THE RIGHTS OF BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

Business Development in Nigeria

There has been a lot of buzz about Entrepreneurship being the ultimate key to solving Nigeria’s mass unemployment. Truly, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) have the potential to transform the nation’s economy which is why the Government is dedicated to growing these ventures through its several schemes:

• YOUWIN
• SURE-P
• NDE
• NAPEP
• SMEDAN

And all the other agencies and institutions set up to facilitate the right atmosphere for budding business enterprise in Nigeria.

The view that Entrepreneurship can potentially transform the Nigerian economy is correct. Still, it can only be achieved when entrepreneurs possess all of the right characters that ensure business success. Oftentimes, young people draw up beautiful business plans explaining all of the right parameters but still fail in business.

My organisation, Decipher Solutions is a Resource Centre dedicated to providing the right information to young people by affording them educational resources to ensure individual growth that leads to business and personal development.

There are different problems that can affect a business and progress only comes when the business owner is well-rounded on all fronts with the requisite facts and figures. I have summarized them here into what I call The 3 Rights of Business.

THE 3 RIGHTS OF BUSINESS

The Right Information

Let’s say you have a beautiful business idea, service or product. And you are all ready to launch into the market and be the next Mark Zuckerberg, Dangote or Oprah. You need to pause and think:

• Have you researched this idea enough?
• Has anybody attempted this business before? Did they succeed or fail?
• Why did they fail? What were the parameters that they put in place to ensure success?
• How do you plan to overcome competition if your market is already crowded?
• What about the external factors such as environment, economy strength, relation of home country to other countries?

If you wonder why this is important, I’ll tell you. Businesses can fold up for the oddest reasons. My first business venture as an adult was as a retail distributor for a national noodles brand. I folded up in 3 months. Why? I had too many customers. Yes, too many! They would come to my store and place orders that I couldn’t meet and I had no potential income source to increase my order. So, I lost my customers and the business folded up not long after.

Lesson: If I had conducted thorough research before setting up the business, I would have anticipated this problem and made sure my start-up funding was much more than it originally was or I would have worked out an arrangement with the parent company to ensure supply of products and payment at a later date.

The Right Qualities

Right idea + Wrong leader = Fail

Right leader + Wrong idea = Fail

In both scenarios above, what you get as a result is epic failure. The only recipe for business success is:

Right idea + Right leader

All entrepreneurs must possess the following qualities:

•  Passion for business idea
• Determination
• Clear and Logical thinking
• Ability to make decisions
• Creativity
• Multitasking
• Teachability
• Tolerance to working in high-risk environment

This is by no means an exhaustive list but these are the most important ones. If as an individual, you do not have more than half of the qualities above; chances are most likely you will not succeed. If you have some of these, you should work on gaining the others.

Lesson: Since my first business folded up, I have had time to focus on developing my logical thinking skills. My current business as a result now enjoys more options in sustainability.

The Right People:

All young entrepreneurs need to be surrounded by the right kind of individuals to ensure success.  This means people who believe in the entrepreneur first before believing in their business idea. The people in a business include:

·         The family: Never underestimate the power of the home front. My friend Doyin Adewola, the founder of Box Office in Abuja Nigeria, got his first break in business when his father called a stakeholder to assure him of Doyin’s integrity.

Oftentimes, people have been happier to work with me on my projects when I show them pictures of my father and siblings sitting in the front row at a previously held programme.

·         The mentor:  No business should be an island. Look for individuals and organizations that have accumulated years of experience from working in similar fields as you and soak up as much information as you can from them. This stands you in good stead providing you with the right spring to scale the same hurdles they faced in establishing their business. I have recently taken the decision to incubate my organisation, Decipher Solutions under a much larger organisation. This has opened up more opportunities for us and upgraded our playing field helping us to achieve our long term projections much faster.

·         The team: The people who you bring in to work with you in your organisation in the beginning should be people who have the same passion as you do and firmly believe in your ability to carry the vision to fruition. I have 2 managing partners for Decipher Solutions, I call them up at ungodly hours to discuss new projects and get their feedback. They get no money from Decipher Solutions but this does not concern them, they believe in the vision of the company and consistently chip in to assist with fundraising activities.

The possibilities that abound for business owners are limitless. In order to harness them effectively, young people must take into cognisance all of the 3 rights of Business to ensure firm growth while going forward

Final titbits:

·         Develop a unique product

·         Think positive while actively mitigating the negatives

·         Be open to new ideas and opportunities from any quarter

·         Be smart and leverage all of your resources

·         Network extensively with other people

·         Attend as many conferences, seminars and workshops relevant to your business

·         Consider online and offline perspectives to your business

·         Publicity!  Publicity!  Publicity!

 Then we can all smile to the bank...

Haruna Zainab O. is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Decipher Solutions Resource Centre based in Abuja, Nigeria. The centre was founded in 2012 and has worked extensively with young people in areas of entrepreneurship and education through collaborations with multinational companies, Local organisations and International Non-profits.