does not have blood you know that he will not survive... it is the same with money. Money is the blood that keeps your business alive... that's why you often hear the term .... cash flow....  

A member called me one day and said she was going to raise money from friends to set up her business as investment.  asked her how much she was raising and i discovered she was raising exactly what she needed to buy the machines she needed to produce her product.  i asked her ... what about rent, electricity bills, installation bills, transport bills, unforeseen costs, salary for staff, feeding costs, marketing expenses .... etc she was silent.

WHEN YOU START A NEW BUSINESS, DON'T FORGET THAT IT MAY NEED SOME TIME BEFORE IT BEGINS TO BRING IN MONEY FOR YOU. in fact some businesses may not break even for years...  and you have to plan and keep this in mind. this is one thing that many business starting out in Africa do not do... because there is very little opportunity to get funding for business. majority of ordinary people can not get loan from banks so they have to scratch and hustle for little fund from family and friends and in most cases the fund raised is not really enough to run the business until it is profitable. This is oe of the reasons many small businesses fail. 

in an ideal case, you should be able to keep running the business without revenue for at least a year... so that you can really settle the business down and get the hang of it... but this leeway is not available to most entrepreneurs in Africa. 

this is one of the challenges G300 is trying to address. 

EDUCATIONAL TOUR CONSULTANT

Recently my son asked me for some money. He needed it because there was an excursion that had been arranged his school . The trip was to the slave trading sites of badagry in Lagos Nigeria. 

From all indications it would not be cool for me not to give him the money. The boy needed the trip not just for educational purposes but as i was told  
( by him )  everybody else had paid. He would be the only one left in school that day if he did  not pay. it was not compulsory for him to pay, but it would look funny if he ended up being the only one in school would it not ? Whether this was true or not, i had to push out the cash and the little boy pranced away beaming happily.

I later found out that over 200 students from his school made the trip. In my head I multiplied that by the 5k I paid and the figure set my head ticking. Lol. wow ! 1 million cool Naira. Just like dat !!!   ... no be small thing !!!

This is money for one days work.  How many people make 1 million Naira in a day ? I know there will be logistic costs and all,  but here was a really truly viable business concept . No matter the expenses, these guys made some good money. if they were better organised, there is no reason why they can not be doing it weekly or even more often for other schools...

The tour was organised by the history teachers in the school. i think they were allowed to keep the money.. i found out its something they do every term in that school. i also discovered that NO COMPANY IS ACTUALLY SET UP SPECIFICALLY TO PROVIDE EDUCATIONAL TOUR SERVICES. The Internet was awash with them. It is indeed a huge business. There are so many educationally relevant sites across Africa and beyond that you can organise a tour to.

So i conclude educational tour consultancy is definitely a great business idea if properly run. 

WHAT YOU DO. 
organise educational tours for schools. All students subscribe. You make money.

WHY IT CAN WORK.
Educational tours are designed more to complement what the students learn in school. it is actually very much needed. And it important to note that this service is very different from what currently happens now in schools. most schools have excursion in one form or the other already ..... some even go abroad to Canada, Dubai ect...  BUT THESE TRIPS ARE NOT REALLY EDUCATIONAL ... they are more tourism experiences. An educational trip has to be well researched and planned and the educational relevance clearly identified and even documents and guides and books produced for the trip. if possible a test can also be organised after the trip.

There is a huge market. Many thousands of schools and millions of potential clients. if you structure your business properly, and set  up well you really can not fail. Just imagine if you have just 50 schools and 40 students in each attending your trips per term ... if you are making a clear profit of just N2000 per student ... how much will you make per term ??  

HOW TO START. 
jumping through the decisions process, you should get a list of all potential educational locations that you can organise trips to. google is the best help I can think of... then put together the educationally relevant information about the locations.... again, google will help with this... 

these locations can be in Nigeria or even beyond Nigeria. as long as you can get the relevant information that shows the educational relevance, this is what will be the key content of your brochure. 

You will then cost your trips and factor in your profits to create a cost profile for each trip. then you can begin marketing first by building a site for the business then pushing through mass emails to established school addresses and also do direct marketing by dropping proposals at schools and following up same. make a colourful leaflet and a great looking website full of information. 

TIPS
Be creative and aggressive in your marketing. if you have a well researched and quality service, this business is not a hard sell at all.... you will get schools and student who will subscribe provided you deliver a QUALITY SERVICE....
so focus on quality ... and not on money at the initial stage... focus on building a very good reputation ... then over time you will see that it is more profitable to have a good name than to make plenty money .... especially when competition comes.... you clients will not leave you because they will have no reason to .... you are already doing a great job..... FOCUS ON QUALITY....

Innovate..... look at very cool and interesting locations that are not very popular already. the more innovative you are , the faster you are likely to grow...

Package yourself very well. 

Don't expect it to be all worked out for you here. here, you just get the idea. you have to do the gathering and organising. The good thing is that google will lead you to all the information you will need ...... for it is all online....

good luck.