With the current economical state of Nigeria, it is no longer a surprise that Nigerian youths now prefer self-employment over ‘white collar’ jobs. Self-employment simply means a kind of employment where an individual earns his own money, manages the money and pays himself on a weekly or monthly basis. Although self-employment has certain advantages, it also comes with some challenges. The benefits of self-employment include being able to determine working and closing hours, manage and oversee each transaction personally, make decisions independently, be your own boss and so on.
The advantages of self-employment are numerous but they do not eradicate the fact that there are certain challenges and problems that must be faced. Some of these include sole risk-taking, inexperience, the absence of work colleagues and teammates. There is no business without its pros and cons, however, the merits of self-employment surely exceed the demerits. When considering self-employment, certain tips and techniques must be followed to guarantee success. The top five tips include the following:
- Do a feasibility study: Simply put, a feasibility study is a study done to determine how a business venture will work before establishing the business. This is the first step to any business no matter how small or large. It is the stage where you determine the capital needed, location, consumers and possible limitations.
- Get enough capital: After determining what you want to do, the next step is to get enough money to do it. An important factor that affects the development of self-employed businesses is the capital if it is too small, it tends to hinder the business from growing.
- Start small, dream big: Self-employment does not have to start out large and complex. Just like every other thing, it goes step by step. However, long-term goals should be as big as possible to allow room for constant growth and development.
- Be consistent: Punctuality they say is the soul of business. Consistency must be a watchword for every self-employment venture. Consumers should have confidence in the ability of the producer to always deliver. Regular and satisfied customers will bring in more customers. And more customers mean more money.
- The customer is always right: Consumers of goods and services perform a non-negligible role in the growth and development of the company providing the service. Therefore, they should be regarded as royalty in most matters. Displeasing or being insensitive to customers’ needs will most likely ruin any business, including self-employment. Convenience and satisfaction of customers should always be taken into consideration.
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This article was first published on 21st March 2016
jelifat
Opoola Jelifat is a young and passionate writer. She holds a B.Sc degree in Microbiology and enjoys reading, cooking and writing on real life issues. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree at the University of Ibadan. Contact her on opoolajelifat@gmail.com, and via Twitter and facebook by clicking the icons below.
Comments (3)
Good points raised here, but one has to factor into the equation, the extremely difficult nature of raising capital in Nigeria. Give the entrepreneurial-mindedness of Nigerians at large, if capital were easy to raise, then we’d all be millionaires by now, because just about every Nigerian is bristling with money-making ideas!
True. Angel investment is rare in Nigeria and capital is mostly raised from family and friends. However, great ideas like hotels.ng and printivo.com have made it to the top. They too had a lot of challenges to overcome. Self-employment thus is linked to passion and a dogged attitude to get one’s ideas to the top.
I totally agree with you Nnenna , Sometimes it’s not just about great ideas, it is also about the passion of the individual with the vision,and the workability of the idea. Finally you need to have a good sales pitch to sell your idea. Just because you see the light does not mean others can see it too.