Puff puff business in Nigeria is one of the most lucrative snacks businesses in Nigeria yet it is still looked down upon not only by Nigeria men but also by Nigerian women.

Many of them have the idea that all roadside businesses are for the poor – people that are trying to survive but this article you’re about to read now will change your mind.

After reading this article today you will think twice and see beyond the 4 walls of a white-collar job.

First off, do you know the average puff puff seller don’t work as hard as you do?

I am not saying the business does not have its labor part because it does. I’m just telling you that they don’t work 8 – 4pm every day, 5 – 7 days like you do. In fact, I know one puff puff seller that only sells on Saturday mornings yet she makes thousands of naira before 12pm her closing time.

I used to look down on her until I was told it was the same business she used to train her all her children in school and she recently just finished her house at a low brow area in Lagos (Ikorodu). This woman was a widow.

Many of these roadside sellers will not tell you they make good money from these small businesses because they don’t want you to join them (crowd the business) so they live a low life just to make sure you are not paying attention to them.

Imagine all women and men knew about this they would have all started the business thus making the business over-crowdy just like the phone call business that started many years ago. So it’s a secret and you clicking this article today means it’s not a coincidence and maybe just maybe it’s the right time for you to start yours.

Today, I’ll be sharing with you how to can start your own puff puff business in Nigeria and do it successfully to create wealth for you and your family. If you get this right you will be able to go to bed every night thanking God for the revelation into this business.

How to Start Puff Puff Business in Nigeria (Steps)
1. Learn How to Make Puff Puff
In as much as puff puff is one of the easiest snacks in Nigeria to make it can be almost impossible to get the perfect taste for sale and public consumption.

An example of this is the way you cook jollof rice at home and the way jollof rice at parties (Owanbe) are cooked. Certainly, the jollof rice we eat at parties is always standing out from home-cooked because the sellers know it’s for public consumption so therefore it must be perfect.

To every process in the making of party jollof rice there’s a detail even down to how it looks unlike jollof rice cooked at home for the family.

So when it comes to puff puff for business in Nigeria – your taste must stand out. Nigerians are very picky and once they realize that your snacks are not tasty there will no longer come to your stand to buy.

You need to learn how to make puff puff if you’re really serious about this. First of all, you can learn from YouTube and after a few trials and error you will start to understand the process but to finish the learning perfectly you need to learn from someone one on one – have real feel of how it looks like when it comes to mass production.

You can do this by visiting that puff puff seller in your area you’ve always admired and tell him or her you are interested in learning how to make puff puff. If possible you can tip this seller just to motivate him or her to teach you all they know.

Keep in mind that from the time he or she will tell you to start coming for practicals so you’ll have to be present all through in other not miss any important process or methods.

Learning how to make snacks generally take about 2 – 3 months but since you’re learning only how to make puff puff you can spend on 3 – 4 weeks. You might be lucky enough to learn how other snacks are made if you’re also interested in them.

“No knowledge is wasted.” Nothing you learn from the practical is wasted.

Who knows you can add these other snacks later in future to your puff puff business to spice it up and it might make a boom. I’ve seen puff puff sellers who also sell donuts, egg rolls, fish rolls alongside their puff-puff business and this has made them gain more customers patronize them.

Variety they say is the spice of life.

Also when learning, you might need to experiment. There’s no harm in trying. Who knows you might invent the new kind of puff puff that will change all Nigerian view about snacks. After all, it was someone that invented chocolate puff puff and pepper puff puff.

2. Do a Test Run
The first time coffee was discovered and was about to be sold there was a test run to get people’s opinions. With this, I can say for sure that this is the reason why the sales of coffee around the world have multiplied erroneously since its invention.

After learning how to make puff puff the next giant step you can make is to do a test run and get feedback. Make a sizeable amount of puff puff in your kitchen and share with family and friends.

Do this on 2 or 3 different occasions and ask them how they see the snacks – basically their opinion on it. After gathering this feedbacks, make adjustments where you need to make the adjustment and make it better.

3. Buy Tools/Equipment and Ingredients
Now is the time to buy the tools/equipment and ingredients for your puff puff business. You can either choose to buy the major ones for now (the ones you can’t do without) or you buy all you need at once.

Equipment for Making Puff Puff
These are:

Frying Pan
Gas cylinder
Gas Stove
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Spatula
Pastry Brush
Metal Turner
Whisk
Kitchen Scissors
Sieve
Knife
Large Umbrella
Stood
Dishing Counter
Large Umbrella
Apron
And so on.

