As Nigeria’s economy bites harder, many business owners have closed shops while others are looking for opportunity to start new businesses that require less capital to start up. Below are a few ideas that can scale, even with zero naira.
Cleaning services
When Ized Zegbua was going to start her cleaning service business in 2014, all she needed was an internet enabled mobile device and a Twitter account. Within months, he had to turn down many cleaning job offers, for lack of adequate hands to help manage the rapidly growing business. As she told the story, she didn’t envisage that the business would grow so fast and neither did she think she would make as much money as she did from a business she started with zero naira.
You too can start a cleaning service. It is easy to do if you think about it.
Event planning
One of the event planning outfits in Ibadan started from the bedroom, the owner of the outfit said in an interview. But the trick is to know how to convince your clients to make a down-payment fee of their events, Tosin Adegoke said.
According to her, when she started, she had help from her friends who knew about her organisational abilities while back in the university and called her if she would be interested in planning an office event for her.
To pull off this kind of a business, she said you must be willing to convince prospective clients to believe in you. One of the ways to do this includes organising your friends’ and families’ events and cataloguing the experience in a book format to present to your prospective clients.
Tutoring
As the summer was about to start, a child in Ologuneru area of Ibadan needed a private tutor. The tutor, who was also going on a vacation charged a bill of N30,000 per month, at 90 minutes per day, three times a week. While engaging with Entrepreneurship+ for the purpose of this article, the tutor said he coaches four children in a month, at N30,00 to N35,000 per child.
As you make more money from this business and save, the tutor, who didn’t want his name in print said you could build up a business that includes hiring and paying several tutors covering a large area for you. In other words, you can become a business owner who has the capacity to employ people.
Writing business plan
Most of business rendering services do not require a large capital to start up. One of such is writing business plans. With many Micros, Small and Medium scale Enterprises (MSMEs) seeking funding, whether in form of grants or loan, there is an increase demand of top-notch business proposals, known also as business plans.
As someone interested in setting herself apart, you could offer this service to include market research, the business plan narrative and the financial statements. According to Inioluwa Adebayo, who engages in this type of business in Lagos, all you have to do is plan your fee around the main one that your client wants and offer the others as add-on services for other clients.
Editing
Personally, I have made some side money editing for people. Book editing and story editing are very easy for me as a journalist. As someone who is looking to start small, editing provides an opportunity to becoming that full-fledge book editor or magazine editor you’ve been dreaming of becoming.
It should be noted that as these businesses grow, so will the expenses, especially for those looking to expand. It will be wise therefore to save some of the money made to help with future expenses, even if securing a loan or grant for expansion is your target.