Ingredients for Making Puff Puff
Flour
Sugar
Yeast
Vegetable Oil
Butter
Water
Eggs
Nutmeg
Salt
These are the main ingredients but you can add more to yours just to make it more delicious. Additional ingredients like pepper, chocolate go a long way too.

It is very important to state here that when it comes to buying ingredients for puff puff business you must not go to the market with your eyes closed if not you’ll start making losses before you start frying and selling to customers.

When it comes to making money from a snacks business or any food business in Nigeria you must think of making profit right from the top and this is by buying your ingredients in bulk. This might take a lot of money from you but it will save you in the long run.

I talked about this a bit in the article “How to Start Small Chops Business in Nigeria”.

Let’s look at it from this angle – how much a bag of flour now cost in Nigeria. If you were to buy that same bag in bits meaning you buying it by paint plastic it is going to cost you more these also apply to sugar, butter, eggs, and almost every other ingredients.

The more you buy in bulk the cheaper it will be for you. No big snacks dealer in Nigeria will tell you this because it’s a trade secret. This is why they can produce and sell at lesser prices and still make a huge profit.

4. Rent a Unique Spot
At this next stage, you need to rent a unique spot, not a shop because shop it might be too expensive and might take the largest share of your profit.

Look for a unique spot a place where thousands of people pass every day. Remember you are selling to the everyday Nigerian so it is advisable here to choose a bus-stop, T-junction or round-about as these are the roads that bring Nigerians together every day.

Make sure you take your time when choosing your spot as it also plays a vital role in the success of the business. In fact, if it is possible to pay for the spot – that’s if the spot demands some kinds of payment but however, do not let it tear your purse.

After getting this place go ahead and make sure it is clean enough – hygienic. Remember what you’re doing has to do with food and you want to create a first impression. If it’s possible to buy disinfectants and detergents to clean up the place.

5. Start Selling
First off before we go into this, let’s talk at how lucrative is puff puff business in Nigeria in case you’re still having any doubts.

How Lucrative is Puff Puff Business in Nigeria?
Is puff puff business really lucrative?

Yes, it is because at least 8 out of 10 Nigerians eat it. In fact, it is hard for you to find a Nigerian that doesn’t like perfectly made puff puff. It is eaten at birthday parties, weddings, burial, at home and so on.

Puff puff is eaten often to hold empty stomachs until it is time to eat the real foods. I remember back then when I used to buy puff puff from the woman I talked about earlier. I used to buy it on Saturdays very earlier before breakfast.

I loved filling my stomach with it before breakfast was ready and so it was for the rest of us in the compound. No Saturday morning goes by that we don’t eat puff puff. It was a tradition for us. Till today I still eat puff puff before breakfast sometimes if it a workday.

Many Nigerians leave home very early in the morning. Some before 5am and some before 4am and because of this early wake, they don’t have time to cook so therefor they go for puff puff first on their way to work and then eat breakfast or sometimes eat the next food till lunchtime at work.

Asides this, Nigerian children also love puff puff. In fact, they force their parents to buy it for them all the time. So one thing is guaranteed you’ll have demand for your snacks from 2 kinds of people – adults and children.

Now that we are done with knowing how profitable puff puff business can be in Nigeria let’s move on to the actual selling.

Let’s face the truth you’ll not get everything right at first especially on your first day no matter the previous experience you have gathered because starting a business and managing a business in Nigeria are 2 different things. But don’t let this scare you.

Just start! Yes, you heard me.

And don’t be pushy on yourself no matter the mistakes you make. For instance, you might not get the perfect selling size for the puff puff, how to attend to customers, how to calculate your income and expenses and so on but you need to continue anyways you’ll learn while on the business as long as you seek advice and further counsel.

I’m here anytime on the blog if you need some from me just drop your comment and you’ll get an instant reply from me as soon as possible or send me an email.

Bonus Steps

6. Make Accounts
It is very important you do not ignore this aspect. You really need to write down everything you are spending money on in your puff puff business.

From how much you spend buying ingredients to transport to money for settlement to how much snacks you sold for each day and every other expenses you need to write them down.

Doing this exposes different things in the business.

To do this is not hard. All you have to do is prepare 3 columns 1 for expenses 2 for income and 3 for profit.

After calculating all your expenses, calculating all your income, you minus your income from your expenses the amount you get is your profit for the day. You can get a book for this.